Koban: Rise of the Kobani (11 page)

Trakenburg knew there were some potent, behind the scenes political supporters for the Heavyside project, and that they were disappointed in the results thus far. The drug enhancements caused the user’s strength to wane quickly after three or four hours, and they needed several days to recover.

Even he wasn’t yet privy to the details of the ultra-secret new project that was ramping up on Heavyside right now. His suspicions were fueled by reports his men provided of encountering arriving bio-scientists, passing through the single public spaceport on the planet. He knew the project managers wanted to build on what his spec ops troops had already accomplished, and he was promised a return to Heavyside to join that new effort.

He received messages over the next half day, sent via buried hard lines and not transmitted, that the three spec ops teams, twenty-seven men in all, had safely reached the ends of each of the three long tunnels. The demolition explosives near this end were intact, and a test of the detonation circuits proved they would work to seal those entrances. A reflectometer check suggested the miles of lines deeper into the tunnels were intact for the entire length. They would inspect the explosives as they went.

The three teams would proceed along all three tunnels on electric carts powered by ultra-small fusion bottles, coordinating their simultaneous arrival at the base in approximately two hours. It was important that the tunnels be verified as ready for detonation. Satellite surveillance had revealed the second clanship, less than five miles from SOB-23, had unloaded Dragons, transports, and mobile plasma batteries. The Krall could have many more humans inside the clanship at the base, as well as more equipment. It had remained largely stealthed, except for what must be a single ramp or open portal. It would have been unnoticed if they had not known exactly where to look. If the human collaborators were expected to drive the Krall equipment, they would have to possess the suspected key to their quantum encryption system. Trakenburg wanted that as a high priority.

The Krall collaborators, when they returned to the base, were in for an unpleasant surprise from the spec ops troops. Trakenburg only needed the keys, and their leaders brought back alive for questioning.  Not even all of those were required for interrogation if they resisted. Nabarone’s assurance that his former friend was loyal didn’t hold water with Trakenburg.  Not if Greeves had survived twenty-three years of captivity by the Krall, and then arrived hale and hearty on a clanship only the Krall could operate.

****

Mirikami looked at the layout of the valleys on a view screen, and saw the only way for the TGs to drive the Dragons, trucks, and plasma cannons to the Mark was to backtrack to the entrance of the valley where the Krall had parked them before turning away from it, towards the Mark. They would be in sight of the clanship for three-quarters of a mile before they could turn behind another ridge that could shield them. That equipment wasn’t as isolated as it had first seemed. The noise and movement would surely be noticed, and at least two of the clanship’s heavy lasers could be brought to bear on them, possibly within a few seconds if anyone was on watch on the clanship’s command deck, but within a minute or two in any case. The heavy plasma cannons would require more time coming online, but that was moot because the lasers were enough against open plasma carts driving away from them.

He shrugged. “We didn’t want to leave this threat on our doorstep in any case, so we may as well use the tools they provided us. We need to knock out that ship and kill the crew. If we let one TG1 learn how a Dragon works, and another one learn to use a plasma battery, then in seconds the full two dozen will know how. We will have three TG1s there shortly. As soon as Carson passes Sarge’s information along, they should all go down to take possession of the equipment and do some driving, followed by some test firing down in the valley as soon as they have the plasma chambers hot, and the barrels warmed.”

Thad was worried. “Won’t that noise alert the Krall? They’ll hear them even if they don’t see who it is.”

“I’d be afraid to let their very first test firing to be at the clanship, when they are exposed to counter fire.” Dillon cautioned.

Mirikami nodded in agreement. “Assuming they can aim and fire a Dragon accurately, I’ll advise them to swing out of the valley grouped together, ready to fire on the clanship’s laser ports at first sight. Then hit the plasma ports, before focusing on individual warriors. Our youngsters know exactly where the ports are located, since they have thoroughly studied our own three ships.”

****

When Conrad and the other twenty TGs arrived, Ethan met them below the peak. He passed the view of the next canyon to them by Tap, without the need for the group to expose themselves on the ridge top. Richard had remained concealed where he could keep an eye on the equipment parked down there. Carson was only a couple of minutes behind them, and provided the information he had gained from Sergeant Reynolds mind.

Carson Linked back to Mirikami before they made their move. “Captain, we are ready for the descent, and Ethan reported no activity in the valley since the last Krall departed, nearly ten minutes ago. We’re starting down.” After the acknowledgement and the expected “good luck” wish, they were ready.

In threes and fours, they went over the top of the rocky ridge top and low crawled rapidly to places that Ethan and Richard had scouted while the others were enroute, which provided cover from potential observers below in case some of the Krall returned.

Richard gave the agreed circled thumb and forefinger of “OK” when he was joined by the others along a half-mile stretch of the ridge top. That signal was passed along the ridge from group to group, to indicate that no new activity had been observed below. Use of elaborate hand signals was one of the “tools” they needed to learn from the professional soldiers here on Poldark.

Carson assigned four TGs to provide sniper cover; spread out along that half mile of ridge, as the other twenty swept down the nine hundred foot steep rock face like reckless mountain goats. As soon as the first twenty were down, four TGs at the bottom provided cover as the last four descended. Ethan and Richard led six other TGs to the eight Dragons; four each were parked along both sides of the valley floor near the rock faces. Ethan and three others rushed rapidly, in long low crouching strides over the open ground of the valley floor, while Richard and his three future tankers provided cover from behind their designated mini tanks.

Carson led twelve TGs to the mobile plasma cannons, all parked on the side closer to where they descended. Four of the last ones down ran to the large trucks, also having to cross the valley floor, with cover provided from those behind the cannons, as the remaining four went to the last four of the sixteen cannons. In less than ninety seconds, two dozen TGs had descended nine hundred feet by hand, reached and surrounded the unattended equipment they were intending to steal, and there was absolutely no opposition.

That didn’t last long.

****

Hortak had negotiated ground transportation for his finger clan, Darpot, from another minor clan in exchange for permitting the other clan to take the lead in a future joint assault on a human defense line. His warriors and slaves would arrive in ten days, which was longer than he had expected, because of the limited roadways through the mountains. The humans had destroyed most bridges and tunnels as they retreated. The larger, equipment rich clans either flew clanships over the mountains, despite the rare losses, or landed their penetrating ships closer to where the offenses would be based. With adequate ground defenses and antimissile protection, they could do this.

Minor clans, with few warriors and ships, could not risk the loss of such a high percentage of their mobility and forces. The Darpot clan was so new that it had only three clanships, and could not replace the two it had sent to Poldark.  They contained most of their war craft material, and ten percent of their warriors. Such a setback would probably force the fledgling clan to be reabsorbed into the parent Mordo clan, and suffer a loss of status for the founding leaders and all of its warriors.

His K’Tals did not know how to create or assemble their underground bunker sections. The extrusion machinery that could make structural elements for domes, slabs for bunker walls, or landing pads for tarmacs, could use local materials, fed to them by excavation equipment. This was slave work, and to order a K’Tal to try to do it, who was in essence a warrior with a technical side specialty, would be to invite death match challenges.

However, Hortak had identified a nearby place, centrally located between multiple valley openings that all radiated away from an isolated hillock. The training bunker could be placed under the hill for the few months of training and local adaptation the small clan would require.

The remainder of the finger clan warriors and their founding high status clan leader would arrive after Hortak had the base operational. He could save time now, and still not impugn the honor of his K’Tals and warriors, if he merely ordered them to drive the construction and building equipment to park them where he’d decided to locate the bunker complex. When the slaves arrived, he would be able to put them to work quickly.

His first order of business of unloading had been to assemble and move the tools of war away from the clanship. They were within range of human missiles, which in cloudy weather could rise above many of the Krall clan laser and plasma defenses at the front lines of conflict. His artillery defenses would be inadequate to handle many fast moving ballistic projectiles, which used multiple warheads. Thus, he had rushed to disperse his most essential war making material. Now the cluster of building equipment could be moved from its location around the clanship. Its ragged and unstealthed appearance on radar or satellite images would resemble a jumbled semi-circle of metallic objects, with a partially stealthed clanship at the center, standing by a cliff face.

When the mobile construction apparatus was out of the way, he intended to close the lower portals for full stealth again, and to carefully hover and maneuver the ship perhaps a mile farther from its present location, staying low.

To demonstrate that he was willing to lead his command in any capacity, he left a K’Tal watch stander on the command deck, and stepped into the driving compartment of an excavator with a large front scoop. He instructed fifteen K’Tals and warriors to drive the remaining mobile equipment and to follow him. He ordered the remaining warriors to shift the crated ammunition, plasma rifles, and body armor to the lower, now vacated decks. That would make billeting of the additional arriving warriors possible on the higher decks, and provide room for the additional food supplies they were also bringing. He was satisfied with his progress thus far, and after a shaky start, he now had an efficiently running training operation started.

That didn’t last long either.

****

The rear hatch of Ethan’s Dragon swung open at his standard “left side” door code key press. He stepped easily into the low tank, passing the two fusion bottles mounted at the rear sloping wall, placed there for ease of replacement. He had to bend over there, and it would be a hands and knees entry for a Krall, in or out of body armor. Under the cupola, he still could not stand upright but there was a bit more headroom. He turned and pressed the touch plates on the two fusion bottles, but nothing happened, as Reynolds had suggested.

He placed a knee in the curved pivoting seat in the center of the compartment floor and repeated the touches. Instantly there was a slight hum and the four view screens lit up in full colored detail of the outside view, with a glow of an unseen light source inside. He pressed the inside keypad and the rear hatch closed. He raised his knee and the power remained on, so he turned and sat down in the oversized cup seat, and looked at the foot controls for driving.

The “shoe” on the foot pedals that Sarge had described was suited for the four large toes and talons of a Krall. However, he found that the end of his foot fit into any of the toe slots, and the short legs of a Krall were compensated for when he could shift his butt farther back in the oversized seat, making room to extend his legs. He found the view screens were several inches above eye level, but when he grasped one, he found it could be pivoted a little, and he angled them all down for better viewing.

The turret and cannon elevation controls were reachable, but required almost full arm extension, due to the longer reach of a Krall. The side laser grips would force him to lean either way to use, and he couldn’t fire both simultaneously. The two forward facing handgrips were well within reach. He grabbed the right side oversized butt grip, and promptly saw that crossbars appeared in the right side of the forward screen, apparently indicating the aiming point. The left grip did the same, and he could actually cross the aiming points of each laser, able to fire to the full left with the right side weapon, and vice versa with the left.

He saw the tank in front of him rotate its turret, and the six-foot plasma cannon traversed towards him, then watched, as it was elevated and depressed. He chastised himself for spending time looking at the secondary weapons at the expense of the main gun. He swung his own turret around, and was impressed with how fast it rotated, and how quietly. The internal hum increased, but only slightly. A different cross hair set with a red circle appeared on first the front screen when he touched either cannon or turret control. As the turret rotated, the red circle moved to the side screen, and the elevation control made it raise and lower with the aiming point.