Koban 6: Conflict and Empire (37 page)

“That’s how.” Sarge said, via his external speaker, as he rose smoothly to his feet. “If they don’t detect the inactive mines sitting nearly invisibly on the metal manhole covers, a Kobani in stealth mode can lift them into place. It ain’t very high tech, but it’ll work.”

“Scan both pilots for hidden devices before bringing them here,” Thond ordered.

Hitok was shocked. “Gimtal, they would not betray us.”

“Would you say the same of the clever humans that captured and then released them, with messages intended only for our ears? They could have tracers or listening devices planted on or in them, which those two might be unaware they have. It would lead the enemy right to us.”

With a dismissive wrist wave, Hitok said, “You are becoming paranoid about this surprising species, old friend. We are using the only Pillager chassis with a boxy shaped superstructure, with communications antennas on its top. That uniqueness points to where the leaders are located. The new Legion leader of our own middle column said the enemy dropped our pilots off a block in front of him. Do you think they don’t already suspect where the commanders of this force are located?” His exercise in logic wasn’t finished.

“I remind you that they also know that you are on the planet, because the pilots were instructed to make certain that Force Commander Thond heard what they are supposed relay to me. The pilots said they were specifically told to ask for you, but they never told them you were here. The humans admitted they didn’t know the name of which commander was in charge of this Ground Force and didn’t ask, but they want to demonstrate to you why you can trust them to negotiate honestly. That implies they know how our command structure is set up, and that you came down to the planet rather than leave with the fleet. They spoke a passable translation of Fotrol, while we don’t know a word of whatever it is that they speak. I think we need to listen to what they told our pilots. That does not mean we will accept their proposal.”

Thond’s armored shoulders briefly slumped, in acknowledgement of the observation made by his fellow warrior, companion, and friend. “They have very effectively thwarted my strategy at every turn, and outwitted the other three Ground Force Commanders. I think I’ve led us, and our Ragoons, into a swamp that we may not be able to escape. I see subtle trickery and subterfuge in every contact we have with them now.”

Hitok was sympathetic. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t be skeptical of anything they have to say, but we may learn something about how they think, if we listen to their proposal.”

They learned more than they expected, as confusing as it was to them.

The two pilots, when presented, looked healthy, but why shouldn’t they have? They’d only been captured a short time ago. It seemed too short a time for the enemy to have devised the plans for a truce, conveyed it to these pilots, and sent them back. Unless they had been thinking along this line for a longer period.

Senior Lieutenant Kranfa started his report quickly, after they were led in and the Ragnar chest-thump salute-greeting formality was out of the way. “Sires, I was told first to give you a message that should serve as a sign the humans can be trusted to speak truthfully with us. I don't understand what it means, but they said to tell our Ground Force Commander to look under his bottom, and the bottom of his entire command. To do it again. She said it was important to tell you it was to be done again.”

“Do it again? Look at my bottom?” Asked Hitok, bemused. Thinking it was his personal rump that was to be examined, as some form of insult.

Thond was the quicker thinker this time. “Tell your Pillager commanders to look for mines again, and our own driver needs to check under our command post. That would be
under your own bottom
.”

He mused, “I wonder if we need to evacuate? He shivered his shoulders, with a soft hoot and head bob, to indicate a carefully considered negation, thus essentially answering his own question.

“If they have mines already in place, and they intended to detonate them, they wouldn’t warn us. It’s part of their offer to show trust. I’ll feel more trusting when we know if they’re attached, and we’ve removed any we find. Give the order to halt movement and check.”

The results were chilling. Virtually every combat unit had one mine attached, and the driver of the mobile command post found four. They were tightly adhered, apparently by a powerful magnetic field, which would have easily been detected before the prow of the sensor-laden chassis had passed over them if they were active then. Nor was the clang of their attachments heard, as some would have been if they had been snatched up from the ground to the bottoms. An advantage of using fusion-powered electric motors was how silent the Pillagers were, when they weren’t blowing things up. Gravel crunching and soft surfaced malleable treads scraping on pavements, were the greatest sources of noise when the tanks were moving along the city streets.

Shortly after the inspections were conducted, a process that was obviously observed by the humans responsible for placing the mines, the magnetic fields were simultaneously switched off remotely. That put a momentary scare into the troops close to them under the Pillagers, when they suddenly dropped to the ground. The Ragoons cross-trained as technicians and demolitions experts had been considering what to do to remove or destroy them without triggering a detonation by a tamper resistant circuit.

Most commanders didn’t wait for an order; they rolled their tanks forward to get clear of the small deadly objects. That order did come quickly from Hitok to do that for every unit, and nervous crews were relieved their leaders had somehow known of the threat, and had neutralized it. Thond, Hitok, their driver, two subordinates, and the two Hoth pilots knew better.

“They could have destroyed the entire column,” Hitok said, in shocked awareness of the threat just avoided.

Thond was less fatalistic concerning the risk posed. “The penetrating shafts of molten metal couldn’t have ruptured the fusion generator casings, which would be explosively fatal. Those are located too far above the bottoms, and the molten shafts would start to spread after exiting the base armor plates. Although, they probably were placed to destroy the electric drive motors on either side, just as they did with the first mines they used. We have spares for drive motors in our supply ships, but not in the quantity needed had they used all of the mines. We’d have needed to salvage undamaged units from disabled units, while under fire.

“They were deliberately placed where they might kill a gunner or a driver sitting near the drive motors, but the motors themselves were the true targets. They could have killed all of us here inside this command post, with the four mines they had placed. There is no doubt they could have stopped the last of our armor. Moreover, we still don’t know how they put them in place so precisely. From their design and small size, they don’t remotely resemble the larger tank destroying mines we’ve developed, or the more complicated automatically launched, pop-up roadside penetrators. I wouldn’t be surprised if these lightweight devices were originally designed for some other use. These are inventive people, who use what they have available in unexpected ways. They must have had long experience with war and conflict in order to find so many new ways to be destructive.”

“What now, Force Commander?” Hitok brought him back to the present. “They made their point, so perhaps we should hear what else they told our two pilots. Just in case there are other unpleasant surprises they haven’t told us about.”

Thond looked at the two flight Lieutenants. “They must have had more to say. What else did they tell you?”

Kranfa glanced at the junior Lieutenant, who hooted his joint approval to speak for him. “Sire, they said we should listen for an unencrypted transmission on our flight emergency frequency. They want to speak directly to you, Sire. To set up a direct meeting.”

Thond was skeptical. “How would they know what that frequency is? We don’t conduct normal radio communications on that channel.”

Lieutenant Derkat had the temerity to speak up about the day’s activities in the sky, of panicked transmissions he’d heard from other flights. “We heard four emergency calls earlier today, when other flights reported they were under attack and were making forced landings. The first female that spoke to us said they had heard those encrypted calls. They couldn’t understand what we said, but they know about that frequency.”

“Female? And you say there was a second female that spoke to you? I wonder if they have a matriarchal society.” Thond was amused. “If they do, the Thandol certainly wouldn’t enjoy negotiating with them.”

“I don't think so, Sire.” Kranfa told him. “They have a male they said is named Tetsuo Mirikami, who is the mate of the second female that spoke with us, and he is their equivalent to a Force Commander. The mate’s name is Margret Fisher, but her companion used the sound
Maggi
when she spoke to her.” The odd sounds of the names were at least pronounceable for a Ragnar, unlike any Thandol’s name. We recorded their words and names in our memory assistants.”

Hitok asked, “When will they call us on that emergency radio channel? Were there any preconditions before we talk? I will not stop our progress towards that spaceport. However, if they do not fire at us, I will not fire at them.”

Kranfa did the Ragnar wrist flip as a shrug. “The Fisher creature said they would allow us to depart this world from the spaceport of this city. She said she could not promise to withhold all fire on our Pillagers and troops, but she said she would ask the defenders of this planet to stop shooting if we do not shoot at them, and if we do not destroy their buildings.”

Thond caught that implication immediately. “She is defending this world, but isn’t one of the native defenders of the planet? I think the fleet that arrived here, and the space planes belong to the humans we fought previously in space at the new colony world, and she is a representative of those humans with greater fighting ability. This world is not their home, and they do not rule or give orders to the humans that live here. Interesting. They have separate rulers, and yet they cooperate.”

Kranfa suddenly remembered how the pilot, who had brought his flight down alone, referred to herself and her people. He blurted, “The pilot that shot me down called her people the Kobani. She said they weren’t from here, and that her people drove away our fleet. I hadn’t understood what she meant, since I thought she looked like the other humans here. She said her people are a different kind of humans. The second female also said the Kobani are from the Galactic Federation, and they have other species as equal members of their government. This world of humans must not be part of the Federation.”

Hitok consider the Lieutenant’s words, and his insight. “They are obviously not structured like the Empire. Their phonetic script message to Group 3’s Commander, Faldor Culpa, told us they know we don’t like the Thandol, and invited us to join them to fight against the Empire. Then, when he destroyed the message board and moved ahead with his attack, his group was trapped in that canyon and eventually destroyed.”

Thond pondered this new information. “There must be two separate governing systems, both of which contain humans, but the Federation humans are different from those humans that live here, and they have non-human allies.”

The realization struck him. “We have not invaded a Federation planet. This world belongs to a different political division, about which we know nothing. How many of these berserker humans and their governments are there?”

Hitok’s subordinate, Vice Group Leader Gimlak, reluctantly interrupted. “Sires, there is a radio message on the reserved Hoth emergency channel. The voice isn’t a Ragnar’s, but it is speaking Fotrol. It sounds like an AI’s voice using a translator program. It asked to speak to Force Commander Thond.”

****

After an initial set of conversational protocols were established by assistants, over the course of thirty minutes, it was agreed that because only the humans had the software to translate between the human language, which they called Standard, and the Ragnar language of Fotrol, that a human AI would be the computer intermediary used for their initial discussions. The humans offered to share the database they had compiled as a basis for their translations, which would include a Thandol database for comparison, but not an actual AI system of the type they used to implement the translation process.

The Ragnar realized they could eventually complete their own translation program, but not here and now. It lent credence that there was a possibility they might yet return home. With the trivia out of the way, the two leaders approached their respective microphones. It was decided that the party offering an invitation for truce talks should speak first to describe what was being offered.

“Force Commander Thond, my name is Tetsuo Mirikami. I’m pleased you have chosen to speak with me on this unencrypted system. For greater communications security, I offer to meet with you personally, and with a number to be determined of your fellow officers or troopers, to be present at a meeting. For the Federation and for the local government of this world, we will combine our people to match your number of representatives. If you wish to arrive armed and in body armor, then we humans will meet with you in the same manner, although not all of our party will arrive armed. The Federation is comprised of other species and they are willing to meet with you, but they do not possess body armor. How many we bring will depend on the number of your people you wish to have participate. We are all willing to meet with you unarmed.”

A discussion between Thond and Hitok had taken place in the background as the first protocols were hashed out, and the Ragnar officers considered the reports that had arrived of the more advanced armor worn by the Kobani. The local planetary defense forces wore armor that was equivalent to that worn by the Ragnar. Considering that the Kobani human attendees would have weapons built into a type of armor that could make them invisible to the Ragnar suits, body armor was ruled out.