Koban: Rise of the Kobani (12 page)

With the cannon pointed to the rear, the circle moved to that screen, requiring a difficult turn of the head to see. Obviously, there was a weakness shooting to their rear if they were in motion. Then he noticed that there was a floor ring under where the foot controls were mounted, and another below the turret ring where the hand controls were attached. He looked around the tank for a moment, and then realized that under the front of the cup seat was a small touch plate Sarge had not mentioned.

He tapped that plate and was startled when his entire seat, hand and foot control pedals rotated to face the rear. He could drive facing the rear and still select a target. He tapped the under-seat pad again, and the entire apparatus rotated to the front again, leaving the turret facing where it had been.

He checked his thumbnail watch, and saw that the first ten minutes had almost expired. That was all the time they had permitted themselves, to get familiar with the tank’s turret and cannon controls, power plants, and targeting systems.

Next, they were to pivot in place and face into the valley center. Unfortunately, only he, Carson and Conrad had transducers for Link communications. They had not thought to bring hand held transmitters, and didn’t have enough of those on the Mark anyway. That meant six of the tank drivers were unable to talk to their fellows. They were supposed to drive cautiously to the center of the valley floor, and then turn and line up facing the open end where the Krall had entered. Then shut down the tanks, open the hatches, get out and talk things over.

Everyone would be Mind Tapping with the three TG1s to learn how the Dragons and mobile plasma cannons worked. The four TGs checking out the three armored transports had a less vital task, because those driving controls were said to match that of the trucks and halftracks they had all learned to operate on Koban.

Ethan cautiously, and simultaneously, pulled back his right foot, and pushed forward his left foot, and felt the Dragon stir to life under him. There was a mild vibration and the images on the screens, all four of them, drifted left, as if he were looking through a rectangular window that was a foot and a half wide, and one foot tall. When he sighted the four tanks on the other side of the valley, he noticed two of them were facing him already, and the other two were slowly turning as he watched. He cautiously pushed both pedals forward, and the mini tank rocked a bit as it moved over an uneven bit of ground at only a few miles per hour. Conrad’s assigned tank, directly in front of Ethan, jumped forward, the front rising suddenly, and just as quickly rocked down in the front as he came to a sudden stop. Jerky, to say the least.

Ethan Linked to him. “A little rocky there, Conrad. Here’s how it’s done.”  He applied harder pressure on his pedals only to feel a lurch forwards, causing him suddenly to draw his feet back, briefly causing his tank to reverse a few feet, and rocking its nose down.

Conrad had a ready retort, and a chuckle. “Ah. So
that’s
how you would bury the nose of the cannon in the dirt! Thanks. Apparently I just wasn’t trying hard enough.”

“Wow. Sensitive suckers.” Ethan acknowledged, watching other new drivers do much the same thing. “I think the small amount of movement to jump ahead that fast implies a pretty high top speed.”

Conrad informed him, “I just figured out that a toe push versus shoving down with my whole foot and leg provides finer control.” That fact was demonstrated as his tank smoothly rolled forward and made a gentle turn towards the end of the valley.

Following that advice, Ethan did the same, and managed, with a bit of reversal, to align his Dragon with Conrad’s, about thirty feet apart. When his attention shifted from the side view of the other tank to the forward screen, he saw some of the plasma batteries swinging out of their parking spots, and driving around smoothly, their cannons rotating left and right, and changing elevation. Clearly, they were easier to drive for a novice than the tanks, and he saw Carson wave at him from an open cockpit as he drove his way.

Ethan and Conrad, because they could Link, had placed themselves in line so they would be able to lead the other Dragons in two short columns, with the other tank drivers keying on their coordinated movements. It was obvious that not all of them had figured out the fine speed control using their toes, when Ethan felt and heard a bang as the Dragon behind him bumped him. That should be Nola.  She quickly backed away, and made a rapid stop, the tank rocking back as she did so. He suppressed a laugh, because if Conrad hadn’t given him the clue to fine speed control, that could have been him running into Conrad.

He set his turret straight forward, lowering the barrel to horizontal, and awkwardly got out of the too deep seat and opened his rear hatch. He could see Carson parking his mobile plasma battery between him and Conrad on his left side screen. He left both power bottles connected, since the next step was to share data, then one Dragon and one plasma battery would take a practice shot. As the second in command by age seniority, that tank shot would be his, and Carson would be first to fire his pair of lighter cannons.

Afterwards, they would quickly share their experiences by Tap. With just the two test shots, it was hoped they could minimize the noise before they charged out of the valley to attack the clanship. Noises made driving over the rocky ground might be drowned out if the Krall were doing the same, but the zing,
CRASH
, and blue-white actinic flash of plasma cannons was going to be a
bit
more detectable.

The eight new “tankers” gathered near Carson, to receive his Tap on cannon battery operation, and he would in turn get the freshly generated mental “Dragon User’s Manual.”

“Wait a moment,” Ethan said. “I think us
Dragon riders
should commune first, since some of us have figured out things the others did not, like Conrad discovered about fine speed control, so we need to combine the lessons.”

The other six circled Ethan and Conrad and did the group hand stack to share the common gestalt. The overall Dragon complexity was not great, and they hit on a common mental memory of the most efficient driving methods found in less than two minutes. There would be enough time to adjust the process later, after they had practical experience.

Ethan turned back towards Carson when he and the other “Dragon riders” suddenly froze. The sound of the wheels of the other practicing cart drivers had done to them exactly what they had hoped would happen to the Krall. Their sounds covered the noise of approaching machinery.

The “freeze” in TGs lasted all of a hundredth of a second, as the tank drivers whirled and raced to their tanks. Carson, instantly understanding something behind him was wrong, shouted to the other TGs as he whirled to look over his shoulder.

Trundling into view was the leading part of a large gray colored metal scoop, as it passed from behind the rounded edge of the more widely sloped valley opening, almost a mile away. The operator would be able to look down the valley in a few seconds, and the Dragons and mobile cannons were not parked where they had been. In fact, a dozen cannons were in motion. That warrior would be able to report the intruders to the clanship, and that they were human.

Carson Linked to Ethan and Conrad as they dove into their nearby Dragons. “Go after the clanship, I’ll organize against whatever is coming.” He whirled his cart about as the remaining TGs, seeing where the others had looked, or hearing the new sound as it funneled along the valley, spotted the full front half of what humans would recognize as a variation on a large front loader excavator.

The surprise of the Krall driver, even at this distance, was comically evident. He looked casually down the valley, and suddenly leaped to his feet, unslinging a plasma rifle. Carson had beat him to the first shot by half a second, but the flash apparently forewarned the Krall, who dropped enough for the bolt to pass through the recently vacated location of its head.

Damn! I should have aimed for the center of mass,
thought Carson.
I’d have a hit.

The big machine continued forward, starting a right turn into the valley. The operator was now crouching behind the heavy lift mechanism and the scoop, out of sight.

Carson saw several more rifle bolts from the other TGs strike the cab area, keeping the warrior’s head down with accurate fire. Not assuming the Krall would be unable to get off a return shot, he kept his own head behind the heavy shield of the plasma cannon, watching the video feed instead. He was driving in what at first glance might seem to be reverse. However, the wheels that steered the cart were on the opposite end from where the driver stood at the controls. This was to let the operator drive at his target in relative safety behind the shield, and use the electronic view screen to see in front, and to place a red circle on the target before pressing the trigger. Which Carson did just then, in his first “test” of his twin barreled plasma cannon. Everyone’s first test shot would have to be in combat.

The double bolt, far more potent than his rifle’s bolt, slammed at a glancing angle on the side where he thought the motor compartment would be, attempting to bring it to a stop. Instead, the machine completed a hard turn and continued to roll, despite the heavily seared marks on its metal side.

As his two plasma chambers replenished together, Carson knew he should have fired single bolts at a time to maintain a higher rate of fire. He would have at least ten seconds to wait now, a long time in a firefight with such weapons.

Other construction equipment was rounding the end of the valley now, none of it was Dragons or cannons, but there were plasma bolts from rifles splattering off his and the other shields now. One managed to hit his video camera, surely not an accidental shot. The Krall knew how to make it more difficult for users of these carts, because they knew their design well. If he looked around the left or right shield edge to shoot, he made a target of his head.

The other batteries were firing at the construction equipment, but as the Krall spread across the wider valley opening, the open cockpit design of the cannon carts would soon expose the operators to plasma rifle fire from the flanks if they continued to close with the enemy. Carson fired a single cannon bolt at a Krall he could see hanging from the side of his machine, avoiding fire from another direction. Without the targeting pip, he missed the warrior, but killed the machine when it suddenly stopped moving. There were frequent rifle bolts passing by his shield mere inches from the edges on the left and right, hoping to catch him looking around either side for a target. Instead, he crouched on the top of his console, quickly raised his head and rifle for a quick snap shot, and took down the warrior he’d missed a moment ago with the bigger gun.

Now there were shots passing just over the shield top as well, so he had to try to keep his head down or face the possibility of having it shot off. He wondered how the Krall were getting off shots so fast and accurate. He was unknowingly learning of the Krall battlefield memory capability. They took one look at the scene, and kept a mental picture of where targets were. They could fire blindly and accurately a number of times before they needed to look again.

He used a bit of that tactic, as he made a lightning fast peek around the top left shield edge, rapidly shifted rotation and elevation of his cannon, fired a single bolt, and sheared a front axle of the first tractor they had seen. The large right front wheel dropped off, and it came to a halt as it slewed to the side.

He was so focused on his own fight that Carson was unaware that the TGs behind him were picking up cues from his efforts. They also were disabling more of the heavy equipment, and had picked off two more Krall. However, following Carson’s thoughtless example, they too were racing towards the widely spread Krall, who would soon have firing angles from the sides, at the humans who were only shielded from the front.

The Krall drivers of the broken down machines were taking shelter behind the heavier denser parts. The lack of an enclosed shelter for the TG operators prevented the plasma cannon carts from advancing faster or closer. Clearly, this sort of frontal assault wasn’t the proper tactical use they were intended to have.

In a few minutes, they had immobilized all of what could only be called construction machinery, and the dozen or more surviving drivers had good enough cover that all the exposed plasma batteries could do was blast away at their shelter until it was eventually reduced to scraps. The clanship was certainly alerted by now.

Where are our Dragons?
Carson wondered.

He no more had the thought than the rapid sound of treads crushing gravel filled his ears. He had been focused on stopping the incoming Krall and equipment, while Ethan and Conrad had been Linked, sharing a plan. They used the minutes to practice a few high-speed runs and steering in their Dragons, and then they both raced over to the shelter of the three armored transports. Standing behind them for cover were four TGs that were taking pot shots at the mile distant Krall.

Each Dragon pivoted as they skidded to a halt, and backed up to place their rear hatches behind the cover of the big machines and, opened the hatches. They shouted to the TGs to get aboard, two to each Dragon. It was only slightly cramped, and both the TG1 drivers Mind Tapped the new arrivals to brief them on tank features, and what they intended to do.

As they roared past Carson, now motionless on the front-most battery, they were up to nearly fifty miles per hour, and picking up speed. The other six Dragons were slower to chase after the leaders because they didn’t know
what
they were planning. Neither did Carson.