The hope of the imperial fleet. Part ||
- Mechanics, full power! - The corvette captain ordered it. - Mr. Dula, the maneuver of rapprochement!
- Yes, sir!
- Commandors!
- Yes, Commanders," Lieutenant Paren-Wesquitt's slightly distorted voice flew into the clump.
- When the target shows up, it's a cursory fire.
- Yes, sir!
The screens showed how the first impulses fired from the extreme distance made the protective fields of the unknown ship flash in all ranges. Immediately afterwards, Petty Officer Bourgha notified the crew of the thick bass:
- The target has been identified! Scout class "Yatagan", aboard zero three "Espada".
- The captain... - Telro turned to the clone, but he interrupted it:
- Continue firing until the target is completely destroyed! He has a disguise device and cannot be allowed to turn it on.
- Not under fire," Shiv Dula said. - The Stigium will just explode.
Telro knew very well that it was. The action of the masking device was based on the interaction of the ship's force field and the rarest stegium crystals enclosed in the core of the system. Attempting to connect the crystals to the field generators under the chaotic external influence of the turbocharger discharges wouldn't have led to anything good for the ship.
Tarn Ordo fired. Now he was all forward looking for his guns, obedient as if he were his own fingers. Not as an example of the former Republican Navy ships, the Galleons were equipped with escort version of heavy turbo lasers, which did not require the presence of a gunner and are controlled from a single post. Here, on the podium just behind and above the main caliber gunners' places, was the chief of commandos, Lieutenant Paren-Weskit, who was able to indicate the target not only of the main caliber, but also of any of the twenty laser guns of close combat. These units were still silent, and the target was too far away for them. The lieutenant, as fascinated as he was, was watching the young cadets work. This guy seemed to anticipate the chaotic maneuvers of a jurassic courier, and time after time he put the crosshairs on his mark on the screen, no matter how he threw himself. And the next series of impulses, having flashed on muzzle cuts, pierce the space with the speed of light. But there, in the distance, something even more strange was happening. It seemed as if the ship was already covered in the last moment in an incredible way to dodge the queue, and the flow of energy only briefly touched his fields.
They also noticed it on the bridge.
- Who, in the name of the stars, sits in their control? - the senior assistant exclaimed. - The devil himself?
- Not the devil. Jedi," the clone said coldly. - And he must be destroyed.
Hutt take it, thought Telro. For the past year, he had been thanking the heavens for not once having the "Ghost of the Gate" in questionable honor to participate in the execution of the badly smelling Order 66. And now you're in trouble, though. Telro hated politics and squabbles in the ruling circles as much as any honest warrior. He could never take into account how could these number plates, if they were a thousand times clones, to kill those with whom several years in a row fought side by side against sepses. There must have been something in them that made them different from normal living things. However, in the Navy cantons they talked about the fact that among them there were some normal guys who, spitting on the Emperor, did not raise their weapons against their own. And "made their feet" from the Great Army. Or were executed, who were lucky.
Meanwhile, in the gun room Cadet Ordo realized what was going on. And launched into the control system one of his algorithms called "Crazy Canonir". Tarn heard from one of the teachers that some creatures, adherents of ancient philosophical schools, are able to feel the "wind of death", the moment when the enemy, figuratively speaking, pulls the trigger. Therefore, they successfully dodge the attack. As long as the trigger is pressed, the "Mad Canonir" did not shoot himself evenly, but with chaotic delays, even Ordo did not know at what moment the next shot was fired. Yes! Hit! One more thing! The pilot of the courier couldn't figure out the intentions of the dead car anymore, it is not to him alive operators. One minute, another, and the fields couldn't stand him. The next flash came right into the hull, and the sharp-nosed ship exploded.
- The target was destroyed," said the grand captain, especially for the clone.
- Approaching! - Thirty-four Twenty-three was ordered. - It is necessary to make sure that no one survived.
- Of course, captain, as you command.
- Biocontrol! - Shiv Dula said. - What do you see?
The commander of the biocontrol section, a Zeltron woman with bright pink skin and thick, lush blue-black hair - the envy of half the female population of the base - answered clearly, as always:
- Scanning, sir. A lot of wreckage.
Nevertheless, the grand captain saw a tiny, subtle delay in the answer. In other times it would have surprised him, but not now. Rumors of the imminent dismissal of all nonhuman beings from the ships were spreading all over the fleet. No wonder that the Zeltronka was in a mood far from high. She knew that this flight, like any other, could be her last in the fleet.