Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire (20 page)

Again, they did only minor damage to a few pieces of equipment directly hit in the crowded staging areas, some even scraped the hulls on a number of clanships, and hit some small arms catches, but there were no explosions. He released his battery commander to fire conditionally, just as soon as last of the supply clanships passed beyond the ring’s perimeter.

He returned his attention to the missiles about to destroy many of the navy ships. The enemy was so flustered they hadn’t even initiated defensive laser fire, or launched decoys to divert any of the missiles. Human reaction time was notoriously slow, but their AI’s were normally faster than Krall reactions by far.

Incredibly,
those
missiles started passing targets without detonating. A few glanced off hulls, noticeable by the bent thruster contrails after they diverged. Abruptly, the sixty-five heavy cruisers winked out, in a perfectly coordinated mass Jump. The first properly coordinated thing they had managed to accomplish. The supply ships had just cleared the rim of the ring of waiting cannons, but there were no targets for them now.

One of his aides called to get his attention. “What is it?” He snarled. He had his supplies, and more, but the humans had paid no price, even after falling into a trap.

“My Gatlek, our own missiles continue to descend. With no targets, they should have ceased acceleration, turned away from the planet and disarmed their warheads, to await collection, fresh propellant, and reuse. They are still coming at us, as did the human missiles.”

In an instant, Pendor was broadcasting to whoever the commander was of the fleet overhead. “This is Gatlek Pendor. Your missiles have not turned away. Disarm their warheads or initiate self-destruct immediately. Who is the commander Telour placed in charge?”

Not only was no reply sent, but the missile defense commander, in charge of the next row of consoles, reported another salvo of anti-ship missiles had just been launched.

“My leader, there was no advance warning this time because they are no longer using radar tracking or guidance, as they did when they fired at the human ships. These missiles have no designated targets, and without guidance the first salvo, already deep in atmosphere, are not guided either. They are coming like a random aerial bombardment. Why did they fire more missiles?”

Pendor turned and shouted at the communications consoles. “Did any of the supply ships contact you for landing instructions?”

“Not yet my leader.”

He snarled a Krall curse, and said, “None of these ships are ours, this is a human trick. Fire at them all. Do it now!”

The orders started going out to all the clan bunkers, because even the Gatlek could not bypass their clan leaders and issue orders to their warriors without their concurrence. At least he had instant authority over his clan’s own forces, and Maldo clan was those that immediately surrounded his bunker. He’d learned from Telour’s treachery to surround himself with those loyal to him. That foolishly overlooked the fact that Telour had arranged for his own clan mate’s death. That was when he had Pendor kill Kanpardi. Ambition within his own ranks could also be used against him.

Today, his sub leaders and aides would all respond fiercely to his call to fight and kill their treacherous enemy. Using his clan’s general alert frequency, he ordered every Mordo warrior and clanship to fire on the arriving supply clanships, and at those located three hundred miles overhead. In practical terms, ground launched anti-ship missiles would be easily destroyed or evaded as they covered three hundred miles, so only the heavy plasma cannons had any real chance of inflicting damage at that orbital altitude. Several batteries would have to coordinate and focus on a single target even then. At only one or two hundred miles, an atmosphere and range attenuated single plasma bolt would have retained enough heat and energy to be a significant risk. The enemy had stayed out where it was a medium to low risk unless hit by two or more near light speed bolts simultaneously.

The first of the thick ring of Mordo clanships around his buried bunker fired their lasers and plasma cannons, destroying hundreds of the thousands of incoming missiles, which all seemed destined to strike within miles of the center of the strong point he’d created around his bunker. The hypervelocity missiles were already below twenty miles, and more seemed to be surviving than should be the case, although he knew they were never going to stop them all. As he looked over at the defensive coordinators, their monitors showed amber colored symbols, which indicated there were gaps in the defensive ring of clanships, where there should have been automatically coordinated laser and plasma fire, controlled by the sub leaders here in his bunker.

“Why are so many clanship commanders not coordinating our defensive fire through you?” His words were not phrased in a tone that indicated it was a query. It was a demand.

“My Gatlek, we have multiple hands of clusters of three to four clanships that each respond to us by radio, but they can’t bring their weapons consoles online.”

“Were they damaged by the first missiles?”

“There were only near misses in most cases, my leader, but they say they have lost navigation and weapons control. They were also prepared, if you ordered them to do so, to launch their clanships or fire missiles. They are unable to do even that.”

He cursed again. “How many of this salvo will penetrate?”

Hesitant to sound pessimistic, but unable to lie to his Gatlek, he gave a two-part answer. “Where we have intact firing command, less than a fourth will reach the ground. In compromised areas,” he indicated three particularly dead areas, “There we will stop less than half. Of the first wave.” He added in apprehension.

Swiping the air with talons extended on one hand, Pendor made a com set call to a sub leader, located on the surface, “Hothdis, we will receive more missile damage in three sectors to the north and northeast in minutes. Send damage control there, and route sixteen mobile plasma batteries and four laser defense systems to that area.” He was preparing to plug holes about to grow larger in his defenses. Shortly, although he wouldn’t know the human analogy, he was going to be like a boy with his fingers in dike that had too many holes. The waves of equipment failures would become a flood he couldn’t halt.

The next failure report came from the commander of their heavy plasma cannons. “Gatlek Pendor! Of our six hands of cannons, less than two hands responded to remote commands when I ordered them fired.” He was telling his leader that of twenty-four batteries, fewer than eight sent their powerful star energy plasma bolts aloft when he sent the signal for them to fire at their designated targets.

“Fire them manually. You have K’Tals for that out there. What’s blocking your remote commands?”

“The K’Tals informed me the signals were properly received, and the control consoles display the coordinates sent, and register that a firing command was received. Despite that, the mounting gimbals and their drive motors did not respond, in order to aim the cannons. The firing commands did not trigger bolts on those units, nor did the preheated plasma chambers receive injections of fresh plasma in their magnetic containment chambers. The K’Tals say manual control also does not function.

“Why was I not told of this failure?” His voice was pitched dangerously; the red pits of his eyes seething with barely contained fury.

“It was not recognized until I sent the firing commands, and no one tried manual operation before then. Only seven cannons fired, but because they were not matched with any other cannons for maximum energy delivery, at three hundred miles the single bolts caused no serious damage to those seven clanships, of the eight we selected for destruction.”

“While you fix the other cannons, combine what does work and kill at least
one
of these demon possessed enemy clanships!”

In the background, he heard a simple announcement, which conveyed considerable threat. “Missiles about to impact…” After a pause, the warrior said, with a curious tone in his voice. “No detonations. All of the missiles fired at us seem to be defective.”

The commander of the heavy cannons was speaking again into his shoulder-mounted com set. “I have three more batteries that just became unresponsive, leaving four that are so far apart that coordinated concentrated targeting on a single target will have less precise focusing. Anti-ship missiles crashed harmlessly near those that just failed. They visibly quit moving on their gimbals as they tracked their targets, when the impacts came within ten leaps of their locations. Hands of K’Tals, previously dressed in armor for protection from the heat-pulses when the cannons fired, have reported to me. When they approach a cannon’s console to see if it will fire manually, their helmet visor displays quit, and the powered assist for the suits switch off. They now only have radio and air recycling functioning.”

Pendor, still furious, also managed to look worried. A difficult feat for the minimally expressive Krall face. “I don’t think the humans wasted time firing thousands of defective missiles at us. They may have worked exactly as intended. This could be some sort of Electronic Counter Measure they are using, to shut down the electronics built into our weapons.”

One of his aides approached from the communications consoles. He’d heard the comment. “My Gatlek, their electronic weapons are disabling clanships, armor, plasma rifles, and any of our heavy equipment. Even the keypads on clanship doors and portals will not respond. The clans at the fronts, those that were under the PDC missiles that you though they shot down. They say they were unable to hit anything that fast and high with their shorter-range ground combat weapons, but the debris did fall around them, scattering many small pieces that did not look like missile casing parts. After that, their equipment began to fail.”

“Did we destroy
any
of the false supply ships?” Pendor asked this with little hope of an encouraging answer. 

“My leader,” his heavy battery commander said, standing well away from him. “They landed well beyond the Mordo clan’s inner defensive perimeter, and outside my ring of batteries. As you commanded, the heavy batteries held fire until the clanships were clear, believing they were from K1 at that time. When you ordered their destruction, they were too low to the horizon for targeting by orbital defense cannons, and they were landing. Wherever any of them have touched down, there is a spreading region of equipment that suddenly becomes unresponsive. Starting with the closest clanships.”

Another sub leader started with a report of good news, “We have bands of thousands of warriors converging on those enemy ships.”

The good news didn’t last. “But suddenly their armor shuts down and their rifles will not fire when they approach. Our mini-tanks, mobile plasma cannon carts, and armored transports will not start, or if already operating, they soon quit responding to steering or firing commands. Those warriors with projectile pistols say they continue to fire normally. What are your orders?”

His voice appeared to harden with grim resolve. “Gather all of our old projectile weapons and ammunition, and prepare to face a worthy enemy. I’m confident human weapons will continue to work properly. It will be a brave and honorable battle for our warriors. And for us.” He added.

Pendor wondered if he should have stayed behind on Poldark as Gatlek, refusing Telour’s offer of reward for their joint treachery in helping him to kill Kanpardi. He wanted to be far away from this current vexing set of problems, which offered a possibility of much more than simply a loss of status.

****

Manwell took a different tact at New Dublin than Thad Greeves had followed on Poldark. Thad had adhered to Mirikami’s instructions, to avoid intense Kobani involvement in fighting the entrenched Krall forces, and allow the PU military to carry the brunt of the fighting to come. After all, General Nabarone had command of eight long established armies, with their supply and command infrastructures solidly in place.

On New Dublin, in the early months of the invasion, General Ellen Masterfem’s troops and equipment had been posted on distant colony worlds, and were rushed here to form an opposing fighting force before the Krall could roll over a large amount of territory nearly unopposed. That was what the Krall had done on Greater West Africa (now called K1), Bollovstic's Republican Independency, and to a lesser extent on better prepared and forewarned Poldark.

Some of Masterfem’s heavy equipment and arms were still arriving and desperately needed. Items that were in short supply for a successful assault she now discovered was possible. The local industry was rapidly gearing up to build and provide material such as housing, food, military vehicles, and new factories to manufacture small arms, tanks, artillery, and ammunition. They were still building roads and bridges, railway lines, airfields, and organizing the things that could get the raw materials to the factories, and deliver the finished products to the army. That all took time and the lack of an established planetary infrastructure to support a war was keeping Masterfem from fully exploiting her new advantage. The Krall were consolidating their positions, and they had conducted surprise raids to capture human made small arms, and some heavier weapons and ammunition, such as mortars and mobile artillery batteries. They were limited on how much ammunition they were able to steal along with the weapons. They used them poorly, but at close range, they were dangerous.

Fortunately, a Krall was physically too large to fit into the hatches of any of the three human models of tanks in use. These were now seeing their first use in an assault into Krall held territory, having been of more survivable use on defense when the Krall attacked.

The stealthy, plasma-bolt-resistant, ceramic coated Panther, with a combination of light tracks that could be raised or lowered, had fans and skirts for hovercraft capability. In motion as a hovercraft, stealth was pointless. It mounted twin medium Plasma canons, and an independently rotatable medium power, multi-spectrum automated laser cannon.