Koban 4: Shattered Worlds

by Stephen W Bennett

  She activated her radar sensor array, and brought her lasers on line. The radar return had a rear profile consistent with a midsized Krall shuttle, like the two she carried below. However, that wasn’t a unique identification. She wanted a side or lookdown view, which the craft suddenly provided her. It made a hard right turn, and the silhouette was a perfect match for a Krall shuttle.

  A shuttle certainly couldn’t perform a Jump, so that meant there had to be a clanship that had brought it here. Her duty was obvious, destroy the shuttle and seek the clanship. Her talon tips activated radar tracking to lock onto the now weaving target. It couldn’t evade a tracking laser, and clearly, their frantic evasion was in recognition of the predator they knew was on their trail.

  Just before the weapons console displayed a solid track lock on the gyrating little ship, she debated calling them first to see if she could learn who they were, or to simply to kill them. She should have chosen the latter, and should have done it sooner. The distraction ahead had masked the three predators diving on her from behind, who never considered asking who she was. They simultaneously fired sixteen plasma cannon bolts at her.

  As the rear of Koldok’s craft disintegrated, she remembered in the final fraction of a second: The fiercest killers of this planet work as a team, to draw your attention away from the death stalking you from behind. Like the rippers that had provided so many of their genes.

  ****

  Thad, who’d been in continuous Comtap communication with Reynolds, listened to the complaints of the “bait.”

  “You just had to see if I could fly as good as I claimed didn’t ya? Nothing like letting the man who gave an arm and a leg for this planet lose his ass too. They can’t grow those back ya know.”

  “Sarge, they weren’t ready to fire on you. Our sensors hadn’t picked up the high frequency Doppler pulse increases from a tracking lock. We didn’t want them to pick up our radar either, or else they’d have manually shot your butt off before running. If they climbed out and Jumped, all of our gooses would’ve been cooked. We got in close before they knew we were coming and had an easy visual kill.”

  “How’d you know they wouldn’t shoot me manually anyway?” He was still annoyed.

  Dillon had to join the fun. “Hmm. Damn, we never thought of that. Besides, you were doing such a fine job wiggling like a worm on a hook. Even we paused to admire your work.”

  Noreen ended the teasing. “Sarge, my AI, reported when it activated radar, and it was in auto scan mode. It was logical to think it would first lock on and track you for automatic fire control, just as they’ve always done. It didn’t switch from a scanning Doppler mode to a fast pulse hard lock or we’d have pulled our triggers immediately. You proved to be too fast and twisty for good manual targeting.

  “They obviously saw you visually right away, since the clanship quickly turned and dropped towards your contrail. Had it taken long-range manual pot shots at you right then we’d have fired lasers and plasma as soon as they did. We wouldn’t leave you hanging like that. That was a hell of a smart idea of yours, drawing them down into atmosphere where they couldn’t Jump. Brave too. With attention focused on you, it kept them from seeing us sneak up behind.

  “Because it didn’t fly and shoot at the same time, I think there was a single Krall on the command deck, and it had its talons full doing everything all alone. Accurate manual shooting while following your zigzag path would have been hard. You had your throttles maxed out I think.”

  “Besides,” Thad added, “you received the same Comtap reports from Jura continent as we did. It apparently wasn’t expecting to find us, and it was practically on a damned sightseeing trip initially. It did a low White Out instead of pausing farther out to observe, placing it far below our geosynchronous communications satellites. There was nothing in orbit for it to see at a hundred fifty miles. We were damn lucky that the three of us were out testing the ballistics of the rail gun, and those .50 cal belt fed guns. Any other ships would have had to load crew and launch, and they might have seen them lifting from Prime or Hub City.”

  Reynolds, no longer sounding pissed after the praise from Noreen, said, “The back of this shuttle was crammed full of ammo cases for those machine guns too. I had almost finished loading them when that bastard did its White Out. As soon as it was obvious it was headed in the direction of Prime City, I got airborne. Frankly, I didn’t think any ships were close enough to intercept. I didn’t want it blasting the dome before our people could get down to shelter in the abandoned factory. I’d intended to poke it in the eye with my shuttle lasers when it came close. That was before you three let everyone know you were inbound.”

  “You know perfectly well those lasers won’t hurt a clanship, right?” Thad asked, knowing his friend knew that.

  “Maybe, but I figured I could get its attention for a time, get it to chase me. Just like climbing high enough to make contrails did.”

  Dillon eased up and thanked him. “Sarge, you’re one crazy assed man. As you well know, I’m the human expert on crazy, just ask the Torki. We owe you man.”

  “Fine. You can make a down payment when we get to Prime City. I heard crashing all around back there when I made those sharp turns, so I assume the unsecured cases broke open and that loose ammo is all over the place. I’ll let you guys repack it, and I’ll drink Death Lime and rum and watch you work.”

  Mirikami had been remotely monitoring the Comtap messages, but he and Maggi were out of the system on a test Jump in the repaired Mark. He couldn’t suggest anything that his people weren’t already doing, so he hadn’t distracted them earlier. He’d turned back to Koban immediately, and they were forced to wait anxiously to see if the clanship could be destroyed before it made an escape.

  This event was too much like the day the first clanship had arrived on a casual visit. Koban wasn’t as helpless as it was back then, but they couldn’t defend the two-planet system from even a quarter of the Krall fleet.

  In a group link with his friends, he called and offered his grim assessment. “We’re on borrowed time. This is only the second visit by a Krall clanship in twenty-three years, and we know the first one was on an illegal hunting trip. Medford has probably tried to offer us up on a silver platter to Telour, but had no solid clues for where we are. Otherwise, this would have been a fleet, or at least multiple ships, not a lone wolf. However, we don’t have a survivor to Mind Tap this time, and that clanship isn’t going to return when expected.

  “With the clanship shortages we’ve help create, I don’t think many unnecessary flights are being made, and the Krall don’t take vacations. We have to assume this loss will be noticed when it fails to return, and we can expect a follow up visit. I propose to recall all of our ships back for home defense, and we should consider loading up some of the migration ships for an evacuation contingency. Let me hear your comments and ideas.”

  “Do you mean load up our people? Including Prada, Torki, and Raspani?” That was Noreen, her emotions and surprise revealing her shock through the link.

  Mirikami didn’t reject it outright. “I suppose if anyone wanted to board early I wouldn’t refuse them, but I was only thinking of packing up some of our critical technology, if we have to find somewhere to rebuild. Things from the Torki and Raspani technology labs, Max’s physics lab, and Aldry and Rafe’s gene labs, or at least core parts of those technologies, to retain what we have. Sort of like we did for gene mods, with a duplicate program at Heavyside.”

  Dillon had a practical observation. “The migration ships we took have more than enough room for the combined populations here and on Haven. Even with ten thousand or so new Kobani, from transformed spec ops and other invited converts, the entire human population could cram into a single migration ship if it had too. Not that we would do that, but they have a large capacity. We’re outnumbered by rescued Prada two to one now, but they use less room than we do, and Raspani are still in short supply. What? About eleven thousand of them with embeds, and several th
ousand wild blanks when they can make enough mind enhancers.

  “Raspani need more room than humans but one migration ship is enough. The Torki are the tougher ones to move. Not so many of them. About twelve thousand, but for a long Jump they need a lot of water and probably two ships. Even so, we could even take along a great deal of the things we bought in Human Space. At least if we had time to load them. What I can’t see, though, is our having enough time to pack the ships. Our people won’t do it until they know for sure we have to leave.”

  Thad put in his two cents. “Then like Tet suggested, we set up one or two ships with contingency loads, and stash them well away from the inner system. Land them on one of the gas giant moons. Keep Jump tachyons in their Traps at all times.”

  Maggi didn’t like the sense of defeatism she was hearing, particularly from her husband. “We need to strike first Tet. Hit the Krall before they hit us. You know what I mean. Take out their ability to come after us here by pinning them on K1.”

  “Well, I’m not one to give up a fight quickly,” Sarge said, but he pointed out some practical limits on attacking the Krall first. “At any given time, one quarter of the Krall fleet is helping to supply or providing ground support for the Poldark invasion, another quarter is doing that at New Dublin. The rest are at K1, or points in between in Jump travel, making new equipment pickups at their production worlds, or on clan business to base worlds. That’s too large a volume of space for only a hundred fourteen of our ships to cover. We had hoped to have the navy with us at first, but Medford has made that impossible.”

  Mirikami had a partial counter for the Poldark and New Dublin situation. “We have army help on the invaded planets, with their planetary defenses able to reach ships arriving and departing, and spec ops can get close to those sitting on the ground. I just don’t know if we can deliver enough of the new ammunition in the three or four weeks we might have.”

  “Why only three or four weeks Tet?”

  “Sarge, that clanship most likely came from K1 if was deliberately sent to check out Koban. A week and a half to wait for it to return, a couple of days before being considered overdue, and then a fleet of clanships sent here to see what happened to the first ship would take a week and a half. Roughly four weeks, a few days less if Telour’s in a hurry.”

  “Don’t think that would happen, Tet. Weren’t the Krall forming a new Joint Council, per the aide you captured on Huwayla? Telour rushed to get that planet smasher into action before a new council could consider altering his plan. The new council isn’t going to be rubber-stamping Telour’s ideas. Consider our damaging attack on K1, the busted invasion force, the fact that his four-world destruction idea only half worked, and then they lost a lot of clanships in failed raids at Alders and New Glasgow. He can’t be the most popular war leader right now. Would a possibly hostile Joint Council agree to let Telour send the whole fleet to check out Koban, because of a single overdue clanship?”

  Mirikami paid him another complement. “When did you get so deep and astute Sarge? That’s a pretty good analysis.”

  He had a pithy explanation, as usual. “Nothing like having your ass caught in a crack to sharpen your mind. Sort of pushes the blood flow up to the gray cells.”

  “I’ll have to try that technique. In any case, Telour would still send more than a single clanship the next time, assuming that he did send this one. Two decades after the only previous visit, and Medford is trying to sell us out for political gain. I think this ship probably was sent here in a cover-my-ass sort of move by Telour. However, even the pilot didn’t take the possibility of human survival here seriously. The next visit will be more careful, and will have at least two clanships, one to standoff at a safe distance to watch the other one investigate.”

  “He’d probably send a more typical hand of ships.” Noreen pointed out. “Think we can ambush four of them before one of them Jumps?”

  “Probably not, but what difference would that make anyway, if they don’t return to K1 on time?” Mirikami stated the obvious facts. “They’ll be back in force after that, either way. All we gain is some time, so the round trip between us and K1 is all we’ll have.”

  Now even Noreen started talking evacuation. “OK, then what’s the plan, get ready to flee with what we can carry? I support trying to delay them by attacking K1.”

  “Noreen, you and Maggi may be right.” Tet said. “We may have to try to hit them again at K1 before they can send a fleet here. We’re safer for longer if they can’t come after us right away. We can always run for distant stars, if that doesn’t work.”

  Sarge reminded him of other clanship resources. “Poldark and New Glasgow, Tet. Those clanships commute back and forth weekly, or even more often to K1. They’ll learn who hit K1, and where we are.”

  Mirikami sent a mental image of himself shrugging. “One step at a time folks. We might get the navy back on our side when we demonstrate what we have. Medford won’t like it, but a little publicity for our side with some news interviews could turn public opinion around. With Hub manufacturing and navy ships to help with delivery of the new ordinance, we just might be able to slam the door before the Krall figure out what we did and how we did it.

  “Just to let you know, the Mark will be back at Haven in a few hours. After our White Out, I want to hold an open meeting at the Xenos arena, and let everyone know where we stand, and what our options are. We also need to make the entire system look like a ghost town from a distance.”

  ****

  “Koldok should have returned from that simple mission two days ago.” An agitated Telour was speaking to Demteg, an aide to whom he’d recently given added status, for her helpful information on the unpleasant mood of many of the new Joint Council members. She knew only that Koldok’s mission had started three weeks ago, but not where she had been sent or why.

  Telour had apparently not expected the trip to produce any surprises. However, by not returning on time, her journey had done exactly that, surprised him. His agitation suggested it was of considerable concern to the Tor, and because he was expressing this only with Demteg present, that the resolution would involve her in some fashion. She sensed an opportunity coming, which might earn her additional status from the war leader. She waited to hear what duty he had for her.

  Telour’s question was blunt. “How can I secretly send a hand of clanships on a follow up mission to discover what happened to Koldok, and not reveal what I asked her to investigate to the new council? I have enforced strict limits on clanship use, and I will not ask the council for approval for this. They would want an explanation, which I am not ready to provide.”

  She thought only seconds, which for a Krall is time for deep reflection. “The council is angry that repairs to salvageable clanships are hampered by the factories the humans damaged in the attack. There are over three hands of Jump capable clanships, which were damaged internally when ruptured fusion bottles inside loaded equipment vented their plasma. Appoint your own commander and pilots, and divert them to where you sent Koldok. Because they are not operational, the council would probably not know they were sent elsewhere. However, if you are asked where they are, you can say they were sent for repair off world. Then you send them for that after they return.”

  He was instant in his own decision. “You are the commander. Find three other high status Graka pilots, and four competent warriors for the weapons consoles. The four clanships you select must have all of their energy weapons operational, and if any of their launchers function, they need anti-ship missiles.”

  This sounded like a chance to earn significant status to Demteg. “What do I tell our warriors about the purpose of the mission, my Tor, and status for them?” That was something she needed to know herself of course, in order to inform them.

  There was no point in being less than blunt now. “The highest human clan leader has said that the most effective human fighters are a clan not under her control, and they call themselves Kobani. These new fighters flew our stolen
clanships against us. Their name for themselves contains the sound ko ban in our language, and a human custom is to use the place where they live as part of their clan name. Our very first human prisoners called our future home world by the name Koban.”

  He saw she made the connection, humans using Krall words and making them a name for a place. Something the Krall didn’t do for places. It was nearly inconceivable to consider this a valid link, thinking humans lived on a planet the Krall had not been able to master.

  Telour proved that he felt the same way. “It was impossible for humans to live there without our protections, and the prisoners were left exposed to the native life before we left. Even if other humans discovered the planet so far from their own frontiers, they would not try to live there and build a base. They have many safer worlds for that. However, to be efficient I sent Koldok in secret, to confirm our future home was untouched. She was not permitted to land, only to observe, and her sensors were recording everything so she would have obeyed me. She has not returned.”

  “My Tor, I will select the most suitable of the damaged clanships immediately, and select those warriors I will lead. Do you wish to speak with the clan mates I take?”

  “I speak only to you. No other connection will be made to me. You will divide the status points as you decide. I award you a hundred thousand of the status points I earned when the human world of Meadow died.” He made the simple point transfer to her clan account on the computer system in the command center while she observed.