"Dune 03 - Whipping Mek (Short Story)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)injured, yet remained aboard the battered ship, refusing to accept help for
himself until all of his personnel were tended to? Both of those scenarios would have fit Xavier’s personality. For hours, Vergyl refused to slow down, unable to fully grasp what these jihadi fighters had been through. Sweating and exhausted, he worked himself into a trancelike stupor, following orders, helping one after another of the wounded, burned, and despairing refugees. He heard muttered conversations that told of the onslaught that had wiped out the small colony. When the thinking machines had attempted to absorb the settlement into the Synchronized Worlds, the Army of the Jihad had sent its defenders there. DUNE: WHIPPING MEK 3 Peridot Colony had been but a skirmish, however, like so many others in the dozen years since Serena Butler had originally rallied all humans to fight in her cause, after the thinking machines murdered her young son, Manion. Xavier’s son. The ebb and flow of the Jihad had caused a great deal of damage to both sides, but neither fighting force had gained a clear upper hand. And though the thinking machines continued to build fresh combat robots, lost human lives could never be replaced. Serena gave passionate speeches to recruit new soldiers for her holy war. So many fighters had died that the Jihad no longer publicly revealed the cost. The struggle was everything. Following the Honru Massacre seven years earlier, Vergyl had insisted on joining the Army of the Jihad himself. He considered it his duty as a human |
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