Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (3 page)

‘Admiral,’ came the reply from gunnery as the
Churchill
changed course and accelerated. ‘Status of the Arkari cannon is thirty percent and charging.’

‘Thank you Commander Mitchell,’ Chen replied. ‘Save its use for now, we’ll need it against those Shaper ships.  Use everything else at your disposal.  Chen out.’

The medical team had, meanwhile, removed Haldane from the bridge.  Blackman’s men kept Haldane under heavy guard, even as the
Churchill’s
medical team tried to save his life.  One of the medics had remained on the bridge to see to Chen’s wound.  Luckily, it seemed that the bullet had only grazed her upper arm, cutting a deep gash from her left shoulder.  Nevertheless, it hurt like hell and Chen’s uniform was quickly becoming soaked in blood.  Chen winced as the young female medic carefully cut away a section of her bloodied uniform before she cleaned and dressed the wound.

The Commonwealth ships were moving out of the debris field now and heading for the
Hector
and its group.  Ensign Andrews, manning the comms station, piped up:

‘Admiral, a number of ships are reporting boarding attempts.’

‘What?’ replied Chen, puzzled.  ‘How is that possible? We saw no assault craft.’

‘I... I don’t know, ma’am,’ Andrews replied. ‘The
Dowding
, the
Marlborough
, the
Blucher
and the
Bader
have all reported that the enemy have successfully breached external hatches and have gained entry.  They each have their respective situations under control. Only a small number of the enemy were successful in gaining entry in each case, but they have suffered explosive decompression in the affected compartments.  Maybe it was an inside job, ma’am?’

‘We regularly screened the crews of those ships,’ Chen replied. ‘But it’s possible that Haldane wasn’t alone.  How the...?’

Goldstein cried out in shock.  Chen followed her gaze.  There was a figure pressed against the bridge windows: a man dressed in a Commonwealth Navy uniform, or what had once been a man.  One arm and half of his face were missing, burned away.  The rest of his features were distorted, blackened and bloody from the effects of exposure to hard vacuum, but yet he still moved.  His remaining hand beat madly at the armoured pane as he fixed Chen with a sightless gaze.

‘He’s still alive...’ muttered Chen in horror.

‘It must be the Shaper parasite,’ said Singh. ‘Any normal human being would be long dead by now.’

‘Agreed.’

See what awaits you...

It was there again, the whispering voice at the back of her mind.

There is no death within our embrace, only eternal bliss for the undying.

‘Anyone else hear that?’ asked Singh.

Chen shuddered and nodded.  ‘Lieutenant Commander, order our marines to be watchful for any attempt to breach our external hatches. Andrews, warn all other ships to do the same.  Someone get that thing out of my view.’

‘Gladly sir,’ replied Goldstein and worked her console.  The armoured shutters designed to shield the bridge slammed down.  When they were raised again, the crushed remains of the enslaved man could be seen drifting away from the windows, which were now smeared with blood.  His head had been completely smashed, killing the horrible creature within.  Slowly, he tumbled upwards out of sight.

Chen’s wound throbbed.  They were coming up on the
Hector
group now.  The carrier sat between its four principle Titan class escorts, as well as an equal number of cruisers and frigates in a text book formation.  They were heavily outnumbered by Chen’s oncoming forces, but far from defenceless.  As the loyalist ships approached, the renegade warships defending the
Hector
began to turn to present both fore and aft turrets to the enemy, maximising their firepower. It was a classic broadside tactic.  A swarm of fighters and bombers hung above the enemy ships, poised to strike.

‘Enemy ships are preparing to fire!’ warned Singh. ‘The
Hector
is powering its main gun.  They’re targeting us!  Secondary beam cannons are still out of range.’

‘Brace for impact!’ Chen cried.  ‘All carriers: target the
Hector
and take her down!’

‘Hector
is firing!’ warned Singh.

Goldstein slammed the armoured shutters down once more, a split second before a terrific jolt threw Chen forward in her seat. She felt the ship shudder and flex from the impact.

‘Admiral, we have lost all forward shields!’ Singh reported hurriedly.  ‘Forward sensors are offline, turrets one and two on our upper port side are out of action. We have also lost a number of defensive turrets across the forward portion of the ship.  The hangar deck is reporting that the bow catapults are inoperative.  We are venting atmosphere from our port bow section, decks five through eleven.  Data links to other ships have been knocked offline by the EMP.’

‘Helm, reverse thrust and keep us out of range of their beam turrets until our shields come back up,’ Chen replied.  ‘Mr Singh, order damage control teams to the bows, immediately.’

‘We can’t stop!’ cried Goldstein, frantically working her console. ‘Admiral, the port-side bow thrusters are not responding!’

As the carrier slewed to port, the bridge shutters began to raise once more, revealing a massive scar across the forward portion of the ship where the impact of the plasma bolt from the
Hector
had ripped across the port side of the bows and across the forward gun turrets, fusing and melting armour plating and slagging two of the turrets.

‘Bring us about so that our starboard side faces the enemy and use our starboard thrusters to reduce our speed.’ said Chen.  ‘Gunnery, engage the enemy with all remaining fore and aft turrets!’

As they watched, the
Hector
went down.  Repeated shots from the other four carriers collapsed its shields and armour and ripped a massive, gaping hole through the forward hull, the plasma bolts emerging from the far side of the vessel in a massive exit wound of shattered hull plating and bulkheads.  The ship was burning inside from a hundred different fires fuelled from its internal atmosphere as well as ruptured fuel and power lines.

They were now within optimum firing distance for particle beam fire.  Ships on both sides opened up with everything they could bring to bear.  Chen was struggling to see exactly what was going on.  With the forward sensors damaged and offline she was only getting information from one hemisphere around the ship.  She peered out of the starboard windows to get a better view of the battle.

‘Mr Singh: what can you tell me?’

‘I’m rebooting our data link to the other ships’ sensors now, ma’am,’ Singh replied. ‘Engineering are sending teams to replace our sensor modules if possible.  As far as the battle goes: we appear to be winning. Despite their defensive posture, we have the enemy outgunned.’

As if to emphasise his point, an enemy frigate, the
Sitting Bull
, exploded in a ball of nuclear fire.  The remaining warships were being heavily battered by the combined fire of Chen’s flotilla.  So far, Chen had lost no ships.

‘Excellent, Mr Singh.’

‘Also, our fighters have engaged the bombers from the
Nimitz
,’ Singh replied. ‘Some losses but they appear to have the upper hand.  Reports from our wing leaders are that the
Nimitz
and the
Marathon
are... behaving oddly, they’re not advancing on our position or attempting to aid the
Hector
group in any way.’

Chen’s gut instinct told her that something was afoot.  The Shapers must have something up their sleeve. The comm. crackled into life.

‘
Churchill
, this is Captain Diaz of the
Leonides
, we are detecting a large number of enemy fighters and bombers headed for your position. ‘I am detaching a couple of our anti-fighter cruisers, the
Zama
and the
Isandlwana
to assist.’

The
Churchill’s
sensors hadn’t seen those attacking wings! They must be approaching from their blind side.  ‘Thank you Captain,’ replied Chen. ‘I appreciate it.’

‘Wait a second,’ replied Diaz.  ‘Admiral, the Shaper ships are now advancing towards our position.’

‘Our data link is back on-line,’ reported Singh.  ‘Confirmed, the Shaper ships are on an attack run towards the port side of our formation, the
Nimitz
and the
Marathon
are...’ he paused.  ‘Sir, it looks like they’re preparing to jump away.’

‘They can’t possibly be retreating.  We need to know where they’re headed!  Andrews, signal all ships, they are to assume a defensive posture against the advancing Shaper ships as we complete our attack on the
Hector
group.’

As she spoke, concentrated beam fire leapt out from the remaining renegade warships and targeted the two flak cruisers moving to shield the
Churchill.
  The
Zama
exploded almost immediately, its shields catastrophically collapsing, leaving the enemy beam fire free to rip through its superstructure into key power relays linked to its weapons systems.  A series of explosions tore the ship open from within.  The
Isandlwana
’s bow section and bridge took the brunt of the barrage of fire aimed at it, which killed the command staff instantly and left the ship drifting, but still able to defend itself.

Return fire from Chen’s warships was quickly wearing down the renegades.  The
Hector
group was down to just three destroyers and two flak cruisers, but they were now choosing their targets more carefully, concentrating their defensive fire on individual ships.  Splitting the carrier groups had been an enemy ruse and whatever they were up to, Chen knew in her gut that she had fallen for it.

‘Admiral, incoming enemy fighters and torpedo bombers!’ cried Singh.  ‘They’re headed for our bows!’

‘Gunnery, open fire with all defensive turrets,’ Chen ordered.  She could see the bright points of enemy squadrons diving towards them. The anti-fighter batteries of the other warships claimed some, turning those bright points into spinning, burning trails of fire, but the majority rushed onwards towards the
Churchill
, whose own, remaining defensive batteries began to put up a storm of laser fire.  Enemy craft died in their dozens as they dived The forward shields were still offline.  The enemy squadrons were well within the release range for torpedoes but hadn’t fired.  Still they flew onwards towards the carrier.  Chen realised with horror what they were doing.

‘All hands, brace for impact!’ she screamed as an Azrael torpedo bomber raced head on towards the bridge.  Goldstein hit the bridge shutters.

There was a shattering jolt.

All across the upper forward decks of the
Churchill
, the kamikaze squadrons from the
Hector
slammed into the armoured plated hull in a final gesture of defiance as the carrier continued to fire furiously at the small, onrushing craft.  The plumes of explosions blossomed across the vessel as the Azrael torpedo bombers and Daemon class fighters piloted by humans enslaved by the Shapers sacrificed themselves.  The carrier, now heavily damaged and venting atmosphere in a dozen places, began to list.

The lights had gone out.  Her HUD was offline.  Chen picked herself up off the floor as the emergency lights kicked in, bathing everything in a dim red glow.  Her crew similarly dusted themselves off.  Singh dragged himself back to his console and found to his relief that it was still functioning as Goldstein tried to stabilise the ship, which had now begun to roll about its lateral axis.  She also attempted to re-open the shutters and found that they were jammed shut.

‘Damage is pretty severe to the upper decks, Admiral,’ Singh reported, scanning the reports on his console.  ‘Deck four is open to space in twenty different locations, decks five and six are also showing decompression.  Decks three, two and one in the bridge tower have so far escaped the worst, though atmospheric levels are dropping around the emergency escape lock and there is damage to the power relays to the bridge, as you may have noticed.  Casualties are unknown, but I think they’re inevitable.’

‘Engineering and sickbay have indicated that damage control and medical teams are on their way to the forward sections,’ Andrews informed them.

‘Okay, thank you Ensign.  Mr Singh, can we still fight?’ enquired Chen.

‘I think so, yes,’ Singh replied. ‘The underside and rear of the ship are undamaged.  The Arkari cannon is on-line and charged.  We have sensor data relayed from the other ships.  We will have some trouble manoeuvring.  All vessels from the
Hector
group have been destroyed or are out of action, but the Shaper vessels are still inbound, ma’am.  Our ships are in the defensive posture as ordered.  All carriers report main guns charged and ready.  The good news is that our shields are back on line and charging. Looks like engineering are re-routing power from the aft generators.’

‘Distance to the enemy?’

‘Approximately five hundred kilometres and closing.’

Chen peered at a nearby screen that showed a feed from an external camera.  The Shapers’ ships could be seen faintly in a loose X formation that centred around a massive vessel at its centre, several kilometres in length.

‘Helm, point us at the largest ship.’

‘Aye Admiral,’ replied Goldstein then added. ‘I am having some difficult accurately aiming the
Churchill
.’

‘Gunnery, hold your fire,’ said Chen.  ‘Let them come closer, we need to make this count.’

‘One hundred kilometres to target!’ reported Singh as the Shaper craft grew ever larger in the external feeds.

‘Just a little closer,’ murmured Chen. As she did so, the other carriers opened fire on the advancing vessels.  The nimble Shaper craft dodged and wove quickly to avoid the incoming plasma bolts.  Only two struck home, scoring glancing blows that seemed to do little damage.