Koban (62 page)

“Telour, the word you mean is probably needles, which are small
thin sharp metal rods that can also be used to put color in skin such as tattoos.
Do you mean only the Olt’kitapi made Katusha’s for you?”

“Yes, they are very old and each Krall received one when becoming
a novice. Now there are many more Krall than when the Olt’kitapi still lived,
and many tools were lost in war and some no longer work. Our greatest K’Tal said
the tools are quantum machines, but the science of their making was lost when we
destroyed the Olt’kitapi. We are returning now to our ancient tradition of marking
status by our own hand.”

“When and how will we receive these tools to help us search?”

“Because you are not permitted on our level, I will send a K’Tal
to deliver four Katusha’s to you. Place your clan mate where she can find them in
the room you call Great Hall.”

“She? The K’Tal is a female? None of us from the Flight of Fancy
have seen one of your females.” Mirikami was surprised and curious.

“I think you have seen them but did not know you had. Females
are smaller than a mature male warrior, and the smell is very different, but humans
cannot smell their own behind. Until a female is swollen and soon to lay eggs she
looks the same as a male novice.”

“My clan mate will wait where Training Day selections are posted.
Thank you.”

“If human fighting ability improves in this first test I will
be pleased. I will speak to you if it goes badly.”

There was an audible click, as if he had broken the connection,
but Jake assured them by Link that the transceiver was still sending.

Mirikami played up to the eavesdropper. “Telour has approved
our test and the additional fighters, now we need to scout the possible territory
of our battle ground each day to make our plans. We had better get going.” He resisted
the temptation to say he’d like to shove a grenade into a Krall orifice.

Once out of range of the Bridge transceiver, he told Cal Branson
where to wait for the K’Tal delivering the Katusha’s, and told him to bring them
to the ship first for analysis. If there was time later, they might even look for
the criminals.

His entourage in tow, Mirikami made his way to shuttle bay one,
where Thad had taken the armor, and Jorl’sn with Noreen’s help had had finished
the preflight check.

Thad showed Mirikami and Dillon how to open the clamshell torso
of their armor sets, and slide into and attach the legs and arms. The helmets activated
the visor system once in place, giving them infrared and ranging recticles.

Then he showed how they could zoom on objects and read the ranges
using chin and tongue press controls. There was enhanced external audio amplification,
and the com system was decent, but subject to interception and directional detection
by Krall warriors if used in the field.

There were outer attachment points for weapons belts and clips.
The suits were as light as promised, but felt confining and would still contribute
to tiring out any user that wasn’t Koban adapted.

Thad cautioned that a skeeter would scent where body odor came
out of gaps, and could sting and bite you if you ignored the small gaps that might
be revealed when you sat down or twisted your body. wolfbats, if you were not actively
fighting them off could get through the armor as well. Kants would find their way
in at multiple weak spots.

All six people in the bay wanted to make the flight, since the
little shuttle had eight seats and a storage area. There was a small airlock if
needed, but in a breathable atmosphere, a side hatch for the storage area could
also slide open for easier egress.

Noreen took the copilot seat next to Roni, who was their best
pilot. Maggi and Thad took seats behind them where they could see out both the front
and side ports. Dillon, and Mirikami, sat closer to the back so they wouldn’t step
on or bump anyone getting in or out, feeling clumsy in the armor.

Jake opened the shuttle bay door for them, and Roni tested the
lift and balance before smoothly sliding out of the side of the ship, already fifty
feet above the tarmac. Once clear, Roni took them higher and circled the dome once,
giving them a view in every direction. They could make out the compound’s outer
walls in the distance. Thad, his helmet off asked where they wanted to go first.

“We can sightsee some other time. I want to overfly the marsh
and river, the jungle, and then the cliffs and hills.” He had already decided the
grasslands were a bad choice for a fight.

After study of all the areas, Mirikami agreed with Thad that
the hills, caves and cliffs did look like better places to defend, but offense was
also on his mind.

“Thad, when the Krall land a shuttle near the cliffs, you said
there was a flat place they used. Where is that?”

Thad directed Roni to the spot, and they circled it in a slow
hover. The vegetation clearly showed where it had been worn away by repeated landings,
and there were large bushes around the periphery, with one small house sized boulder
on the side of the clearing closest to the nearby cliffs.

From their height, they could see several shallow cave openings
or overhangs, and two others that looked deeper. There were a couple of artificial
walls made of stacked flat rocks. These had provided cover for some humans in past
battles. There were scars apparent from explosive and armor-penetrating hits on
walls and rocks, proving the area had been used often.

“Thad, if the warriors arrive by truck or halftrack from the
dome, where do they park to start a search on foot?”

He directed them over the highest ridge to a worn rutted track
that led through a valley on the other side of the cliffs. There was a natural sheltered
spot where two or three trucks could park with some cover from the heights on both
sides. Trees and numerous large boulders would block snipers from clear shots at
warriors if they left the trucks there.

“Roni,” Mirikami called up to the front, “Set us down in that
flat spot on the other side of the ridge, where the Krall shuttles usually land.
I want to look that area over on foot.”

After they set down, the three armored men went out the storage
hatch as quickly as possible, while Maggi and the other two women pointed Jazzers
and a Sonic at the opening until it slid shut.

Looking back towards the dome, Mirikami realized trees and brush
blocked a direct view. “Thad, do you know what our distance is from the dome?”

“About sixteen miles to the top of the highest ridge peak above
us, when I measured it with a helmet visor. Why?”

“The maximum range for our implants is about seven miles to transmit,
but we can hear the ship from farther away, probably out to the compound’s walls
if we have a direct line of sight. I was wondering if I could receive a signal from
Jake. He might be a source of information on Krall movements out here.”

He walked over to the huge boulder, startled as a skeeter buzzed
out from its shadow. There was a flock of wolfbats circling very high over them.
He checked the ground at the rock’s base, and nodded.

“Thad, what are the best paths up to the ridge, for Krall I mean,
not humans that can’t leap fifteen or twenty feet? You say you’ve watched them,
I’d like to know where they scale the cliff face.”

Looking around, Greeves studied the possible routes.

“It partly depends on if there has been any firing on them as
they move up the slope. Revealing your position by shooting at them is going to
draw them right to you, but they will use the cover of that notch and some others
along the rock face to block potential sniper fire. Not that that has been terribly
effective in the past. These warriors have been trained to duck fire from other
Krall, so they react as if we were really a serious threat. At least they do at
first.”

“It doesn’t take long for a novice to gain a lot of confidence
fighting us. If it’s an experienced warrior, or a novice that fought here before,
they are a lot less cautious and rush in for an early kill.

“They’ll risk minor wounds for points, particularly if there
appear to be several humans grouped together.”

Dillon had a question. “Thad, they call off the war if we kill
one of them. How do they know if we do? We aren’t just going to stand up and wave
if we kill one of them are we? When is it safe?”

“I wish I had a firmer answer Dillon, but it’s happened too seldom
for any of us to see a pattern.”

“They do appear to honor an agreement, but when we killed that
Krall on my one and only Testing Day the others were still hunting, and I’m sure
would have killed any of us they found before the octet leader confirmed the death
and called them off by radio. I pulled back into a cave up there, knowing more were
coming my way based on the amount of shooting we’d done and they certainly had heard.”

“Thad,” Mirikami asked, “what do you think would have happened
if you had killed several Krall quickly that day? Do you think they would stop hunting,
give up the blood lust they would surely feel for revenge?”

Greeves gazed at him for a long moment. “What the hell do you
have up your sleeve Tet? That’s beyond any confidence I’ve seen displayed before
a fight here, and borders on delusional. You’re talking about killing multiple Krall.
When we have only managed three kills total, in three different fights, spread over
hundreds of fights in probably the last five years? I’m the only living person to
have directly
participated
in killing a Krall that’s still alive. You’re
thinking of multiple kills?”

“Thad, I don’t think we’ll have the element of surprise but this
one time, and I intend to make the most of it. However, if we achieve more than
one kill, will they call off the hunt? What if the octet leader is killed?”

“OK. I’ll humor you. The octet leader will have a dark gray uniform,
but he will send warriors ahead and his job is to direct less experienced novices
and warriors in practical combat. Even if you kill one or more novices with a booby
trap, he will have to go personally to the bodies to confirm they are dead. If they
are dying but not dead yet, then the fight isn’t over. They won’t bleed to death,
since their body automatically prevents that.

“The Krall I nearly blew the head off of still moved his arms
and legs for thirty seconds after his brain was covering the ground. His missing
arm had completely quit bleeding, and so had the huge wound in his head in that
time. I could see his twitching corpse from the cave where I retreated.

“
If
he had been the octet leader, which he would not have
been attacking three of us alone if he were, the next highest status novice assumes
command if he dies or is unable to lead. Even in a pack of novices, they damn well
all know their relative status and who is next in line.”

“I had time to place one of my dead men, Randy’s body, near the
mouth of another cave to draw them there first. I didn’t see it happen, but they
must have passed right by their dead warrior and fired on Randy’s corpse with explosive
rounds. I heard the firing, and Randy’s armor couldn’t be salvaged later with a
bucket. It was at least five more minutes before the novices left the area, and
I heard a broadcast in my helmet receiver that immunity had been granted.”

“So you came out of the cave to greet the octet leader?”

“Hell no,” he shook his head with a grimace. “I waited for a
half an hour and several more transmissions to even peek out. I heard the Krall
trucks pulling out and saw the dead Krall’s body was gone. I came back to the dome
on my own in one of the two trucks we took out. The other survivors did the same,
but not before the next morning. Waiting probably caused the other two deaths while
still hiding. After I called them cowards and cursed and threatened them, I think
they were as afraid of me as the Krall by then.”

“OK. Trust but verify,” agreed Dillon. “I’d have to agree that
expecting an instant halt to the fighting would be hard to achieve, even if the
blood thirsty bastards were ordered to quit on pain of losing a damned point after
shooting one of us.”

“Thad, can you lead us up the easiest trail to the cave and ridges?”

They told the shuttle where they were going, and started up a
worn trail on a hillside that merged with a sloping rock face. It wasn’t long before
Mirikami was sweating heavily, despite the small cooling system of the armor. He
also thought he probably had the beginnings of a fever.

Following a couple of switchbacks of the trail, they found themselves
about six hundred feet higher than the shuttle, on a roughly thirty foot wide ledge
and another rock face about a mile long and another five or six hundred feet high,
before it curved out of view to the right, ahead of them.

Mirikami spotted several natural openings in the cliff, ranging
from narrow crevices a few feet wide to some six feet or more that had considerable
depth into dark shadows. There were a number of long vertical chimneys that could
be used for climbing higher up, to what Thad said was the last ledge before reaching
the top of the ridge line.

Mirikami was recording it all with his camera. He stepped into
the openings to check their depths. There were a number of fallen large rocks on
the terrace that could be used for shelter by a warrior trying to approach the places
of concealment.

Then he turned towards the direction of the dome and could see
its top clearly at about fifteen or so miles. He raised his left arm, two fingers
extended and waited.

“Sir, you raised your left arm with two fingers raised.” He
heard Jake clearly.

He turned with a grin to Dillon. “Look towards the dome, raise
your right arm, and extend any number of fingers.”

“Doctor Dillon has raised his right arm with a single finger
extended.” Jake sounded in Mirikami’s transducer. Then added, “I believe that gesture
is still considered socially rude, Sir.”