Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three)

by Worth, Dan

  Shale stepped out of his vehicle, flanked by a squad of troopers, into a night filled with the whine and roar of hundreds of engines, as his own units passed by metres away and the civilian convoy shuffled forwards. The civilians’ vehicles were entirely wheeled types - family cars, trucks, buses and so on. All were packed with frightened looking people and their belongings. A number of the vehicles were pock marked with bullet holes and scorch marks from energy weapons and fearful faces peered from the windows as they passed.

  On the tarmac in front of the gunships stood a small huddle of people, guarded by the rangers who had arrived in the gunships and four men in flight gear clutching side-arms. One, wearing a captain’s insignia, stepped forward and saluted Shale.

  ‘Captain Irving, sir.’

  ‘At ease, Captain. What do you have for me?’

  ‘Sir, this is Estelle Marchand, mayor of San Domingo and her aides. She was travelling near the head of the convoy and made herself known to us. She should be able to fill you in on the situation in the city.’

  ‘I see,’ replied Shale.

  ‘They’re clean, sir,’ said Irving, detecting the note of caution in the General’s voice. ‘Sergeant Liu’s men scanned each of them twice to make sure,’ he said nodding towards the groups of rangers then added. ‘These civilians are human enough.’

  ‘Okay. Good work, Captain. Let’s see what they have to say,’ said Shale and, flanked by his men, stepped forward towards Marchand.

  ‘General Shale, Third Army Group. I’m hoping you can fill me in on precisely what is going on in San Domingo. We’re preparing to secure the city. Anything you can tell us may be useful.’

  Mayor Marchand, a middle aged woman dressed in a rumpled trouser suit and wearing a tired expression, eyed him warily.

  ‘Third Army Group? Who are you taking your orders from, General?’

  ‘From Earth - from President Sorenson our Commander in Chief.’

  ‘It’s so hard to tell which side everyone is on. I’m afraid the Governor has sided with Admiral Morgan, President Morgan, I should say. This system is now a member of the Freedom Alliance. We have been under attack for the last day. By whom, it is difficult to tell. The Governor has been claiming that we are being assaulted by forces loyal to Earth, not that I’ve able to see him for some weeks, but the things that have been happening over the last day or two... I don’t think that they’re the work of the Commonwealth.’

  ‘Ma’am, we are assaulting this world, but to liberate it and secure it against the enemy. From the start, we have endeavoured to avoid civilian casualties.’

  ‘And who is the enemy, General? To me, they look like your own men.’

  ‘This is, regrettably, the case. Admiral Morgan is a traitor. Those who act under his command do so misguidedly, or because they are the host bodies for alien parasites. Either way, we will show them no mercy.’

  ‘This is all a little...’

  ‘Perhaps if you tell me what happened here, from the top.’

  Marchand exhaled wearily.

  ‘What can I say? Santiago is a pretty quiet system, most of the time. Once we were a frontier system, and now the frontier has moved on. We make our money growing crops for export, and the Army pays substantial sums to the planetary government in compensation for letting them use much of the south for training grounds. Bar the odd training exercise, nothing much has happened here for years, then Admiral Morgan announced that he was setting up an alternative government in Achernar, and our planetary assembly voted to side with him.’

  ‘The people weren’t consulted?’

  ‘No. Not even I got to hear about it until after the fact by watching the news, like everyone else. Since then, none of the local politicians aside from those in local councils have been seen in public and suddenly Governor Escobar goes and declares a state of emergency and our streets are awash with troops.’

  ‘What troops?’

  ‘The ones that had been shipped here for a training exercise that same week. Then, suddenly, there were naval vessels in the system and all traffic with the rest of the galaxy was cut off. Those that attempted to run the blockade were shot out of the sky and declared to be escaping Commonwealth agents. Some people on San Pedro station said that they’d seen other ships, alien ships in the space around the planet too, until everything went quiet. We haven’t heard from the orbital for over a week now. All comms are down. Anyway, we continued in a state of lockdown with little happening until a few days ago, when all hell broke loose.’

  ‘So what changed?’

  ‘I’m guessing that your impending arrival must have been the catalyst. I’d been trying to get some sort of explanation for the situation from the planetary government and from the Army commanders on the planet and no-one was replying and then they started snatching people.’

  ‘Snatching people?’ queried Shale.

  ‘Yes. There’d been some arrests following our declaration for the Freedom Alliance. Enemy spies, we were told, but there was a steady stream of arrests in the days that followed. It seemed that anyone who spoke out against the government or who asked awkward questions was being silenced. I quickly learnt to keep my mouth shut. Then they started rounding people up en masse. Army units would block off a whole district of a city, or a whole town or village, and start loading people into trucks or trains at gun point. Any who resisted were shot. We first heard about it happening in the more outlying communities, and then they moved on to larger towns and then the capital. That’s when the panic started.’

  ‘What explanation was given?’

  ‘None whatsoever. People were taken away and never seen again, except...’

  ‘Except what?’ said Shale, prompting her.

  ‘Except that they were seen again, some of them... but they weren’t... they weren’t the same people. Something else was looking out through their eyes, and they didn’t recognise or even react to those who had known them. We even heard reports later on of people being rounded up by civilian mobs, not Army troopers, dragged away by people who had been their neighbours. People tried to resist but... Then you arrived. We saw the battle in orbit and thought that maybe someone was coming to rescue us. That was when I gave the announcement to flee into the countryside and head south to where you were landing and maybe we could save some people from what was happening. Those that tried to flee in AG vehicles were shot down like flies by Army air units. Those of us in ground vehicles have been attacked from the air, but we stood more of a chance since at least we could abandon our vehicles and run into cover if attacked. Truth is, I still don’t understand any of it myself,’ she said and shook her head sadly adding, incredulously: ‘Alien parasites, you say?’

  ‘Yes ma’am. We are currently at war with an alien race known as the Shapers, who operate by using the bodies of others as hosts for their vile creatures. Morgan has sided with them. Many others in the military have been enslaved by them. By the sound of things, your fellow citizens have also fallen victim to them. I need to know how bad it is. How many people are still alive in the city?’

  ‘Honestly? I don’t know. It’s possible that some people may still be holed up there. But I wouldn’t hold out much hope, General. My advice? You want to flatten the city from orbit with everything you have.’

  Chen digested the information she was being fed. The results of the array’s initial scan were displayed in her vision via her HUD monocle. She zoomed the graphical representation of the systems south of their position in and out, rotated it, examined the extrapolated trajectories of the ships that had been detected and tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

  It made no sense. The Shapers appeared to be abandoning systems and consolidating their forces around Achernar, as a mass of freighters and their warship escorts converged on the system. Of course, this observation was based purely on the movements of former Commonwealth vessels now enslaved by the enemy. The Shaper vessels themselves were currently invisible to the array and would be until the modifications
to it were complete. All but one. Chen focused on the massive object in orbit around the moon of Orinoco in the Achernar system. It had to be the gigantic vessel that the Nahabe had warned them about. Nothing else that she could think of could conceivably generate such a return.

  Perhaps it was all a ruse? Perhaps the Shapers were pulling their enslaved ships back, safe in the knowledge that the Commonwealth would be able to see them, thus creating an invitation to attack apparently undefended systems? Chen was willing to bet that within those systems would be lurking Shaper craft waiting to pounce on any unsuspecting human ships. In time, she would be able to see what the bastards were up to. Right now though, she needed to see what they could be plotting closer to hand.

  ‘How reliable is the Mayor’s testimony, General?’ said Chen. ‘Are we to assume that San Domingo is beyond saving?’

  ‘She’s pretty adamant that that is the case, Admiral,’ said Shale, over the comm. channel from his APC. ‘She’s now urged me twice to destroy the city and anything in it. Given that she used to run the place and lived there most of her life, I’d say that was a pretty firm endorsement of the idea of us levelling the place.’

  ‘We can’t destroy a city on the testament of one woman, Admiral,’ said McManus, obviously alarmed.

  ‘I realise that, Commander,’ said Chen. ‘Which is why I don’t intend to do it unless we’re sure. Nevertheless, I do have the Themistocles standing by on station above the city.’

  ‘The scan results of your modified recon frigates don’t seem to corroborate her story, for a start,’ said Shale. ‘I mean, I can clearly see that there is a Shaper presence in the city, around twenty thousand troops, I’d guess, but nothing like the numbers she’s talking about. Are we sure that those things are working correctly?’

  ‘As sure as we can be, General. I have three ships alone focusing their instruments on the city. I can bring in Nahabe vessels to cross check their results. Maybe their superior equipment might detect things that we can’t spot.’

  ‘Might be a good idea. I’m despatching recon gunships to get a good look at low level. If you could have your fighter squadrons do sweeps of the city then we can correlate what they’re seeing through their low light and infra-red instruments with what the arrays on the ships are telling us.’

  ‘Roger that.’

  ‘I can’t entirely discount what she was saying, Admiral,’ said Shale, obviously sounding troubled. ‘I don’t know if she was telling the truth, or whether it was mass hysteria, or what. Others we talked to said the same thing: Mass round-ups of civilians and what sounds like mass implantations. I’ve instructed the refugees to keep heading south. I don’t know what we can do for them, but at least we’ll be between them and the city. I’ve halted our advance for the time being until we decide what to do. Shale out.’

  Chen felt uneasy. There was something going on here, she could feel it. Who in their right mind told you to obliterate their own home if the situation weren’t the direst imaginable? Yet their instruments revealed little to confirm the story that the refugees were repeating. She turned to McManus.

  ‘Commander, send orders to the flight deck. I want three of our squadrons flying recon patrols over the city, in rotation,’ and then she gave orders to Andrews. ‘Ensign, send a message to the Lord Protector aboard the Shadow in the Void. Tell them that we urgently require a ship to assist us in getting a closer look at the planet’s surface.’

  She listened as McManus and Andrews began relaying her orders.

  ‘What do you think about the situation, Commander?’ she said to McManus.

  ‘I think you’re right to be cautious,’ he replied. ‘The Shapers are slippery bastards all right. This could all be a ruse to get us to fire on our own people.’

  ‘Or those people in the convoy could be telling the truth.’

  ‘All the same. We need to know what’s really down there before we start shooting.’

  Outside the bridge windows, the slow ballet of ships continued. Chen watched as – as if to emphasise McManus’s words - one of the tactical missile frigates attached to the Leonides group unleashed a volley of kinetic missiles at a target on the planet below. Chen watched the rounds streaking through the atmosphere, distant sparks that vanished from view beneath the cloud tops, which seconds later were lit from beneath by flickers of light as the missiles hit home.

  Later, leaving the technicians to their work, Colonel Gunderson, flanked by his men and Major Durham, strode out of the building housing the array and drank in the cool night air. It was time to make an inspection of the defences that his marines had erected about the site. He was pleased to see that his men had constructed their positions well. A series of fire bases covered the rocky, sloping approaches to the array, with interlocking fields of fire that fanned out across the barren terrain. They were situated well up on the hillside, well back from the edge of the tree line a couple of hundred metres away, ready to engage anything that emerged from cover. In each fire base, his men had erected pintle mounted heavy weapons – railguns, gatling cannons, repeating lasers – as well as distributing supplies of disposable one shot anti-armour rockets and anti-personnel fragmentation grenades. Between the fire bases, automatic sentry guns squatted on folding tripod legs, the multiple barrels of their gatling gun armaments jutting forwards from armoured fairings.

  Gunderson walked slowly around the facility, stopping and chatting with his men, encouraging those who felt downhearted at missing out on all the action going on to the north, making a few suggestions about weapon placements and so on, and sharing a joke or two. Durham walked beside him, poker faced and stiff. He knew that Durham believed in keeping a certain distance from his men and he couldn’t help but feel that the Major overdid it at times, coming across as a little cold. Gunderson preferred a more informal approach to his men as long as they all bore in mind that he expected his orders to be obeyed to the letter.

  They were inspecting one of the fire bases facing the eastern approaches to the array, when the call came in. Though the message was intended for Major Durham, Gunderson had patched his suit comm. into the local command net as he arrived, and heard it also.

  ‘Major, this is team Charlie. We’re about a click north-west of your position. We think we see movement.’ The man was trying to keep his voice low so as not to broadcast his position to any potential hostiles.

  ‘I sent some squads out to reconnoitre the area,’ said Durham to Gunderson. ‘Those trees would provide good cover for an attacking force. Starship sensors be damned, I want men on the ground to see what’s out there.’

  Gunderson nodded in agreement. It was his opinion also that the mark one marine eyeball was still the most reliable piece of kit in their surveillance arsenal, when it came down to it.

  ‘Can you confirm what you’re seeing, Sergeant Huang? Could it be local wildlife?’ said Durham.

  ‘I don’t know. It’s difficult to tell,’ said Huang. ‘Our low light helmet sensors show things moving under the trees. But they don’t show up on our heat scopes. I’ve ordered my men into overwatch.’

  ‘This is Colonel Gunderson. What sort of things, Sergeant?’

  ‘We thought we saw human figures at first, but they seemed to melt into the trees but we keep seeing glimpses of other things and... I know this sounds absurd, sir. Some of the men report hearing whispered voices out of the darkness.’

  Gunderson had seen enough reports. He had a bad feeling about this.

  ‘Sergeant. You and your men are to withdraw in an orderly fashion towards our position. Is that clear?’

  ‘Yes sir,’ Huang replied.

  ‘Major Durham. Recall the other squads. Order the other men to stand to and be ready. Get the gunships up in the air – we may need air support.’

  ‘Sir?’

  ‘Do it, Major.’

  ‘Something’s coming out of the trees,’ said Huang, suddenly. ‘I can’t see them properly, but it looks like... shit! Open fire!’ There was the crackling of aut
omatic weapons fire.

  ‘Sergeant! Who or what is attacking you?’ said Gunderson, his voice insistent.

  ‘They’re all around us!’ cried Huang. ‘Shit! They’re all around us! Fall back! Fall back and regroup!’

  ‘Sergeant, report!’ Gunderson barked.

  ‘Dead men, sir! We’re being attacked by dead men!’

  There was an extended burst of weapons fire, the sound of screams and explosions. Huang screamed and fell silent, and then something else could be heard over the comm, a rasping sound that issued from decomposing vocal cords before the link was terminated

  As gunships screamed into the sky behind them, Durham asked, haltingly:

  ‘What did he mean? Sir, what did Sergeant Huang mean when he said they were being “attacked by dead men.”’

  ‘It’s the Shapers, Major. Their slaves are coming for us.’

  ‘But the starships? Their sensors saw nothing...’

  ‘I know that, Major,’ said Gunderson, who grabbed a rail rifle and then activated his suit comm. ‘All squads, be advised: enemy forces inbound. They’re in the trees and they’re coming right for us. Give them hell.’

  As Gunderson finished his words, and his men began to react, the first of a mob of ragged figures, their military fatigues caked in earth and blood, some with limbs missing, some with gaping, grievous wounds to their bodies began to emerge from the tree-line below them, and started to charge.

  General Shale’s forces had drawn themselves up into a defensive posture about a mile from the city. The guns of his tanks faced the city. San Domingo was now visible through their infra-red sensors as a smudge of heat on the horizon against the cool of the night, the high rise towers jutting upwards against the sky like glowing fingers. The vehicles themselves were parked hull down in serried ranks, their low, armoured forms protruding above the sea of gossamer ferns. His men had advanced quickly and then dismounted from their rides, taking up positions along either side of the highway as the last of the refugees to leave the city passed between them. Tens of thousands of desperate looking people had now headed south through their lines, and the column showed no signs of abating. Overhead, the distant sound of spacecraft engines tore through the night as squadrons from the carriers orbiting above them headed for the city on recon missions. Shale had ordered the other two columns to halt and dig in also, and now his forces sat poised like a vast armoured claw, ready to grab the city. Scans from the orbiting ships using the new sensors showed an enemy presence inside the city, mainly clustered about the centre of town and the Assembly House and government buildings in a defensive posture. Squadrons from the Army and Navy were now overhead and were confirming what the Navy ships had already reported. There were armoured vehicles concealed within the narrower streets and alleyways of the city and figures could be seen moving in the streets in an oddly regimented fashion. What was odd was that, apart from these, the city didn’t look that abnormal. The streets were almost deserted, but there were the usual heat and electromagnetic sources one would expect to be coming from most of the houses and apartment blocks and no signs of any sort of struggle. It didn’t tie up with the accounts that Mayor Marchand had given him, of a violent crackdown and the mass rounding up of the city’s inhabitants. Something wasn’t right. Were the Shapers simply trying to hide what they had done?