Koban: The Mark of Koban (21 page)

Perkta chose a landing place on the roof of a twelve story
human nest in a more built up nesting area. He could stalk his way down each
level, killing any human he could find. When he moved on to other buildings, if
any animals survived and found a way past his coded lock on the sealed ship, that
would trigger the tamper device and destroy the large nest. He would claim at
least eight kills for the destruction of the building with the ship if that
happened, erasing the points lost.

Neither warrior was still inside their ships to observe the
console monitors when the automatic tracking began of inbound targets towards
their general landing areas. Each warrior had already dismissed the feeble
human laser defenses their Olt’kitapi designed ship had easily deflected. The
weapons were so low powered and useless that both warriors elected to ignore
them. It would be a waste of time to destroy the source of the sky scanning low
powered green laser system. They were unaware that its only purpose was to deflect
a visible beam off a craft invisible to eyes and radar.

Borkdol, after she made her exit and sealed her small ship
by a quarry wall, noticed a distant droning variable pitch sound, repeatedly
changing from low to higher to lower pitch sound.

Her com system on the shuttle console had detected thousands
of human transmissions as she descended, which increased geometrically in
number shortly before she landed. Not being a translator, knowing only a few
hands of human words, she made no effort to listen to the avalanche of mobile
phone warnings her intended targets generated. They were phone calls triggered
by residents hearing the citywide outdoor raid sirens, and the general civil
defense broadcasts on all public access channels for Tri-Vid.

Most of the population was still unarmed, but they were more
aware of the threat this time.

Running down the edge of the paved roadway, using what
little cover was present, she closed the distance to the family unit nests
nearest the quarry where she had landed. Initially, there were lights on in
some of the nests, or some more came on as she made her way down the street.
However, the nest lights were all now extinguished, except for a few widely
separated high positioned lights along the street. No matter, Borkdol could see
the heat outlines of the buildings, as well as by the reflections from the
street lights.

There was a sharp sounding loud and repeated animal noise,
coming from the enclosed small territory around the first nest she was
approaching. The gaps between the short vertical strips of the enclosure
revealed the warm outline of a four-legged animal, running back and forth along
the side of the enclosure, making that sound.

She angled towards that animal, in the event it had alerted
the humans in that nest to her presence. She was unprepared for the hail of
automatic weapons fire that came from a blocky low stone structure, placed in
front of the nest on the other side of the roadway from the noisy animal.

****

Branko Berzinski had been a quarryman his entire working
life, he had lived all that time on this very road, in his parent’s house, now
his property with their passing. He bought a submachine gun as soon as the
government offered them for sale, using some of the insurance money from his father’s
accidental death earlier this year. Then he had used cast off granite blocks
from the quarry, to build his own small pillbox in his front yard. He thought,
I’ll
bet the neighbors won’t call me crazy now, will they?

At the first sound of the raid siren, he’d flipped on the
Tri-Vid, which already had an official talking head giving details.
This was
literally true,
he thought with amusement.
After all, this is a hologram
close up shot.
As soon as he heard that one of the alien ships was possibly
detected on the southern outskirts of Belgrade he ran out to his pillbox,
carrying his weapon and extra ammunition.

Branko wasn’t very tall, although powerfully built and thick
through the chest. Even so, he had to duck slightly to enter his defensive
shelter, with its three firing slits that covered the street in front and both
approaches. He set his ammo case down and opened it to lay out extra clips,
both on the three slit ledges, and on the dirt floor. He placed two clips in
each of his two back pockets, and pulled the slide on his gun to chamber a live
round, making certain the safety was on this time. He didn’t want Gertrude
Mazowitz to laugh at him again if he accidentally squeezed off another round in
his pillbox. Only the dirt floor had probably saved him from a ricochet caused
wound last week, when he rehearsed what he would do on a dark morning just like
this.

It had been a quiet morning. Right up until he accidentally
triggered the predawn shot that roused his closest neighbors. They’d also heard
him shout and curse.  He’d always had a “thing” for Gertrude, homely as she was,
her family living across the street from Branko’s family. She seemed like a
good match for his own coarse features and squat build. He’d never had the
nerve to talk to her about his feelings, although now that he had a house of
his own, he was working up the courage. Her giggle had hurt his feelings, when
her father asked Branko “what the hell he was doing” so early in the morning,
shooting off his damned new toy.

His position prepared, Branko stepped outside to watch the
sky and to listen. He knew the Army had fast response units that he might hear fly
to where a Krall raider landed, and there would of course be gunfire. What he
heard first was a whooshing sound from the direction of the old quarry, the
newer quarry site being too far down the road to see. He’d not seen anything
against the starlit and partly cloudy sky, but there shouldn’t be any noise
from the quarry this early. The company only parked equipment there overnight
these days.

The distant city raid sirens had obviously awaked more than Branko.
He saw lights come on in four other houses. Gertrude’s father stepped onto his
front porch, looking towards the tracery of green laser light over the city.
The glow and sound of their Tri-Vid set in their living room told Branko they were
listening to the latest reports. “Old man” Mazowitz looked across the street at
Branko’s darkened house, clearly wondering where the neighborhood “nut job” was
this morning, now that there was a genuine raid alert.

He didn’t much like Gertrude’s father, who had been too
critical of Branko over the years as he grew up, as the clumsy boy from across
the street.  However,
she
also lived in that house, so Branko decided to
wave and call out to him. “Mr. Mazowitz, something landed at the old quarry
just now, I think. And the Tri-Vid said a Krall ship might be near here.”

“That’s what I was checking on, Berzinski. You heard
something that direction?” He pointed up the road to the quarry a half mile
away, just as the front gate fencing ruptured outwards at the drive way
entrance, as if hit by a truck.

“Get out of sight and switch off the lights, Sir. I have my
gun with me.”

Mazowitz turned and went inside, but he first let his dog
out into the yard, a large mixed breed animal that the other neighbors
complained about when it barked. It was why he kept it inside at night.

A light breeze was blowing down the road, and the dog
quickly started barking, running up and down the fence along that side of the
yard, looking through the pickets of the fence, to try to see what it scented.

Branko ducked back into his pillbox, and placed his short
gun barrel on the slit ledge that faced towards the quarry. He caught a glimpse
of swift movement, from shadow to shadow, staying close to the edge of the
pavement. Whatever it was, it never passed under any of several widely spaced
streetlights that glowed in bright amber ovals on the roadway. The sky was just
beginning to lighten in the east, but sunrise was still quite some time away.

Suddenly the Krall was faintly visible, silhouetted against
the glow from the last street light it had passed. Dressed in a black uniform
this was clearly one of the savage beasts he’d seen in Tri-Vid recordings from
previous raids on other worlds. It was looking around everywhere, even his
direction, but appeared mainly focused on the barking dog.

That’s when he realized it was moving towards Gertrude’s
house! Shifting to the left side of the front slit, he aimed up the street where
he knew it would appear when it approached her yard. He wanted it close and
well within his ability to hit it as many times as possible. He’d heard the
Krall were very hard to kill, but he’d die before he let this one slaughter
Gertrude.

The Krall was moving surprisingly fast on its short legs,
and it covered more distance than he expected when it came into view. Nevertheless,
he centered the alien in his sights and pulled the trigger, unleashing a
barrage of bullets at the killer, the noise deafening him within his enclosed
space. The Krall appeared to be hit on the left side, but it instantly dropped
and rolled as it fired back, using its right hand pistol to shoot at the
pillbox. Numerous explosive rounds detonated harmlessly on the outside, but one
shell found its way through the slit and detonated on the wall behind Branko.
The fragments stung his back, but the noise seemed deadened by the effects of
his own gunfire. His clip ran empty and, as he had practiced, he yanked it out
and threw it aside, grabbing one from the slit ledge and slammed it home.

As he pulled and released the slide again, the street light
next door revealed the Krall leaping high over Gertrude’s fence, also
reloading, but with a pistol in its mouth and using its right hand to insert a
clip. With a thrill, he knew he had hit its left arm and it was wounded! He
started firing at where it had dropped behind the wood fence, splintering the
pickets.

The Krall was scrambling along the side yard’s fence line in
his general direction, trying to get closer, and raised its right hand higher
than the fence to fire back at him. Damn! It was accurate even on the run.
Shells were splattering all around the outside of the slit, spraying his face
with rock chips. These were not explosive shells now, and seemed to do more
damage to the thick blocks. However, even the armor penetrating slugs were not
getting through ten inches of granite.

Branko fired blindly in the Krall’s direction, unable to
stop blinking and flinching away from the debris flying through and around the
slit. Suddenly there was a brief pause in firing, and he heard the snarls of
the Mazowitz dog attacking the Krall. Taking advantage, Branko looked through
the slit. He saw movement by the fence just as the dog, howling in pain, flew
into the air and the Krall shot it before it hit the ground.

Now Branko had a target area behind the fence and fired the
rest of his clip, hearing a satisfying snarl of pain from that direction as he
apparently scored one or more hits. He was changing clips again when he saw the
alien dash into Gertrude’s house; or rather, it smashed a shoulder through the
solid wood door on the front porch.

After an instant of shock, followed by a scream of rage, Branko
bolted out of the rear of his pillbox and charged around it towards Gertrude’s
house, firing recklessly as he ran. He never once thought of the risk he took of
hitting her or her parents, just of shooting the Krall and keeping it away from
her. That reckless act actually saved their lives.

With bullets whizzing through the windows and thin walls
around her, Borkdol continued out, or rather through, the rear door of the
human nest. She had wounds to each arm, her left leg and side, with one of her
two pistols hit and smashed by a bullet and discarded. The shattered left elbow
would not bend but she ignored that pain, as she did the deep penetrating
bullet punctures in her left side. However, she needed a bit of time and
distance to make a brief recovery and assessment, then come back to finish this
fight.

Borkdol couldn’t
wait
to return and skin this
surprisingly lucky prey. Her briefing had warned that humans liked to spring
ambushes, and this one had surprised her like a cub, waiting for her inside a
prepared strong position. She had spare weapons at her ship, and more ammunition.
It wasn’t even light yet. There was plenty of time, she had this prey’s scent
now and would return to hunt it down.

Branko found Gertrude safe with her parents, all of them crouched
on the floor behind a door barricaded with a heavy chest and a bed’s thick
headboard. Two bullet holes in that door attested to his fierce onslaught on
the Krall. He figured he might work up the nerve to talk to Gertrude about his
feelings for her now.

****

Captain Krysinski, communicating with the city’s Civil Defense
center, was aboard the shuttle with first platoon, at the command and control
console behind the cockpit. He updated
Lieutenant
Margold, and Lieutenant Cranston of second platoon, using reports of citizen calls
about a Krall single ship seen landing on the roof of an office building. He
passed the two Lieutenants the coordinates for the building.

Lieutenant Margold directed his shuttle to
land in the street on one side of the office building, and Lieutenant Cranston
chose to land on the top of the building’s attached three story parking garage
on the other side. The intent was to seal the Krall inside. Captain Krysinski
would take first platoon’s shuttle back up, and block the Krall’s retreat path
back to his single ship on the roof.

“First platoon, move out!” Margold had given
each squad leader their holding positions on three sides of the building, using
any cover they could find.

Second platoon was spreading through the
garage, one squad each covering two short pedestrian bridges and a squad at
ground level.