Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (53 page)

              ‘Of course, sir,’ Chen replied.

              ‘Once you have defeated the enemy’s naval forces, you must then turn your attention to the landing.  Using the scanners aboard the recon frigates, you will need to pin-point enemy troop concentrations on the surface as well as Shaper communication nodes, before beginning a heavy bombardment to target them using the tactical missile frigates at your disposal.  It will also be necessary to clear out anything moving around the landing zone here, on the southern continent.’

              Cartwright indicated the map of the planet with his hand as the display zoomed in to display the topography of its southern continent in detail.  Much of it was marked as being devoted to Army training grounds.

              ‘Sir, with respect, that’s likely to be in the midst of the enemy,’ said Chen.

              ‘Yes it is, but the area is one of gently rolling plains suitable for the landing of large numbers of troops.  It is also only a short distance away from our objective, the deep range monitoring arrays located in the lower peaks of this nearby mountain range to the south.  You are to suppress the enemy from orbit whilst the Marines from the
Anzio
make the initial landing and establish a landing zone and a base of fire at the foot of the mountains. They are to be reinforced by the marines travelling with the Third Army Group who will land ahead of Army units.  Colonel Gunderson, you will have command over all forces on the surface of Valparaiso until General Shale is able to land his forces and establish a command post.  Once a defensible beach-head has been established on the surface of the planet, you can begin to move on the offensive against the enemy after you secure the deep range monitoring arrays.’

              ‘Gunderson, eh?’ whispered McManus.  ‘I’ve heard of him alright. Never met him before in the flesh though.  Guy’s a real hero: leads from the front and all that. Popular with his men, though he’s been known to drive them a little too hard a times.  Still...’

              ‘Do you know
everyone
in the military?’ Chen whispered back.

              ‘I like to know who I’m serving alongside, so I keep my ear to the ground.’

              Cartwright noticed them speaking to one another.

              ‘Admiral Chen.  Is there a problem?’

              ‘No sir, no problem,’ Chen replied smartly.  ‘My XO was just filling me in on the exemplary records of the General and the Colonel.  It’s an honour to serve with such fine men, sir.’

              Gunderson, who turned out to be the anonymous bull-necked figure that they had seen enter with Igawa, twisted around in his chair and stared intently at her.

              ‘Might I return the honour, Admiral?  I’ve heard some pretty wild stories about your exploits.  Looking at the medals on that uniform of yours I’m hoping that most of them are true.’

              ‘They are,’ said Shale, speaking aloud for the first time in brisk, booming tones, his grey moustache bristling.  ‘The Admiral has quite a reputation amongst the fleet, and she’s killed more bloody Shapers than anyone else in this room, with the possible exception of our Nahabe friend here,’ he added, nodding in the direction of the Lord Protector.

              ‘Thank you, gentlemen,’ said Chen, aware that the entire room was now staring at her.  ‘I hope I don’t disappoint.  Yes, I have killed Shapers, and I intend to kill a lot more of them by the time we’re done.’

              ‘Glad to hear it, Admiral Chen,’ said Cartwright.  ‘Now turning our attention to the operation in the Chittagong system...’

              As Cartwright ran through the basic outline of the parallel operation to secure the anti-matter production facilities in Chittagong, Chen allowed her mind to wander and she began to consider instead the coming battle for the Santiago system that she had been placed in command of.  It was an awesome responsibility, though no greater than being charged with the defence of Earth.  Cartwright had placed a vast amount of firepower at her command, including the heaviest guns that the Commonwealth Navy was able to muster, but the fate of hundreds of thousands of troops, not to mention the course of the war against the Shapers was now in her hands.

              Eventually Cartwright reached the end of his briefing for the Chittagong operation.

              ‘There remains only one more thing to add,’ he said. ‘Bar any unforeseen developments, we are go for the launch of this operation at oh eight hundred hours standard, tomorrow.  From this point onwards, you are to return to your ships and a complete security lockdown will be enforced.  Although you are still in the process of recovering personnel from across the system, no-one will be allowed to leave your vessels once they are aboard.  All transmissions will be closely monitored and you must not discuss your mission objectives with your crews until after you have jumped.  Admiral Chen, General Shale, Colonels Igawa and Gunderson, I need to speak to you in my office immediately.  Everyone else, return to your ships, and good luck.  The people of the Commonwealth are counting on you.’

              Seating herself in one of the chairs in Cartwright’s office, between Shale and Igawa, Chen watched Cartwright as he sat behind his large wooden desk and steepled his fingers.

              ‘Let me begin by apologising for the lack of time I have given to you all to prepare for this operation.  I’m afraid for security reasons we were forced to keep you all in the dark about our plans since we can’t even trust our own people these days, and the President only gave the go order for the operation once Admiral Hawkwood and others had successfully convinced her that the risks were acceptable.  Things are not looking terribly rosy.  The security services, those that we can trust, are working overtime to apprehend enemy agents in systems still loyal to Earth, but they have a lot of ground to cover and command believes it is only matter of time before a terrorist atrocity is committed or vital intelligence data is stolen.  Command has drawn up detailed intelligence briefs on both objectives and you’ll need to go over them together before we depart.’

              ‘We understand, Admiral,’ said Igawa.  ‘We live in unusual times. Thank you for being so candid.  My men have been anxious to strike at the enemy for some time now and it was made clear to us from the nature of our recent training regime that something like this was likely.  We are ready.’

              ‘Likewise, the Third Army Group is itching to get to grips with the enemy at long last,’ said Shale.  ‘I had anticipated that some sort of ground action would be required to deal with the Shapers.  My men and I have been studying what encounters have been recorded so far and have drawn up a number of possible tactics for dealing with them.  We’re ready.  We’ve trained for this and we’ve done this sort of landing a hundred times before against K’Soth occupied worlds.’

              ‘And these tactics that you intend to use?’ said Cartwright.

              ‘Massive and overwhelming firepower directed by real-time data from space-borne surveillance.  We expect a mixture of massed headlong attacks when they take the offensive.  In contrast, we fully expect them to resort to guerrilla warfare and ambush tactics when we attempt to launch our own offensives.  Sadly, I think large scale civilian casualties may be difficult to avoid, what with the possibility that many among the planet’s population may have already been enslaved and that the enemy may be hiding among those who have not.’

              ‘Regrettably, I have to agree,’ said Gunderson, scratching the back of his shaved skull.  ‘We may not have the time or the ability to distinguish the enemy from the local civilian population. It’s been a problem in wars for centuries where there are no clear lines of battle or the enemy have concealed themselves within the general citizenry.  One thing about fighting the K’Soth: at least there was no danger of not being able to recognise ‘em.’

              ‘Hopefully the modifications to the Thea class cruisers should alleviate some of the difficulties,’ said Chen.  ‘We’ll feed you as much information about enemy positions as possible, and give you fire support from the ships and close support from our fighters and bombers when you need it.’

              ‘And we will need it, you can count on that,’ Gunderson replied.  ‘The enemy outnumber us.’

              ‘Indeed they do, Colonel, but I intend to strike at their chain of command.  If we can identify controlling nodes that are directing their forces, they will be disorganised and leaderless, a mob rather than an army.  They will still be dangerous, but hopefully you two can use this to your advantage.’

              ‘It’s a sound strategy,’ said Shale, nodding in agreement.  ‘Still, it won’t be easy.  Admiral Cartwright, what intelligence do we have on enemy movements beyond the range of our new modified array?  What chance is there of an enemy counter-attack taking place?’

              ‘Intelligence is sketchy at best, hence the very objective of your mission.  We believe that the bulk of the Shaper fleet itself is concentrated in and around the Achernar system, but so far that is pure conjecture.  We are able to see far enough to provide you with warning of vessels approaching from that direction, but there may not be time to extract your forces from the surface in the event that the Navy were faced with overwhelming enemy numbers.  You would in all probability have to stand and fight. We need to hold both worlds for as long as possible.  I will issue a standing order to destroy the facilities on both planets should there be a likelihood of them falling into enemy hands.’

              ‘And the Navy, what would they do in face of a large scale counter-attack by the Shapers?’

              ‘I would do my utmost to defend you, and maintain control of the system,’ said Chen.

              ‘...with the caveat that ships should not be sacrificed needlessly,’ Cartwright added sternly.  ‘Let’s be under no illusions as to what the Shapers are capable of.  Even with our new weapons, they are formidable opponents and easily more than a match for our vessels.  We may have halted them temporarily, but rest assured that they are up to something and we need to know what it is, and then we need to put an end to it.  It is entirely possible that they are already marshalling their forces to strike against us once more, and that they have planet killing weapons their disposal.’

              ‘Pardon me, sir.  But do these gentlemen have the same level of clearance as myself with regard to Naval intelligence concerning the Shapers?’ said Chen, addressing Cartwright.

              ‘Yes, they do.’

              ‘Sir, I have been shown the intelligence given to us by the Nahabe regarding the massive Shaper dreadnought seen heading for the Commonwealth.  I take it that this is what you are referring to?’

              ‘Yes it is.  That, and the fact that we have not pinned down what we believe to be the bulk of the enemy fleet, hence the need for us to also seize the anti-matter production facilities in Chittagong.  We need to deny them access to it, but we also need something to hit them with.  You used up almost our entire stock of AM warheads, Admiral Chen.  We’re going to need a lot more.  Colonel Igawa, is there anything you wish to ask me about your operation?’

              ‘Not at this time, Admiral.  Thank you,’ Igawa replied.  ‘All I ask is that I be provided with detailed schematics of the facilities to be targeted, so that I and my men can formulate in detail our plan of attack in order to seize them intact.  I don’t mean just maps, I need engineering schematics too.  We don’t want to place a shaped charge near the wrong piece of equipment where anti-matter is concerned, after all.’

              ‘You’ll have them,’ replied Cartwright.

              ‘Sir, do we know where that ship
is
?’ pressed Chen.

              ‘No, Admiral Chen.  We do not.  We may have a hope of locating it once we are able to see further.  A lot rests on this operation, hence it was deemed to be worth the gamble.  Now, are there any more questions?  Myself and Colonel Igawa will be going over the details of the operation to seize the Chittagong system for the rest of the day.  I would suggest that you three do the same with regard to your own orders.  You have been cleared to discuss this with senior officers and they will need to brief their men accordingly, but the information regarding the names and locations of the exact systems in question goes no further than those present at the briefing today.’

              ‘Sir, I have one question,’ said Chen.  ‘What if we fail?’

              ‘We are exploring other options in the event that one or more of these two operations is not successful.  I’m afraid I can’t tell you any more than that, Admiral Chen, in case of capture by the enemy.  However I don’t think I need to tell you that failure at this juncture would do grievous harm to our fortunes in this war.’

              ‘What Admiral Cartwright means to say, Admiral Chen,’ said Shale, ‘is that failure isn’t really an option.’

Chapter 33

The
Shining Glory’s
sickbay was in total confusion.  As the medical adepts clustered around Ushild still tried in vain to revive him, the power began to die again, plunging them into flickering gloom as backup systems failed simultaneously.  There was a deep boom from somewhere else in the ship and the sickbay shuddered from the impact or explosion or whatever it was.  The Arkari characters that spelled out the words ‘I am alive’ still scrolled across every nano-form surface in the room. In places, the characters actually stood out from the walls as if embossed on their surfaces.  A series of warning alarms began to chime, accompanied by calm automated messages in Arkari informing the crew of individual system failures.

              ‘What the hell is going on!?’ cried Rekkid.  ‘Mentith?’ he called out, hoping that the comm. link to the bridge was still open.  There was no reply.

              ‘Seems like shipboard comms are down,’ said Okanno, without looking up from Ushild’s body.