The Salvation War: Pantheocide. Part Forty One Up

[Bayonet]

Just in case anybody failed to hear the wailing sirens, the street lights were flashing a visual warning.

That would be difficult. The lights are usually photocell controlled in clusters, rather than centrally controlled. And the HPS and mercury vapor lamps don't switch on rapidly, they kinda cook up to power.

The sirens had switched from their pitched wailing to a long, steady note. The attack was imminent.

Have they reversed that since we were kids? I seem to remember the warning was a steady tone, and the imminent was a warble.

This is setting up to get muy interesting.

I'll be curious, and don't expect to really find out until Lords of War, how the Israeli - Pal business sorts out. At one level, they have nothing left to fight about. At another level, they have what, 5,000 years of hatred to forget.

[Kodiak]

Have there been any instances of intentional suicide to get to hell? I was thinking today of Stephen Hawking, that he might enjoy getting into a healthy body again.

[Eulogy]

Paul and Karla are about to get some very unpleasant surprises. Urinal won't live long enough to inflict even superficial casualties - not with the death ray sweeping the area and fucking bombers after him. He knows of missiles, but what he doesn't know won't hurt us.

Mikey's little diversion won't work nearly as well as he hopes either. Not with Israel being more than strong enough to pop off the Whore and her steed, and his precious shipment being booby-trapped.

[Darth Yan]

Mikey's probably planning to covertly negotiate with the humans; also, Uriel might do some damage to the humans, and the scarlett beast might do some damage; I mean wuffles took two hours, and he didn't have a bio weapon with him. Plus I might want to see Bedouin soldiers in action, they have quite the reputation of being deadly combatants. Also, how well will the Hamas guys and the IDF work together in live combat?

[The Vortex Empire]

Hehehe, Uriel is about to get roasted. I almost feel some pity for him.

I assume that must be the Scarlet Beast attacking Israel? Hopefully it will be harder to kill than Wuffles.

[JN1]

I like the irony of an ex-Hamas terrorist working in an Israeli armaments factory.

"Good hunting Wing Commander."

Oh no, Colonel Allansen just demoted Group Captain Winters. A bit embarrassing given it is an equivalent rank to Colonel

Have they reversed that since we were kids? I seem to remember the warning was a steady tone, and the imminent was a warble.

If memory serves in the UK the steady tone meant 'All Clear', rather than 'attack imminent'. To be honest its a tone the post-war sirens probably would never have sounded had they been needed.

I'll be curious, and don't expect to really find out until Lords of War, how the Israeli - Pal business sorts out. At one level, they have nothing left to fight about. At another level, they have what, 5,000 years of hatred to forget.

I think there is still plenty for them to fight about. The Palestinians believe that the Israelis are on Palestinian land. Are the Pals going to give up their claims, or are the Israelis going to give up land they now hold? IMVHO no.

[Coop]

The idea of fighting the Angel of Death with booze and live music made me laugh my butt off. And I'm particularly fond of the more information we get on how New Rome is shaping up, as any good law student I am indeed a romanophile. Great update.

[Setzer]

So, what's the deal with Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo? Judging from earlier descriptions, I've been imagining them as looking like Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson only those actors exist too? Is this just a Rule of Cool thing or were they reincarnated as Brits despite simultaneously still existing in hell? It just bugs me, is all.

[MarshalPurnell]

Coincidence that the actors chosen over 2000 years later just happen to resemble the originals?

[Darth Yoshi]

Perhaps it's not a physical resemblance, but rather the actors' presence in character?

[Flameblade]

Am I the only one eagerly awaiting the sure-to-come horrible pun when the Angel of Death bites it in the City of Angels?

[JBG]

"The air-raid sirens woke a very resentful Husni al-Sohl from well-deserved and much-needed sleep."

Maybe it would be better to refer to "sirens" rather than "air-raid sirens" given the later realisation of Husni al-Sohl and Dennis and Jan's comments. Then again "sirens" is pretty vague.

"I think there is still plenty for them to fight about. The Palestinians believe that the Israelis are on Palestinian land. Are the Pals going to give up their claims, or are the Israelis going to give up land they now hold? IMVHO no."

That thousand year grudge sort of thing? Working side by side to defeat a common enemy might just lead each side to realise that they have more in common than otherwise.

In any event, another excellent chapter Stu.

[tim31]

Yeah, in a story where you can't move for the mythological references, saying someone was woken by sirens sounds like the setup for a Romance Scene.

[Stuart]

So, what's the deal with Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo? Judging from earlier descriptions, I've been imagining them as looking like Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson only those actors exist too? Is this just a Rule of Cool thing or were they reincarnated as Brits despite simultaneously still existing in hell? It just bugs me, is all.

HBO's Rome (excellent series by the way) drew on one mention of Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo in The Gallic Wars and a mention of Titus Pullo in The Civil War. Rome stuck as close as possible to the picture presented there (brief as it was) and filled the gaps in rather well I thought. More importantly, in one episode, Caesar refuses to punish them for an act that causes him a lot of trouble by explaining "these men are protected by powerful gods". I picked that up, 'assumed' it was historically correct and created a line where Lucius and Titus really were protected by powerful gods due to their habit of stumbling from the center of one crisis to the next amusing said gods. The fact that Caesar honored that protection brought him their protection as well. And, of course, saved him from the worst of Hell.

Having said that, the Titus and Vorenus here are not the characters in Rome although (being derived from the same source material) they are very similar. They served with the 11th legion not the 13th. By and large, I don't give detailed physical descriptions of characters, I prefer to shade things in and let the readers upply the details to their own satisfaction. So, if you want to imagine them as being the characters in Rome, that's fine. It's just a coincidence that two actors got picked who bore a resemblance to the historical Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus.

[Stuart]

That would be difficult. The lights are usually photocell controlled in clusters, rather than centrally controlled. And the HPS and mercury vapor lamps don't switch on rapidly, they kinda cook up to power.

The reference comes from some emergency planning sessions back in the 1980s. Somebody with too much time on his hands demanded to know what provisions were being made for deaf people who wouldn't be able to hear the alert sirens going off. An "instant answer" (intended to shut the questioner up rather than actually give a reasonable answer) was that we'd flash the streetlights. Later, somebody asked 'how" and we said it could be done at the power supply end (note nobody had a clue whether that was actually possible or not).

In reality, the actual answer was that even if we detected an inbound attack, we would probably not give any warning at all. The reason was that the US has no civil defense, no shelters for people to run to and nowhere to hide. In addition, there was no anti-missile system so the cities targetted (and the people in them) were write-offs no matter what happened. However, there were two strong benefits to the no-warning concept. One was that studies showed that more people were already in semi-protected locations (by pure random chance) at the time of the warning than would be twenty minutes later. So not giving a warning would actually save lives there. Also, given the panic and rioting that would take place in the 20 minutes between warning and initiation, the death toll from the riots would probably exceed that of the nuclear attack. (hyperbole there of course).

So, what I assumed was that in designing the civil defense system, somebody came across that old reference, instructed that it be adopted and some poor sap of a civil engineer got tasked with making it work, never knowing that the people who thought of it hadn't a clue on how to do it or whether it could be done. Just a little private in-joke.

[Bayonet]

Just a little private in-joke.

I shoulda known.

[TimothyC]

Stuart - I was just thinking about what the DoD budget would look like in The Salvation War, and I was wondering, what is happening to the ICBM force? Is it being gutted to help pay for everything else, or is it being left alone?

[JN1]

The reference comes from some emergency planning sessions back in the 1980s. Somebody with too much time on his hands demanded to know what provisions were being made for deaf people who wouldn't be able to hear the alert sirens going off.

Presumably they wouldn't notice everybody else running for cover.

Also, given the panic and rioting that would take place in the 20 minutes between warning and initiation, the death toll from the riots would probably exceed that of the nuclear attack. (hyperbole there of course).

Perhaps we were lucky in that we would only have a warning of 3-7 minutes.

[Simon_Jester]

If memory serves in the UK the steady tone meant 'All Clear', rather than 'attack imminent'. To be honest its a tone the post-war sirens probably would never have sounded had they been needed.

Dunno; in the Age of Nuclear Bombers there was always the possibility that your side's air force would actually manage to shoot down all the nuclear bombers headed for your particular town, in which case you might plausibly live to hear the "All Clear." In the ICBM era... that's another story, I guess.

"The air-raid sirens woke a very resentful Husni al-Sohl from well-deserved and much-needed sleep."

Maybe it would be better to refer to "sirens" rather than "air-raid sirens" given the later realisation of Husni al-Sohl and Dennis and Jan's comments. Then again "sirens" is pretty vague.

Also, a lot of people (at least in the English-speaking world) think of that category of siren as "air raid sirens" by default. If you tell an American or Briton "he was woken by the air-raid sirens," they will immediately know exactly what it sounds like and that they signal an imminent attack. The fact that in this case, the sirens are not warning of an actual air raid is sort of irrelevant.

[Peptuck]

You know, those bouncers at the club have balls of steel. Gotta salute a team of guys who'll risk their lives to save the animals at a pet store.

[Stuart]

Michael's Palace, Aukumea, Heaven

"Do you have to do this?" Raphael-Lan was seriously concerned.

"If you want to stay hammered and stoned, yes." Michael-Lan grinned to take the sting out of his words. "We're going to be running short of a lot of supplies soon and this is a perfect opportunity to restock at fire-sale prices. I can't afford not to make this trip. Where's Gabriel by the way?"

"Down at the club. Theoretically supervising it, but actually paying proper respect to Lailah-Lan. He was late with his tribute again." Raphael chuckled at the thought. "You know, if Yah-yah had known Lailah-Lan a few millennia ago, it would have saved us so many problems."

"I've thought the same thing myself. The things we could achieve if we only had pre-emptive hindsight. Or time travel. Humans have many stories about time travel you know."

"They can't do it can they?" Raphael was genuinely scared at the prospect. If the humans could go back in time, they could create havoc. They could even go back to the time of the Great Celestial War and change that.

"No, they can't. And I think their top people have dismissed the idea as impossible." Michael saw Raphael relax, and smiled. The idea of time travelling humans had terrified him as well. "But if they did, it could work for us, we could nip the Yah-yah problem before it ever reached this level. It's a pity, but time travel is impossible and we won't be facing it."

Raphael picked up his glass of whisky and sipped the contents. "How are our supplies of this?"

"Pretty good. I stocked up well as soon as Yah-yah came up with the idea of closing down the Earth operation." Michael sighed and looked around his palace. "All this idiocy because he threw a temper tantrum when humans refused to believe he created them."

"Well, he didn't." Raphael was just pickled enough to let his guard slip.

"I know that and you know that and the rest of Heaven knows that. Guess who doesn’t know that . That's right. Yah-Yah. Remember this Raphael, remember it well because you'll be running the show up here if anything happens to me. Yah-yah believes his own propaganda, believes it implicitly. Every myth, every legend he's imagined has become the truth to him and he won’t accept anything else. He'll drive out anybody who's thought patterns or beliefs differ from his. He hears what he wants to hear and nothing else. The Unbearable One believes what he wants to believe – and nothing else."

"If anything happens to you." Raphael paused as the implications of the words sank in. "You think the humans will kill you?"

"They might. They can. I don’t anticipate letting them succeed but they might pull something off. Only a fool expects everything to go the way they plan, Raphael. Another lesson for you. Success doesn’t depend on having the perfect plan. It depends on changing plans to match circumstances fast enough for the changes to be effective. And that means spotting deviations from the predicted course of events early enough to have time for those changes. If Yah-yah had watched humans and realized they weren't developing the way he expected earlier than he did? Well, we wouldn’t be fighting this stupid war for a start."

West of Hacienda Heights, Los Angeles, California

Uriel stepped through the tiny ellipse and closed it behind him. It had only been open a few seconds and he had hoped that the opening would have passed unnoticed but one look at the city spread out beneath him was enough to end that expectation. The lights across the city were flashing and the wailing of the sirens was enough to wake the dead. A curiously apt phrase Uriel thought. He noticed something else, as soon as the portal behind him closed, the sirens changed from their wailing to a long, steady single note. The humans were aware he was here and they knew his attack was about to start. He was becoming familiar with unusual sensations brought about by the humans so another one didn’t floor him. It's implications did for Uriel realized that he was afraid of humans.

He lifted his hand in the traditional benison and intoned the time-honored phrase. “Peace be with you and my peace I grant you.” His mind stretched out to the brilliantly-lit city below and started to squash down on all the life therein. Some of the response was familiar, he could feel the wildlife withering and dying under his touch. Other responses had become familiar over his last few incursions into this heresy-ridden and blasphemous country. He felt the solid blow of rejection, the grim determination of people not to succumb to his will. But there was something else there, a touch of something that hit Uriel much harder than just plain rejection. Some of the humans were welcoming his assault, they were using him as a measure against which they could test themselves. He was shocked beyond measure, the humans did not fear the god-like power that Uriel had over their lives, they were using it to assess themselves, to show they could do better than their rivals. They saw fighting Uriel as playing a game and they did so with the grim determination that they brought to every competition, every trial they faced. They were pitching themselves against the gods and they were doggedly certain that they were not going to lose. That was only one tiny step short of believing that they were gods themselves.

Then Uriel realized one other thing, one that he simply couldn't believe or accept. Some of the humans weren't just welcoming his attack as a chance to prove themselves, they were laughing at him.

Harvelles Blues Club, 4th Street, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California

The Key Frances Band had lost the thread of their number when the assault from Uriel started. The sheer impact of the attack, driving the breath from their bodies and stopping their hearts made that inevitable. They and their audience was saved by the layers of foil that wrapped the club, from the outside walls down to the tinfoil hat that everybody present wore. It slowed down Uriel's attack, gave the intended victims that their autonomic systems were being suppressed and allowed them the few seconds they needed to adapt and fight the attempt to do murder upon them. Around the room, people grabbed each other's hands and braced themselves for the battle that was now starting.

Near the bar, one of the cocktail waitresses dropped the tray of drinks she was holding and staggered against a customer. He grabbed her and kept her on her feet, quickly reading her name-tag while he did. "Come on, Fantasia, keep going. You got a lot more drinks to serve, we're not all blasted yet."

"Then stop fondling my ass." Fantasia's voice was shaking but she's made it past the first few seconds of the attack and Eucalyptus Hills had suggested that was the critical bit. If people could switch from their breathing and heart beating being automatic to something that required a conscious effort to keep going, then their chance of making it went up many times over.

"But it’s a beautiful ass. Reminds me of mine." The customer winked at her and the waitress burst out laughing.

"Well, that's fine. I think. You can give one more pat for good luck then." She picked up another tray of drinks. "Hey, Joe, the first lot aren't coming out my pay are they?"

"Sure are Fantasia, you gotta pay what the customers pay." The waitress giggled and set off carefully across the floor towards a table where the glasses were running low. The band had picked up the rhythm again although their playing was noticeably shaky. Her sight was seriously impaired with dark shadows rubbing out most of her peripheral vision and darkening the rest. She guessed the others were having the same problems because the management seemed to be turning the lights up. That wasn't the worst though, it was the ever-present pressure, the constant effort needed to breath and live that were hardest. Finally she reached the table.

"Free drink people? Got whisky, vodka and brandy here And some mixers."
"Straight whisky for me, whatever type you've got." The man seemed to be suffering much less than most. Beside him, his wife panting hard while stroking a puppy she'd taken from one of the cages. Most of the tables seemed to have at least one adopted pet.

"You look like you're doing fine Sir." Fantasia managed to get the words out between breaths.

"Well, I got this pacemaker see. It's doing most of the work for me." Her customer smiled then looked at her with concern. Her skin was graying and there were shadows under her eyes. "You're welcome to sit with us and rest for a while if you want."

"Well, that's kind Sir. But I got my customers to serve." That was what was keeping her going, just the need to make sure that her tables were kept supplied and her customers happy. One trip from the bar to the tables and back at a time.

Mevaseret Tsiyon, Israel

The monster was horrible to behold. More than two hundred feet tall, brilliant scarlet that glowed in the moonlight, a huge misshapen head with seven faces scattered across it and ten horns sticking out. Giant bears paws for feet. And riding on its back, a stunningly beautiful angel, clad in red and purple robes. The Scarlet Beast leapt through the portal that had opened on the hills east of Jerusalem and stared at the city spread out before it. In its eyes was nothing but the lust for destruction. It took a couple of paces forward, towards the city where the warning sirens were wailing, then stopped. It crouched slightly and then left a giant steaming pile on the ground behind it. Nobody had ever house-trained the Scarlet Beast.

Ravseren Daniel Orlevaw had his section of Romach 175mm guns dug in just north of Mevaseret Tsiyon and that gave him a direct line of sight to the great beast that had emerged above Jerusalem. His gunners were already loading rounds into the breeches of the three guns in his position. He should have had four but one gun was away for repairs and the forces in Hell had top priority for spares and support. His fourth gun had been away for more than three months and he doubted very much whether he would see it again for another three at least.

There was one good thing at least. Before the Israeli army had pulled back from that particular area, they had pre-measured the ranges to every spot on it. With GPS telling him exactly where his own guns were, it was a simple matter to work out the firing solutions that would put his 175mm rounds on top of the Beast's head. It took but a moment and the three guns crashed almost simultaneously, the muzzle flash tearing the sky apart. Orlevaw watched the target through his binoculars and cursed as the rounds exploded on the hillside far behind the Beast. He'd allowed for it moving at normal animal speeds but this creature was capable of far more than that. While his guns reloaded, Orlevaw watched helplessly as the Beast tore into one of the small townships east of Jerusalem.

al Za'im, West Bank

"Leave your homes! Run for your lives! The Scarlet Beast Attacks!"

The jeeps raced through al Za'im, broadcasting their message as they went. The message was dire and there was little time. This was not a Uriel attack, the Israeli Army knew that Uriel was half a world away, assaulting Los Angeles, this was the Scarlet Beast and the Whore of Babylon. They were making their attack on the city of Jerusalem itself and anything that got in its way. Hiding was not an option, taking cover under metal foil and riding out the attack was not an option. The only way to survive was to run far and fast.

Husni al-Sohl, once a dedicated member of Hamas and a key member in one of its undercover cells, heard the message and knew what he had to do. The warnings were for civilians, for women and children and those without courage for a fight. These days there might be an uneasy truce between Israeli and Palestinian but when a greater enemy attacked, even uneasy and untrusting allies were well advised to stand together. And al-Sohl had an ace card in this battle, one that he knew the Israeli Army would badly need. Most of its soldiers and all of its new equipment were fighting in Hell. The troops here, on the roadblocks and in the general area were all reservists of the lowest category with old, time-expired equipment. Uzi 9mm machine pistols and 5.56mm rifles. Neither of them were much use against daemons and against the Scarlet Beast they were mere toys.

Al-Sohl had something that was not a toy. It was a pick-up truck, a Toyota Tundra to be precise, and it was packed with explosives. The stories had been told across the West Bank, of how the Americans at the Battle of Hit had been losing, their troops forced back, torn apart and eaten by the invading daemons. How they had been pushed to the last line of defense, their backs to the river, when the martyrs in their explosive-filled trucks had saved the day. How they had driven their trucks into the daemon formations, exploding them and taking the daemons to Hell with them. They had broken the daemon attack and that had allowed the Americans to regroup and bring up their helicopters to finish the job. And the stories were true for even the Americans had admitted the martyrs in their bomb-loaded trucks had played a vital part in that great battle.

He hustled his wife forward, pushing her towards another truck that was already filling up with people from the street. "Go, go!" He shouted at her. She looked at him and knew what he was planning. With a brief, heartbreaking nod, she boarded the truck and it rolled out, leaving him standing in the dust.

Husni al-Sohl walked back to the garage next to his house. It was much smaller than it had appeared from the outside but that was quickly corrected with a crowbar and hammer blows to the right places. The back wall collapsed and the truck was exposed. al-Sohl climbed into the driving seat and turned the key in the ignition. To his relief, the engine turned over and ran smoothly. He left the garage and turned left. There was no doubt where he had to go, the great figure of the Scarlet Beast already towered over al Za'im

Over Jerusalem, Israel.

The A-4 Skyhawk was old and it had already been grounded once as a result of a maintenance scandal. But, needs must when the devil drives and that expression was never more apt than during the Salvation War. The old aircraft had been pulled out of storage, hastily refurbished and issued to pilots that had already been retired themselves. Also for maintenance issues as the pilots wryly referred to their various medical conditions. But, in their hearts, they were still pilots and Menachem Gerev felt at home in the cramped cockpit in a way he felt nowhere else. Once again, the old Skyhawks were riding to the rescue the way they had back in '73. Gerev had fought in that war and still remembered the first day when more than 30 Skyhawks had failed to return from their strikes over the Suez Canal.

Still, he could see his target, the great Scarlet Beast that was moving through the ridges east of Jerusalem. His aircraft was armed with retarded 500 kilogram bombs fitted with fuze extenders. The reports from Hell Had been very clear. It was hard to kill the daemons and angels but massive damage and bleeding out would do the trick. With a little luck, his six bombs would do that. If they didn't, there were four more Skyhawks behind him who would take their turn. They were taking off as fast as they could be armed, each pilot desperate to get to the scene in time to save the city.

Gerev rolled out of level flight and started the long dive down towards the Scarlet Beast in front of him. Looking more carefully, he could see that the Beast had an angel on its back, her red and purple robes streaming back as her mount loped along. Well, that made things more interesting. He kept his Skyhawk under careful control, she was an old lady and had already reached the end of her years. Pushing her too hard would be a terminal mistake and this wasn't the time to make such errors.

As a matter of fact, it didn’t matter. The Skyhawk was too old and too slow for the job it was being asked to do. Making its bomb-run at subsonic speeds, the scream of its engine could be heard well before it was within drop range of its target. Sitting on the back of the Scarlet Beast, Dumah heard the noise and saw the jet approaching. Her mind focussed on it and she summoned her strength to emit a trumpet blast that rocked the clouds and shook the dust in the cracks of the rocks.

The old Skyhawk couldn’t take the shock. The trumpet blast crushed its structure as thoroughly as any mechanical scrapping equipment could have done. It folded up and disintegrated in mid-air, trapping Gerev in his cockpit. He was still there when the wreckage plowed into the ground just outside Jerusalem.

Triumph joined the exhilaration that came from riding the Scarlet Beast. Dumah reached forward and scratched it between some of its ears. "Well done Fluffy. We'll show them how humans should be treated, right?"

Then Dumah looked ahead of her. A small group of humans had formed up around some green vehicles and they were firing on her. She lifted her golden goblet to her lips and blew hard, sending a stream of dust-like smoke towards their positions. The men vanished under it and by the time it cleared, they were dead. sprawled out on the ground. As Fluffy galloped over the scene, one of his paws crushed the vehicle into fragments. Ahead of them, Jerusalem was wide open.

[Mr Bean]

Combat! Interesting read and it looks like Fluffy the 2nd is doing better than Fluffy the 1st

[StephenBMann]

Then Uriel realized one other thing, one that he simply couldn't believe or accept. Some of the humans weren't just welcoming his attack as a chance to prove themselves, they were laughing at him.

Yup, because it takes the human kind of smart-ass chutzpah to say, "Fuck you, God....and the horse you rode in on, and your little dog too!"

[The Vortex Empire]

This beast seems like it may be a little harder to kill then Wuffles. I say firebomb it.

[GrayAnderson]

Two more excellent chapters, Stuart. I applaud...and I am enjoying the twists you slip in there.

Edit: And the party at that club just struck me as an ironic version of a hurricane party...where holding the party actually does help people survive.

Edit 2: A question does arise, if I might: Holidays of religious extraction are a large part of the social and cultural life of a lot of nations. They also play a significant role in the economy. What exactly has happened to Christmas (and the like) in this world? If they were strictly religious, I'd be a bit more certain of their demise, but in light of the highly commercial nature of them I'm curious.