Koban: Rise of the Kobani (23 page)

“I’m told that our youngsters have taken all but the top five decks, where the surviving Krall have retreated. We estimate they have twenty-five or so left alive, of the original one hundred thirty. We lost four of our own as they worked their way up, one deck at a time. If we had the means to do it, I’d simply blow the damned thing up. We can’t risk leaving a live Krall behind that have seen those kids in action. Not if we can help it anyway. I think we can lift before nightfall, or just after. That gives us nearly four hours. It has been a long day since our early landing.”

“They are actually taking out the warriors deck by deck? I heard that, but it seemed impossible. Today, of all the impossible things I’ve encountered, that one seems the most improbable.”

“A young man that is in charge of the assault told me he is going to try something that he learned from one of the spec ops men. If that works, we may be done over there sooner. I’ll let you arrange what coordination you need to do, and I’ll get back to you in an hour. I see our shuttle approaching and I want to go down there to bring in our wounded and help place Ethan in the med lab.”

“I understand. I’ll have someone waiting for your call at any time. Nabarone Out.”

****

Conrad was skeptical. “The Krall used black smoke when they raided the Flight of Fancy, and their IR vision could see right through that. What makes you think this white smoke will blind them, more so than us?”

“It isn’t the color of the smoke that matters, and it’s actually mostly steam. It will also blind us. This smoke and steam will be hotter than our body temperature, and that should make their IR vision as useless as their visible light vision will be. The black smoke used on the Fancy was cold, so they could detect warm objects through it, while our people couldn’t see anything. This will return the favor.”

“The gases are toxic, how will we breathe?”

“The spec ops captain will let us have their small rebreathers. When I was speculating with him on how to use what we found on the ship to help us, one of them suggested using the stacks of Krall incendiary pistol rounds we found.  They are a type of thermite, and they will burn under water. That’s why I had those four big containers moved close to the stairs, and filled with water.

“We will dump several cases of incendiary rounds into the water, and then use a laser or plasma rifle to ignite some that we’ll break up in the small buckets we found. Ethan and I lit some of them as kids one time. It’s easy.”

“Was that the month, in eighth grade, when you and Ethan walked around with no eyebrows and melted kinky hair in front?”

Carson grew a bit defensive. “We learned to light them from a distance after that.

“Besides, I did a sneak Tap to see how to break them up and light them while I talked to Corporal Galloway. I shook hands to thank him as I asked. He says they will burn hot and fast and if you promptly dump them into the big bins of water, they will sink and start the other rounds burning, even under water because they have their own oxidizer in the powder.

“After that, we have steam, smoke, and heat. We set them off under each of the four upper stairwells and wait for it to drift up.”

“The Krall will be waiting, knowing we must be coming.”

“They knew that on all the other decks too, and a dozen of them could see us as we came through. We still were too fast.” Except for random shots that had killed the four people they lost, which he didn’t mention. They needed the lightweight flex armor the spec ops called Chameleon Skin.

“This time none of the warriors will be able to see us. We know they will be clustered close to the stairwell openings, as they always were on other decks, and we’ll be able to hear them when they fire or move. My dad just brought us two boxes of grenades. We can toss those up just over the deck lip after a count of three or four, when the visibility is down. The first clinks will probably draw them closer, thinking it is one of us.

“Unless they hold their breath, the fumes should also have some sort of affect. I’ve heard them cough a couple of times, like two did outside in that thick smoke from the ammo explosions.”

“OK. It’s worth a try, and it isn’t really any worse than what we’ve been doing, three of us leaping up through a single opening together, blasting at everything we see on our flip, before they can react. However, on lower
decks, there were eight stairwells and the warriors were more spread out trying to cover them. I assume you and I will go up first?”

Carson nodded. “I’ll Tap you and we both Tap the others, to make sure we all know what’s going to happen. After doing the first deck this way, we’ll know what worked best, and Tap again.”

“Sure, if we survive this nutty idea.”

They made their preparations, spreading the grenades between the four groups. There was only to be one TG per opening for the first sally, to avoid bumping while they had their eyes closed to avoid the burning fumes, and focused on hearing the Krall.

Several TGs were maintaining sporadic plasma and pistol fire up through the openings, to prevent the Krall from firing down at them in volume. They moved around so shots came from random directions, as did the Krall return fire. If you shot from one spot twice, they next fired directly back along that apparent track. Two of their wounded learned that the hard way.

After a group Tap, they modified their patterns of suppressive fire, and tore out some bulkhead plates to use as deflectors for the Krall return shots.

They were ready, and decided to light all four bins at the same time, to force the Krall to have to watch all four openings at once. The crumbled thermite, in the buckets, was ignited with small welding lasers they had found in maintenance lockers. It flashed red and yellow in a burst of hot flames, and was promptly dumped into the larger bins holding water. The bins were actually the inside of freezer lockers that had their doors removed, then laid flat and filled with water.

They were heavy, and it required two TGs each to shove them quickly close to the deck openings for the stairs. Upward cover fire greatly increased while this happened, and when it lessened, the Krall fire grew heavy in return, assuming a human would be flying up through the openings.

For almost three minutes, nothing much seemed to be happening. None of the TGs wanted to risk being shot just to look into the bins to see why there was so little smoke drifting up from bursting bubbles of gas, and no steam. A glow reflected upwards from the bins proved ignition had started, and as it brightened, it clearly was spreading and increasing.

Carson was exasperated. “The spec ops guy had an image of large volumes of fume laden steam boiling up from his bucket. Where is ours? We have more shells burning than he had.”

Carol Slobovic said, “Stop watching the pot. Then it will happen.”

“What? What does that mean?” Carson demanded in annoyance.

“My mom says a ‘watched pot never boils,’ meaning only that you need patience. How long do you think it takes to raise all of that water to the boiling point? That isn’t just a bucket full of water. You should have used less water to start the steam faster.”

“Where was that helpful tidbit when we were setting this up?” he demanded.

“Waiting for the leader to explain what he was planning. By not telling us until you filled the bins with water and incendiaries, none of us could offer advice.” A tip of her tongue demonstrated a small level of insolence that only Carson could see.

He rolled his eyes, just when the bubbling and smoke levels started to increase dramatically from the former freezer bins. The water had finally reached a full boil. They had moved and wired fans from the thruster engine room, normally used to disperse possible fuel leak fumes. Now they were pushing the smoke and steam up through the stair openings in the deck above.

Not all of it went through the openings of course, and the volume of smoke and steam increased quickly in the area around the stairwells. Carson and Conrad, along with Carol and Peter Godwin, each one stationed at a stairway, slipped the mouth grips of the rebreathers between their teeth and attached the nose clips. They each slipped two of the grenades from their pistol belts and pulled the pins, holding the handles down to prevent the fuses from starting.

They waited as suppressive fire from other TGs continued at the same rate as before, so as not to alert the Krall above by a change in that pattern. At a signal from Carson, visible to all three at the stairs, standing high on the back edges of the bins, they simultaneously released the handles on the six grenades.

They counted to three as planned, and then they leaped up lightly, just high enough to roll the grenades gently over the rim of the deck above. They dropped down and bounced clear of the steps for the remaining count of two. The sound of Krall gunfire rose instantly from above, when the clatter of the rolling grenades was heard in the hot impenetrable mix of steam and smoke.

The Krall, following their usual aggressive practice, advanced on the noisy humans presumed to be hiding in the concealing mist. They were firing randomly into the billowing cloud that blocked their infrared senses as effectively as their visible light receptors. They moved closer to grapple with their equally blinded prey.

The near simultaneous six explosions blasted some fragments uselessly against the stairs and side bulkheads. Most went up or towards the center of the deck area above, hitting and ricocheting from barricades the Krall had erected. Many fragments embedded themselves in their intended targets, warriors who had rashly, and foolishly, rushed forward.

Less than a second after the blasts, four figures shot up undetectably through the hot blinding white fog at each opening. They took advantage of the suspense of shooting from the Krall, briefly stunned by the series of explosions and multiple wounds.

Even as the smoke shrouded wraiths flipped over, to place feet on the unseen ceiling of the next level, using muscle memory of the familiar action, they fired plasma rifles from one hand, and explosive rounds from pistols in the other. Just prior to pulling triggers, they listened for the expected roars of anger and pain, issued by warriors wounded by this latest in a string of human deceptions today.

The plasma and explosive rounds found ample targets among the accurately detected sources of screams of rage. Many of those were silenced instantly, because the source of the noise was
exactly
where a bolt or bullet could do the most effective damage.

Even as the four TGs dropped softly to the floor, they all swiftly moved to their right, and forward through the thick concealing mist, firing at any sounds of life or movement they detected. Carson was rewarded with a soft cough from directly ahead, which from his low crouch, he silenced with a palliative treatment consisting of a shot of plasma and an explosive pill. Patient cured, doctor.

Carson heard the faint swish of air of the next TG arriving behind him. He heard his shots as he settled to the deck on the left side of the stairwell. Orson moved farther to his left, directly away from Carson, another deadly doctor making house calls, curing cases of coughs and screams of pain in his sector. The next TG up would move straight away from the stairs towards the center of the deck.

That pattern was being repeated at all four stairwells. Carson was surprised at the rich number of targets he was hearing, and targeting. If his number of encounters were matched by the others, essentially all of the remaining twenty-five warriors were located on this particular deck. His eyes had started to burn when he opened them briefly, so they were shut again. The firing behind him was from Orson’s position, so he too was finding targets. The Krall level of return fire was dropping quickly.

He fired at a sound ahead as something scraped. Then he followed that up with another medicinal treatment to end the sounds of enraged pain he heard. He bumped against a vertical surface that memory said wasn’t there in a standard clanship layout for this deck. It had to be one of the cobbled together barricades.  Aware he had made a slight noise, he instantly rolled to the side as the sound of a plasma bolt passed through his former space. He had opened his eyes as he rolled, and even through the heavy fog, the actinic flash and sound provided the target he needed.

The cut off attack scream and sound of splatter proved he’d found his target, but now his eyes were burning again. He continued to move low along the barricade, thinking how grateful he was for the Krall habit of voicing their displeasure in battle when a human managed to hurt them. He heard a vague sound of movement on the other side of the extended barrier, which felt like several upright food coolers or freezers, placed on their sides. That meant they were about four feet across.

He holstered his pistol and laid his rifle down softly. Detaching two more grenades, he pulled the pins and released the handles two seconds apart. He had pressed them near his chest as he released, muffling the sound of the caps striking, catching the handles in his lap to prevent that noise on the deck. He reached a count of three and tossed the first one, then on four, threw the second, using just enough force to clear the obstacle. Grabbing the handles in his lap, he threw himself flat, believing the barricade would protect him from the fragments.

It did block them, but he hadn’t thought about the kick from the first blast. It pinched his little finger as it slid on the hard smooth deck. There was a satisfying cry heard, and a second roar of rage seemed to have launched itself in his direction. That was why he had delayed the second grenade. It exploded, possibly with the second warrior passing over it in mid charge. The descending spray of wetness was proof of the effectiveness of an old weapon. Carson had retrieved his rifle before the second blast, and had rolled away in case the warrior made it over the barrier. He did not.