Koban 4: Shattered Worlds

by Stephen W Bennett

  Mirikami told them, “Carol is over eighteen years old, I think, and clearly she isn’t…” he was interrupted by her voice through the still open door.

  “I’m nineteen…, and a half, Sir.”

  That brought some involuntary chuckles, since only the young consider a half year worthy of mention.

  “I stand corrected,” Mirikami acknowledged with a grin, and continued.

  “She clearly isn’t a man, and I don’t think any similar sized male you know could have lifted that Krall anyway, along with the heavy steel frame it’s strapped to. Could a petite young woman like Carol do that?” He didn’t answer his own question, letting them make the wrong assumptions on their own.

  As he spoke, said petite young woman bounced up the low step into the observation room. She was at least an inch shorter than the below average height of Mirikami, and her bare arms below her short sleeved utility shirt had nicely defined muscles. However, they were somewhat slender muscular limbs. Koban carbon fiber tissue did not produce bulky muscles, not if your natural genetics would not produce bulk in the human tissue they supplemented. She was still stronger than an ox, but didn’t look like she was.

  When Mirikami made the official introductions to the admirals, he was pleased to see that Carol remembered the acting lessons he’d quickly coached to her. She offered only a half hand insertion on the handshakes, making her grip feel limp, and as she pretended to be introduced to Nabarone for the first time, he deliberately engulfed her small hand in his, so that she pulled it back quickly when released, as if he’d gripped her too tight. This was all part of the sales pitch that the alien suits had power assist because it was supposed to be obvious that Carol was no super woman.

  Nice acting, thought Mirikami. I wonder if she considered crunching down on the hands of the admirals anyway.

  Foxworthy again proved she was the harder sell here. “I didn’t hear your answer as to how your men moved as fast as that Krall in freefall. Being stronger is different from being fast. It’s why we use AIs on our ships, for fire control against the Krall.”

  Mirikami had an answer. Not perfect, but “seeing” might also be “believing” for the two officers, if he provided a reasonable sounding answer.

  “PU body armor has an AI, why wouldn’t alien designed armor have some equivalent? A similar system is installed in the fully enclosed helmet, which I assume you noted has no front faceplate. That suit can adapt to the human nervous system, and actually detects your thoughts as they are formed in your brain, to start the suit moving even before you actually can make a muscle start to move. The person inside goes along for the ride, as quickly as they think of what they want to do.”

  This was another partial truth, because the suits did interface with the Kobani superconducting nervous system, and responded instantly to mental commands such as weapons selections, power level, and firing commands. However, it didn’t have any powered joints to respond to movements. That was all done by Kobani muscle power, and the speed of reaction was from their own nervous system.

  When Foxworthy simply nodded, Mirikami knew he’d scored all the points he’d wanted to make today.

  When the admirals tried to pry into Carol’s personal life and home world, Mirikami stepped in. “I’m sorry Admiral Bledso, Admiral Foxworthy, but I understood that General Nabarone had described to you the ground rules that we insisted on for our own security. We will not risk offering details that could be used to trace us back to our various home worlds on the Rim. The Krall, if they find out where we have our small bases, would put an end to our service to you, and destroy our worlds.” There was more than a touch of truth to that statement, but some of his security concerns were due to the Hub government’s own genetic laws.

  Bledso apologized. “I’m sorry Captain. That was indeed explained to us. We simply found your young Lady here so engaging that we forgot.”

  Possible, but not probable, Mirikami thought. You were snooping.

  He moved the discussion back on track, since they appeared to see Carol as what she closely resembled. An ordinary teenager.

  “As you saw just now, the suits do have excellent stealth, even built in energy weapons, and a compact alien designed power source to run them. Wearing that suit, Carol was easily able to lift the Krall, and that heavy steel support frame.” Of course, she probably could do that one handed, without the suit’s minor weight to add to the total being lifted.

  “I think I have demonstrated that my people have the capability to successfully infiltrate down to the surface of K1, discover where you could do the most damage to their stockpiles with a surprise heavy attack, and slow or stop the Krall advances on our worlds for years, while your own forces get stronger. We are never going to win this war as we’ve been fighting it against them.”

  He knew the half-truths and misdirection of today, about his leading the so-called “Rimmers,” wouldn’t stand indefinitely, and eventually they would learn the people giving them a fighting chance had been genetically enhanced. That they came from a world outside of Human Space, well beyond what was currently called the Rim.

  Right now, the navy could hit effectively at the Krall on K1, while they were still limited in their war making ability, because of a temporary clanship and migration ship shortage. He could also assure them there was no threat from Eight Balls, because they had all been destroyed, and the Krall couldn’t make more. The Hub government needed to be bolder, to fight harder despite loses, or human civilization was doomed.

  Bledso, unwilling to make even a tentative positive comment openly, was concerned with political repercussions for her own career. Anything she said today might be leaked to the president, or worse, to the press. Her ambition to press the war against the Krall might end as badly as it had for Admiral Mauss, who stepped away from fleet command duties rather than be fired after the Rhama disaster, despite a combat victory while she led the fleet action at K1. A hint of Bledso’s true feeling was revealed however.

  “Captain Mirikami, we will be eagerly waiting for what you have to show us from K1. The word of a single warrior could be the bragging typical of their nature, although there has been a truthful basis for much of what they have openly broadcast to us in the past. If they are accelerating planetary invasions, billions of lives are at risk. We can’t take preemptive action without strong evidence. I hope you can find proof on K1 that I can take to the Joint Chiefs, and if they agree, can be presented to the president. Good luck to you Captain.”

  It was as close as Mirikami was going to get to a commitment from the navy, and he had intended to scout K1 regardless. “Thank you Admiral. We’ll Jump in a day or two, and I expect to return with Tri-Vid evidence confirming what we were told by this prisoner within two weeks. Our information for which clans have responsibility for storing and safeguarding this war material was extremely detailed. We won’t have to scour the entire planet.”

  Telling the PU navy he was going to scout K1 in advance, and then bringing back the proof the Krall were prepared for a second invasion was better than suddenly showing up and making that same claim. It lent credence that his people had the capability that he claimed, and then demonstrate they had completed a mission the PU military could not perform.

  They shook hands and said their goodbyes. Mirikami told Crager he could accompany him back to Koban when he returned from K1, and he had regretfully turned down Carol’s imploring to go with the Mark to K1.

  “Carol you perform a valuable and needed job for General Nabarone’s forces here. Remember, scouting the enemy in complete secrecy will mean that if we’re successful, we shouldn’t encounter any fighting on K1 for this trip. Which is something you apparently have discovered is strangely included in your definition of liaison work.” He raised an eyebrow, not in disapproval but amusement.

  “Oh, that’s true,” she reflected. “On second thought, spying doesn’t seem quite as exciting as actually meeting and beating the enemy in combat.”

  He smiled at the
slightly bloodthirsty look the pleasant looking young Lady flashed him as she said that.

  ****

  The Mark performed a White Out at two hundred miles above K1, practically above a hand of Tanga clan domes, where Hothdat said some of the larger weapons were said to be stored. There were thousands of the white ceramic-coated Dragons parked at two domes, along with lesser numbers of much larger armored gray transports. They were gathered in columns, facing the open rim area of the large circular tarmacs, ready to stream onto clanships when they landed to load them. At two other domes were thousands of laser and counter battery rocket carts for defense, and thousands of plasma cannon carts and mobile barrage rocket platforms, for use in mass assaults when forcing and securing an invasion landing area.

  All of the equipment was oriented facing away from the central domes in long columns, ready to be driven forward to meet the arriving clanships, which had to act as Krall transports now. In the absence of the huge Torki Migration ships, it would take days longer to load the steady stream of smaller clanships needed, than if they had use of the huge Torki designed ships the humans had either captured or destroyed. The clanships had large lower holds, but to carry the maximum amount per ship, the equipment had to be hoisted internally to higher decks through openings that could be slid aside in deck plating on two sides of the central column of the traditional propulsion system engine. The large transports were preloaded with ammunition and small arms, and could be separated into three modules that could be hoisted to higher decks for transit. The mini tanks would be driven in sets of four, onto lift plates at each side of the main hold, and lifted up to the higher decks for storage.

  Mirikami had learned that they were not transporting a compact starter factory for assembly by Prada workers, because it would have to be dismantled even more for loading into a clanship. There would be no on-planet repairs or replacement parts for damaged equipment, at least not for the first planetary orbit of the target planet. That meant there would be no Prada or Torki slave labor long to concern human forces when attacking any of the enemy ships. That was a relief for Mirikami, to avoid the guilt and recriminations for the ancillary tasks he had his scouts performing.

  The large number of clanships needed to move this material wasn’t observed, apparently still being employed for supporting and supplying the invasion on New Dublin. That invasion had been under way for less than a month, but most of those ships should be returning to K1 soon.

  Mirikami had Jakob, his AI, start sending the recognition code for entering orbit at Telda Ka, as soon as they had openly arrived. Had he tried to approach after secreting his gamma ray burst behind some outer moon or planet, there was the risk a clanship might be posted there, just to detect that typically human form of sneakiness. He also had the landing codes for several clans, taken from Hothdat’s mind. They had made their White Out well below the surviving orbital defense platforms, placed in roughly five hundred mile high orbits. Nabarone told him the navy said those were not staffed full time by the Krall, and could be activated remotely from the ground for unauthorized ships that failed to send recognition codes.

  Mirikami had the AI detach a number of self-propelled small satellites, with their own stealth, and then he took the Mark directly down into the middle atmosphere, and rotated to horizontal flight at roughly fifty miles. Jakob used the ship’s visual sensors to record the ranks of equipment arrayed around the four Tanga clan domes, like petals on killer flowers. He initiated the code that would authorize them to land at Skodol clan’s dome, located on another landmass. The domes below would receive this code, and would expect the ship to fly off towards the horizon. A rather typical example of the seat-of-the-pants style of Krall flying.

  Skodol was a former finger clan of Hothdat’s Dorbo clan, and still a minor clan that would have little role in any invasion’s early stages. Mirikami’s entry plan had made certain that the Skodol dome was nowhere close to the domes below, which were occupied by major clans. Such clans had the status to earn control of such valuable resources.

  Sending the landing code for Skodol’s only dome on K1 was a diversion, to allow them to see the stockpiles of equipment around the domes directly below, and then move east over a wide ocean to the shores of the next continent, where the dome lay that they were advertising their intent to land.

  As their very visible flaming thrusters took them over the horizon, above a fifteen hundred mile stretch of sea and out of sight of any land mass, they cut the visible thruster trail that left ions in its wake, and activated the reactionless Normal Space drive. Next, they descended to a few thousand feet and activated the stealth system, and slowed to a hover on gravity and inertial force control. This ate up considerable tachyon derived power, but they weren’t expecting to fight or to have to make a sudden long Jump. Two Krall made shuttles with the newer style stealth system were safely launched while low over the water, and they flew back towards the four domes where the equipment just seen was parked.

  Unlike the original Krall stealth systems, which other clanships could detect even at a distance of thousands of miles, the Kobani systems, redesigned by the Torki and Raspani, became invisible anywhere beyond several miles from any clanship. Even then, a clanship would need to search with much longer wavelengths of radiation than were needed to detect human ships, or their own craft. Long before the transmitted landing code could be received at the Skodol dome, the signal was shut off. Now they would change direction and pause in isolated areas to launch four-ships.

  The Mark, or any ship for that matter, lost some degree of stealth if it opened hatches or ports to launch shuttles or four man ships. These smaller craft were also equipped with the new stealth coating, and could approach the target sites in relative safety if long wave radiation wasn’t detected as they neared. If the latter radiation were detected, in what humans called low frequency radio waves, it would indicate the Krall were seeking targets using that form of stealth. They had brought only one human made shuttle for landing on Poldark, and it was tied down in the large lower hold. It also had stealth, but if it were somehow seen visually, heard, or detected by sensors, its characteristics offered proof too strong to ignore that humans were on K1. A glimpse of a Krall design ship could be dismissed as another clan nosing around, perhaps as a training exercise.

  Using this method, scout teams could be dispersed to investigate multiple locations furnished by Hothdat’s information, and the Mark could move on to repeat the dispersion process at other isolated sites. It was a quieter form of disbursing forces than the Krall used for their raiders, having launched those against human worlds for two decades.

  Finally, having disbursed all of the smaller ships, the Mark flew undetected to within nine miles of a large multi-clan use dome where, according to Hothdat, Joint Council meetings were held. The Mark’s own passive sensors were watching for the longer wave radio signals that might indicate the Krall were actively scanning for the newest human stealth systems on ships. Thus far, only human body armor had been detected by the Krall using this radio wave method, and humans in armor weren’t considered much of a threat. The stolen clanships that had delivered those human warriors to raided Krall production worlds had been no better stealthed than were Krall ships, at that time. There, they had snuck in by hiding behind moons and gas giants, as they concealed their gamma ray flash White Outs. Those approaches into the K1 system were all being watched.

  The Joint Council was still absorbing the details of the Poldark withdrawal, studying how their clanship fleet was attacked by Shadows, Starfires, and Foxworthy’s heavy cruisers, all of which had employed this same new stealth system. Only the cruise missiles had arrived unstealthed. However, the new human stealth effectiveness wasn’t blatantly obvious because of the way it had been used, where the human enemy was firing at a rich field of Krall targets almost continuously, which revealed their positions on clanship sensors anyway.

  Some clanship commanders and single ship pilots were questioning why they had not
seen the enemy coming, and afterwards how they had departed and vanished so suddenly, when they broke off an attack. However, the Krall histories were full of stories where they encountered incremental improvements in an enemy’s technology and tactics in a long war, and the Krall always adjusted after the fact, once the changes were reported to be widespread.

  They had additional technology and new types of battlefield weapons they could employ. Twenty five thousand years of fighting and victory left the winner with plenty of options to try.

  Right now, there was considerably more being discussed at the council dome than the human response on Poldark. This withdrawal misstep was considered a glitch in an unprecedented force redeployment that many clan leaders had questioned doing in the first place. Tor Gatrol Kanpardi, who had sponsored that controversial plan, was now dead. Interclan politics was the highest priority right now, and that drama, unknown to Mirikami and his scouts, was still playing out today.

  As the Mark settled behind a jungle-overgrown remnant of a sizable former human city, Accra II, the former capitol of the Greater West Africa colony, it was unable to detect any active scans at low radio frequencies. Although, the standard Krall scans that would detect stealthed PU Navy ships were continuously active, and were probably performed automatically, coming from various clanships of the major clans that were represented here.

  The abandoned buildings of the human city had been preserved by the Krall for possible use by their slave race, the Prada. However, those loyal slaves had considered themselves as “servants,” a part of the Krall Empire. They balked at using housing structures that were so alien, and belonged to an enemy of the Rulers. Because they were not ordered to stay there to live, they built the nearby dome and simultaneously moved closer to it, into forest villages they built. That had been the pattern all over K1 decades ago. However, once the major construction was over, and the later repairs from the two human attacks had been repaired, the Prada, and a small contingent of Torki, were relocated to a smaller continent of K1, to produce small weapons and conduct Clanship repairs, isolated from the other Krall occupied landmasses. Their Krall overlords didn’t particularly like having their weak faithful workers so close, where they offended their senses and fouled the air with their furry odor, or lived in cool, dank tunnels that smelled of unpleasant seawater.