"Zahn, Timothy - Conquerors 03 - Conquerors' Legacy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

Taoka smiled grimly. Finally: a direct enemy threat. "All right, Samurai group. You wanted it; you got it. All Copperheads, go to X."

"Signal from Samurai group, Commodore," the fighter commander called from across theTrafalgar's bridge. "They have incoming bogies. Samurai's ordered them to Level X."

"Acknowledged, Schweighofer," Commodore Lord Alexander Montgomery said, running his eyes over the outer scan displays for probably the hundredth time since launching the probe teams. Peacekeeper Command had assured him that their sudden arrival would probably catch the enemy off guard; but Peacekeeper Command's collective hindquarters weren't on the line here. His were, and he had no intention of losing them or his task force to the Zhirrzh. Certainly not the way Trev Dyami had lost theJutland. "Smith, do we still have visual on the outriders?" he called across the bridge.

"Yes, sir," the force coordination officer called back. "Visual and lasercom both. Still no enemy response."

"That won't last much longer," Captain Thomas Germaine murmured from the fleet exec's chair beside Montgomery. "They must havesomething in this system that can fight. Only question is where they're hiding it."

"Agreed," Montgomery said, running a thoughtful forefinger across the deep cleft in his chin. The outriders had clear visuals on both moons and all space debris within any reasonable range. Unless the enemy had something buried away underground-

"Antelopereports enemy ship rising from the planet," Smith called. "Grid Fifty-five-Delta."

Germaine had already keyed the main display for theAntelope's feed. The Zhirrzh ship rising at them was not all that big, perhaps half the size of the ships theJutland had encountered a few light-years off Dorcas.

Still, considering how easily those four alien craft had ripped through theJutland's eight-ship task force, the presence of even one Zhirrzh warship was nothing to be taken lightly.

And orbiting two thousand klicks away in outrider position, theAntelope might as well have been a floating bull's-eye for all the good the rest of the task force could do them. "Mendoza, you'd better get out of there," he ordered theAntelopes captain. "Mesh out, and wait for us at Point Victor."

As if to underline the order, the rising conglomeration of hexagons began spitting laser fire, splashing tiny clouds of vaporized metal from theAntelopes hull. "Acknowledged,Trafalgar," Mendoza's voice came back. "You want me to loop back around and run backstop?"

"Negative," Montgomery said. "Just run. Bravo Sector ships: deploy defense against incoming bogie. All fighters return to their ships at once, probe teams included."

"Samurai group is about to engage, sir." Schweighofer reminded him.

"Tell Samurai I saidnow."

"Acknowledged.

Montgomery looked up to find Germaine frowning at him. "We're leaving already?" the fleet exec asked. "Surely we can handle a single enemy warship."

"Boldness is a useful quality in a warrior," Montgomery told him quietly. "Brashness belongs in your quarters with your dress uniform. Our mission objectives were to gather geographic data and to test the assumption that the Zhirrzh can't detect the tachyon wake-trails of incoming starships. We've accomplished both. There's nothing to be gained by adding head-to-head combat to the mission profile."

"Except possibly a reduction of the enemy threat," Germaine countered. "Even withoutAntelope we've got a fifteen-to-one edge here, plus four wings of Adamant and Copperhead fighters. This is the kind of chance-"

"Second ship incoming, Commodore," Smith interrupted."Cascadia has it rising from Grid One-sixteen-Charlie."

"Deploy defensive," Montgomery ordered as Germaine pulled up the picture. Coming up from a group of low hills, the newcomer looked to be a bit larger than the first bogie, though given its completely different arrangement of hexagons, it was hard to tell for sure. "Any idea yet where they're coming from?"

"Apparently from right under our noses, sir," Kyun Wu said from the sensor station. "I ran a check-the probe teams had them marked as buildings. Must have one hell of a lift system to be able to bring something that size up and down a gravity well."

Montgomery grimaced to himself. Lasers capable of slicing through Peacekeeper hull metal, virtually indestructible ceramic hulls; a method of instantaneous communication across interstellar distances; and now an unknown but obviously highly efficient ground-to-space lift system. Even without anything else, the level of their technology would have red-flagged these aliens as a potential threat to humanity.

Their use of that technology to invade the Commonwealth had turned that red flag into a red alarm. And had earned the Zhirrzh the name Conquerors.

"Commodore,Antelope has meshed out," Smith reported. "First bogie changing course towardGalileo andWolverine. Second bogie has engagedCascadia andNagoya"

"Nagoyasbeen hit!" Kyun Wu snapped. "Full round of laser fire from Bogie Two. Looks like severe damage to all forward sections."