Koban (67 page)

He looked at Roni. “I understand that the canyon team has asked
if you can save them the climb down with ropes, and hover so they can step out through
the cargo stowage hatch. Is that still their request?”

“Yes Sir. If the winds are low this morning I can probably hover
close to the rock face, or else I’ll set them on the top of the ridge as we originally
planned. They have pitons already in place for the ropes if they need to climb down.”

“Fine, accommodate them if possible, but don’t risk half our
shuttle ‘fleet’ and your neck in particular. I never asked them how they were going
to climb out if they made it through to the next day. I know nothing about climbing,
so they must have a way.”

Raising his voice to catch everyone’s attention, Mirikami called
for them all to climb aboard through the storage hatch. All of their equipment was
already in place on or near the cliffs.

Mirikami was the last to board. He saluted his ship and crew,
and was surprised to see people coming out from under the dome’s overhang. They
waved, and he waved back. It wasn’t a cheering situation, but obviously, they wanted
Mirikami’s ideas to work, since some of them might be going next.

The hatch sealed and everyone selected a seat, though this time
Mirikami took the copilot’s seat. It wasn’t until he sat down that he realized how
much more comfortable he felt moving around in his armor this morning, and his overall
feeling of energy and anticipation made him feel alive and confident.

The shuttle lifted smoothly and climbed away from the ship. They
were over the valley in five minutes, and could barely see the truck under the trees,
which was what they intended. It shouldn’t look too obvious they had been there,
but they wanted it seen. Up the hillside, Mirikami spotted one of the larger cave
openings covered by brush.

“Thad, we’re here, are you about done?”

“Almost,” he replied quickly. “I’m hiding one of two trip lines
I set. It’s possible they may just start shooting into the cave, but there’s a slight
bend after you enter, so I’m hoping they come at least that far. I’ll be right out.”

They sat down to the side of the cave mouth, and he stepped out
and trotted to the open hatch.

At the top of the ridge Thad, Dillon, and Deanna went to each
of the charges there, removed the safeties, and verified the mechanical trip wires
were still strung across the pathways through the brush. Both charges also had remote
actuators.

They made the same checks on the next level down, with Frank,
Dillon, and Juan, checking what they had set up there. Frank pointed to one narrow
shadowy opening for Juan. “Stay out of there, that’s the famous shit cave you heard
so much about.” They both laughed, and even Dillon was forced to smile. He made
certain the remote actuator was working at that location before removing the safety.

Repeating the process on the lowest terrace, the shuttle landed
in the protected clearing, behind the large boulder. The shuttle was half the size
of a Krall shuttle, so it was completely hidden from view from most of the cliff
side positions. However, there was a place along the lower terrace with a
protruding outcrop of rock.  That outcrop had a view of the gap between the shuttle
and the huge boulder, and Mirikami had visited that yesterday.

Mirikami studied that outcrop again from the ground and
nodded. Then they all moved to the other side of the boulder from the shuttle’s
toxic exhaust. Mirikami gave permission to proceed, and she lifted away with Thad
aboard, to return to the ship for the other teams.

Mirikami armed his special claymore, and reburied it in soft
soil with brush over that.

Then the six of them trudged towards the cliffs, deliberately
leaving clear footprints and scuffmarks until they reached a flat expanse of rock,
then dirt again at the base of the rock face.

They walked to two of the clefts or chimneys where a climb up
was possible to the first terrace, leaving footprints at the base. Dislodging some
stones, they dropped them to lay on the surface, partially covering some of their
fresh footprints, to suggest they fell as someone had climbed.

Next, they walked backwards along their trail until reaching
the flat clear rock. There were now about a dozen set of tracks pointed roughly
at and along the bottom of the cliffs, with suggestions that rocks had fallen when
a climb up the clefts had taken place.

Now it was time to hide in plain sight. That part of the plan
seemed too simple to work, perhaps making it the best part. They had about another
ninety minutes before the Krall shuttle should arrive at the dome. It would be
perhaps forty-five minutes before a final pass by their own shuttle, to verify they
were hidden.

They only had a short walk from the cliffs, even if it was backwards.

Tyroldor was fresh from an interclan battle where Kimbo clan
warriors had decimated two thousand forty eight Dolbrin clan warriors, leaving but
a few hands of surviving breeders for their opponents. Both clans were young finger
clans, just under a thousand years old, but Kimbo clan was a rising star because
of their innovative tactics.

This had been their third straight interclan victory, where the
previous victory was against one thousand twenty four of the Maldo finger clan on
the original Raspani home world. Prior to that, in an even smaller action to display
their new tactics, Kimbo clan had virtually eliminated two hundred fifty six Toboro
clan warriors on a former Olt’kitapi colony world in this same sector.

That glorious benchmark battle had been negotiated to be an honor
battle, “For the Path and clan,” fought to the death by equal sized groups with
no quarter given or submission permitted.

Kimbo clan had now been invited by ancient Graka clan to bring
an octet to Koban. They were asked to send two experienced warriors that had participated
in each of the three previous victories, and the rest novices. Of course, Kimbo
selected them well for this obvious showcase demonstration.

It was an honor even to visit Koban, the future Krall home world,
and Graka was one of the great old clans that dated back nearly to the Olt’kitapi
destruction.

Tyroldor was disappointed to learn that they would not test themselves
against Graka warriors, where any victory against them would have status repercussions
beyond its small scale. However, they were not told from what clan their opponents
would come.

It was obvious that Graka wanted to learn about the hyper aggressive
risky attacks the Kimbo warriors had innovated. Kimbo had relatively fewer breeders
survive each of their battles, but those that did earned a disproportionate high
number of status points. Tyroldor’s clan strongly believed in quality breeders over
quantity, a position that Graka clan was said to favor.

There was the possibility of an alliance with Graka if Kimbo’s
tactics produced more overall victories, despite greater warrior losses per battle.
It wasn’t as if there were too few females for them to replace their losses by prolific
mating.

The hand and a half of novices he brought were untested of course,
but were older than most novices at their first combat test were. They were extremely
well schooled in Kimbo’s slashing and ferocious frontal attacks, focused on inflicting
maximum casualties on enemy warriors at their opponent’s strongholds, at any costs.

The strongest points were where the enemy’s best warriors would
be posted, and by recklessly sacrificing well-trained novice fighters to reduce
the enemy’s best fighters, the flanking attacks by more experienced warriors rolled
up the enemy until they either submitted, or died. The few novices that survived
those frontal attacks gained considerable status and valuable experience. They would
be octet leaders for the next test.

Four tests ago Tyroldor had been a talented novice. Stepping
down now to control a single octet seemed beneath his status, but the other experienced
warrior placed under his command had also commanded four other octet leaders in
their victory over Dolbrin clan. Tyroldor had earned more status than he had by
virtue of some luck, and his aggressive use of his octets.

He was honored by his selection for this small action, clearly
a demonstration to be observed by Graka clan. A prelude to something larger his
clan leaders were certain. Perhaps they might earn an early role in fighting the
new enemy that had been found.

 The larger and more powerful clans traditionally reserved the
early battles with a new species for their own training and testing. The rich grew
richer in both status and experience.

Therefore, he was excited to learn after his octet landed that
their fight would be against members of this new species called humans. His octet
was to be permitted two different matching’s against them.

His initial briefing consisted mainly of images of what the enemy
looked like, and their relative size compared to a Krall in recordings. They were
obviously much smaller and certainly would be slower and weaker, but said to be
intelligent and able to use basic weapons. In combat, the soft looking bipeds were
shown wearing a sort of armor, clearly implying that they needed protection from
even the lesser weapons being used.

His octet was to be limited to the same weapons these humans
were given. A very detailed video of the compound’s terrain was furnished. This
he shared with his octet, because every Krall had an inborn ability to memorize
such details for a mission. Repetition was unnecessary.

After a day of training his novices at the only inhabited Krall
compound on Koban, using the simple weapons allowed, they were ready for a shuttle
flight to a former Maldo clan compound. Once there they would have an opportunity
to see examples of what they would be hunting, and imprint how these animals smelled
for tracking. He asked about human scents and edibility.

One Dorbo clan sub leader made a snorting remark that implied
a human’s bad smell was only exceeded by their worse taste. Oh well, fine tasting
races like the Raspani were rare.

The K’Tal pilot did not speak to them during the flight, and
without side ports, there was little to see looking over his shoulder. He’d hoped
they would see some of the legendary Kobani animals, but that would have to wait
for their deployment.

Tyroldor spent the hours with his experienced warrior discussing
how they would employ their standard tactic of a full out assault by the novices,
once they had located the enemy. The two experienced warriors would stay back to
flank and kill any survivors that escaped that initial attack, if any.

All they knew of the force they would meet was that four hands
of enemy had been selected to face his octet, and that they might divide their forces
into smaller units that would fight separately. This seemed to counter the claim
that they were intelligent. Nevertheless, it only meant that they would have to
track all of the units down, requiring more time.

The shuttle landed near the compound’s standard construction
dome. As Tyroldor and his warriors stepped onto the tarmac, a strong animal odor
reached their noses that they couldn’t identify. It was different from the background
scents they had smelled at the other compound, which had been identified as native
to Koban.

They were greeted by Telour, the Graka clan Translator placed
in charge of the humans. He informed them that the smell they detected was human.
Just then several armed humans appeared out of a large alien ship parked near the
dome. They looked even smaller than Tyroldor expected. From their movements, it
was apparent they were even less adapted to the higher than normal gravity than
his recently arrived octet was.

Leaving the other warriors to size up the humans they could see
and smell, Telour directed the octet leader to where several simple wheeled transports
were parked, and one wheeled and tracked transport.

He was informed that these were available for his warriors, but
the shuttle was reserved only for the two higher status warriors. He advised that
a number of human combat teams had gone out earlier and would be waiting for them.

In Krall ultrasonic Tyroldor said, “Telour, you speak of combat
teams, not octets. We were told that humans fight in odd size units.”

“Yes,” Telour answered, “These animals may choose to fight as
individuals or in any size group as they decide, and might change their minds once
combat is engaged. They are very unpredictable. Some may cooperate, or they may
operate entirely alone.

Telour added, “Because you know little of our new enemy, I will
tell you that the humans you face today have divided their forces.” He could also
have mentioned that they had prepared surprises by making some of their own weapons,
but let the Kimbo warriors adjust as they learned this. If any died, it benefited
his plan.

“There are preferred locations where humans have chosen to fight
us through nearly five Koban years, as we learned about them. Of course you have
seen the terrain inside the compound walls. They are not stupid, so will not face
the native life to leave the compound. Like us, they see advantages in certain places
to hide and fight, and they have had time to learn where those places are. Use your
instincts to think of those places, and plan your movements to increase your opportunities
of finding them quickly.”

“There are many places they can hide. But why do they not attack?”
Tyroldor asked.

“Because we are so much better at fighting that they attack only
from ambush or when they must fight once you find where they are hiding. You have
but one full Koban day to complete your mission, so you must find and kill as many
of them as possible in that time. Do not permit them to submit, kill any that you
find. This ensures they always fight as hard as they can.”

“We will find them all if they each smell as strong as those
here. Can they smell our warriors as well?” he asked.