-1
"Another option would be to simply begin overthrowing human worlds and re-educating the populations to our standards." Continued the Admiral.
"What new treason is this!" Exclaimed Lavidean.
"We could restore our species back to it's Golden Age in some remote area while we rebuilt and allow your petty Empire to wither and die. It's simply another option. In either case we would still need you to sho-"
"You have asked many things of me thus far but this heresy is not something would EVER agree to, let alone allow!"
Lavidean stood
and lunged at one of the Guards standing nearby, taking him
completely by surprise. Knocking down the taller man he pulled the
small hand weapon out of the guard's holster and pointed it in the
Admiral's direction.
No sooner had he taken aim then Montoya
slapped the weapon aside with is left hand. Stepping in faster than
the others had ever seen the old doctor move, Montoya drove his open
right palm into Lavidean's forehead stunning him. Before the Battle
Brother could recover his balance the old man swiped his legs out
from beneath him, dropping him to the floor.
Montoya
recovered the small pistol from the downed Marine's hand then
motioned for the two Guards to take hold of him.
"You still
had the safety on." said the Doctor once they had Lavidean on
his feet.
The Guards and Montoya then proceeded to drag the
furious man from the room.
"That could have gone a lot better sir." commented Parek once the door shut.
"Or infinitely worse." growled out the Admiral. "Do we have enough information to begin infiltration efforts without the so called 'Brother?' "
The remaining security officer in the room spoke up. "It would be difficult for our spies to learn the proper cultural connotations without him sir. There must be ways to convince him to help us."
"Nothing but allowing him to see us putting his recommendations to use would bring him over." Parek responded.
Admiral Saacronal looked directly at him. "You or your Doctor had better find some way of getting him to work for us or we'll be using my Plan B. Invasion of this human Empire."
The Admiral started going
through note's he'd been making through the meeting so far.
"Commander Chen you're going to be in command of our main
mining and manufacturing efforts. You're going to have the balance
of the fleet to protect you while you get the STC Von Neumann
Machines up and running. Think you can handle it?"
"Yes sir. We should have light starships rolling out about a month after we make landfall on one of the dead rocks. Barring any remaining Tyranid that is."
"Good, moving on." Admiral Saacronal paged through his data slate. "When it comes to the Orks I'd like to simply ignore them or just use them to slow the Tyranid when their fleets arrive. From what the long range sensor relays tell us it looks like that won't be an option. The Orks are too out of control. Since we're also going to need to train more ground troops I think I have something that should work.
Parek, I'm going to place you in command of a force that will attempt to find a remote Ork world and take it. Test what anti-Ork weaponry is listed in the archives and evaluate it for future use. We may be deploying small numbers of Orks onto human worlds in the invasion corridor to help slow the Tyranid. The human populations on those worlds will need protection from the Orks if we can't evacuate them."
"Will we be setting up the planet as a base of operations?" asked Captain Dyer, seated to the Admiral's left.
"Yes. Potential fall back point, and it'll also let us build up additional ground units. If the Tyranid realise we have a base there and decide to strike at it, the surrounding Ork worlds could serve as extra protection. Moving on, I want a breakdown on the number of people we have in the fleet."
Montoya walked down a corridor a few steps behind Lavidean and the two Guards holding him. The Doctor was old enough that he had been able to learn martial arts when he was still living on Mars before it was banned. Earth had banned all similar practices at many times through human history but much of the art still survived. For a time.
One of the reasons he had signed on with the colony program was to escape agents intent on erasing anything that might destabilise human harmony. They were over confident in their technology then just as he saw Saacronal was now. But the Admiral was almost as old as him, and should have noticed that. Should have known better.
Lavidean sagged forward as if he'd either stumbled or hurt himself. Both inexperienced Guards fell for the distraction. The former Space Marine grabbed either man by an arm and hauled forward then yanked back at the last second, flipping them onto the floor in front of him. The Doctor backed away in time to avoid a kick that would have caught him in the temple.
By the time Brother Atar finished his kick, turned and charged, Montoya had flipped the pistol he still held over to stun. Three bolts of electric fire tightened every muscle in the Marine's body and dropped the man where he stood.
Montoya got down on one knee and took Lavidean's pulse. After a few seconds the Doctor nodded to himself when he was sure the other man was still alive. "You are going to have one powerful hangover when you wake up."
008
