Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (101 page)

              ‘WE DO NOT LIE,’ said the Singularity.  ‘NOW: THE DATA YOU PROMISED.’

              Rekkid looked at Steelscale and nodded.  The K’Soth stepped forward toward the edge of the abyss.  He unlocked the case containing the head, deactivating the fields surrounding it, and removed the ancient relic.  Holding up the head of the ancient Shaper, he called out to the Singularity.

              ‘Here it is!  Take it! Take the head!’ cried Steelscale. ‘It, and the knowledge that it contains, belong to you now!’

              A tendril reached out from the Singularity with lightning speed and enveloped Steelscale with millions of the silver, scuttling creatures.  They swarmed around the head in a growing ball of seething bodies, but then continued to swarm up Steelscale’s arms, across his shoulders and head and downwards over his body until he was encased in a moving carpet of tiny bodies.  Still more arrived, flowing over him until Steelscale’s form could no longer be seen.  There was nothing visible except a three metre tall mountain of glittering creatures. Cautiously, isolating themselves from the Singularity, the Shapers began to probe the ancient head in Steelscale’s grasp.

Chapter 57

              Steven exited the
Profit Margin’s
ramp just in time to see the sky light up with a nuclear flash, high above the atmosphere, then another, and another until the morning sky was strobing with detonations.  When finally they ceased, he looked directly upwards and for a moment saw a second sun in the heavens which quickly began to fade, though a multitude of burning embers could be seen against the sky, the remains of ships that had been caught by the blast.  Disappointingly, the shape of the giant Shaper craft could still be seen, as it gleamed in the light from the explosions.

              ‘What the
fuck
was that?’ said Maria, shielding her eyes against the glare.

              ‘I’d say that the Shapers just got a nasty surprise,’ said Steven.  ‘Nuclear detonations of some kind: my money is on anti-matter warheads.’

              ‘Holy shit.’

              ‘Didn’t work though. The big sucker is still sitting pretty: look.’  He pointed upwards at the shape of the intact ship.

              ‘Damn, what does it take to kill that thing?’ Maria replied and shook her head.

              Steven turned to the others as the assault teams disembarked from the two ships.

              ‘Okay, Cal, Anna, Maria.  You stay here and keep the engines hot.  We’ll be in and out as fast as possible, so be ready for a quick dust off.’

              ‘I’m keeping the weapons hot as well,’ said Anna.  ‘If those things wake up, we’re right in the middle of them.’

              ‘Duly noted.  If it gets too hot, lift off and circle then come back for us when we call for you,’ said Steven.

              ‘Good luck in there,’ said Isaacs.  ‘I hope you find Haines, after all this.’

              ‘See you shortly,’ said Steven. He raised his voice. ‘Okay everyone, let’s move!’

              The assault teams began to scurry forwards.  Reaching the doors into the building, they found them locked.

              ‘Larsson, Kuo, blow the doors!’ commanded Baldwin.  Two marines with explosive charges moved forwards and placed them on the locks and hinges as the others backed away to a safe distance.  There was a cry of ‘Fire in the hole!’ and then a sharp series of bangs that blew the doors inwards off their hinges.  Quickly, the assault teams made their way inside.

              They found themselves in a long corridor, dimly lit since all sources of power had been knocked out by the EMP. The interior of the Assembly House was strewn with bodies.  Men and women lay in twitching heaps everywhere.  They sprawled with vacant, open eyes and slack expressions, their skulls pierced by Shaper parasites.  Few showed signs of heavy modification.  These had been the luckless citizens that had been overwhelmed by the Shaper swarms flooding into the city a few days previously.  The teams stepped cautiously around the recumbent enslaved, watching for signs that they were about to wake up.  Four marines lugged the anti-matter warhead between them, whilst the rest of the Hidden Hand and naval personnel spread out to cover all possible routes of attack as they made their way deeper into the building.

              ‘We need to find somewhere suitable to put this thing,’ said Baldwin. ‘Split into groups of four and see if you can locate the Shaper node. I want to make damn sure we kill that thing and that it doesn’t survive in some sub-basement level somewhere.’

              ‘What are we looking for, Commander?’ said one of the Hidden Hand.

              ‘You’ll know it when you see it, trust me,’ Steven answered for Baldwin.  ‘It’ll look like your worst nightmares arranged into a nice neat pile.’

              ‘Roger that.’

              ‘Meanwhile, I need to find to Haines,’ said Steven.  ‘I’ve memorised the layout of the building.  The stairs up ahead should take me down to the cells.  I’ll call for backup if I need it.’

              ‘Go find the old man for us, Agent Harris,’ said Baldwin.  ‘We’ll rendezvous back at the ships.’

              With that, Steven headed off at speed down the body strewn corridor before disappearing down the stairs.

              The Nahabe fleet was still tearing into the remains of the Shaper group that had surrounded the stragglers from Chen’s fleet.  The enemy were outnumbered more than two to one and the Nahabe made short work of the enslaved ships, before concentrating on the much smaller number of Shaper destroyers that had been leading them.  Miraculously, the
Leonides
had survived, though the carrier was severely damaged and was drifting without power to its engines.  Meanwhile, Cartwright’s fleet was still trapped between the main Shaper force around the portal that was still reeling from the anti-matter strike and the newly emerged group of around three hundred Shaper craft that was bearing down on them from the rear.

              ‘Admiral Cartwright, this is Chen.  You have to jump away now! We have to retreat before the Shapers trap your ships and destroy them!  We have lost fifty percent of our forces and as we feared, the Shapers are indeed able to conceal themselves from our sensors. It’s a trap, we must withdraw!’

              ‘No,’ said Cartwright, firmly.  ‘We cannot retreat, because we have no reserves left to reinforce us.  We have to finish the job here and now.  I have just had word from Admiral Hawkwood; he has engaged the Shapers in the Solar System and is fighting a dogged defence, but it does seem as if he is going to lose.  Earth is already bracing itself for an enemy landing. We’re also about to lose both the Santiago and Chittagong systems.  General Shale has reported Shapers landing in force in the region of the monitoring array and we have already lost contact with our anti-matter production facilities. If we can, we need to get in close and destroy the portal before trying to take down that ship.  The AM missiles were knocked out of hyperspace by the Shapers’ inhibitor field and were shot down before they reached their target.  We have nothing left for a stand off attack.  I am ordering the strategic missile destroyers to withdraw.  Our only available option is a combined close range assault against that capital ship.’

              ‘It might be possible,’ said Singh, cutting into the conversation, the urgency of the situation causing him to disregard protocol for the moment.  ‘Those arms that hold the ring contain massive energy conduits that feed the ring from the ship’s reactors.  If we can direct fire against them it might allow us to shut down the portal and damage the enemy ship at the same time.’ His eyes flicked to his instruments.  ‘Wait... new contacts!  An additional Shaper force has appeared fifty thousand kilometres below Orinoco’s southern pole.  I’m seeing around four hundred ships of various types including superdestroyer class vessels.’

              ‘We have to go now, in that case, before those ships move in to engage us,’ said Cartwright.  ‘We need the Nahabe to shield us from that force before it reaches us.’

              ‘Acknowledged,’ said the Speaker, who until now had been merely listening in to the conversation.  ‘Laying in jump co-ordinates.  We will place ourselves between this newly arrived force and your ships.’

              ‘Good luck everyone,’ said Cartwright.  ‘One way or another, this is the final throw of the dice.’

              Chen simply nodded in acknowledgment and then gave her orders.

              ‘Helm, lay in jump co-ordinates.  Take us in danger close to the Shaper dreadnought.  All batteries stand by to fire as soon as we emerge.  Chen to all ships, stand by to jump on my command if you are able and prepare to engage the enemy.’

              Haines could see nothing in the blackness of his cell.  It was windowless, and after the lights had suddenly gone out he had been plunged into absolute darkness.  It had been completely quiet too since then, but he fancied that he could hear distant voices, human voices echoing down the corridors to his cell door.

              There was someone outside in the corridor.  Booted feet rang on the laminated concrete.

              ‘Admiral Haines!’

              Someone was calling his name.

              ‘Admiral Haines, this is Agent Harris of Special Operations Command.  I’m here to get you out of here!  Can you hear me?’

              ‘Here!’ cried Haines in the darkness, relief flooding through him.  ‘I’m over here, son!  Over here!’

              The footsteps came closer. Knuckles rapped on the metal door.

              ‘That’s the one!’

              ‘Just a second sir, let me get you out of there.  Move back away from the door as far as you can.’

              Haines did as he was asked, dragging himself across the bare concrete to the farthest corner of his cell and covering his face with his hands.  There was a sharp bang and the door flew open on it hinges.  Haines uncovered his face and saw a figure standing in the open doorway wearing combat armour and clutching a rifle.

              ‘Am I glad to see you,’ said Haines. ‘Thought I was gonna die in this fucking cell.’

              Steven looked down at the bedraggled figure dressed in a torn naval uniform, wasted from malnutrition and sporting several weeks of growth on his usually clean shaven features.

              ‘Let’s get you out of those chains, sir,’ said Steven, unclipping a compact plasma torch from his belt and getting to work.

              ‘What happened to the Shapers all of a sudden?’

              ‘EMP.  We set off an AM warhead above the city.  It’s stunned them temporarily.  The Navy are in-system too, sir.  There’s one hell of a battle going on up there.’

              ‘Good.  It’s about time.  Who’s commanding?’

              ‘Admiral Cartwright and Admiral Chen, sir.’

              ‘Chen?’  Haines started to laugh.  ‘I feel better already.’

              Steven cut the last of the restraints and helped the older man to his feet.

              ‘Time to leave,’ said Haines.  ‘You got a gun I could borrow?’

              ‘Sure,’ said Steven, reaching for one his spare pistols.

              ‘Just in case, you know?’ said Haines and shot him a wicked grin.

              The marines reported back to Baldwin within a matter of minutes.  They had found the Shaper node in the building.  It had not proved difficult to locate.  A mass of flesh and alien machinery was heaped in the middle of the floor of what had been the debating chamber of the Achernar system’s government.  The members of that government had been fused together into a pulsating mass, their anguished faces, pierced by black, wormlike tendrils and crystalline growths, were still visible in the midst of the obscenity, screaming silently in their torment.  The node was surrounded by a carpet of the black, segmented things that the Shapers used to overwhelm and enslave their victims.  They did not move as the assault team approached, and neither did the ranks of bodies that had been sitting in the rows of seats that ran around the chamber.  Perhaps they had been sitting here as if in thrall to this vile thing.  Now they lay slackly, their expressions vacant.

              The marines set the warhead down in the centre of the chamber as the rest of the Hidden Hand assumed defensive positions, scanning the room for any movement. One of them opened a locked panel on the device’s casing and inspected the display inside, then closed the panel once more.

              ‘Warhead is set for remote detonation,’ said the marine.

              ‘Good work, let’s get out of here,’ said Baldwin, as the bodies in the room suddenly all stood up in one synchronised motion.

              Cartwright’s fleet emerged from their jump into the teeth of the enemy guns and immediately opened fire with all weapons, carving a swathe through the enslaved ships.  A second later, the Nahabe craft emerged from hyperspace in the path of the Shaper fleet approaching from below the ecliptic and initiated a punishing exchange of fire. The two fleets of alien craft began to tear into one another in a blinding storm of exotic energies.  But it was not enough.  Still more ships were emerging from the portal, and the Shaper fleet that had appeared behind Cartwright’s ships had now jumped in close behind him, trapping his vessels between themselves and the main force around the portal.  Chen’s depleted fleet was still inbound.

Nevertheless, Cartwright’s fleet pressed onwards, desperately trying to bring their weapons to bear against the portal, but it was a futile gesture.  There were too many ships and too much debris obscuring the Shaper dreadnought for them to get a clear shot, and the battering that the carriers were receiving made it near impossible for them to align themselves correctly.  Spatial distortion cannons fired, going wide of the mark or tearing destructive furrows through the massed enemy craft, but failing to find their intended target.  The vast weight of fire being directed against his ships from all sides simultaneously collapsed shields in a matter of moments, and then Cartwright’s ships started to die.