Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire (2 page)

“With the planetary mass scale of intersect protections disabled on our ships, we can exit much closer to the moon’s mass than the Krall are able to do. I’m aiming for a quarter mile above the highest crater peak, on the center of the moon’s backside. After Noreen and I get there, we’ll make certain every captain receives an accurate entry point, with a tight but safe spread of White Out coordinates.

“We obviously don’t want any ship-on-ship intersects, nor any with the moon. Not only would it ruin your day, our sneakiness up to that point would be wasted. If we get everyone in that close to the surface and undetected, we’ll be shielded by ground return clutter from long wave radar detection if a clanship gains a radar view of the backside of that rugged little moon. Once there, we will promptly deploy our four-ships, and hundreds of single ships, which can then separate and move rapidly from behind the moon and fly inward, to gently enter atmosphere and disburse to the domes we’ve assigned them. Max, Coldar, and Blue all agree, as do I, that the greatest risk on that approach is encountering orbital debris that could nick your hulls and spoil your stealth. Questions?” He paused again for any requests for clarification.

He received one question. “Sir, this is Arnold Drake, leader of a squad of five four-ships aboard the Eagle. I was busy helping to modify missile warheads over the last three days, and I’m not sure I know what the fallback plan is, if we’re seen before we reach atmosphere. ”

“A good point Arnold, discussed previously but worth repeating. If we’re seen arriving at Cheetah, or the small ships
are
detected flying inbound from there, you little ships will race at all possible speed to reach your assigned tarmacs, to try to disable as many clanships as possible before they can launch. The rest of the fleet will immediately Jump to the orbital coordinates that my AI Jakob, and Noreen’s AI Karl, will provide to each ship. We’ll be going after them in orbit anyway once the small craft are all down, using our lighter weight modified missiles and ECM. A clanship using long wave radar can’t target the small craft like yours Arnold, even if they knew you’re coming, so you’ll be safe as long as you have intact stealth. Avoid nicks on your hulls from orbital debris.”

After another pause without any new questions, Mirikami concluded, “Get some rest, hydration, and food in you some hours before we arrive. I’ll want everyone at assigned battle stations thirty minutes before we enter ghost mode surrounding K1. Take a pee break before then, or hold your bladder until you find a tree or bush on the planet. I don’t anticipate more than a thirty or forty minute wait at the gas giant moon before I Jump in behind Cheetah. The rest of you will join us within minutes or seconds after Avenger arrives beside me.

“We have a half day until arrival, so finish what work you can on missile and ammo conversion with any remaining Denial chips you have. We’ll talk again shortly. Mirikami out.”

****

The Mark of Koban was poised close beside the second largest, but unnamed moon of the Saturn scale gas giant in the K1 system. The Avenger was similarly adjacent to the largest moon of the same planet. They had used the two moons to shield their White Outs, and had been observing the remote inner system for almost twenty minutes.

“Tet, Karl has identified thirty-six clanships around K1, and one of them is holding station well above the northern pole, at about a hundred thousand miles. Another remote clanship is orbiting at about a hundred fifty thousand miles, in an orbit with a thirty-degree inclination from the equator. Only the northern clanship has a continuous view of Cheetah. The other one can see the back of the moon for eleven hours, when Cheetah overtakes it lower down in its faster orbit.”

“Jakob agrees on the two outer observers, Noreen, but he counted forty two close-in clanships. Another six went around the limb of the planet just after I moved from behind this airless moon. I think the methane atmosphere of your moon partly blocked your first passive scans. The fewer ships in orbit and their placement between the debris lanes suggest the Krall have kept the number of orbital watch standers down, as we’d hoped. They’re clustered more closely than on our previous visits, for debris avoidance as expected.”

“Karl has calculated a sizable area on the backside of Cheetah that’s always in shadow from that pole sitter, but the other clanship can see that spot about sixty percent of the time.”

“Right, Jacob reported the same. We have at least four hours of decent shadow time for each orbit of Cheetah. None of the low orbiting clanships would have a chance of picking up our gamma rays. Considering we’re forty-one light minutes out, we’ll have another hour of full shadow from the second wide orbiting observer. I’m Jumping inwards as soon as Jakob has finished a recheck of my lowest safe exit altitude. As soon as the AI refines that, and I descend closer to the surface after exit, I’ll send you the exact instantaneous coordinates for your exit next to me. If that result looks good to us, we tell the others to be ready to copy their own coordinates, and to Jump within a one-minute window of reception after they have the location and velocity adjustment we furnish. No longer delay than that or they need new coordinates calculated. That moon is moving too fast.”

“Right. Waiting for your signal.”

“Jakob has the helm. It will be any…, second.” The last word, still received instantaneously via Comtap, was uttered a second slower because Mirikami was suddenly forty-one light minutes farther away, and a jagged and heavily shadowed moonscape suddenly filled half of his view screens.

“Damn. That seemed closer than it actually was.” He said, checking his instruments. “Came out a half mile above a crater rim. I’m moving down to a quarter mile before I send you your coordinates. Any sign that I was noticed?”

“Tet, I won’t see a reaction for forty one minutes.”

“Oh crap! We can talk instantly but not see instantly. I’ll know before you will, but I can’t go peek around the edge right now. Doesn’t matter. If we’re seen, we charge in anyway. Here’s the coordinates Jakob just fed to my Comtap’s database. Come on…, down.” The last word came a second delayed, because the Avenger instantly appeared a thousand feet away from the Mark as he spoke. It loomed large in a side view screen.

“Hi!” she said brightly. Certain the skip in his words indicated surprise again.

“How did you enter the coordinates so fast?” After his warning to the other captains, he expected there to be at least a ten second delay as she entered and rechecked the numbers, to be sure she had them right.

“Why would I do that? I have Karl for dumb drudgework. He’s linked to us.”

“Right. You don’t mind hurting Karl’s feelings with that remark?” He asked jokingly.

Karl, in the link, answered the question for himself, as if it were serious. “My model AI series does not display anything but simulated feelings, Sir. An emotional simulation was not triggered by such an obviously true statement.”

“Then you’re an insensitive clod.”

“I’m hurt by that allegation, Sir.” Karl replied blandly, to prove it could pretend emotions.

“That you’re insensitive, or a clod?” he asked.

“Clod, Sir. I actually am insensitive, as I thought I explained. Having said that, I am not a lump of dirt or clay.”

“Then you are an insensitive lump of electronics.”

“Yes Sir. Thank you for accurate clarification.”

Back to business he said, “Jakob, you equally insensitive lump of electronics. Can you link through my Comtap and deliver the proper coordinates to the other hundred fifteen captains, after I tell them it’s safe to jump here?”

“Yes Sir.”

Mentally selecting the group link to the full complement of Comtaps, Olts and mind enhancers, he alerted everyone. “The Mark and Avenger are safely behind Cheetah, and we have about another forty minutes of complete gamma ray shadow time from the two outlying observers. The AI will transmit individual coordinates to each ship captain for your Jump to join us, and for matching the moon’s orbital velocity. Double-check the numbers before you Jump. Here are the up to the second accurate numbers. Jakob, send them.”

The response wasn’t instant as it had been for Noreen and the Avenger, but from the first to the last arrival, it was barely fifteen seconds. There was a storm of gamma rays from that tight cluster of White Outs.

Mirikami was thinking it was fortunate the Olt’kitapi had considered gamma radiation when they designed clanship hulls and stealth coatings. Any living thing unshielded would have been fatally irradiated. The dead moon below voiced no complaint.

He gave the word, "Deploy the small ships." The assault of K1 was under way.

Like deadly pollen from killer flowers, the spores shot out of launch bays located around the perimeters of the Kobani ships. They spread in all directions, staying low to the surface and its radar clutter, ready to sling shot around the circumference of the eight hundred mile wide moon towards K1.

The four-ships had four times the internal volume of a single ship, but because humans, even in armor, were much smaller than four Krall, they typically could hold six people. Today they held five, and a ripper. That made it rather tight quarters, with the big cats quivering and eager to start the hunt. They didn’t purr like Earth house cats, but a low breathy rumble served as an indication of anticipation. Except for the thrill of visiting Haven, none of the rippers had been off the home planet. They had shared the frill images from Kobani, of alien worlds and combat, certainly for long enough to crave the experiences for themselves.

Kobalt had pushed his way into the front of the four-ship, next to his “brother” Carson. Flying close to them, destined for the same dome complex, was Ethan with Kit by his side. Alyson was headed for the same domes in the same flight, and she had Kandy as her ripper escort. She and Carson’s infant son, christened Calvin, were back on Koban with friends who were prepared for an evacuation. If this attack proved unable to stop Telour from sending a Krall fleet there, the relatively small population would be forced to flee.

The rippers were finally getting to defend friends, family, and home from wanton Krall savagery. Jorl breaker had Kopper with him, Danner was with Kally, and Bradly flew a four-ship with Kayla. This would be the first time rippers had faced the Krall other than on the open savannas of Koban around Prime City, and at Hub City, on those two hunting grounds of many others. Except for frill memories passed down from wild prides, they only had Kobani contact with the Krall to guide them as to what to expect in combat. The Krall had been gone from Koban longer than the age of any living ripper.

Just over three thousand small ships streaked around the craggy rim of the moon and turned in towards K1. They were spreading towards their designated surface targets, some of which were on the opposite side of the planet. There was no sign from the ships in orbit or the polar station keeper that they had been detected. The main Kobani ships closed the launch ports, and prepared for Jumps to intercept the various clanships in low orbits, with the Avenger and the Mark assigned to take out the two farther out watchers first. All they waited on to initiate the orbital attacks was the small ships reaching their targets, or an indication they had been detected by the watchers.

The ships on the near side of K1 initiated their deceleration before entering atmosphere, while the other half of the little armada swung around the limb of the planet, flying below the debris fields but staying above atmosphere. Thanks to Comtap, Mirikami would know when those with the longest distance to fly had reached the vicinity of their target domes. It took another tense twelve minutes before they also had slowed and entered atmosphere.

“Noreen, switch ECM on, and we Jump together.” They had already entered the coordinates for their two targets. Mirikami would take the nearly stationary polar sentry clanship, and Noreen the wide orbiting sentry. The AI’s coordinated their dual Jumps precisely.

The two ships winked out from behind the moon, and instantly did White Outs less than a mile directly behind the two watchers. Each fired a single anti-ship missile, using no radar pre-guidance data. A precise hit on a vital component wasn’t required, merely a near miss.

The relatively small missiles, fast even in their normal configuration, had less than half their usual mass because there was no warhead, and they carried less than a third of the standard high energy, dense and heavy fuel. Greater speed, maneuverability, and short range were their advantages now. They simply needed to reach the target as quickly as possible.

Both missiles actually managed to hit the hulls of their targets, but from so short a distance, they didn’t achieve the hypervelocity they were capable of, so they didn’t have the momentum to penetrate the hulls. They glanced off the sides and continued accelerating away.

ECM was used to suppress any communications from the two ships, but there was no attempt initially to transmit from either of them. Mirikami sent the Comtap signal to the hundred fourteen Kobani ships that were waiting to go after the Forty-two low orbiting clanships.

“Go! These two are disabled and silenced.”

One of the lower orbiting clanships was. It made a call to the pole watch clanship, the only one of the two it could see from its equatorial location. “Phordot, there was a gamma ray burst near you.”

The ECM was relatively short range by design, the effect weakening over about ten miles, and its effect was originally intended to deactivate Krall communications systems in domes, not to block them with signal jamming, which would reveal the presence of the intruders. The Krall radios simply switched themselves off. A clanship within the ECM envelope wouldn’t hear an incoming call, or be able to make a call out of its own.

Abruptly, one hundred fourteen White Outs appeared around K1, appearing behind the forty-two low orbit watch standers, their positions and clustering having been accurately relayed from the passing small ships by Comtap as they descended to the surface. The flash of detected White Outs was the signal for the small ships to go into action on the surface.