Now, in armor that kept them breathing, the four occupants couldn’t open the heavy sealed door to get out, as the heat of burning Krall pistol ammunition propellant raged. Even their suit energy beams were inadequate to cut through, at least quickly enough against bulkheads and doors designed to resist powerful clanship beams on outer compartments. Krall pistol ammunition didn’t require external oxygen to burn. A gaseous fire suppression system, quickly activated, and prevented flames from spreading farther from that compartment, but caseless ammunition already ignited would burn its propellant until it went out. The link mercifully went silent well before then.
When the four suit icons went red, Mirikami halted the frantic rescue attempt by half of his surviving crew down below. That half was only the four people he’d devoted to a rescue that he knew was hopeless from the start. He had sent another four to focus on their strategic problem. How damaged was the Dismantler ship, did it look capable of a Jump, and were the Krall coming out to fight? The ship supposedly had no offensive weapons, per the Raspani.
Tell that to the people on Meadow and Bootstrap, he thought. To the Olt’kitapi this ship was a tool, but not to the Krall. What other tool function did the ship have that could be used as a weapon? He realized that if he could capture this ship, it should offer a treasure trove of technology, but he couldn’t let it get away intact.
Anyway, a shitload of armed Krall inside her could be very damned offensive, particularly when you’re attached to that ship without any propulsion to separate from them. He knew there were Krall inside, and at five times the Mark’s volume, there could be plenty of them. His original complement of twenty-four was down to twelve, four on the Bridge and eight survivors below. A Comtap link told him the squadron had made short work of the four clanships, and would Jump over to join him, just as soon as they figured out exactly where the random coordinates were that his hurried Jump had taken the now broken down Mark.
Based on Jakob’s assessment of the Dismantler ship, the radius of the Jump Hole they’d been able to make with the tachyon they had hurriedly caught, had sheared off nearly a quarter of the far end of the ship. Whether it was missing the bow or stern he didn’t know, since both ends had looked identical before they had sliced one end off.
He was relieved when Maggi had come around, almost a full minute after they’d nearly rammed the other ship. He left her on the Bridge while he, Jorl, and Fred, leaped down past the stair landings to join up with the four Kobani that had been clambering about on the surface of the Dismantler, seeking entry through its presumably cut open hull. The four from the rescue team were withdrawing from within the Mark’s internal wreckage, and would join them.
Mirikami detoured to the other side of the Mark, away from the damage, to avoid the smoke and warped decks and bulkheads on the side by the explosion. It looked as if the human designed fire suppression system they had added to the one all clanships had, managed to protect the fuel tanks, which were close to the missile launcher that had exploded.
Mirikami was receiving an image of the hull of the Dismantler by Comtap, and it was from the other side of the big rounded sausage shape of a ship. The hull, like a clanship’s, was magnetic so their armor’s feet could stick securely. The idea had been that where the Dismantlers hull was severed, they would gain easy entrance. It didn’t appear there was a breach after all.
The four Kobani had bypassed some circular shapes that might be hatches, but they didn’t appear to have hinged or sliding doors. Besides, they assumed the Krall might be waiting at hatches, so a sliced open hull section should offer more options. Now, Mirikami was seeing an image of what seemed to be continuous gray sheeting that covered the sharply defined shear plane of where the Jump Hole had cut through the end of the ship. It looked as if a tight gray membrane had been stretched across the opening with the underlying walls and deck edges outlined, as ridges along the material, as if elastic fabric was stretched tautly over the gaping hole.
Jason Seiko, a former Steward from the Flight of Fancy was showing him by Comtap how springy yet tough the material was. “Tet, I can push it down slightly with my hand so it has some flex, but I can’t pinch it to lift it, and it resisted cutting, it seems like flexible metal. I hit it with both a red and a green laser, and it left a brief IR glow, but it didn’t separate or burn through easily. The stuff seems to have extruded from the other adjacent hull material, because there is no line where it starts, but the original hull near the cut seems thinner, implying it provided the material for the sheet that now covers the opening. It’s sort of like an extruded Smart Plastic cover, but stronger, and has the toughness of a single ship coating.”
“OK. I’ll be there in a few minutes. We’re almost at the lower deck airlocks.”
The main portals were shut to retain atmosphere, so the three men intended to use one of four airlocks between the portals that could each pass a Krall octet in armor, leaving it more than roomy enough for them. They were about to cycle the outer hatch open, when Maggi shouted a Comtap warning to all, with a visual from a video screen.
“Krall swarming out of a ten foot wide hatch right next to the Mark! They have plasma rifles and pistols.” There was no need to say they were armored, since it was in vacuum.
Mirikami was torn between opening the hatch or not. “How many and how close to the ship?”
“Jakob counts sixteen, but eight have leaped off towards the Mark.”
Mirikami decided. “Jason, the four of you try to work your way back here. We need to keep them from taking the Mark. Their chain of planet destruction is done for today and they know it, but they don’t want us to have the Dismantler, and I don’t think they can Jump. If they can get control of the Mark, then both ships will be lost to us.”
While he talked, he pressurized the airlock to get back inside the hold. He linked to the entire squadron now, so everyone knew what was happening. “Will, Jump the squadron in the right general direction, then zero in on wherever we are. At least sixteen Krall came out of the Dismantler and eight are trying to enter the Mark. If they gain control of her, it becomes a target for you, even if some of us are inside her. They would use missiles and energy beams to destroy the Dismantler themselves to keep it from us. We need the technology of that Olt’kitapi ship.”
Maggi told him two Krall had started for the gaping hole in its side, another two had split to go to the two airlocks for the lower shuttle bays, and four were clambering towards the lower deck airlocks where he was now.
He nodded to himself. “Of course. They’re trying multiple ways to get inside.”
Just then, the four of the former rescue crew arrived at the hold. Mirikami split his people up. “Jorl, you have charge down here, cover these four airlocks, and send someone back up to make certain the two Krall can’t get inside via the blast damaged area. Fred you take shuttle bay airlock number one and I’ll cover number two.” They split up.
Maggi said, “I suppose I’ll need to help take out the two entering via the hole in the hull?”
“I know you could, but I don’t think they can gain entry. Pressure doors are closed, and Jorl will send someone back there to check.” He answered. “If our trapped people couldn’t get out of a sealed compartment, maybe the Krall can’t get inside from vacuum either, unless they brought explosives. Can Jakob target any of the Krall out on the hull of the other ship?”
“No, I asked. We’re too close, almost parallel alongside, and they know as well as we do that near a clanship’s tail, or right on our hull they’re safe from ship weapons.” That of course, was why they used a hatch near the Mark’s tail.
“Jason, eight other warriors may be coming your way. The smooth hull is open ground, but our better stealth is your advantage, even if you have no place for concealment. They can’t see lasers or microwave beams in a vacuum.” As he spoke, he was racing up the far stairwell to reach the third level hanger bay for shuttle bay two. His external speakers picked up a clanking sound above him. The airlock was cy
cling.
When he reached the airlock corridor, with the echo of the clanging he’d heard still reverberating, along with the sound of his own hurried leaps from stair landings, he saw the inside airlock door ajar. He paused a half second. The Krall may have heard him dashing up, but he couldn’t see him.
This shuttle bay was located on the side closest to the hatch the Krall had used on the other ship. The warrior had apparently beaten him inside. Activating his cushioned foot soles, he went quietly and invisibly past the half open airlock door, pressed near the opposite wall, in case the warrior suddenly fired from around the corner at the end of the corridor.
By link he asked, “Jakob, how long ago did the number two shuttle bay finish its airlock cycle?” He’d gotten here fast, so he’d thought the Krall should have still been in the corridor.
“It just finished its cycle, Sir. The outer door locking light came on seconds before you linked.”
Mirikami was visually stealthed, and moving silently now, but he’d made some noise coming up so fast, which would have alerted their intruder. Glancing back over his shoulder, he reached into a soft suit storage alcove he was next to, and detached a thruster adjustment tool from a utility belt. He tossed it close to the ceiling, passing over the top edge of the airlock door he’d just passed, so that it would fall ten feet in front of the gap of the partly open door.
The actinic flash of the plasma bolt, which Mirikami had expected, burned the tool in half before it reached halfway to the deck. Mirikami leaped and snatched the door open by its edge with his left hand, and grabbed at the dim IR glow of the cooling weapon’s muzzle with his right gauntlet. He pulled it to the right through the open door, and his left hand flashed into the dark opening, just behind where the trigger should be, and found the stealthed armored wrist he was seeking.
The metal on metal grip with the Krall’s armor gave him another bright idea. He sent the most powerful mental image he could think of. It had the momentary result he’d wanted, causing the warrior to freeze for just an instant. His right gauntlet had crushed the end of the plasma rifle as that shocking image infused the Krall’s mind. The startling distraction lasted while Mirikami’s right fist moved in a blur from the rifle’s crushed tip, to a point just inches below where he estimated the warrior’s eyes would be staring at the sudden destruction of its primary weapons muzzle. That was the wrong muzzle to worry about.
Mirikami had made a good estimate, and his armored fist smashed like a hydraulic piston into the stealthed, slightly protruding muzzle of the Krall’s helmet, shoving it into the yellow teeth and thin lips behind it. The crumpling spoiled the stealth effect on the front of the helmet, and shattered the visor above. Mirikami’s left hand then yanked the Krall’s right wrist forward, which turned his right side away from Mirikami, exposing his back. Deftly reaching behind the Krall with his right hand, he felt for and gripped the power pack at the back waist of the suit, and tore it free. The warrior flashed into complete visibility.
Now it would be much easier to grasp limbs that could be clearly seen, snap them at the joints, and peel part of the suit off. That all happened in the next ten seconds. Well, striping off the helmet and one gauntlet was all that was actually peeled off, since that was all Mirikami required for this prisoner. The snarls of rage switched to ones of pain as the disabling progressed.
“Fred,” he linked. “I have a prisoner. We don’t need yours.”
“Uh…, OK Sir. That’s good, because he’s dead. I didn’t know you wanted one.”
Jorl came back with, “We have one dead one too, but the other three pulled back into the other airlocks behind the hatches when I shot the first one out. I killed power to the airlock pumps at the electrical panel. They can’t cycle back to vacuum now since the outer doors won’t open with pressure on the inside. They know they’re trapped, and Jakob reports they are talking on an encrypted frequency. They’ll probably try to come out at us all at once. Do you want another live one?”
“Probably not. Let me Mind Tap the one I have to decide.”
He removed a gauntlet and smacked a broken forearm aside as he grasped the exposed Krall’s hand from its backside, to avoid the talons with his bare hand.
In perfect low Krall, he spoke to him. “Surprised it was the Tor Gatrol snatching away your rifle when you nearly shot him?” He was amused by that powerful concept he’d sent, of a generic Krall voice that claimed to be the war leader. He snorted to demonstrate his amusement. His humor was short lived, when the aide flashed an annoyed though that he should have known Telour couldn’t be here on this ship. He was on Telda Ka when they left and could not have traveled here so soon.
On Comtap, he told to everyone, “Damn. Telour actually is the Tor Gatrol, and he’s behind all this. This is one of his aides that I caught.”
However, he wasn’t interested in Telour right now, since he was on K1. He needed information that would help them here, so he pressed the Krall for more information. “How many of you came in that ship?”
The answer was bad. On Comtap he relayed to the others, “There were 515 on the death ship…, I mean the Dismantler; the bastards call it a death ship. One of those over there is a soft Krall prisoner, and there’s a second aide to Telour with them, named Dolbor who’s in charge. The rest are dedicated guardians for just these ships, appointed from various clans. These are middle status and experienced warriors for this duty, with no novices.
“Let me ask him again about the prisoner. We might catch ourselves a soft Krall if they don’t kill him first.” He updated them as the answers came.
“The ship can’t Jump, but it can repair itself for that in a few hours. At least it can’t destroy any more planets. We left an important piece behind when we Jumped with it in tow.”
Jason suddenly interrupted. “Sir we have a man down. Thigh burn and suit penetration. We have a patch on the leak and the suit has injected nanites for pain and bleeding. Can we get him inside?”
“The two shuttle airlocks are open for you now if you can reach them, but three of the four lower ones have Krall trapped inside them. However, you still have those eight Krall to get past, two more are inside the damaged open hull, and almost five hundred more are inside the Dismantler and may be coming out anytime. You need to get back here, I think.”
“Only three left to get past out here Sir. We killed five of them. That’s how Tripper was winged. We tied monofilament utility line to our ankles, used our stealth for concealment and gently jumped up just above the curvature of the Dismantler to get shots at them, and then we pulled the shooters down. We can see them slightly in the distant sun light, despite their own stealth. They do learn though. They figured out how we were getting clear shots down at them from above the curvature. They took random plasma bolt potshots, and one was lucky for them, but not for Tripper. We’ve quit doing that.”
They suddenly had company. “We found ya.” Came via Comtap from Captain Will Horst, of the Hellion, Mirikami’s second in command for the group. Horst sent mental images of the Mark and the Dismantler lying side by side as a demonstration that he could see them. With the remaining five ships of the squadron, they had a lot more help. With five additional crews, and the survivors from the Mark, they had 132 Kobani to face nearly 500 Krall. At least the Kobani ship lasers could prevent the enemy from charging out in force to try to capture the Mark. However, that didn’t help them to secure the technology the Dismantler offered. It was probable the Krall would try to destroy the prize if it couldn’t Jump first.
“Good to see you Will. Come in close and use your low power lasers to pick some Krall off the Dismantler hull, where Jason says they are hiding. He can show you where. I don’t want you to hit the ship itself. Send another ship to look for two of my crew, who were ejected into space by the explosion when we arrived. They were hurt and unconscious.”
In a more somber tone he added, “My icons show another two suits drifting out there, and both are dead. Please bring them all home.”
They had lost twelve Kobani on the Mark and another twenty-four died with Noreen’s squadron from the Kiwi, and they would surely have losses when they entered the Dismantler to take it over. They had just saved many billions here at Pittsburg II, and in Sol system, yet Mirikami wondered how that sacrifice would sit with the PU government, compared to the billions of people expected to die in the first two systems attacked.
That would be a future social and political battle. Right now, he wanted to organize teams to enter the Dismantler, to fight the Krall still inside her, and see if they could capture the soft Krall operator alive. The operator would surely have more answers about how this ship worked, and how it made planets explode.
With help arriving by several shuttles, Mirikami asked Fred to go to the Bridge with him. “Maggi, I’m going to leave Fred and the Krall prisoner on the Bridge, and leave some others aboard to dig out the vermin we have, and to recover our casualties in the depressurized compartments.”
Almost as if an afterthought, he added. “You can come with us if you want, along with most of the Kobani that just arrived. We’re going to get inside that Olt’kitapi ship and take it away from the dammed Krall. I’m hoping you can reason with the soft Krall they’re holding prisoner, assuming we can capture him alive. He is surely no friend to them.”
She made sure he understood her attitude. “You were going to catch hell if you tried to leave me here babysitting Jakob. You do know that, Right?”
The AI assumed the query at the end was directed to him. “Mam, I am capable of monitoring all ship systems and reporting to you or Captain Mirikami, where ever you are.”
“My point exactly! I’ll meet you on the stairs my dear. That will save your old legs some steps.” The hundred twelve year old had vaulted over the railing to the deck below before her thoughts even went out on Comtap.
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Koban 4: Shattered Worlds Page 78