Koban: The Mark of Koban Read online

  “I’m no miner Sir, I guess for drilling, obviously.”

  “Saul, will you tell Brad what we do with those small bore holes the lasers burn for us?” He turned to one of his engineers that had sought him out in the dark and confusion.

  “Fill ‘em with explosives and blow off a rock face, or crumble a flat area, like for the big bucket excavators when they drag the rocks to conveyors and pile them up for hauling and processing. Anything like that would slow or stop them.” He responded.

  “Explosives are weapons turned to peaceful uses Brad. We have some here, and I think Saul can round up some crews to drill into the face of the cliffs leading back here, and do that tonight, as soon as possible. The explosives shack is safely clear of the mine, but we must have some stored there. Right?” He looked at Saul.

  “Yes Sir, but not a lot. This old volcanic lava tube is almost played out, so we weren’t doing much blasting.” Saul pointed that out to his boss, seeing a glimmer of what he had in mind.

  “But do you think you have enough that you could bring those cliffs down along the road when needed, on top of those murderous pricks when they come for us out here?”

  “Absolutely, Sir. If we have enough time to drill and ram the explosives and rig them in the dark.”

  “Saul, I think it’s safe to say that speed is needed more than safety, so can you have someone rig and string the charges in the road while others drill? Do just enough to pull the sides down and bury some of the bastards, and delay the others. The AI estimated there were just over five hundred of them. We may hurt them enough to make them pull back.”

  “They can get around the blockage Sir, if determined. We can’t cover every route here.” Brad noted.

  “Thus the second part of the plan to divert them away.” The shrewd CEO informed him.

  “As everyone that lives in Gem Town knows, the main explosive storage dump is all the way on the other side of the spacepad, closer to where that ship landed tonight. I need to get there, along with a small crew that can rig explosives, run the big front loaders, and operate two or three of our largest dumpers.” The latter were the forty-foot long, twenty feet high dump trucks that hauled overburden and kimberlite deposits around.

  “Sir, what will you do with the Big Dumps?” Saul asked, using the slang reference for them.

  “Battering rams at a minimum on their ship, Saul. Perhaps more. Find some volunteers to go with me. We have the material and know how, and I’m sure we have the guts. We can take my family’s three air cars to get there faster, and skirt well clear of town. Which pit has the closest Big Dumps to the explosives? We can drop people off to drive those over.”

  “Why not let the AI’s drive them Sir?”

  Sanji looked over his shoulder to see a man he vaguely recognized, but couldn’t quite place. “What’s that, uh…?” he left the sentence hanging, waiting for the man to fill in his name.

  “Will Dawfem, Sir. I’m a ‘Turd,’ I drive the Big Dumps. I made my way over when I heard someone say you were looking for volunteers.”

  “OK, Will, the AI’s can handle simple driving, so I guess that can get them safely to the explosives storage dump? But can it be done in the dark, with no lights?”

  “Sure Sir. They have built in local maps updated every day, and laser, radar, and GPS aided navigation for steering. I can link as many as you want to the front truck and they’ll follow me like sheep.”

  “OK, Will, and I need two more, ah, Turd you called your position?” He laughed, despite the situation. “I’m constantly learning more about this operation, after spending most of life listening to my Grandpa’s stories.”

  “I can do it myself Sir, you don’t need other drivers.” Will told him.

  “Will, we are going to split our force into three air cars, to increase the chance we make it there with every skill set we need. I’m not underestimating these invaders.” That placed a somber tone atop the recently upbeat mood.

  Turning, Sanji looked at Saul. “You ain’t drilling yet?” he smiled to remove any hint of sting, but he needed everyone moving now.

  Thirty minutes later, Brad had established lookouts on the bluffs looking back at the town with com sets in hand. Saul had drillers on cherry pickers starting boreholes, and in the roadway below the cliff faces, two rigger crews were stringing explosives for each side of the fifty-foot wide roadway. There were sixty-foot high rock walls to bring down, and they’d need a lot of explosives to blast the rubble all the way across, burying whatever was out there.

  The first air car had lifted with Sanji driving, keeping low with the eight seats filled. Will was in front with him, prepared to drop out at the glamorously named Pit Number 3’s “Latrine,” the truck park where Will said he’d find the dump trucks needed.

  The other two air cars were taking different routes, and they were going to pick up one big front loader apiece, to load the three huge dump trucks. They were not the normal means used to load the 400-ton behemoths, but it was what they could move to the explosives dump on short notice.

  Sanji dropped Will at the truck park, using his lights only down at ground level and set on dim until the driver had climbed the twenty feet to the cab. The lights inside came on as soon as it detected the man’s implant. Not just anyone could operate the huge Big Dumps. He motioned for Sanji to leave, as he signaled two other trucks to light up remotely, setting them up to follow his own lead truck.

  Sanji reached the explosives dump, keeping as low to the ground as he could, using hills to shield his movement to the extent possible from the spacepad. His selected crew bailed out and the supervisor of the dump unlocked the first of three isolated and shielded bunkers they would use. As that was happening the second air car arrived safely, having dropped their front loader driver. The combined crews started loading pallets of explosives on haulers, and bringing them out of the bunkers.

  Once the pallets were outside, the riggers started setting detonators in place, using hand-shielded flashlights for illumination. They finally heard the rumble of engines in the distance. Sanji hadn’t considered this detail. The noise the heavy equipment would make.

  A front loader was the first to arrive. As Sanji had instructed, its hopper already held rocks two to three feet in diameter. The driver had scooped them up along the way, from mounds of overburden. Then they waited, with the explosives rigged with everything but the remote initiators connected.

  The second front loader drove up, also loaded with large rocks. However, the key to the plan was the Big Dumps. With the other equipment shut down, they were relieved when they heard the rumble, and soon felt it, as the three enormous trucks rounded a hill. Will had taken a more roundabout route than Sanji had anticipated, but considering the noise, it may have been a good idea.

  When Will brought the trucks up to the men signaling him with flashlights, he pulled past them slightly, to leave the string of trucks all well placed for loading. They reminded Sanji of images he’d seen of elephants in his mother’s native country, India, on Earth. Like that line of big animals following each other, linked trunk to tail.

  The hauler forks were not quite high enough to lift the explosive pallets over the lip of the backside of the dump trucks. Will and the other two “Turds” solved that by tilting the beds up five degrees, to allow the forks to clear the now lowered rear lip. Four men helped in manhandling the pallets off the forks, then a second, third and a final fourth pallet was loaded onto each truck.

  The front loaders carefully divided their rock loads in the back of the trucks, and the remote initiators were only then attached to the chain of detonators. Banked dirt from the sides of the now empty three bunkers was used to cover the explosives. When finished they had three Big Dumps, ready to blow it out their asses.

  The urgency of the plan gained impetus when Brad called to say that much of the town was on fire, and about three or four hundred of the invaders were moving at a rapid trotting pace on the road towards the Pipe.

  Sanji spo
ke to the three truck drivers privately, and told the other men they could return to the Pipe in the air cars, or stay here, it was their choice. However, he was going in a truck with Will, and the other two drivers were going part of the way with them.

  Brad recalled his lookouts from the top of the bluffs, and heard from Saul that his crews had inserted as many of the charges as they had boreholes. They were pulling back. They intended to bury the remaining charges in the roadway, closer to the Pipe.

  ****

  Grodol’s mood was improving, slightly. A rough body count revealed that each warrior would share in just over thirty-two kills apiece, after the commander collected his share, and he then awarded additional points to warriors that could prove exceptional performance. This was below the hundreds of kills per warrior he had expected, but now they were seeking out where most of the humans had fled.

  He had sent most of his warriors ahead, following the massive scent trail. He was returning to the Clanship with a hundred twenty eight warriors and his K’Tal. He would move the Clanship close to wherever the largest number of humans had gone to hide. There would be fresh ammunition to increase the kill rate if the prey tried to flee farther.

  Over by the Pipe, from around another bluff, Saul watched the curve in the road through the explosives rigged area, hearing the rapid crunching of hundreds of heavy feet. These beasts were not only strong, but they ran the entire six miles from the flames at Gem Town. Even at only .81 of Earth gravity, these creatures were obviously very strong and tough.

  Suddenly a wall of the large bipeds poured around the curve, almost filling it from side to side. They had a rather funny looking bowlegged look, but moved very gracefully, smooth like a cat. He was tempted to let the leaders get a little past the explosives, but wondered what he would do if even a few got past.

  He flipped up the safety cover, and motioned the others to move back towards the Pipe’s entrance. Suddenly there was a barrage of shots, with rounds exploding near him. Somehow, they had seen his motion there in the shadows and were firing at him.

  He pressed the button, the last valiant act of his long life. His head and chest errupted from explosive round impacts, just as massive explosions rippled along the rock walls, blowing tens of thousands of tons of rock through and over the suddenly faster rushing horde.

  The few men in position to see what happened saw the incredibly fast reaction of many of the creatures as they leaped into the air, pushing off the sides of the walls and individual boulders to gain height. It didn’t work for most of those in the vanguard, as the crushing rocks buried them. It was impossible to see what happened to those around the bend of the curve, but the explosions must have caught many of them the same way.

  Only three Krall escaped the explosion and wall collapse in the front. From screams of rage well behind them, they knew other warriors survived farther back. Strung out to fit through the narrow canyon, some had been clear of the blast, but many clearly were injured and angry that a prey animal had tricked them, after fleeing from them for so long.

  The three warriors entered a berserker’s rage at the loss of so many clan mates, particularly from the insult inflicted by a weak cowardly enemy.

  The three, as one, virtually screeched rage as they ran towards the next bend, emerging from the choking dust. When they rounded the next curve, they could see a hand of humans running, as if in slow motion to the Krall’s senses, passing between rows of the parked wheeled human transports. Like robots linked by the same software, all drew both of their pistols and pulled the triggers repeatedly.

  There was only a single shot heard, because they had used the last of their ammunition firing en masse at Saul, in an excessive barrage. That one final round was armor piercing, and passed through the upper left shoulder of one of the engineers running away. He went down, but the rest continued running, as they looked over their shoulders to see the three gape jawed terrors gaining rapidly on them.

  It would only be four or five leaps and the three warriors would have their hated prey. They passed the first of the transports when one of the humans, apparently resigning itself to death slowed and faced them. One warrior drew a short sword, to carve pieces from this human, to eat as it and the other humans watched.

  It was that delightful thought he still had in his mind, as he suddenly departed the Great Path, the route to improving the Krall’s breed of warriors. These three killers lost all status points for this day’s killings, when the human that had slowed pressed the button of a second detonator. He watched the explosives buried in the roadway shred even the tough tissues of the three Krall.

  Grodol learned of the disaster of the pursuit of the humans from an octet leader that had lost five of her warriors in the blast at the canyon. There remained only sixty-eight effectives, and two hands of warriors that might live, but were unable to pursue the enemy due to multiple lost limbs, or crushing injuries. Many were pinned under slabs of rock even several warriors could not move.

  This particular octet leader, clearly angry with her commander, had communicated her report on an open channel that every warrior could hear. Grodol knew that this level of insubordination foretold more than a disgrace and loss of breeding points for him. His particular gene line would end. An honorable option was to turn berserker and fight humans until killed. However, he had no clear successor.

  The leader of a hand of octets, ordered to follow Grodol back to the ship, eliminated this difficult decision. He did that by erasing the stain from Graka clan. He shot Grodol in the back of the head. There was a consensus of octet leaders that this was the most efficient way to resolve the issue. Now the highest status warrior in this raiding party was Daktor, and he would lead.

  Daktor ordered all of the survivors to return to the ship with haste. The resupplied warriors would attack the humans from an unexpected direction, after he repositioned the Clanship on the other side of the blocked canyon. Telour had warned that humans were fond of traps and trickery. Therefore, the key was to place his warriors were humans did not expect the Krall to be.

  ****

  The aliens would not expect the humans to be here. Sanji was taking the trucks off-road by the most direct route to the alien ship. He had learned of Saul’s death from Brad, but his chief engineer had taken many of the killers with him. The last of the explosives stored at the Pipe had killed the only three aliens that had made it past the initial blast in the canyon.

  In a show of intestinal fortitude that Sanji admired, Brad had climbed the bluff to see what the aliens were doing where the canyon road was blocked. He could have run right into them, bypassing the blockage in the same way. Instead, for some reason they were racing back towards the town, he reported seeing the flicker of their shadows from the backlight of fires that they had set earlier.

  Speculating, Sanji asked, “Brad, if you could climb up to get around the blocked road, why do you think they didn’t? Give me your best guess.”

  “Boss, they somehow spotted Saul in the shadows and started firing at him, just before he blew the canyon. The number of shots they fired was relatively low. Only ten or fifteen rounds, from at least a hundred of them that were leading the charge. Of the three that got past the destruction, they all drew their weapons, yet only one fired a single shot, wounding one of the riggers. They holstered their guns and drew knives, still running at us, before Jason blew them to Hell. I think they used up most of their ammunition in town.”

  Sanji considered that a moment. “Then you think the retreat is just to resupply at their ship?”

  “Yes Sir. Would you invade a world only with the ammunition you could carry on your belt?”

  “Makes sense to me. It sounds like there are two parties heading back to their ship now. So,” he mused. “They’ll be there soon getting reloads, with the others close behind. All the rats in the same hole…” he left the thought hanging.

  Suddenly he made his decision. “I’ll get back to you Brad.”

  Next, he turned to Will fo
r some instruction. “Show me how you link up a lead truck to make the others follow.”

  Suspecting what his CEO had in mind, Will told him, “It won’t work without at least one certified transducer equipped driver in the lead truck, Sir. I’ll bet that isn’t you. The other drivers and I can drive them where you want. Tell us what you plan to do, and then you should get out.”

  “Will, I won’t allow you to do something that I expected to do alone. I’ll not let any of you do it in my place. It could be a one way trip.”

  “Relax Sir. I’ll tell you how a real Turd would do this.” He grinned.

  ****

  Daktor, the K’Tal pilot, and one hundred twenty eight novice warriors reached the edge of the pad where the Clanship had landed. Using his com button on his shoulder, the K’Tal tapped out the coded signal to open the lower hatches. All four hatches snapped up into their hull recesses, revealing the stacks of pistol and rifle ammunition inside, and even heavier plasma rifles, if they were required.

  Addressing his octet leaders, Daktor instructed them, “Make sure every warrior takes the maximum ammunition they can carry. We will use knives only when we have captured the last of the enemy, and no other traps or long pursuit is possible.” He wasn’t going to allow his warriors to rampage recklessly and run out of ammunition. That was Grodol’s mistake. One of several he made.

  Reloading and stocking up was still underway when all of the Krall heard the sudden roar of a powerful engine. It was close.

  Daktor was among the first to react, leaping out of one of the large hatchways. From around the side of the heavy human shuttle, on which so many warriors had wasted ammunition, rumbled an extremely large transport. It must have been sitting there waiting with engine off, because they would have heard it coming from a long distance away. That meant a human was in control, and trying a surprise attack on the Clanship.

  A hundred thirty Krall, two pistols each, began firing at the gigantic machine. There was a cockpit-like compartment on the front, located under a wide heavy lip of what had to be part of the giant truck’s rear bed.