He heard Cal’s suit speaker bugling and trumpeting, with slight strains of bagpipe notes, asking the Thandol trooper something. His own subroutine translated. “Where is the Emperor and his court?”
There was a defiant reply. “I will die killing you base animals. The Emperor is where you can never harm him.”
Cal looked at Jorl in confusion, and by Comtap asked him, “Was sublevel 1100 what you got from his mind? Damn, that’s deep. This palace is really dug in if it goes that far down.”
Jorl ran the number through a Quaternary to Decimal number conversion. “It’s still deep, but they have a base four number system. That converts to level 80 in decimal.”
Jorl said, “It’s my turn. Let me ask him the other thing Tet wanted to know.”
He phrased it in Standard, but it was issued from his suit speaker in Thandol. “Are the Olt’kitapi prisoners kept here?”
There was a widening of the trooper’s eyes, and a pause before he asked, “What are they?”
Cal laughed. “He’s bad at lying. He pretended he didn’t know who they were. But he knows about the food brought in for them. Unfortunately, he really doesn’t know where they are kept. However, I see from the insignia on his headpiece that he’s low ranking. I’ll find out where a superior is located that might know.”
After that question was asked, Cal passed the information to the other Kobani from the Avenger contingent, and in a matter of minutes, and a couple of dozen dead and wounded Thandol security troopers later, they had a firmer answer from a watch commander of the Imperial Guard, who lost a trunk before being disarmed.
“Tet, this is Cal. You came in at the top of the palace heap, but what you want is underground. The Emperor is at sublevel 80 in decimal numbers, and the Olt’kitapi are kept at level 96. I don’t recommend you use any of their elevator systems, since they’re all monitored, and equipped with remote activated defensive measures. The numbers are marked in Thandol script at each landing level, on ramps that spiral down around the elevators from the Emperor’s sleeping chamber, where you started. The script numbers will correspond to their digits 1100 for the Emperor’s hospital level, and level 1200 for the Olt’kitapi prisoners.
“From the officer we questioned, there are less than two thousand of the prisoners still alive. They killed and mutilated thousands of adults and caterpillar forms when they tried to force them to record or make a public statement granting the Empire rights to their former worlds. They refused, and many of them died over a lengthy period. Those Olt’kitapi never heard of us, but their delaying the Empire’s ambitions worked to our advantage, allowing us time to form the Federation, and consolidate a little after the Krall were defeated.”
“Cal, which forces were involved with killing and torturing the Olt’kitapi?”
“The palace security forces did it, most of which are also in the Imperial Guard.”
“OK. No more taking it easy on security forces and uniformed Imperial Guards. If they shoot at us, shoot to kill. Accept surrenders, if any, but every officer taken alive will be Mind Tapped, and will go down with us, leading the way on the ramps. I might muzzle and tie some up and put them on elevators to see if they have automated booby traps. There also must be back doors out of those deep levels. When we find where they lead, we’ll place blocking forces.”
Noreen wondered if the goal had changed. “The Emperor’s probably going to resist capture. You told Foxworthy you wanted Farlol left alive.”
“I still do, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going confront him personally.”
“While he’s in quarantine? What about infection?”
“We don’t eat grass or have multiple stomachs for the parasites to go through their life cycles. The Hothor told us the subservient species on Wendal were never at risk, and neither are we. Besides, I don’t plan to hug him or change his diaper.”
“How many are you taking down with you?” Her son, Carson, would likely be one of them. She hoped a lot of Kobani went along.
“Most of my contingent. There’s been little resistance up on the top levels. If you and the other ships gather the alien servants for evacuation, and hold the perimeter of the palace compound, we know our backs are protected.”
“You got it.”
****
The blasts, from eight or ten levels below the surface, was adequate to confirm the wisdom of their avoidance of the large multi-Thandol sized lifts. It wasn’t such great news for the four Thandol security officers that made the rides down. As it happened, the four elevators from the Imperial quarters had AIs that steadfastly refused to activate if a non-Thandol was even aboard. Not that any human intended to ride along anyway. Someone reached inside each car and pressed a muzzled trunk tip of a secured Thandol against the activation plate, after first selecting level 1100.
“I guess it’s comforting that the watch stander didn’t lie about that.” Ethan offered.
“Like Hell, he didn’t,” countered Sarge. “His Mind Tap told the truth, his lying trunks got him killed.”
That officer was aboard one of the four elevators that had triggered the detonations. An extended string of Kobani were now descending on equipment maintenance ramps, well off to the side of the large shaft used by the royal elevators, and their emergency use ramps. Two high ranking Security Officers were being manhandled and pushed down the ramps ahead of the Kobani. It turned out that their flywhisk tails were sensitive to the touch of insects, making them suitable Mind Tap contact points. If they became agitated or fearful of what lay ahead, that was warning of some sort of anti-intrusion measures.
The first set of deterrents, inside the entrance to the maintenance shaft, had caused all seven of the surviving Thandol prisoners to cringe at what they expected to be the cause of their painful deaths. Instead, holding the Thandol well back, two Kobani walked inside and triggered the two automated Debilitater transmitters. They used plasma bolts to blast the antennas and both transmitters, to clear the way.
Once they were twenty or so levels below where the parallel shaft detonations had been triggered, one of the two lead Thandol officers blithely walked into a deadly trap. The previously soft textured floor plates had changed to metal mesh some levels earlier, and when his second front foot pad touched down, the electrified plates activated with brilliant sparks from his armored boots, which were insulated on the inside and caused him no harm. However, two heavy lasers, concealed inside the wall of the next turn, lanced out and cut easily through his draped body armor, slicing him into four cauterized chunks of meat that fell apart onto the mesh and fried there.
The other Thandol officer, apparently pretending the corner turn made the angle too tight for both big bodies to pass at once held back, and was spared. Carson had its tail held in his right gauntlet, and had released the other tail from his left gauntlet when the now dead Thandol had turned the corner first. He was lucky to be alive, and made an important discovery.
The Thandol on his right had masked his thoughts, except for his shock and disappointment, when the unaware lower ranking officer died without taking their handler with him. He’d hoped Carson would stay closer behind the unsuspecting fellow prisoner and die with him. Then, using his insulating armored boots, he could safely run ahead over the sparking plates after pressing the decorative looking panel by his shoulder that marked the level number, to deactivate the lasers. The lasers could be reactivated after the next turn. He’d intended to get separated, and try to race ahead while the humans paused to figure out what had happened.
Carson yanked savagely on the tail, eliciting a shriek of pain as the Thandol backed farther from the corner. He walked over and slapped the panel, killing the lasers auto fire mode, and turned to the Thandol.
“You figured out how to mask your thoughts. You let your subordinate die, because he had never been called on to patrol this maintenance corridor, and didn’t know what was about to happen. You shielded your thoughts, but your emotions gave you away when he died, and I didn’t.”
The officer answered defiantly. “I would have sacrificed myself to kill you, had I known you would not follow Captain Gilfa around the corner.”
Mirikami, farther back, asked what had happened, and a swift Comtap group link informed them all.
“Tet, this Thandol managed to hide at least one thought from me, and he let his lower ranking, and ignorant companion walk into a trap. To get safe passage over the electrified plates and past the lasers, you press the level number panel before placing two of your feet on the walkway. He needed someone to trigger things, and we don’t walk in front, so he let his fellow officer activate the lasers when the plates went hot. He thought it would kill me too.”
“I saw him pause,” Mirikami noted. “He wasn’t ready to die to get you killed, despite what he told you. He may have wanted to run ahead to warn them, but they already know we’re coming, so he just wanted to save his own ass.
“In any case, we can’t let him lead, and we’ll have to be careful of any of them now. They have radio communications via their memcaches, but we had those frequencies jammed up top. We must be too deep for that to work now. He didn’t warn that captain, but he may have shared how he blocked your Mind Tap with the other five prisoners with us. Let’s see if we can pick one that doesn’t know how to block, and isn’t willing to die to slow us down.”
“What do we do with him? He can still communicate, although I have my suit AI monitoring him now.”
“Are the lasers and floor plates deactivated now?”
“Yes, Sir. If you press this corner wall plate they’re placed on automatic if anyone steps two feet on them, there’s another plate around the next corner to switch them on or off.”
“OK. We’ll paralyze him hard with a couple of Jazzers, remove some of the floor plates at the center of that corridor, and leave him in the middle. Activate the trap after we all pass the next corner. He’ll be stuck there until found. He can’t fly to the end, and he’ll be down and out for a half hour before his nerves start to recover. Zap him in the head and he’ll be unconscious, or at least unable to communicate for that time.”
“Why not kill him?” Sarge wondered casually.
“Had he hurt one of us, he’d already be dead. He didn’t do anything one of us wouldn’t try.”
“We wouldn’t kill one of our own to get it done.”
“We aren’t one of them.”
“He’d kill any of us that tried to spring a trap.”
With a sigh, Mirikami repeated. “We aren’t one of them. I don’t want to become like them.”
“OK. Just exploring options.”
A short time later, the last Kobani turned the second corner, slapped the wall panel, and heard the faint hum of the laser transformers as they prepared to dump energy into their crystal matrix on command. A command that would occur if the awakening Thandol decided to step onto the mesh flooring.
They passed one more Debilitater trap, which jangled the nerves of the Thandol in front, whose face was exposed. There was no complaint from Sarge when they left the dead, contorted body behind them. They were over seventy levels down by this point, and any intruders should have been dead, or intercepted by the Imperial Guards. To avoid a verbal warning, or memcache transmission, without forewarning the remaining Thandol security officers were Jazzed into numb and unresponsive lumps, laying on the corridor ramp.
From here, the large band of invaders split into two groups, some continuing down the ramp around the service elevator shaft, with others going through connecting maintenance corridors to the main royal elevator shaft, and its ramp system. It had been sealed by the explosives sixty levels higher, by the descending lifts, containing one Thandol security officer in each.
Previously, Mind Taps of the senior security officers had revealed the layout of the hospital levels, with wards two levels below the main medical entrance. Above that were armored bunkers, for shelter from heavy orbital bombardments. Since that had not occurred, those spartan levels were unlikely to be occupied by any of the noble family members that had been infected with, or by Farlol the 84th. The spacious and well-appointed quarters below the medical center is where the Emperor and his closest advisors, also infected, would be located. Unless they had fled through the four escape routes, with two long ones equipped with train-like linked cars. All the escape routes now had Kobani teams in them. There was no way out.
The split forces coordinated their assault on the highest hospital level, and were confronted by ranks of Imperial Guards, spread around behind the high consoles the Thandol preferred instead of desks, and came rushing out of administrative offices to try to overwhelm the enemy as they swarmed from ramps next to the elevator shafts.
The Kobani were stealthed, but that hardly mattered when every suit was a source of multiple energy weapons. Automatic tracking, after an individual sighted and designated one of five simultaneous targets, ensured that the selected beam or bolt followed that target even as the suit’s owner dove, leaped, turned, slid, or twisted, to avoid the far slower and less well aimed fire from the rifles held by the guards. Most Thandol selected energy beams, which against typical opponents would have been the best choice. But bolts or lasers against hardened and reflective armor deflected and scattered the beams and bolts before they could penetrate or target a joint of a hard to see enemy, that moved impossibly fast.
A better choice would have been armor piercing or explosive slugs, but that was also a type of armor these suits had been designed to survive. The Krall had been a far more formidable foe, vastly faster, stronger, and better at direct combat than the Thandol. The Krall had inevitably fallen to the Kobani, although not as easily as these poor natural designs for a close quarters firefight.
The front ranks of the Imperial Guards died by the hundreds. Even if only part of their face, trunks, or tentacles were seen through their shield slots, they were soon wounded and made more vulnerable, and stood in the way of troopers crowded behind them. The Thandol died outright if a plasma bolt penetrated an eye socket. Their draped armor was flimsier than hard armor, and was wrapped around legs. Anywhere a gap appeared as the Thandol moved, an energy beam found the opening. The infrared beams of the suits were invisible, but they quickly overheated shielding at the targeted point, and microwave beams could short out the electronics of the automated sighting systems of the rifles.
Several dozen Kobani were wounded, or died, more a result of misfortune than accurate fire by the Thandol, as explosive or armor penetrating slugs found joints at neck, shoulders, elbows, and knees. The selection of projectiles, which fired faster than energy beams cycled, had a limited magazine but did the greatest harm in the initial fusillade. The projectile users instantly were highlighted by the AI’s of the Kobani armor, and it was rare that more than three or four slugs were fired before the weapon was knocked out of service, or the weapon’s wielder was.
Suddenly, it was noticed that one source of coordination for the two assault groups, the one entering from the ramp around the main elevator shaft was silent, and that suit’s icon had switched from green to deep orange, bordering on red.
Greeves, leading the other team charging out of the ramp of the service elevator’s shaft, shouted on the general Comtap link
“Mirikami’s down! Who’s close to Tet? He’s been hit. Readout says suit breached at neck, nanites injected. Find him.”
There was an understandable pause in the rush out of the main shaft, to check on the sixteen Kobani that were down, of the five hundred of that group. That brief pause in their attack was seized by the Thandol who suddenly increased their rate of fire, from behind the mound of big bodies they could use as cover.
Because the Imperial Guards never envisioned such an assault inside the palace, let alone deep in its most secure bowels, they were equipped only with their multi-purpose rifles. The Kobani had reciprocated, fighting with energy beams and plasma bolts. That changed when Sarge, who had stayed with Thad’s group, pulled open a compartment on the stealthed eq
uipment belt at his waist, and withdrew several grenades. With a mental command he selected level ten, the maximum detonation power, and a delay of two seconds, then threw them hard, landing just behind a heap of Thandol corpses and rolling under the security forces that were trying to rally.
From floor level, the three blasts were largely directed upwards, from beneath the draped body armor worn by the Thandol standing just above. The depleted uranium pellets wouldn’t have been slowed significantly by that flimsy armor anyway, since the grenades had been designed to perforate hardened Krall armor. Of the three Thandol that experienced the full effects, the pellets tore completely through the partial voids of their intestines, and ripped out through the tops and sides of their draped protection, which was designed to reflect energy beams from their outside.
The sideways directed pellets ripped into the Thandol pressed closest to their sides and rear, and brought them down when their legs were shattered under them, even as gobbets of gore splashed away from the three that were lifted by the blasts.
The three killed directly never uttered a sound, or if they did, the detonations obscured their briefly trumpeted screams. Not so, for those near them that weren’t killed instantly. It sounded like a bagpipe hard rock concert, without a semblance of a tune.
Thandol fire from that small section immediately ceased, but without a single command being needed, the other Kobani reacted in the next seconds exactly as had Sarge. The Thandol discovered in the terrible, long seconds after that, how bloody fighting humans could be, particularly the Kobani variant. Any of the Imperial Guards not in side rooms or corridors, dropped by the hundreds, the blasts and the screaming that followed, reverberating horribly to their sensitive hearing. It rivaled the sounds some of them had enjoyed when they’d killed subservient species with the agonizing Debilitater rays. Somehow, the sounds weren’t as gratifying this time.
The wave of vengeance swept through the entire upper level of the hospital, with no moving survivors, or any surrender accepted. It would have continued to the lower levels, but for a general link that halted their rampage. It was both weak, and powerful at the same time.
Koban: When Empires Collide Page 42
