“The ones we have captured, or rather some that ran out of fuel inside our battleships are about four and a half feet long, and just under four inches in diameter. They are a slender tube, with a low-tech reaction style drive, burning fuel and generating thrust. Instead of a warhead, they have a device in their nose that will bore holes through virtually anything it encounters. Not a drill, but one of the scientists that examined them, described it as a quantum decoherence device. Another scientist thought it might be a quantum probability controller. Believe me Mam, I’m only parroting their speculations, I don’t know what they mean.
“However, personnel that saw them in action, indeed a number were unfortunate enough to feel what they did, have called the warhead a disintegrator beam.”
“My God! They used these beams only in missiles? Why didn’t they just carve us up at a distance?” They had been afraid of what hidden advance technology the Krall had in their arsenal.
“Mam, none of the scientist understand how they work. However, they found circuitry inside that can switch the effect on and off, and adjusts the apparent focal length from a few inches to a maximum of just over a hundred twenty feet from the device. These are apparently short-range beams, and the quantum device itself looks like it was adapted to fit on the missile nose after the fact, and probably not originally intended for such use.
“The beam always has a narrow four inch cylindrical coverage, and any material we have tested with it simply converts into its constituent atoms, breaking every molecular bond. It forms a gas that expands in the cavity created. That gas expansion tends to oppose the progress of the missile until a vent hole disintegrated in front releases the pressure and it continues forward. It has a simple guidance system that seeks the most potent magnetic field source. Namely, they seek a fusion bottle’s magnetic confinement field.
“That’s how we lost all of our light cruisers, when a bottle catastrophically ruptured with no way to safely vent the released plasma to space. The newer ships all survived the loss of a bottle due to the failsafe designs. Some ships, like the Gauntlet and Mace even lost all three bottles and Jumped home. The Worms match their name by passing through a ship, turning back and doing it again and again, until their propulsion gives out.”
“If that explains the loss of all ten of the light cruisers Admiral, what killed the newer large ships?”
“Kamikaze Krall Clanships, Mam.”
“An alien word Admiral? What does it mean?”
“Sorry, it’s a word from the old Japanese language on Earth Mam. A military historian, as a lot of us Navy types are, will know the reference. They committed suicide with a damaged Clanship that was out of the fight. They still had Jump capability, and using the precision of T squared drives, with the target so close they can see it, they made a short Jump and performed a White Out inside one of our ships.”
“I didn’t think that was possible, or at least it was almost impossible.”
“With our original Jump drives we didn’t have the precision, and also couldn’t Jump such short distances. This was a use of T squared capability that hadn’t occurred to us. Obviously, the Krall have had thousands of more years to think of ways to kill.
“I thought every Krall’s goal was to live to breed and make baby Krall just as dangerous as the parent. Doesn’t suicide circumvent this?”
“Not if you have your sperm or unfertilized eggs preserved for use if you prove to be a credit to your race or clan. Our AI’s have been slowly learning the Krall language, or rather both of them. They have a low frequency and a high frequency language.
“In any case, the suicide ships each received or made a transmission before their self-destruction. The rough translation seems to be of two forms. One, from a Clanship, was an announcement of intention, and a request to preserve their bloodline. The other messages, from various domes on the planet, appear to have caused Clanships to copy this action. The order given was approximately phrased as ‘do it for the roadway and clan’ or perhaps ‘for the path and clan’ is more accurate.
“I believe leaders of the Krall told certain ships to make the sacrifice. This only began after the Gauntlet Jumped to safety, at my explicit order. They apparently wanted to prevent any more of us from escaping.”
“Can we counter the Worm missiles and suicide ships? I know you have just returned, but you had time to consider and confer with your officers on the way home.”
“Mam, the suicide ships were more successful because I let my ships maintain fixed formations and orbits, making them more predictable targets. That was my error. New tactics can eliminate most of that sort of predictability. We can also supplement our point defenses with more flexible close-in laser systems than our movable triple beam pods, intended for single ship protection. The Worms were easily knocked out if hit, nevertheless, once inside the optimum defense range of the laser pods, it was harder to hit them.
“The main cause of our mission’s failure was in not totally surprising the enemy. They were forewarned, and some were waiting for us, with others rising to meet us as we arrived.”
A dangerous tone to her voice, Stanford asked, “Do you think there was a leak, like that the press obviously received to announce what ships were being sent?”
“That press leak is surely a public relations problem, Mam. However, it couldn’t be responsible for the warning the Krall had. For one, the enemy would have had all four thousand Clanships up and waiting to surround us front and rear if they knew that far in advance.
“What we observed were a few hundred Clanships that apparently arrived just before we executed our White Outs. It was not a random distribution, and they clustered only between the battleships and the planet. There were none clustered below the battlecruisers or the other ship divisions, even though they represented more overall combined firepower. Furthermore, the first Clanships to arrive had already fired Worms at the points where our battleships were about to pop into Normal Space.
“They knew not only we were coming but also where some ships would emerge. Specifically they knew where the battleships would be, and they didn’t know it very far in advance.”
Stanford sensed a confidence in Mauss’ declaration. “If the Krall had no general warning of the overall operation, Admiral, do you have an idea how they only zeroed in on our most powerful, most massive ships?”
The President could see that the Joint Chiefs were virtually on the edge of their own seats. They didn’t know about this either, and couldn’t interrupt the President’s briefing to pose the questions they must be burning to ask.
“I do have an idea Madam President. My Flagship was the most massive ship and a more crucial target if the Krall knew of our planned dispositions. Yet I had no more Clanship coverage than the light cruisers, which was none at all. I now believe that it was our plan to disperse our most capable ships far away from K1 that set the stage for a last moment early warning to the Krall.
“All of the six battleships were on the ant-spinward side of Human Space when they jumped. The Gauntlet and Mace were located the farthest from K1. Those two ships were the first hit by Worms as they emerged, and a study of the proximity of Worm missiles to the other battleships as they made their White Outs shows that the farther away the battleship was when it started its Jump to K1, the earlier the Clanships must have fired their missiles at the arrival points.
“Had the other ships traveled farther, I believe the Krall would have had Clanships waiting for them as well. The pattern of ships still climbing out of atmosphere, below others of our arrivals, matches well with the various distances they had to travel to reach K1.
“It will take scientific analysis of these indicators to reveal how much notice they actually had, based on our Jump distances. However, I feel confident that the Krall have technology that detects some advanced signal that tells them when and where a White Out will happen.”
“A faster than light signal Admiral?” Stanford knew it was a stupid question as it left her mouth.
�
�Nothing can travel even that slow in Tachyon Space, or T squared Space, Mam. The Krall obviously can sense some advanced wave or effect of where a White Out will happen, if it travels for long enough. We won’t make that mistake again. Now that we know the effect must exist, our scientists can watch for it by setting up Jump tests. And we might figure out the rocket propelled quantum bore devices too, since we have five of them that ran out of fuel inside our ships.”
Stanford stood up to leave. “Admiral, you only lost our first battle, outnumbered, against an experienced and technologically more advanced enemy, and you survived to learn from the experience. You brought most of our fleet home, along with clues about the Krall’s technology. We might have fared a lot worse. Thank you.”
****
Kanpardi, as Gatrol of all the Krall forces for this early phase of the war on humans, had a requirement to address the joint clan leaders when they called for an explanation. He considered it an inefficient use of his time, but the leaders wanted to know more about how the humans had managed to mount a surprise attack on their new forward base.
“The humans launched a failed raid, and lost more than one third of the ships they sent against us. We detected their arrival points for their longest Jumps in time to wait for them.
“Many of the prey’s big ships were those we detected, and were the first destroyed or damaged. Some were killed by warriors that chose to earn guaranteed breeding rights by their destruction, and a place for their names in our histories. We seriously damaged many surviving human ships with the old Raspani weapons.
“I will now maintain Clanships in orbit, to be ready for them more quickly. We can bring orbiting weapons platforms here if that is wanted. I do not believe we need the Olt’kitapi ships for this new tactic from the humans. We do not have so many Olt’kitapi ships as we once had, and no experienced operators.” He was careful not to call the Krall that could control those ancient ships “warriors.” The meeting would waste more of his time in the following discussion of why those Olt’kitapi changed Krall were still allowed to breed.
Kloptra, of Dorbo clan had a complaint to voice, as Kanpardi expected. “My clan lost three domes and nearly half of our Clanships. How will you compensate us for this loss, caused by your failure to prevent this attack?”
“Dorbo received the same warning that launched Clanships from Graka, Tanga, Mordo, and even your finger clan Maldo. Those clans and others activated their ship defenses or rose in time to meet the enemy, and lost few ships on the ground or in atmosphere. It was your clan’s decision to train all of your novices for fighting humans on the ground, and left none on duty in your ships. You knew, as did all clans, that humans had built a fleet. You chose to ignore the threat.
“We have called for Clanship construction to increase on three slave worlds, and over one thousand twenty four existing replacements will arrive from our other worlds. However, you will not receive a larger share because you were not prepared. You would not have had domes destroyed so easily if your Clanships were able to defend them.”
“Then allow my clan to invade and take a human planet as penalty for this attack!”
Kanpardi snorted in ugly humor. “The humans have taken a step closer to becoming a worthy enemy, and Dorbo would slow all of us in our steps along the Great Path to discourage this? To kill a human world now, which many clans can use to purge their weakest novice warriors is not an efficient use of this prey. It would reward your clan for poor preparation today. However, it is a matter for the joint council to consider and to render a decision.” He knew the way he had worded his criticism that Dorbo clan would not prevail.
They spent much of the remainder of the council meeting deciding the proper distribution of new Clanships. Another part spent on how to divide the breeding points of today’s kills among the clans. He was impatient for the discussion to end. He had raids to plan and approve.
Kanpardi gave some thought to what the fast learning humans may have learned from their failure here. The Krall had known for some time that humans had learned how to use the higher level of Tachyon Space. The more rapid speed of travel between stars was of limited advantage, since the distances were such that lightning fast raids ended before distant space based reaction forces could arrive. The joint clan council had even considered finding a way to give them an intact Clanship, to allow them to copy the drive. This clever prey had figured it out without help. They probably did this from study of captured single ship drives that accessed second level Tachyon Space, even though they didn’t have Jump capability.
That faster Jump technology would help build-up human ground forces with improved weapons more rapidly. The latest human body armor, improved fire control, and fast mobile forces were reducing the novices in raiding parties sooner than scheduled withdrawals, with early recalls becoming more frequent. This was good for superior novice selection, but if the trend continued, the novices would have to learn to fight in their own armor, with heavier weapons.
They loved the bigger faster firing guns, and disliked the encumbering armor despite the electronic sensors that it furnished. The core of experienced novices was increasing, and soon larger scale raids with those battle-trained warriors could start. For now, they were breeders and slave race work monitors. The larger raids should push the humans harder, to improve and arm even faster.
There probably would be more space battles, which the Krall didn’t find as enticing, because the personal thrill of a face-to-face kill was missing. He was actually envious of the novices that had boarded the smaller disabled human warships left behind. Those were armed and desperate prey, knowing surrender was no option. They had fought to the last human, taking a considerable number of careless warriors with them. The surviving novices of the boarding parties were ready to join the growing ranks of experienced predators, but there were proportionately fewer of those produced that way, due to the limited number of chances for such fighting inside ships.
Until humans guessed how their arrival was expected, there could be more one sided space engagements. Specially designed weak Trap fields could detect ripples from massive objects moving in level two of Tachyon Space from many light years away. The signal was particularly strong if the direction of travel was towards the sensors. The ripples, like bow waves, traveled only a little faster than the mass causing the ripples in the second level of Tachyon Space, but if the journey were long enough and the mass great enough, the advance wave could arrive early and strong enough to provide a useful warning. Such as the twenty-two minute warning they received today for the battleships.
The number of other ships the humans arrived with had surprised him, pleasantly so. They had not experienced a space battle for thousands of years. The outcome was never in doubt, not even if there had been no warning. The drawback was that dome destruction killed more warriors without the value of culling weaker talent from greater. This was wasteful on a small scale in the short term. The warriors that had responded most rapidly were those that met the humans in space or at least had launched their Clanships. Those killed in domes or on the ground were of lesser value to the Path, overall, because they reacted slower or were less prepared.
The humans would know that some ship White Outs were detected in advance, even if it was only slightly. They probably would not know how it happened, other than as a warning given shortly before they arrived. Human treachery was something they would surely consider, if the captives left to die on Koban were typical examples of the species.
He was less concerned about humans having samples of the ancient Raspani tools turned into weapons. If humans recovered any of them, the quantum beams were surely too complex for their primitive science to reproduce. The Olt’kitapi had only taught the science to the Raspani, who had nevertheless fallen easily to the Krall. Kanpardi idly chewed a spicy strip of Raspani dried jerky as he walked to his waiting shuttle. In twenty two thousand years since they killed the Olt’kitapi, no race other than Raspani had understood how they functioned. D
espite how clever the weapons worked, in battle they were of limited use because of the short range. When you understood their threat, a ship could avoid or destroy them.
The human space fleet was more a nuisance than a threat to the Krall’s advancement on the Great Path. Ground combat was the more certain way to generate large numbers of superior surviving warriors. Humans couldn’t build enough ships to block lightening ground raids, and once warriors were on the ground, humans could not easily use space bombardment of scattered targets mixed in with their own people.
Humans persisted in wanting to protect material things, places, and property, and most of all, lives of their noncombatants. The Krall didn’t want “things” or to possess places, nor did they care much for individual lives of their warriors. They wanted pure one on one combat, and the only thing they treasured more was an honorable mention in the histories that described the exploits of great warriors.
However, space borne attacks as humans conducted today could delay launching new ground raids. Kopandi would bring in different weapons, those they had preserved or copied from various other conquests. Even before the clan meeting, he had send couriers to return with sixteen orbital platforms to defend their base. He also called for sixteen of the inertial ball weapons, having small Jump Hole generators buried inside a protective collapsed matter armored casing. Those would provide some surprises, and disrupt the human’s next raid, particularly when they turned to flee to supposed safety.
Another attack here was inevitable, but allowing it to delay ground raids for so many days again was unacceptable. It was clear that humans were not as weak willed as their frail bodies suggested. The next attack on this base needed to fail more decisively, to convince the human clan leaders that ground defenses were more effective than space fleets. It was true, but humans always seemed to require convincing.
12. Wedded Bliss (Koban)
Koban: The Mark of Koban Page 24