Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (97 page)

              ‘I’ve been here before,’ she said.

              ‘Impossible,’ said Steelscale.

              ‘When the Shaper ship spoke to me in my dreams on Rhyolite: do you remember, Rekkid?  I thought I was going mad, but it showed me this place.  The Captain of the
Magellan
, the ship that it had captured, he was trying to warn me.’

              ‘I remember,’ said Rekkid.  ‘Although this
is
the sort of place that only ought to exist in nightmares: a dead planet filled with terrible machines.’

              ‘YOU KNOW NOTHING.  YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING.’ The voice of the Singularity boomed inside their skulls.  ‘FROM THIS PLACE, WE SHALL RULE ALL.  WE SHALL PERFECT ALL.’

              From the streams of light passing over their heads, clouds of motes began to detach themselves and descend rapidly.  At first their forms were as ill defined as clouds of insects, but as they descended, they achieved more definition and the appearance, almost, of solidity.  No longer were they uncountable motes amidst a multitude - they had formed into definite beings, five in all, which now floated before them like malevolent spirits.  They caught glimpses of faces within those sentient swarms, as the millions of glittering insectile creatures that composed them parted in patterns that resembled leering visages.

              ‘It’s them.  It’s the Shapers themselves.  It has to be,’ said Katherine, taking an involuntary step backwards towards the shuttle in horror.

              ‘Just keep calm,’ said Rekkid, sounding anything but.  ‘We’re here to negotiate, remember?  Let’s hope they stick to the bargain.’

             
Welcome to our home
, said a sibilant voice inside their heads. 
Come with us.  We are greatly amused by your arrival and we have so much to talk about.

              With that, the Shapers surged forwards and smothered the helpless trio with their multitudes.

Chapter 55

              Chen gripped the arms of her command couch as the time until the
Churchill
emerged from its jump within the Achernar system counted down.  She was mentally preparing herself to face them again, and for the fact that this time they were heading straight into the heart of the enemy.  It was most likely a suicide mission, she had no illusions about that.  She’d been in such situations before and survived, but now...

              The two Commonwealth fleets had met at co-ordinates in deep space a day’s jump from Achernar. They had received the latest intel. from Command which painted a very grave picture indeed.  The Shaper armada was still headed for Earth and would arrive almost at the same time as Chen’s and Cartwright’s ships reached Achernar if it maintained its present course and speed.  Furthermore, fleets of enslaved ships continued to swarm out of the Achernar system towards neighbouring stars in their hundreds. One such fleet was heading directly for the Santiago system, so recently captured and vital to the war effort, another was heading for Chittagong, whilst others had split off and were heading towards a dozen different systems across Commonwealth held space, including the Hyrdian and Xeelin home-worlds.  A vast flotilla numbering several thousand vessels was heading in the direction of the Beta Hydri system, whilst more ships gathered in Achernar, preparing to launch themselves en masse towards yet more Commonwealth held systems. 

              They were about to lose all of the gains that they had so far made in this war, and it seemed that Earth itself might face annihilation.  The President and the remains of the government were preparing to evacuate, but they were leaving it to the last minute to help maintain morale, but morale in the Solar System was already breaking down, even as Admiral Hawkwood co-ordinated a final defence and the Army prepared to fight to the last to repel any landing.  A general order to evacuate the system had been given and those civilian ships that were able to leave, did so.  But there weren’t enough ships to carry all those who tried to scramble onto them and there were ugly scenes at the spaceports, since the memory of the last Shaper attack and the devastation that they had wrought then remained fresh in people’s minds and crowds fought with one another to scramble aboard departing ships.  There was rioting and looting in the cities as the Army struggled to maintain order, whilst many had simply given up and waited for the end to come, huddling together with their families so as to be with them at the last.

              Chen was leading the remains of the force that she had taken to Santiago, the remaining ships of the
Pericles
group having been distributed amongst the other carrier groups.  It was a large force, and Admiral Cartwright still commanded a similarly sized fleet. His command had been swelled still further with the addition of the Nemesis strategic missile destroyers hidden in the midst of the other ships to try and disguise their engine signatures amidst the turbulence caused by the escorting vessels.  Nevertheless, Chen had severe doubts about whether it would be enough.  They were potentially facing thousands of enslaved enemy ships of unknown capability in addition to an ever-fluctuating number of Shaper ships and that massive super-capital ship itself, whose capabilities could only be guessed at.  Anti-matter tipped missiles or no, she did not fancy their chances.  She had begged Cartwright for AM warheads to arm her own tactical missile frigates, but was told that the entire stock of available warheads was now aboard the Nemesis vessels.  There had still been no confirmation from the Nahabe about whether they were preparing to commit forces.

              As a young cadet, Chen had often pictured some heroic final battle with her delivering a rousing speech beforehand, but neither she nor Cartwright had felt moved to do so this time.  She had simply wished her crews the best of luck, and had told them what an honour it had been to serve with them.  They were going to their deaths, they knew that.  She owed it to them not to lie to them.  She knew that she could rely upon them to do their jobs, right up until the end came.

              Having left their rendezvous, Chen and Cartwright’s fleets had taken diverging courses and were now approaching the Achernar system from opposite directions.  The remaining Nahabe ships of the Order of Void Hunters were approaching from a third direction.  They would arrive ahead of the two Commonwealth fleets, ready to scout the system before de-cloaking and pouncing upon the enemy.

              ‘Ten seconds!’ cried O’Rourke.

              ‘Stand by, everyone,’ said Chen.  ‘Mr.McManus?’

              ‘All stations reporting in, ma’am,’ McManus replied.  ‘Weapons and shields ready. All fighter and bomber wings reporting ready.’

              ‘All ships reporting in,’ said Andrews.  ‘In addition, I’ve prepared the coded signal that you requested sent over secure channels.  It will broadcast as soon as we emerge from hyperspace.’

              ‘Good,’ said Chen.  ‘Now let’s give these bastards what they deserve.’

              The
Churchill
and her fleet exited the jump, and the Achernar system blinked into view outside the bridge windows.  The moon of Orinoco hung serenely in space in front of them, fifty thousand kilometres distant, the mottled blues and greens of its seas and continents swirled with clouds.  Then they saw the ship.  The great Shaper vessel lay in orbit, a tiny speck next to the vastness of the moon behind it, but the fact that they could see it at all from this distance betrayed its size: it was indeed truly enormous.  The ship’s cameras gave them a closer view.  Light flooded from the bows of the massive craft as yet more vessels emerged from the ring that it held tightly in its grasp to join the hundreds already within the system.  They could see them with the naked eye as points of light that moved against the fixed stars in huge shoals.  Those vast alien fleets had been lying in wait for the Commonwealth ships to emerge from hyperspace, patiently tracking their warp signatures as they had approached over billions of kilometres of space.  Their shields were raised and their weapons primed and ready to strike.  Only the exact point of Chen’s fleet’s emergence from hyperspace was in any way unpredictable, her course had otherwise been exactly plotted.  Now those waiting ships moved in.

              ‘Contacts!’ cried Singh.  ‘Over fifteen hundred vessels detected within one hundred thousand kilometres of the moon.  Over one hundred Shaper vessels of varying classes are amongst them, the remainder are largely alien vessels of unknown types, though sizes indicate capital ships and I can spot a number of former Commonwealth ships.  Around one hundred and fifty vessels are heading towards us in formation, led by thirty two Shaper destroyers.  The rest appear to be lying in wait for Cartwright’s fleet, as though they know that he represents the greater threat.’

              ‘They aren’t splitting their forces to any significant degree,’ said Chen.

              ‘No ma’am,’ Singh replied.

              ‘Alright let’s do this, put me through to the fleet, Andrews.’  Andrews did as she was ordered and Chen continued.  ‘All vessels, prepare to fire at will on my command.  Use spatial distortion weapons on the Shaper ships.  Helm, lay in new jump co-ordinates and relay to all ships.  We need to emerge two hundred thousand kilometres above the moon’s northern pole.’

              ‘Aye,’ replied Goldstein and got to work.

              ‘All ships, prepare to jump on my command.’

              ‘Admiral, the Shaper vessels are projecting drive inhibitor fields,’ said Singh.

              ‘Does the depth of those fields exceed the range of our primary weapons?’ said Chen

              ‘The larger cannons have an effective range of two hundred kilometres, or thereabouts, the smaller ones less than one-fifty.  Those fields are just under a hundred kilometres deep.’

              ‘Gonna be close,’ said McManus, watching the enemy vessels close in. ‘You going to kick them in the balls and run away before they can catch us?’

              ‘It ought to get their attention,’ Chen replied, her gaze fixed on the approaching ships.  They were only a few thousand kilometres away now and accelerating hard.  ‘All ships stand by and prepare to fire,’ she said.

              She could see them clearly now in her HUD view from the ship’s cameras, the predatory forms of the Shaper craft leading the lumbering enslaved vessels that came behind them, a motley assortment of different hull shapes and colourations.

              Only a few hundred kilometres now.  Three hundred. Two hundred.

              ‘FIRE!’ yelled Chen, gripping her chair arms and lifting herself half out of her seat and the deck shuddered beneath her as her crew complied.

The Shaper vessels leading the charge took the brunt of the initial volley from the seven carriers, as it shattered their gorgeous hulls and sent them spinning.  The volley from the destroyers, a split second later, hammered in to the ships behind them, badly wounding a handful more and tearing open a couple of the enslaved vessels that had strayed into the crossfire.  The remaining Shaper vessels were still closing in and reaching out with grasping inhibitor fields, trying to grab the Commonwealth ships and prevent them from jumping

              ‘Jump!’ commanded Chen, and the charging enemy vessels along with everything else winked out of view.

              ‘That’s it, that’s the signal!’ yelled Steven, and jumping up from the secure comm., grabbed the rail rifle from where he had left it on the steel desk beside the unit and marched through into the hangar, clad in the light combat armour that he had acquired from the Hidden Hand’s stores.  The light armour was brand new, never been worn.  Steven wondered briefly where it had been stolen from and then realised that he didn’t care.  He didn’t go for heavy combat suits too much - with this lighter one he could move and fight much more freely.  He had a couple of heavy laser pistols strapped to his legs, grenades clipped to his belt and a heavy combat knife hanging alongside them.  He had plenty of ammo and power cells for the pistols in the webbing of his suit.  It was all he could carry without overburdening himself.

              The hangar was filled with the men and women of the Hidden Hand, and the Navy personnel that had joined them and who now followed Commander Baldwin’s orders.  Almost all had volunteered.  They stood around the two ships now sitting ready and waiting inside the bay, clad in whatever combat armour they could acquire and clutching whatever weapons they had chosen from the stash supplied courtesy of Chen.  The rest – those who couldn’t fight due to age or injury, had been ferried far to the east by the AG flitter.

              Steven marched up to Isaacs, Anna, Maria and Commander Baldwin, who were standing together at the foot of the
Profit Margin’s
boarding ramp.

              ‘The fleet’s arrived,’ he said simply.  ‘It’s time to go.’

              ‘About fucking time,’ said Isaacs.  ‘Let’s get on with it.’

              ‘Everyone clear about what they’re doing?’ said Steven.  ‘Cal, we go in first in the
Profit Margin
, launch the AM missile and then strafe any troop concentrations around the Assembly before landing and offloading Baldwin’s guys.  Maria, you follow us in, in the
Matrimony
with the Hidden Hand volunteers.  We land in the internal courtyard and bust our way in.  I’ll go find Haines. The rest of you plant the device and then we get the fuck out of there as quickly as possible.’

              ‘Good luck, everyone,’ said Baldwin.  ‘Let’s go get our CO.’

              ‘I liked the bit where he said “get the fuck out of there as quickly as possible”’ said Maria to herself, as she walked towards the ugly form of the
Unholy Matrimony
, the old freighter having been hastily converted into a gunship.  ‘I liked that bit a lot.’

              Five ships didn’t make it.  Two destroyers, a recon frigate and two tactical missile frigates failed to jump in time or were snatched out of hyperspace as they brushed the edges of the inhibitor fields.  Chen was first notified of their absence when they failed to check in after the short jump. As her remaining ships came about in formation, their crews could only watch in dismay as the five vessels, unable to jump, were torn apart by the massed Shaper craft.  One by one a distant blossom of fire, merely a pinprick in the distance, marked the demise of each craft and of the hundreds of crew aboard them.