Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (60 page)

              Chen could scarcely believe what she was seeing. The scenes of carnage caused by the guns of her fleet were incredible.  Half of the opposing carrier groups wiped out at a stroke. There was a ragged cheer from her bridge officers.

              ‘Fucking hell, that showed ‘em!’ cried McManus.  ‘Jesus, I’ve never seen the like!’

              As if to emphasis his point, the
Roosevelt,
now out of control, collided with one of her escort destroyers, driving the stump of her shattered bows clean through the destroyer’s aft gun decks.  The two vessels were locked together for a moment, hull spars twisting and rending, before the destroyer began to come apart from multiple internal explosions, eventually immolating itself and the remains of the
Roosevelt
in a vast expanding sphere of plasma.

              ‘Gunnery, report,’ said Chen.

              ‘Our Arkari made cannon performed well yet again, Admiral,’ replied Lieutenant Commander Mitchell over the comm. ‘We scored a direct hit on the
Pompey Magnus
.  Cannon is recharging.  It’ll be a few more minutes until we can fire it again.’

              ‘Duly noted.  Good work, Mr Mitchell’ said Chen. 

              However their celebrations were to be short lived.  Singh noticed first that something was wrong.

              ‘Admiral, a number of our destroyers appear to be drifting out of formation.  Their weapons systems and shields are showing offline and their engines are powering down.  Two of our own escorts, the
Alesia
and the
Salamis
are affected as well as nine other vessels throughout the fleet.  Since we’re accelerating, they’re dropping back.’

              ‘Confirmed,’ said Andrews.  ‘They are not responding to hails.’

              ‘Have they been attacked by something, some new disabling weapon we haven’t seen before? An EMP device perhaps?’ asked McManus.

              ‘That’s a negative,’ Singh replied, examining the sensor logs.  ‘Each ship went offline at the moment it fired its main gun.’

              ‘Must be some sort of catastrophic malfunction,’ said McManus.  ‘Christ, I thought they’d tested these bloody things before they sent us into battle.’

              ‘Andrews, warn the rest of the fleet, if they haven’t already noticed,’ said Chen.  ‘Tell them to stay clear of the drifting ships, and the destroyers are not to fire their spatial distortion cannons for the rest of the battle.  We can’t risk more ships becoming disabled!’

              They were closing on the remaining enslaved ships now.  The enemy vessels were still manoeuvring around the wrecks of the destroyed ships and were bringing weapons to bear.  They were almost in range.

              ‘What about weapons mounted on the carriers?’ said McManus.  ‘Are we going to risk it?’

              ‘If I order the carriers not to fire their spatial distortion cannons, we don’t have much to hit the Shapers with.  We might as well throw rocks at them,’ said Chen, angrily.  ‘I’m willing to bet that there’s something about those particular destroyers that caused them to fail.’

              ‘I’ll have a look at the schematics we have on record,’ said McManus.  ‘Meanwhile, we need to defend those ships.  It won’t take the enemy long to realise what’s happened and they’ll be sitting ducks.  Worse still, they could be boarded.’

              At that moment a signal came through.  It was an emergency broadcast and it was coming from the
Salamis
.  Andrews put it on speaker for them all to hear.

              ‘May day, may day.  This is Captain Crane of the
Salamis
.  We have lost main power to all systems.  The ship is drifting, we are virtually blind and we are unable to defend ourselves.  Please respond.’

              ‘
Salamis
, this is Admiral Chen.  What happened?’

              ‘Our main gun malfunctioned.  Some sort of power overload.  It completely overwhelmed the fail-safes and cascaded through our systems when we fired the weapon.  We don’t know how bad the damage is yet.  We just got the comm. back online as a priority to call for help.’

              ‘We won’t leave you undefended
Salamis
,’ Chen replied.  ‘Hang in there.’  She turned to Andrews.  ‘Ensign, send orders to the assault carrier
Anzio
to hang back with her escorts and defend those ships as we advance.  Signal the other destroyers and inform them that help is on the way, if they can hear us.  We have no time to lose.  We need to take down those remaining ships and come to the aid of the Nahabe.’

              Chen’s ships were now closing rapidly with the remaining enslaved vessels.  The enemy ships had successfully negotiated the tumbling wreckage that was all that remained of their comrades and were powering towards the Commonwealth ships, their engines at maximum.  It seemed like a hopeless gesture.  They were hopelessly outgunned by Chen’s ships.

              ‘What the hell are they doing?’ mused McManus, eyeing the ragged collection of destroyers , frigates and cruisers growing ever larger before them.  ‘They can’t possibly hope to successfully engage us?’

              ‘Admiral!’ cried Andrews.  ‘Message from the Lord Protector.  The Nahabe have lost one of their ships.  The
Broken Moon
has gone down with all hands.’

              ‘We need to finish this,’ said Chen, acknowledging the bad news.  At the same time, something about the enemy’s behaviour sent alarm bells ringing in her head.  ‘Mr Singh, scan those approaching ships.’

              Singh worked his console for a second, before reporting.

              ‘Enemy vessels are advancing at full speed.  Engines are at maximum and weapons are fully powered... wait.  I’m seeing unusual energy spikes from their reactors.’

              ‘Unusual how?’

              ‘Massive energy readings - way beyond the normal, safe levels and increasing.’

              Chen heard it then, a sibilant rasping in the depths of her brain.  The Shapers were laughing at her, she could hear them.

              ‘They’ve overloaded their reactors on purpose.  Shite! It’s a suicide run, it has to be!’ exclaimed McManus.  ‘They know they can’t defeat us, so the Shapers are sacrificing their pawns.  Recommend we throw everything we’ve got at them before the bastards get too close.’

              ‘Agreed,’ Chen replied.  ‘Gunnery, range to target?’

              ‘First enemy ship will be in range of our beam cannons in five seconds.  Spatial distortion cannon is still charging and unavailable for use.’

              ‘Kill those ships for me, Mr Mitchell,’ said Chen. ‘All vessels, fire at will!’

              ‘Roger that,’ Mitchell replied, as McManus ordered engineering to divert more power to weapons and shields at the expense of the ship’s engines.

              Dozens of energy beams spat from the turrets of the Commonwealth fleet in a searing display of firepower.  The leading enemy ship, the frigate
Antioch
, crumpled under a withering storm of fire, its shields collapsing in a matter of seconds before its bows and superstructure were pummelled and then torn apart under the onslaught.  Out of control, the vessel began to slew to one side, narrowly avoiding a collision with the cruiser
Ajax
before falling out of formation.  As the fire from the Commonwealth ships switched targets to the other enemy craft now in range, the
Antioch
began to shudder from internal explosions and was eventually ripped asunder by a gigantic ball of fire as its overcharged reactor detonated, disabling the nearby
Ajax
and collapsing the starboard shields of another three vessels.  With her shields down and unable to defend herself, the
Ajax
was next to meet the full force of the guns of the Commonwealth fleet and the ship died in seconds under the onslaught, exploding in a similarly oversized ball of escaping plasma and radiation.

              The demise of two of their number in the space of a few seconds didn’t seem to deter the other enslaved vessels who continued their charge against the Commonwealth battle line.

              ‘Helm, bring us to a halt,’ ordered Chen. ‘Ensign, order all ships to halt, stand fast and repel the enemy.’

              As the Commonwealth fleet halted, the destroyers and frigates came about to present the enemy with the fire from both fore and aft turrets.  The renegade fleet, now down to three destroyers, six frigates and a handful of cruisers was bombarded with renewed vigour.  Ships died under the weight of fire, eviscerated and blown apart by the barrage of searing beams and anti-ship projectiles, and still they charged onwards, straight towards the Commonwealth fleet, even as they burned and broke apart, their internal atmospheres consumed by raging infernos.

              The enemy ships were now only a few kilometres away from Chen’s fleet now and were showing no signs of stopping or retreating.  It was a suicidal charge; that much was obvious.  Beams spat back defiantly from the battered vessels, washing off the shields of the Commonwealth ships.   The Commonwealth fleet answered with the fire from hundreds of turrets.  As the ship now leading the fleet, the destroyer
Telamon,
blew itself apart and the weight of fire shifted to the remaining vessels, Chen’s sense of alarm began to grow.  The enemy ships were now dangerously close to her own.  Though the enslaved craft were heavily outnumbered, their violent deaths could spell disaster.  Quickly, she ordered her fleet to reverse thrust and back away from the onrushing enemy ships as the Commonwealth vessels poured fire onto the enemy vessels.

Another chain of explosions ripped apart three enemy ships, two cruisers and a frigate, the death of the frigate immolating the two smaller craft, and still the enemy advanced.

‘Collision warning!’ cried Singh.  ‘The destroyer
Vercingetorix
is on a direct collision course with ourselves!  Other vessels are attempting to ram our escort ships!’

‘This is going to be close,’ said McManus.  ‘Gunnery, how long until we can fire our main gun?’

‘Ten seconds.’

‘We may not have that much time, Mr Mitchell.’

‘Helm, bring us about to face the
Vercingetorix
,’ said Chen. ‘Gunnery, concentrate all fire on that vessel!  Fire our main gun as soon as you are able!’

Fire from the Commonwealth ships raked the
Vercingetorix
, collapsing her shields and gouging lengths from her hull.  Still, the destroyer continued to close, fire and debris streaming from her battered flanks.  Chen saw the vessel looming ever larger in her vision, guns spitting fire defiantly despite the onslaught being directed against it. 

The
Churchill
shuddered, space between the carrier and the destroyer turned inside out, and the
Vercingetorix
exploded.  The detonation was enormous; a miniature sun unleashed three kilometres from the
Churchill’s
bows.  As the
Vercingetorix
died, so the other Commonwealth carriers unleashed their spatial distortion cannons also, and the last of the renegade ships were ripped asunder.  A storm of plasma and radiation hammered the Commonwealth fleet, collapsing shields and searing their forward hull armour.

Amidst the firestorm and tumbling wreckage, something moved.  It was small, sleek and crystalline and had been lurking within the shuttle bay of the
Vercingetorix.
Virtually untouched by the inferno around it, it began to move towards the
Churchill
. 

By the time Singh saw the fleeting contact in his sensor readouts it was already too late.  Chen caught a glimpse of something ice-white and moving at great speed towards them from the wreckage of the destroyer.  The carrier’s automated fighter defences spat laser fire at the approaching shape, but were ineffective against its superior armour and were unable to stop it colliding with the carrier’s bows.

Alarms began to sound.

‘What the hell was that?’ exclaimed Chen.  ‘Somebody, talk to me!’

‘There’s no damage to the ship,’ said Singh.  ‘But something just penetrated the forward hangar deck shields.’

‘A boarding attempt, it has to be,’ said McManus.  ‘Permission to head down to the hangar deck.’

‘Granted.  Get Commander Blackman and his marines down there and seal off the hangars.  We don’t know what might be on board that thing.  Whatever they might be, I don’t want them loose and running around my ship.  Keep me informed, and post a guard at all entrances to this level.’

‘Aye, Admiral,’ McManus replied and sprang out of his seat.

‘And Commander, make sure you stop by the armoury on your way there. Can’t have you unarmed.’

‘No chance of that,’ McManus responded grimly as he headed for the door. ‘I intend to bag myself some of the bastards.

‘Now then,’ said Chen, in businesslike manner.  ‘Time to take down the Shaper ships and help our Nahabe allies.  Helm, ahead full.  Ensign Andrews, signal all ships to remain in formation and prepare to engage the enemy.’

McManus arrived at the port side entrance to the forward hangar deck clutching a rail rifle and grenades and wearing body armour and a helmet which he had snatched from the armoury on the way there.  He found Blackman and four dozen fully armed marines waiting for him and noticed that the doors leading into the deck were sealed.

‘Okay, what are we dealing with?’ said McManus.

‘It’s some sort of shuttle or landing craft,’ Blackman replied.  ‘When the enemy destroyer exploded in close proximity to the
Churchill
it temporarily took down our forward shields and most of the shields inside the launch bay.  That’s when that thing made a dash for it.  We’ve dropped the blast doors over the end of the launch bay and a second set a third of the way down the main hangar deck, but someone or something was definitely onboard that thing.’

‘Can we get a look?’ asked McManus.

‘Ah, I’m afraid that they took out the cameras.  We did get footage of something though, right before we lost visual.’