Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire Read Free Page A

held five, and a ripper. That made it rather tight quarters, with the big cats quivering and eager to start the hunt. They didn’t purr like Earth house cats, but a low breathy rumble served as an indication of anticipation. Except for the thrill of visiting Haven, none of the rippers had been off the home planet. They had shared the frill images from Kobani, of alien worlds and combat, certainly for long enough to crave the experiences for themselves.
    Kobalt had pushed his way into the front of the four-ship, next to his “brother” Carson. Flying close to them, destined for the same dome complex, was Ethan with Kit by his side. Alyson was headed for the same domes in the same flight, and she had Kandy as her ripper escort. She and Carson’s infant son, christened Calvin, were back on Koban with friends who were prepared for an evacuation. If this attack proved unable to stop Telour from sending a Krall fleet there, the relatively small population would be forced to flee.
    The rippers were finally getting to defend friends, family, and home from wanton Krall savagery. Jorl breaker had Kopper with him, Danner was with Kally, and Bradly flew a four-ship with Kayla. This would be the first time rippers had faced the Krall other than on the open savannas of Koban around Prime City, and at Hub City, on those two hunting grounds of many others. Except for frill memories passed down from wild prides, they only had Kobani contact with the Krall to guide them as to what to expect in combat. The Krall had been gone from Koban longer than the age of any living ripper.
    Just over three thousand small ships streaked around the craggy rim of the moon and turned in towards K1. They were spreading towards their designated surface targets, some of which were on the opposite side of the planet. There was no sign from the ships in orbit or the polar station keeper that they had been detected. The main Kobani ships closed the launch ports, and prepared for Jumps to intercept the various clanships in low orbits, with the Avenger and the Mark assigned to take out the two farther out watchers first. All they waited on to initiate the orbital attacks was the small ships reaching their targets, or an indication they had been detected by the watchers.
    The ships on the near side of K1 initiated their deceleration before entering atmosphere, while the other half of the little armada swung around the limb of the planet, flying below the debris fields but staying above atmosphere. Thanks to Comtap, Mirikami would know when those with the longest distance to fly had reached the vicinity of their target domes. It took another tense twelve minutes before they also had slowed and entered atmosphere.
    “Noreen, switch ECM on, and we Jump together.” They had already entered the coordinates for their two targets. Mirikami would take the nearly stationary polar sentry clanship, and Noreen the wide orbiting sentry. The AI’s coordinated their dual Jumps precisely.
    The two ships winked out from behind the moon, and instantly did White Outs less than a mile directly behind the two watchers. Each fired a single anti-ship missile, using no radar pre-guidance data. A precise hit on a vital component wasn’t required, merely a near miss.
    The relatively small missiles, fast even in their normal configuration, had less than half their usual mass because there was no warhead, and they carried less than a third of the standard high energy, dense and heavy fuel. Greater speed, maneuverability, and short range were their advantages now. They simply needed to reach the target as quickly as possible.
    Both missiles actually managed to hit the hulls of their targets, but from so short a distance, they didn’t achieve the hypervelocity they were capable of, so they didn’t have the momentum to penetrate the hulls. They glanced off the sides and continued accelerating away.
    ECM was used to suppress any communications from the two ships, but there was no attempt