Path book 1 Igor

The thought arises — we need to get home to our own people as soon as possible! Dad and Dahi, brothers and Azanti are there. The mother, along with her best friend Kasia, flew to the center, taking the younger ones with them, and Ratnait and Bina flew with them. Only the men and each other remained in the village. The city's mega-market has an entertainment complex, a holokine theater and a cafe. In this kind of weather, half the city gets washed away... I turn around and run to the bike left a few kilometers away, a cat creeps next to it like a red shadow. The flute is in a case in a backpack. As I run, I glue the headset of the communicator to my ear. A microphone on a thin transparent film is attached to the throat. I call up the communication menu, but the channels are clogged — apparently, everyone started calling right away.

I run up a hill and see a large falling ship about ten kilometers away — the skin is full of holes, the entire hull is engulfed in flames, and it's hard to understand what it was like at first. At a speed of eight hundred kilometers per hour, it crashes into a mountain, the skin crumples like paper, but the ship continues to sink into the slope. I fall into a battle trance and barely manage to put a shield on us. There's a flash, the ground bounces, and I'm tumbling into the bushes. The noise is so loud that it rings in my ears. I lie there, and a shock wave sweeps over me, covering me with small stones and debris, next to me, ears tucked in and pressed to the ground, lies a redhead, fear radiating from him in waves.

"Don't be afraid, Baska, we'll get out!"

I calm my cat down through the familiar connection.

I hear a thin voice from the cat:

"Me-yau-uh!" Scary girlfriend.

I hug and kiss the redhead on the nose. I raise my head and look around. There is a huge crater on the slope, from which clouds of thick, greasy, black smoke rise... it is strange that after such an explosion there is still something left to burn. My bike is parked in the clearing, five hundred meters left, one jerk — and you can fly home. I was just about to run when a combat flyer, somewhat similar to the American Apache, flies out from under the cliff, and my beautiful bike disappears in a flash of explosion. I'm falling to the ground— did you notice? Spotted it! Bitch, he got it!!! The flier flies off about eight hundred meters and turns around. Shit! So he tilted his body and started coming at me. Forming a fire spear. And I hit him right in the cockpit.

And before it reaches two hundred meters to me, it explodes, flying apart. Several pieces of debris fall next to me. One of them has a strange, rounded shape. I walk up and, having seen him, I close my eyes, nausea rolls up my throat... it's the pilot's head in a helmet: the eyes are bulging, the mouth is open and distorted with a grimace, a piece of spine sticks out of the dried torn meat in place of the neck.

I walk away from the find, suppressing bouts of nausea. Damn it! How do I get home now? On foot — more than twenty kilometers. It's a two-hour run, if not more... but there's no way out. There is a battle going on over the planet, and no one will be sent after me. The connection doesn't work either. In general, run Igor, run! Barsik approaches the severed head, sniffs, hits it with its paw — and the head, rattling the helmet on the rocks, rolls down the slope.

"Baska! Don't touch that stuff! And anyway, we ran home." I take my bearings and go home at a measured run, the cat moves easily next to me.

Chapter 11-2.

Inhale for one, two, three, four steps and exhale for one, two, three, four ... for almost an hour in this rhythm, bushes, pieces of rocks and trees of the foothills float by. There is an incessant roar of battle in the sky, flashes and the howl of engines, the PKO is still fighting on equal terms. There is no connection, which means that a "suppressor" is hanging over the colony (A suppressor is an electronic warfare ship, usually of the frigate class, equipped with suppression systems for all types of communications. Unlike a conventional frigate, it is equipped with an additional thermonuclear reactor.). And while he's working, we'll be out of touch. Thuds are heard from Leonov... What's going on there? Fuck! Like a flash, a memory of a past life pops up — the training ground, and how I, the honored jacket (A jacket is the name given to officers who joined the army after graduating from the military department of the institute. A well-deserved jacket is someone who has served in the army for a year.), with the conscript boys from the crew, sit and smoke on the armor of my old T-72, and listen to the ACS-2C3 "Acacia" working at a distance of three or four kilometers. So, the sounds were very similar to the shots of 152-millimeter howitzers! Did they bring howitzers here?! Where did they get them now, in the twenty-fourth century? Or am I just imagining it?

Suddenly, a dazzling white glow lights up in the sky, behind the clouds, flooding everything with a magnesium-white light. Obeying the impulse of intuition, I grab the redhead and hide in a crack under the rocks. I'm putting up the strongest shield I can and holding it with all my might. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a circle of clear blue-green sky appear and grow rapidly in the clouds. The redhead next to him is only trembling slightly, without making any sounds. The impact of the blast wave shook me, the ground seemed to bounce under me, swayed, everything was covered with dust, stones and tree branches flew. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed to all the gods I could remember that no large piece of debris would fall on the redhead and me. How many megatons were blown away that such a strong shock wave reached us from such a great distance?! It looks like the thermonuclear reactor of a large ship has exploded... Mass generators explode much more modestly.

When everything is quiet, we climb out onto the path with the redhead and see a picture of devastation. The entire trail is littered with rock fragments and rocks, broken tree branches, leaves, and other forest debris. There is a huge circular gap in the clouds in the sky, most of the visible sky is clear of pirate ships and shuttles, only on the horizon, near Gagarin, it seems like someone else was hanging in the sky. I walk around the rubble of branches and stones, and a panorama of our area opens up to me. A transport was hanging over Leonov, all wrapped in smoke, askew, shaking strangely. I see how the ship is trying to land, but it doesn't work, it falls to the left side, turns over and falls on the city. An explosion is visible, the city is covered with dust mixed with black smoke. I turn on my mental search to the fullest and listen to the city. Fuck. Only the echo of fading lives. Fuck. Mom, Aunt Cassia, Lina, and Ivan are also there. They rushed to the cinema with Ratnait and Bina.

My legs give out, I fall to my knees and scream, wildly tearing my ligaments, trying to suppress the terrible mental pain with a scream. Everything floats and sways before my eyes. The communicator chirps. I don't get it at first, but gradually I pull myself together and answer the call.

"Igor! Igor, my son! Do you hear me?" My father's voice sounds in my ear.

"Yes, dad," I say hoarsely.

"Are you all right? Are you okay?"

"Yes. Only the pirates broke the bike. I'm running home on foot. Dad! Daa-ad!"

"Igor! Stay out of the village, stay in the foothills. Leshka and Azanti and Nasar are coming to you, Alexey has a key card from the shelter in the mountains, he will take you there. Stay there until it's over."

"Dad! A ship crashed on the city... and Mom! And all the others..."

"What is "everyone else"?" My father asks in a low voice. In the background, you can hear the rumble of a carbine firing bursts, and wild matyugs in Quarian, the only decent word of which was the well-known "bosh' tet". "Igor, what happened?"

"Dad... After the ship crashed, I felt a strong fear of my mother and the others, and after that I don't feel them anymore. I don't feel it at all! It's like they don't exist..."

"Igor, maybe your gut is letting you down? You never know what happened there... Do you remember that Vorka was expanding the shelter under Galamarkt? Maybe something in the walls is shielding it."

I keep crying out loud, clutching the cat.

"Igor, get ready!" says the father. "Now meet Alexey, Nasar and Azanti, and go to the mountains. When it's all over, we'll figure it out. And yes, it wasn't pirates who attacked us, it was mercenaries and bandits. They need you, son."

"Me?! Why, I'm just a magician."

"One of their leaders offered to give you up, and they would leave. I think it's Cerberus. These bitches found out about you and your mutations. So don't get caught by them, okay?!"

"Okay, dad."

"Captain Shepard, stand down." I reach out to the village and put labels on everyone whether the sentients are alive or not.

Fuck, someone's probably chasing my brother and the teenagers, and only my brother has a serious gun — it's a Tsunami IV issued from the city arsenal. Sheriff Grayson, by order of the governor, armed everyone who, for one reason or another, did not have their own gun, including the brothers. I'm crushing my feelings. Get up, Igor, get the fuck up and run towards your brother, friend and girlfriend! You have a praying mantis, and you're a trained magician, but you're blowing your nose! I slap my hand hard on my cheek, the pain makes me pull myself together, get up and run as fast as I can to the bridge.

The bridge is already far behind, the sounds of gunfire can be heard ahead — they are hammering from assault rifles and shotguns, it seems that they are hammering haphazardly, just at random. The path ahead is a serpentine, followed by a long descent, littered with rock fragments and overgrown with bushes. The river turned right and went into the dense forests of the foothills. I creep up to the slope and, hiding behind a rock, look out.

I see a man sitting behind rocks, and a couple dozen intelligent ones sneaking up to him in a semicircle, four hundred meters away from him, and almost six hundred from the rest. I take the carbine and look through the scope. Behind the stones is Leshka, with a big bloodstain on his light uniform, but his brother is awake and fighting.

One of the pirates tries to run over, but his brother cuts him off with a short burst — pieces of armor fly from the pirate, and the body rolls down the slope like a bag devoid of bones, until it is stopped by a large boulder. The rest of the pirates open chaotic fire towards their brother's position. Pieces of rocks and dust fly from the hits. They're a long way from me, and I don't think they've noticed me. I turn to the cat, remembering how my father taught me to activate combat mode at CADIZ:

"Bars, combat mode. All aliens are enemies, attack without limits. Go ahead!"

The cat crouches to the ground, muscles swell under the influence of the chemistry of the implants, and the fur on the back of his neck stands on end. With a hiss that even a compressor would envy, the cat launches an attack. Finally, he had an enemy to kill. The sight is incredible — jumping on the rocks, the cat quickly trots to the line of attack. I also put an additional shield on Bars, although his fur protects him well from bullets. His movements are smooth and concise. Then the attack itself follows — from a distance of two hundred meters, it still accelerates, the speed reaches a hundred kilometers. A live red torpedo knocks the pirate off his feet, a lightning-fast movement of his head — and a fountain of blood gushes from the gnawed throat. Jumping to the next one and hitting him in the face with his paw — a wild scream reverberates through the foothills, the pirate rolls on the rocks, clutching his bloody face with his palms... this is no longer a fighter. The cat is hiding in the bushes.

The pirates are scared, they stop and stupidly fumble around with trunks, only one continues to quietly sneak up on his brother. It is clear that his armor is better and newer, and, judging by the markings on the bed, he is holding a Kovalev, which is the mercenaries' favorite assault rifle. While the pirates are distracting his brother, this bastard decided to go to his rear. Welcome, you bastard. I extinguish emotions like my grandfather taught me. I unhook the removable bipods from my belt and attach them to the bed. I lie down on the ground, switch the carbine to a large caliber, set an armor-piercing bullet and 40% of the pulse, aim. The mercenary is six hundred meters away, my brother can't see him, but I can see him clearly. A shot! The kinetic shield burst and the armor in the chest area crumpled like paper from the impact of a large-caliber bullet. The mercenary flew off into the bushes.

The pirates heard the sound of a gunshot, they saw a falling body and the screams of those whom the redhead found in the bushes. The freaks were overcome by intense panic. Eat up, bitches! I switch to the main caliber and start shooting them, as in a shooting gallery. A shot, a thrust of the butt, and the pirate's head splashes. I hit with impact bullets to do maximum damage. They don't have shields, and armor is the same name, many even without helmets. It looks like they've adapted to our conditions, but it won't help you critters....

Any attempts to escape are thwarted by the brother — one or the other pirate, in an attempt to get up and escape, gets a burst in the back from Leshka. They screamed and thrashed around while I methodically took aim at each one. The shutter of the thermal compartment clicked, and the crimson thermoclips tablet flew away. The main thing now is to destroy the enemy. They killed everyone in about fifteen minutes, since my commanding height prevented the pirates from hiding behind rocks, and the large boulders were closer to the slope, and my brother settled there. Experienced mercenaries would have immediately gone on the attack and, although with heavy losses, would have been able to hide from my fire at my brother's position. And these, having lost their commander, just screamed and shot in all directions out of fear. Assholes, stupid pirate meat! After checking the slope for any surviving enemies, and finding none except a blind man shouting obscenities, he ran to his brother. Leshka was sitting with his back against a rock, and he looked at me calmly, somehow even abstractedly. I ran up to him and sat down next to him, asked:

"How are you, Lyosha?" my brother smiled and ran his hand over my cheek.

"You've got snakes all over your face... have you been crying? Why? Something happened?"

"Mom, Aunt Kasia and the younger ones, and Ratnait and Bina, and Saer..." I start crying again...

"What's wrong with them?"