Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (52 page)

              McManus had insisted that she be accompanied by an armed bodyguard whilst on the surface of New Hatti, due to her celebrity status and possible risks to her person.  She had refused, but had acquiesced in allowing the hotel to be discreetly guarded and to carrying her personal secure comm. at all times as well as remaining in civilian garb.  Even so, she got a few salutes from service personnel who recognised her and a few interested glances from people on the street and in bars and restaurants.  Men had even tried chatting her up on two separate occasions, having spotted her sitting alone.  She’d politely brushed them off, and then both times had later wished that she hadn’t.  Maybe, she wondered, she ought to follow the example of the other Navy personnel she’d seen on leave and enjoy one last night before she was plunged in the maelstrom of war again.

              As she sat at the water’s edge, watching the yellow sun of Delta Pavonis sink slowly into the sea, she felt her pocket vibrate gently.  She removed her secure comm. and held the finger sized device to her ear.

              ‘Chen here.’

              ‘Admiral, it’s Singh.  You wished to be notified when it was time.’

              ‘Yes I did Mr Singh, thank you.  I’m on my way. Chen out.’

              She sighed, drained the last of her coffee and took one last look at the ocean before leaving, stopping only at her hotel to collect her belongings on the way to the spaceport.

              An hour later, and the main briefing room of the
Trafalgar
was packed with officers, mainly captains and their XOs, plus a scattering of admirals, Chen included.  Security was tight.  Marine guards were everywhere aboard the carrier as well as outside the room, and everyone coming aboard was scanned and searched, regardless of rank.  Chen saw a few faces that she recognised, plus a few she that had commanded and fought with and she exchanged a few pleasantries, then she took her place a few rows back from the front next to McManus, who appeared to be nursing a hangover and had arrived separately from the other side of the planet below.

              ‘Enjoy yourself on leave, Commander?’ said Chen, with an amused look in her eye.

              ‘Aye, you could say that,’ McManus replied. ‘It’s early morning where I was just now.  Caught me at a bad time.  I’m a little fragile.’

              ‘You never know when you might get another chance, I suppose.’

              ‘Well there is that, plus I was finally trying to expunge the memory of my ex-wife.  All in all, a successful trip,’ he said and winked.

              ‘I see. Love at first sight was it?’ said Chen with a smirk.

              ‘Ah, I wouldnae call it love exactly, Admiral...’

              As they talked, two Marine Corp colonels and an Army general entered with their respective aides and took their seats on the front row of the auditorium, their camouflage fatigues contrasting with the dark blue Navy uniforms in the room.

              ‘Uh oh, looks like we’re going to be assaulting somewhere,’ muttered McManus. ‘Check out the ground pounders who just walked in.’

              ‘That’s General Shale and... the Marine Corp colonel who hasn’t sat down yet, I know his face, but I can’t place him.’

              ‘Colonel Igawa. He led the assault on the Imperial shipyards at Arakk Kan during the K’Soth war.  He and his men captured the facility intact, despite facing massive enemy opposition.  He was highly decorated for his actions.  He’s as tough as they come is that one, and Shale has long been tipped for Chief of Staff of the Army.  We’re in illustrious company here, Admiral.’

              ‘I’m not sure that makes me feel any better,’ Chen replied.

              ‘Me neither.  It means that the shit’s really about to hit the fan, if you’ll pardon the expression,’ McManus replied. ‘Don’t recognise the other Marine Corp guy though, and I can’t see his nametag from here,’ he added, indicating the bull-necked man with a closely shaved head who had entered with Colonel Igawa.

              Next to enter was the Lord Protector of the Order of Void Hunters.  The Nahabe was encased in the smaller, more ornate sarcophagus that Chen had seen it wear in non-combat situations.  He moved to the edge of the room, watched by dozens of pairs of eyes, and floated silently on antigravity fields.

              A figure arrived dressed in full naval regalia.  There was a murmur from the seated assembly as Admiral Cartwright entered the room with a small staff. He took his place at the lectern located to one side of the large screen that almost filled the end wall of the briefing room and which came alive at Cartwright’s command.  As the room fell silent, he began to speak, his deep, cultured tones amplified so that they filled the space.

              ‘As you are all no doubt aware, we have been preparing these past few weeks for a counter-strike against our enemy as well as those that they have enslaved and turned against us.  The moment is now upon us.  Admiral Hawkwood has instructed me that the President has given the go ahead for offensive operations against Shaper held systems.’

              A murmur rippled across the room.  Cartwright continued.

              ‘As a result of satisfactory testing of the sensor modifications supplied to us by the Nahabe, we have now successfully modified our entire fleet of Thea class recon cruisers to enable them to track the Shapers through hyperspace.  In addition, we have also made similar adjustments to our deep range monitoring arrays throughout Commonwealth space.  Although their range is more limited than we had hoped, this has enabled us to track the positions of the enemy at ranges of up to approximately one hundred light years from Earth.  We also have the tools with which to fight the Shapers.  By reverse engineering the Arkari built spatial distortion cannon fitted to the
CNV Winston S. Churchill
whilst the vessel served as part of Special Operations Command, we have successfully built and tested our own models.  We are also indebted to sources I cannot reveal within the Arkari military for further technical guidance and specifications that enabled us to complete the prototypes ahead of schedule, as well as produce smaller versions that can be mounted on our Titan class destroyers.  Those ships which have been fitted with the new cannons have been drafted into service for the upcoming operation.’

              As Cartwright spoke, the display behind him changed to show a map of the systems that had gone over to the enemy.

              ‘The traitor Admiral Morgan has installed his provisional government on the moon of Orinoco in the Achernar system and declared that his new entity is now called the Freedom Alliance.  Needless to say, the President has already made it clear that we do not recognise the legitimacy of this body.  It is undoubtedly little more than a puppet regime of the Shapers and it is likely that the heads of the planetary governments that have declared for Morgan have been enslaved or duped by the enemy.  The threat of the Shapers remains strong, and we have tracked a number of Shaper warships and former Navy vessels that have been taken over by them.  We are also able to see which systems have a strong Shaper enslaved presence.  The good news is that the damage may not be as bad as we feared.  It seems that our defeat of the Shaper attack on Earth took out a large proportion of the ships that they currently have available to them in this part of the galaxy.  It appears that they underestimated us to their cost.  Whilst this is undoubtedly a temporary state of affairs until they can bring more forces to bear, it is important that we capitalise upon this advantage.  Shaper forces are now dispersed throughout the volume of space that they have succeeded in splitting off from the Commonwealth and are concentrated in systems that they consider strategically important.  However, they have too much territory to cover at the moment, and their own ships are spread thinly.  The result is that they are forced to fall back upon ships that they have captured from us, having enslaved their crews.  There is also another issue at work here, just to make things interesting: it seems that the Shapers are endeavouring to acquire supplies of anti-matter, which they are then transporting back to the Achernar system.  Shaper vessels have been sighted in a number of systems geared towards its production either leading the assault on facilities or escorting transport vessels loaded with magnetic containment crates that they have captured.  We don’t as yet know to what purpose they intend to put these supplies.  The best guess intel. can come up with is that they are constructing some form of weapon of mass destruction, possibly a planet-killing weapon that we haven’t seen yet.

              Unfortunately, we aren’t able to properly see into the Achernar system as it lies over forty light years beyond the range of our deep range arrays’ new Shaper tracking abilities.  Furthermore, we on the other hand are desperately short of anti-matter since most of the production facilities lie in the renegade systems, and we may need it if we are to repeat the success of the defence of Earth.’

              On the map behind Cartwright, a blue shaded arc appeared, denoting the limit of how far they could see into enemy occupied space, the Achernar system highlighted beyond it.  As the assembled officers watched, two systems within the visible zone were picked out. Their positions were such that they formed a triangle with the Achernar system over fifty light years to a side.

              ‘The Chittagong and the Santiago systems,’ Cartwright announced.  ‘The first is home to one of the largest anti-matter production facilities anywhere in human space. Chittagong is sparsely populated.  The inner planet, Khargola, is a small rocky world that orbits close to the parent star, a white dwarf.  It has a small population housed in shielded habitats and who only live on the godforsaken planet so that they can tend the largely automated AM production facilities that band Khargola’s equator.  Our intel. suggests that most, if not all, of the population have been enslaved by the Shapers, having been trapped in their habitats and been unable to escape.  We need to achieve dominance in the Chittagong system and seize Khargola’s facilities intact.  Given that the Shapers are defending the system with six of their own destroyers and a carrier battle group led by the Saturn class vessel
Montezuma
, this won’t be easy.

              Santiago, on the other hand, presents us with a rather different tactical problem.  The principal inhabited world in the system is the second planet, Valparaiso, home to two billion people and also home to training grounds belonging to the Army.  At the time of its rebellion, over two hundred thousand troops were stationed on Valparaiso and we haven’t heard from them since. However, recon missions have detected signals indicating a strong Shaper presence on the planet as well as an estimated five Shaper vessels including one super-destroyer class vessel.  This is in addition to two enslaved carrier battle groups led by the
Pompey Magnus
and the
Franklin D. Roosevelt
.  However, the real objective here is to seize the deep range monitoring arrays on the planet.  Santiago once marked the Commonwealth’s southernmost border and the arrays have been mothballed for almost half a century.  They are reportedly intact and await re-activation and subsequent modification.  We need to take a look deeper into enemy territory, especially into the Achernar system, with our new found Shaper spotting abilities, so we need that array.  Once we have these two systems secured, I intend to use them as jumping off points for other missions into enemy territory and, hopefully, for an assault on Achernar itself.’

              A susurration of surprise at Cartwright’s bold plan went around the room

              ‘Shit, he’s really talking about taking it to ‘em,’ muttered McManus.

              ‘It’s certainly bold,’ replied Chen.  ‘I wonder who he’s placing in command of each operation?’

              Cartwright answered her question almost immediately.

              ‘The Shapers doubtless recognise the strategic importance of these two systems and are defending them accordingly.  I intend to hit them hard and fast.  I shall command the mission to take Chittagong, with Colonel Igawa leading the ground assault on Khargola.  Admiral Chen?’

              ‘Yes sir?’ said Chen, suddenly realising that all eyes in the room were on her.

              ‘You shall have overall command of the mission to take back Santiago.  General Shale will take charge of the ground forces, including having command authority over Marine units, but it’s your show.’

              ‘Yes, sir.  Thank you sir,’ said Chen, her heart pounding.  She had just been handed an enormous responsibility.

              ‘Very good,’ said Cartwright, looking at her intently as if to gauge her reaction.  ‘I’ve assigned eight carrier battle groups to each operation.  The rest will remain here along with the bulk of the Nahabe forces in case of an enemy surprise attack after we have jumped, although a squadron of Nahabe gunspheres will be accompanying each task force.  Now, here’s how the invasion of Santiago is to proceed:  Admiral Chen, I shall be assigning the
Churchill
its own accompanying battle group of vessels.  Each group will consist of a carrier, four destroyers equipped with the new cannon, two modified recon cruisers, four flak cruisers and four tactical missile destroyers.  As well as the
Churchill
, you’ll be commanding the
Leonides
, the
Nelson
, the
Marcus Aurelius
, the
Alamein
, the
Plataea
, the
Pericles
and the Marine assault carrier
Anzio
.’

              As Cartwright spoke, the screen behind him changed to show a map of the Santiago system, before zooming in on the space around Valparaiso.  Icons and glowing arrows denoted the planned movement of ships.

              ‘The carrier groups and Nahabe ships will form the vanguard of the assault,’ Cartwright continued.  ‘Admiral Chen, your initial task will be to achieve total command of the space around Valparaiso.  All enemy ships are to be engaged and destroyed.  No quarter is to be given to former Navy vessels seeking to surrender, even if their crews do not appear to be enslaved.  They threw their lot in with the enemy and must now face the consequences, and we have neither the time nor the resources to process their crews.  Shaper vessels will of course present the greatest credible threat and should be treated as priority targets.  Valparaiso has one orbital station, San Pedro.  It is not thought to be in enemy hands and can be bypassed for now.  You have one hour to complete your objectives once you arrive at the planet.  The Third Army Group under General Shale’s command will be following closely behind you.  Their transports and escorts will drop out of their jump on the edge of the system and await your signal that it is safe to proceed.  If they receive no signal or are in any doubts as to its authenticity, they will jump away.  General Shale has over ninety thousand Army and around ten thousand Marine Corp personnel, plus armoured vehicles, artillery, gunships and heavy lift craft at his disposal in addition to the complement of Marines aboard the
Anzio.
The transports will have escorts in the shape of four more destroyers and two modified Thea class cruisers and are of course heavily shielded, but it is imperative that the transports not be placed at risk en route to their destination and their primary defence in the face of approaching enemy opposition will be to jump away.  Understood?’