Koban: Rise of the Kobani (77 page)

After a suitable warning to onlookers, who all had retreated inside the dome, Jakob did a brief count down, and initiated the launch.

The main thruster and the eight attitude thrusters all ignited at maximum power, and the brilliant exhaust blast was the practical equivalent of a directed explosive. The hot thruster forces ripped small chunks from the resilient tarmac surface, as the Mark seemed to leap into the sky on an intense column of blue-white plasma. They tore through the atmosphere in a roar that rapidly went hypersonic. The heated streak of their trail began to collapse back as they forced their way through the upper atmosphere, the thunderclap of a near vacuum column formed behind them slamming shut, adding to the sonic booms at the nose and tail. They were out of the atmosphere in under a minute, then when they were out of the gravity well, the secondary tachyon Trap snared the first energetic particle from T- squared space, and they had power for their Normal Space reactionless gravity drive.

That
was when the hard acceleration was applied. The reaction thrusters had been at their design limits before, in atmosphere, but they were shut down now. The Mark leaped ahead at almost two hundred and eighty-five gravities externally and at nearly thirty uncompensated gravities internally. All of the TG2s were struggling to push blood to their brains with abdominal muscle contractions, as Jakob monitored the sensors of every crewmember for problems. There was a reduction of external acceleration to lower the internal, uncompensated acceleration to twenty-six g’s, to ease the strain on a number of people on the verge of losing consciousness.

The high level of acceleration was sustained for a minute, and then reduced to only twelve g’s internally for another minute. The relief felt at the big step down was instant. The purpose of the highest g forces was to give everyone the experience of how it might feel when or if they found themselves in combat with Krall crewed clanships. Krall ships couldn’t match that same performance because of the designed acceleration restrictions the Olt’kitapi had built into the clanship controls. Those safety limiters had been removed from the human ships by the Torki. The limits now were what the humans inside could sustain after the inertial compensation had done its best, and was monitored by the AI.

That acceleration level was a significantly greater force than Krall warriors could endure and remain awake and functioning. If needed, Jakob could control and fight the ship with most or all of its crew and passengers blacked out.

Mirikami ordered the acceleration backed down as soon as they had matched the orbital velocity of the clan world they were intending to raid for supply clanships. The primary Trap field caught a far more energetic tachyon, and they formed an event horizon and rotated into a Jump Hole, reaching the second dimensional level of Tachyon Space.

“OK, Colonel,” Mirikami spoke to Trakenburg, who occupied a spare couch on the Bridge. “We now have three days in the hole. I suggest your men Mind Tap and teach a few more of the flight crews what you’ll be doing. They may have to get involved and help you out if things get hairy on that planet when we get there.”

“Tet, if we go in sneaky, there shouldn’t be trouble,” he rebutted.

“Our White Out gamma rays can’t be concealed, you obviously know that. We could exit behind a gas giant to hide our burst, but that clearly looks suspicious when we come out from behind. A lone clanship popping out in orbit shouldn’t raise any alarm. We aren’t stealthed from
their
sensors in any case, and I don't see a benefit from even activating that capability when they would detect that if we tried. When we land at a dome, they certainly will visually see us come down. We could make landfall at some distance from the target dome, but they might get curious as to why we landed in the boondocks.”

Trakenburg’s sneaky remark prompted a belated comment. “Frank, I thought you and Joe had decided to simply use the new suits invisibility mode to boldly walk across the tarmac to the parked ships, with the flight crews in their suits tagging along well behind to stay clear of any shooting.”

Trakenburg nodded. “That
is
the primary mode of infiltration we considered. However, if we could get in quieter, without the Mark being seen or heard, it might mean we get out with
all
of the ships we need before they even know we are there.  We spec ops types like it when we can get in and out that way.”

“OK. We’ll see what the layout is when we arrive, how many ships there are per dome. As I know you are aware, I have the two Krall design shuttles that can fly you in low and covertly from a remote landing site, if that seems best.”

“I agree. We put more emphasis on the actual ship take over’s than the insertion process this week. We’re using two men to ascend per ship as your youngsters did on K1, and the three-person flight crew to act as door guards below. We have the kids Mind Tap experiences from K1 and on Poldark as guidelines, and because that sort of technique wasn’t even possible for us before our gene upgrades, we’ll largely follow their example until we find ways to improve. Two of my men have elected to retain use of the Booster Suits to evaluate how they perform in the field with TG2 abilities. Each man is paired with someone not wearing a Booster Suit.”

Mirikami was curious. “My own armor fits rather snug. I didn’t know there was enough room inside for the added bulk of those other suits.”

Trakenburg waggled a hand with splayed fingers to indicate there were pros and cons. “We found that the armor has a limited adjustment capability. Apparently, in case the owner bulks up more or losses some weight. When we clamshell closed, the armor’s seams can extrude or retract at the edges, enough for a snug fit with the Booster Suit bulk if we wear them. I don’t think I’ll be wearing mine much anyway. Before, my Booster felt like a powerful second skin to me, but now it seems to slow me down. You give up some significant speed for a little more power.”

For two of the three days of transit, armored men and women were flipping up and down stairwells, practicing. Other than the slight sound of their passage and some degree of visual distortion to the naked eye, they were unseen, even to the ripper level of vision. That is unless the observer was wearing their own helmet, with its suit ID mode synchronized with those suits and activated. Mirikami ordered all suits aboard to be set up this way, in case anyone needed to find or help another otherwise invisible member of the crew.

On the third day, an hour before White Out, Mirikami ordered everyone into armor, even if not expected to participate in the ground action. Aside from making them available as a ready force if needed, the suits doubled as airtight protection if they took any penetrating hull hits if the operation went bad while in vacuum.

When the outside universe reappeared, they were roughly a thousand miles out from the largely tan world with mostly red and orange vegetation, already moving in the right direction to establish a nearly circular orbit. The clan world orbited a reddish-colored star, much closer in than was the case for brighter and hotter stars. The AI quickly located several Krall domes on this hemisphere, with three continents visible, one dome on each. It was obvious yet again that the Krall, even when it was a finger clan with a low planetary population, didn’t care for crowding and close proximity to neighbors.

Two of the domes were smaller than the typical size, indicating a small warrior population at those sites. There was a single clanship parked on each dome’s modest half-mile diameter tarmac, and one dome had two shuttles parked near the larger ship. The largest of the three domes was a bit smaller than the Prime City dome on Koban, but would have room for a population of twenty or thirty thousand Krall, except, there was only three clanships there, and a shuttle. That might suggest that there were less than three thousand Krall living there, or that they had departed for a raid or were at war on Poldark.

The Mark, receiving no challenge or calls, continued its orbit. In thirty minutes, a fourth dome, on what proved to be the largest continent came into view. It was a coastal location, and was the size of Hub City, the largest dome on Koban, and capable of housing twenty thousand Krall without any crowding. It also probably meant that there was a Torki lodge nearby, and a Prada village in the local forest and an underground manufacturing center below the dome.

The most interesting and exciting observation was the twenty-six clanships parked on the mile wide tarmac ring around the big dome. That was a bonanza of ships, if unwatched and unguarded. They made several orbits to observe for a time.

Finally, Mirikami decided he didn’t want to make another orbit if he didn’t need to do so. “Frank, you’ve seen the main assemblage of ships. The dozen we want are there, and we have crews to fly them. There hasn’t been a launch or landing of a clanship on the entire planet since we entered orbit two hours ago. Jakob reports intensive training activity in camps on all four continents, located within a hundred miles of each of the four domes. It appears the Torki and Prada predictions of extensive novice training were accurate.

“The choice of where to get the ships is obvious, Frank. My question to you is do you want me to shuttle you and the flight crews over from a remote location, or land near the dome and you walk across the ramp?”

“My men and the forty-five crew members would require five or six round trips total, divided between your two shuttles. That would increase the chance of being noticed anyway with so much ground activity. The big novice training camp is only ten miles from the main dome, and they have octet level activity spread all around the area. The novices might not be suspicious, but their trainers could be. Even if armed with only pistols and plasma rifles, there has to be ten thousand trigger happy, young warrior hopefuls running around, with an equal number of trainers.” The decision was obvious.

“Take us down to the dome. Right in the middle of the hornet’s nest.”

“I’ll set down in the center of a cluster of clanships, and only open the portal on the side away from the dome, with the ramp left retracted. They probably won’t question why no one got out if they don’t see a door open. Your people will have to clear multiple ships with just your five two-man teams. I’m assuming you and Joe are on a team?”

“We’ll be paired with one of the other men, not with each other, in case one of our two leadership teams went down. But yes, we get to work a ship or two ourselves. Ideally we won’t fire a shot.”

The Mark twisted to drop down from orbit, using power as a Krall commander might do, rather than follow a more energy efficient slow descent using atmospheric drag. The dome came into view on the screen as an icon, from around the curve of the planet. They soon flipped to a tail first approach and powered their way down in a typical waste of fuel most Krall pilots employed.

At this low level of acceleration, only four g’s, Trakenburg unstrapped and went below, to join his men and the flight crews on the lowest deck. When he trotted down the last flight of stairs, Joe handed him a plasma rifle, which he attached to the power and targeting umbilical cord. On his command, everyone in the hold activated their armor’s stealth mode, and all of the men going outside rippled into invisibility, including the ten rifles the spec ops carried.

Then Joe Longstreet’s disembodied voice on speaker called out, “You six gawkers down here with us either need to climb up a level, or activate your stealth! Even if they can’t see
us
when the portal opens, you’ll stand out like sore thumbs. You can’t plan to stay hidden behind one of the Dragons the whole time.  Pass the word. So long as a portal is open, nobody moves down here unless stealthed.”

Suddenly, the hold looked largely empty, except for some cases stacked to the sides and strapped down to deck anchor points, and the four equally secured one-man Dragons they brought for the raid on CS1. Joe’s voice returned. “If we call for any of those cases to be carried out, don’t forget to plug your umbilical into them before you move them, to make them invisible.”

Mirikami’s voice came to the entire ship’s complement. “One mile up. I’m sending everyone a feed from the scene outside, channel two. I’ll keep that channel visual active after landing, looking in the same direction of portal three, which is the one you will be opening for the exit. That one faces away from the dome.”

There was a sound of the landing jacks absorbing the ship’s weight as the thrusters were cut, and their weight cut to .85 g’s in the lighter gravity.

Trakenburg stepped to portal three, and looked around the hold before pressing the codded keys. He saw the ghostly images of every suit of armor on his visor, with a designator that could provide specifics on each person if he thought about their icon. He pressed the four-digit combination, which they kept simple, but different from what the Krall typically used. The Torki had ensured that keypads on human ships wouldn’t work for a Krall. Quantum encryption had favored them long enough.

The heavy door whisked up in its usual manner, revealing a pale pink sky with the red sun hidden around the curve of the hull. The nine clanships in view had a ruddy pallor from the reflected light, and all seemed closed and deserted. There were no Krall in sight, and less than a quarter of a mile away was pale orange-red grass at the edge of the tarmac, with red and orange leaves on clumps of shrubbery sprinkled around. Despite appearing to be the advent of sunset, here it was actually early morning, with the local sun still low on the horizon.

The ten spec ops jumped lightly the fifteen feet to the ground in pairs, each man pivoting to cover the side away from his partner. They left their plasma rifles hanging from the straps that supported them in front, and used their helmet target designators to look for threats and zoom in on anything of interest. The flight crews would stay in the hold until cleared to disembark.