The bunker doors opened into the underground complex, Magos Montgomery walked down the hall to the situation room where the remains of the Imperial government of Archer IV were waiting for him.
Montgomery could see a assembly of Imperial persona, Governer Argiries he knew the other Generals, Commisars,and Arbites and representatives of the Astrates were unfamiliar to him but they were all here for the same purpose to defend and rescue Archer IV from oblivion.
Governor Argiries stood from his chair a sign of respect to the highest ranking member of the Mechanicum on Archer IV.
“Please take a seat Montgomery I’m glad you made it out of the capital city safe.”
“Thank you for your concern”, Montgomery replied in a low tone mechanical voice,” but not needed the blessing of Omnishesa on our equipment made our escape possible, I am sad to hear though that the capital is now considered lost”
The look of sadness quiet apparent on Argiries as he gestured Montgomery to take his seat.“Yes unfortunate, but if the invaders want this world they will still have to bleed a lot more then what they have to take it.”
Argires looking to the door where a older thin officer was standing with what must be his small field staff of a few officers. Sometimes these staffs could be hundreds strong, but the current state of the war such luxurious were just not available.
“Colonel Guiss please begin the briefing.”
A large view screen turned on showing the topographical representation of Archer IV as, with Imperial policy the enemy controlled areas showed in red Imperial control in blue, everyone could already see that there was much more red than blue on the screen.
“The war does not go well, for us.” Colonel Guiss was considered one of the last old timers left in the planetary defense force; his graveled voice only gave the slightest hint of sorrow as he read on the report.
“We have lost to much too fast and we cannot win a war of attrition with our current PDF and allies , at the current rate of attrition we have about two months till all Imperial resistance is crushed.”
A murmur came across those at the table they knew the situation was bad, but with the reality staring them in the face only the Astrates could hold there composure at such news.
“Hope is not yet lost though we cannot win a ground war the enemy has an endless supply of reinforcements from orbit, and full occupation of the Southern Continent.”
Appearing entirely in blue the assembled council knew the beginning of this disaster was the discovery of ancient artifact on the southern continent, now entirely in enemy hands no intelligence has come out in some time its current status is unknown.
Governor Argiries stood up and asked the Colonel.
“You have stated the obvious. What has your staff come up with to solve our problem?”
The Colonel looked to the door and signaled for a young officer to enter.
The lieutenant was in his early twenty’s walked over to the view screen and changed the image from a topographical image to a more far out view of Archer and all objects in near orbit.
“Gentleman this is the current source of our problems .” He touched the view screen to expand on a object in near orbit, a large misshapen ship came into full view the information readout on the councils personal computers showed it to be the space hulk Bringer of Oblivion.
“This hulk must be neutralized in order stop enemy reinforcements from making planetfall and eventually overwhelming us in sheer numbers.”
The Astrates member of the council immediately interrupted.
“We have tried several attempts already to sabotage the hulk and we were stopped by the superior forces on board it cannot be done.”
“Simply going in and trying to sabotage one of the warp drives or plant atomics onboard won’t work it’s too big for that.” The young lieutenant had to wait for a moment contradicting an Astrates is never a good thing especially in public. The Astrates remained still apparently waiting to see if this young officer maybe thought of something they didn’t.
“ My plan is simple we drill gentleman we put a strike team on board the hulk they drill to the center of the mass and plant a large caliber atomic, upon leaving they detonate the bomb destroying the hulk from the inside out.”
The Governor looked up at the young officer then turned to the Commissar beside him.
“Commissar do your duty”
The Commissar drew his bolt pistol executing the young officer on the spot.
“That’s the most stupid” idea I ever heard.” The angry Governor looked to Colonel Guiss “you have any more bright ideas.”
“Yes sir my staff came up with several scenarios.”
The next Lieutenant came in and stood over the body of his predecessor, he knew his plan would work and win him glory in the eyes of the Governor if his plan succeeds he could be a general by the time the war is over. The new lieutenant began his presentation.
“A direct attack cannot work we must turn the Hulk on itself, me and my team have developed a computer virus that we can infect the hulk with, it will slowly turn the computers of the hulk against itself in time the hulk will cease to operate as a effective base of operation.”
Magos Montgomery spoke after the lieutenant was done.
“How have you overcome the issue of so many different computer systems some no even interfaced with each other just taking one down would probably do no good does your virus attack all simultaneously?”
“Umm” the young lieutenant suddenly knew he didn’t think of all of the issues with his plan.
Another bolt gun shot rang out and the lieutenant’s body hit the floor, by this time several servitors had come over to begin cleaning up the mess.
“Colonel!” the Governor was clearly becoming inpatient with these ridiculous plans that could never realistically work.
“My lord my staff has one more presentation for you.” The colonel knew he might be the next one to meet his end by the Commissars bolt pistol if this next plan wasn’t approved.
A clearly nervous young officer entered the room obviously knowing what have become his comrades he placed a small box on the table and began his presentation.”
“Gentleman the Hulk cannot be destroyed or disabled by conventional means, its mass is over a dozen Emperor Class warships, my team have come up with a plan to make the hulk uninhabited to all life.
The officer took a cylinder out of his box and placed it on the table pressing a key sequence on the pad the lid opened slightly and a cream covered foam began to pour out of the cylinder overflowing onto the table and spreading out, as more of the substance began to seep out it seemed to reproduce itself faster and faster until the officer pulling out a spray bottle doused the expanding foam , the foam quickly seized up and fell still. Several of the council members reached over and touched the substance which now was as hard as rock.
“Gentleman what you have seen here is smallest example of a foam bomb.” Using liquid Allumilite my team has turned a substance used to repair a star ship breach into a weapon of denial.”
“The substance here is designed to consume oxygen and reproduce itself into more foam, as long as there is oxygen the substance continues to reproduce until all oxygen is consumed and the foam becomes as hard as ceramite.” My plan is to breach the hulk drop a large foam bomb on board detonate it and run like hell. The foam will invade every living area on board the hulk in a matter of hours all open space on the hulk will be consumed trapping the enemy, if they try to block it off with air locks the weight of the expanding foam will break through even the heaviest of structures as it expands, the surface installations on the hulk will also be effected since they are linked to the main hulk for air.”
“Will the enemy on board be able to resist this foam.” The Governor asked in a skeptical tone.
“No sir you need a specific molecular key in order to deactivate the foam prematurely before all air is consumed.” Pointing to the bottle in his hand. “That is what I hit it with to stop it, if I didn’t it would have consumed this whole room by now.”
The Commissar began to reach for his pistol when the Governor raised his hand
“Stop, I like this plan it might be just crazy enough to work, prepare your strike force I want this plan in action as soon as possible.”
“There is one thing sir you should know, we will need to launch a major offensive onto the hulk to make this work, and we will need the full command and control network of this facility for it to succeed. Even if it does work and the hulk disabled the enemy on the ground will know where our headquarters are and can come and attack at any time.
“Don’t worry lieutenant leave that problem to me. Gentleman we have our plan now all we have to do is see it through.” Looking at the adjourned members of the council Governor Argires drew his saber over his head and with a battle cry fit for leader of his rank
“For the Emperor!”
Other cheers rang out through the conference room as the council adjourned everyone filed out to their duties. There was a war to be fought and it wasn’t over yet.
