Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (64 page)

It was quiet on the plains.  As the early morning sun climbed into the sky, a breeze whipped across the sea of gossamer ferns that stretched into the distance from the foothills of the mountains to the south. It also caught the spherical forms of the wind trees, whose large, air filled, free moving forms began to roll across the plains in the direction of the prevailing wind, leaving wakes in the ghostly, pale ferns as they passed.

To the north, the low buildings of one of the Army training bases were just visible against the horizon, ringed by a high fence of steel topped with razor wire. The angular barracks and vehicle hangars and the concrete expanses of parade grounds and airfields were oddly silent save for the calling of local animals and the drone of airborne invertebrates.

The attack came without warning.  There was a shimmer in the air that parted the clouds above and descended to strike a hammer blow into the ground with a deafening crack.  As the shot from the
Churchill’s
spatial distortion cannon hit home, unleashed at close to its maximum effective range - for the carrier dare not descend too deep into the planet’s gravity well – a fountain of earth, rock and other debris erupted into the air from the centre of the base as a conical crater fifty metres deep and twenty across was blasted from the face of the planet.  Buildings, which moments before had stood solid and erect, were blown apart in an instant as if they were no more substantial than cardboard, whilst parked vehicles and aircraft were scattered like toys thrown by an angry child as a huge shockwave spread out from the point of impact across the plains.  Burning material fell back to earth, starting a hundred fires amidst the gossamer ferns, already dry from the summer heat.

There was more to come.  A series of sonic booms high up in the atmosphere heralded the arrival of a wave of sleek projectiles – dozens of missiles unleashed by the frigates orbiting above.  Kinetic rounds slammed home, striking deep into the earth, and demolishing the buildings that were still standing, whilst fragmentation warheads split apart as they descended, scattering shotgun blasts of tiny explosive devices over their targets to detonate on impact in deafening cascades of sound.  The latter were mainly directed at the landing pads on the edge of the base where rows of gunships and transports sat parked.  Those craft not already sent tumbling by the spatial distortion cannon blast were torn apart by the rippling fire of these multiple warheads. Within a few scant moments, the base had been reduced to a pockmarked moonscape under a pall of black smoke that boiled into the morning sky, a scene which was being repeated at three other sites across the plains, simultaneously.

              The bombardment stopped.  As the fires crackled fitfully, consuming the dry bush flora with greedy tongues of flame, the air was split once more, but this time by the sound of engines as dropship after dropship pierced the clouds above and streaked down toward the base of the hills, accompanied by wings of fighters and bombers from the orbiting carriers. The smaller ships circled like hawks as the dropships thumped down amidst the sea of ferns, disgorging armoured forms that hurried into defensive positions.  The pilots in the wheeling ships above were eager for action after being cooped up inside the carriers during the preceding engagement.  Ships peeled away to streak towards the already devastated bases, unleashing bombs and missiles at targets still moving amidst the flames and rubble, because despite the devastating impact of the bombardment, things still moved there.

              Gunderson stepped off the boarding ramp of his command dropship and scanned the horizon, weapon in hand.  He noted the pillars of smoke climbing skyward to the north with satisfaction and was pleased to see that his marines were already digging into key positions, erecting heavy weapons turrets and setting up fire bases to create a line of defence in depth at the northern edge of the landing zone.  In the air above him, more dropships were descending, their engines tearing the air with noise before they thudded down on the dry earth and disgorged their cargoes of men and light vehicles, and then quickly lifted off again to make room for more craft.  A flight of three more dropships passed high overheard, heading for their objective: the deep space monitoring arrays in the hills to the south.  Recon had shown the facility to be free of the enemy, but Gunderson wasn’t taking any chances.  His marines would make sure that the facility was swept fully and fortified before the engineers arrived.

              There was a series of dull thuds from the northern horizon, followed by black mushroom clouds rising into the sky, as flights of Azrael bombers from the carriers dropped incendiaries and high explosives onto the last few remaining targets on the ground.

              One of his officers, Major Harden, approached and saluted.

              ‘Infantry drop complete, sir,’ reported Harden.  ‘All men present and accounted for, we’re just waiting for the armour.  Welcome to Valparaiso.’

              ‘Thank you Major.  Outstanding performance.  Nice and quick, that’s what I like to see,’ replied Gunderson, casting his eye over the throng of busy, ordered men and machines.  The marines had thrown a defensive cordon around a sufficient swathe of the plains to accommodate the Army’s more massive transports, dozens at a time.  The hard earth would make good going for the troops.

              Harden excused himself and returned to his troops to oversee their defensive preparations.  Gunderson turned, and headed back into his command craft as the second wave of dropships arrived, bearing tanks, anti-aircraft and artillery vehicles, and prepared to report his successful seizure of the landing zone, unopposed.

              From her vantage point on the
Churchill’s
bridge, high above the planet, Chen watched the landing unfolding beneath her.  She’d watched as the storm of ordnance had been unleashed from her ships at her command, the explosions and resulting palls of smoke obscuring the targets from her vision as the Army bases, apparently packed with enemy troops, were annihilated, the telltale signals of the Shaper presence winking out until only a few scattered traces remained, to be hunted down by the fleet’s fighter and bomber wings.  The carriers were still launching squadrons from their bow catapults as the assault carrier
Anzio
despatched the last of its fleet of transport vessels carrying armoured vehicles down to the surface to support the infantry already in place.  Their initial air strikes complete, the fighters and bombers from Chen’s fleet were fanning out to new targets across the face of Valparaiso’s southern continent as they moved to engage the other enemy forces on the planet now beginning to converge on the newly established beach head.  Daemon class fighters were already being vectored to intercept inbound squadrons of enemy transports, ground attack aircraft and gunships, whilst flights of Azrael bombers were being directed towards columns of armoured vehicles and the continent’s mag-lev railway network.  Meanwhile, Chen had repositioned her fleet in order to engage targets over a wider area and provide the marines with fire support if they needed it.  She had despatched the missile frigate
Themistocles
to hold station above the planetary capital, San Domingo.  The ship had been ordered to target the Assembly House and hold fire until otherwise ordered.  So far, the landing had been a great success.  The enemy in the vicinity of the landing zone appeared to have been comprehensively destroyed and there was now no trace of them still left.  Chen fervently hoped that she wouldn’t have to give the order to fire on the city.

              There had been updates too from Admiral Cartwright in the Chittagong system.  The Shapers had been driven off, although Cartwright’s fleet had suffered heavy losses in the process.  Colonel Igawa’s forces were now attempting to wrestle control of the antimatter production facilities from the enemy.  It was proving to be a tough fight.  The Shapers and their enslaved troops were fighting for every inch of the labyrinthine complex, and without the ability to call down fire support from the ships orbiting above, lest they damage the very facility that they were trying to capture, Igawa’s men were having a hard time of it.

              ‘Admiral, I have Colonel Gunderson on the comm,’ said Andrews.

              ‘Put him through,’ Chen replied and Gunderson’s face was displayed in her HUD.

              ‘Gunderson here, Admiral.  Initial landing complete.  We have secured our beach head on the planet and have landed unopposed.  My men have also reported that they have the sensor array.’

              ‘That’s excellent news, Colonel.  Our sensors show no trace of the enemy in your vicinity.’

              ‘Thanks to your gun crews.  You should see the devastation that they inflicted.  Send them my congratulations on their good shooting.  Our air units appear to confirm what your sensors are reporting - there’s no sign of movement in the rubble, but I’m despatching squads to each of those bases to double check.  Tell General Shale to begin his landing as soon as he arrives, and you can despatch those teams of engineers to the sensor array to begin their work.’

              ‘Roger that.  General Shale’s ships will enter orbit in fifteen minutes, Colonel.  We’re seeing large movements of enemy troops starting towards your position.  I am directing our squadrons to intercept and we’ll provide artillery support from orbit.  As long as we can see them, we can kill them.’

              ‘Good to know.  I’ll keep you updated on the situation down here.’

              ‘Acknowledged.  Inform your men at the array to stand by to receive the technical crews.  Chen out.’

              She cut the link.  McManus was already talking to the flight deck, giving the go order for the technical teams to descend to the planet’s surface and begin their work on modifying the mothballed sensor arrays.  He finished his conversation and turned back to Chen.

              ‘Well that went well,’ he said.  ‘Mind you, after the trouble we had securing the space around the planet, it’s something of a relief.’

              ‘Yes, it did seem rather easy,’ Chen replied, thoughtfully.  ‘Although, it’s not over yet.  There are still tens of thousands of enemy troops converging on Colonel Gunderson’s position.  I have further orders for our ships.  We need to engage and destroy those units before they approach our forces, and we need to remain vigilant for any surprise moves by the enemy.  We can’t be complacent.’

              ‘Aye, well they are known to be slippery bastards.’

              ‘Indeed, and if that Shaper did succeed in accessing this vessel’s computer systems, then it is possible that they know about our detection methods.  They could be playing us, Commander.  You’re right to point out that this all seemed rather easy.  We have to be careful.   We could be walking into a trap.’

              McManus sat in silence as Chen directed her fleet.  As ships changed position and more missiles rained down onto the planet below, he felt the weight of his guilt pressing down upon him.  He had panicked, they all had.  The Shaper had escaped the bay and now who knew what it might have discovered.

Chapter 38

There was an eye-blink of blackness, a heart stopping moment of uncertainty, and then the
Shining Glory
emerged from the wormhole at the heart of what had once been the Progenitor Empire.  Eonara brought the ship to a halt.  To aft, the slender bracelet of the wormhole portal they had just exited held shimmering darkness in its grip.  It was truly enormous. Once the terminus for dozens of portals, it would have handled thousands of craft coming and going from the vast structure that filled the sky in front of the Arkari destroyer.

              At first it appeared as a dark wall, a hundred thousand kilometres distant.  Then as the eye adjusted to the perspective and the brain interpreted the scale of what it was looking at, it became clear that the mirror smooth, dark, convex surface, weakly lit by distant starlight, was the surface of a sphere the size of a star system.  Whirlpools of bright energy linked the massive portal to distant, invisible points on that vast, inviolate surface.  It was intact, and undamaged, even though over four thousand million years had passed since its construction.  It was also, still, the most heavily defended place in the galaxy.

              On the bridge of the
Glory
, Eonara manipulated the displays to take in the full panorama that lay before them.

              ‘It has been a very long time indeed since I looked upon the walls of my original home,’ she said.  ‘I was created here.  Now I have returned.  Welcome to the home of the Progenitors.  The Great Sphere still stands.’

              ‘Just look at the size of that thing...’ whispered Katherine.  ‘We saw Bivian before, but...’

              ‘This has to be twice the size, at least,’ agreed Rekkid, his eyes widening in awe.

              ‘The sphere is just over one point six billion kilometres in diameter, by your reckoning, Katherine,’ said the ship, as its cat avatar padded across the deck.  ‘So yes, that puts it at almost twice the size of Bivian.  It is comparable in size to the orbit of the planet Jupiter in the Solar System.’

              ‘How can anyone... how can it be possible to build anything that large?’

              ‘I could describe the exact process by which material was gathered from this system and others and fashioned into such a structure,’ said Eonara.  ‘The total mass equates to roughly six times that of the Arkari home-world, or about five times that of Earth, since the base material is spread out into a comparatively thin shell about the central star, but suffice to say, the resources available to the Progenitors at the height of their power were considerable, and have yet to be equalled by any civilisation since their fall, the Shapers included.’

              ‘I can see why the Akkal christened this place, The Home of the Gods,’ said Steelscale.  ‘For such a thing to be constructed by mortal beings...’