Koban: The Mark of Koban Page 4

  Looking down without the faintest trace of pity for the terrified and wailing cubs, he casually walked towards them in the surprisingly smooth glide of the bow legged Krall. He heard the faint swish of air behind him, whirled in a lighting fast motion and spotted the heavy chopping knife spinning through the air towards him.

  His four digit taloned right hand swept up in a blur of motion, plucking the knife out of the air by its handle, and with a flick of the wrist, reversed the weapon towards its source. It was a defiant thirteen-year-old girl at a kitchen passthrough opening. The heavy knife struck her point first in the forehead, killing her before she barely registered its return. Telour approved of her novice effort, as she fell dead.

  He needed to keep moving at speed, since he could hear his K’Tal firing in a human nest across the roadway, probably gaining kills while his leader lingered. He now regretted throwing the human’s knife because he hadn’t brought one of his own on his weapons belt. For speed and efficiency, neglecting the benefit of the atrocity factor he had recommended, he drew and shot the two younger male children as he spun to leave for the next nest building.

  They only had two days for this attack, and Telour knew it wasn’t possible for eight thousand two hundred Krall to cull much of human population on this ridiculously named Gribble’s Nook. What was a gribble anyway? The alien wondered.

  ****

  Sanji Gribble was a grandson of the original prospector, who had found this planet while operating his own small Jump ship. The ship had represented an investment of his entire family’s money. He filed a claim on the huge kimberlite magma extrusions in a cluster of cratons he found. He did this the same day he returned to the Hub to register the discovery of the mineral rich planet, after spending an expensive and hazardous year alone, exploring his find. He’d brought back several spectacular examples of diamonds, to substantiate his find.

  Diamonds of spectacular size, color, and quality, matched by ease of access became John Gribbles’ legacy to his family. The atmosphere was breathable, yet there was no elaborate environment to speak of, to protect from the most efficient and crude methods of mining, digging huge open pits. The family owned operation, no longer the largest mining operation on the Nook, was still one of the wealthiest.

  Grandpa had kept the planet’s resources secret for as long as he could, and the name Nook reflected his decision to try to maintain it as his own obscure and secluded treasure trove. By the time his seven years of proprietary rights of discovery had expired, he was wealthy enough to keep larger mining companies from coming in and pushing him around.

  Sanji had been CEO of Gribble Gems since his grandfather had died in an accident eleven years ago. Sanji’s hardnosed toughness won him support over any of the women in the family. Labor contract problems were just one issue they faced every two years. The revelation that high quality copper deposits were on Gribble land had caused friction with Standard Mining. At just over 2% copper, the sizable deposit was the richest on the Nook. Standard owned all copper export rights on the Nook, and demanded the right to strip mine on Gribble land, paying for the access of course. They were still in court over this issue.

  When the Capitol Spaceport AI notified the Gribble CEO’s computer of the arrival of sixteen strange ships, and shortly after that came reports they were about to make unauthorized landings. Sanji came in to the office, a short drive from his mansion, to find out what was happening. He learned from his AI that an unauthorized ship was about to land at the company’s small spacepad, on the other side of Gem Town.

  Their small AI had a link to the planet-wide radar system, and a mosaic map of the world showed landings at nearly every mining operation, large and small. Gem Town was on the low side of the population centers, with a population that hovered near hundred twenty thousand.

  The spacepad was where the lone company transport and the family’s two space yachts parked, with an adjacent aircraft landing strip and hanger. When he called him, the night watchman was concerned that the large ship could be a diamond raider until Sanji reminded him that the two-month supply of 25 million monthly carat output had Jumped to the Hub yesterday. A prospective raider would never miss a shipment by that amount of time.

  Suddenly his security guard shouted that people were coming out of the big ship, shooting at everything. Was it a dimwitted gem raider after all? Why were they shooting, when there was no opposition?

  “Hawthorn, get the hell away from them,” he ordered the guard. “Get below and into the vault area, close and lock the outer doors behind you. Don’t draw attention and don’t shoot unless you need to defend yourself. Your life isn’t worth protecting a handful of damned diamonds.” There was only three quarters of a million carats of rough stones there now, a below average one-day’s extraction.

  There had never been a robbery attempt here, partly because Grandpa John put some serious money into the underground heavy double vault system near the spacepad. Rough diamonds were stored there until they made the short trip to the heavily armored and armed transport. Then a quick launch to rendezvous with an orbiting Jumpship as they readied to depart. The vault was the most secure place on the planet, and Charley Hawthorn had been working for the family almost forty years.

  Sanji called up the security cameras from the spacepad, and with a shock saw hundreds of huge men racing away from the big ship, firing pistols that must contain explosive rounds. Anything they hit experienced a small blast. The heavy company transport wasn’t being hurt at all, but the two family boats, fine little Jump ships, were already wrecks.

  He was annoyed amid all this by a call from the Capitol Police. His AI had flagged it as an urgent call. Gem Town had its own emergency, but he accepted the call. It was a night shift Police Lieutenant, who informed him that sixteen ships had landed around the planet and were attacking everyone and everything around them. There were multiple deaths claimed, but unconfirmed because anyone that went to investigate didn’t make it back or report what they saw.

  “The same thing is happening here,” confirmed Sanji. “My little police force is off duty, but would they be any use? We don’t have anything besides short-range non-lethal weapons.”

  “Sir, what I saw on monitors shows me these guys are taking no prisoners, and…,” he paused uncertainly. “You may not believe me, but they aren’t human.”

  “Bullshit!” Nevertheless, Sanji manually used the zoom on one surveillance camera, to look closer at the men, or whatever they were, who were still running away from the just landed ship.

  “Holy Balls!” he exclaimed. “Lieutenant, you were right! These things are certainly not humans or even derived from humans. What are you doing about this there, that we can do here?”

  “My night captain has called out the SWAT team, and issued weapons, but there are at least five hundred of the perpetrators, according to the AI. I don’t think we can even slow them down. Look, Sir, I have other calls to make, good luck to you.” The call ended.

  Sanji needed to get everyone awake in town. The creatures were running at an amazing foot speed towards the outskirts of Gem Town’s Agriculture Center, located almost two miles from the sometimes-noisy spacepad.

  There would be a half dozen people on duty at night, caring for the crops and livestock that fed his employees, and when they were here, fed his extended family for that matter.

  He first sounded the seismic event alarm for the entire town, which would at least get everyone awake. Then he called the Ag Center office, which automatically rerouted his call to the supervisor out in the bubble compound.

  “You’re up late boss,” answered Darlene Waltrip, noting the caller’s ID on her phone. “We forget to compost the cow poop again?” She tried to renew a humorous conversation they had a couple of weeks ago, when a malodourous smell had drifted over to the people living closest to the Ag Center.

  Sanji cut her chuckling off, “Darlene, listen up, this is an emergency. You’ll hear the seismic alarm any second, but the threat is really
a pack of armed raiders coming from the spacepad. They shot hell out of everything over there, and they are coming your way next, on the run. I’m calling for a general evacuation towards the mines. Get yourself and everyone in there moving, and I mean right now! Your life probably depends on this.”

  Calling them raiders would save explanation time. Saying killer aliens were invading wouldn’t speed the conversation.

  “Uh…, OK boss, three are with me, the other two are someplace in the bubble. I can’t just leave them.”

  “Hit the fire alarm, make a speaker announcement and get the hell out. Grab one truck, leave the other one for them and drive to the Pipe. Spread the word as you go. I need to call Brad Carson, I gotta go.” He disconnected.

  There had been discussions in the past about what they might do if a robbery in-force was attempted. Hiding their people in the “Pipe” mine was an option they had considered. It was the closest ancient volcanic tube mine to the town, and had several sets of big elevators that could hold fifty people each, and a wide gentle spiral ramp for moving heavy equipment up and down the nearly mile deep hole. At least ten or twelve people abreast could safely trot down that broad ramp to get out of sight quickly. Numerous exploratory side tunnels, cut at various points, were suitable for hiding.

  Brad was the so-called Chief of Police, slash City Manager, in their small community, in charge of the five men and one-woman force of “peace keepers.”

  Sanji was pleased to see his other office line was ringing even as he finished with the Ag Center. It was Brad. As he picked up, he could hear the wail of the alarm in the background. He explained the situation to Brad, only this time he included the details of sixteen almost simultaneous landings, the call from the Capitol City police, and his own direct observation.

  “Brad, these things came out of their ship firing, both here and at Capitol City, and probably everywhere. They never intended to try to talk to us, and there’s no way you can face them with Jazzers and batons. Everyone will be awake by now, so make a broadcast on all channels of the Tri-Vid network, just tell them it’s murderous diamond raiders, and to hurry to the Pipe mine, no delay and take absolutely nothing. They don’t have the time. No one will believe you if you say something ridiculous like space aliens are shooting at us. I sure as hell wouldn’t.”

  “OK, Sir. Should I send someone out to help you get the family out?”

  “Brad, I’m in the office, I’m right in the heart of the family compound. The alarm will have them awake and they’ll hear your broadcast. We have plenty of cars here so we can make our own way to the Pipe. I’ll see you there. Good luck.”

  “You too sir.”

  In reality, most of his family didn’t live on Gribble’s Nook, but all branches had homes here, for when they had to put in their time learning and running the family business. Sanji spent the most time here, and was still off planet five months out of the thirteen-month Nook year.

  He talked to the three family households presently here, his younger sister Nita and her family, a first cousin Janice and her family, and a matriarch old aunt, Mary and her contract consort of this year; it was eleven people in all. Now he had only himself to save. Despite the offers his money drew, he had yet to ‘sign the line’ on a contract for even a short-term marriage, and had no children. The business was his wife for now.

  ****

  Grodol wasn’t happy. His status wasn’t high enough to earn a landing at one of the larger enemy compounds. He was fortunate just to have won command of a Clanship, and Telour had chosen him at random from a pool of sixty-four eligible warriors having equal status.

  There had been no humans at the landing pad, though warriors reported fresh scent of what they believed was one at a nearby building. None of his novices had ever been to Koban and had never seen or smelled a human. The trail of this one ended underground, at a massive hard metal door, which their explosive and armor piercing rounds merely discolored and chipped.

  After wasting thousands of rounds of ammunition putting holes in two small light space craft, and one very tough ship that only dented, the novices raced towards an infrared glow of a warm bubble, perhaps five hundred leaps away on this light gravity world.

  The covering proved to be an inflated, lightly pressurized dome that housed unfamiliar plants and animals that must be food for humans. There was a smell of recently present humans again, perhaps six of them. This time they were luckier, they saw two probable humans. At least they matched the general description.

  These animals were running towards an exit on the far side of the bubble. The warriors had simply torn their way through the transparent soft bubble to make an entry, and outrushing air was starting to deflate the soft dome.

  Sixty or seventy Krall, all wanting the first kill, began firing at the two figures on the far side of the large dome. The distance was too far for good pistol accuracy, even with Krall eyesight and steady hands, but several hundred rounds of explosive and armor piercing rocket propelled ammunition managed to hit both targets multiple times. More warriors were entering as the first arrivals were racing to claim credit for the two kills. They all continued firing as they ran, so that when they reached the red smears that had been two humans, there wasn’t much left for over a hundred warriors to divide kill credits.

  Grodol arrived as the dome roof settled over the internal structures and meat animals that were frightened by the noise and strange scent of the Krall. The roof also settled on almost a hundred of his novices, who now had to cut and tear their way out through the collapsed material.

  When the Krall commander heard that at most there had been only two humans killed, for all this time on the planet, and so much ammunition used, he was enraged and humiliated. His command would prove to be ineffective and wasteful if they did not find many more humans to kill, and do it soon.

  The sounds of possible human animal calls, similar to a language, and the noise of machinery came from the direction of the glow of the rest of the human compound. The dome had seemed a likely center of human occupation before landing, but that wasn’t the case. They should have landed on this other side.

  Grodol ordered his warriors to resume their rush to reach these humans before they could escape. It was obvious they were not going to attack the warriors. That was why the commander had closed the Clanship and permitted the K’Tal pilot to hunt with him. Humans were weak and helpless, and so far had made no effort to resist his warriors.

  Finally, they found their prey in quantity, fleeing in small four wheeled transports, in wide lanes between what could only be individual nests for producing their smelly cubs. Only there were few cubs. Humans here didn’t seem to be hatching as many young as their vast numbers elsewhere suggested.

  Regardless of the lack of human cubs to mutilate for the atrocities Telour had ordered, the warriors found multiple mature targets for their weapons and knives. The transports were easily destroyed, and the humans inside, if not killed, leaped out and made loud noises in the Krall’s lower auditory range. Warriors pounced on the helpless prey, mostly shooting them, clubbing or tearing open some with taloned hands, or carving up a few with short swords or knives. They intercepted hundreds in the paved lanes dividing the compound into rectangles.

  Because of the wanton firing before they even reached the population center, the ammunition the warriors carried on their utility belts was running low. There was no one now at the Clanship to transport fresh supplies, using the shuttle housed inside. This was another unfavorable reflection on their inexperienced leader, Grodol.

  The alternative was still pleasurable, but the rate of killing switched from a high numbers game to one of close up and personal pleasure. It was more satisfying but considerably slower. Many of the animals in the vanguard of the exodus poured out of the other side of the open compound.

  The raid leader had ample time to eradicate every member of this small cluster in the two days allowed. They could move the Clanship closer to where these mindless animals were
fleeing to hide. Destroying all of the humans here would soften the reports of how poorly organized the initial assault had been. There was always tomorrow.

  ****

  “There’s no tomorrow,” Sanji spoke in response to a comment by Brad that at first light they could barricade the entrance to the mine.

  “Sir, it’s dark out here, we can’t see outside of the glow of vehicle lights. We parked the trucks and cars like you said, to illuminate the roadway into the mine, and parking some on the ramp gave us light there. Only I don’t think we can bring up the heavy equipment tonight, not with people trying to walk all the way to the bottom. After what they saw behind them, I can’t blame them.”

  This mine had never operated at night, and the lighting in the depths did not help up here at the mouth. Nook had no moon, leaving nights with only starlight for human vision. There was no telling how well these aliens could see in the dark. Even after they destroyed the power distribution grid, the killing and screams went on without respite.

  “What I mean Brad, is that we can’t stand around and wait for them to come out here to find our people. At least fifteen or twenty thousand of our friends and neighbors never made it out of town. We can’t count on mercy from these monsters, so we need to get the creatures moving in another direction, or make them pull back.”

  “We don’t have weapons Sir and I watched how fast they moved when they focused on cutting off the escape columns out of town. We can’t match them physically, not even close, and all I can find are clubs and a dozen drilling lasers.”

  “Brad, the drilling lasers are good, but they are not our best weapons. What do we usually do with them?” he had an idea, not a great one, but the only one that came to mind.