The Salvation War: Pantheocide. Part Forty One Up

[JN1]

I wonder how the T45's SAMPSON radar compares to SPY-1 in this sort of context? It's not a fixed phased array radar for one thing, instead it has two planar arrays, back to back, that rotate at 30 revolutions a minute. It is, however, an AESA radar like SPY-1.
AFAIK neither the T45's command system, nor the Sea Viper missile has an ABM capability at the moment, but I'm sure that the class could be given the capability if the MoD decided it was necessary.

[Simon_Jester]

If you really want to go that way, contact me privately and we'll talk about it. Warning, before you do get in, you will be subject to a remarkably tight background check.

I said "almost" for a number of reasons. Among them, I tend to mumble in my sleep. So I don't think radar-based creative abuse of Maxwell's Laws for fun and profit is for me.
________

And raising the skin temp of (a radar absorbent!) aircraft sufficiently to generate a trackable differential IR signature isn't too difficult: per the Stefan-Boltzmann law, if we posit an approximate blackbody with an IR emissivity near unity, a ~300K object would be warmed roughly 1K with a mere ~1 mW/cm^2 of impinging radiation, i.e. well within the capabilities I described in my original post.

Of course, if you're dealing with a target that is made of water-based organics, raising its surface temperature by 100 K is liable to cause something comparable to the kind of damage we actually saw, corresponding to an intensity of... 1 kW/m^2. Given that we're talking about an emitter with something like a 30 to 50 MW generator backing it, that's consistent with a beam width of... 200 or 250 meters. Which is more reasonable.

Of course, everything made out of water-based organics in the beam is going to get heated on its surface by about 100 K, unless it's inside a Faraday cage or something.
_______

Indeed, such a capability would permit routine and reliable high exoatmospheric interception of RVs, no missiles required (decades before the ABL could come on-line - nevermind the ABM treaty, we would have had a near leakproof shield for decades now). Yes, obviously this is getting into more and more classified areas; but the overall notion strains credibility to the breaking point, rather jarring in such a "military hardware accurate" story.

I've had that problem myself. My natural inclination is to take Stuart's word for it. But the implications implied by what is for all practical purposes a megawatt-range tactical maser that can maintain beam focus at ranges of hundreds of kilometers are so far-reaching and so wildly at odds with the publically admitted capabilities of the system (as in, the public thinks we have no effective defense against a medium to large-scale ICBM attack when we in fact do) that I've got considerable lingering doubt kicking around.

Although the "doing this would totally fry our highly expensive radar system"* aspect may help to explain why the capacity isn't advertised and doesn't change the game. Although it's an interesting "reconfigure the deflector dish to defeat the monster of the week" prospect if there is, say, only one ballistic missile inbound, and if the odds look good that it's nuclear tipped.

*Ah, for room-temperature superconducting antennae...
______

EDIT: on a side note, conical sweeping gives you a needle beam, but it doesn't get you past the diffraction limit. The needle has orders of magnitude more energy flowing down it than the area swept by the main beam, but on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis it isn't getting hit with more energy than the radar could otherwise achieve at a given range. So you get your target illumination all right, but if you can't achieve cooking at long range just by pointing the beam at a wall and letting it sit there, you won't be able to achieve it this way either.

And you're certainly not putting the full power of the array into the needle beam.

Hmm...
______

The main problem with using radar to shoot down aircrafts would be tracking. Uriel was more or less stationary when he was burned by the radar, and even his highest speeds are not that impressive - around 180 mph (if he is similar to the messenger demons at the start of Armageddon). An aircraft will be way faster than this.

Yeah. Having a true needle beam isn't going to do you a lot of good if you're spraying it all over too large an area.

[Stuart]

I wonder how the T45's SAMPSON radar compares to SPY-1 in this sort of context? It's not a fixed phased array radar for one thing, instead it has two planar arrays, back to back, that rotate at 30 revolutions a minute. It is, however, an AESA radar like SPY-1. AFAIK neither the T45's command system, nor the Sea Viper missile has an ABM capability at the moment, but I'm sure that the class could be given the capability if the MoD decided it was necessary.

I honestly don't know, I haven't got access to the necessary data. I'm not even sure I could find out. There is an ABM varient of ASTER (or there was) but I don;t think it'll fit in the Sylver silos on the T-45.

Among them, I tend to mumble in my sleep

At that sort of level, if you're going in for an operation (even a minor one) that needs anasthesia, the security forces send somebody in to sit in the operating theater with you. I've often wondered if their job is to cut the patients throat if he starts to mumble or listen and then decide whether to shoot the operating staff

As in, the public thinks we have no effective defense against a medium to large-scale ICBM attack when we in fact do

Actually, its the other way around, the public thinks we have one and we don't. Not yet at any rate; we've got the start of what could become one. You'd be surprised how many people think that we don;t need GBI because "we can keep the system we already have" and don't believe there isn't one.

On radars, the danger is, we're now flipping into overestimating the effects of a radar beam. It can detect and track and RV with extreme accuracy but it can't hurt it. In this story, the radar was being used at very close range, under ideal circumstances and in freak conditions that would never be replicated in real life. I honestly can't think of any circumstances short of trying to shoot down the Angel of Death where the combination of characteristics would be used under genuine circumstances. I only used it here to act as a key for the deployment of a much more practical system

[Shroom Man 777]

Among them, I tend to mumble in my sleep

At that sort of level, if you're going in for an operation (even a minor one) that needs anasthesia, the security forces send somebody in to sit in the operating theater with you. I've often wondered if their job is to cut the patients throat if he starts to mumble or listen and then decide whether to shoot the operating staff

Wait, what? Seriously?

As in, high-priority people get security people to sit with them when they're in surgery?

[Darmalus]

At that sort of level, if you're going in for an operation (even a minor one) that needs anasthesia, the security forces send somebody in to sit in the operating theater with you. I've often wondered if their job is to cut the patients throat if he starts to mumble or listen and then decide whether to shoot the operating staff

I always thought there were high security clearance hospitals for that sort of thing. Have I been making bad assumptions?

[BR7]

Let me give you an example of how to generate a pencil beam that has very limited spread and is only a few millimeters across using WW2 technology...
All the maths and so on being quoted is fine, but it simply isn't relevent. There is a whole portfolio of techniques (mechanical and electronic) that can be used to generate pencil beams, all of the modern ones being highly classified.

As Simon_Jester noted, conical sweeping can produce a narrow constantly-illuminated region (the moving beam itself is still no narrower than the diffraction limit), but that doesn't help if you want to focus the energy of the beam. Not sweeping the beam will actually result in a greater flux at the target, as the focus spread of the beam is not a circle of constant intensity, but an Airy disk with steep falloff from the center. Math is quite relevant here, as you can mathematically describe the setup and determine the average flux at any particular spot.

As you can see from the description of conical scanning (say again, a very old, very crude and long-obsolete way of dealing with this problem) we're not violating any laws, we've just engineered solutions that evade or exploit those laws. That's why, for sheer shits and giggles, engineering beats pure science any day. Anybody can create a new scientific law but an impressive shiny toy (especially if it costs a billion dollars or so) is really something.

Except that no amount of engineering can surpass fundamental limits. If it does, it means that the understanding of the physics was wrong. In this case, I haven't seen enough evidence to convince me that electromagnetic propagation laws as currently understood are wrong. That's the difference between an engineering problem and a physics problem. It's impressive if you build the first supersonic vehicle, but if you want to build the first superluminal vehicle, you'll have to rewrite the laws of physics first.

Of course, if you're dealing with a target that is made of water-based organics, raising its surface temperature by 100 K is liable to cause something comparable to the kind of damage we actually saw, corresponding to an intensity of... 1 kW/m^2. Given that we're talking about an emitter with something like a 30 to 50 MW generator backing it, that's consistent with a beam width of... 200 or 250 meters. Which is more reasonable.

Your math is right for radiative equilibrium, but keep in mind that noonday sunlight can be well above 1 kW/m^2. Considering time on target, conduction, etc. you'd need a few orders of magnitude more flux to do reasonable damage at all, and a few more to do what happened to Uriel. And while the 200-250m beam width is much better, it's still an order of magnitude small for what the SPY-1 should be able to do under perfect conditions at that range, meaning ~100x lower flux.

The main problem with using radar to shoot down aircrafts would be tracking. Uriel was more or less stationary when he was burned by the radar, and even his highest speeds are not that impressive - around 180 mph (if he is similar to the messenger demons at the start of Armageddon). An aircraft will be way faster than this.

Yeah. Having a true needle beam isn't going to do you a lot of good if you're spraying it all over too large an area.

As nickolay1 said, it's a phased array. Tracking abilities are the kind of detail I would expect to be impressive, but secret, as Stuart has alluded to. Tracking that well causes no physics problems I'm aware of.

[JN1]

I wonder how the T45's SAMPSON radar compares to SPY-1 in this sort of context? It's not a fixed phased array radar for one thing, instead it has two planar arrays, back to back, that rotate at 30 revolutions a minute. It is, however, an AESA radar like SPY-1. AFAIK neither the T45's command system, nor the Sea Viper missile has an ABM capability at the moment, but I'm sure that the class could be given the capability if the MoD decided it was necessary.

I honestly don't know, I haven't got access to the necessary data. I'm not even sure I could find out. There is an ABM varient of ASTER (or there was) but I don;t think it'll fit in the Sylver silos on the T-45.

It may be possible to integrate SM-6 and SAMPSON, though to be honest I don't know if it is; I do know that SM-2 and SAMPSON are not compatible. If it could be made to work and the RN needed an ABM capability then we'd probably fit Mk.41 VLS cells to the T45s, which is something that has been thought of to give them Tomahawk capability.

Actually, its the other way around, the public thinks we have one and we don't. Not yet at any rate; we've got the start of what could become one. You'd be surprised how many people think that we don;t need GBI because "we can keep the system we already have" and don't believe there isn't one.

I guess that maybe comes from the 'Star Wars' era - many people perhaps assume that something was developed and deployed. To be fair to them the US did once have a working ABM system, SAFEGUARD, which, IIRC, was operational for around one (!) day before Congress in its wisdom ordered it shut down.

[Simon_Jester]

As in, the public thinks we have no effective defense against a medium to large-scale ICBM attack when we in fact do

Actually, its the other way around, the public thinks we have one and we don't. Not yet at any rate; we've got the start of what could become one. You'd be surprised how many people think that we don;t need GBI because "we can keep the system we already have" and don't believe there isn't one.

Correction: the paying-attention public thinks we have no effective defense...

I'm talking about the set of people who know most of the basic information available to the public on the subject, but who do not know secret information.

Of course, if you're dealing with a target that is made of water-based organics, raising its surface temperature by 100 K is liable to cause something comparable to the kind of damage we actually saw, corresponding to an intensity of... 1 kW/m^2. Given that we're talking about an emitter with something like a 30 to 50 MW generator backing it, that's consistent with a beam width of... 200 or 250 meters. Which is more reasonable.

Your math is right for radiative equilibrium, but keep in mind that noonday sunlight can be well above 1 kW/m^2. Considering time on target, conduction, etc. you'd need a few orders of magnitude more flux to do reasonable damage at all, and a few more to do what happened to Uriel. And while the 200-250m beam width is much better, it's still an order of magnitude small for what the SPY-1 should be able to do under perfect conditions at that range, meaning ~100x lower flux.

Uriel is more absorptive in the 2.5 GHz band than typical humans are in the sunlight range, but since painting someone matte black and leaving them out in the sun won't kill them all that fast, you have a point.

[Stuart]

Throne Room, The Ultimate Temple, Eternal City, Heaven

The Seraphim and Cherubim, along with all the other strange creatures that kept Yahweh amused, were developing a conditioned reflex. As soon as they saw Michael-Lan approaching to give his report on the progress of the war against the humans, they dived for cover. As he entered the Holiest of Holies, the badly-chipped marble of the temple walls suggested that the Master Mason had given up on repairing the damage from previous reports and was now just contenting himself with fixing the bits Yahweh could see. In the dim glow that filled the throne room, that wasn't very much.

In front of him, the One Above All Others sat staring moodily at the seven great, gold lamps, watching the clouds of scented smoke hang in thick, hazy clouds. He still hadn't recovered from the shock of Wuffles death and he had vetoed sending the Scarlet Beast and his rider to further vex the humans. Michael-Lan had been annoyed and surprised by that. He had planned on getting rid of them both that way. The humans would oblige him, he didn’t doubt that for a moment. They were killing off his enemies and rivals quite nicely and Yahweh was becoming steadily more isolated. He needed to get the veto reversed, that was one of his objectives today.

Michael-Lan took his accustomed position in the middle of the lamps and knelt down on both knees, prostrating himself and pressing his flawless lips to the cold, dark jade floor. The ceaseless chant of “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being", quieted, and then died to whispers. In the gloom, Michael-Lan saw their eyes shifting around trying to find the nearest cover from the inevitable explosion. In the faces of the 24 members of the Eternal Choir, Michael-Lan could see the malicious enjoyment that warred with fear at the prospect of the events to come. Good for you boys Michael thought, I'll try and live up to your expectations. Now, let the good times roll.

From the white throne, the voice of Yahweh thundered: “Michael-Lan, my general, what news do you bring me? Do the humans still defy my will?"

Of course they do, meadow-muffin. The serious question is how much longer you will defy theirs. "They cower in fear at our righteous wrath, Lord Above All Others, but still they remain recalcitrant. Humans blaspheme the Your Peerless Name."Very inventively if I may say so "and they have evicted You from their places of learning and from their government offices. In all their cities and towns, from all their public places, and even from each person's home You have been cast out. No longer do they give glory to You, and they continue to do their evil deeds. Putting it bluntly, Father of All, they have decided that they do not want You. Your own Holy Church has disowned you and curse your name as a usurper who has replaced the One True God."

It was an all-time record, Michael-Lan had never got continuing thunderclaps and technicolor lightning this early in a meeting before. Marble fragments sprayed from the walls and lashed across the room. Michael-Lan glanced across to the traditional position of the Master mason and saw why the throne room hadn't been fully repaired. The mason had built himself a quite well-designed bunker in one corner. As Michael watched, a stick with a white flag on the end rose from behind the walls and waved backwards and forwards. The movement attracted the attention of a pair of Seraphim who abandoned their cover behind a table and fled to the bunker. They vanished behind the walls, then were unceremoniously thrown out. Fortunately for them, the storm of fragments was dying down and they escaped with only a few serious wounds.

"What of Uriel-Lan? Has he redeemed his earlier failures?" The voice boomed across the still-roiling clouds that surrounded the Great Throne.

"He has carried out another attack, on a small town outside the city of San Diego. It was a hard battle, so I understand, and the humans fought well. They used their cruellest weapons and they drove him off. It must be said that Uriel is also believed to have fought bravely before being forced to retreat. There are reports that he is badly injured and the humans still hunt him with their beasts and machines. If they catch him, it will go hard for him. Forgiveness and mercy are not human characteristics." Sorry, little humans, that libels you I know. So sue me. Michael hesitated for a moment, acutely conscious of all the lawsuits that were piling up over "Acts of God". On second thoughts, please don't. I can't afford it. And in truth, your forgiveness and mercy exceeds the divine by far.

"He is defeated yet may still live?" Yahweh's voice echoed concern.

"That is correct, Oh Lord Of All."

"I would see him here. I would seek his explanation of his failures at first hand Michael-Lan. Arrange for his location and rescue. At once."

Oh damn. "Your wish is my command Oh Lord Above All. Now, once again, may I bring to your attention the need to strike at the center of the Human spirit. I mean of course the City of Jerusalem. It would be a good target for the Scarlet Beast and for Dumah." And it would give the Israelis something to shoot at. I've always wondered how good they really are

"Jerusalem. Yes that will strike at their hearts and souls." Yahweh paused for a moment, thinking of the sad fate of Wuffles and Michael could swear that he saw him brush a tear from one eye. "But make sure that both Fluffy and Dumah know what they must do and ensure that they take care. Now what of the Bowls of Wrath? Is the Fourth Bowl poured yet?"

"Not yet, Lord of All, the time is not yet ripe." Meaning neither I nor Belial have come up with a solution to that particular problem. Belial really is a great disappointment. "But I have news, the hurricane season is starting again on Earth, we can lash them with Your Divine Wrath once more."

"Let it be so. And get Uriel here."

The Montmartre Club, Heaven

"It really is most inconsiderate of him Raffie. He just won’t die."

"Perhaps the humans are less powerful than you believe."

Michael-Lan shook his head. "They're deadly all right. They're like the asp, very pretty to look at until they spread their hoods and sink their teeth into you. Then you die. Raffie, don't ever underestimate humans, Satan did and the mistake killed him. Yahweh's doing it and its costing him everything he has. Uriel's been really lucky so far, that's all. Plus the fact he's the most powerful enemy the humans have ever faced. But, they'll get him if we don’t rescue him."

"Who are you going to send?" Raphael was hoping desperately he wouldn't hear the word 'you'."

Michael-Lan was thinking that over. Instinctively, he would like to have sent a crew that were on his 'to be disposed of' list but that wouldn’t do. He was acutely aware of the fact that, in the great game he was playing, he was his own most powerful piece. "I'll do this myself."

Raphael relaxed so obviously that it made Michael-Lan grin. Then he waved at the stage. "The new girl is doing well up there."

"Maion? Yes she is working out well. She was sulky and uncooperative at first but Charmeine-Lan put her in with some of our less gentle clients when she was behaving badly and with the kinder ones when she was conducting herself properly. She got the message soon enough, enthusiasm and cooperation got her a better class of playmate, and she comported herself accordingly." Michael watched as Maion swung herself around the pole in the center of the stage, letting the feathers on the trailing edge of her left wing brush the audience sitting closest to her. She lifted one leg, wrapped it around her pole and started to slide down it. When she reached the bottom, she arched backwards, then straightened up. During the process, she dropped another part of her robe to the cheers of the crowd. "Yes she is doing well."

"Michael-Lan, what do you plan to do about Lemuel? He's getting closer."

"He is, isn’t he. What do you suggest I do?"

"Kill him."

Michael-Lan shook his head. "Bad move Raffie. Think about it. At the moment, the investigation he is officially running is actually helping us and he is the best person we could have in that job. The other investigation, the one that could lead to us, is private, or at least tightly confined. Now, if he dies, the first investigation gets disrupted and remember, we have rivals out there. People will look into his files, they'll find out about his second investigation and that'll make it all official. We'll be the subject of a real League of the Holy Court hunt and that will mean serious problems for us all. So Lemuel lives. What we will do is send him down a blind alley, one where he can find all sorts of interesting things that are utterly unimportant." Michael-Lan thought for a second. "Of course, the other option is to bring him into our little club here. Get him on our side. Human pleasures are seductive and having the best investigator in the League of the Holy Court working for us will be very useful indeed."

"Risky."

"Of course, but the rewards would be great. Ah, Maion's finished her dance." Up on the stage, the blonde angel was nude and knelt before the audience, sweeping her wings over to cover her head. An Erelim rose from his table close by the stage and took her hand, bringing her to his table. Michael waved unobtrusively and Charmeine-Lan came over to join him.

"Raffie, you know Charmeine-Lan, don’t you? She runs the girls who work here. Charmeine, we were just commenting on how well Maion seems to have settled in.

Charmeine-Lan thought for a second. "She was difficult at first but aren’t they all? Her addiction helps of course, if she goes short, she gets very cooperative very fast. But, once she'd settled in, everything worked out. In addition to her heroin, I've been keeping her on some other stuff, just to take the edge off so to speak. But she's worked out some very good variations on the reverential dances she'd been taught. I think she'll make it just fine."

"No trouble with clients?"

"She panicked the first time one got rough with her but that's all. Don't worry Michael-Lan, she's doing fine."

"Who, me worry." Michael-Lan threw his hands up in a traditional Alfred E Neuman gesture and his companions burst out laughing. Charmeine-Lan patted his hand and left. "Well, Raffie, one more round, then I've got to work out how to pull Uriel's nuts, if he still has ownership rights on them, out of the fire."

Second Regimental Headquarters, First Cavalry Division, Banks of the Irawaddy, Myanmar

"The trouble is that we haven't actually advanced more than 250 miles, nobody in this crazy offensive has." Senior Colonel Mahindra looked at the fuel bowsers that were feeding his armored cars and shook his head. It wasn't just that they were American fuel trucks, it was the fact they had just materialized in the middle of his laager. He still couldn't get used to the way his logistics train was working, he radioed for supplies and a helicopter with a sensitive and the equipment to open a portal arrived. Then there would be a black hole in the center of his camp and the trucks with his supplies would just drive out. He couldn't help thinking he had the strategist's dream here. A supply line that just materialized whatever he needed, where he needed it.

That wasn't the end of the matter. The advance was simply leapfrogging from one point to the next. Any attempts by the Myanmar army to form a systematic defense had proved futile, the advancing columns of armor just drove into one of the ubiquitous portals and appeared somewhere else, usually where it would do most damage. It didn’t really matter anyway, the Myanmar Army was collapsing into a rout. The troops that had invaded Thailand were still there, under assault by the 5th, 9th and 15th Infantry Divisions, but the rest of the army was dissolving. That surprised nobody, it was an army of unwilling conscripts with the highest desertion rate in the world. Faced with a mechanized enemy that could jump around the country at will, that army had come to the logical conclusion that being out of uniform was a better place than being in it.

"Any idea where we're going now?" Mahindra's chief of staff instinctively checked the vehicle roster. They were in remarkably good shape for a unit that had advanced so far so fast. Then, he kicked himself, as his Colonel had pointed out, they hadn't. They'd jumped around.

"Over the river, obviously. How and where is another matter." There was another problem, a humanitarian one. The Myanmar junta hadn't bothered to provide any systematic and effective relief to the population in the area devastated by Cyclone Nargis almost fifteen months earlier. Now, with the country opened up by the invasion, convoys of trucks were bringing relief supplies up to the impoverished people. The problem was that the relief agencies wanted to use portals as well and there just weren't enough sensitives to provide them all.

"Sir." A junior officer pointed towards the road leading back to Moulmein. A column of five Humvees, driven nose-to-tail was hurtling along the road in a cloud of red dust. Even as he watched, it stopped at the perimeter and then proceeded towards the vehicle laager. When it stopped, a group of officers debussed, led by a single short figure.

"Uh-oh." Colonel Mahindra prayed devoutly that everything in his regiment was in order.

"Colonel. I need your regiment to move out." General Asanee's eyes ran around the command tent.

"Yes Ma'am. I have a company ready to move now. I can make a full regimental move in three hours."

"Three hours?"

"When we started to resupply, I made up a fast-response team and concentrated on getting them ready to go. Now that's done, we're refuelling the rest of the vehicles."

"Everybody bombed up?"

"Yes ma'am."

The General nodded. "Well done. I see no cause for complaint. Colonel, how would you like to be the first unit into Yangon?"

"Another jump ma'am?"

"That's right, kitten found a sensitive in a village just east of Yangon. We're getting better at doing that all the time. We'll form a portal from here to Hell and then one from there to the new assembly point. Once that's secured, we'll use it as a base for our own sensitives to establish two more jumpheads west of the city and block any routes out. Then, you take your regiment in and secure the city."

Mahindra looked at the map. "Any resistance likely at the first jump-head?"

"Recon says minimal at best. A Global Hawk's overhead but it can't see anything. All the reports we are getting says resistance is crumbling fast. Third of Second got held up at Pa'an because the local people insisted on winding flowers and rosaries around the guns on the tanks. If that pattern stays repeated, you should have no problems."

"Ma'am, I'd like to send the rapid response unit into the jump-head in about one hour. I'll have a full battalion ready to back them up by then. If the rapid response company hits problems, a full battalion will be enough to shoot them out of it, if they don’t run into trouble, then we gain time and we can get the base established earlier."

"Approved." The General leaned back and grinned. "This isn’t warfare the way our fathers learned is it?"

"No Ma'am. We've rewritten the book out here."

"We've rewritten it for campaigning under these circumstances, yes. Whether using portals this way will work in a full-scale war against serious opposition, that's another question entirely."

"North Korea Ma'am?"

"North Korea. Whatever they're up to. I suspect they're watching what's happening out here before deciding what to do in their own back yard. And also what happens to the Myanmar Junta. We're convinced Yahweh put them up to this attack, now the only question is whether he'll bail them out now it's all going pear-shaped."

[Shroom Man 777]

Man, Maion. She's blonde too!

Hey, isn't the Scarlet Beast ridden by the WHORE of Babylon?

EDIT:

The Mason surrenders! WHITE FLAG!

Now that was humor (Micheal, what an asshole)

[Peptuck]

Oh, that wacky Heavenly Court!

Seroiously, the bit with the mason and the white flag had me crying tears of laughter.

[Darmalus]

That the Master Mason knows what parts of the temple Yah-yah can see, and then build a bunker without arousing suspicion, I get the feeling that Yah-yah NEVER moves from that spot. Is he the ultimate couch potato? Eat there? Poop there? Or does he go in and out a back door, and never goes past where the rest of the court hangs out?

[Pelranius]

I was sort of hoping that the Mason would let those two Seraphim into his bunker (probably not enough room though).

Interesting name for the Whore of Babylon (just googled it). Though it is a male name, if I understand my information correctly.

At this point, Jerusalem is probably more of an ethnic symbol for the Arabs and Jews. I wonder what they did with the various churches, mosques and synagogues?

I wonder what the various tribal armies in the north of Burma are doing? As I understand it, the Chinese and Thai have fairly substantial contacts among them, especially Kokang and the Shan.

[Shroom Man 777]

I think it would be cool if Belial eventually discovered how to make it rain fire, but instead of using volcanoes or shit he ended up using phosphorus or oil or Greek Fire or something. Like, suddenly he'd go "BEHOLD!" to Micheal, showing him a Holy Molotov Cocktail, and Micheal would be like "Sweet, let's get our peons to mass produce this stuff!" or something.

FIREBOMBING!

Then when Micheal gets his comeuppance, the human shitpieces in Heaven will end up throwing Molotovs at his face.

EDIT:

Yeah! If Uriel is in the California area, then Micheal can create a RAIN OF FIRE as a distraction! Sure firebomb Molotovs might not be as bad as SKY VOLCANOES, but setting off a firestorm and burning forests down would be good - the MOTHER OF ALL FOREST FIRES! While human emergency forces are busy stopping this, Micheal can get the distraction he needs to grab Uriel's ass!

[Eulogy]

Mike is between a hard place and a landslide. He has to go pull Uriel's ass out of the fire (or at least, that's what he wants others to think). What he doesn't know is that humans can tell when and where portals are forming thanks to DIMO(N), there are already an asston of people looking for Urinal (and many more watching the skies), AND the humans are finally clueing in to using radio waves as anti-angel weapons.

He'll be lucky if neither he nor Urinal gets well done. Urinal will be lucky if Yah-yah lets him live.

[Guardsman Bass]

And it would give the Israelis something to shoot at. I've always wondered how good they really are

Ah ha! I got that - I remember the thread where you brought up the Israelis' military prowess (or lack thereof).

It'll be interesting to see how Michael-lan deals with the retrieval of Uriel (assuming he finds him before the humans do). This is something that could end rather badly for him, particularly if he gets grabbed.

[FireNexus]

Mike is between a hard place and a landslide. He has to go pull Uriel's ass out of the fire (or at least, that's what he wants others to think). What he doesn't know is that humans can tell when and where portals are forming thanks to DIMO(N), there are already an asston of people looking for Urinal (and many more watching the skies), AND the humans are finally clueing in to using radio waves as anti-angel weapons.

He'll be lucky if neither he nor Urinal gets well done. Urinal will be lucky if Yah-yah lets him live.

I don't think Michael is dumb enough to think humans can't detect portal openings at this point. He's probably trying to figure out a way to get into the world without arousing any suspicion. Were I him, I would try to insert myself near enough to another opening portal (one that belongs to humans) to not set off anybody's alarm. How he might manage to do this, I don't know.

Alternatively, he could find a place with almost no cell phone coverage and insert himself there. Regardless, he knows they can see him coming, and that probably worries him a great deal.

[Xenophobe3691]

Or, maybe he can use their tracking abilities to lead them directly to Uriel?

[Memnon]

I'm starting to get a Dune vibe from the sensitives here - that is, it reminds me of the Guild to an extent. If such a third party monopoly forms, then they would have incredible control over Earth's military and trade, just like the Spacers. Of course, I can't see that happening in an era where sensitives are treated as instruments of the state, but once they're commercialized...

[Darmalus]

I'm starting to get a Dune vibe from the sensitives here - that is, it reminds me of the Guild to an extent. If such a third party monopoly forms, then they would have incredible control over Earth's military and trade, just like the Spacers. Of course, I can't see that happening in an era where sensitives are treated as instruments of the state, but once they're commercialized...

The first nation to commercialize their sensitives has just handed them over to all the nations who don't. I could see governments renting unused sensitive time out to the commercal sector during peace, but I can't see them ever not being considered national strategic assets.

Assuming they don't get replaced by computers.

[Pelranius]

Or Michael could have enough of his minions to spam portals in the vicinity of San Diego while he goes to look for Urinal. It might buy him some time (or that would be what he thinks).

How many humans are already in Heaven? We've been given a number of 950 million angels, so I would expect there to be more humans, but it seems that Ya ya was rather restrictive about entrance.

[Mr. Coffee]

Is there any reason why Michael can't have some of his minions that can form portal pair up, one angel forms the portal in and the second angel standing by to form a second portal back to heaven? Like have them kind of leap frog in and out of our plan and back to their plan at random locations. If Michael is half as smart as he seems he has to know that humans can detect the portals and might also figure out that by having a lot of portals opening and closing rapidly over a large areas might spoof our detection systems and mask where he's entering to find Urinal. If anything it also might make for a new challenge for the humans to figure a counter to since they obviously can't just spam missiles or send aircraft/troops at all of the portals if enough start flashing open in a short time frame.

[Eulogy]

Is there any reason why Michael can't have some of his minions that can form portal pair up, one angel forms the portal in and the second angel standing by to form a second portal back to heaven? Like have them kind of leap frog in and out of our plan and back to their plan at random locations. If Michael is half as smart as he seems he has to know that humans can detect the portals and might also figure out that by having a lot of portals opening and closing rapidly over a large areas might spoof our detection systems and mask where he's entering to find Urinal. If anything it also might make for a new challenge for the humans to figure a counter to since they obviously can't just spam missiles or send aircraft/troops at all of the portals if enough start flashing open in a short time frame.

But they can still microwave the area. Urinal's portals got jammed, remember, and they have good reason to continue using their makeshift death ray.

[Xenophobe3691]

It also might be that they're continually pouring EM Radiation into place to prevent Uriel from leaving?

[dragon]

And it would give the Israelis something to shoot at. I've always wondered how good they really are

Ah ha! I got that - I remember the thread where you brought up the Israelis' military prowess (or lack thereof).

It'll be interesting to see how Michael-lan deals with the retrieval of Uriel (assuming he finds him before the humans do). This is something that could end rather badly for him, particularly if he gets grabbed.

Well the Israelis did a good job during the 6 day war, granted all the soilders from then are mostly likely dead by now as it was 1967.

Maybe Michael should let the humans know where Uriel is that way they can kill him before Michael goes to earth.