"Dune 03 - Whipping Mek (Short Story)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and
events portrayed in this story are either fictitious
or are used fictitiously.

DUNE
Whipping Mek
A Tale of the Butlerian Jihad

Copyright © 2003 Herbert Limited Partnership

All rights reserved including the right to reproduce
this booklet, or portions thereof, in any form.

DUNE
WHIPPING MEK
A TALE
OF THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

When the armored Jihad warship arrived, the population of Giedi

Prime expected news of a great victory against the evil thinking

machines. But with only a glance at the battle-scarred vessel, young

Vergyl Tantor could tell that the defense of Peridot Colony had not gone at all as

planned.

On the crowded fringe of Giedi City Spaceport, Vergyl rushed forward,

pressing against the soldiers stuck there as ground troops, like himself: wide-

eyed green recruits or veterans too old to be sent into battle against Omnius’s

combat robots. His heart hammered like an industrial piston in his chest.

He prayed that his adoptive brother, Xavier Harkonnen, was all right.

The damaged battleship heaved itself into the docking circle like a dying sea

beast beached on a reef. The big engines hissed and groaned as they cooled from

the hot descent through the atmosphere.

Vergyl stared at the blackened scars on the hull plates and tried to imagine

the kinetic weapons and high-energy projectiles that combat robots had inflicted