The Salvation War: Pantheocide. Part Forty One Up

[bcoogler]

Fascinating. Portals have fixed, solid edges that can exert force on objects.

Personally, I would have thought the boundary, or edge of the portal, would act more like infinitely thin razor wire. There is no resistance other than air pressure beyond the portal, and presumably no resistance flying through the portal either.

For the boundary of the portal to behave more like a blunt object and only break a wing instead of sheering it off, the boundary edge, for lack of a better term, must be a bit "fuzzy," with a relatively gradual drop-off from portal to non-portal.

[GrayAnderson]

A question, if I might. Is a portal one-sided or two? Put another way, what does the "back" of a portal (or the "bottom" of one) look like, and what would happen to someone who walked into the back/bottom of one.

[Junghalli]

They're two sided. Belial's volcano portals were horizontal ones with a stream of lava falling out the bottom and a fountain of lava coming out the top.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Personally, I would have thought the boundary, or edge of the portal, would act more like infinitely thin razor wire. There is no resistance other than air pressure beyond the portal, and presumably no resistance flying through the portal either.

For the boundary of the portal to behave more like a blunt object and only break a wing instead of sheering it off, the boundary edge, for lack of a better term, must be a bit "fuzzy," with a relatively gradual drop-off from portal to non-portal.

I agree, that's what makes it so fascinating

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

The impression I got from the description of the portal from Hell to Iraq made me believe they were three-dimensional phenomena, but appear to be two-dimensional disks always seen face-on, something like some objects in the first 3D games. Are they actually simply flat disks like in Portal or Stargate?

[Simon_Jester]

All of this makes me think of another subject for Lords of War, the Platue of Minos or whatever it's called where the dead humans are "reborn" in Hell is going to be a very important place to hold whenever you're fighting a war on Earth since so long as you hold it you don't need to worry about capturing POWs just kill all your human enemies and then capture them as soon as they show up in Hell, and given the way people's bodies regenerate some very nasty people might do some very nasty things to the recently deceased of the opposing side if they had the opprotunity.

Since doing that kind of thing creates one hell of a human rights scandal, I'm not sure it would be a common strategy.

Aluminum was only discovered in the last 150 years or so, and given the way nobody likes Iron, that means either Bronze, Gold, or Silver, I think. Maybe a few others (zinc? tin?). Bronze makes the better shielding material, as I recall, so bronze roof it is.

Also, aluminum requires industrial machinery to process- you can't refine bauxite in a smithy.

San Diego is a mid-sized city (population > 1 million), so it begs the question of Uriel's maximum area of effect. It's also worth noting that in order to get to the zoo, assuming he approaches from the south, he has to get past a lot of military areas.

His area of effect appears to be quite large. Nobody mentioned the deaths in El Paso being concentrated in one area, which suggests that Uriel was killing people all over the city, in an area miles across.

[bcoogler]

I agree, that's what makes it so fascinating

So, if a portal boundary exhibits solid object like resistance:

• We already know a floating portal can be relocated after it is created, such as the fine tuning manipulation done to the volcano portals. Could a floating portal also be relocated simply by pushing/pulling at the boundary? If so, then perhaps a volcano portal can be moved simply by shelling the boundary repeatedly on one side, if your targeting is good enough.
• If I impact the boundary with enough force (rather like Uriel whacking his wing hard enough to break it), will the portal flex/distort from the impact?

That physical interaction property along the boundary can also explain why a portal such as the one in Iraq stays fixed at one point, rather than moving about. Imagine the Saint Louis Arch representing the boundary of a large portal, said portal being a (near) circular object extending just as deep underground as it extends above ground. This means the Iraq portal is solidly anchored in bedrock. It's not going anywhere.

All of the above speculation is based on the idea a portal shape is like a flat disk instead of a sphere with no depth cues. If a portal is really a sphere, then there isn't a "front" and "back," just different angles of approach.

[Xenophobe3691]

Question: Myanmar Junta gave Michael the electric trolley, perhaps it was modified with a sensitive inside? They might be the contacts that the Bottom-Up rebellion has on Earth...

[Ilya Muromets]

Just thinking this behavior can be exploited for further turning hearts and minds against Heaven, especially if some people might still balk against the very idea of a direct attack against Heaven. One needs public opinion on one's side, after all.

Most of the nations of Earth just toppled Satan and are now under attack by Yahweh's tricks. There's also the Message and the whole angel encounter with that tank in the dessert in Armageddon where it looked like said angel (was it Gabriel?) just murdered an entire household and was casually drinking tea among the remains. At this point public opinion should be so overwhelmingly in favor of attacking Heaven that you won't need any further turning of hearts and minds.

[Simon_Jester]

I agree, that's what makes it so fascinating

So, if a portal boundary exhibits solid object like resistance:

• We already know a floating portal can be relocated after it is created, such as the fine tuning manipulation done to the volcano portals. Could a floating portal also be relocated simply by pushing/pulling at the boundary? If so, then perhaps a volcano portal can be moved simply by shelling the boundary repeatedly on one side, if your targeting is good enough.
• If I impact the boundary with enough force (rather like Uriel whacking his wing hard enough to break it), will the portal flex/distort from the impact?

That physical interaction property along the boundary can also explain why a portal such as the one in Iraq stays fixed at one point, rather than moving about. Imagine the Saint Louis Arch representing the boundary of a large portal, said portal being a (near) circular object extending just as deep underground as it extends above ground. This means the Iraq portal is solidly anchored in bedrock. It's not going anywhere.

All of the above speculation is based on the idea a portal shape is like a flat disk instead of a sphere with no depth cues. If a portal is really a sphere, then there isn't a "front" and "back," just different angles of approach.

Yes, but if a portal is a sphere, then the rigidity of its edges will make it even more difficult to move in any direction (if it's well rooted). Regardless of your angle of approach, you'd still be trying to pull it through solid rock or something.

Most of the nations of Earth just toppled Satan and are now under attack by Yahweh's tricks. There's also the Message and the whole angel encounter with that tank in the dessert in Armageddon where it looked like said angel (was it Gabriel?) just murdered an entire household and was casually drinking tea among the remains...

I think it was Apollyon lan Gabriel, one of Gabriel's servants. Gabriel himself is one of the senior archangels; that would put him in the same power league as Satan, or at least within shouting distance. I'm not sure one round of canister from a Rheinmetall 120 would have stopped him.

[Pelranius]

Just thinking this behavior can be exploited for further turning hearts and minds against Heaven, especially if some people might still balk against the very idea of a direct attack against Heaven. One needs public opinion on one's side, after all.

Most of the nations of Earth just toppled Satan and are now under attack by Yahweh's tricks. There's also the Message and the whole angel encounter with that tank in the dessert in Armageddon where it looked like said angel (was it Gabriel?) just murdered an entire household and was casually drinking tea among the remains. At this point public opinion should be so overwhelmingly in favor of attacking Heaven that you won't need any further turning of hearts and minds.

Wasn't it that demon (forgot his name), the harpy who did it and the tank crew just assumed Apollyon was the murderer?

I wonder how long it is until humans figure out what Euryale and others were really doing during the war.

[Samuel]

Just thinking this behavior can be exploited for further turning hearts and minds against Heaven, especially if some people might still balk against the very idea of a direct attack against Heaven. One needs public opinion on one's side, after all.

Most of the nations of Earth just toppled Satan and are now under attack by Yahweh's tricks. There's also the Message and the whole angel encounter with that tank in the dessert in Armageddon where it looked like said angel (was it Gabriel?) just murdered an entire household and was casually drinking tea among the remains. At this point public opinion should be so overwhelmingly in favor of attacking Heaven that you won't need any further turning of hearts and minds.

Wasn't it that demon (forgot his name), the harpy who did it and the tank crew just assumed Apollyon was the murderer?

I wonder how long it is until humans figure out what Euryale and others were really doing during the war.

Correct. I think human forces aren't going to find out or already have an idea and aren't going to prosecute.

[Baughn]

Actually, it occurs to me that the laws for prosecuting this sort of thing will have to be changed, post-haste. Murder, that is.

I don't recall if it's been mentioned before, but by now - murder is no longer nearly as great of a crime as it were. While before those who died had an uncertain fate - oblivion seemed likely, though the reality was worse - now they just go off to hell, and while that's still a major downer, it's by no means a life-ending problem.

Heck, I'd be surprised if it takes more than a few decades before someone invents hell-suits, or alternately finds a way to alter their bodies so they can survive on Earth. Uploading seems a likely option.

As such - well, it's still a grave crime, but the penalties will nevertheless have to be vastly reduced. The death penalty would fit nicely. ^^;

[bcoogler]

At this point public opinion should be so overwhelmingly in favor of attacking Heaven that you won't need any further turning of hearts and minds.

You are quite right public opinion should be overwhelmingly in favor of attacking Heaven.

When it comes to the propaganda angle though, you don't want to lighten up, you want to keep the public patriotic and pissed off at Heaven. This becomes especially true if Heaven proves to be a significantly harder nut to crack than Hell and civilian casualties start mounting up. It's easy to cheer a war when it's a curb-stomp; much harder if there is a lot of hardship. Not just direct injuries to yourself or friends and neighbors, but the grind of rationing, increasing scarcity of life's little luxuries as the war drags on, etc.

Mid-way through WWII, no one backed off on saying bad things about Hitler just because public opinion was against him. The same goes here; you keep hammering away in the war of words, and look for new angles (Save the Pandas!) to keep things fresh.

[rhoenix]

Question: Myanmar Junta gave Michael the electric trolley, perhaps it was modified with a sensitive inside? They might be the contacts that the Bottom-Up rebellion has on Earth...

This was my suspicion too.

This really does make one think about which conspiracy will weaken Heaven more.

[bcoogler]

Heck, I'd be surprised if it takes more than a few decades before someone invents hell-suits, or alternately finds a way to alter their bodies so they can survive on Earth.

I've wondered the same. Is a hellsuit (or, the Hell Environment suit - HEV suit) good enough for an extended Earth visit, or is there some other not-easily-reproduced X factor that makes Hell survivable, and Earth not?

Not an exact analogy, but a spacesuit recreates the basics of temperature and pressure so you can survive in space, but it doesn't recreate everything you need for long-term survival. For example, the shielding of the Earth's magnetic field is not matched. The Apollo astronauts were lucky there were no significant solar flares during the moon missions; otherwise, they would have received lethal doses of radiation. (For that matter, the walls of the Lunar Module were little more than glorified aluminum and gold foil. Not much of a radiation stop there either.)

Of course, if the X factor is some sort of unique Hell radiation, and if that can be reproduced by a portable battery powered emitter, then you don't need a full hellsuit, just carry your rechargeable Hellrad(c) device on your belt. (HEV mark II?)

If you can extend an Earth visit up to a couple of weeks, you can sell Earth vacation packages!

[Edward Yee]

Wonder what to call Earth murder, since it's still involuntary, and would prevent a person from returning to Earth except as a waypoint, even with a HEV.

When it comes to the propaganda angle though, you don't want to lighten up, you want to keep the public patriotic and pissed off at Heaven. This becomes especially true if Heaven proves to be a significantly harder nut to crack than Hell and civilian casualties start mounting up. It's easy to cheer a war when it's a curb-stomp; much harder if there is a lot of hardship. Not just direct injuries to yourself or friends and neighbors, but the grind of rationing, increasing scarcity of life's little luxuries as the war drags on, etc.

Mid-way through WWII, no one backed off on saying bad things about Hitler just because public opinion was against him. The same goes here; you keep hammering away in the war of words, and look for new angles (Save the Pandas!) to keep things fresh.

Why does this sound oddly familiar...?

[Crayz9000]

Heck, I'd be surprised if it takes more than a few decades before someone invents hell-suits, or alternately finds a way to alter their bodies so they can survive on Earth.

I've wondered the same. Is a hellsuit (or, the Hell Environment suit - HEV suit) good enough for an extended Earth visit, or is there some other not-easily-reproduced X factor that makes Hell survivable, and Earth not?

Of course, if the X factor is some sort of unique Hell radiation, and if that can be reproduced by a portable battery powered emitter, then you don't need a full hellsuit, just carry your rechargeable Hellrad(c) device on your belt. (HEV mark II?)

Did somebody just call Gordon Freeman?

[bcoogler]

I don't recall if it's been mentioned before, but by now - murder is no longer nearly as great of a crime as it were.

Wonder what to call Earth murder, since it's still involuntary, and would prevent a person from returning to Earth except as a waypoint, even with a HEV.

While (Earth) death per se may not be as important, the cause and circumstances of someone's death remain just as important as before, if not more so. Consider the following:

1) Person A accidentally shoots person B. Person B expires quickly.
2) Person C tortures person D, who finally expires after several days of agony.
3) Person E robs a bank. His strategy is to simply walk in and begin shooting everyone on sight without warning or pity, because they'll wake up in hell anyway, so why should he care?
4) Person F is caught committing fraud by a Person G. Person F decides the best way to shut up Person G is to not kill him, but to beat him into a vegetative coma.

So we still need murder trials. Just eliminate the death penalty. Sentence to continue in Hell after Earth death (such as Madoff's 150 year sentence).

[Baughn]

150, or 1500 year sentences were given in the full belief that they wouldn't be served fully, though.

It occurs to me that sentencing guidelines will have to be brought more in line with reality now. 150 years is insane for about anything but mass.. torture. Not murder, even. ^^;

Re: Vegetative states.. how exactly does the system decide when you should be snapshotted and sent off to hell?

Your physical state is apparently snapshotted at forty or so, except that severe later damage is still carried along (?). But your mental state is not; you can still learn or remember things from after that age. So, what happens in the case of progressive brain damage? How much of the brain must be destroyed before you end up in hell?

Going to hell or not is, obviously, a binary state. But death is not; though it's often fast, it's actually a sliding scale. Thus, it's hard to imagine a system that doesn't either create hell-clones while the body is still living, sends you off to hell after having gained fatal brain-damage, or both.

[Jamesfirecat]

On the issue of vegitative states, I think the obvious thing to go with is that I can expect a lot of people to be rewritting their living wills in the near future. After all it's a lot easier to write "Do not resusitate" when your choices are "Hmm... do I want to get a new body in hell, or do I want to be stuck in a baddly crippled barely functioning one in earth." In fact if we haven't already we might expect to see a raise in "happy suicides" where people with debilitating illnesses (AIDS, MS) kill themselves so that they can get a new functioning body in Hell. Which of course begs the question of, do we want to have the goverment assess some kind of penalty for doing such a thing so that people don't decide to wrap their lips around a barrel the moment that something is wrong with their body and take all their money with them to Hell.


Also once again while it may be a longish time till we get any kind of suit that works to let people in Hell stay on Earth for long periods of time, I'd be surprised if we didn't find a lot of people there hiring surrogets for themselves on earth in the sense of you get a guy to strap a video recoder to his head (or have one built into a hat he wears) and wear a microphone and set of head phones. You effectively see what he sees, hear what he hears, and he says whatever you tell him to do. Not exactly galmerous work but I'm sure there are people who would do it out of the kindness of their heart (I'm sure it'd qualify as a type of community service) and once the video connections are properlly laid to help people in hell hire surrogets on Earth the process wouldn't get in the way of the military carvans that are constantly shuffling in and out of the abbys.

Finally I have an interesting idea for how Heaven might try (but not necessarily suceed) at employing the Fourth Bowl of wrath. We've got most of Hell's volcaneos locked up tight, but we know it's easier to get from Heave to Earth then Heaven to Hell because its "down strem" right? Also some how I doubt that we're keeping too clos ean eye on all of our volcaneos, especially the dormant ones which probably still have some lava in them deep enough down (I'm not a geologist can you tell?) So maybe Micheal will try to ditch a few more people he doesn't like by trying to have them go down to Earth, set up camp around one of our volcaneos, open up a portral that will take lava from one our volcaneos to Heaven, before rerouting it through another portal to send it back to earth all over again in a much more sensative location.

Of course Lava falling from the sky is "Old hat" by now, but it would fufil the prophecy and it seems more doable than Micheal being able to either cook up a batch of Napalm or White Phosperhous, granted I suppose he might be able to trade with some of his contacts on Earth for some, but you'd need A LOT of the stuff to do any real damage to a city.... I think....

[GrayAnderson]

On the issue of vegitative states, I think the obvious thing to go with is that I can expect a lot of people to be rewritting their living wills in the near future. After all it's a lot easier to write "Do not resusitate" when your choices are "Hmm... do I want to get a new body in hell, or do I want to be stuck in a baddly crippled barely functioning one in earth." In fact if we haven't already we might expect to see a raise in "happy suicides" where people with debilitating illnesses (AIDS, MS) kill themselves so that they can get a new functioning body in Hell. Which of course begs the question of, do we want to have the goverment assess some kind of penalty for doing such a thing so that people don't decide to wrap their lips around a barrel the moment that something is wrong with their body and take all their money with them to Hell.


Also once again while it may be a longish time till we get any kind of suit that works to let people in Hell stay on Earth for long periods of time, I'd be surprised if we didn't find a lot of people there hiring surrogets for themselves on earth in the sense of you get a guy to strap a video recoder to his head (or have one built into a hat he wears) and wear a microphone and set of head phones. You effectively see what he sees, hear what he hears, and he says whatever you tell him to do. Not exactly galmerous work but I'm sure there are people who would do it out of the kindness of their heart (I'm sure it'd qualify as a type of community service) and once the video connections are properlly laid to help people in hell hire surrogets on Earth the process wouldn't get in the way of the military carvans that are constantly shuffling in and out of the abbys.

Finally I have an interesting idea for how Heaven might try (but not necessarily suceed) at employing the Fourth Bowl of wrath. We've got most of Hell's volcaneos locked up tight, but we know it's easier to get from Heave to Earth then Heaven to Hell because its "down strem" right? Also some how I doubt that we're keeping too clos ean eye on all of our volcaneos, especially the dormant ones which probably still have some lava in them deep enough down (I'm not a geologist can you tell?) So maybe Micheal will try to ditch a few more people he doesn't like by trying to have them go down to Earth, set up camp around one of our volcaneos, open up a portral that will take lava from one our volcaneos to Heaven, before rerouting it through another portal to send it back to earth all over again in a much more sensative location.

Of course Lava falling from the sky is "Old hat" by now, but it would fufil the prophecy and it seems more doable than Micheal being able to either cook up a batch of Napalm or White Phosperhous, granted I suppose he might be able to trade with some of his contacts on Earth for some, but you'd need A LOT of the stuff to do any real damage to a city.... I think....

It's called the (now aptly named) death tax. All you'd have to do is punch in certain circumstance penalties...and I don't even want to think about the litigation you'd open up. There's clearly a difference between someone who dies and someone who kills themselves (it used to be that the estate of a suicide often went in part or in whole to the state; same with a murderer), but I wouldn't want to see courts faced with either suits concerning "did this qualify as a justifiable suicide" or alternatively the inevitable bloodbath of "right to die seeing as I know exactly what I'll get down the path" suits. I'd just leave it as-is with some clauses penalizing murderers and such.

[Stuart]

Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Making an arrival is a well-versed art for those following the profession of arms. The sudden discovery that Heaven and Hell actually existed, followed by the rapid conquest of the latter had provided so many new opportunities for a dramatic arrival that most officers are hard put to chose which to employ. This arrival was no different, an hour or so earlier a Short 330 transport aircraft had arrived and disgorged a mass of equipment and a team of electronic specialists. Any observers with a basic knowledge of the new generation of electronic systems brought about by the discovery that portals could be opened between Earth and Hell would recognize the system they were setting up as an AN/GSY-1(V)4 Mod 5 Portal Generator.

If they hadn't, their sad lack of current affairs knowledge would have been remedied when, after two hours hard work setting up the system a black ellipse appeared in the middle of the airfield and a column of five M1114 Humvees roared through and set off down the long, straight road that led to Kanchanaburi. Following them with only a slight delay was another convoy, a mix of more Humvees and six-by-six trucks. This one had troops on display, grim-faced men and women wearing white helmets, white gloves and white scarves. The Air Force personnel watching the cavalcade nodded significantly to each other, these were the Thai Army's military police, the notorious White Mice. That was, in itself, a strong clue as to who had been in the first unit through, although that small convoy that was already disappearing into the distance.

The local population were used to military convoys making their way through the streets and got out of the way. They saw the red plate with two gold stars mounted on the front fender of each vehicles and noted the array of weapons mounted on the Humvees. They also noted that the vehicles were camouflaged red-gray rather than the usual dark green. The more astute realized that these vehicles had come straight from Hell and the really astute guessed that the Army headquarters in Kanchanaburi was about to get a visit from Hell in more ways than the obvious one. Astute or not, they got out of the way and watched the vehicles pass with resigned patience. It wasn't as if these were politicians after all, these were generals and generals actually worked for a living.

"This looks bad." Major General Asanee looked at the crowds of people at the sides of the road. They were refugees, all heading west, away from the advancing Myanmarese Army that was slowly inching its way down towards the transport nexus of Kanchanaburi.

"Backwash of a war always looks like this Ma'am." Senior Colonel Prachep was looking out the other window. "But this is worse than most."

"We're lucky this is a divided highway. We're going in, most people are coming out."

"That's encouraging of course, if the situation was really bad, they'd be using both lanes."

"That is true." Major General Asanee looked at the people on the other lane and guessed there would be more than a few deserters mixed in with them That would be for her White Mice to handle, they would already be setting up road-blocks and vetting the refugees. Genuine civilians would be allowed to continue on their way, life would be easier without them in the way. Any deserters would be detained, she had seriously thought of having them hanged at the roadside but had dismissed the idea. Executing people was a bit pointless these days, they'd just end up in Hell. Instead, they would be put into units tasked with the most dangerous of operations.

The Humvee column turned sharp right, past a complex of red-roofed buildings. She gestured abruptly. "The Tantipkan Hotel. Commandeer it, we'll use it as accommodation for the sensitives. They'll work better if they have somewhere comfortable to live."

Prachep picked up the radio and contacted the White Mice unit back at the airfield. They'd detach a squad to tell the Hotel owner he now had a new set of residents. He understood exactly what his General had in mind, they'd been working together for years and, like any good aide, he could almost think with her mind. This whole operation depended on portals being opened to and from Hell, they would take care of moving reinforcements into the region and keeping them supplied. They had another purpose as well, Myanmarese aircraft hadn't been reported this far west, not yet, and if they came, they would be in for a very unpleasant surprise. General Petraeus had made two squadrons of F-22s available to provide the Thai Army with air cover.

"This road seems clear." Off the radio after the brief message, Prachep looked around again. The Humvee column was holding a steady 50 miles per hour, an impressive sight since only a couple of feet separated each of the vehicles. The drivers were blasting their horns at anybody who got in the way but the warnings were very few.

"It's the back way in. Most people will be on the main street, about two hundred meters on our left. The Allied War Cemetery is just ahead of us on the left." The convoy swung right, passing across a trio of reservoirs. "Sports ground up ahead. Remember it, we can use it as a portal point. They've been doing some building around here, those places with the blue roofs weren't there when I was here last."

The column swung left, then right again, once more parallel to the main road. Ahead of them was a crossroads, blocked with vehicles. The drivers didn’t slow down, they just held their hands on the vehicle horns and watched the civilians panicking as they tried to get out of the way. Two pick-up trucks collided as one backed up too hastily and a third went into a ditch.

"Purple roofs?" Prachep waved at some houses on the right.

"No accounting for taste. Barracks of the 9th Infantry coming up on the left. That should be their armored battalion." She paused for a second. "Vehicles still in laager." Her contralto voice was grim.

The road started to curve to the left. Ahead of them was a junction with the main road. The convoy still didn’t hesitate or reduce speed, it swung right on to the highway and kept on its way, leaving more stalled civilian vehicles behind them. Up ahead of the, a large dragon's head had been built by the roadside. It and the steel gates beside it marked the headquarters of Third Army. Seeing her convoy approach, the guards threw the gates open.

General Asanee looked at them as they saluted her vehicle. "Find out who those guards are and break the entire guard detail to privates. Then assign them to mine clearance. We're at war, nobody should be getting into this base without being challenged. Make that clear to their replacements."

The Humvees swung into a car park in front of the headquarters building, a parking lot that was marked with the circular lines of a helipad. The five vehicles stopped in a neat line in front of the main entrance, the occupants debussing with the skill of long practice. It wasn't the first time that they'd taken over a command post this way.

"Sergeant Tram? Go to the Sergeant's Mess, talk to the President, find out what is really going on here. Corporal Vung? Do the same for the Corporal's Mess, find out what troop morale and standards are. Rest of you come with me."

The party burst through the doors of the headquarters, sending them slamming back against their stops. A receptionist was sitting behind a desk, she waved her hands ineffectually but did nothing to stop them. "One civilian. No armed guards." Prachep's voice was contemptuous.

"Fire her. She should have got on the telephone to warn people at least." The General led the way down the corridor that ran through the center of the building, the slam of boots on marble floor echoing off the walls. She gave no sign of noticing but the members of her party were keeping in perfect step with her. General Asanee knew how to make an entrance. She reached the double doors leading to the command center and two of her men threw them open while she stalked into the room.

"We really must decide what is best to be done. " Major General Thamassaret looked around in shock at the sudden interruption. "Who the hell are you?"

"General Thamassaret. You are relieved as commander of Third Army and Third Army Region. Effective immediately. Report to Supreme Command Headquarters for reassignment."

Thamassaret looked outraged at the terse order and stormed out of the room. The General looked around the room then studied the situation map. Almost immediately she missed the American-supplied electronic displays and maps that equipped the Human Expeditionary Army. This map was paper even though it was covered with a perspex screen.

"Intellignce Officer?"

"Yes Ma'am?" An unidentified Colonel spoke up from a table near the map.

"Enemy forces, positions, axis of advance?"

"On the map ma'am."

The General took a laser pointer from her pocket and shone it on a red marker sausage with the number '100,000?' scrawled in it. "This?" Her voice was disbelieving. "This is the best you can do?"

"Myanmar MiG-29s stopped us getting recon flights over the area and…"

"You're relieved of your post, report to Supreme Command Headquarters for reassignment. Colonel Prachep, take over his position. Logistics?" She pointed to the number on the map. "Try and explain that."

The logistics officer gulped. "Well, Ma'am, its our best-guess estimate of….."

"How will the Myanmar Army supply 100,000 men over a stretch of country that has only a handful of roads when they have no air transport, no available railway and shift supplies using manpacks? If you can't see the blatant impossibility of that number, you've no right to wear this uniform. You're relieved of your post, report to Supreme Command Headquarters for reassignment. General Senawith?"

"Ma'am?"

"Why are there no patrols out? What about contact with the Tahan Phran? There should be several companies of them in the area." Her voice was challenging, Senawith was a Thaksin appointee, he'd got this position due to his loyalty to the ex-Prime Minister, not any command ability.

"We took a decision to concentrate all our forces around this city. And you know what the civilians are like, every man they see is an army."

"You're relieved of command. Report to Supreme Command Headquarters for reassignment." She pointed at his deputy. "Supadom, take over command of the division. Get it into contact with the enemy and keep it that way."

"You wouldn't throw your weight around like this if Thaksin was still in charge." Senawith was stuffing papers from his desk into a briefcase.

"As it happens I did, but anyway, he isn’t, he pissed on the Army's turf and he's gone. My cousin is now the Prime Minister. And leave the papers where they are, we need to go through them. Chun, check him before he leaves." Asanee paused for a slight second, then cut across him just as he started to speak. "Yes, I am a serious bitch. Now get out and let us get on with our job.

"First Regiment. How quickly can we get it on the road east? I want it up in Chong Sadao by dusk."

"We can't do it, we've only just moved into…."

"You're relieved of command. Report to Supreme Command Headquarters for reassignment." She looked around at her team. "Colonel Thawat, take over command of First of Ninth and get it on the road to Chong Sadao by noon. I want information on enemy dispositions and operations, not an inflated condom drawn on a map "

There was silence for a few seconds. "We need to get moving on this. How much gasoline and diesel fuel is in the city."

The local mayor was in the back of the room, trying not to get seen. "I don’t know, give me an hour and I'll have the information for you."

"Good answer. We've got five divisions arriving over the next few days. First and Second Cavalry will be in the city by evening, First Armored by tomorrow, Second and Eleventh Infantry by the day after. They're all mechanized, they'll need fuel and supplies. Also the troops will need bivouac areas. See to it. I want to speak with the local head of civil defense. Get him here."

She looked around at the room, there was an electric spark in the atmosphere that hadn't been there before. She knew what it was, she'd seen it before. All it needed was somebody to take charge and set standards and people rose to the challenge. Once they'd done so once, they'd find it easier to do it again.

Outside the main center, Corporal Kasit was sitting in front of the radio communications bank, his feet on the desk, dozing gently. It wasn't as if he wanted to spend the day that way but the inactivity while the brass in the operations room argued over what to be do had left him little choice. The crash as the door to his section was thrown open woke him and he found himself staring into a pair of black, expressionless eyes. Female eyes but still very professional

"And just what do you think you are up to?"

Kasit had been married for years and knew that when caught cold under these circumstances the best thing to do was to admit everything and throw himself on the mercy of the court.

"I was goofing off Ma'am."

Major General Asanee looked at him carefully. "I'm promoting you to Sergeant. You’re the only person I've met in this building so far who knows what he's been doing."

Mess, Camp Hell-Alpha

"So you can't get drunk?" kitten sounded very sympathetic.

"So it appears. We've tried hard a couple of times but it just doesn't happen. The egg-heads say its because us dead'uns don't actually absorb things from what we eat. Apparently we absorb energy from our surroundings just like plants. They say eating is just a left-over thing, we don’t have to if we don’t want to. Don’t ask me how that all works, I always was just a poor dumb grunt, now I'm just a poor dead grunt and I might have got it all wrong. Anyway, if we don’t absorb the alcohol, we don’t get drunk." Sergeant (deceased) Tucker McElroy looked positively distraught at the prospect of spending eternity sober.

"Look on the bright side. You can spend all of eternity sampling different brews and never get a hangover." kitten's partner quaffed down the remains of a can of beer. "Speaking of which, can I get you guys another round?"

There was a slight stir of discontent at the words and he looked nervous, wondering if he'd said something wrong. McElroy grinned at him reassuringly. "Sorry kid, its just that kitten's – and your – money isn’t good at any military base in Hell. Nobody's ever going to forget what she did to keep us all going in the early days. So you two sit tight and the bar will bring another round over."

kitten flushed with embarrassment and looked downwards. She was about to say something when the light over the airlock door went red, showing that somebody was coming in from outside. She could hear the machinery cycling, pumping out the dust-contaminated air and replacing it with clean. Tucker had told her that even the dead, who could breath the dirt-laden air of Hell without ill-effects, preferred to live in clean-air surroundings. For the living, of course, there was no real choice.

"kitten, I'm sorry to have to break up your party, but we need your help over at headquarters." The aide quietly waved to stop McElroy and the rest of his unit getting to their feet. "We need a lot of gates pushed through fast and General Petraeus wants you to look after this end of it."

"Sir, with respect sir, hasn't kitten done enough? She needs a long rest."

"It's all right Tucker, it doesn’t hurt to push a gate through from this side." She smiled shyly, "and its what I'm paid for after all. Look on it this way, it gives us an excuse for another meet later. We'd better go Dani."

Her boyfriend picked up the end of her leash and tugged it. Obediently she stood and he led her out to where a V-22 was waiting. McElroy drained his can and shook his head slowly. "Well, people, it looks like our break is over. Cassidy, get everybody else rousted out, we've got to get set up for our next job."

[Samuel]

Stuart puts his extensive knowledge of Thailand to good use... again

Not much to analyze, except the fact that obviously Burma is going to be easily crushed.

[Hawkwings]

Nice to see things being shaken up. I really want to see Michael's reaction to this invasion of Earth from Hell.

And I really hope that robotic dolly makes a reappearance... Or are you waiting for us to all forget about it?