Nord, monitoring the conversation, had a solution before Alf replied. “Sir, I am currently using street and building cameras to locate Krall to shoot at outside. I can request the city AI for access to indoor cameras, and I already have a Link to the Battery door cameras. I can furnish each of you full time corridor surveillance from many locations, individually tailored to each person’s view request.”
“Damn. How come we didn’t know you could do that?” Henrik was astonished.
“I was not asked about this, but it is within the mission parameters of things I am authorized to use.”
Elin asked the AI, “What else do you have to offer us that we may not know you can provide?” Before the others could speak up, Nord began to list them.
“I can control traffic signals to expedite militia traffic, I can appropriate communications…”
“Stop!” came from multiple voices.
Her husband’s exasperation voiced everyone’s thought. “Elin! Is this the first time you’ve ever spoken to an AI?”
“Sorry, I was just so surprised a simple idea like that was never brought up in planning.”
Henrik needed to put this discussion off to another time. “OK. Let’s use it now, discuss it later. Nord, I want two images divided on my left side visor, in see-through mode. Top half, the door camera aimed at warriors approaching in this corridor. Bottom half, any cameras that show them as they enter the corridor and then follow them here. Everyone else, use a private channel with Nord to set up your choices, mine were just an example.”
The teams split off to private Links to speak individually with Nord, then came back to the customary group Link.
Henrik already knew there were sixteen warriors inside his east wall, moving in two groups through various lower corridors, all coming from the same general direction. They apparently couldn’t read the signs in Standard, and they didn’t understand the maze of ramps and stairs that were clearly marked. They were all running swiftly below the main slidewalk corridor, and had passed an up ramp that would have taken them nearer Battery number three, Henrik’s own gun. That gun was on its own with only Nord to operate it. He heard a ripping pulse as it fired, the sound passing through the walls with no clear direction to the echoing sound’s source.
Apparently, it was clear to one Krall, because an armored warrior in the lead suddenly glanced at an instrument attached to his forearm. It looked stiffly upwards, bending back to do so. Then looked back down the smaller corridor towards the up ramp they had passed. All sixteen warriors rapidly reversed their steps, moving in that fast smooth pace they always used, even when in armor.
Henrik passed this tidbit along. “Teams, they have a sensor that either traces the source of the sound of a gun, or its magnetic signature. The two octets below the slidewalk here on the east side are retracing steps to come up a ramp they had already passed. They’ll be in the main passage in a minute, and will pass gun 3 first.”
They couldn’t hold their fire to hide their location, or the guns were useless, but firing them helped the Krall find them from within the many corridors. Henrik heard Battery four’s pulse next. Because he was only seventy-five feet from the heavy door, the sound’s source was obvious this time, routed through his external audio pickups on each side of his helmet.
The city had nine parallel streets, named avenue A through I that went straight to the port area. All but D and F had large open areas to cross over to get from the main part of the business district to the docks. The open areas were covered by all four of the plasma cannons.
Greta had some information for the two teams now guarding the doors to the manually controlled guns. “Folks, I just blasted three Krall that made a run for avenue A. I see more of them flickering from cover to cover towards the docks, holding up at the gap.”
Alf confirmed that for his side of town, saying he had fired twice on Krall groups working towards the port along avenues H and I as they tried to cross that same gap. He killed them, thus discouraging others from breaking cover there. Of the nine avenues leading to the docks, defensive planners had designed only two streets to provide cover for fighters on foot, where they could bypass the open killing fields at other streets. If they moved down the wide avenues D and F, there were buildings and deceptively good-looking cover all along those routes, and no gap to cross while exposed to plasma cannon fire.
The militia down by the docks had long open fire lanes up all streets, but would keep their fire rate low on D and F, to encourage more of the Krall to use that approach to the docks.
E street, between D and F, was a relatively narrow pedestrian walkway between tall buildings, which had ambush written all over it, and that was indeed the case. Well-protected militia bunkers on high buildings were at key points, to fire down on and force the enemy to move over to D or F at cross streets from E.
Jarl advised that cameras revealed warriors moving along the main corridor on the west side. There were no longer any people to see out in the open area of the slidewalks. He suggested they activate the outer defenses for guns 2 and 3. Henrik verified the east corridor was also empty of humans, and authorized going live on the automated defense.
Eric, leaving Greta the fun of shooting at Krall, went to the defense console and activated the automatic corridor weapons outside the entrances to gun emplacement two and three. There were no people in sight in either corridor right now. If any suddenly appeared and ran past, they wouldn’t trigger the defenses. However, if triggered to kill Krall, an unprotected human within a couple hundred feet in any direction was probably dead meat. The potential for killing people placed the activation responsibility on a human being.
Because there were two octets on each side and two guns per side, based on typical Krall effort to achieve maximum speed and efficiency, it seemed probable that each octet was assigned one of the plasma cannons to kill. They were grouped together now simply because the closest large entryway into the warrens on each side provided a single logical place to start their search.
Henrik realized both octets on the east side would pass the entry to gun 3 nearly together. Before they separated, he wanted to see if he could attract both parties to cluster near Battery three’s massive door.
“Nord, unless you have a target just too good to pass up, I’d like you to hold your fire on gun 3 until the Krall in the East Slideway are all close to the entrance door. Then take a shot at any convenient target. I hope that sound will draw them all closer to the door.”
“Sir, you want to help them find the door to Battery number three, and for all of them attempt to make an entry?”
The AI didn’t sound confused (he couldn’t), but the question showed he didn’t understand.
“Nord, they will find the door eventually anyway. However, our door defenses are active in that area and I want as many Krall at ground zero as I can get there. Understand?”
“Yes Sir, I do now.”
“Jarl, Elin, did you catch on to what I meant? Can you pull your two octets together, just outside gun 2’s door?”
Elin answered. “It doesn’t look like we can. The two octets here are presently on different levels. The lower group is below the West Slideway and would need to backtrack to the up ramp.”
“OK. Get as many as you can, then.” Now they needed to wait perhaps a minute, as the warriors advanced the quarter mile from the up ramp to gun 3’s door. Once the manual activation of the defense system was done, any of the team could order Nord to trigger them, or do it manually from one of the four consoles inside the bunkers.
Henrik and Agneta watched the corridor scene on their visors, safely concealed behind the forty-two inch high retainer walls of their respective balconies. The initial action would be another quarter mile away, but they didn’t want the notoriously sharp-sighted warriors to see them peek out for a look. They were nervously gripping their plasma rifles. There were sixteen Krall out there, and however many escaped the automated defenses down at gun 3; the two of them would have to ex
pose themselves to shoot at survivors outside gun 4 up here.
The two also couldn’t even raise their heads to see what was happening outside gun 4, until the fifty caliber machine guns, grenade launchers, auto-fire plasma guns, and the final fireball blast had subsided below them. With any luck, there wouldn’t be very many warriors at this door after the same defenses chewed them up at gun 3. The Slidewalk would need repairs, but the chips and scorch marks on the gray granite walls wouldn’t look too out of place from the original rough texture they had now.
“Nord, the group is about to pass the door. Wait for me to give the signal to shoot.” He let four warriors of one octet pass the door on the far side of the corridor, and the first ones of the other octet had just paused to look at the seam of the heavy metal door. The door was fabricated to look much like other metal doors along the way, but the heavier construction and double door set was different.
“Nord, shoot.”
The sound of the plasma cannon reached them a second later. The Krall had all thrown themselves flat at the sound, and the ones next to the door had sprung towards the center of the still moving slidewalk. Both octets started firing plasma rifles at the door, but the ones on the sliding walkway had to scramble to get off the moving belts. They were laying prone so Henrik called for the automated plasma guns, concealed as light fixtures in the high ceiling, to fire down on them first.
“Nord, ceiling guns now. When they get up, start with the 50 calibers.”
The prone Krall suddenly had two dozen automated plasma rifles firing straight down on them, seeking their center of mass. Their armor could deflect the shots for a time, but the heat would burn through on repeat strikes, and it passed through the thinner flexible armor on limbs quicker. The plasma could flash melt and freeze the outside of an arm or leg joint if that were hit.
Their reaction speed was remarkable, because they were all up and firing their plasma rifles at the source of the ceiling beams in an instant. They hit a few, damaging the barrels and those guns fell silent. One warrior’s plasma rifle also went dead from a hit, and he was using a laser pistol to shoot back, to no real effect. Several of them moved stiffly, an arm or leg not fully flexible due to a partial joint melt. Using their great strength, they were able to force the stuck limbs to bend. They moved to the sidewalls, where the downward plasma fire was lighter.
It was lighter there by design.
Next, the concealed 50 caliber automatic machine guns, loaded with armor piercing KK shells, fired into them from twenty-foot high vantage points. There were two guns on each side behind slotted openings, sweeping across the warriors hugging walls to escape the still raining plasma bursts. Three warriors went down as slugs penetrated their helmets and exploded inside. Two more had penetrating wounds to legs, but continued fighting back from crouching positions at the base of the walls, making themselves smaller targets.
The other eleven warriors moved a step away from the walls for freedom of movement, since they now could see where the machine guns were pointing, and threw themselves to the side or forward when a gun pivoted towards them, forced to brave the plasma fire coming down. The plasma took longer to do its damage, but that damage would build up with repeated hits, so they started moving along the corridor, in both directions, away from the heaviest fire.
“Nord, grenade launchers now.”
Four grenade launchers shattered open their glass covers with the first shots. They had been disguised as functioning direction signs, placed on each side along the walls, outside of the original kill zone. They began blasting heavy fragmentation grenades onto the floor in front of where the novices were trying to retreat, and in among them as well. The Krall were forced back towards the center of the kill zone as the hail of collapsed uranium pellets from the grenades found entry points at limbs, and cracked faceplates on their helmets. Each warrior now had multiple suit punctures, and three more were down, but still firing back at the robot weapons.
Half of the overhead plasma guns were silent now, providing some clearer places to stand. Two fifty caliber guns had jammed or quit firing early from Krall plasma fire, heating or damaging the barrels, and the ammo belts on the other two had run out. One grenade launcher was hit as it fired, and the projectile exploded in the barrel. With that example to follow, the warriors quickly disabled the one on the opposite side of that wall, giving them a direction to escape.
“Burn them, Nord.”
Two dozen jets of a liquid petroleum based product sprayed from the walls on each side, coating the Krall armor, some penetrating into the punctures and cracks of the suits. The thermite type material, mixed in with the tacky liquid, quickly coated them. The plasma guns, those that still worked, set a number of warriors ablaze in a hot blue fire, which quickly ignited the thermite into dazzling white sparkles. One Krall, a hole in her faceplate from a glancing slug, walked right in front of a nozzle just as the spray started. Her quick reaction had turned her face right into the new threat, giving her a dose of the fluid right through the faceplate. She fired her plasma rifle at the flammable stream’s source, saving the overhead plasma guns the trouble of lighting her up. There was a spout of white fire coming out of her helmet, as she turned and blindly fired her plasma rifle again. That glancing bolt set afire another warrior charging down the corridor, past the two disabled grenade launchers.
Henrik noted with satisfaction that ten of the sixteen Krall were down, seven of them for good. The other three were apparently unable to walk, and had smoke coming from some of the suit holes. However, they had functioning rifles, some taken from the dead.
Damn they’re tough! Henrik thought. If sixteen of his militia had been caught by surprise in that same trap, he was certain there would be sixteen dead bodies.
Six more Krall had managed to get out of the kill zone, five of them were on fire when they left, but had managed to roll and scrape the fluid off, and pat out the spots still burning. The liquid itself wasn’t hot enough to burn through a suit. It simply held the thermite on, and helped it start burning. It looked as if every one of the six had injuries, although that was difficult to discern when concealed in their armor. It appeared that both octet leaders had fallen, identifiable by the magnetic sensor clipped to their arms. One was dead, and the other was one of the three sitting on the floor back at gun 3’s door.
He motioned the six mobile warriors to continue to the other gun, and probably transmitted the orders as well. They continued on, limping and smoking.
That leader, with two warriors to command, had them crawl around and gather two more rifles. The three of them set focus to very narrow beams, and started firing at a spot chosen by the leader, at the center of the door seam. That was where a bit of the star hot plasma could penetrate easier. They were gradually burning a hole through the first door, the size of a human pinky finger.
Henrik appreciated their tenacity. He would have appreciated one of those 50 caliber guns returning to life even more.
Agneta brought his attention to what had just happened outside gun 2’s door, while Henrik had directed Nord on this side. Nord gave him a quick replay on his helmet visor.
Jarl had only a single octet arrive in front of the door to his vacant battery. He’d repeated the trick of firing the cannon as they got there, they dove flat and much of the rest of the trap worked the same. Six were killed, with one disabled survivor sitting on the floor. One novice had escaped the killing zone, but had returned limping after the fire on his armor went out. They were starting to burn though the door now.
Henrik was startled to see such similar response of different warriors under intense combat pressure. It was such consistent behavior that you began to see how thousands of years of breeding had produced these living machines, bred only for fighting and killing. There would have been a much wider range of reaction from humans in the same situation. Aside from not surviving the trap, that is.
It was variability and lack of predictability that seemed to make humans so hard for the
Krall to anticipate. People made things up as they went, after carefully planning what they would do in advance, and then completely changing plans in midstream if needed.
Waiting for the Krall to reach the gun doors that he and Agneta guarded, Henrik checked in with their boss. “Commander Hendricksen?” He knew Nord would automatically Link them.
“Here, son. Make it quick, we’re getting busy.” He could hear shouting and plasma rifle fire through the Link.
“Checking on how the traffic is on D and F Sir.”
“That’s why we’re busy. The Krall took advantage of gun 3’s inability to depress and cover some streets. They got a couple of dozen warriors across on avenues H, and I. That was while depleted plasma chambers recycled for gun 4, ‘cause it had to work harder. We need the guns to force them back to the center streets. Except the Krall don’t like to be forced to do anything, or ever take an easier way we give them. Keep herding them towards the middle or too many will make it to our barricades at the docks. We can’t hold off a couple of hundred. Gotta go; keep those guns hot as long as you can. Out.”
Agneta pointed out to him that the six Krall they would have to ambush were drawing close to gun 4’s defenses. Jarl told them that the octet that had bypassed below gun 2 was approaching him from the other direction now, and were moving cautiously, looking up, and at the walls. They weren’t going to walk into the traps this time.
Staying well back, two warriors of each group started firing at the disguised wall mounts for the grenade launchers, striking some innocuous signs in the process, making certain they found them.
Henrik and Jarl had Nord activate the weapons, aiming them as far down the corridors as possible, setting the delay on the grenades for longer, to let them bounce closer before exploding. However, the Krall dropped to the floor as most of the fragment pellets passed harmlessly above them. Jarl reported one fortunate hit broke the faceplate of a prone Krall firing at long range, and it had ceased shooting at the launchers but wasn’t dead. Another warrior took over the task. They managed to disable the two closest launchers in each corridor, letting them move closer to fire on the other two launchers, and on the concealed slits for the 50 caliber machine guns.
Koban: The Mark of Koban Page 37