Koban: Rise of the Kobani (13 page)

Carson assumed the two of them were just going to race out into view of the clanship and trade punches. They were going to be heavily outgunned with just the two of them for almost a minute, before the other tanks caught up. The clanship had larger plasma cannons that might be ready to fire by now, and heavy lasers. He looked back to see the other six Dragons starting after them, confused by the lack of coordination. The inability to Link with everyone was proving to be a severe problem.

As the two Dragons approached the disabled equipment, they suddenly slowed, and swung around and between some of the tractors, one skidding right, the other left. Suddenly laser fire lanced out simultaneously from both sides and the front of each tank, taking down Krall that either had to face their withering fire, or step around the sides to face the plasma batteries and their operator’s plasma rifles. Some did both and in short order there were only two Krall still firing. One of those was the first warrior to spot the activity in the shelter of the valley, staying hidden behind the scoop of his broken excavator.

****

Hortak, when he first looked at their equipment in the valley wondered why his K’Tals had parked the tanks and plasma batteries so haphazardly. It was a shock to see that there were humans standing among them and he was stunned to see that the plasma cannon batteries were in motion! The humans here were somehow stealing some of his clan’s equipment. He leaped to his feet and ripped the rifle slung over his back into firing position, just as he saw a bright pinpoint spot of light, rather than a short streak, the evidence a plasma bolt was being aimed directly at his face. He flung himself down just before the heat of the beam scorched past the side of his head.

The infrared glow of the magnetic confinement field extended a foot or two beyond the pulse rifle barrel, which slightly preceded the plasma bolt. That was all that saved his life. If that early glow is a slight streak or smear, it isn’t aimed directly at you. A tight point of infrared light means the forming bolt is aimed at your head.

It was a fine shot for even a Krall at that distance, with the shooter’s motion and that of the target to consider, so it was obviously pure luck for any human. He was prepared to fire at the human again from concealment, when the prey animal steering the same battery
actually made it fire.

He saw the larger infrared flash first. The impact and heat on the tractor’s side were powerful, but nothing compared to the staggering shock he felt as he realized a Krall
weapon
had been used by a
human
! It hadn’t registered a moment earlier that the carts were moving, using a motor system that a human should not be able to activate. In a flash of insight, he knew that his K’Tals had not carelessly parked the mini-tanks in the center of the valley. The humans somehow had control of those as well.

He turned his excavator towards an immeasurably more dangerous enemy than he’d ever expected to face here. Never in the histories, not since the last of the Olt’kitapi died, had an alien been able to bypass their weapons security.

He used his com button to warn the warriors following behind him of the danger, and ordered them to attack and destroy the humans at any cost. He contacted Tebrol, the K’Tal he left as a watch stander, and ordered her to open the laser and plasma cannon ports, and initiate the ten minutes of heating for the plasma beam chambers, and preheating the ceramic cannon barrels. He was furious to learn that the K’Tal had descended to assist warriors that were struggling to assemble an artillery defense platform and had asked for her assistance. She instantly started racing back to the ship, and up through the many decks, but there would be additional minutes of delay to produce the plasma beams that were the most serious threat he could offer to crack a Dragon’s ceramic skin. He had no missiles aboard, expecting no battle situation to require them, so he had to hold the humans pinned in this valley until the ship’s plasma weapons were ready.

As the humans sporadically fired the cannons and advanced on his mixture of machinery, he clearly saw they were unfamiliar with the weapons, because they were using them so ineffectively. They fired both cannons together most of the time, rather than using the second barrel to follow up on a vulnerability, which the first blast might temporarily produce. The firing rate was lower as well, giving his warriors an opportunity to expose themselves more often for counter fire. Rather than line the batteries up and standoff to use massed concentrated fire, they were moving into closer range of his warrior’s plasma rifles, riding in open driving compartments. Soon they would be unable to remain hidden behind the gun shields at close range, as his forces spread across the wider valley mouth. If his warriors could kill the human operators and recapture four or five of those weapons, they would teach the humans how to use them efficiently. Even the Dragons were vulnerable to massed fire and tread breakage from these lighter cannons, if flash heated too rapidly.

The closest battery was the first he wanted to capture, and he directed three other warriors to concentrate fire at its shield edges. He used their pressure to take careful aim where he knew the gun sight camera was placed, and turned that spot into slag. That would keep the human from seeing the approaching danger, and prevent him from firing back effectively.

Only he was more daring then Hortak expected, and much faster. He flashed a look over the top of the shield from a height too high for even a Krall to see over. He had jumped up or stood on the control panel of the rolling machine. The accurate cannon shot that followed proved that the glimpse was enough to improve his aim. However, he foolishly continued to close the gap. He could be picked off from the sides soon, returning his weapon to Krall control. The other humans behind him appeared to follow his lead. Good! They would die too, while Hortak retained enough warriors to turn the tide of battle. He noted that he had lost at least three warriors of the sixteen that had accompanied him, but four warriors using recaptured cannons could hold the tanks here until the clanship had plasma weapons ready, and could lift.

He saw the human’s head appear again, too briefly for his warrior’s fire to adjust. Suddenly, the weapon he wanted to recapture personally, lowered its barrels at his machine, and he moved to place his body behind the protection of the front heavy steel scoop. The blue-white flash was accompanied by a sudden wrenching of the excavator, and it dropped down in the front on one side, and slid to a twisting halt. He was flung upwards and forward by that, and had to twist in midair to land feet first behind the scoop, amid its lifting arms, pistons, and levers. At least he had additional cover here, since the machine wasn’t going to move again.

He raised his rifle to seek a human target as the stupid cart drivers continued coming his way. That was fortunate, because now it appeared that all of the construction equipment was down, and they needed the enemy to continue to close with them. Just a little farther would be enough.

He had noticed in the background that the mini-tanks, far from getting involved in the fighting as they should have, appeared to mill about, perhaps not firing their heavier plasma guns because of the sixteen weaving carts between them and their targets. They did not appear to know any more about using the Dragons than they did the plasma batteries. It seemed like they were doing driving practice. At least two of them were, as they raced around, and suddenly both almost collided with the big transports, in a fast sliding maneuver that backed up to two of them.

It could have been dismissed as a coincidence, but they did that in perfect concert, and both reversed a short distance behind the front cab sections and halted. He knew there were humans in those locations, too remote and poorly placed to offer effective fire on his warriors. Perhaps they were picking them up in a rescue, as humans inexplicably often did. That could mean they were about to retreat, flee the battlefield down the valley as he knew humans also did, frequently before the outcome was fully decided. Of course, the outcome was always a Krall victory.

Instead of running in the opposite direction, the two Dragons accelerated at maximum towards the crippled Krall machinery. It appeared they were going to run right out into the open, where the clanship should be able to fire on them!

He alerted the K’Tal, Tebrol, to stand ready to fire. She confirmed the Plasma was not ready yet, but the lasers were on line.

Then, unpredictable as humans always were, the Dragons flashed past his position, but were no longer accelerating. They suddenly applied braking and turned to pass behind the scattered wrecked machines, weaving among them as
all
eight
of their combined lasers started firing. That was something no two handed creature could do, fire four individual hand operated weapons at once.  Suddenly, a turret plasma burst vaporized a warrior that made a run for one of the nearby batteries, apparently trying to recapture at least one.
That
was the reason they had stopped to pick up their clan mates, to provide more trigger fingers.

In seconds, he knew of only one other warrior still firing. The tanks had never passed beyond the mouth of the valley, and had killed nearly all of his remaining force. There were not very many humans involved here. Even a sixteen-to-one ratio was normally too few for a human advantage. He’d seldom heard stories of human successes in battle, but he just had the dishonor of witnessing one here. He was on the verge of calling Tebrol to reluctantly report his shameful defeat, and order her, whom had left her post when he needed her instant support, to lift off and come
rescue
him.

He’d almost rather die fighting. The
almost
was conditioned by the knowledge that a capture of one of these humans alive was vital. They needed to discover how human technology had defeated the Olt’kitapi quantum encryption, which had worked securely for over twenty-two thousand years against older and more advanced races. It was supposed to be unbreakable.

On a general frequency that his clan used, he discovered the other bewildered survivor was an experienced warrior, a participant on many human world raids. Gentot wanted to die in a valiant charge against this enemy, rather than suffer the loss of all status points if the clanship saved them.

Hortak was explaining why they needed to capture a human alive from this group, to report to their clan elders this dangerous new capability. He ordered Gentot to wait and join with him in trying to secure a live human, when Tebrol lifted off and attacked from the air. A live human prize could save their status when they extracted information.

Then his fondest wish, at that particular moment anyway, was answered in the form of a shouted offer from a human.

“Hey, lizard lips. If you throw down your guns, I’ll fight you man to Krall, bare handed. If I win, you get to live a little longer. If I lose, you die.”

That sounded like some convoluted and inverted logic to Hortak, but he had not learned the human language to use it only on cowardly people dying under interrogation. Any delay could be useful, while the humans were gathered all together here.

“Then we both would die, because I would surely kill you. I think your clan mates would kill me in revenge.”

“That’s what I think would happen too, if you got lucky and won. You will not get lucky. How about if I make the offer better? I alone will face you and the other warrior in a challenge match, two warriors against one human, but not empty handed. We will use Krall made pistols, I have two, and I assume you each have at least one.”

“We do have them. However, human honor is strange. The contest is not easy to arrange because one of your clan mates will break honor and shoot us from hiding if we expose ourselves.”

“Then I will offer you my personal handshake as a guarantee that none of my clan mates are allowed to shoot either of you, so long as I live. I will approach you armed with my two pistols, my rifle on my back, and offer the human gesture of a handshake, in exchange for the challenge match.”

“We accept. I am Hortak, and the other warrior is under my command, and is called Gentot.”

“My name is Carson. The warrior is under your command you said. Are you the commander of the clanship as well?”

“Yes.”

“Does Gentot speak Standard and understand what we will do?”

“He speaks few of your words. I will explain the challenge. He can understand that, if not why you want this, and I predict he will be pleased to participate in your death.”

“Great! So long as all of us are happy. Tell me when he understands that I will walk to you.” A moment passed.

“He understands now, human Carson.” Hortak had explained exactly what he wanted Gentot to do.

“Coming over to you.”

Carson stepped from behind the plasma cannon cart, and started walking quickly towards the wrecked excavator, glancing periodically to where the other Krall remained hidden. After his Link with Ethan and Conrad, both of whom argued with him against a repeat showdown with a Krall, he knew they had four tank guns aimed at that warrior if he made a wrong move. The handshake was the entire purpose behind this charade. Of course, the young restless cowboy spirit in Carson was perfectly ready to go through with the gunfight.

He stepped around the scoop, with his hands apparently relaxed by his sides, a plasma rifle slung across his shoulder. “Hortak, I presume? If I discard my rifle, will you do the same?”