Several of the smaller ship lasers lanced out to torch a sizable section of awnings and temporary stands of merchandise. When off-planet shipments of fish, crabs, and other sea products took place, owners of these family owned stands could fold them up and remove them with a couple of hours’ notice. The Krall used a faster more efficient solution.
The ship drifted rapidly over the freshly scorched area, and as it settled, the thrusters blew ashes clear of the scorch streaks left on the tarmac surface, and blew down the remaining unburned awnings. It settled close to the center of what was effectively a bull’s eye for the four plasma batteries. They made minor shifts in aiming points.
Almost the instant the landing jacks touched, the thrusters cut off and the ship quickly lowered another five feet on the shock absorbers. Simultaneous with the settling, four hatches slammed upwards into their hull recesses, and the first armored warriors leaped out onto the hot tarmac. They were firing their plasma rifles towards building windows, and anything they though looked inviting.
The first targets of the four plasma cannons were the main thrusters, to prevent a possible liftoff and aerial attack of the city. They lanced out with ravening blue-white energy, visible in twin nine-inch atmosphere ripping beams of charged particles of nearly star core heat, moving for all practical purposes at the speed of light. They needed only a few seconds to rupture the sides of the main thruster tubes, but that was ample time for the Clanship’s pilot, and its raid commander to respond with their own high-powered lasers. They needed only to follow the clearly visible plasma beams to their origins on the rock faces.
The heavy high temperature polished mirrors of the passive Battery defenses now reflected much of the incoming laser energy. Nord automatically retargeted two of the batteries on the Krall laser ports, and the other two on the yet unfired plasma cannon ports on the Clanship. Previous raids on other worlds had revealed that the Krall generally landed with their plasma cannon chambers warm, but not ready for instant firing if there had been no orbiting human warships to offer threats or any other defenses. Fjord deliberately maintained that defenseless image, just for a day like today. Previous Krall patterns determined the sequence of which targets to hit on the Clanship first.
The militia batteries disabled the Clanship’s four plasma tubes before they could be fired, and then combined to kill the four heavy duty lasers before they did more than crack a couple of mirrors, and melted some of the surrounding ancient volcanic rock. The militia’s cannon tubes were made of ceramic with bell mouthed ends, which could withstand the heat of the heavy laser beams. If they were pre-warmed, then heated by their own plasma fire, they were immune to the laser heat. The wide ceramic bell ends shielded the magnetic coils wrapped along the length of the tubes behind them. The coils confined and accelerated the charged particles in tightly focused cylindrical tubes.
The batteries had rendered the Clanship stationary, and now they had pulled its largest fangs. However, this progress came at a price. Warriors had continued to avalanche from the four large hatches at the base of the ship in that crucial ten to twelve seconds. It was time to try to cork that flow. The batteries now depressed lower to fire on the open hatches, and simultaneously switched to the second reservoir of preheated plasma, refilling and heating the first.
As the next round of targeting commenced, Nord offered a bland warning for the Battery teams. “Battery number three is unable to depress low enough to fire on the hatch that it is responsible for covering. Melt rock has apparently flowed…”
Henrik cut him off and made the human decision he was there to provide. “Target the warriors that have already left the ship and are spreading away from the landing area, target buildings they enter, try not to let any move towards the docks.”
As Nord followed that instruction, Henrik started speaking to the militia command center, knowing the suit’s AI would automatically patch him through. “Commander Hendricksen, some of the warriors will make it away from the ship because Battery three isn’t able to depress to cover one of the hatches.”
Even as he spoke, armored Krall were dropping as they tried to exit the grounded ship at three of the hatches, and the plasma beams were gradually burning through the thicker hull armor. The warriors swiftly shifted to making their exit at the one hatch not covered by sun hot beams. The minutes of life expectancy of the Clanship were draining away, just as the warriors drained away from it like its lifeblood.
Even after the batteries destroyed this ship, another Clanship would come to retrieve these warriors, after they had rampaged through the city on a killing spree for days. They had to force the warriors to request an earlier pickup, if they could.
Hendricksen was pragmatic. “Henrik, try to keep them away from the docks. We have thousands of people still moving along the slidewalks and in sidewall corridors. Obviously, they have to break into the open to get to the docks and boats. We have the streets to the docks covered now, but if very many of them get away from the ship, they’ll discover where they went and turn in force to attack the docks. Do what you can son.” He signed off.
Henrik had kept the link to the team open so they knew what to do. The batteries that could target Krall in the streets made them smoking vapors. Incidentally, this caused considerable collateral damage to structures and property. In public discussions, the citizens decided lives ranked higher than property.
It became apparent that perhaps three hundred warriors had made it away from the ship. This was already at the forty percent casualty mark for this particular ship, but with so few humans killed, it was highly unlikely the Krall would call for withdrawal this soon.
New Oslo was the largest city, so one thousand members of the militia were located here. With four other cities under attack, they were not going to get much in the way of help from the other four thousand spread out troops. Experience had demonstrated that three to one odds against a single Krall wasn’t favorable for the militia in general. With one thousand against three hundred Krall, they needed to improve the odds. It was time for the next set of works-just-one-time traps.
“Team, we have perhaps three hundred Krall that are about to discover the population left their workplaces, and most people have reached or are headed for the sea. When they turn and start for the docks, we need to try to force as many as we can to use ‘Dropsy’ and ‘Flopsy’ Avenues. Alf, take manual control of your Battery when the Krall figures out the population all went that way. From your side you can fire on those that try to use other streets, but limit hits on Avenue D to encourage them to travel down ‘Dropsy.’ Eric or Greta, you do the same for Avenue F.”
Eric pointed out a problem. “Henrik, your gun 3 has a better angle to push them to F than we do.”
“Not with melted rock limiting how low our gun can depress. It can’t do what we need. Agneta and I will let Nord continue to take long potshots to the far side, which number three can still reach. We’re going to come down to cover your door Eric. It isn’t as if the Krall can’t figure where our platforms are located, and they will be coming for us. We’ve always known they would do that. However, Agneta and I can cover your tunnel and hold them off longer.”
Jarl had a suggestion. “Alf is alone in number one. He has no one to fight off any attempt to burn through the doors. I can go out to cover his back.”
“And leave Elin alone?”
Elin had an answer. “Nord can work our Battery too, and I’ll go with Jarl to protect Alf’s door. This way we keep two batteries in play for longer. After we herd the Krall down Dropsy and Flopsy, we might get them to pull out by tonight.”
As they talked, Nord achieved a task he had been working on with just one of the batteries. The tough Clanship hull finally burned through, and plasma beams struck the stored ammunition intended for the next three days of slaughter. This caused a huge internal explosion and flames to erupt through the open hatches, and even blew out some hull docking stations were single ships could attach. This tactic might only work once a
gainst the Krall, but it was working fine this time.
Henrik called Commander Hendricksen. “Sir, we are going to leave Battery three and two under Nord’s control, to fire on exposed Krall that go deeper into the city. Guns 1 and 4 will manually concentrate on funneling the Krall down Avenue D and F, once the warriors realize it’s a ghost town and head for the docks. Are your engineers ready for that Sir?”
“They are, and we’ve had a few random warriors work down this way. I’m sure they have reported to their octet leaders that there are a mass of people behind prepared defenses on the docks and the processing plants. If Nord will be running guns 2 and 3, what are you four team members going to be doing?”
The militia was all-volunteer and considerable autonomy was granted to the members, but the ‘boss’ wanted to know what his critical plasma gun crews were planning. He could veto any ideas he considered bad.
“Sir, Battery three has damage and can’t aim low enough to cover our side of the city and it can’t force the Krall towards D and F. Now that the ship is dead, the next step is to push the Krall where we want them. That’s best done by manual control by guns 1 and 4 to selectively fire so as to keep the most warriors moving down Dropsy and Flopsy, where we want them. Some Krall will surely be trying to get into the gun platforms while that happens. The four of us will cover the approaches to batteries one and four, to keep them on-line and firing as long as possible.”
“Very well son.” He gave his official stamp of approval. “But it’s risky giving up the protection of the double armored control rooms.”
“Sir, you and the other militia don’t have that protection. Besides, Krall plasma rifles have longer lasting power packs than ours do, and concentrated fire will burn pinholes through both doors in five or ten minutes. If plasma gets inside the control rooms, even a pinhole penetration will force evacuation and gun failure. We four can at least slow that down from outside.”
“Right. Well, good luck to all of you.”
“Thanks, luck to you too Sir.”
****
Trudok, the second highest status sub leader on the raid, found he was now the highest ranked surviving leader of all of Dorbo clan’s raiders on this cursed and cold human nest. The clan’s raid leader, Blutor, and his K’Tal had both died defending the Clanship, which humans lured into landing at the center of a trap. They had lost the ship, but not the battle. By fighting to keep one hatch free of plasma fire, Blutor had managed to save more than half of the warriors caught in the killing zone. He deserved to die for his poor decision to land where he did, but he had preserved his honor.
Because Krall sub leaders lead from the front, the other high status warriors were among the first to step into the intensely hot plasma beams the humans directed at the ship, and died.
Seeing what was happening, observing that novices without experience were fearlessly ready to brave the beams in their armor, Trudok took charge. He had ordered them to hold back and exit from the only hatch not under fire. They had assumed that speed would take them through the beams intact. This was true, but not safely.
Personal armor could endure the seconds needed to clear the beams, but the residual star heat would pass through the overheated armor to the body inside in another few seconds, roasting the warrior alive. Inexperienced novices thought merely making it clear of the beams, as they observed hands of warriors do, was all that was required. Experience told Trudok that many of those warriors that passed through fast enough would die, unless they immediately discarded their damaged armor when clear. This placed them at a disadvantage when faced with human plasma rifles, and they would likely suffer debilitating burns in most cases. Krall interclan battles sometimes escalated to plasma cannon use.
He had preserved the bulk of the raid’s force, but the novices had quickly spread out looking for individual combat opportunities. A beam from one of the four plasma cannons would lance out when a warrior stayed exposed too long, or chose a shelter that wasn’t heavy enough. He commanded four octets to seek out the batteries from behind, and destroy them.
The reports he was gathering from leaders of other octets told him that they had found few humans in the main part of the nest. Where had they gone?
Nearly forty burn-injured warriors had survived exposure to the plasma beams, and now without armor they had sought safer cover. They were among the first to enter the maze of corridors inside the rock walls that hemmed this cluster of human nests so tightly. They encountered many humans there, but discovered them armed with projectile weapons. The injured warriors no longer had their heat damaged plasma rifles, lost with their armor.
Each warrior that abandoned their suits had two pistols, kept in armpit holsters inside the armor. However, replacement ammunition and rifles were no longer available with the explosion of the Clanship. Pistols, knives, speed and agility were of limited use on massed humans with automatic weapons. These humans used the projectiles that exploded next to a warrior if it had missed a direct impact. The accumulated spray of fragments gradually decreased the effectiveness of the unarmored novices even if they stayed behind cover.
The kill ratio was down to four or five humans for each warrior that fell in those walls. With so many armed humans, this wasn’t as favorable a trading game as they were accustomed to having. Trudok sent armored warriors into the tunnels to support those without armor, and to discover how many humans were in there, or where the rest of them had retreated. Humans were proving to be good opponents, but their first instinct to flee was frustrating. You had to corner them to make them fight the hardest. Otherwise, they chose clever trickery to win with less risk. That was cowardly!
Gatrol Kanpardi had said that within ten breeding cycles the cleverness of their novices would show a noticeable increase. This was because those that saw and avoided human traps, or created their own traps, were more likely to earn status and live to breed. It was strange to think that their prey altered the Krall’s steps along the Great Path, but the Gatrol claimed it had always been so.
The octets he sent to seek the deadly plasma cannons were fighting their way through tunnels and up ramps. The humans they faced were not trained or armored, but some had large armor piercing projectiles, which came from single-use small shoulder fired tubes. Against the heavy breast and back plates of Krall armor, they were rarely fully effective. However, if they struck an arm or leg joint, or glanced off a helmet, they could remove the limb, or stun the warrior for several minutes. In that case, the warrior might survive to return to the fight, but was obviously less effective.
The octets were closing in on the magnetic signature their sensors detected from each pulse fired, even from inside the rock walls. Soon they would silence the plasma cannons that had nearly ended the raid before it started. He was determined that their recovery ship would not have to face these hidden weapons.
The raiders here were from clan Dorbo, but the three single ship launchers were from an allied finger clan, the Maldo. After ejecting their loads of single ships, they had withdrawn and Jumped nearly to the tenuous cloud of icy bodies beyond the outer gas planets. They would wait there and return in two days. He could call on them to bring their shuttles to recover his warriors. His problem was that if he sent a recall request now, at the speed of light the signal would not reach them for nearly two days anyway. He had to win this battle first; something he was determined to do anyway, despite the shame of the large early loses.
****
Henrik and Agneta chose alcoves cut into the granite walls of the slidewalk corridor, located across from the heavy door to Battery number four, and twenty feet above the floor of the 3 story high residential section along that main avenue. These were actually balconies of currently evacuated apartments, with a nine-inch thick, waist high granite-railing wall they could use for concealment.
Henrik checked in with his friends. “Eric, Greta, Agneta and I are perched on two balconies across from your door, a level above the corridor floor. We each have a good field of
view, some cover, and a path of retreat up to the next level.” The apartments occupied two levels, with bedrooms placed another level higher, accessed by internal stairs. Both levels had doors leading out to smaller passageways deeper into the complex. So they could move to different balconies and apartments if forced to shift positions.
Eric answered. “Agneta, you better keep that pretty head down. I see your helmet sticking up over that wall.” He had angled a recessed remote camera in the corridor wall to see her.
“Can you see my tongue sticking out at your door camera, smarty pants?”
“Nope. Can you see my ass picture from in here?” He sent her helmet visor’s screen an image of his wife’s armored posterior, standing by the manual gun controls.
“Gee, that looks too smart and petite to be something as big and dumb as your ass, Eric.”
They heard Greta laugh as she heard the zinger. They were staying “hot mike” most of the time, for rapid coordination.
Jarl chimed in. “I guess we need some Krall to attack before we waste our best insults on each other. By the way, Elin and I are across from Alf’s door. I think we’ll go up a level, like you did Henrik, the apartments over here are all single level, but do have granite balconies.”
Alf had a suggestion. “I saw you and Elin as you came up the corridor on my camera, and after Eric sent that picture of Greta’s butt, it gave me an idea of how you can keep from being seen by the Krall too early. How about we send your helmets our door camera views of the corridors so you can stay concealed until you need to shoot?”
Henrik saw a problem. “Nice idea Alf, except how do you plan to do that? Point your helmet cam at the door monitor while you fire the cannons blind?”
Koban: The Mark of Koban Page 36
