Koban 4: Shattered Worlds (10 page)

“The second part of your plan is to gather clanships and material from here on K1, and from many clan worlds deep in our territory, to mount a second, and larger permanent invasion of New Glasgow. This is one of their Old Colony worlds, with a large population and a well-developed infrastructure. It has been scouted but never raided, and as one of their Hub worlds, it is not considered at risk on an invasion. There are only ten thousand soldiers there, all at a base near the largest compound, or city, on that planet.

“With little reason to expect us to increase the number of invasions, combined with our increase in offensive actions on Poldark, you expect to draw many of their reserves away. You believe both of the unexpected invasions will have early and rapid success, and achieve a secure talon hold on those worlds.” He paused, struggling to conceal resentment from his words.

“That is the overall proposal, as I recall it, my Tor. If you wish to test my detailed knowledge, I can report on the specific clans that will be entirely redirected from Poldark to New Dublin, and the clans that will support the invasion of New Glasgow. I also know what percentage of our reserve war materials will be sent with each new invasion force.”

Kanpardi made a negative shake of his shoulder. “A detailed report is not required, Telour. I needed to be certain that you remembered the goals I have set for punishing the humans for their surprise attacks in our rear. The new invasions will demonstrate we have not been weakened, and that they will suffer for their mistaken strategy.”

He was careful to acknowledge Telour’s position as a high status warrior. “You have a right to speak to other clans of other tactics, but in the process, you have been less forceful in explaining the plan I proposed. You can confirm the wisdom of my selecting you as Til Gatrol, by presenting my plans to Gatlek Pendor directly, on Poldark.”

Kanpardi took satisfaction from the brief ripple of Telour’s lips, as he was forced to hold back his personal objections to the more conservative route chosen by his superior to punish humans. To be sent to Poldark, ordered to explain the plan to the third ranking Krall war leader of another major clan, the plan thus became Telour’s own benchmark for success in the minds of other clans.

Telour would be forced into support for his superior’s plans afterwards, because he would undermine himself if he continued to press for an alternative punishment for humanity. He had been lobbying for destroying one or more human Hub worlds. This would clearly be a redundant and inefficient action to take in the face of increased successful invasions. According to Kanpardi’s argument, the least punitive plan was the least wasteful for the Krall’s long-range goals and made the best use of all resources, until the previous war production levels were restored.

“I will organize my mission’s departure for daybreak tomorrow, my Tor."

He hoped for a half-day’s delay, to complete a discussion with Mordo clan’s leader, the clan affiliation of Gatlek Pendor. He wanted to set the stage in the Joint Council for possibly replacing Kanpardi in the near future, if he could plant the seeds now. It was not to be. Kanpardi was skilled at interclan politics and rivalry.

“That is not necessary. While I waited so long for you to arrive, I had ample time to arrange transport for you, as the commander of a hand of clanships. These will assure an aggressive penetration through Poldark’s space defenses. The commanders of each of the three other clanships under you are high status warriors, leaders that know of my plans. Any of them may serve as your alternate, if your ship, or some of theirs, are unfortunate targets of a successful human defense. You leave immediately.”

Kanpardi had arranged for enough redundancy in the mission that his message was sure to be delivered and obeyed, without allowing Telour an opportunity to scheme before leaving. The fact that Kanpardi appreciated Telour’s ability for subtlety and manipulation didn't mean that Kanpardi didn’t share that trait. It was how he rose to his current position, after all.

Telour ran with his waiting escort of crewmates to the tarmac, to take command of the small flotilla. He didn’t consciously think of the repercussions of what he planned, because he was so self-assured of the correctness and necessity of his decisions. There were less direct ways to take the place of your superior. Something besides political machinations or an arranged pretext for a justifiable death match challenge. Few Krall would consider this course honorable, Kanpardi among them. Fewer still had been selected by their superior exactly because they possessed such a mindset. Gatlek Pendor’s own ambitions would be the key.

****

“Chief, I want the Falcon to go with me to Poldark, but as a passive tow by the Mark. The White Out of our combined masses near a gas giant will be noticed, but we won’t have the gamma ray signature of a Krall clanship, and draw less attention. I’ll transfer to the Falcon and you can then Jump in closer, to their moon’s orbit, and make the radio request for entry, flashing the same code from General Nabarone that you normally use to bypass levels of security, and customs. The Mark will cruise in closer but stay stealthed until I call for her, or meet her in orbit with a loaner ship.”

Chief Haveram had decided he liked running the Falcon, and had remained as her Captain. He made frequent Jumps into Human Space; always Rim worlds thus far, to make purchases, convert precious metals into hard Hub currency or credit, and make deals for off-the-book deliveries of equipment suitable for a developing colony. This way, there were no questions to answer about where the goods and equipment was going. It wasn’t illegal merchandise, but it would be a source of curiosity, and sometimes it required dealings with shady characters, who may have “acquired” their “legal” goods in a way that questions were discouraged from buyers. It could be dangerous work, which a rejuvenated old fart like Haveram was eager to do. Just like the dangerous deals a youngster, which he now resembled, might chose to risk. His demonstrated experience, yet apparent youth, seemed at odds with the people he dealt with, and his speed and strength when a deal went sour, made him someone a double crosser didn’t forget, if they survived the lesson.

“This is only my fourth trip to Poldark, Tet. Aside from delivering you and the ‘gene team’ to see Nabarone, am I picking up any more Spec ops people there this time? Or returning any to Poldark from here?”

On his last trip to Poldark, Haveram had picked up nearly forty volunteer troops to take back to Koban, to become dual citizens and to receive their first gene mods. He knew some of those men had been talking about going back to Human Space soon. They were chatting up the “Ladies” in the new nightspot and dance club, which the true military types congregated at in the evenings, in the basement under Koban Prime, where an abandoned Krall factory had its former administrative offices available for use. The bar was called Rippers Roost.

It wasn’t full of the loose talk of drunken men, although they tried to make it so. They were learning that their new metabolism made it difficult to absorb alcohol quickly enough to get really buzzed, let alone sloppy drunk, although there were some majestic efforts. The local uncontracted women, many having recently been rejuvenated to their mid-twenties, were starved for new male faces and news of Human Space. They spent time making the genuinely young troopers feel
very
welcome.

The notions of male sperm rights and marriage contracts, in a world outside the rules and customs of the Hub, were essentially ignored here, as was the formalized and subservient male gender roles still displayed in much of Human Space, particularly on the inner Hub worlds. Men here, and increasingly on Rim worlds, were now considered social equals. The trend was working its way into New Colonies, as they added military outposts, which despite open recruiting for all genders, was three quarters male in composition.

Mirikami had predicted that when the Kobani mods became widespread, that there would likely be more of a female presence in the military. On Koban, almost forty percent of his raiders were female, and increasing in numbers as the older women gave into the temptations of gene mods, rejuvenation, and the feeling of youth and strength they gained.

There were only ten percent more women on Koban than males. This minor gender imbalance seemed to make women less sexually aggressively than on Hub worlds, where they generally outnumbered men by nearly thirty percent. Perhaps a greater male availability was the reason. Male populations had nearly rebounded from the Gene War catastrophe, but on Koban women had fared worse. Males were still considered the socially “protected” gender on Hub worlds, but less so on Rim worlds, and not at all on Poldark or in the Army.

In the era on Koban when the Krall were testing humans for combat, women on average died more frequently when compared to men. As the assumed leaders by the captives themselves, women were initially selected for combat testing more often than the men were, and test candidates rarely returned. After the Krall left, and over a twenty-two year period, the gender ratio drew closer to even as women still died more often than did men. Attempts at childbirth without gene mods to make it possible in the high gravity caused some losses.

“Chief,” Mirikami said. Haveram preferred that old rank title as if it were his name, over Mike or Captain. “I’m taking ten Speck Ops back to Poldark with me, and you will deliver another ten of them to Heavyside when you leave Poldark. We will also carry three more of Rafe’s gene technicians, to help teach the medical people on Heavyside how to improve their technique, and adapt the nanites we use to better work with the biomechanical implants that spec ops troops already have.”

“To work with the internal AI they each carry, you mean?”

“That, and they want to keep the eye implants that give them the retinal image projections and slightly better Infrared vision than you and I have. We still have superior low light vision, just as the rippers have for night hunts. Their bio scientists and technicians decided that our wolfbat genes are better than their ultrasonic earpieces, even when those are linked to the AI, because of the superior mental organization our hearing genes induce. You heard about Maggi’s discovery about mental audio maps?”

“I was off-planet for her escapade. However, I heard we are able to build some sort of a mental map of the surrounding area, just using ultra sonic sounds. I didn’t get how that worked, and I certainly haven’t tried it. I don't want the source of the Krall sounds she had to use to get anywhere near me. Not even in bright light, let alone in total darkness.”

“I won’t go into the long story, but she was underground in a dead factory under an abandoned dome on our island of New Australia. She was in total darkness, and discovered that when her eyes were useless, her mind used ambient sounds to construct a mental image of surroundings, similar to how wolfbats do that. The higher frequency the sounds were, the sharper the image. Spec ops wants that ability now they’ve heard her story, and they will carry high frequency sound emitter spy bots, which can scurry off into dark places to make sounds that give them a mental picture of what’s there. For humans with those genes, the ability works best in enclosed spaces, unlike the wolfbat’s ability to do active echo location as they fly outside.”

“I brought spec ops here From Poldark my last trip. The Heavyside graduates can’t all come here to get the mods?”

“Chief, if the Krall found us living here on Koban and Haven, who would be left alive to continue the Kobani mods? We need the Heavyside group as a backup, to prevent loss of our technology.”

“Yea, well we better not let that happen. This is home to me now, even if I spend half my time off procuring stuff to make it a better place to live. We need to get Raven fixed for Jumps. She has fifty times the Falcon’s volume, and we need more material for Haven than I can haul. Half of the Prime City folks want to move over there now, if they had housing and comforts.”

The Raven was a former large passenger Jump ship, captured by the Krall and left in an orbit around Koban’s moon. Refurbishment of the damaged ship had slowed after the capture of additional clanships. However, like the Falcon, it would be able to White Out near a planet in Human Space and not trigger an automatic defensive response. The Raven was large. Not as huge as a Torki migration ship, but that alien design couldn’t be taken to human planets either. Not without sparking intense interest as a type of ship known to be used by the Krall.

“One step at a time Chief. It’s hard to fight a war and build two colony worlds at the same time.”

“I know, I know. So, I’ll deliver some gene technicians to Heavyside, with ten spec ops samples of our work, right?” It was a necessary job, but he felt like a bus driver doing that. Chief Haveram had found his true aptitude in dealing with the port scum and underworld gangsters on poorly regulated Rim planets, when he procured the things Koban and Haven needed on the black market.

Mirikami knew his former Drive Room Chief well, and smiled at his impatience to get back to the dangerous space ports he now frequented. “This is necessary Mike. The newly gene modified troopers on Heavyside will require training instructors that can keep pace with them, and they have to build a separate, tougher obstacle course at a new advanced training base, which will actually present a physical challenge to the fledgling TGs. Those final tier graduates will complete training quickly, and then will come here to Koban after graduation. They won’t receive the contact telepathy mods before arriving here. Their instructors will secretly already have that mod of course, and will vet which of the candidates appear ready to handle that responsibility.”