“Tet, Coldar said according to Torki Olt records of races they have beaten, they have killed hundreds of billions, if not trillions. It seems logical to think they could only do that with a large population of their own.”
“I thought so too, Thad, but look at what a few thousand of us are doing to them now, assuming that we can seriously slow their war with us. It could be that they too have only had a spear point of warriors all along, and didn’t need much infrastructure or population to keep going. An army of ten billion super warriors is far more than the human race has, even with our trillion in population. The Hub’s military forces are still below forty-five million, and about half of them are support personnel, not soldiers.
“If humanity can hold out and keep building forces and we win, we will have a great deal of habitable space to move into, even if we share some of it with the Torki, and Prada. Perhaps even share with the Raspani if we can put them back on the road to intelligence.”
Thad sounded doubtful. “Places like this will need a lot of recuperation to be habitable again.”
Mirikami nodded. “This world and CS2 may be worse case situations. The Prada and Torki say some worlds the Krall left with nests that ran amok, and hatchlings and feral adults ate every animal they could reach until they can only eat themselves. When the last of them die off, the plant life would support an introduction of new herbivores and grazers, and then the predators that eat them. Terraforming has been done many times.” He paused, and put on a sly grin.
“But, let’s not count our worlds before the hatchlings are dead, shall we?”
“Tet, you’ve been taking pun lessons from Dillon!” Thad accused.
“Can’t help it. It rubs off on you.”
As the ship moved around the planet, there were numerous strip mines sighted, partly automated, with transportation links that required minimal Prada direct supervision. However, it pointed out a tragic problem for the rescue. They could not take the time to try to rescue all of the Prada, spread so wide. As they again orbited towards the main habitat dome, Jakob suddenly made an announcement of some concern to them.
“Two clanships have performed a White Out together, at two thousand miles from the planetary surface, almost four thousand miles behind us.”
Mirikami spoke quickly. “I think those must be ours. Our new captains won’t know how to use the friend-from-foe interrogation and reply capability. Are they transmitting anything?”
“Yes, one ship is sending an encrypted message, saying they each have air to ground missiles, and request direction from you.”
“Damn. There wasn’t any other way for them to ask me? An encrypted message will be detected by the Krall. That might raise questions, particularly with three unknown and unexpected clanships arriving this close together. I should have waited for them and delivered instructions before the Jump.”
Thad let him know that their firing run was already programed. “I have all of the parked clanships, and the dome targeted. If our people have enough of the larger missiles, they can take out the dome for us. We need to hit those parked ships quickly, in any case. That’s where any return fire will originate.”
“Ethan, tell them both to move in fast and unload on the dome from two hundred miles. We’re well ahead of them. I’m going to make the Krall think the Mark is landing. That will make us seem less likely to be up to no good.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Jakob, make our flight path look more like a typical Krall pilot’s landing. You have enough recordings of what they usually look like.”
“I can try, Sir, but most Krall pilots like to come in vertically, fast, and apply hard thrust near the end. Should I go higher?”
“No, but boost speed, and then rotate and brake hard, as if we are landing. We will break off at twenty miles over the dome and climb out to orbit again.”
“Yes Sir.”
The thrust was immediate, and they leaped ahead.
“Thad, kill the dome launches by us of course. Fire on the tarmac ships when we reach twenty miles overhead and Jakob has rotated to return to orbit.”
“Will do.”
For the next minute, they accelerated at two hundred miles up, then the ship turned tail and applied hard thrust, wasting an excessive amount of fuel, exactly like Krall pilots did. They soon rotated to vertical, and started down at an altitude of fifty miles, nearly over the dome and tarmac.
“Captain,” Ethan called to him. “About a dozen Krall came out as we approached, but when we rotated tail first for landing, they must have caught sight of our thruster glow, slowing hard. They stopped and looked, and are going back into the dome. I think you will get a harsh reprimand for flying worse than the average Krall, Sir.”
Chuckling, despite feeling tense, he answered, “I hope the reprimand doesn’t include my weapons officer missing any of his designated targets.”
“We’ll know in less than a minute, Captain.” Thad answered. “My range finder says we are at twenty-five miles.” For an optimum firing angle, Thad needed to wait for the AI to increase thrust and lay the ship into a roughly forty-five degree angle as it started to climb from a twenty mile altitude. The short range and missile velocity meant there would be little arcing needed to turn them towards the targets, and there would be mere seconds before impact.
The ship jolted as all fifteen missiles launched from the same five, lower side launchers, in three rapid firings, only one second apart from five launch tubes.
Unnecessarily, Thad said, “Missiles away.”
In the next five seconds, the tarmac repeated the orange and black fiery spectacles that had blossomed on CS2 and the Eight Ball planet. The Mark of Koban was climbing and accelerating to enter a low and fast suborbital course to get to the shipyards as quickly as possible. There were two more clanships to reduce to scorched scrap metal as quickly as possible.
Ethan’s startled exclamation gave them a frightful heart stopping moment. “Holy crap! Look at that plot!”
Mirikami, strapped into his couch couldn’t see the console screen in front of Ethan very well. “Put it on a big screen.” He pointed to one.
A glance and he agreed with Ethan. “Jakob, how the hell many are there?”
“How many what, Sir?”
“Missiles!”
“Counting those we fired and have detonated?” AI’s could be so literal.
“No. The ones targeting the dome, damn it!”
“Oh. That would be eighty-eight, Sir. Forty-four from each of our fellow clanships.”
“Yee gods,” Thad muttered.
“Ethan, what did you tell those two captains?” Mirikami demanded.
Sheepishly, and more than a little defensive, he told him, “Exactly what you said to me, Sir.” With his TG2 memory he was absolutely certainly he’d heard him right.
Mirikami, his own TG2 memory just as sharp, suddenly turned red in the face.
Thad played his own memory back of the half listened to words.
He exploded into laughter. “They fired every single one they had on board.”
Mirikami, recovering his composure grimaced. “It was a figure of speech. I didn’t literally mean for them to unload on the dome! Ten rockets would have been plenty.”
The subsequent explosions rumbled, one after another, for what seemed like a full sixty seconds, lasting for the extended time it had taken the ships to launch that many missiles. Finely divided fragments of the structure fell back, only to be ripped again by additional high-powered explosions. The granulated debris finally settled into a smoking, sunken looking pit at the center, with the upper dome struts having flown out over the tarmac and escaped being pulverized.
Thad, amused by the results shouted out in declarative sentences. “Sir! Shipyards in sight. Two clanships on the tarmac! How many missiles for each, Sir? We only have eighty- five left, Sir!”
Mirikami gave him a sour look, and held up two fingers. Too embarrassed and annoyed to speak.
Continuing in his
loud military speak, Thad asked, “Two missiles apiece, Sir? Seems like overkill, Sir!” Thad was enjoying this rare slip by the famously near infallible captain.
In a false threat, Mirikami answered, “If you fire four missiles, I’ll send you into that damned dome alone and unarmed.”
“Yes Sir. One missile each.” He fired them. As they streaked towards their targets, he added. “One unarmed Kobani against all those Krall? Seems terribly unfair to me. The Krall might complain.” He and Ethan laughed, and finally Mirikami chuckled with them.
Before they passed over the second dome, with the fireballs still rising from the last two clanships on the planet, Thad put four anti-ship missiles into the upper levels. Their other two clanships passed above them as this was done, still in a two hundred mile high orbit, and requested instructions.
On the verge of forcing Thad to talk to them, Mirikami realized his two captains were former Drive Rats, and had not asked questions when the legendary Mirikami told them what to do. After all, they had Jumped into the teeth of things here with no knowledge of what they might face. They had volunteered to help steal the clanships, and then expected to fly only supply missions. Now they had a combat story to tell when they got back to Koban.
“Captains, I appreciate your help. I’d like to thank you by name if you would be so kind as to furnish them. Did the migration ships arrive before you Jumped here?”
“Sir, this is Francois Lebeau, and I have christened my ship the Pride of Gaul. The first migration ship did a White Out while we were enroute here. One of the other new ships did a short in-system Jump at the waypoint to send me a message in Tachyon Space. Carlos Fuentes, the captain of the Florence is a friend of mine and we were Drive Rats together. We learned we were able to make the mental connection when we do Jumps. He thinks the other four migration ships will be there soon.”
“Thank you, Captain Lebeau. I take it you were from the Old Colony of Gaul before Koban?”
“Yes Sir.”
“And who do I thank on the second ship?”
“Sir, it is Bob Danker. I’ve named my ship the Dagger. If learn how to fight her, I’d like to join you on future missions.”
“Captain Danker, I have no doubt we can find a use for your spirit, and with Mind Tap, you can gain the knowledge. I thank you as well.
“With the arrival of at least one migration ship, and the security of this system in hand, I’d like you, Francois, to make the half day Jump back, and bring the other ships here as soon as possible. You can try to contact your friend when you Jump. Stop the transfer of supplies at the waypoint, and finish the job here. We want to get as many Prada and Torki off this world as we can.”
“Sir, what about the Raspani, in the compound near the dome we destroyed?” It was Danker’s voice.
Mirikami had never even thought about the Krall having them here as food. It was a moment of horror for his oversight. He couldn’t leave them if he could somehow rescue them. “Bob, how many did you see and where were they? We were focused on the dome and ships.”
“Sir, the fenced area was about five miles north of the dome, around a small lake and some buildings. Let me think a moment…”
Mirikami knew what he was doing. Sorting through his visual memory and counting or estimating how many he had seen.
“I would say over two thousand but less than twenty-five hundred. They were panicked by the explosions and running around. Sorry I don’t have an exact count.”
“Close enough, Bob. That many will fit on a migration ship, but we need to move them to where a migration ship can land on a hard surface. I’d like you to fly back there and see if there is enough clear space on the tarmac after all that destruction. Don’t land, because we don’t know if all the Krall were inside the dome.”
“After that, Sir?” he obviously wanted some useful role.
“We need orbital cover, in case an enemy clanship arrives, or if you see any shuttle activity on the planet. If you do, don’t shoot without talking to me.”
After that, the Pride of Gaul Jumped, the Dagger orbited, and the Mark landed a thousand TG2s at the shipyards.
The Kobani spread out, as they had on CS2, some scaling the dome, others going through the four entrances. Teams went down into the first factory, and followed nearly the same tunnel layout to the other factories. Surprisingly, there were no Krall encountered in the factories below, and resistance was less in the dome than anticipated. It made Mirikami nervous. The Prada encountered obviously understood low Krall. Some of the TG2’s had switched off stealth and had spoken to them. However, none would talk or answer questions put to them. We were clearly not “Rulers” so they would not cooperate.
Ethan was leading the assault to clear the dome, and Mirikami called him on his transducer. “Ethan, there are too few warriors being found, and I’m concerned they may have gathered someplace to make a counter attack. I’d like you to have your teams capture all of the warriors you can alive, for Mind Taps.
“Don’t let anyone put themselves at risk, but with our superior numbers here and stealth, you should be able to wound some for capture. I know you have one of the needle guns, with the Death Lime thorn extract, but if they are all in armor, it won’t help until you’ve already made the capture. Be careful.”
“I will, Sir.”
Thad was in charge of the demolition teams in the factory directly below the dome, and even though proceeding with caution, there had been absolutely no opposition. Mirikami finally decided on the intrusive step he had been so reluctant to employ on any of the Prada. He wanted them to trust humans after Wister arrived to try to talk them into cooperating. However, that would not happen for another day at best. He made another transducer call.
“Thad, if the Prada won’t speak to us, we need to try to communicate with them before Wister gets here. If you can identify one of them acting like a leader, he will at least be an elder to those he’s directing. Gently, and I do mean that, catch one of them, and with a bare hand do a Mind Tap. Ask questions in low Krall and let me know what you learn. I need to know were the Krall are that we expected to be in this dome. There were only a few dead ones in the upper levels, and only a few have been killed lower in the dome. Some of them finally figured out we can’t easily be seen, and took shots when we made a noise. One clever devil set up water soaked walkways and shot his plasma rifle where he saw footprints appear. Our people saw his rifle’s pre-flash and ducked to make him miss, so he never got another chance.
“The Prada might know what’s been going on to pull the warriors away. That VIP visitor could be connected in some way. I’m happy we can bring down the rescue ships sooner, although I’d feel better knowing for sure we have no surprises.”
The two teams sent out to visit the Torki lodges were at least able to talk to the giant crabs, and told them that others from their race would be here soon to explain what was happening. When a Kobani casually mentioned the new Olt library opening for others from their race, and how it came about, they were suddenly eager to try a Mind Tap.
Mirikami warned the teams about how intense the Mind Tap effect had been on the Torki on Haven. It was decided to allow a representative at each lodge to undergo the mental exchange, without the rest of the community trying to share the experience with their Olts.
This time, there was a definite consensus that only mild images, clearly nonviolent and properly scaled images would be transmitted.
It was while Mirikami was discussing performing Torki Mind Taps that Thad received a surprising transducer call from Ethan, who had been informed by Jakob that the captain was too busy to talk.
“Dad, Uncle Tet is busy with something to do with the Torki, but I just captured a Krall, not wearing armor. I hit him with the needle gun, one tap in the neck, and now he’s too numb to move. I think the captain will want to see this blue suit for himself, and do his own Mind Tap. This one knows who the VIP was, and personally has something to do with his mental images showing me another type of Kral
l.”
“Are you able to send him out to the ship? We can’t risk the captain going in there, away from the Mark.”
“Sure, I can take him myself. How about your work below the dome? Are the cooling systems set to blow and flood the place? I mean if we can get the Prada to go to the surface of course, or up here into the dome.”
“Son, I have people Mind Tapping several elder Prada leaders right now. Even if we don’t convince them to trust us, we can surely get them to spread the word to evacuate the complex, so we can detonate the explosives, and flood the lower levels. There is a central office where they can make a public address announcement. Despite not being willing to go against the Krall, they appear to accept that they are a valuable asset for their Rulers, and they must preserve themselves for rebuilding. Whatever gets them to leave the factories is fine with me.”
“OK, Dad. This Parkoda character is actually pissed off at the Krall big shot that just left. He wished we had blown up his clanship before it left. He’s that Krall we saw running back to the dome as the VIP’s ship lifted. He had just flown over here before we attacked in that second ship.”
Thad, on hearing that name, responded quickly, “Meet me at the elevators in five minutes with your prisoner. I’m going with you to see the captain. The Krall probably reuse names often, since they normally give themselves only one. However, this name is one used by a Krall that all of us older generation have reason to remember. It can’t be him, because this is a Graka clan world.”
“He naturally can’t speak right now, of course, but he doesn’t like Graka clan at all. What was the clan for the other Parkoda? If I caught this one’s thoughts correctly, he’s from Tanga clan.”
Koban: Rise of the Kobani Page 77