Exiles (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book One)

by Dan Worth

  ‘I am fully aware of the consequences.’

  ‘Are you really? It seems to me as though your superiors are about to sacrifice you to serve their own ends. I gather you humans are a little reluctant to accept such a fate. We of course, have no such qualms about laying down our lives in the service of the Empire.’

  Chen could tell that Talon Fist was trying to get to her. ‘Well that’s the difference between our societies isn’t it? We respect the rights and lives of others, whereas you treat others like animals.’

  ‘The irony of this accusation escapes you, I take it? You humans seem to regard alien species with a certain distrust. Despite your claims of an “inclusive” and “democratic” society,’ Talon Fist used the words with some distaste. ‘I see no aliens aboard your Navy ships, and let’s see... who makes all the decisions in your Commonwealth? You’re nothing but godless hypocrites.’

  ‘Whereas people get included into the glorious K’Soth Empire at the point of a sword, or the barrel of a plasma cannon. You can’t oppress so many worlds for ever Admiral, that’s why the Empire is ultimately doomed and you know it.’

  This appeared to rattle Talon Fist. ‘Perhaps,’ he replied acidly, his skin patterns shifting wildly. ‘But rumour has it that the Arkari are reluctant to assist you a second time. We can easily crush your forces should you persist in attempting to re-open hostilities between our peoples.’

  ‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that.’

  ‘Really? Perhaps I may be merciful and keep you alive long enough so that you can witness the destruction of your navy and the burning of your world. We shall cleanse that putrid ungodly orb of its sin and I will serve your President’s head to my Emperor on a gilded platter. I gather he enjoys the taste of human eyes.’

  ‘Don’t try to intimidate me Admiral.’

  ‘I am only trying to save you fools from yourselves. Withdraw, or die.’

  ‘I say again, we shall not withdraw.’

  ‘So be it. Very well Captain Chen, I hope you can provide us with some sport.’

  Talon Fist’s image vanished, the War Temples began to come about and accelerate towards them.

  ‘Helm, full reverse and hard to port! Maintain optimal firing angle, I want to use our rear turrets too.’ Chen barked.

  ‘Enemy ships are powering weapons!’ cried Singh. ‘Wait, the flanking vessels are also closing at high speed, one is headed for us, the other is going for the Normandy’s group!’

  ‘Alert Kojima. This is Captain Chen to all ships. Fire all guns. Kill that War Temple!’

  The War Temples were still turning, trying to bring their plasma cannons to bear. Chen noted with satisfaction that her plan was working so far; they were unable to match the turn rate of the Commonwealth ships. As she watched, the Mark Antony’s forward turrets flicked round to lock on to the Cleansing Flame and fired. She felt the ship shudder as the great guns poured torrents of energy onto their target, the blindingly bright beams stabbing across the darkness to impact with coiling arcs upon the buckling shields of the Cleansing Flame. Some of the K’Soth ships were attempting to return fire with little success. The beams of their cannons were too weak at this range and washed almost harmlessly off the shields of the Commonwealth ships as the two groups began to orbit one another.

  ‘Notify Admiral Haines, Ensign Andrews.’ Chen said, ‘We have engaged the enemy. Request reinforcements asap. Gunnery, report.’

  ‘All weapons functioning normally, target’s shields are slightly stronger than anticipated,’ replied Davis. ‘They must have upgraded them recently.’

  ‘Very good, Mr Davis. You may draw more power from the main reactor should you need it.’

  Her ships were really punishing the War Temple now. Its forward dorsal shield seemed close to collapse. With that gone, they could tear its hull apart. In desperation the K’Soth were firing their rail guns and missile launchers, only to have the projectiles shot down harmlessly by the defensive turrets of the Commonwealth vessels. Chen could almost sense their frustration. They were outgunned and out manoeuvred. It was only a matter of time…

  ‘Captain!’ It was Singh, he seemed alarmed. ‘One of the flanking cruisers has emerged from hyperspace above the Normandy.’

  ‘Surely Kojima can handle it?’

  ‘Captain I can’t identify the ship, it’s moving with incredible speed… surely it can’t fight effectively at that velocity?’

  ‘Show me.’

  An image flickered into Chen’s vision, showing a cruiser sized vessel that seemed to consist of little more than a large stiletto nose and an oversized engine.

  ‘The ship has no turrets, but it’s very heavily armoured and shielded. Scanning internally…’

  ‘Captain, what’s that written on the side of the ship?’ asked Ramirez. ‘Wait, I’ll zoom in, I can read some K’Soth script… Oh my God!’

  ‘What is it Commander?’

  ‘It’s a quotation from their holy scripts,’ he replied hurriedly. ‘It reads: he who gives his life to slay the unbeliever shall be blessed by holy light.’

  ‘Captain, I’ve scanned the ship, that forward section is filled with fusion warheads! I’d say that was a ram ship.’

  ‘It’s a suicide attack!’ exclaimed Ramirez. ‘Andrews, alert the Normandy, they have to get out of its way!’

  They watched in horror as the suicidal cruiser made a bee line for the carrier group wallowing in Maranos’s gravity well. The three ships began evasive manoeuvres whilst firing desperately at their approaching nemesis. But it was a futile effort, the K’Soth ship was closing too quickly and was too heavily armoured for their weapons to have much effect.

  The crew of the Mark Antony looked on aghast as the first K’Soth cruiser plunged into the Normandy at tremendous speed. The impact collapsed even the carrier’s heavy shielding before the armoured nose stabbed the gigantic vessel amidships, smashing through dozens of decks until the tip emerged from the belly of the luckless ship. There was an awful moment as the two craft hung locked together. The Normandy was nearly broken in two from the force of the impact. Men, atmosphere and debris were spilling from the wound in a rapidly spreading cloud.

  The distress call came through the Mark Antony’s comm. system.

  ‘Mayday, mayday! This is the Normandy, we have been struck amidships by a K’Soth suicide attack.’ Chen could hear the fear in the young comms officer’s voice. ‘We’ve lost all power and are going down. We are attempting to evacuate all personnel but...’

  There was a titanic flash as the K’Soth ship detonated its deadly cargo. The Mark Antony’s windows and screens darkened to compensate. When they cleared the Normandy was ripped in two. It had been split clean across the middle, the two broken halves now tumbling away from one another, riding the blast front of the energies from the nuclear explosion. Surely there could be no survivors. The crew of the Mark Antony looked on appalled.

  The Normandy’s escorts were also in trouble. Struck by the blast of the carrier’s demise they were now drifting. Half melted and smashed along their flanks, their crews had either been vaporised or lethally exposed to radiation and their electronics fried by the electromagnetic pulse. The Saladin and the Zhukov were doomed. Two proud warships had been turned into battered hulks in a matter of seconds. Energies played across the mangled, exposed decks from broken power conduits and cracked reactor cores. More pitiful distress calls came from the two stricken destroyers as a swarm of emerging life boats joined the growing cloud of debris. There was little hope for the unfortunate crews. Many of the survivors would be dead within hours from radiation sickness even if they reached the surface.

  Simonov saw the whole disaster unfold on his tactical display. The fast approaching blip of the enemy ship dived toward the trio of vessels that guarded his position from orbit, wiping them off the schematic altogether. His stomach lurched, three capital ships wiped out in seconds. Thousands of casualties, surely, and he now had no defence against a spaceborne attack. The Marines’ position
was now seriously compromised if the remaining ships couldn’t hold off the K’Soth. He gave orders to his men.

  ‘This is Simonov to all troops. We’ve just lost the Normandy and her escorts. I repeat: the Normandy group is down. Prepare for orbital bombardment and possible ground assault. Simonov out.’

  In the red sky above, a new star was briefly blossoming. The locals pointed in fear at this dreadful omen, and at the group of flashing pin-pricks of light that was now rising well above the horizon. Another smaller star was rapidly rising to join them.

  ‘Captain, the second ram ship has emerged from the end of its jump below our position,’ reported Singh. ‘They are headed straight for us!’

  Chen’s could sense the fear in the Lieutenant’s voice, after what had just happened to the Normandy who could blame him, they were all afraid now. She had to act fast. She was now in command of the operation.

  ‘All craft, take down that ram ship. Fire all lower turrets and take evasive manoeuvres!’

  The lines of fire flickered downward and converged on their new target, battering it mercilessly. It might just be enough. With the K’Soth attacking from beneath them, Chen’s ships could bring their keel mounted cutting lasers to bear. The heavy weapons were highly effective, pounding down the shields of the kamikaze ship and ripping open its hull along the oversized engine block.

  It was out of control now, venting plasma and spinning wildly it shot upwards between the scattering Commonwealth ships. It was still a close run thing. The ram ship careered at an angle between the Mark Antony to starboard and the Thermopylae to its port side and the Crazy Horse below, missing the two destroyers and the frigate by only a matter of metres. Chen saw the rust brown blur as the ship shot past the bridge windows. Turrets locked onto the corkscrewing craft, and delivered the final death blow, tearing it apart in a shower of debris and gases.

  But they had erred. The group was now scattered and shaken. The Rameses had wandered too far to starboard into the fire arc of the War Temples’ cannons. Too late, Chen ordered Captain Lehman to regroup. The K’Soth seized the opportunity and fired.

  At this close range, the destruction was almost instantaneous. The blue-white beam of plasma moved at close to the speed of light, magnetically accelerated by the huge primary weapon of the War Temple Disemboweller. The Rameses had little chance. The focused torrent of super charged particles collapsed the destroyer’s forward shields in a flash of arcing energy and then chewed into the forward section of the vessel. Hull armour vaporised in seconds, turrets exploded under the onslaught as the beam played across the ship, ripping it apart. A second shot skewered the Rameses along its length. The ship shuddered under the impact, then began to come apart, scattering its guts and its crew into the vacuum. There was worse to come.

  Lehman had begun the regrouping manoeuvre just as the ship was hit and now the broken wreck was rapidly drifting toward the surviving ships. Chen had to do something; it was on a direct collision course with the Mark Antony. She’d have to destroy the Rameses herself in order to save them.

  ‘Gunnery control, this is Chen. I’m ordering you to fire on the Rameses.’

  ‘Captain?’ Davis couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

  ‘I say again, fire on the Rameses. Destroy that wreck before it hits us!’

  ‘But there might be people still alive on that ship!

  ‘I said do it!’ she cried. She was shaking. She was condemning her own men to death in order to save more of them. In the end it came down to a brutal calculation: who would die so that others might live.

  The Mark Antony’s turrets swivelled round and blasted the remnants of the Rameses until there was nothing left but harmless chunks. There were sobs from some of the bridge crew. Chen fought the urge to puke.

  ‘Captain, more ships are approaching the system,’ said Singh.

  ‘Give me some good news Lieutenant,’ replied Chen grimly. This battle was not going well, she thought.

  ‘Sorry Captain, but I’m tracking a group of almost fifty vessels approaching from the enemy’s side of the border.’

  Christ, she thought, they were four ships down already and not one of the K’Soth craft had gone under! More were on their way? They were dead meat, surely?

  ‘Time to arrival?’

  ‘Two hours captain.’

  ‘Time till our reinforcements arrive?’

  ‘Over two and a half hours.’ Chen said nothing. ‘Captain?’

  ‘We’ll take as many of these bastards with us as we can people, I’ll not go quietly.’ She said grimly. ‘We’ll just have to hang on until Haines sends his reinforcements. All ships recommence firing on the Cleansing Flame. We have to improve the odds!’

  Their path was carrying them back around the planet, back toward the wrecks of the Normandy group above Marantis. Soon the city would be in range of the K’Soth fleet.

  Continuous firing from the Commonwealth group finally succeeded in collapsing a forward section of the War Temple Cleansing Flame’s shields. Now it was payback time.

  Particle beams began to rip the centre section of the Cleansing Flame apart, smashing domes and spires, picking off turrets and launchers and scattering them into space. The tiny forms of K’Soth warriors could be seen twitching and convulsing amid the cloud of vented atmosphere. The beams now bored inward, tunnelling through the myriad decks of the gigantic command vessel, ripping out its innards, disabling fire control, navigation and the shield system. It was time for the coup de grace.

  Chen gave orders to the Tipu Sultan and the Beowulf, her tactical missile frigates. She had been holding them back for a moment such as this. With its fire control wrecked, there would be little that the Cleansing Flame would able to do to deflect incoming projectiles. She ordered them to fire kinetic slugs, full battery.

  A swarm of the long depleted uranium shells left the rail-gun launchers of the two frigates. The gleaming missiles relied not on explosives to achieve their results, but merely the destructive results of a thirty tonne slug of depleted uranium colliding with a ship’s hull at high speed.

  Not all of the missiles reached their target, some were picked off by the guns of the Cleansing Flame’s escorts, but it was enough. The sheer shock of their impact shattered the War Temple into several separate pieces as the two kilometre long ship broke apart like a child’s toy. The ship’s reactor was breached and the shockwave of its collapse catapulted the sections apart whereupon they smashed into the flanks of the escorts, wreaking further devastation.

  When the fireball subsided, Chen saw that one of the destroyers appeared to be out of control, then as she watched, a flak cruiser was neutralised as one of the Cleansing Flame’s detached gun decks spun lazily into it, scything the smaller ship in two. There was a ragged cheer from the crew around her. Chen began to feel elated, that had shown them! If they could keep the pressure on, they might yet survive.

  Simonov watched the group of ships on his display as they swept gradually around the planet. It was only a matter of minutes before the enemy ships would be in an optimal firing position far above the city. The remaining Navy vessels had fought well under the circumstances, but he doubted that it would be enough. He ordered final measures to be taken, that his men should disperse and find shelter in whatever cellars and basements they could find. Furthermore, he ordered that defensive energy shields be activated around the vulnerable command post and the makeshift air and artillery base they had erected. The shields would provide some protection, though not from a direct hit from the main guns of the capital ships. Simonov was hoping that the K’Soth wouldn’t risk destroying what they had come to claim: his position’s proximity to the temple might buy them some time.

  Chen’s ships were still being kept at bay. The K’Soth had changed tactics, re-arranging their five remaining destroyers to form a screen of ships between the Mark Antony’s group and the remaining War Temple, Disemboweller. The escorts began to advance outward, pushing the Commonwealth ships further away from
their intended target as the Navy vessels sought to remain outside the range of the K’Soth guns. Unfortunately for Chen, this meant that her ships could no longer effectively engage the War Temple as it was now out of their range. She knew what was about to happen, they had to break through the K’Soth line or watch as Simonov’s forces were attacked from orbit. The K’Soth may have lost their commanding officer, she mused, but whoever was now in charge on the Disemboweller was more than capable.

  A fresh volley of kinetic slugs aimed at the Disemboweller proved useless. The heavy bullets were deflected or destroyed by a heavy barrage of fire from the screening vessels. The battle raged for some time: the K’Soth vessels ever pressing the Commonwealth vessels further back. Chen cursed. Whoever was now in command of the K’Soth ships was turning her own defensive strategy against her. She cursed her opponent’s obvious ability. They would have to take the destroyers down before moving in for the kill. To do otherwise would be both suicidal and futile. But there wasn’t much time.

  Chen ordered her fleet to fire on the leftmost ship, the Man Flayer, and watched with some satisfaction as the shield on the antiquated vessel began to buckle.

  ‘Captain,’ it was Singh again. ‘I’m detecting a new threat: squadrons of bombers with wings of escort fighters are being deployed from the Disemboweller.’

  Chen looked at her tactical display. The swarm of craft was beginning to form around the War Temple, around a quarter of its complement of ships. Bombers and fighters? Surely a suicidal gesture when the defences of her ships were still operating? She had certainly heard tales of K’Soth fighters engaging in kamikaze tactics, but they wouldn’t get close. She sent orders to the Spartacus, Stillwell, Drake and Powell to shoot down the wings of incoming ships. Wave after wave of the small claw shaped vessels were pulverised by the cruisers’ defences, though a few slipped through, only to be picked off the secondary layer of fire laid down by the destroyers.