Koban: The Mark of Koban (52 page)

Henrik was startled to see such similar response
of different warriors under intense combat pressure. It was such consistent behavior
that you began to see how thousands of years of breeding had produced these
living machines, bred only for fighting and killing. There would have been a
much wider range of reaction from humans in the same situation. Aside from not
surviving the trap, that is.

It was variability and lack of predictability
that seemed to make humans so hard for the Krall to anticipate. People made
things up as they went, after carefully planning what they would do in advance,
and then completely changing plans in midstream if needed.

Waiting for the Krall to reach the gun doors that
he and Agneta guarded, Henrik checked in with their boss. “Commander
Hendricksen?” He knew Nord would automatically Link them.

“Here, son. Make it quick, we’re getting
busy.” He could hear shouting and plasma rifle fire through the Link.

“Checking on how the traffic is on D and F
Sir.”

“That’s why we’re busy. The Krall took
advantage of gun 3’s inability to depress and cover some streets. They got a
couple of dozen warriors across on avenues H, and I. That was while depleted plasma
chambers recycled for gun 4, ‘cause it had to work harder. We need the guns to
force them back to the center streets. Except the Krall don’t like to be forced
to do anything, or ever take an easier way we give them. Keep herding them
towards the middle or too many will make it to our barricades at the docks. We
can’t hold off a couple of hundred. Gotta go; keep those guns hot as long as
you can. Out.”

Agneta pointed out to him that the six Krall
they would have to ambush were drawing close to gun 4’s defenses. Jarl told
them that the octet that had bypassed below gun 2 was approaching him from the
other direction now, and were moving cautiously, looking up, and at the walls.
They weren’t going to walk into the traps this time.

Staying well back, two warriors of each group
started firing at the disguised wall mounts for the grenade launchers, striking
some innocuous signs in the process, making certain they found them.

Henrik and Jarl had Nord activate the weapons,
aiming them as far down the corridors as possible, setting the delay on the
grenades for longer, to let them bounce closer before exploding. However, the
Krall dropped to the floor as most of the fragment pellets passed harmlessly
above them. Jarl reported one fortunate hit broke the faceplate of a prone
Krall firing at long range, and it had ceased shooting at the launchers but
wasn’t dead. Another warrior took over the task. They managed to disable the
two closest launchers in each corridor, letting them move closer to fire on the
other two launchers, and on the concealed slits for the 50 caliber machine
guns.

Nord had activated the guns as soon as the
enemy moved closer, but in a bit of design shortsightedness, the traverse of
the machine guns, with the too-narrow firing slits, couldn’t fire directly on
the warriors, who kept their distance. Only ricochets could reach them and the
partly flattened slugs did not have penetrating power. Damaged KK chips, from
the ricochets, also frequently failed to trigger the shell’s small explosive
charge.

Repeated, and superbly accurate plasma rifle
fire at the gun slits eventually silenced the weapons, permitting them another
shift up the corridor towards gun 4. Now they took careful aim at the ceiling
plasma guns, knocking those out easily before passing under them, with no risk
at all. They advanced to just short of the first set of spray ports of the
napalm and thermite, and took out the next set of grenade launchers. It was a
crisp, methodical dismantling of the outer defenses of the battery.

Henrik and Agneta had lain on their backs on
the second floor balconies, watching camera images on their visors, and
directly seeing bolts slam into the ceiling lights and guns there. The
“equalizers” were being destroyed, one by one. Jarl and Elin said they were
watching the same thing happen on their side, only they had lost sight of two
of the warriors.

Elin made an optimistic comment. “I don’t see
how they can disable the thermite sprayer holes with plasma rifle fire. They
still can’t just sit on the floor and gradually burn through the doors covered
in a sheet of fire.”

Henrik had already thought of a solution he
would use, but Jarl beat him to the punch. “Why sit in the flames when you can
get behind them?”

“Exactly,” Henrik agreed. “They can kick in a
corridor door and walk down the inside hall, kick in a door of a small business
that faces the battery door across the Slidewalks, and you can take your shots
from those doorway in safety. If they do that, we can start the fires to hold
them at bay a little longer, and block their aim, but that blaze will go out in
minutes.”

“But then we can’t even ambush them from behind,
on the balconies. They’ll be below our feet, and inside. Damn! Their knowledge
of the thermite trap is working against us.”

“Start them now!” It was Agneta. “It won’t
help us, but if the fire has burned out before they get there, perhaps they’ll
stay in the corridor.”

Even as Jarl was agreeing with the idea,
Henrik told Nord to activate the thermite outside both battery doors. They
forgot that the destroyed overhead plasma guns were the intended ignition
source. The gooey substance sprayed out over the floor and lower granite walls,
and puddled or stuck there.

Thinking fast, Henrik detached a phosphorous
grenade from his suit waist. Told Jarl to do the same, but not to throw it yet.
The sprayers were still working. “Nord, swivel the grenade launchers and 50 Cal’s
as a noise distraction. Jarl, toss when you hear the sound. They may not see where
they came from.”

As soon as his external mike picked up the
grinding of the damaged weapons, he tossed his grenade to the far wall. When it
burst, the flames spread…, well, like wild fire. Jarl also reported ignition on
his side of the valley.

Despite nine inches of granite wall, and
self-contained breathing and cooling of their armor, it grew warm and smoky on
those balconies. Except for isolated spots, all of the hot thermite fueled
fires burned themselves out in less than four minutes. The four of them had
switched to infrared in the obscuring smoke, but did not expose their heads
above the balcony rails, aware that the Krall also had IR vision. Nord was able
to confirm that the warriors had stayed in the corridors on both sides, backing
away from the flames. The Krall on Henrik’s side backed up the most, probably
because of the holes in their suits, and fond memories of the last time they
watched this cozy blaze from the inside the flames.

Jarl reported that the single warrior casualty
on his side could move, but apparently wasn’t able to see. He didn’t back up
until he felt the heat. It was apparent that even squad mates didn’t do much to
look out for their disabled comrades, if comrade was a term that applied
between them.

For Krall warriors, the return up the
corridors to the gun doors was cautious. However, caution for them meant a trot
versus a run. Humans would have scouted more, and would have perhaps
crawled
back into a former killing zone, like these were designed to be.

“Agneta, when they set up to burn the door
they’ll have their backs to us. Use tight focus beams, a quick few shots, then
into the apartment and up the steps to level three.”

My love, just remember which of us scored highest
on accuracy and maximum fire rate in training.”

“Yea, yea, yea. I heard that all summer. These
dummies will shoot back, and I love you. Be careful and be fast.”

“I love you too. Two are sitting in front of
the door, two standing over them; the other two are sideways, watching down the
corridors. Who do you think we take first?”

“The lookouts. Head shoots on the sides of
their faceplates. If we make quick kills, the others may not notice before we get
a second shot.

“Eric, Greta, the instant we start shooting,
fire the gun when I say so. We can keep the other four looking at the door.”
There had been a few booming shots heard before, and the Krall always paused to
look at the door for an instant.

“I’ll do it,” answered Greta, obviously still
on the gun herself.

They heard Jarl make a similar arrangement
with Alf to fire as a distraction. He said the warriors had started the burn
over there.

The warriors below and between Henrik and
Agneta had started as well. “OK, Greta, fire!”

Henrik and Agneta had risen quietly and
swiftly in their powered armor as the signal was given. They took quick aims on
the targets they had previously seen on their visors. Two pulses lanced out and
hit both warriors on the sides of their faceplates, the weakest area of the helmets.
The loud boom of the plasma cannon sounded through the walls, not interrupting
the four beams pulsing at the door crack.

Agneta’s target toppled forward, Henrik’s
victim staggered sideways, and tried to turn towards where the shot originated.
Instead of a second shot at another Krall, Henrik put his second shot through
the center of the faceplate. As that warrior started to fall backwards,
Agneta’s second shot hit another warrior’s plasma rifle power pack, which
exploded. That didn’t injure the warrior, but his plasma weapon was now
useless.

As coordinated, both of them ducked down and
spun into the apartments through the sliding doors they’d left open.
Nevertheless, plasma bolts came up in reply to hit the ceilings of the
balconies, and some shots hit apartments on either side. Apparently the Krall
didn’t know how many shooters there were, just how high, and about where.

****

Jarl and Elin, also intending to coordinate
their ambush with a pulse of cannon fire, were ready to stand up and take their
shots. As the thrum of the plasma cannon sounded, there was a crash behind
them. A warrior, having seen where the fire starting phosphor grenade
originated, had kicked open the apartment door. They were far too slow to turn
and fire, with Elin the first to die as her faceplate exploded. Jarl had only a
bare instant to realize his wife was gone, when he joined her. They had never
uttered a sound. The Krall stood over them and added another pulse to each
shattered faceplate for good measure.

****

Henrik and Agneta raced up the narrow stairs,
a tight fit in their armor, but took a second to close the stairway doors
behind them. No need to let the warriors that might come up here to find their
exit point too quickly. The stair doors looked just like other doors on closets
and bathrooms, which they had shut earlier. The heavier front doors were wide
open, to suggest they had gone out that way.

“Hey babe, he called to his wife.” Breathing
hard from fear and excitement rather than exertion in the powered suit. “Good
first shot, what happened on the second?” His jibe was obvious, after she had
reminded him of her range scores being better.

“We don’t want them burning through the door
do we? Now that one will have to sit and watch. Your second shot simply
finished off the first target.” She was also breathing fast, but it sounded
like she was gloating at his need to hit the same warrior twice.

As they both reached the top of the stairs, he
pointed out a tiny fallacy in her thinking. “We just left him two spare rifles
to pick up from the dead Krall. You should have made another kill shot.”

“Well, I had no faceplate shot from the back
side, but I should have put one through its arm or leg armor.” It was a
concession to mistaken tactics, not her marksmanship.

As planned, they crawled onto the third level
balconies. They knew this time at least one or more of the warriors was
covering those openings now, confirmed by the camera image on their visors.
Even if they got off a quick shot, doing it simultaneously, one of them wasn’t
likely to avoid a kill shot while exposed for that second.

They each stripped off a full belt of five grenades,
similar to the ones the launchers had fired, and flipped off the safeties of
all, then in rapid succession, pressed the activation studs, timers already
preset for seven seconds. Henrik started counting aloud on the Link when he
activated his first one. They both tossed the belts over the edge at the count
of four, with three seconds remaining. The suit visors showed them camera
images of where the Krall were located.

Three warriors were occupied with burning through
the center of the gun door, and one was covering their backs. His cover fire
came quickly at the two balconies, where he’d seen the two belts of unknown
objects fly out towards the center of the wide corridor. The novice then wisely
dove to the floor in self-preservation, but the three Krall burning their way
through the door reacted too late, not seeing what their guardian had seen, and
had delayed in telling them.

At his last second radioed warning, the other
three spun around to also fire on the balconies, just as the belts struck the
floor. The first explosion on each belt spread the other grenades around. Each
one exploded in rapid succession, ten individual bundles of quarter inch
depleted uranium pellets filled the air. They were coated with a hardened metal
shell, designed to hold the pellet’s shape when it hit tough armor. With less
flattening and impact absorption, there was a better chance for penetration.