The Salvation War: Pantheocide. Part Forty One Up

[Simon_Jester]

A perhaps daft idea about securing entry to Heaven. Basically, attempt to engineer a repeat of the engagement in this chapter, except one of the missiles is carrying a nuclear device, meant to pass through the portal and initiate on the other side while it is still open in order to cause it to rebound larger, with killing Uriel and making a mess on the other side as side benefits.

That would be a difficult shot, to say the least. And if the target doesn't open a portal in time, the bomb goes off over a major metropolitan area.
___________

For reference, I'd think that Uriel would be about as powerful and difficult to kill as Satan; even something as nasty as the Patriot battery might have merely winged him.
___________

EDIT: If Wikipedia is to be trusted, then the PAC-3 is a "hit to kill" missile designed to take down ballistic missiles with a direct hit. In which case it's quite possible that a salvo of them would be as dangerous as the Progress strike on Satan.

[Samuel]

A perhaps daft idea about securing entry to Heaven. Basically, attempt to engineer a repeat of the engagement in this chapter, except one of the missiles is carrying a nuclear device, meant to pass through the portal and initiate on the other side while it is still open in order to cause it to rebound larger, with killing Uriel and making a mess on the other side as side benefits.

Not really useful- how do we know he won't pop out somewhere "safe"? A better bet would find out how to tag one of the portals and trace it back.

[XaLEv]

That would be a difficult shot, to say the least. And if the target doesn't open a portal in time, the bomb goes off over a major metropolitan area.

Sometimes I forget to include something in the final post that was present when I composed it in my head. In this case it would be the part about a fusing device able to detect passage through a portal.

Not really useful- how do we know he won't pop out somewhere "safe"? A better bet would find out how to tag one of the portals and trace it back.

Uriel dies regardless, and unless the portal leads to Hell, it will be useful, whether it be as a way into Heaven, or a way into a third realm which is used by the Angels.

[Ilya Muromets]

“Get ready to fire.” There was a pause. “Hold one, the Air Farce are vectoring two F-16s in.”

‘The war cry of a Sky-Chariot’ he thought scornfully, the pathetic name that Satan and the fallen that had been exiled to Hell had coined for what was imply the noise of a human jet engine.

Those were the only typos I caught.

Anyway, another great chapter. And it seems Luga really has picked up Hollywood business practices. Then again, given her portrayal in Armageddon, that's not really a surprise.

Also, we now have more info on angel abilities. It seems Archangels are capable of producing much more powerful sonic bursts. Plus, it seems that they can rush-form a portal. IIRC, most Bladrick and Nephilim portal-formers usually had to concentrate hard to form one, so it took some time. Uriel seemed to have been able to flash-form one just before he would've been killed by the missiles.

[tim31]

Air Farce is not a typo

[Shroom Man 777]

Did Colonel Paschal and Luga get it on in her apartment?

[JN1]

Air Farce is not a typo

It most certainly isn't. If relations between those two services are anything like they are over here then there won't be a lot of love lost between the army and air force.

Good work once more, Stu.

[Jamesfirecat]

Another great chapter of Path come and gone.

One thing stands out at once, this is the first time I’ve seen Michael use “Yahweh” as part of someone’s name. He always refers to himself as just “Michael-lan” since I get the feeling his boss’ name is suppose to be ineffable and all that. So like I said it’s interesting to see that he uses it as part of Uriel’s name....

Also it makes perfect sense that the deamons wouldn’t be afraid to use the full name since after all they enjoy spitting in God’s eye and using a name that he doesn’t want to have used would seem like a fine way of doing that.

By the way the joke would be funnier if it was “Shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more, and if anybody’s left ask a question.” If you ask me as opposed to its current form because of the interplay between “first” and “later”

Looks like the trumpet call only works at the speed of sound given that the air planes were able to outrun it, (I wonder how quickly the pure note dissipates, what kind of range does it get?) which is something we can doubtlessly take advantage of when we dog fight them since we can fly faster, and launch attacks that move faster than the mach one....

By the way was Uriel able to open a portal so quickly because he’s so powerful, or can all angels open and close them so quickly? I’m going to guess it’s the former, since otherwise some of those angels who poured out the bowls of rather would probably have started portaled away as well...

I’ve got my finger’s crossed that in the next chapter we’ll get to see what happens when Uriel has to give Yahweh some bad news about how things didn’t go according to plan, odds are he’s either gonna end up with an assignment that made Abigor’s look like a cake walk, get blasted then and there, or end up having to beg Michael hide him from their shared boss, I wonder if Michael might have some place to hide Uriel besides his private club?


In closing I will also note that your use of "imply" was probably a spelling mistake as somebody else mentioned and you should consider fixing it, though I'm surprised your spell checker didn't catch it first...

[Stuart]

As pointed out, Air Farce is the standard Army/Navy terminology for the Air Force. Imply should have been 'simply', the 's' got skipped and spellcheck didn't pick it up because 'imply' is a legitimate word.

We'll be finding out more details of the attack on El Paso/Ciudad Juarez next episode.

Uriel's ability to open a portal so quickly was a combination of his power, the fact he was already using at full output so he didn't have a charge-up time, sheer terror and good luck for him.

[Jamesfirecat]

Sorry about rubbing your nose in the "imply" error, you're right "imply" means to covertly suggest that something doesn't it? It's just in my head I read "imply" as a "fakeish" word that meant "to do something in an imp like manner" in the same vein as "doggedly" "or cattily".

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

There is a word for that already: "impishly".

[Junghalli]

What about that race of primitives in another dimension that Queenie decided would be more malleable to his rule?

If they're primitive their population simply may not be enough to make up the loss of all the devout Christians, Muslims, and Jews. There are (or were) several billion Christians and Jews, whereas for most of the past 10,000 years the entire population of the planet was much less than a billion.

[MarshalPurnell]

There's no evidence at all that Yahweh's power relies on number of worshipers, anymore than there is evidence that Satan gained power by torturing people in Hell. Given that Yahweh was willing to turn over all those human "souls" to Satan it suggests quite the opposite, that there is no effect at all.

[tim31]

Uriel's ability to open a portal so quickly was a combination of his power, the fact he was already using at full output so he didn't have a charge-up time, sheer terror and good luck for him.

I was about to post this. What's the story on Daemon/Angel adrenal glands and nervous system again? What was covered in the last book, right?

[Malivotti]

Love the story btw.

Random thought, I'm wondering if Uriel power hasn't changed but humanity has?

What if how Uriel kills people is by attacking the weak point of an organism, it would explain why in South America the homes of the wealthy has fewer deaths. Because the level of preventative heath care is growing thus giving Uriel's power fewer weak points in an human body to attack. Also why more developed areas are harder for him to effect.

What DIMO(N) needs is a really good statistician/forensics expert to go over the deaths to find if the people that died had a pre-existing condition(s) that suddenly went acute.

[Simon_Jester]

I wouldn't think so. For one, it's almost impossible to imagine everyone in an entire village having a pre-existing health condition that suddenly flares up and kills them. For another, we see the mass killings from Uriel's point of view, and it's strongly implied that he's launching some kind of area-of-effect attack against everyone in the vicinity.

I think that Uriel's power is related to the known 'telepathy' of angels and demons: instead of planting thoughts in your brain, he broadcasts something that jams or "blanks" your central nervous system. He suppresses both conscious thought and the autonomous nervous system... at which point you die of forgetting to breathe.

Recall that his attack has been described as "driving down on the minds beneath him."

I prefer this explanation because it introduces no fundamentally new "magic," because it explains how Uriel can consistently kill everything in an area, rather than killing only the weak and sickly even when operating at full efficiency, and because it provides an explanation for why Uriel has grown less effective of late- we already know that demonic telepathy can be blocked by Faraday cages, so it's not surprising that Uriel has trouble with EM interference when targeting places in the developed world.

[Edward Yee]

Uriel still had time (and the brains) to hit a portal and get out...

I don't know if the bowl-pourers could generate 'em, but Uriel had forewarning that the humans could attack (and by missile) at all, and he still got jumped; of course, the only other air-to-air encounter I recall is the one with the Su-35s.

Incidental thoughts:
1. Interesting that Uriel knows aircraft and missiles, but not radar, by name... (considering his reaction to Satan's ignorance by refusing "to stay in touch with humans").
2. Were the Vipers (or whichever variant was deployed) travelling subsonic when Uriel first heard their approach?
3. "Fifty human aircraft" destroyed in one fight with "lesser Angels"? I wonder where he got that version of events from?

[Pelranius]

Love the story btw.

Random thought, I'm wondering if Uriel power hasn't changed but humanity has?

What if how Uriel kills people is by attacking the weak point of an organism, it would explain why in South America the homes of the wealthy has fewer deaths. Because the level of preventative heath care is growing thus giving Uriel's power fewer weak points in an human body to attack. Also why more developed areas are harder for him to effect.

What DIMO(N) needs is a really good statistician/forensics expert to go over the deaths to find if the people that died had a pre-existing condition(s) that suddenly went acute.

Well, that wouldn't explain one of the more curious parts, which said that ervants in the homes of the wealthy were unaffected, even if said servants were actually poorer than the people who died outside.

[Darmalus]

Love the story btw.

Random thought, I'm wondering if Uriel power hasn't changed but humanity has?

What if how Uriel kills people is by attacking the weak point of an organism, it would explain why in South America the homes of the wealthy has fewer deaths. Because the level of preventative heath care is growing thus giving Uriel's power fewer weak points in an human body to attack. Also why more developed areas are harder for him to effect.

What DIMO(N) needs is a really good statistician/forensics expert to go over the deaths to find if the people that died had a pre-existing condition(s) that suddenly went acute.

Well, that wouldn't explain one of the more curious parts, which said that ervants in the homes of the wealthy were unaffected, even if said servants were actually poorer than the people who died outside.

Aluminum lined houses, I believe that this was mentioned in the previous book as becoming increasingly common. It makes sense, after all, that it would be more convenient to wear an aluminum hat outdoors, and be able to take it off at home for the sake of comfort. Can you imagine trying to sleep wearing a tinfoil hat? I toss and turn so much I would have to tape it on my head!

[Junghalli]

I think that Uriel's power is related to the known 'telepathy' of angels and demons: instead of planting thoughts in your brain, he broadcasts something that jams or "blanks" your central nervous system. He suppresses both conscious thought and the autonomous nervous system... at which point you die of forgetting to breathe.

Recall that his attack has been described as "driving down on the minds beneath him."

I prefer this explanation because it introduces no fundamentally new "magic," because it explains how Uriel can consistently kill everything in an area, rather than killing only the weak and sickly even when operating at full efficiency, and because it provides an explanation for why Uriel has grown less effective of late- we already know that demonic telepathy can be blocked by Faraday cages, so it's not surprising that Uriel has trouble with EM interference when targeting places in the developed world.

Don't forget that he also somehow destroys the souls of the people he kills (or at least sends them to somewhere other than where they normally end up), so however his ability works there's clearly something unusual about it.

[Shroom Man 777]

I'm still wondering how many delicious human victims has Luga ridden like bedroom carousels and left with crushed pelvises and blown minds.

[Ilya Muromets]

As pointed out, Air Farce is the standard Army/Navy terminology for the Air Force. Imply should have been 'simply', the 's' got skipped and spellcheck didn't pick it up because 'imply' is a legitimate word.

It is? Huh, learn something new everyday.

I'm still wondering how many delicious human victims has Luga ridden like bedroom carousels and left with crushed pelvises and blown minds.

Mind out of the gutter, Shroom. 'Sides, are most demons butt-ugly without psychic masking and I doubt most people will want to bang her even with psychic masking if they have full knowledge of how she really looks. Of course, I am discounting kinks and such...

[Jamesfirecat]

I'm still wondering how many delicious human victims has Luga ridden like bedroom carousels and left with crushed pelvises and blown minds.

Since you mentioned crushed pelvises, I feel obliged to say the following...




"We need rest. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised."

and

"I never thought I would die this way, but I've always really hoped."

[Shroom Man 777]

We had snu-snu.



My mind is always in the gutter, Malachuschus. That's how I dig up all sorts of wonderful things!

[Mayabird]

Everyone, please disregard my last post. I got everything totally wrong. It looks like everyone is doing that anyway, so probably cool.

I'm still wondering how many delicious human victims has Luga ridden like bedroom carousels and left with crushed pelvises and blown minds.

Mind out of the gutter, Shroom. 'Sides, are most demons butt-ugly without psychic masking and I doubt most people will want to bang her even with psychic masking if they have full knowledge of how she really looks. Of course, I am discounting kinks and such...

Come on, man, you know someone would hit it. "Sex demons? Fuck yeah!"