“Thad, Colonel Trakenburg has already promised to provide you with the best medical assistance we have. I was told General Nabarone has offered that as well. Our problem for your son is the speed with which we can get him to that care, and the route we need to take.
“My men and I infiltrated through Krall lines to reach our old base, and that is our hazardous route back to Novi Sad, through dirty water filled ditches. It will be difficult even to take your less serious casualties, but your son here can’t wait, or tolerate being submerged in the foul waters. We can’t get any airborne rescue craft over the Krall lines out to here, and they would follow them to you even if we could.”
Ethan reached out to grasp his dad’s hand. “Dad, did we take the ship?” He was startled at the wheezing sound of his own voice, accompanied by a lancing pain in his chest that made him gasp.
Thad knelt quickly beside his son. “Ethan, you have a penetrating chest wound and a severe burn on your left side. Don’t try to speak or you might separate the Smart Bandages. You have one covering the hole in your chest, and one on your plasma burn. Hold my hand, and see what I see.”
The images of the damage to his body, and his father’s concern and hope for treatment and recovery flooded his mind. He was shocked at the depth of the two-inch wide puncture in his chest and into his collapsed right lung. That came from fragments when the Dragon’s turret was blown off by a shoulder fired Krall rocket. The burn he realized was the result of a dying warrior rushing the open topped mini-tank to make sure he was dead. The plasma bolt struck the inside of the tank, and deflected into his left rib cage. That explained the burned flesh smell, and accounted for most of the steady pain he felt.
He knew from his dad’s mind, that this damage was repairable in the modern med labs available on Poldark. However, reaching that medical treatment was a problem from here, located so deep inside Krall controlled territory. There were several other seriously wounded among the TGs, and he learned that four had been killed. The lower three-quarters of the clanship’s decks were in their hands now, but the operation wasn’t over.
He sensed his father had blocked the information about who had been killed and wounded. This wasn’t an easy operation, as the raid on K1 had been. He worried about his friends still in the assault. All of the TG’s were friends to some degree, but many were mainly acquaintances from their two relatively small communities. He had some friends he couldn’t bear to loose.
He sent back that he knew his dad was doing all that he could, and that they would find a solution. They always did. Then the painkillers and sedatives he’d received made the world start to fade away again. His last view, one of great relief for him, was when he caught sight of Sarge, talking with Carson and Uncle Dillon next to one of the large transports. Now he could let himself sleep.
Dillon was trying to explain to Carson what the problem was. “Son, the Krall probably would not fire on one of their shuttles, and we can coordinate with General Nabarone to allow us to pass over their lines unmolested, and land near a medical facility. Except, when Krall field commanders see one of their shuttles enter enemy territory unmolested, they will check out where it originated. They have this area well covered with radar. They certainly know that two clanships landed here, but that isn’t anything but clan personal business. If a shuttle leaves this area to safely land at Novi Sad, or anywhere in human territory, we will have intensely curious Krall visitors, warriors and clanships, coming to the Mark’s doorstep.”
“Dad, we can’t let Ethan die because we won’t try to get him to help in time. Besides, how do we know the warrior holdouts on the top decks haven’t already reported that humans are taking over their clanship?”
Even as he said that, his experience with Mind Tapping the ship’s commander and the previous captive Krall made that possibility very unlikely. None of them would admit to the dishonor of losing to the human prey animals. They would fight to the death, but they were incapable of surrender, or of admitting to other Krall that their prey had beaten them. They were being beaten here in straightforward combat.
A TG, Deigo Chin, ran over with a message. “Captain Mirikami was informed of the mission status, and our casualties using the shuttle radio. He asked about the Link problems, and now he knows about the twenty captives those guys are holding.” He hooked a resentful thumb towards the fading in and out view of the spec ops soldiers, clustered behind the cover of one of the other four Krall transports. Captain Longstreet had led Thad and Sarge out of the labyrinth of tunnels and across the valley to the clanship, once the internal assault had started.
Longstreet heard the boy, and noted his tone of voice. “I have Linked with my men, and your friends have been released and allowed to pick up their weapons. They should be back to your ship within minutes. Until we knew you were not Krall collaborators, we took no chances.”
That didn’t fully eliminate the sullen look he returned to Longstreet, but he nodded and ran back to the shuttle to relay that information.
Dillon patted his son on the shoulder, and promised to try to find a way to speed up their departure. He joined Thad and Captain Longstreet.
“We have an old med lab on the Mark,” he reminded Thad. “It will be better than his laying on that stretcher while we talk, and it will start treating the burn and internal bleeding. It has copies of the nanites Sarge over there showed up with, when we restored his arm.”
Longstreet made an offer. “I have an injector for nanites we carry for our own wounded on missions, but it’s tailored specifically for use on spec ops troops. I’m told it has some severe detrimental side effects for people that do not have the same technological enhancements and implants we have. His eyes could be severely damaged for example. It might save his life, but leave him blind, and there are other potential side effects I can’t discuss.”
“Thanks, Captain. If it appears necessary, I’ll accept that risk before I let him die.” It was hard discussing your own flesh and blood as if they were some random casualty.
Carson, still technically in charge of the mission to clear the ship had a proposal. “We don’t need any additional support to finish clearing the ship. Why don’t you load the shuttle with our injured and take them to the Mark? If we have any more wounded, you can return to get them, Dad.”
Dillon accepted the sensible advice from his son, and the shuttle soon held the four wounded, with a couple of TGs with minor cuts and burns to carry Ethan’s stretcher.
As he turned towards the shuttle, Dillon made a comment to Thad. “I’ll radio Tet when we’re on the way. I wish the Link worked this far out.”
“Mr. Martin,” Longstreet called to his back. “I removed the block on your Links, and my portable AI now understands your old com system mixture of equipment and software. We have more signal power than you do if you wish to allow our system to relay for you. It won’t be private, but you’ll have the range.”
“Really? Thanks. I had tried earlier and it didn’t work. Let me try again.”
“Jakob, Link to Captain Mirikami please.”
“Yes Sir,” was the familiar reassuring voice.
“Tet, I’m bringing in four wounded. Have the chief set up the med lab. Ethan will have to go in as soon as we arrive.”
“Dillon,” he sounded surprised. “I have tried multiple times to Link with you. I now understand from the shuttle radio talk with Diego that we were actively blocked by spec ops. Are you airborne so I’m able to receive you now?”
“Not yet. The spec ops commander, Captain Longstreet, is using his portable AI system to relay our Links. It has more power and greater range than do our transducers. He’s told us he can’t get our wounded back to Novi Sad any faster than they can infiltrate back through the enemy lines. We need a more advanced med lab, which Longstreet says can handle worse injuries than what Ethan has. We have to get one to him out here, because moving him the way spec ops arrived is all but impossible.”
The pause that followed brought an image to
Dillon’s mind of Tet pulling at his lower lip while thinking. The analytical response, when it came, suggested he had been right.
“We need to trade information, get modern com equipment and armor, obtain new med labs, get training for the TGs, and give the PUA a Krall prisoner or two. We will donate Krall equipment to them that we don’t need from that clanship, after we show them how to activate the equipment. Their spec ops teams also need to return home safely. Why is everyone talking about walking and using tunnels?”
“OK. You must mean for us to use the shuttlecraft, requiring several trips. It was pointed out that its use has too high a risk of the Krall back tracking it to the Mark.”
“If the Mark isn’t here, and the shuttle craft is parked inside its bay, let the Krall back track all they wish. Whatever arrangement we make with the PU forces that would serve to get the shuttle through to Novi Sad, will get the entire ship through. Right?” He let that sink in a moment.
“Uh, excuse me a moment, as I kick myself in the ass all the way back to speak to Captain Longstreet.” Dillon answered.
Another voice spoke up on their Link. “Captain Mirikami, don’t be offended, but our AI feeds me everything it relays to your AI, as I informed Mr. Martin. This is Captain Longstreet.”
“Nice speaking to you, Captain. I assumed you were probably listening, or your superior would be. Colonel Trakenburg is his name I was told earlier. Who has the authority to arrange for a clanship to lift from here and fly to some safe location? Is it Colonel Trakenburg, or General Nabarone?” He knew what the answer had to be, but went through the motions.
“The planetary defenses are under General Nabarone’s control, and it involves atmospheric and near space defense against clanships. He would be the only one able to coordinate that, and to decide where you might be able to conceal the ship.”
“I’d strongly recommend some place much farther away than Novi Sad to the general. After the Krall see us get a non-hostile reception crossing the front lines, and discover the wrecked clanship back here, they might seriously try to find out who we are. I’d like to set down where their spy satellites won’t find us. How do I get to speak to the general?”
To his credit, Longstreet’s hesitation lasted only a half second. “I can Link you Sir. Please give my AI a moment to work its way through his chain of command.” His boss did say cooperate, and Trakenburg was destined to lose control of these people anyway, as soon as Nabarone decided to push. Leaving these people with a positive feeling towards spec ops was a good idea, and they were promised they could share in the intelligence trove offered.
While they waited for the Link to be established, Tet wanted to get things moving. “Dillon, please return with our wounded, and tell Thad we will likely be pulling out before nightfall.
“We want to take the operational Dragons with us, since they will fit in the lower hold, and perhaps take a number of the plasma cannon carts. However, they seem too exposed for the way the kids used them this time, so we can decide later if we have room for them. I don’t want to dismantle things and cram them in as the Krall did. The big transports we will leave parked in the canyon when we leave, unless we decide to use them for target practice.”
Dillon continued walking to the shuttle, as Longstreet informed Mirikami the Link with General Nabarone was ready.
Mirikami heard a gruff voice. “Captain Mirikami, Henry Nabarone here. I’m pleased to have a chance to help you, and return some favors I’ve owed Thad for over twenty years. What can I do for you? I’ve been told by Colonel Trakenburg that your young troops have all but completed their takeover of the other clanship. What’s next for you?”
“General, we have some wounded, one of the most serious is Ethan Greeves, Thad’s oldest son. I’m sure I can speak for him on this. Your most important favor for Thad is to help get his boy into a modern med lab. Our old model will keep him alive until then, we think. Sergeant Reynolds and Captain Longstreet both tell us your units can repair quite severe damage, instead of simply patching the holes. Rapid transport is the issue. I propose we move my ship, a modified clanship we call the Mark, out of this no man’s land. We need some place safe in human controlled territory, where it can be hidden from the Krall. That gets everyone out of here at one time. Then your scientist and technicians can start studying the Mark, with our help. We even have a live clanship commander you might want to interrogate.”
“Damn, Captain. You do know how to get a tired general to jump. How high and in what direction?” He laughed soundly at his own joke. “When will you be able to lift?”
“I’m told that our youngsters have taken all but the top five decks, where the surviving Krall have retreated. We estimate they have twenty-five or so left alive, of the original one hundred thirty. We lost four of our own as they worked their way up, one deck at a time. If we had the means to do it, I’d simply blow the damned thing up. We can’t risk leaving a live Krall behind that have seen those kids in action. Not if we can help it anyway. I think we can lift before nightfall, or just after. That gives us nearly four hours. It has been a long day since our early landing.”
“They are actually taking out the warriors deck by deck? I heard that, but it seemed impossible. Today, of all the impossible things I’ve encountered, that one seems the most improbable.”
“A young man that is in charge of the assault told me he is going to try something that he learned from one of the spec ops men. If that works, we may be done over there sooner. I’ll let you arrange what coordination you need to do, and I’ll get back to you in an hour. I see our shuttle approaching and I want to go down there to bring in our wounded and help place Ethan in the med lab.”
“I understand. I’ll have someone waiting for your call at any time. Nabarone Out.”
****
Conrad was skeptical. “The Krall used black smoke when they raided the Flight of Fancy, and their IR vision could see right through that. What makes you think this white smoke will blind them, more so than us?”
“It isn’t the color of the smoke that matters, and it’s actually mostly steam. It will also blind us. This smoke and steam will be hotter than our body temperature, and that should make their IR vision as useless as their visible light vision will be. The black smoke used on the Fancy was cold, so they could detect warm objects through it, while our people couldn’t see anything. This will return the favor.”
“The gases are toxic, how will we breathe?”
“The spec ops captain will let us have their small rebreathers. When I was speculating with him on how to use what we found on the ship to help us, one of them suggested using the stacks of Krall incendiary pistol rounds we found. They are a type of thermite, and they will burn under water. That’s why I had those four big containers moved close to the stairs, and filled with water.
“We will dump several cases of incendiary rounds into the water, and then use a laser or plasma rifle to ignite some that we’ll break up in the small buckets we found. Ethan and I lit some of them as kids one time. It’s easy.”
“Was that the month, in eighth grade, when you and Ethan walked around with no eyebrows and melted kinky hair in front?”
Carson grew a bit defensive. “We learned to light them from a distance after that.
“Besides, I did a sneak Tap to see how to break them up and light them while I talked to Corporal Galloway. I shook hands to thank him as I asked. He says they will burn hot and fast and if you promptly dump them into the big bins of water, they will sink and start the other rounds burning, even under water because they have their own oxidizer in the powder.
“After that, we have steam, smoke, and heat. We set them off under each of the four upper stairwells and wait for it to drift up.”
“The Krall will be waiting, knowing we must be coming.”
“They knew that on all the other decks too, and a dozen of them could see us as we came through. We still were too fast.” Except for random shots that had killed the four people they lost,
which he didn’t mention. They needed the lightweight flex armor the spec ops called Chameleon Skin.
“This time none of the warriors will be able to see us. We know they will be clustered close to the stairwell openings, as they always were on other decks, and we’ll be able to hear them when they fire or move. My dad just brought us two boxes of grenades. We can toss those up just over the deck lip after a count of three or four, when the visibility is down. The first clinks will probably draw them closer, thinking it is one of us.
“Unless they hold their breath, the fumes should also have some sort of affect. I’ve heard them cough a couple of times, like two did outside in that thick smoke from the ammo explosions.”
“OK. It’s worth a try, and it isn’t really any worse than what we’ve been doing, three of us leaping up through a single opening together, blasting at everything we see on our flip, before they can react. However, on lower decks, there were eight stairwells and the warriors were more spread out trying to cover them. I assume you and I will go up first?”
Carson nodded. “I’ll Tap you and we both Tap the others, to make sure we all know what’s going to happen. After doing the first deck this way, we’ll know what worked best, and Tap again.”
“Sure, if we survive this nutty idea.”
They made their preparations, spreading the grenades between the four groups. There was only to be one TG per opening for the first sally, to avoid bumping while they had their eyes closed to avoid the burning fumes, and focused on hearing the Krall.
Several TGs were maintaining sporadic plasma and pistol fire up through the openings, to prevent the Krall from firing down at them in volume. They moved around so shots came from random directions, as did the Krall return fire. If you shot from one spot twice, they next fired directly back along that apparent track. Two of their wounded learned that the hard way.
After a group Tap, they modified their patterns of suppressive fire, and tore out some bulkhead plates to use as deflectors for the Krall return shots.
Koban: Rise of the Kobani Page 18