The Masters' Gambit by Jack McKinney

Author:Jack McKinney [McKinney, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult, ROBOTECH #20
ISBN: 9780345387752
Amazon: 0345387759
Barnesnoble: 0345387759
Goodreads: 283608
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 1995-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Centered in a commo sphere in the command nexus of the Masters' flagship stood Sliat Rnan, Zentraedi commander of a Thuveral Salan destroyer assigned to the Seventh Mechanized Division of the Botoru Battalion. The battlewagon was thrust at an acute angle into the impact- cratered surface of a small moon millions of miles removed from its ringed captor.

Sliat was barrel-chested, dark haired, and prognathous. He held one

arm across his chest not as a sign of obeisance but to keep his tattered command cloak from slipping off his shoulder. The uniform itself was torn in several places, revealing patches of Sliat's bluish-white skin, and the Zentraedi sigil—the Cizion—affixed to the yoke was dangling by a corner.

"Under Dolza's lead, we took the battle to the Micronian homeworld," he was telling the Masters. "Annihilation bolts unleashed by the ships of the Grand Fleet pierced the atmosphere, obliterating thousands of cities, killing hundreds of millions of inhabitants. But the hostiles answered us with unprecedented frenzy, employing an array of weapons never before encountered—a Voice that confounded the brave pilots of our cruisers and scout ships, a subsurface cannon that belched nuclear fire into our midst. Even so, victory seemed assured. Until the suicidal Micronians drove Zor's vessel into the heart of Commander-in-Chief Dolza's fortress and targeted the sum of its might against the reflex furnaces. It wasn't an act of warfare, my lords. It was an act of madness, bred of desperation. If it hadn't been for the barrier shield, the Micronian usurpers of Zor's ship would have been immolated."

Sliat, hellishly backlit by the bridge's emergency illumination, coughed and sniffled. The backs of his hands were covered with sores. Behind him in the dimly lighted command bubble were half a dozen full-size crewpersons, helmeted and slouched into acceleration couches. Bioscanners aboard the Masters' ship indicated that most of those seated were long dead.

Shaizan communicated his thoughts to Dag and Bowkaz before directing words to the commo sphere. "Tell us of the aftermath of the battle."

Sliat cleared his throat repeatedly. "M'lords, with the destruction of Dolza's fortress, the ships of the Grand Fleet were like limbs of a decapitated beast—flailing uselessly and uncontrollably. The vast majority were engulfed and atomized by the burgeoning explosive cloud, whose epicenter was the still-intact vessel Zor designed. What ships remained oriented of their own accord on the Micronian homeworld, and into its superheated atmosphere they plunged. Like spears they fell, like flaming

arrows dispatched from some circumferential battlement. Down and down they plummeted, many of them incinerating on entry, while others struck and stuck into the yielding surface like pins. Including, m'lords, the Quiltra Queleual commanded by Khyron Kravshera."

The Masters exchanged thoughts, and, once more, Shaizan voiced the outcome of their telepathic conference. "Did you attempt to establish contact with your fellow survivors on Earth?"

Sliat bowed his head. "We have tried. When the factory satellite defolded in Earthspace, we reached out for it, but to no avail. But we have continued in our efforts, all these miserable years that have found us disabled on this moon.

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