by Worth, Dan
Blackman had been physically sick after the fight in the bay. Though a tough and experienced soldier, the sheer ferocity of the Shaper’s assault on his men and their sudden and violent deaths had affected him profoundly. McManus got the distinct impression that Blackman blamed himself for the massacre, for his own moment of indecision, but in truth, there was little that they could have done to prevent it. The fact remained, however, that if the marines had not fled, the Shaper might not have escaped into the corridor outside where it could access the ship’s network. Quite who would take the blame for that was uncertain, although as XO, McManus was quite prepared to shoulder it himself. He had, after all, given the order to fall back and he couldn’t escape the feeling that he had done little to prevent the other men from fleeing. Now he sat next to Chen on the bridge as they assessed the situation in the Santiago system. Engineering had just reported that they were unable to tell whether network security had been breached by the Shaper, the conclusion being that either it had been unsuccessful, or the more chilling possibility that it had succeeded, but that it had been able to cover its tracks to the extent that its intrusion was undetectable.
McManus had briefed Chen on all that had transpired in the forward hangar bay. She had said little in response. She had simply nodded and thanked him for his bravery, and had returned to her duties, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.
It wasn’t all bad news, though any celebration of their victory was tainted by the high casualty rate. The enemy fleet had been destroyed or routed, albeit with losses to both the Commonwealth and Nahabe fleets. Space above Valparaiso was now awash with debris and crippled ships, although the destroyers that had suffered catastrophic system failures in the opening stages of the battle had been restored to operational readiness and were rejoining their groups, their spatial distortion cannons disconnected pending further investigation. Meanwhile, search and rescue teams from the carriers searched the remains of the vessels destroyed or crippled by the Shapers and looked for survivors amidst the wreckage. The rest of the fleet, meanwhile, had formed up in geostationary orbit above the proposed landing zone. The surviving tactical missile frigates had unshipped the long launchers from their aft gun decks and angled them towards the planet, whilst destroyers and carriers readied kinetic torpedoes and beam cannons for the coming bombardment. The Nahabe, meanwhile, remained in high orbit to guard the Commonwealth fleet and the approaches to the planet.
Furthermore, the three additional Shaper destroyers that had been headed for Valparaiso had halted their advance over a light year out of the system and, after a brief interlude where they may have been assessing the situation, turned around and headed back out into deep space.
There had been communications from Admiral Cartwright in the Chittagong system too. His forces were still engaged with the Shapers and the carrier Claudius had been lost with all hands along with half a dozen other ships, although it looked as though the Commonwealth and Nahabe forces had the upper hand at last.
In Valparaiso, the Commonwealth forces were still stunned by the suicidal tactics of the Nahabe. Although there was quiet relief that the massive Shaper warship had been destroyed, the humans couldn’t quite come to terms with the fact that their allies had so willingly sacrificed themselves. The Lord Protector had contacted Chen after the battle and had attempted to articulate in terms that she could comprehend just what the crews of the Cursed Star and Nova Fire had done.
‘To call it suicide would be an injustice,’ he had said. ‘They died, so that others might live, so that you and your comrades might grasp victory. Their ships were gravely damaged, and they knew that they would not see the end of this day one way or another and so chose to end their lives on this plane in a manner that might save us from the world killers. The martyrs of the Order of Void Hunters go beyond, where evil cannot touch them, leaving us in this mortal realm. Truly, they will live on there for eternity and we shall revere them accordingly with the respect that they have earned.’
It was all down to cold logic, thought Chen, no matter how much you dressed it up in the trappings of religion and martyrdom and the language of holy war. They had died, so that she might survive. They had stared death in the face and embraced it accordingly on their own terms to ensure victory.
It was whilst she was pondering this fact that the call came through. The Army transports and their escorts had reached the outer system. General Shale was on the comm. and asking to speak with her. Andrews put him through.
‘General Shale, this is Chen.’
‘Greetings Admiral, glad to see you’re still in one piece. What is the situation in the Santiago system?’
‘The enemy fleet has been destroyed or routed from the system, General,’ Chen replied. ‘Space around the planet Valparaiso is free from enemy ships. You may advance into the system and prepare for your landing.’
‘Glad to hear it. How did you fare against the enemy?’
‘We lost some ships, regrettably, but we achieved our objectives.’
‘That’s unfortunate, but not unexpected. Very well, I’ll give the order to jump in. Shale out,’ said the General and ended the transmission.
‘Get me Colonel Gunderson aboard the Anzio,’ said Chen, ‘and inform all ships that they are to prepare for bombardment of ground targets.’
Gunderson appeared within Chen’s HUD in a matter of seconds. He was already suited up in his combat armour and looked eager and ready.
‘I never got chance to say what an impressive display that was earlier,’ he began. ‘You sure handed it to those Shapers.’
‘Thank you Colonel, though I must share credit with the Nahabe. It was their self sacrifice that took down that super-destroyer.’
‘Yeah, I saw that...’ Gunderson replied, a frown of unease passing over his weathered features. ‘Bad business, if you ask me.’
‘Yes, although we’re still alive to talk about it, thanks to them,’ Chen replied. ‘Now to business. General Shale is on his way. You have command of the landing, Colonel Gunderson. I trust that you have managed to prioritise ground targets for us to attack in support of your landing?’
‘Yes, I have. Just a second...’ Gunderson replied.
Outside the bridge windows the vast, rolling plains of Valparaiso’s southern continent were clearly visible as a swathe of green beneath sparse cloud cover. There was a line of brown hills to the south of them that eventually grew into a range of mountains whose snow capped peaks stitched their way across the land. As she looked, Chen’s view of the continent beneath her became peppered with icons denoting the presence of enemy ground forces as data from the recon cruisers was overlaid in her vision. This was joined by a web of signal data, indicating the presence of Shapers on the planet’s surface, the nodes and strands overlaying the landscape like strands of multicoloured gossamer. Gunderson started to commentate on what she was looking at.
‘The landing zone itself is clear, though the enemy will be aware of our presence – hell, you can hardly disguise a fleet of ships this size in orbit – so they will be expecting us to land somewhere in the general vicinity. There are quite a number of troops on the surface, allegedly just over two hundred thousand, though we’re picking up signals that indicate almost twice that number. Either the Shapers have reinforced from elsewhere, or they’ve enslaved some of the locals to act as cannon fodder.’
‘Which is more than likely,’ said Chen.
‘Exactly. We’ve already seen troop movements from elsewhere on the planet’s surface. Fleets of air transports and the maglev train network seem to be moving large numbers of Shaper enslaved troops towards the part of the planet that we’re interested in. We’ve also picked up a number of units that do not appear to be under Shaper control. They’re in remote locations, so it’s possible the enemy have so far been unable to enslave them. However, these are not our primary concern. The LZ lies to the south of one of the Army’s main training grounds. There are four bases approximately fifty kilometres north of our obj
ective, currently home to around one hundred thousand troops under direct control of the enemy. These are standard Army facilities capable of holding twenty five thousand ground troops each, including armour. Each has an airfield and spaceport attached complete with gunships, dropships and atmospheric transports. I need your ships to take out those bases, Admiral.’
‘Consider it done.’
‘It won’t be easy. The Shapers aren’t stupid. Each of those bases has deep, hardened bunkers to guard against orbital bombardment. Our scan data indicates that they have already moved most of the troops into these deep chambers. You’ll have to use the missile frigates with their bunker busting rounds to take them out. Might be worth seeing what those fancy new cannons of yours will do to ground targets as well. We also need to make sure that we take out their airborne forces.’
‘Fragmentation rounds should do the trick,’ replied Chen. ‘But I’ll be deploying our squadrons to give you cover and mop up after the missile frigates have done their job.’
‘There’s one other thing,’ said Gunderson, looking a little uncomfortable. ‘We’ve pinpointed what we think is the main Shaper node in this system. It’s located in the planetary capital, San Domingo, underneath the Assembly House in the centre of the city. I ask that you take it out. It’ll destabilise their forces and sow confusion amongst them, at least for a while, but you can expect civilian casualties. We are detecting relatively few concentrations of Shapers in the city itself and the Assembly is surrounded by a number of government and financial buildings, not to mention any civilian workers in the Assembly itself. It’s your call, but taking out that building quickly and cleanly at the right time could do us a big favour.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind, Colonel,’ Chen replied. ‘Although I’d rather avoid civilian casualties if I can help it.’
‘Please do. It won’t take them long to re-establish contact, but it could help us if we get into a tight spot.’
‘Okay, we have the targeting data. I’ll begin assigning batches of targets to the individual carrier groups, and rest assured I will oversee any fire mission on San Domingo myself. Colonel, you may begin your landing. Good luck.’
‘Thank you, Admiral. Gunderson out.’ The Colonel saluted and cut the link.
Chen and her command staff got to work. Ships shifted position in response to the orders that were doled out to them. Targeting arrays locked launchers onto their assigned targets on the planet below, and then with a word from Chen, the Commonwealth fleet rained death upon the plains of Valparaiso.
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 watche
d 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.
