Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (63 page)

It was then that the Shaper screamed again inside their minds.  Both men felt as if they would pass out from the agony.  Stumbling, Blackman almost dropped the grenade and looked up to see the Shaper in mid-air once more, its cloudy form convulsed by shuddering patterns.  Then it rushed back down the corridor towards them.  They cried out, expecting death, and attempted to dive for what little cover the small space could offer them. 

The Shaper ignored them and pressed onwards, pouring itself back into the bay, back through the gap in the bay doors where it flowed back out through the narrow opening. As McManus, Blackman and the remaining marines came to their senses and stumbled after the creature, they arrived at the open blast doors to see the Shaper craft inside the launch bay now hovering under its own power. The jagged crystal ship then rotated itself through one hundred and eighty degrees and shot out of the bows of the
Churchill
, through the internal force-fields holding the atmosphere inside the vessel and out into space.

‘Fuck, what do you think just happened?’ said a whey-faced Blackman, gasping for breath.

‘Either it was intent on taking over the ship or intelligence gathering, I’d say,’ McManus replied, fumbling for his comm.  ‘But something made it flee, I wonder what?

There were the dull thumps of detonations from the corridor outside as the marines dealt with the cockroach things by lobbing their remaining plasma grenades at the swarm. McManus finally found his comm. and called Chen.

‘Our guest just left.  Our hangar bay is now Shaper free. What the hell just happened?’ said McManus and heard Chen breathe a sigh of relief.

‘The Shaper super-destroyer just went down, Commander, I’m very pleased to tell you,’ Chen replied. ‘The remaining Shaper ships are leaving the system.’

‘Are they now?  And did we track the ship leaving our bows just now?’

Chen looked at Singh for an answer.  The Lieutenant Commander shook his head.

‘That’s a negative, Commander.’

‘Something tells me that our friend is aboard one of those fleeing ships, Admiral.  The damn thing managed to plug itself into our computer network.  God only knows what it was transmitting to its pals.’

‘Shit!’ hissed Chen.  ‘If that thing succeeded in gaining access to details of our new weapons and sensors...’

‘We can only hope not,’ McManus replied.

Chapter 37

McManus had watched as the grisly remains were cleared from the hangar bay.  What could be identified as the bodies of the marines were accorded due reverence and would be taken to the ship’s morgue, whilst the remains of the enslaved creatures would be taken away for study.  The crews worked efficiently at their unenviable task.  With the launch bay systems working again - now that the Shaper had left the ship - the
Churchill
would soon be able to launch ships from its bows once more.

              Blackman had been physically sick after the fight in the bay.  Though a tough and experienced soldier, the sheer ferocity of the Shaper’s assault on his men and their sudden and violent deaths had affected him profoundly.  McManus got the distinct impression that Blackman blamed himself for the massacre, for his own moment of indecision, but in truth, there was little that they could have done to prevent it. The fact remained, however, that if the marines had not fled, the Shaper might not have escaped into the corridor outside where it could access the ship’s network.  Quite who would take the blame for that was uncertain, although as XO, McManus was quite prepared to shoulder it himself.  He had, after all, given the order to fall back and he couldn’t escape the feeling that he had done little to prevent the other men from fleeing.  Now he sat next to Chen on the bridge as they assessed the situation in the Santiago system.  Engineering had just reported that they were unable to tell whether network security had been breached by the Shaper, the conclusion being that either it had been unsuccessful, or the more chilling possibility that it had succeeded, but that it had been able to cover its tracks to the extent that its intrusion was undetectable. 

McManus had briefed Chen on all that had transpired in the forward hangar bay.  She had said little in response.  She had simply nodded and thanked him for his bravery, and had returned to her duties, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

              It wasn’t all bad news, though any celebration of their victory was tainted by the high casualty rate.  The enemy fleet had been destroyed or routed, albeit with losses to both the Commonwealth and Nahabe fleets.  Space above Valparaiso was now awash with debris and crippled ships, although the destroyers that had suffered catastrophic system failures in the opening stages of the battle had been restored to operational readiness and were rejoining their groups, their spatial distortion cannons disconnected pending further investigation.  Meanwhile, search and rescue teams from the carriers searched the remains of the vessels destroyed or crippled by the Shapers and looked for survivors amidst the wreckage.  The rest of the fleet, meanwhile, had formed up in geostationary orbit above the proposed landing zone.  The surviving tactical missile frigates had unshipped the long launchers from their aft gun decks and angled them towards the planet, whilst destroyers and carriers readied kinetic torpedoes and beam cannons for the coming bombardment.  The Nahabe, meanwhile, remained in high orbit to guard the Commonwealth fleet and the approaches to the planet.

              Furthermore, the three additional Shaper destroyers that had been headed for Valparaiso had halted their advance over a light year out of the system and, after a brief interlude where they may have been assessing the situation, turned around and headed back out into deep space.

              There had been communications from Admiral Cartwright in the Chittagong system too.  His forces were still engaged with the Shapers and the carrier
Claudius
had been lost with all hands along with half a dozen other ships, although it looked as though the Commonwealth and Nahabe forces had the upper hand at last.

              In Valparaiso, the Commonwealth forces were still stunned by the suicidal tactics of the Nahabe. Although there was quiet relief that the massive Shaper warship had been destroyed, the humans couldn’t quite come to terms with the fact that their allies had so willingly sacrificed themselves.  The Lord Protector had contacted Chen after the battle and had attempted to articulate in terms that she could comprehend just what the crews of the
Cursed Star
and
Nova Fire
had done.

              ‘To call it suicide would be an injustice,’ he had said.  ‘They died, so that others might live, so that you and your comrades might grasp victory.  Their ships were gravely damaged, and they knew that they would not see the end of this day one way or another and so chose to end their lives on this plane in a manner that might save us from the world killers.  The martyrs of the Order of Void Hunters go beyond, where evil cannot touch them, leaving us in this mortal realm.  Truly, they will live on there for eternity and we shall revere them accordingly with the respect that they have earned.’

              It was all down to cold logic, thought Chen, no matter how much you dressed it up in the trappings of religion and martyrdom and the language of holy war.  They had died, so that she might survive.  They had stared death in the face and embraced it accordingly on their own terms to ensure victory.

              It was whilst she was pondering this fact that the call came through.  The Army transports and their escorts had reached the outer system. General Shale was on the comm. and asking to speak with her.  Andrews put him through.

              ‘General Shale, this is Chen.’

              ‘Greetings Admiral, glad to see you’re still in one piece.  What is the situation in the Santiago system?’

              ‘The enemy fleet has been destroyed or routed from the system, General,’ Chen replied.  ‘Space around the planet Valparaiso is free from enemy ships.  You may advance into the system and prepare for your landing.’

              ‘Glad to hear it.  How did you fare against the enemy?’

              ‘We lost some ships, regrettably, but we achieved our objectives.’

              ‘That’s unfortunate, but not unexpected.  Very well, I’ll give the order to jump in. Shale out,’ said the General and ended the transmission.

              ‘Get me Colonel Gunderson aboard the
Anzio
,’ said Chen, ‘and inform all ships that they are to prepare for bombardment of ground targets.’

              Gunderson appeared within Chen’s HUD in a matter of seconds.  He was already suited up in his combat armour and looked eager and ready.

              ‘I never got chance to say what an impressive display that was earlier,’ he began.  ‘You sure handed it to those Shapers.’

              ‘Thank you Colonel, though I must share credit with the Nahabe.  It was their self sacrifice that took down that super-destroyer.’

              ‘Yeah, I saw that...’ Gunderson replied, a frown of unease passing over his weathered features.  ‘Bad business, if you ask me.’

              ‘Yes, although we’re still alive to talk about it, thanks to them,’ Chen replied.  ‘Now to business.  General Shale is on his way.  You have command of the landing, Colonel Gunderson.  I trust that you have managed to prioritise ground targets for us to attack in support of your landing?’

              ‘Yes, I have.  Just a second...’ Gunderson replied.

              Outside the bridge windows the vast, rolling plains of Valparaiso’s southern continent were clearly visible as a swathe of green beneath sparse cloud cover.  There was a line of brown hills to the south of them that eventually grew into a range of mountains whose snow capped peaks stitched their way across the land.  As she looked, Chen’s view of the continent beneath her became peppered with icons denoting the presence of enemy ground forces as data from the recon cruisers was overlaid in her vision. This was joined by a web of signal data, indicating the presence of Shapers on the planet’s surface, the nodes and strands overlaying the landscape like strands of multicoloured gossamer.  Gunderson started to commentate on what she was looking at.

              ‘The landing zone itself is clear, though the enemy will be aware of our presence – hell, you can hardly disguise a fleet of ships this size in orbit – so they will be expecting us to land somewhere in the general vicinity.  There are quite a number of troops on the surface, allegedly just over two hundred thousand, though we’re picking up signals that indicate almost twice that number.  Either the Shapers have reinforced from elsewhere, or they’ve enslaved some of the locals to act as cannon fodder.’

              ‘Which is more than likely,’ said Chen.

              ‘Exactly.  We’ve already seen troop movements from elsewhere on the planet’s surface.  Fleets of air transports and the maglev train network seem to be moving large numbers of Shaper enslaved troops towards the part of the planet that we’re interested in. We’ve also picked up a number of units that do not appear to be under Shaper control.  They’re in remote locations, so it’s possible the enemy have so far been unable to enslave them. However, these are not our primary concern.  The LZ lies to the south of one of the Army’s main training grounds.  There are four bases approximately fifty kilometres north of our objective, currently home to around one hundred thousand troops under direct control of the enemy.  These are standard Army facilities capable of holding twenty five thousand ground troops each, including armour.  Each has an airfield and spaceport attached complete with gunships, dropships and atmospheric transports.  I need your ships to take out those bases, Admiral.’

              ‘Consider it done.’

              ‘It won’t be easy.  The Shapers aren’t stupid.  Each of those bases has deep, hardened bunkers to guard against orbital bombardment.  Our scan data indicates that they have already moved most of the troops into these deep chambers.  You’ll have to use the missile frigates with their bunker busting rounds to take them out.  Might be worth seeing what those fancy new cannons of yours will do to ground targets as well.  We also need to make sure that we take out their airborne forces.’

              ‘Fragmentation rounds should do the trick,’ replied Chen.  ‘But I’ll be deploying our squadrons to give you cover and mop up after the missile frigates have done their job.’

              ‘There’s one other thing,’ said Gunderson, looking a little uncomfortable.  ‘We’ve pinpointed what we think is the main Shaper node in this system.  It’s located in the planetary capital, San Domingo, underneath the Assembly House in the centre of the city.  I ask that you take it out.  It’ll destabilise their forces and sow confusion amongst them, at least for a while, but you can expect civilian casualties.  We are detecting relatively few concentrations of Shapers in the city itself and the Assembly is surrounded by a number of government and financial buildings, not to mention any civilian workers in the Assembly itself.  It’s your call, but taking out that building quickly and cleanly at the right time could do us a big favour.’

              ‘I’ll bear that in mind, Colonel,’ Chen replied. ‘Although I’d rather avoid civilian casualties if I can help it.’

              ‘Please do.  It won’t take them long to re-establish contact, but it could help us if we get into a tight spot.’

              ‘Okay, we have the targeting data.  I’ll begin assigning batches of targets to the individual carrier groups, and rest assured I will oversee any fire mission on San Domingo myself.  Colonel, you may begin your landing.  Good luck.’

              ‘Thank you, Admiral.  Gunderson out.’  The Colonel saluted and cut the link. 

Chen and her command staff got to work.  Ships shifted position in response to the orders that were doled out to them.  Targeting arrays locked launchers onto their assigned targets on the planet below, and then with a word from Chen, the Commonwealth fleet rained death upon the plains of Valparaiso.