"William R. Forstchen & Ben Ohlander - Wing Commander 05 - The Price of Freedom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forstchen William R)

The ship's master answered at once, his face appearing on a jumping, static-filled screen. Vale saw
drifting smoke behind him. "We're here," theElginDailey's master said, "Y'all just keep it that way. Drives
are intact. We'll hold station." His face faded as Vale saw a secondary explosion mushroom out of the
transport's side. He suspected theDailey was in more trouble than it let on.

The raider turned on him, snake-quick, and fired. Four beams of lambent energy crossed close in front
of his prow, brightening the inside of the cockpit with reflected energy. A single bolt plowed into his
forward phase shield, wiping it out and chewing up his frontal armor. His damage board showed a
stabilizer hit. He punched his throttle to the stops and hauled back on his stick as he scrambled to get
away from the enemy fighter. He poured on the coal, trying to escape as bolt after bolt passed close by.
His rear shields weakened but held as the near misses ripped past.

He brought his Arrow around, trying to cut across the heavierfighters vector and accelerate away before
the black ship could follow. The raider tumbled in space, its nose turning to track Vale's Arrow. He saw
a bright red flare and closed his eyes. He opened them to see Sparrow arcing in from his upper right, his
lasers and ion cannon slashing at the raider.

The black ship continued to rotate in space, turning now to follow Sparrow. Vale kicked his own ship
into an autoslide and pivoted back to fire on the raider. He kept the deflection shots going, turning his
own Arrow to keep the black ship under fire. The deflection angles were changing too quickly for either
his AI to predict or him to track. He missed with most of his shots.

Sparrows shots slowed, the quad fire having drained his capacitors. "I'm outta here," the kid shouted
into his mike. Vale picked up the gist of the message through the feedback as Sparrow poured fuel into
his afterburners. The black ship rolled,then fired into Sparrows rear quarter, slewing the little ship around.

"Damage?" he asked as Sparrow cleared the raider's guns.

"Transmitting," the kid replied, sounding very subdued. The schematic of Sparrow's fighter solidified on
his screen. He saw that the kid's afterburner, rear armor, and stabilization systems had been hit. One
more solid hit and Sparrow would be history.

Vale looked across the convoy in time to see a raider pinion Tiger's fighter, catching her in its bright
beams like a pushpin through a butterfly. Vale watched her ship stagger under twinned hammer blows as
the cannon stripped the Arrow of its phase shields, armor, and skin. Pieces began to spall and burn.

Vale heard her scream, a long, drawn-out wail of fear and agony that abruptly ceased as the black ship
fired again, this time with all its weaponry.

The black ship did a victory roll as it flashed past the expanding debris cloud that marked the remains of
Tiger's ship,then began to close in on the convoy. Vale glanced around, realizing too late that he'd lost
track of the second raider.

"Keep your eyes open," he said to Sparrow, "the other one's still out there."

Scar cut his drives, autoslid, then boosted after the black ship that had killed Tiger. The Confederation
pilot pulled his Arrow into a tight inside loop, trying to flip up and descend on the larger ships vulnerable
back. The raider was ready. It shifted, linking the two ships with multiple columns of firepower. Scars
Arrow, immolated on the beams, detonated.