Luna Base had ten heavy cruisers based there, the surviving battleship and the lone dreadnaught. After Mirikami’s warnings to Bledso, they were being deployed out as far as the orbit of Neptune from the sun, but that encompassed a huge volume. They would quickly focus in on the clanships if four of them Jumped in-system, as Mirikami forecast would happen.
At least out there by Neptune’s orbit, one or more of them should receive the gamma ray detections of arriving clanships much sooner than they would at Earth’s orbit, and they could Jump to Earth in minutes if needed there. However, there weren’t enough Comtap specialists posted on or near Earth to accompany each navy ship. Four of them went with the navy ships, Bledso as Chairfem of the Joint Chiefs kept hers close, and now President Medford had one at her disposal. That was only after she’d hurriedly been briefed on the Rimmer/Kobani presence within her military, and she finally learned about their instant communications capability. She insisted on having access to instant long-range communications, and was so angry with Bledso about not knowing before, that she didn’t want to be in the same room with her right now.
Medford was reading a briefing item from the navy that said this ultra-secret, non-PU controlled military force, equipped with their own warships, soldiers, and new technology, had just reported a potential Krall threat, directed possibly at Earth, or at any one of three Hub worlds, all three lying in the sky from Earth in the constellation Boötis.
“Where the hell is the constellation Boots?” She demanded as she read, looking up. Having herself corrected by a naval officer, and informed that it was pronounced "boo-OH-tees" not "Boots," did absolutely nothing to improve her disposition.
Medford was pissed that this small but apparently highly effective Rim world force had been kept secret even from the Commander in Chief. Being told that secrecy was a precondition of their providing assistance to the navy didn’t mollify her in the slightest. She was sure to be more outraged soon, when she heard they had alien allies who had furnished all of the the new technology. Bledso wasn’t about to tell her that the nice unarmed young woman in her office, sent as a Comtap specialist (whatever that meant), could probably take out her entire security detail of twenty, all by herself.
Two days after Mirikami had Jumped the Mark from K1, headed for Pittsburg II with five other Kobani ships with him, the Comtap specialist in the patrol boat there confirmed that four clanships had performed White Outs in the outer realms of the system. This third time clinched it for Mirikami, and he was convinced they were all connected in some way to a Krall threat, which might have Earth as one of the four optional targets they could strike. He predicted that the last four clanships would exit in the outer regions of the Sol system, which explained why the navy was deploying to watch for them.
He hadn’t discussed the possibility of the Krall possessing a planet-wrecking weapon with the PU government. Alien rumors and Krall braggart histories were hardly proof he could offer to the president. Certainly, claiming that he’d read the minds of several Krall that said the stories were true wouldn’t earn him credibility with the president, even if he claimed it was by use of the mind controlled alien designed body armor, the same way he had fooled Bledso. He was told Medford was already skeptical of this surprise new ally, and Bledso asked him to avoid stretching her credibility too far. She had not yet received all of the reports of how the navy had been helped by the Kobani ships at K1, and that they were operating stolen clanships, which they operated better than the Krall could.
Besides, Mirikami didn’t know what the Krall weapon really did, or how to defend against it. What could he say other than be on the alert in all of the systems he’d named. He’d done that, and was coming to help defend the system closest to Earth.
Shortly after the Pittsburg II report, the patrol boat stationed at Meadow reported the four clanships there had each performed small Jumps, and had repositioned close to where they had first appeared. Those were the only gamma ray bursts detected anywhere in the entire outer system at Meadow. It was curious, but everything seemed calm. Unknown to the watchers, the Olt’kitapi ship hadn’t created even a blip in the gamma ray spectrum.
Noreen reached the Meadow system with her six Kobani ship squadron, shortly after the patrol boat informed her of the repositioning of the four Krall clanships. She had decided not to get too close to the Krall ships to alert them, at least initially, not without observations that could guide them better. The enemy seemed to be hiding something by staying that far out. The six Kobani ships emerged an hour and twenty minutes light travel time from the Krall position, doing their White Outs behind Thor, the monster gas giant, to conceal their gamma rays from the clanships. Although the Krall wouldn’t have seen the gamma rays for over an hour anyway.
Directing her squadron to use Normal Space drive, they moved around the enormous planet to where the patrol boat said the four clanships should be visible on long-range scans. At a bit over 10 AU from the supergiant, the roundtrip time for radar to the clanships was over a hundred sixty minutes. Even the detailed quantum zoom of a clanship’s view screens would be hard pressed to find those four small targets at nearly a billion miles, not without a pinpoint radar return to direct Karl, the Avenger’s AI on where and how far to focus.
None of the other Kobani ships with Noreen had AIs yet. The Mark of Koban had one, but Thad’s ship, which he’d named Thor, didn’t have one. The now atomized Beagle had had one, and the Falcon had an AI. Now that the navy knew about the Kobani ships, and had benefited from their assistance, more AIs were on order for them. These would be of military quality and capability, not the three commercial models that Mirikami had first bought on Poldark. However, that didn’t help them right now.
Meadow defense systems had been scanning the outer system with a lower resolution long wave radar system, to “see through” the Krall stealth, ever since the clanships had done their initial White Out. However, Meadow was another 9.5 AU’s farther away than the Avenger was. Human radar and synthetic antenna technology was well behind what the Olt’kitapi had provided to their presumptive Krall “protectors,” on the clanships they had designed for them.
The Avenger’s clanship sensors now could easily “see” stealthed clanships, and it had sent a relatively narrow spread radar beam in the direction of the four closely clustered clanships. Noreen had to wait a hundred sixty minutes for the return echoes. She had decided when the Krall had a fifth ship with them, that she and her squadron were going to Jump right next to them, firing missiles and energy beams on exit.
This was very unlike the Krall when they entered a human system, to stand off and watch. Unless they were observing another clan conduct an attack, which they considered entertainment and education. They had been here seven and a half days before Noreen’s group reached Meadow, and had moved again two days ago. They were being very quiescent, observing for nearly a week. This was more like the defensive postures the Krall held at K1, conducting boring but required guard duty in orbit. There was nothing to guard here.
When the signal returned, Karl surprised her with his analysis. “Mam, the four clanships are in a four cornered formation around a much larger ship. The vessel in the center is larger than all of them combined.”
“Is it a Migration ship?” Carson asked.
“No Sir. It is considerably smaller than one of those, and it is not spherical. It is at a slight angle to us and is longer than the front cross section. However, like a migration ship, it is not stealthed at all.”
Noreen felt a chill at the description. “Karl, can you focus a zoomed view screen on that formation at this distance?”
“It will be slightly blurred. Observe the screen directly across from your console Captain.”
Even fuzzy, the rounded and elongated shape of the ship was obvious, with the four less distinct oblong football shapes of the clanships arrayed around the larger ship they were protecting.
With no hesitation, Noreen initiated a Comtap link to Mirikami. “Tet, it’
s here at Meadow. The Dismantler is here.”
His reply was as swift, with a question. “It just arrived?”
“No. I think it was here two days before we arrived, apparently causing no gamma ray burst. I believe when the clanships repositioned two days ago that they Jumped to form up around it after it appeared. Meadow defenses have been looking for any signs of White Outs, as was the patrol boat, and saw none. Here’s the fuzzy image we see on a view screen.” Her Comtap transmitted what she was seeing, and conveyed the apprehension and concern she felt.
“Damn.” He thought back to her. “That seems the right shape, and it’s certainly a lot larger than a clanship. Is anything happening at Meadow? The Krall had two days to start it doing whatever it does. You can’t wait. Go after it with everything you have.”
“Right.” She triggered the group link to the Kobani in her squadron. “All Captains and crews, the Dismantler is already here and has been for days. We’re going after it now. Prepare to launch all missiles on exit, and fire all beams at the large central craft. It has the highest priority. We Jump in thirty seconds on my command.” She shared the view screen image for all the crews below decks in the missile bays, although Karl had automatically sent his visual and scan data to Bridge displays of all five of the other ships.
Thirty seconds wasn’t long to prepare to micro Jump and initiate an attack on five ships, but Noreen had not considered how much longer the Krall clanships had already had to decide on what to do about the precision scans they had received an hour and twenty-one minutes ago, from the Avenger’s location.
****
The Krall could not see an enemy ship on their own view screens near the giant planet, at the source of the previous scanning radiation, but they assumed humans would be using the new stealth system, and only long wave radar with a long round trip time could detect them. It would have low resolution anyway, and the enemy was free to move in that long round trip time. However, the four protectors were not free to move away from the death ship.
The four clanships were sent here specifically to prevent the Olt’kitapi ship from being disturbed. Telour himself hadn’t considered that the very presence of the escorts made that disturbance much more likely, even probable. The four clanships had been seen arriving via their gamma rays, but not Huwayla’s emission free exit from Tachyon Space. Had the Olt’kitapi ship traveled alone to the same location, it would have been essentially undetectable. After noting the previous weak radar scans of their region from Meadow itself, the four clanships were on the lookout for possible searchers. One had found them now.
They couldn’t communicate with the high status aids of the Tor Gatrol inside the Olt’kitapi ship for advice, even if allowed to try, because those inside received no outside communications due to the instructions to the ship to block them. When the stronger, tightly focused radar and sensor scans were detected, it was obvious it came from very close to the large gas giant world, proving they had been noticed.
The type, configuration, and frequency of the radiation was proof it could only have come from a sensor system like those installed on a clanship. That meant one or more of the enemy controlled stolen clanships were here, looking for them.
Naturally, the four pilots were not prohibited from communicating with each other, and the sub leader in charge was from Maldo clan. He was adamant. “We will remain here until we are released.”
That was a reminder to one ship commander that wanted to Jump to attack the enemy in a preemptive strike. He was of Tanga clan, and thus felt compelled to avenge the damage done to his clan at Telda Ka by these enemy clanships.
“No. It may be a deception to draw us to them. They used such trickery to lead us into ambushes at Telda Ka, or away from their true targets. We must not leave the death ship before it completes its work.”
The Tanga clanship commander rebutted this argument. “We have waited with it here for two days, and nothing has happened. We were not told what to expect, which planet is the target, or how long we must wait. We only know from Telour’s proposal in Joint Council that the death ship will not attack the inhabited planet. I don't know how that will kill any humans.” His failure to use the title that went with Telour’s name was disrespectful. It was fortunate that there were no Graka clan members on any of the four clanships.
The Tanga Krall made his case. “If the enemy Jumps to attack us now after they see how we are positioned, they will have the surprise and advantage. If we Jump to them before their scan returns to reveal us, we will have the surprise. Let me go to attack them, and the other three clanships may remain here.”
“No!” The sub leader roared his refusal. “The Tor Gatrol instructed that we all stay with the death ship until we are released. I will not permit you to dishonor our responsibility to obey.”
Partly in conciliation, because he too yearned to attack, he ordered that all four clanships be at maximum readiness to defend, or to Jump to the attack the instant they were free to do so. The enemy would not receive the echo of their scans for over an hour.
****
Noreen was ten seconds from ordering the group Jump, as the crews loaded every anti-ship missile the launchers would hold. There was as much overkill being used as six ships could deliver simultaneously.
It was fortunate that their momentum to get from behind and to the side of Thor, to see the four clanships, had continued to carry them after Avenger had sent it’s scans towards the enemy. When four clanships suddenly appeared behind them, dozens of missiles were launched on exit but they were a hundred nine miles away from where the enemy had estimated the human ships would be.
Nevertheless, at hypervelocity, the missiles would reach the Kobani ships in seconds, and the energy beams, quickly oriented by the long wave sensor returns the four clanships were radiating at White Out, had found six nearby shadowy images to kill.
Kobani reflexes were instantly engaged, and counter missiles launched as their own energy beams lanced out. The six captains, no coordination or orders required, applied hard Normal Space thrust vectors of two hundred forty gravities of external acceleration. The internal uncompensated inertial residual would have killed even a Krall, and did render dozens of Kobani, in seat restraints and body armor, quickly unconscious if their seats were in upright positions. The Bridge chairs had been morphed into deeply reclined couches in preparation of the coming Jump, and those Kobani hung onto threads of conscious control.
Many of the incoming missiles were destroyed or deflected by plasma bolts and heavy lasers, particularly as the Krall missiles were forced to vector and turn to follow the sudden “flower petal” formation of the six Kobani ships. They shot away from their original parallel grouping, and the defensive initial nose-on energy beams found better side angle shots on enemy missiles as they diverged. The Kobani captains also applied rotations to distribute the energy beams impinging on their hulls, just as the Krall were doing.
The Kobani, their mental patterns of the battle space forming faster than for the Krall, were better than Krall pilots at adjusting their own fire towards where the enemy would be rather than at were they had been. Even so, the Kiwi, who had been the farthest back of the Kobani ships, drew a greater share of enemy missiles and plasma beam fire directed at her. Both her primary and secondary Trap emitters suffered hits, dumping her trapped tachyons, killing both her ability to Jump and her power for the reactionless gravity drive in Normal Space.
The Kiwi’s captain, Basil Doherty, a former spec ops trooper from the continent Nova Zealandia, on the jointly settled colony of New Australia, switched instantly to reaction thruster control, and flipped his ship nose on to the Krall. His acceleration capability dropped to a fraction of what it had been, and he knew he couldn’t outrun or out maneuver the missiles. He and his Bridge crew focused all of their energy beams at the nearest Krall clanship, accelerating nose on at them, and the remaining missiles already in racks on the launch tubes were slammed out at the maximum rate. The same impulsive Tanga
clan commander met the enemy he so eagerly sought, and was killed as his command deck was blown open by a missile hit, and then ravaged by energy beams, which cut off suddenly when the Kiwi’s own defenses were overwhelmed, and it too exploded in an orange fire ball.
The other Kobani ships scored damage on the other three clanships, but had themselves avoided serious damage. Noreen, no longer acting in pure self-defense mode, used the group Comtap link.
“We can kill these ass wipes, but we have a mission. Jump to the coordinates we set and kill that Dismantler now.” Following her own advice, and having no time to readjust her attitude or current velocity vector, entered a Jump Hole. In an instant, she was where the clanships had previously been stationed, and where the Olt’kitapi ship should be. She was joined in less than a second by the other four squadron survivors.
Like the Avenger, they emerged shooting. Firing at…, nothing! The entire volume of space was empty. They all immediately conducted longer-range scans in every direction seeking the big ship, but it wasn’t to be found.
Noreen feared what that implied. She linked to Thad and Mirikami. “Thad, Tet, the Disrupter has either moved locally, or it departed the Meadow system. We were attacked by the four clanships as we prepared to Jump out to meet them. It was a stupid oversight on my part. We let them know where we were when I scanned them. As soon as my sensor data reflected back to us, we called you and said we were going after them.
Koban 4: Shattered Worlds Page 74