Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three)

by Worth, Dan

  Behind him, the domes and dishes of the mothballed monitoring array loomed whitely out of the night, the interiors of the buildings at their feet busy with technicians now working to get the decades-old equipment back into working order.

  It was quiet, though. Too quiet. It made Gunderson uneasy. As his staff began to emerge from the command craft behind him, the officer in command of the monitoring array defences, Major Durham, strode over and smartly saluted.

  General Shale rode with his men in the midst of the enormous armoured column. The interior of his command APC was a mass of screens and consoles displaying real time information about the unfolding battle. Three armoured columns were now streaming away from the landing zone in the direction of San Domingo. Shale was riding in the middle of the first column as it drove up the centre, straight for the city. The other two were moving in looping flanking manoeuvres to the east and west that would allow his forces to approach the city from three different directions at once. Lieutenant Colonel Shima had command of the western group, whilst Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds led the eastern one. They were making good progress. Moving out of the landing zone had been a piece of cake. What enemy units had survived the bombardment had not, in most case, managed to put up a solid defence and the Army had steamrollered over the top of them and were now advancing on San Domingo. Shale’s forces had now reached the main highway leading north to the city and were advancing at speed.

  The advance had not been without its incidents of course. The enemy had been rooted out of a number of hiding places along the way and they had found a number of other settlements devoid of occupants. More troubling still, it looked as if the inhabitants had not gone willingly. There were signs of a struggle everywhere, barricaded buildings, blood stains, scars from weapons fire and the inevitable bodies. Some of the dead looked as if they had been attacked by wild beasts rather than cut down by weapons fire, their mangled remains had been pulled apart or torn by savage jaws, rather than shot or blown apart. Shale and his men were no strangers to such a sight. It reminded them of the K’Soth war. Given that the men that they were supposed to be fighting were, or had been, human, that troubled them deeply. In fact they had seen no-one, until now.

  Shale’s tactical map display showed a mass of vehicles up ahead, approaching along both lanes of the highway. Fearing an armoured column spearing a counter attack, he had requested further information from the starships orbiting above. They had duly focused their instruments on the approaching column and could find no trace of the Shapers’ taint, and the vehicles appeared to be entirely civilian in nature - cars, trucks and so on. Shale had despatched scouting units ahead to intercept. Three gunships carrying Rangers had streaked towards their objective at tree top height and were now circling the above the head of the column. The pilot’s voice was loud and clear in Shale’s earpiece, the noise of the gunship’s engines audible in the background:

  ‘General Shale, this is Captain Irving of the Eighty-Seventh Recon Wing, we have arrived at the objective.’

  ‘Report, Captain Irving.’

  ‘We’ve reached the head of the approaching column. Confirmed: vehicles are of a civilian nature. All of them are heavily overloaded with people and what looks like their belongings. Some of them panicked as we approached. They abandoned their vehicles and ran for the verge. I think that they assumed that we were hostile and were about to attack the column. The lead vehicles have halted, but they’re blocking both the north and southbound carriageways.’

  ‘What sort of numbers?’

  ‘Thousands. There’s a line of vehicles stretching to the horizon. Sir, I think they’re refugees.’

  As footage from the gunship’s cameras appeared on an adjacent display, Shale cursed inwardly. Civilians blocking the road would slow their advance. The hovertanks could easily manage cross country, but their speed would be reduced by the uneven terrain beneath them. The smooth surface of the road had given them a chance to move unhindered at maximum speed.

  ‘Land on the northbound carriageway, Captain. Be cautious, but try to see if these people have a leader or anyone with any influence. Explain what’s happening. See if they can tell you anything about the situation in the city.’

  ‘Roger that, sir. Irving out.’

  Shale cursed, and then began relaying the situation to his unit commanders.

  Chen was in her office, adjacent to the bridge, the screen of her desk console filled with Admiral Cartwright’s face. The Admiral looked a little tired, though otherwise composed. Although the hypercom connection was heavily encrypted, impinging upon the sound and image quality, the strain of battle clearly showed in face and in his voice.

  ‘We have much of the facility under our control, Admiral Chen, though Colonel Igawa fully expects the battle to proceed well into tomorrow as we root out those last traces of the enemy. I’m sorry to say that casualties on the ground have been rather high. It’s been tough job dealing with those enslaved troops within the facility, and of course we cannot utilise our starships’ tactical weapons in close proximity for fear of damaging it. How goes your own operation?’

  Chen collected her thoughts for a moment, before speaking.

  ‘We came up against fierce resistance upon entering the system, sir, and to compound the situation, we encountered a fault with the new cannons mounted aboard the destroyers so serious that it disabled some those ships once they fired them.’

  ‘Yes, that was our experience also, unfortunately.’

  ‘I have my engineers working on the problem at the moment. I’ll share any findings with you once I have them.’

  ‘And I will do likewise. But you have the system?’

  ‘Yes. We lost some ships, and I’m afraid the Nahabe lost around half of their force to the enemy. All of the carriers are still operational, however the Churchill was boarded by enemy forces during the battle. There was a Shaper leading them. We drove them off at some cost.’

  ‘Really?’ said Cartwright. ‘Well that is interesting, not to mention rather disturbing. Were they trying to gain control of the ship?’

  ‘Maybe, although another possibility was that they were attempting intelligence gathering. The Shaper was trying to access the ship’s computer network at the point where it was forced to retreat. I’m afraid we cannot tell what it may have accessed, if anything.’

  ‘I see,’ Cartwright replied, his expression darkening.

  ‘I’m sending through my report on my fleet’s current state of battle readiness to you now,’ she replied, and hit the icon to transfer the document.

  ‘And the ground campaign?’ replied Cartwright, as his eyes perused the list of damaged and destroyed vessels. It made for grim reading.

  ‘Proceeding well, so far. We have the monitoring array secured, though we have yet to get it operational. The landing went unopposed. We annihilated much of the enemy forces from orbit before they had a chance and disrupted their efforts to counter-attack. General Shale is advancing on the city of San Domingo as we speak. I’ve tasked my ships with providing fire support where it’s needed, whilst the Nahabe patrol the system in case of any lurking enemy presence we haven’t detected.’

  ‘Very good, Admiral Chen. With that array up and running, and modified accordingly, we be able to see what our enemy is up to, at last. You and your crews have done well. Keep me informed. I’ll pass this up to Admiral Hawkwood, he’s anxious to know how we’ve been getting on so he can plan our next move.’

  ‘Yes sir.’

  ‘Alright then. Cartwright out,’

  Chen reached for the mug of coffee on her desk and sat back in her chair, taking a deep mouthful of the bitter brew. As she did so, there was knock at the door and McManus entered from the bridge.

  ‘You asked to be kept informed, ma’am,’ he said.

  ‘I did,’ she replied, curtly.

  ‘Shale’s advance has encountered refugees streaming out of San Domingo. We alerted him to a large approaching column of vehicles, but now that we’ve got a
closer look it appears to be the local population fleeing with everything they have.’

  ‘Will it slow his advance?’

  ‘A little, but there’s the question of what to do with all of these people. There are thousands of them.’

  ‘I’m not sure what we can do, Commander,’ Chen replied. ‘We’re not set up for a relief operation. Has anyone managed to talk to them, find out what’s going on in the city?’

  ‘Happening as we speak, I gather.’

  ‘Inform General Shale that I’d appreciate it if he’d let us know what his men find out. These people may be able to help us if we’re willing to reciprocate.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ said McManus, then looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘Ma’am, I think I owe you an apology.’

  ‘Whatever for?’ Chen replied, puzzled.

  ‘Down in the launch bay... the Shaper it... it only got out of there because I fucked up. If those men under my command hadn’t routed, if I hadn’t panicked, then maybe...’

  ‘Commander...’

  ‘Beg pardon, ma’am, but let me finish. We ran for it to save our own skins after what it did to the others. That thing got out of the open door and was able to access the ship’s systems and there’s no telling what it may have discovered. As the officer in command at the time, I take full responsibility and...’

  Chen cut him off.

  ‘Commander, if you had stayed in the launch bay, both you and those men would definitely be dead, and I doubt very much whether a locked door would present much of an obstacle to those things. You held it off for a while, and from what I gather, you found a way to hurt those things, even if you didn’t manage to kill it. What happened is unfortunate, and though we do not know what the Shaper may have accessed, I cannot bring myself to blame you for what happened. You’re one of the few people to have ever seen one of those things, let alone lived to tell about it. Blackman fought well too, I hear.’

  ‘Aye, that he did. Thank you, ma’am. I’ll put everything in my report,’ said McManus, visibly relieved. ‘If I may ask, how did your conversation with Admiral Cartwright go?’

  ‘Better than I expected,’ replied Chen. ‘All things considered. It seems that he’s had a much harder time of it than we have.’

  ‘Welcome to the array, Colonel,’ said Major Durham, still standing smartly to attention. Gunderson couldn’t fault the younger man’s record, but he definitely had a rod up his arse.

  ‘As you were, Major,’ Gunderson replied. ‘How are things here?’

  ‘It’s very quiet, sir. The men are grumbling. They feel like they’re missing out.’

  ‘I want you to explain to them how valuable this facility is to the Commonwealth. When the enemy realises what we’re doing here, they’re gonna want to take it back, or sabotage it. That’s why it needs the Marine Corp to guard it. Only the best will do, you hear me?’

  ‘Yes sir.’

  ‘Alright then. How’s the work on the array coming along?’

  ‘Quite well. The technical teams have successfully powered up the equipment. It’s a little dated, to say the least, but it works. They’ve replaced some of the controlling hardware and have begun making the necessary modifications.’

  ‘Mind if I take a look, Major?’

  ‘Not at all sir, if you’d care to step this way.’

  Major Durham led Gunderson inside the central domed tower that housed the primary array and the control room for the others scattered around the hilltop. The interior was spartan and brightly lit, and in surprisingly pristine condition considering its age. A flight of curving stairs and a series of security doors, guarded by Marine Corp sentries, led to the main control room, a broad, airy space filled with banks of decades old consoles and displays, most of which were still wrapped and covered in order to preserve them. A gaggle of technicians were clustered in a side room, where outdated servers had been removed and more modern units installed. One of the technicians glanced up from a datapad filled with code and noticed the two men enter. Tapping his nearest comrade on the shoulder he turned and quickly saluted as the Colonel and the Major approached.

  ‘At ease, specialist,’ said Gunderson. ‘Who’s in charge here?’

  ‘I am sir,’ said another technician called Rollins as he stepped forward from behind his colleague and saluted.

  ‘The Colonel here would like a progress report, Chief,’ said Durham.

  ‘That’s right,’ said Gunderson. ‘How are you boys getting on with your new toy? When will she be up and running?’

  Rollins consulted his datapad for a moment.

  ‘Well, we already knew that we’d need to pull out some of this old equipment. These machines here are decades out of date and aren’t capable of running the software we need. We were able to build a replacement server on the way here ready to go straight in. So far, it’s been relatively straightforward. Whoever mothballed this place did a good job. Everything seems to work as it should and we had no problems powering up the array to standby mode. We’ve just been running some final tests and are about ready to power her up fully for the first time.’

  ‘Good. What about the modifications needed so that we can see the Shapers properly?’

  ‘The software’s already in place on the new server, but we’ll need to replace some of the components on the array itself. The resolution isn’t high enough on the old detectors that are in place. Fortunately, they built these things with a standard, modular design so we can just pull out the necessary components and slot new ones in. The rest of my team are scattered all over this complex making sure everything is in working order before we try the first power up test.’

  ‘How long until it’s working?’ said Gunderson, gazing at the man levelly.

  ‘All being well, sir, I’d say two hours for the work. We’ve almost finished fitting the new components, but we’ll need to calibrate the array afterwards. Our experience on the arrays in the Solar System were that it took about an hour, though I’d expect a little longer with this older equipment. However, you’re just in time for the first power on, before we go ahead with the modifications.’

  ‘Very well. Let’s see what we can see.’

  As Rollins and his team got to work with the final checks, other technicians began to drift into the control room in handfuls and report back to him. Soon, the room was half full of people, conferring in groups or studying equipment or simply waiting expectantly for the array to be tested. Eventually, the display that filled one wall began to come alive with test messages and then finally, as the array was brought up to full power, a series of status reports from the various components that comprised the complex hyperspace monitoring array.

  Gunderson watched. The messages on screen meant little to him, but he could tell from the mood of the technicians that things seemed to be going well. There was a faint thrumming now, that he felt through the floor and walls rather than heard, as the long dormant systems came to life. After a few moments, the messages on the display vanished to be replaced by a map of the Santiago system. There was a pregnant pause, and then icons denoting the ships in orbit began to wink into existence. There was a murmur of satisfaction and relief from the assembled technicians. As the array’s power built steadily, it reached further out into space, and the view on the screen zoomed out accordingly until other systems were visible, and until the Santiago system was a simply a single dot amidst dozens of others.

  Eventually, after about five minutes, the array had reached full power, reaching out into hyperspace for a hundred light years in all directions. As Gunderson watched, the display began to be peppered with icons denoting the presence of ships, first dozens, then hundreds and then thousands of vessels. The array began to scrutinise them, interpreting their engine signatures to provide an estimate of their speed, heading and class. Those on the move provided the clearest traces, their engines working at full power broadcasting their presence with clarity, whilst those whose engines were idle and ticking over were more difficult to detect.
>
  Gunderson began to see patterns in the traffic. In Commonwealth held space, traffic was moving along the established lanes, but of course no civilian vessels that he could see were passing into the zone now claimed by the Freedom Alliance. Within enemy space, however, it was clear that civilian traffic had been drastically reduced. A few lone traces moved here and there, but the bulk of traffic was composed of military vessels or civilian freighters with naval escorts. The pattern of traffic had changed too. Where one would expect to see ships moving along the haphazard web of routes between the principal systems, all of the ships appeared to be following routes that converged in the Achernar system. There were already a large number of former Commonwealth Navy vessels there. Gunderson ordered Rollins to focus the display on that particular system. As Achernar grew ever larger on the screen, it became clear that most of the vessels were clustered around the moons of the sixth planet that formed the economic heart of the system, and there was something in orbit around the moon of Orinoco, massive but indistinct, that the array was unable to identify, but which was putting out energy spikes that reverberated through hyperspace.

  ‘Mr Rollins,’ said Gunderson, his gaze never leaving the screen. ‘Patch this data through to the Churchill. Admiral Chen needs to see this.’

  ‘Yes sir.’

  ‘And hurry up with those modifications. We need to see whatever the hell the Shapers have in store for us.’

  Shale’s APC, along with two others, had pulled over at the head of the refugee convoy where the two recon gunships sat on the highway’s asphalt surface. The convoy was moving south again, the queue of vehicles stretching off into the distance in both directions, head and tail lights blazing against the darkness. Shale’s men were now shepherding vehicles onto the one carriageway, to prevent an almighty head on collision with the armoured units moving in the opposite direction and which were now being likewise diverted onto the side of the road where they could pass by the civilian vehicles.