Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (62 page)

Meanwhile, the
Churchill
and
Marcus Aurelius
and their groups pressed onwards towards the super-destroyer.  The vessel was now pointing directly at them and was advancing at speed.  HUD icons confirmed that both carriers and all escorting destroyers still active were targeting the massive craft and sensors indicated that the vessel was powering its weapons as it approached the maximum range of the
Churchill’s
main armament.  Beams spat from the bows of the Shaper vessel, raking the
Churchill’s
forward shields and near collapsing them at a stroke, before a second shot impaled the missile frigate
Hasdrubal,
and a third collapsed the shields and badly damaged the front half of the destroyer
Louis Quatorze
.

‘We can’t withstand firepower like that!’ cried O’Rourke.  ‘A few more hits and we won’t have any ships left!’

‘Control yourself, Lieutenant!’ snapped Chen.  ‘I need you to keep calm and do your job.  We’ll get through this,’ she promised, though in truth the sudden demise of her ships and the death of their crews had been an unwelcome reminder of the power of the Shaper ships.  They might be able to shoot back at the Shapers now, but they were still extremely deadly opponents, a fact illustrated by the expanding clouds of debris where there had been proud warships moments before.  The
Plataea
and
Pericles
groups were under attack once more, the damaged Shaper vessel having recovered and renewed its assault, whilst the second enemy ship streaked in from aft of the Commonwealth vessels, scoring direct hits on two recon cruisers and another destroyer, the
Jean Barte
, destroying the first two and crippling the latter. The destroyers and carriers desperately attempted to engage both attacking vessels at once, scoring a number of hits on both craft that damaged them further but did little to avert their assault until the
Pericles
swung sharply upwards and to port and unleashed its main gun at almost point blank range against the vessel it had damaged earlier, shattering the alien craft with a devastating blow.

At the same time, the
Churchill
and the
Marcus Aurelius
opened fire on the super-destroyer, pummelling its bow plates with tremendous forces that succeeded in knocking out some of its forward weapon arrays.  The Shaper vessel answered in kind.  A powerful beam of energy swept across the
Marcus Aurelius’s
group, destroying the superstructure of the destroyer
Baybars
– leaving the ship entirely without a bridge – and mangling the bow section of the carrier itself, whose shields had now completely collapsed, leaving the warship vulnerable to a second attack.

Chen’s fear began to get the better of her.  Perhaps O’Rourke was right and this was starting to turn into a suicide attack.

‘Admiral, this is McManus,’ said the voice of her XO over the comm.  ‘Shapers have breached the bay doors.  We are preparing to make a stand.’

‘Admiral, the captain of the
Nelson
is suggesting that we withdraw,’ said Andrews.

‘Tell him to stand fast and follow his orders!’ barked Chen, though the same thought was starting to cross her mind as the other groups suffered yet more casualties from the hit and run attacks of the remaining Shaper destroyers and another Nahabe gunsphere succumbed.

‘I’m getting a communication from the Lord Protector!’ Andrews reported.

‘Put him through,’ said Chen, as the Nahabe commander appeared in her vision.

‘Admiral Chen.  As you have no doubt realised, the weaponry and defences of this warship and her escorts are too great for us to stand against.  In the interests of victory, my warriors have decided to undertake a most grave duty against the world killers.  I would ask that you honour the crews of the
Cursed Star
and the
Nova Fire
.’

‘What do you mean?  I don’t...’ her voice tailed off as she saw two of the heavily damaged gunspheres speeding towards the flanks of the Shaper super-destroyer at high speed and she instinctively cried out in alarm.

The crack in the doors grew wider and a carpet of creatures began to flow outwards from it, over the floor and the surface of the doors themselves in a spreading swarm of black, shiny bodies.  McManus and the marines watched with horrid fascination as the insectile creatures advanced.  Behind them, figures could be seen emerging from the launch bay, and the assembled marines opened fire as those self same figures hurled themselves through the gap.

Concentrated fire cut down the first few, but the others charged onwards into the hail of fire, seemingly unaffected by the laser fire that cooked their flesh and the bullets that blew chunks of meat from their necrotic bodies.  Many of the enslaved showed signs of having been in combat before, of having been killed in combat before, their corpses still animated by the parasites embedded in the backs of their skulls that rendered them little more than puppets of flesh and bone.  Nevertheless, many fell to the weight of fire directed against them from the disciplined marines, even those which were clearly not human and whose anatomy was entirely unfamiliar.  There were large, fleshy, spider-like creatures, ape-like things whose augmented bodies were powered forwards by four powerful arms and things that resembled something akin to a cross between a serpent with a caterpillar’s feet and a praying mantis that moved with surprising agility.  Some two dozen of these shock troops assaulted the line of marines in a frenzy of augmented, half decayed limbs.  They were granted a merciful release from their state of undead slavery.  McManus fired along with the marines, the stock of his rail rifle hammering into his shoulder with every burst, as lurching, jerking figures charged towards him and fell, ripped apart by his rounds.  Some creatures broke through to the line of marines, dragging men down with flailing limbs and gnashing jaws to rend them apart as their comrades desperately tried to save them.  The marines redoubled their efforts, pumping round after round into the charging things.  The creatures died.  Marines died too in the bloodbath, limbs torn from sockets, entrails spilled upon the deck, but the barrage of fire from the survivors scythed through the enemy ranks until eventually they were all cut down.

The bay had been turned into a charnel house.  The stink of burnt meat and spilled bowels filled the air along with the tang of propellant and explosives.  The wounded and the dying screamed and sobbed for aid.  Then the Shaper began to emerge at last.  As the carpet of cockroach-like things began to flow towards the marines, so silver motes began to drift into the bay through the open doors.  They were joined by more and more, until a buzzing cloud had assembled itself in the air before them.  There could hear it inside their skulls, a predatory thing that whispered promises of eternal salvation, if only they would surrender to it.

‘Jesus, would you look at that,’ said Blackman.

‘Now would be a good time to give it what for, Commander,’ said McManus, and hurled his plasma grenade at the Shaper.

The device exploded in mid-air. McManus had timed his throw well.  Other grenades exploded around the Shaper and the creature was showered with incandescent plasma.  There was a scream, a scream like nothing McManus had ever heard before.  It was inside his head, spearing his mind like a cold steel blade.  He cried out, and saw Blackman and the others wince and stagger from the sudden pain.  Then the Shaper rushed forwards in a heartbeat, engulfing two marines before they could react.  McManus saw them lifted off the floor inside the whirling cloud, struggling for an awful moment, and then they were torn apart, atomised.  A shower of gore sprayed outwards across the bay, across the stunned marines, who opened fire at the Shaper as it grabbed three more men with prehensile tendrils that flowed like smoke and dashed them against the walls where they collided with the dull grey metal with sickening, meaty thuds.

It was among the marines now, tossing men left and right, gathering some up and ripping them apart as they screamed in terror, meanwhile the cockroach like things were beginning to swarm about their feet, trying to drag men down into the tide of tiny bodies.  The marines fired wildly, at the Shaper, at the carpet of creatures around their feet, and they were dying - they were dying very quickly.

‘Get out of here!’ cried McManus, grabbing a fallen laser rifle and unloading it at the Shaper, with little visible effect.  ‘Call for reinforcements and fall back!’

Blackman froze in panic as his men died around him.

‘Blackman, for god’s sake!’ yelled McManus into the Commander’s face. ‘Come on, man!  Fall back, and don’t let that bloody thing follow us!’

Blackman nodded mutely, and did as he was told.

The crews of the Commonwealth ships watched in horror as the two Nahabe gunspheres
Cursed Star
and
Nova Fire
charged at the Shaper super-destroyer, and did not stop.  The two roughly spherical vessels, each over two kilometres in diameter, ploughed into the port flank of the Shaper craft.  The shock of the impact shattered the outer crystalline structure of the ship, which broke into a thousand glittering shards around the hulls of the Nahabe vessels, who promptly detonated their reactor cores in an act of self immolation and total defiance of the enemy.

The explosion was searingly bright.  As the shell of expanding energies from the explosion rushed outwards and the photochromic layer of the
Churchill’s
bridge windows cleared once more, Chen could clearly see that the massive Shaper ship was in trouble.  She was still partially intact, but her entire port side was now a vast glowing mass of melted hull material that streamed glowing embers. She had ceased to fire and her port shields had entirely collapsed.  As the ships had exploded, Chen swore that she had heard a scream of agony inside her head from the craft.  There was something else too - the other Shaper ships seemed to have paused in their attack.  Their movements seemed hesitant, almost as if they too were reeling from the agonies experienced by the command ship.  Chen’s instinct told her now was the time to strike.

‘Andrews, put me through to the fleet,’ said Chen. ‘All ships, this is Chen.  Engage and destroy the enemy command ship, advance, advance and destroy that monstrosity!  Her shields are down! Fire at will and kill that thing!’

In the forward hangar bay, McManus saw the Shaper suddenly pause.  The cloud of motes that comprised the creature convulsed for a moment and it halted its merciless attack on the marines.  He knew that they wouldn’t get a second chance.

‘Come on!  Everyone out!’ he cried, grabbing Blackman and dragging the man with him.  Marines started to run, charging in panic towards the pressure door that led to the rest of the ship. Only a handful remained alive now. The rest lay scattered in bloody pieces across the floor of the bay that was slick with pools of gore.

The retreat turned into a rout.  The Shaper only paused for a moment.  Two men had already reached the door and, having un-dogged it, had pushed it open.  The Shaper was quick to react.  The cloud rushed across the bay, forming itself into a stream of particles that poured into the open door.  The two men that had stood there were almost instantly stripped to the bone, their bloody remains collapsing to the floor seconds later, flayed of flesh.  McManus was quick to react.  Shaking with fear, he activated his comm. and ordered all pressure doors leading out of the bay to be sealed at once.  He could only hope that engineering would react quickly enough.

‘Admiral, the Shaper has broken out of the docking bay.’ McManus’s words sank in as the crippled Shaper super-destroyer loomed large in the forward bridge windows and Chen co-ordinated her remained ships into destroying it.  Of the three remaining Shaper destroyers, one had fallen prey to the Nahabe at last, whilst another had been heavily damaged by the
Leonides
group and had turned tail to flee the system.  The other had pulled back, and was now arcing round to the rear of the
Plataea
and
Pericles
groups where it could pick off the Commonwealth vessels like a lion harrying a pack of wildebeest.

Fire from the Commonwealth and Nahabe ships tore into the Shaper super-destroyer as both fleets brought all of their weapons to bear on the exposed hull of the alien ship.  It writhed and struggled as it was torn apart, pummelled by repeated volleys of spatial distortion fire and raked by hundreds of beam cannons and the mysterious dark energy weapons of the Nahabe.  And yet, Commonwealth ships still died.  The remaining Shaper destroyer picked off another frigate and cruiser from the
Plataea’s
group and showed every intention of returning for another attack run, when the super-destroyer, its command vessel, exploded at last.  A vast explosion tore through the five kilometre long vessel, sending its great crystalline plates tumbling apart amidst the inferno as human and Nahabe ships poured shot after shot into the chunks of wreckage, until nothing remained of the great vessel except tumbling chunks of glittering crystal that even now were starting to flicker and darken as the last vestiges of power and life drained from them.

Followed by the last few remaining marines, McManus and Blackman crept fearfully out of the bay and saw the Shaper in the corridor outside.  The creature had settled on a wall mounted terminal, coating it like a swarm of wasps covering the outside of the nest in a pulsing mass of millions of individuals.  It was feeding, drinking in information from the
Churchill’s
networks and seemed unconcerned by their presence.  On the floor beneath it, the carpet of cockroach like things coated the floor, the lower half of the bulkhead and the sealed door that lay a few yards further on.  The engineers had reacted speedily. Fortunately, they had had the foresight to close the nearest internal doors as soon as the report had gone out that the Shaper had broken into the bay, and now other doors beyond this one were also sealed. Blackman had a plasma grenade ready.  Carefully, he reached for the device and prepared to pull the safety pin out.  He wouldn’t get another chance.