"Jack McKinney - Robotech 01 - Genesis" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

achievement, was the mightiest machine in existence. Nearly a mile long, it incorporated virtually
everything Zor had discovered about the fantastic forces and powers springing from the Flowers of
Life.
"Sent it where?" Dolza demanded. Zor was silent. "If I weren't sworn by my warrior oath to
protect you"-Dolza's immense fist hovered close-"I would kill you!"
A few pods from the ready-reaction force were already on the scene: looming metal battle
vehicles big enough to hold one or two Zentraedi, their form suggested that of a headless ostrich,
with long, broad breastplates mounting batteries of primary and secondary cannon.
"I don't expect you to understand," Zor said in carefully measured tones, as explosions
and shock waves shook the base. They could hear the Zentraedi communication net crackling with
reports of the Invid landing.
"You were created to fight the Invid; that is what you must do," Zor told the giant as the
headquarters' outer wall heaved and began to crumble. "Go! Fulfill your Zentraedi imperative!"


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As Zor spun and ducked for cover, Vard shielded him with his own body. Dolza turned to
give battle as the wall shuddered and cracked wide. Through the showering rubble leapt Invid shock
troopers, the enemy's heaviest class of mecha, advanced war machines. Forged from a superstrong
alloy, bulky as walking battleships, the mecha resembled a maniac's vision of biped insect
soldiers.
They were every bit as massive as the Zentraedi pods, and even more heavily armored.
Concentrated fire from the few pods already on the scene-blue lances of blindingly bright energy
penetrated the armor of the first shock trooper to appear. Even as the Invid returned fire with
streams of annihilation discs, the seams and joints of its armor expanded under the overwhelming
pressure from the eruptions within. It exploded into bits of wreckage and white-hot shrapnel that
bounced noisily off the pods' armor.
But a trio of shock troopers had crowded in behind the first, and a dozen more massed
behind them. Annihilation discs and red plasma volleys quartered the air, destroying the
headquarters command center and equipment, setting fires, and blasting pods to glowing scraps or
driving them back.
Armored Zentraedi warriors, lacking the time to reach their pods, rushed in to fight a
desperate holding action, spraying the Invids with hand-held weapons, dodging and ducking,
advancing fearlessly and suffering heavy casualties.
A swift warrior ran in under an Invid shock trooper, holding his weapon against a
vulnerable joint in its armor and then triggering the entire charge all at once, pointblank. The
explosion blew the Invid's leg off, toppling it, but the Zentraedi was obliterated by the
detonation.
Elsewhere, an Invid mecha seized a damaged pod that could no longer fire, ripped the pod
apart with its superhard metal claws, then dismembered the wounded Zentraedi within.
Scouts, smaller Invid machines, rushed in behind the shock troopers to scour the base.
It took only moments for one to find Zor; the Invid had been searching for him for a long
time and were eager for revenge.
As the scout lumbered toward them, Vard tried to save his lord by absorbing the first
blast himself, firing his little hand weapon uselessly at the Invid monster. He partially
succeeded, but only at the cost of his own life-immolated in an instant by a disc. The force of
the blast drove Zor back and scorched him.
The rest of the discs in the salvo were ignited by the explosion, but, having been flung