Koban: The Mark of Koban (51 page)

Henrik passed this tidbit along. “Teams, they
have a sensor that either traces the source of the sound of a gun, or its
magnetic signature. The two octets below the slidewalk here on the east side
are retracing steps to come up a ramp they had already passed. They’ll be in
the main passage in a minute, and will pass gun 3 first.”

They couldn’t hold their fire to hide their
location, or the guns were useless, but firing them helped the Krall find them
from within the many corridors. Henrik heard Battery four’s pulse next. Because
he was only seventy-five feet from the heavy door, the sound’s source was
obvious this time, routed through his external audio pickups on each side of
his helmet.

The city had nine parallel streets, named
avenue A through I that went straight to the port area. All but D and F had
large open areas to cross over to get from the main part of the business
district to the docks. The open areas were covered by all four of the plasma
cannons.

Greta had some information for the two teams
now guarding the doors to the manually controlled guns. “Folks, I just blasted
three Krall that made a run for avenue A. I see more of them flickering from
cover to cover towards the docks, holding up at the gap.”

Alf confirmed that for his side of town,
saying he had fired twice on Krall groups working towards the port along
avenues H and I as they tried to cross that same gap. He killed them, thus
discouraging others from breaking cover there. Of the nine avenues leading to
the docks, defensive planners had designed only two streets to provide cover
for fighters on foot, where they could bypass the open killing fields at other
streets. If they moved down the wide avenues D and F, there were buildings and
deceptively good-looking cover all along those routes, and no gap to cross
while exposed to plasma cannon fire. 

The militia down by the docks had long open
fire lanes up all streets, but would keep their fire rate low on D and F, to
encourage more of the Krall to use that approach to the docks.

E street, between D and F, was a relatively
narrow pedestrian walkway between tall buildings, which had ambush written all
over it, and that was indeed the case. Well-protected militia bunkers on high
buildings were at key points, to fire down on and force the enemy to move over
to D or F at cross streets from E.

Jarl advised that cameras revealed warriors moving
along the main corridor on the west side. There were no longer any people to
see out in the open area of the slidewalks. He suggested they activate the
outer defenses for guns 2 and 3. Henrik verified the east corridor was also
empty of humans, and authorized going live on the automated defense.

Eric, leaving Greta the fun of shooting at Krall,
went to the defense console and activated the automatic corridor weapons
outside the entrances to gun emplacement two and three. There were no people in
sight in either corridor right now. If any suddenly appeared and ran past, they
wouldn’t trigger the defenses. However, if triggered to kill Krall, an
unprotected human within a couple hundred feet in any direction was probably dead
meat. The potential for killing people placed the activation responsibility on
a human being.

Because there were two octets on each side and
two guns per side, based on typical Krall effort to achieve maximum speed and
efficiency, it seemed probable that each octet was assigned one of the plasma
cannons to kill. They were grouped together now simply because the closest
large entryway into the warrens on each side provided a single logical place to
start their search.

Henrik realized both octets on the east side
would pass the entry to gun 3 nearly together. Before they separated, he wanted
to see if he could attract both parties to cluster near Battery three’s massive
door.

“Nord, unless you have a target just too good
to pass up, I’d like you to hold your fire on gun 3 until the Krall in the East
Slideway are all close to the entrance door. Then take a shot at any convenient
target. I hope that sound will draw them all closer to the door.”

“Sir, you want to help them find the door to
Battery number three, and for all of them attempt to make an entry?”

The AI didn’t
sound
confused (he
couldn’t), but the question showed he didn’t understand.

“Nord, they will find the door eventually
anyway. However, our door defenses are active in that area and I want as many
Krall at ground zero as I can get there. Understand?”

“Yes Sir, I do now.”

“Jarl, Elin, did you catch on to what I meant?
Can you pull your two octets together, just outside gun 2’s door?”

Elin answered. “It doesn’t look like we can.
The two octets here are presently on different levels. The lower group is below
the West Slideway and would need to backtrack to the up ramp.”

“OK. Get as many as you can, then.” Now they
needed to wait perhaps a minute, as the warriors advanced the quarter mile from
the up ramp to gun 3’s door. Once the manual activation of the defense system
was done, any of the team could order Nord to trigger them, or do it manually
from one of the four consoles inside the bunkers.

Henrik and Agneta watched the corridor scene
on their visors, safely concealed behind the forty-two inch high retainer walls
of their respective balconies. The initial action would be another quarter mile
away, but they didn’t want the notoriously sharp-sighted warriors to see them
peek out for a look. They were nervously gripping their plasma rifles. There were
sixteen
Krall out there, and however many escaped the automated defenses
down at gun 3; the two of them would have to expose themselves to shoot at
survivors outside gun 4 up here.

The two also couldn’t even raise their heads
to see what was happening outside gun 4, until the fifty caliber machine guns,
grenade launchers, auto-fire plasma guns, and the final fireball blast had
subsided below them. With any luck, there wouldn’t be very many warriors at
this door after the same defenses chewed them up at gun 3. The Slidewalk would
need repairs, but the chips and scorch marks on the gray granite walls wouldn’t
look too out of place from the original rough texture they had now.

“Nord, the group is about to pass the door.
Wait for me to give the signal to shoot.” He let four warriors of one octet
pass the door on the far side of the corridor, and the first ones of the other
octet had just paused to look at the seam of the heavy metal door. The door was
fabricated to look much like other metal doors along the way, but the heavier
construction and double door set was different.

“Nord, shoot.”

The sound of the plasma cannon reached them a
second later. The Krall had all thrown themselves flat at the sound, and the
ones next to the door had sprung towards the center of the still moving
slidewalk. Both octets started firing plasma rifles at the door, but the ones
on the sliding walkway had to scramble to get off the moving belts. They were
laying prone so Henrik called for the automated plasma guns, concealed as light
fixtures in the high ceiling, to fire down on them first.

“Nord, ceiling guns now. When they get up,
start with the 50 calibers.”

The prone Krall suddenly had two dozen
automated plasma rifles firing straight down on them, seeking their center of
mass. Their armor could deflect the shots for a time, but the heat would burn
through on repeat strikes, and it passed through the thinner flexible armor on
limbs quicker. The plasma could flash melt and freeze the outside of an arm or
leg joint if that were hit.

Their reaction speed was remarkable, because
they were all up and firing their plasma rifles at the source of the ceiling
beams in an instant. They hit a few, damaging the barrels and those guns fell
silent. One warrior’s plasma rifle also went dead from a hit, and he was using
a laser pistol to shoot back, to no real effect. Several of them moved stiffly,
an arm or leg not fully flexible due to a partial joint melt. Using their great
strength, they were able to force the stuck limbs to bend. They moved to the
sidewalls, where the downward plasma fire was lighter. 

It was lighter there by design.

Next, the concealed 50 caliber automatic
machine guns, loaded with armor piercing KK shells, fired into them from
twenty-foot high vantage points. There were two guns on each side behind
slotted openings, sweeping across the warriors hugging walls to escape the
still raining plasma bursts. Three warriors went down as slugs penetrated their
helmets and exploded inside. Two more had penetrating wounds to legs, but
continued fighting back from crouching positions at the base of the walls,
making themselves smaller targets.

The other eleven warriors moved a step away
from the walls for freedom of movement, since they now could see where the
machine guns were pointing, and threw themselves to the side or forward when a
gun pivoted towards them, forced to brave the plasma fire coming down. The
plasma took longer to do its damage, but that damage would build up with
repeated hits, so they started moving along the corridor, in both directions,
away from the heaviest fire.

“Nord, grenade launchers now.”

Four grenade launchers shattered open their
glass covers with the first shots. They had been disguised as functioning
direction signs, placed on each side along the walls, outside of the original
kill zone. They began blasting heavy fragmentation grenades onto the floor in
front of where the novices were trying to retreat, and in among them as well.
The Krall were forced back towards the center of the kill zone as the hail of
collapsed uranium pellets from the grenades found entry points at limbs, and
cracked faceplates on their helmets. Each warrior now had multiple suit
punctures, and three more were down, but still firing back at the robot
weapons.

Half of the overhead plasma guns were silent
now, providing some clearer places to stand. Two fifty caliber guns had jammed
or quit firing early from Krall plasma fire, heating or damaging the barrels,
and the ammo belts on the other two had run out. One grenade launcher was hit
as it fired, and the projectile exploded in the barrel. With that example to
follow, the warriors quickly disabled the one on the opposite side of that
wall, giving them a direction to escape.

“Burn them, Nord.”

Two dozen jets of a liquid petroleum based
product sprayed from the walls on each side, coating the Krall armor, some
penetrating into the punctures and cracks of the suits. The thermite type
material, mixed in with the tacky liquid, quickly coated them. The plasma guns,
those that still worked, set a number of warriors ablaze in a hot blue fire,
which quickly ignited the thermite into dazzling white sparkles. One Krall, a
hole in her faceplate from a glancing slug, walked right in front of a nozzle
just as the spray started. Her quick reaction had turned her face right into
the new threat, giving her a dose of the fluid right through the faceplate. She
fired her plasma rifle at the flammable stream’s source, saving the overhead plasma
guns the trouble of lighting her up. There was a spout of white fire coming out
of her helmet, as she turned and blindly fired her plasma rifle again. That
glancing bolt set afire another warrior charging down the corridor, past the
two disabled grenade launchers.

Henrik noted with satisfaction that ten of the
sixteen Krall were down, seven of them for good. The other three were
apparently unable to walk, and had smoke coming from some of the suit holes.
However, they had functioning rifles, some taken from the dead.

Damn they’re tough!
Henrik thought. If sixteen of his militia had been caught by surprise
in that same trap, he was certain there would be sixteen dead bodies.

Six more Krall had managed to get out of the
kill zone, five of them were on fire when they left, but had managed to roll
and scrape the fluid off, and pat out the spots still burning. The liquid
itself wasn’t hot enough to burn through a suit. It simply held the thermite
on, and helped it start burning. It looked as if every one of the six had
injuries, although that was difficult to discern when concealed in their armor.
It appeared that both octet leaders had fallen, identifiable by the magnetic
sensor clipped to their arms. One was dead, and the other was one of the three
sitting on the floor back at gun 3’s door.

He motioned the six mobile warriors to
continue to the other gun, and probably transmitted the orders as well. They
continued on, limping and smoking.

That leader, with two warriors to command, had
them crawl around and gather two more rifles. The three of them set focus to
very narrow beams, and started firing at a spot chosen by the leader, at the
center of the door seam. That was where a bit of the star hot plasma could
penetrate easier. They were gradually burning a hole through the first door, the
size of a human pinky finger.

Henrik appreciated their tenacity. He would
have appreciated one of those 50 caliber guns returning to life even more.

Agneta brought his attention to what had just
happened outside gun 2’s door, while Henrik had directed Nord on this side.
Nord gave him a quick replay on his helmet visor.

Jarl had only a single octet arrive in front
of the door to his vacant battery. He’d repeated the trick of firing the cannon
as they got there, they dove flat and much of the rest of the trap worked the
same. Six were killed, with one disabled survivor sitting on the floor. One
novice had escaped the killing zone, but had returned limping after the fire on
his armor went out. They were starting to burn though the door now.