Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire (80 page)

With the gravity greater than that of Earth’s, the colonists had marveled at how light they felt upon landing. Their nearly doubled clone muscle strength made manual tasks easier, easing some of the anxiety they had felt about starting life over on this new and undeveloped planet. They soon received a preview of what the Kobani mods would do for them, when those were implemented sometime within the next year. Most of them were soon more eager to make the transition.

Twenty Kobani per ship, from ten ships, had made the need for the limited number of supply ship forklifts nearly redundant, provided there was room to crowd enough Kobani around bulky equipment to be lifted and moved. The Rim World crews of the supply ships had been impressed at the energy of the new colonists. Then the efforts of the Kobani, when they arrived later that same day, blew them away. The shipping companies weren’t very thrilled, since their contracts provided higher payments by the colonists the longer the ships were grounded for unloading. The Kobani presence guaranteed that they would be released for departure earlier than expected. 

For equipment that had to be moved all the way across the growing town, where newly extruded Smart Plastic roadways were appearing hourly, a forklift was still a better option. The Kobani often muscled items off the ships onto cargo lifts to be lowered to ground level, where a forklift took them to their destination for final assembly and activation. The Kobani did that work even faster, and set new equipment up flawlessly after a single team member read the set up instructions. Then, after a joint handholding session, every team member on a project suddenly knew the entire manual. The teams would rapidly set each system up as if they were the expert technical representatives the colonists had been too poor to hire.

Caldwell wondered if there was enough work for five rotations of crews. They intended to rotate another ten ships today, twenty more tomorrow, and the last ten on the third day. That was so every ship could earn some extra Fed credits for the crews, doing interesting new things and mixing with the first Earth born humans the young Kobani had ever had a chance to meet.

He was in a Comtap link with Macy Gundarfem, the former Motorfem from the Flight of Fancy, who was the mission commander for the defense of Zanzibar. “Macy, I think you’d better plan on rotating another ten ships down in an hour. These youngsters don’t know what working by the hour means, when it comes to earning more of those Fed credits. After six hours of energetic work, each ship’s team down here is trying to outperform the other teams.

“If you want every ship’s crew to spend six or seven hours working for their money, you need to get them on the ground before the heavy work runs out. Unlike us old farts, these youngsters don’t know how to milk a job when they are being paid by the hour. In three more days it might be too late for the last ships, if the colonists are in a position to take over all of the remaining work.”

He sensed her amusement through the link. “Trevor, I think you’re right. I used scans to observe the town on each pass over you, and the gray roadways and base slabs for buildings bloomed like spreading branches of some fast growing vine. I wish I’d used stop action Tri-Vid shots on each pass, just so we could play it back for the people on the ground.

“I’ll pass the word to the next ten ships to get ready. They’ll not have room to land until after your group reaches orbit. Have one person from each of your ships Comtap what the team was working on and what they had learned, and send it to one person on their replacement ship.

“Just before you linked, I’d advised Captain Gotin of the Blue Seas, that he should start their random Jumps back to Haven. None of the other colony towns here reported any people that are unhappy enough to abandon the life of a colonist yet, ready to ask for a ride back. This means the Blue Seas can head home before the crew’s water pool needs to be replenished. The Torki get cranky if their soaking water gets too stale, and they don’t like the odor of the algae that lives in the oceans here. The detours to protect Haven’s location will already take them nearly four weeks of travel.”

“Do you think the Empire is watching us now? Our patrol boats have about half of our border covered with the Empire. They could be sending a fleet and we wouldn’t know it if they happened to bypass our first few monitors.”

“I don't think the Thandol want to mess with us. Not if the Krall had them worried, and we took care of the Krall.”

“I hope you’re right.”

****

FLC Grudfad passed along the alert from the Bridge sensor division officer. “Force Commander, the large crab ship has activated tachyon Trap fields for a second level Jump. It could capture a particle and be gone at any moment. Should we let them go, or…”

Thond’s reaction was immediate. “Fire the test missiles from the Ravagers and launch a parasite mine to attach to the large ship, set it for detonation if it initiates a Jump.” Not all of the stealthed Ravagers were as close as he’d wanted yet, but they were all within range of their assigned targets.

Grudfad repeated the orders via the embedded com system to the fleet’s Weapons officer. The reply from him was prompt. “Mine and missiles away.” Fifty stealthed missiles, armed only with some mysterious chip that potentially could disable the enemy ships were on their way. Ten of them had been redundantly sent against duplicate orbital targets, because their stealth would be lost if they entered atmosphere to go after the ten warships on the ground.

This way the Emperor’s Observer would confirm that fifty test missiles had been used, and there were fifty formerly Krall owned ships. Although, ten of them were down on the planet and thus not targeted. Mere moments later, dozens of fully armed missiles were launched at the same forty-one orbital targets. If the human ships were disabled and showed no activity after the first missiles reached them, the second salvo was unnecessary. They would destroy helpless ships and crews. No matter, for this attack all of the Federation ships in orbit were going to be destroyed, whether disabled or not. If they were helpless, then it bode well for future attacks using fewer missiles and causing less orbital debris.

“Signal the remainder of the fleet to Jump to the attack now. I want those ten warships and crews on the ground captured if possible, destroyed if not. The unarmed cargo ships are defenseless, so I also want them intact if possible.”

****

Gundarfem’s AI, Caroline, provided the first clues via its Comtap link. “Mam, I have detected encrypted radio transmissions close to Zanzibar, and there were multiple flickers of small visual reflections that disappeared from sensors, as if there was a brief loss of stealth from multiple locations of a small size.”

“Like weapon ports that opened and closed?”

“Possibly, Mam.”

She made an instant decision. “Caroline, micro-Jump five miles higher right now.” Even before the AI could initiate the Jump, she used a general link and warned every Kobani and Torki in the system of a hostile presence.

“All personnel, probable enemy craft. All ships micro-Jump, activate stealth and active scans. The AI detected radio signals and possible missile launches.” Her ship, Ricco’s Revenge, had the only AI system installed on any of the fifty warships at Zanzibar, and it was perpetually alert, of course. The Revenge completed its Jump within three seconds of the AI alert to the captain. Kobani thought processes were slower than an AI’s, but fortunately, they were still considerably faster than any organic minds yet encountered.

Caroline promptly furnished another warning. “More weapons ports were seen opened. Active scans have confirmed numerous stealthed missiles approaching from the rear of every Kobani ship. Should I engage lasers?”

“Yes. And start emergency heat for plasma cannons.” Still on the General link, she glanced at the sensor screen and gave another warning to every Kobani. “Missiles launched at us, all from our aft positions, and unlike ours, these are weakly stealthed missiles. Luckily, we can still see them. Jump or maneuver immediately.”

She switched to a ship link for her crew only. “I’m seeing fifty unknown ships in weak stealth mode. I’m about to fire missiles, so get clear of the launchers. Carline, fire lasers at any missiles that are closing on any of our ships.”

“Yes Mam, firing.”

Pavil Kamal was suddenly spotted flying over the Bridge railing, in a powerful but risky leap from the lower deck, eighteen feet below. Had the ship maneuvered sharply while he was airborne he could have been killed. It had taken him only four seconds since the warning to race up four decks. Macy merely pointed to his designated weapons station.

Thirty-seven ships made a successful micro-Jump before the first missile reached them. Three others reported they were actually struck, but for some reason the warheads failed to detonate. For some strange reason, there were an additional ten missiles fired from each of the ships of unknown type, even before the first single shots could reach any of their targets. It seemed strange that the large salvo came after what should have been perhaps a finale finishing shot. All of the enemy ships had arrived undetected in gamma rays, even though they were visible as ghost outlines when active scans were used.

Captain Gotin linked in by Olt to say the Blue Seas had been struck once, but as reported by the Kobani ships, the missile had not exploded. “I intend to leave the system.”

Gundarfem agreed. “Jump to safety Gotin.” A migration ship was too unwieldly to fight, and flight was its best defense. She grew to regret her words, but it was the reasonable action to take, and the Torki captain would have executed that Jump in any case. Regardless, stay or Jump, the ship was doomed.

There was a violet flash on the side of the huge ship, just as an event horizon started to form. The weakened ruptured hull started to crumple inward under the uneven gravitational stresses as the event horizon started to form, shrink, and then suddenly vanished. Immediately after that, a salvo of ten missiles hit the Blue Seas and it vanished in multiple intense flashes of silent lights, as the big ship blew apart. There was a momentary inarticulate link from Captain Gotin, which was cut off. The other fourteen Torki aboard never tried to link. They died with their ship, unable to reach escape pods in so short a time.

Gundarfem mentally processed a stream of incoming Comtap reports, even as she linked to Mirikami, reporting the attack. “Tet, Zanzibar is under attack. They snuck in on us and caught us unprepared without gammas on exit. We lost the Blue Seas to multiple hits. First missiles were all singles, but some made contact, but no explosions. Next salvos of ten per ship had real warheads. One other ship hit with plasma bolts but operational with minor damage. We’re in a pure defense mode now, and only our reaction speed saved our asses. We’re launching our missiles now against weakly stealthed targets. Plasma not hot yet, but lasers killing some of their missiles and hitting their ships.”

She could imagine his lip tug, despite the rapidity of his reply and the speed of Comtap mental links. “Macy, ask if your AI just detected a key disable code for humans. The first missiles sound like what we did at K1 to the Krall.”

A check by Caroline verified that an encrypted lock on a prisoner compartment had been altered to deny use by humans. No other encrypted key systems remained in use on the former Krall ships.

Gundarfem visually showed Tet what the sensors told her. “The fifty enemy ship outlines are not trapezoids, like Thandol warships. We just scored laser hits on two of them, but it’s an even match, fifty of them against us.” She hesitated a moment, then mentally shouted.

“Shit! Caroline says another four hundred fifty four enemy craft made silent entry above us. Two hundred are Thandol pyramid designs, but much smaller than a Crusher is. Two hundred fifty of ‘em look like the first fifty that attacked, about the same mass as ours. Our stealth seems better, since the missiles don’t follow us after we Jump or move away. We can’t protect the colony against this many.”

There was an instant of hesitation then she said, “Wow. Jenny Carver just blew up one of the Thandol ships. Great reaction. She Jumped right next to them and fired a missile into a side as soon as they appeared.”

She exchanged comments with Tet for a time, as she traded shots and missiles with the enemy, staying constantly on the move. “The AI just fired a plasma bolt that burned a big mark on the hull of one of the new type ships. Patil followed up with a missile. That one is gone. Oh…, and another one a quarter way around the planet just flared. Three for us, and only minor damage in return.”

Mirikami cautioned her. “Macy, at ten to one odds, that can’t last.” He was right faster than he expected.

Damn…,” Gundarfem shifted her attention to four ships of a smaller unique configuration from all the others, which suddenly left orbit and started down towards the planet.

She gave the Kobani down there the only help she could. A warning. “Ground side! Four enemy ships inbound, dividing up, one apparently headed for each colony town.”

The Kobani ships were dodging and twisting rapidly, because every time they fired lasers, plasma bolts, or missiles, the return fire was almost instant, and originated from multiple ships from any direction. Unlike the Krall, this enemy clearly coordinated their fire between ships, and energy beams might come from as many as ten ships, from varying distances. Whoever was flying these ships relied on computer speed for targeting and integrated fire control, and not manual targeting.

Nevertheless, the Kobani had now made six missile kills, and well over double that number in laser and plasma bolt damage to other ships, as the enemy’s degraded stealth revealed. That was versus eight of their own ships with minor to moderate energy beam damage, and one proximity detonation of a missile at the very start. The harder stealth coatings designed by the Torki and Raspani retained their stealth capability longer, but that was less vital if you were forced to fire constantly at the enemy, revealing your position before dodging or a micro-Jump away.