The Salvation War: Pantheocide. Part Eighty One Up

[Buritot]

I was just wondering, does Earth know about the circumstances of Heaven? How the humans live there? I don't remember anything regarding that. The only reconnaissance whatsoever was the lone jet skimming in and out of a heavenly portal during the Battle of Los Angeles.
I mean, for all Earth knows the humans up there could be frolicking, fart rainbows and whatnot. Probably not, when we take the literal interpretations of the bible so far into context. But we just don't know. I'm no military guy and I still know reconnaissance is essential.

Simon_Jester, you wouldn't care to know how often such things happen to me...

[Darth Wong]

I was just wondering, does Earth know about the circumstances of Heaven? How the humans live there? I don't remember anything regarding that. The only reconnaissance whatsoever was the lone jet skimming in and out of a heavenly portal during the Battle of Los Angeles.

That would have been enough to establish that humans are doing agrarian labour there, and are probably an agrarian slave class.

I mean, for all Earth knows the humans up there could be frolicking, fart rainbows and whatnot. Probably not, when we take the literal interpretations of the bible so far into context. But we just don't know. I'm no military guy and I still know reconnaissance is essential.

Reconaissance is essential, but they have plenty of intel from people like Abigor. They also know that there's been a steady stream of angels and monsters coming out of there.

[Buritot]

I was just wondering, does Earth know about the circumstances of Heaven? How the humans live there? I don't remember anything regarding that. The only reconnaissance whatsoever was the lone jet skimming in and out of a heavenly portal during the Battle of Los Angeles.

That would have been enough to establish that humans are doing agrarian labour there, and are probably an agrarian slave class..

Well, agrarian labour hardly qualifies for agrarian slaves. We readers know it is in fact so, but the humans in-story don't. For all they know it could be the paradise part for hippies. I'm trying to get across, when humans do a thunder run or something like that it oughtn't be "KILL KILL KILL" but rather "take a peek". I know there is a lot of grief in humanity for Yahwehs backstabbing, but what do we actually know?
The Pearly Gates have been closed for approximately a millennium.
Humans were divided upon death in faithful and not and accordingly put to Heaven or Hell.
Hell is pretty much what the source said, with a bit leeway on interpretation for what was at the time not scientifically known.
Heaven chose to instigate the end of the world as we know it was written down. This included massive damage to Earth.

What the source says on Heaven is, the humans are supposedly whoreshipping Yahweh and live in a somewhat paradisical status.


Excuse me if I don't know what exactly is written in the Bible. I tried reading it once and fell asleep during the part on whom begat whom and lived how long. I came to the conclusion reading it front to back is retarded.

[CaptainChewbacca]

We have MORE than the bible-knowledge now. There hasn't been any large-scale movements between heaven-earth-hell for a long time, but you'd be crazy to think there wasn't occasional clandestine movements between the realms. Hell, Michael knew Belial BY NAME when he surrendered. I would guess earth knows the broad strokes of heaven (there's a court, a temple, God calls the shots, etc) but we don't know about the conspiracies.

We know that humans aren't worshipping heaven because we've been told Yaweh uses that worship as a power source, and that humans aren't allowed to stop worshipping. We know this because we've been told by trustworthy sources.

[GrayAnderson]

I like where this is going, though I'm worried the meaning of the Seventh Bowl is that *all* major cities get targeted. "And the nations of Man were no more" and all that. But one thing irks me.

Too many people want Michael to survive. As in "more than zero".

So Mike's funny, good for a laugh, and pretty intelligent. He should live, right?

Hahahahahahaha - fuck no. He should get a cruise missile to the face.

Why, do you ask? Simple. For the HEA's victory to be final, we need to finally let it get through to every last demon and angel that they can hold out for as long as they want once Yahweh and Satan are dead, but in the end, there can be absolutely no illusions about superiority. Whatever assumptions the baldricks and angels had about the role of humans in the "Great Design", it's over; humans can and have killed both angels and demons with contemptuous ease, and the only thing preventing them from simply going Auschwitz on them is because the humans got sick and tired of bloodshed. And we've grown saner, so we as enlightened people don't go around massacring for the hell of it.

Michael-Lan has to die simply because, even in the face of crushing human superiority, he regards humans not as equals but as pawns. First step to getting your ass flattened is to arrogantly assume your enemy is inferior. Mike doesn't regard humans as inferior, but he still considers humans as peons - to wit, read back to Chapter 40 where Michael-Lan crudely brushes off the Myanmar junta, and his inner monologue. The junta absolutely deserved it, but it doesn't make Michael-Lan any less deserving to die.

If he wants to survive, he better accept the fact that humans are going to be the new boss. Abigor did, Satan didn't, and now Satan's dead and Abigor is a president on a string. And given the treachery the angels have shown the humans, I doubt the humans would want anything less than utter surrender or utter annihilation of the Angels.

As a footnote, I want Lt. Yitzhak to get caught in Hell and made to sing like a canary. It's the least the people of Tel Aviv deserve.

Permit me to play the devil's advocate here, but I don't think a perfect, tied-up-in-a-bow victory is necessary for the sake of the plot, and I also don't think it's necessarily a good thing from the stance of realism. I'd also point out that, as Michael knows where there are other earth-like worlds (I assume that all parties involved need a vaguely Earth-like environment), he has a ready escape hatch...he's a useful future antagonist (and one with a respectable fanbase among the readership).

Honestly, though, I don't think that a perfectly "clean" resolution is necessarily the best from either standpoint. Even if the introduction of the Third Level-ers is planned, I don't think a clean resolution here is necessarily best...there were loose ends from the first novel leading in here (other than the most obvious bit, there's still that one high-level demon who got away), and there should probably be loose ends going forward.

[CaptainChewbacca]

-never mind, the argument has already been made-

[Tiwaz]

We have MORE than the bible-knowledge now. There hasn't been any large-scale movements between heaven-earth-hell for a long time, but you'd be crazy to think there wasn't occasional clandestine movements between the realms. Hell, Michael knew Belial BY NAME when he surrendered. I would guess earth knows the broad strokes of heaven (there's a court, a temple, God calls the shots, etc) but we don't know about the conspiracies.

Not even clandestine. Remember that group of Angels who were blown to bits in Hell? Diplomatic mission.

So Heaven and Hell clearly have had traffic going back and forth over time, but we do not know if demons are permitted to travel to Heaven even if they are on diplomatic mission. All messages we have seen have been sent by Yah-Yah to Satan.

Most useful would be location of the main temple, in case humans decide to nuke Yahweh on his throne.


On issue not related to this one. I personally would see lethal bio-weapons as too much of a risk.
They always have incubation period before they kick in, and angels appear to be rather strong stock so it can take little longer on them, and with angels apparently portaling here and there at will the risk of contamination on Earth is just way too high.


And my guess for Babylon is definitely LA. All that immoral movie stuff with naked or near naked women... And with San Andreas fault, or at least it's southern stretch, nearby and without good release for long time would make it more inviting target.

[Saint_007]

Permit me to play the devil's advocate here, but I don't think a perfect, tied-up-in-a-bow victory is necessary for the sake of the plot, and I also don't think it's necessarily a good thing from the stance of realism. I'd also point out that, as Michael knows where there are other earth-like worlds (I assume that all parties involved need a vaguely Earth-like environment), he has a ready escape hatch...he's a useful future antagonist (and one with a respectable fanbase among the readership).

Honestly, though, I don't think that a perfectly "clean" resolution is necessarily the best from either standpoint. Even if the introduction of the Third Level-ers is planned, I don't think a clean resolution here is necessarily best...there were loose ends from the first novel leading in here (other than the most obvious bit, there's still that one high-level demon who got away), and there should probably be loose ends going forward.

*beat*

Hold on a minute. *slaps self* Should have realized what everybody meant. I thought everybody wanted him to stay in the human-ruled Heaven. Silly me.

So yeah, a long-term, competent, genre-savvy antagonist would make for a good long-term enemy. The reason I was uncomfortable with that is because he's almost too good. Give him a good force to build with and he'll probably kick our asses.

As for Heaven's defeat, there will still be those opposing the humans with guerrilla wars, but like the demons, it's just denying the hash reality that both Yahweh and Satan are dead and the old system is gone forever.

I still hope the HEA makes Yitzhak cough up the name of his boss; it should be of some help.

[GrayAnderson]

Yeah...we like having him around as a character, but that doesn't mean he needs to necessarily be in Heaven at the end of the war. Actually, having a genre-savvy antagonist is somewhat refreshing...it's what made Ozymandias somewhat enjoyable in Watchmen. Granted, a lot of what's so amusing about Michael is that he's genre savvy but his boss isn't (and Michael knows this)...but even then, I think his snarky personality adds something to the story.

Truth be told, I could see him duck out the escape hatch and try and rally forces from "elsewhere" against the humans...the fact that we'll have knocked off two local powers in less than five years will, for societies that work in terms of centuries and more, be a shocker. My guess is that we're going to be almost too successful for our own good, and that we may well attract some unwanted attention for it (which I think the name of the third novel would imply)

[Chris OFarrell]

You know, the last chapter really shows how much all the political leaders trust David Petraeus, but it took a second time reading it for it to hit me.

They have actually given him direct release authority for NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL weapons. Think about that kind of responsibility for a second and what it means! I mean with modern C4I those people could arguably held back release control at the highest level, but they have give him the keys to humanities armageddon locker...
That really says something abuot his kudos.

[PainRack]

Yahweh has never signed the Geneva Convention, so arguably he is not covered by it.

From my understanding of the Geneva Conventions, the signatory nations are obligated to follow the convention, whether or not the enemy combatent has or has not signed it.

Current military justice also follows that if he's not an enemy combatent, spy/partisan, then he's a civilian. I'm sure those in the know will be able to elaborate more on the categories.

[Darth Yan]

wait. when did they reach an accord with the north koreans? last i heard the governments were opposed to the demands.

[Saint_007]

America signed the Geneva Conventions - and dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki anyways. I'm not arguing against the bombs, I'm just pointing out that turning His Palace into a mushroom cloud is probably allowable. Besides, we're talking about a situation where the enemy has in excess of a million trained soldiers; we're going to beat that number down quite a lot. Not to mention the Lamb and the Dragon (Leg of Nuked Lamb anyone? With Dragon Puree Sauce?). So to preserve numbers (namely ours), we'll need to kick as much Angel ass as possible in the shortest amount of time. Shitty luck for any attempts by Angels to fortify their positions, since we'll just drop nerve gas on them and move on, but they kinda pushed their luck with the Bowls of Wrath.

Any angels caught as POW's, on the other hand, get the nice treatment. Then they'll find out it's probably been the smarter choice to surrender peacefully than fight back and get vaporized.

[Edward Yee]

Kim Jong Il's son in the story convinced his dad to make up with the HEA during the Myanmar conflict.

[Scottish Ninja]

Kim Jong Il's son in the story convinced his dad to make up with the HEA during the Myanmar conflict.

Yeah, but didn't they still come forward with a list of ridiculous demands? Like "We want free M1 Abrams to reequip all of our armored divisions, &c."

[NullShadow]

Kim Jong Il's son in the story convinced his dad to make up with the HEA during the Myanmar conflict.

Yeah, but didn't they still come forward with a list of ridiculous demands? Like "We want free M1 Abrams to reequip all of our armored divisions, &c."

Yes there was a list of ridicules demands but I think that was just the standard beginning point of "negotiating" process. I think since hell, and especially the revival gate of new arrivals is under control of H.E.A. They have a very strong bargaining point, as in "all your dead belong to us" what is to argue after that, all the people on earth will die eventually? There is not even need to resort to torture threats etc. could be as simple as sending all the "problem" people off to a remote unexplored spot 20,000 km away. With hells' convoluted geography, chances of anyone surviving, and getting back to the "civilized" area of hell would be very remote.

[StrikaAmaru]

America signed the Geneva Conventions - and dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki anyways.

Convention #4, concerning the protection of civilian persons in time of war, wasn't created until 1949; so Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a-ok, from a legal viewpoint. It stank from the moral p.o.v. but morality and law do not necessarily intersect; law and national interest do.

Even so, according to this list USA never signed the Geneva Convention, so it's kinda moot. And even with GC#4 in place, didn't nuclear war plans include bombing cities? Or did I actually get that from movies? *shrug*

Also: I recall the Geneva Conventions, as a whole, being mentioned in Armageddon?? via some stupid White House aid; Dubya's reply was something along the lines of "Did the demons sign the Geneva Convention? No? Too bad."

[Edward Yee]

That "stupid White House aid" was a Judge Advocate General officer who said that the US would be essentially committing a war crime by fighting back against Hell* without any UN approval and saying that he would order the Hornet pilots who'd shot down the demonic heralds arrested for war crimes. According to Stuart, "Gates fell on his sword in order to show the JAG Corps that they do not run the United States and that their attempts to regulate the conduct of war would not be tolerated."

EDIT: Chapter 3 of Armageddon has Attorney General Mukasey suggesting a hypothetical "celestial Geneva Convention" where the demonic heralds had been immune from attack, to explain why the demons had made almost no active attempts to defend themselves before they were attacked. I don't see anything else regarding formal rules of war for humanity to follow imposed from outside the military chain of command (i.e. rules of engagement at the different unit levels).

* Admittedly this scene seems in retrospect a tad bit unrealistic because the point of divergence from the real world was the beginning of 2008, so by then this JAG officer would have been in a US military which had been in Iraq for years... Stuart, were you thinking of the conservative-or-"military news"-minded meme of "lawyers" hogtying the military's ability to apply time-sensitive firepower?

[Stuart]

Admittedly this scene seems in retrospect a tad bit unrealistic because the point of divergence from the real world was the beginning of 2008, so by then this JAG officer would have been in a US military which had been in Iraq for years... Stuart, were you thinking of the conservative-or-"military news"-minded meme of "lawyers" hogtying the military's ability to apply time-sensitive firepower?

Yes; it's one of the scenes that required significant editing because it was time-sensitive. However, the extent to which the "lawyerification" of military operations is handing a significant advantage to the other side (whoever they may be) is a valid concern. The same applies of course in many other areas of society.

[Edward Yee]

Yes; it's one of the scenes that required significant editing because it was time-sensitive. However, the extent to which the "lawyerification" of military operations is handing a significant advantage to the other side (whoever they may be) is a valid concern. The same applies of course in many other areas of society.

I don't feel that the scene's plausibility was time-sensitive to real-life time, unlike my own horrid attempts at writing geopolitics into fic, but rather it's almost implausible because it seems so... dated in-universe, in a "how the hell did he last long enough in the JAG Corps to make it all the way to the President's room?" way. If the point of divergence were 2002-2003, it might have been more plausible for him to have had this view or feel confident (or zealous) enough to openly state it to the National Command Authority after The Message.

[Simon_Jester]

I don't feel that the scene's plausibility was time-sensitive to real-life time, unlike my own horrid attempts at writing geopolitics into fic, but rather it's almost implausible because it seems so... dated in-universe, in a "how the hell did he last long enough in the JAG Corps to make it all the way to the President's room?" way. If the point of divergence were 2002-2003, it might have been more plausible for him to have had this view or feel confident (or zealous) enough to openly state it to the National Command Authority after The Message.

Yeah. The real difficulty is this: the public perception of the Bush White House is that, for better and/or worse, they didn't have a lot of truck with the idea that their operational authority was bound by international conventions. The idea of a JAG officer in the White House protesting a war that is very obviously one of self-defense, against the actual Legions of Hell, on grounds that the UN hasn't passed a resolution favoring it (which it's pretty obvious they will as soon as they get round to it)...

It's not credible. Not in 2007-8, not after years of evolutionary pressure against that kind of thinking in the Bush administration.

Yes; it's one of the scenes that required significant editing because it was time-sensitive. However, the extent to which the "lawyerification" of military operations is handing a significant advantage to the other side (whoever they may be) is a valid concern. The same applies of course in many other areas of society.

Though it occurs to me that, as in many other areas of society, "delawyerification" can also hand advantages to the enemy: "if this is what we're fighting then we must be right!"

This may be a case of Morton's Fork.

[Stuart]

The Forum, Cæsaraugusta, Cisalpine Gaul, New Rome, Hell

"Salve, Senator Junius Varinius Pulpo. I would speak to the subject of sending a Legion to fight alongside the Human Expeditionary Army in the invasion of Heaven." George Matthews had prepared himself carefully for this, his first formal contribution to a debate in the forum. His toga was new and spotless, its carefully-pressed folds draped around him perfectly. For some strange reason he felt it added a sense of occasion, a solemn formality he had never felt before. This wasn't an election day but their Senator had come on his scheduled visit to hear the opinions of his constituents directly. Matthews drew himself up slightly and held eye contact with the Senator.

"Your words will be heard and valued, Citizen George Andrew Matthews." Pulpo spoke the formal response in equally measured, solemn tones. The constituencies were small enough so each Senator could make a reasonable start towards knowing the names of the people he would be meeting today. It was expected of him and when Gaius Julius Caesar expected something of people, it tended to get done.

"Senator, I stand in favor of the proposed deployment. To be a nation-state, a country that stands on its own feet with its head lifted high, means that we must take a full part in the affairs of nations. Take part as an equal partner qualified only by our available power and the skills of those lead us. Our legions are forming and are already feared by those they may fight. Our leadership is skilled and experienced. I believe it is our duty to establish the standing of New Rome as a nation state by assuming our rightful place in the order of nations.

"Of all the affairs of nations, none is more important than the war on Heaven. We have already seen on Earth that those nations who first took up arms against Satan and Yahweh have assumed the leadership of the coalition fighting this war. By taking part in the war, we establish our place and affirm our national identity. More than that, more than the pragmatic demands of politics, there is a moral dimension to this. Yahweh lied to us. He promised that those who followed his ways and lived by the rules he provided would be saved the torments of Hell. Yet, all the time, he was condemning us all to those torments. He should be punished for that deception and it is our duty, as honorable beings, to carry our full share of the burden involved in carrying out that punishment. Senator, Yahweh Delenda Est!"

"All the gods lie to us, they all did it all the time." Senator Pulpo had noted the thunder of applause that had marked the end of Matthew's speech. He was interested to see how this present-timer would handle himself in a formal Roman debate.

"Yahweh is not a god Senator, if such things as gods exist. He is a creature. A powerful creature certainly, one whose capabilities and strength made him seem godlike to our ancestors. But, now we know he is just another inhabitant of this dimension, no different from the daemons who are now our fellow-citizens and form part of our legions. More powerful than most certainly but still just another creature. The other self-proclaimed gods are no different. Those who dealt fairly with us should be treated fairly, those who lied to us and deceived us should be hunted down and a just, dispassionate revenge inflicted. Yahweh is the start, where we should go from there is something fate will decide. There may be real gods, in dimensions still higher than this. If so, then we should treat with them as they treat with us. Honor for honor, insult for insult."

"Spoken like a true Roman." Senator Pulpo spoke approvingly.

Matthews knew the background to his Senator. He had been an early retrieval from the Hellpit, an occupant of the Second Circle. He had spent millennia being buffeted by the great winds that dominated the Second Circle before being trapped by the nets that humans had stretched out to catch the souls condemned therein. From there, he had found his way to the New Roman Republic. He had heard that the legendary Gaius Julius Caesar had formed his new state and wished to be a part of it. He had survived the reign of the Emperor Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus only to die in the chaos that had resulted from the assassination of Commodus and the election of the Emperor Publius Helvius Pertinax. To him, New Rome seemed to offer a new chance, one to make a Rome that lacked the faults of the original, one that would be the shining light that Rome always could have been.

The words of approval met with applause also. Pulpo looked at the crowd gathered to hear the debates and gauged their mood. The deployment of a Legion was popular. "Our noble Consuls Gaius Julius Caesar and Jade Kim have proposed that the Third Legion, commanded by Tribune Theophile Broussard Madeuce, join the Human Expeditionary Army. Your words convince me, Citizen George Andrew Matthews, that in this as in so much else, our Consuls display their wisdom. I shall support their proposal."

George Matthews gave a Roman Salute to Senator Pulpo and took his seat. Behind him on the podium, a daemon had taken his place. Matthews glanced at him quickly, he was disabled and badly scarred and was obviously a survivor from one of the battles in the Curbstomp War. "Salve, Senator Junius Varinius Pulpo. I would speak on the subject of using the revenue generated by supplying food from our farms to the humans on Earth."

"Your words will be heard and valued, Citizen Visharakoramal."

Matthews heard the formal introduction and response as he settled down beside his wife. "You spoke very well George." Rose Matthews whispered the words to her husband quietly, proud of his performance and the approval his words had received. Matthews gently reached out and squeezed her arm. Then they settled back to listen to the rest of the debate.

B-25J "Heavenly Body", Mediterranean

"P-3Cs out of Aviano." Perdue explained quickly. The message had come in a few seconds earlier and meant that Heavenly Body was no longer wholly responsible for a task she was desperately ill-equipped to carry out. It was close to being a miracle that they had managed to track the Israeli submarine this long. Then Pursue stopped himself. There are no such things as miracles. We tracked the Israeli submarine because the water is clear and shallow and because Tyson was skilled enough to plot a search pattern that allowed us glimpses of her through the surface of sea. No miracles, or rather we made our own miracle.

"Hey, old-timer. Why not let the new kids on the block have some fun?" The radio message from the lead P-3 betrayed the affection mixed in with the jeers.

"Sure thing kid." Perdue reflected that calling the aged P-3s 'kid' was a semantic strain. But, compared with the ancient B-25, he supposed they were. He was handling cockpit communications so that Tyson could concentrate on flying his aircraft. "What you got?"

"Couple of Harpoons and Mark 54s. Load of sonobuoys. What you got?"

"Machine guns. Lots of machine guns."

"They'll come in useful if that damned sub makes it to the surface. Right, old-timer, we're heading in to lay buoys now."

The two P-3 Orions swept in, the sea behind them marked with the splashes as the patterns of sonobuoys hit the water. They had laid two long lines, each at 45 degrees to the estimated course of the Tekuma. Together they formed a funnel that converged around the submerged submarine. They also allowed multiple cross references from the noise generated by the submarine's passage. When fighting a diesel-electric boat, multiple sound contacts were essential. Running on batteries, with a skilled skipper and a cautious crew, a diesel-boat was as near silent as made no difference. And so, it was with some surprise obvious in their voices that the next messages reached Heavenly Body.

"Quebec-seven here. We're getting strong flow noise off a contact."

"Quebec-eight. Confirm that. Sending contact data to you now."

Perdue was almost crying with frustration. If he'd be on the P-3s, the tactical displays would be showing the rows of sonobuoys and the contacts from them, the cross-bearings isolating the position of the submarine below. "Quebec seven and eight. What's happening?"

"Hold your horses, old timer." The communications officer on Quebec-seven was getting into the spirit of a 1950s western. "We're getting multiple flow noise contacts but that doesn’t square with a modern diesel-electric. This one sounds more like a WW2 boat. We're got some checking to do before we drop."

"Quebec-seven. We shot the submarine to shit with .50s while they were on the surface. Chewed up the composite fairings on the sail bad. Bits of GRP went all over. Could that be what you're hearing?"

There was a long pause and Perdue imagined the crews on the P-3s talking it over. Eventually the radio crackled again. "Yeah, that could be it. Bits of GRP from damaged superstructure panels vibrating in the water flow. You been tracking it visually since you strafed him?"

"We surely have." Perdue paused and mounted the word "Gas?" at Tyson who gave a thumbs-up. "We got plenty of gas left."

"Good. Hold one." There was another long pause. "We're cleared to shoot."

"You going to drop a nuke?" Next to Perdue, Tyson had suddenly taken an interest in the conversation. "Because if you are we better get well clear. Heavenly Body is one old lady, she can’t take much of that."

"Negative on the nuke old-timer. Just plain old Mark 54s. Get ready to strafe it if it gets to the surface."

Control Room, INS Tekuma, Mediterranean

"We're picking up propeller beat on the sea surface." The sonar operator was alarmed; the sound signature was very distinct. The aircraft that had been tracking them had been joined by two more. He'd even picked up the splashes as the sonobuoys had gone into the water. That had meant they weren't being followed by an antique left-over any more, now they faced modern anti-submarine aircraft flown by crews that had more training in ASW than most of the rest of the world put together. That led to the question that really worried him. Why were they being hunted, they'd killed the Scarlet Beast hadn't they?

Captain Ben-Shoshan was asking himself the same question and he really didn't like the answers he was getting. However, he was unable to pursue the matter further because a much more urgent development demanded his attention. His submarine had just been surrounded by a neat diamond of four active sonobuoys. There was no doubt about that, the low-frequency pulses hitting the hull could be heard by everybody in the submarine.

"Give me maximum power right now!" He knew what was going to happen next, above him the anti-submarine aircraft were coming in for the long, low pass that would end with a pair of torpedoes dropped on his position. In this relatively shallow water with no thermocline to hide under, he had very few options left. Under his feet, he felt the humm as the electric motors picked up power and started to spin the prop faster. He guessed that the propeller wouldn't be cavitating yet, but it was only a question of time. Shallow water meant little pressure on the prop blades so that the bubbles of water vapor would form so much more easily. Every one of them would sound like a tiny hammer hitting the prop blade.

"Torpedoes in the water." The call from the sonar system operator was desperate. On the command system displays, the symbol representing Tekuma had been joined by two more tracks. Ones that were already moving fast towards her and curving in towards her stern. He could see the two crews above him had done an excellent job of killing him. The torpedoes were perfectly placed, one in each stern quarter. No matter how he turned, he was going to be presenting his stern to one and his beam to the other. That left him with few options.

"Launch decoys." Outside, from small tubes built into the superstructure, the torpedo decoys popped out. They included noisemakers that would duplicate the sound of his machinery and bubble generators that would give an active sonar something else to ping. There had been a time when decoys had worked but those days were long past. It was the same everywhere, the computer technology that allowed small hand-held telephones to emulate computers allowed an unprecedented level of data processing inside the warhead of a small, expendable weapon. It wasn't just necessary for a decoy to sound like a submarine, it had to act like a submarine as well. Target Motion Analysis it was called and it had spelt the doom of cheap, expendable decoys. The same technology was now spelling his doom also.

"Do not be concerned, the Lord will protect us." Yitzchak's voice was dreamy, distracted. He had been promised protection and salvation, the archangel who had guided him would not let him down. He would not be allowed to fall victim to those who had allied themselves with the Eternal Enemy.

"Bring her around hard, to starboard." There was a odd quirk with the Dolphin design, she could turn slightly tighter to starboard than to port. It was a tiny fraction but it was the only card Ben-Shoshan had left to play. Then his communications officer’s words struck home. "Yitzchak, what the hell are you talking about? What have you done?"

The Mark 54 had a very specific target. The warhead that could be carried by a lightweight torpedo was inadequate to penetrate the hull of a modern submarine. Probably. So, the Mark 54 had been designed to pick out the submarine's propeller an home in on that. More importantly, it was designed to blow at least one of the blades off that propeller leaving it completely unbalanced. It was the blast that destroyed his propeller that ensured Ben-Shoshan never got an answer to his questions. Not in this life anyway, things would be different very shortly.

With two of its propeller blades blown completely off and the remaining five mangled beyond recognition, Tekuma had no effective propulsion and was losing speed rapidly. Her shaft was still spinning despite the fact that the explosions had bent it through a ten degree angle and that was much more critical than the loss of propulsion. The bent, unbalanced shaft ripped open the shaft tunnel and destroyed the seals that kept the water out. Throughout the stern quarter of the submarine, water started to pout into compartments, weighing down the stern of the boat and dragging her to the bottom. That left just one thing to do.

"Blow tanks! All hands, abandon ship!"

B-25J "Heavenly Body", Mediterranean

"Here she comes!" Perdue's voice was straining with excitement. The two P-3s had made their drops and there had been a nail-biting delay before the pair of oil-stained white towers of seawater announced the hits. Then, the sea seemed to have started boiling as the shock wave had reflected off the seabed and erupted upwards. Now, the sea had boiled again as the submarine blew her ballast tanks in a desperate attempt to get to the surface. The dark green shape arched upwards in the middle of the spray, the sunlight surrounding her with rainbows that gave an almost supernatural aura to the scene. Then the hatches fore and aft of the sail started to open and men started to heave themselves out. Already, yellow life rafts were expanding from their containers on the deck.

"And here we go boys and girls." Tyson was already diving on the submarine, his four nose-mounted .50 caliber machine guns spraying bullets into Tekuma's crew as they tried to abandon the sinking submarine. Heavenly Body's twin .50s in her top turret was firing as well, only Trudy laFonteyn continued her burst as the B-25 swept across her target and continued to pour long bursts into the crew as it started to circle the wreck. She was joined by one of the waist gunners and between them they mowed down the submariners. That was what aircraft like the AC-130 did, they circled their target, mowing down the enemy. It was good, if unexpected, training for laFonteyn.

“A bit harsh that.” Perdue’s instincts as a mariner were overcoming his loathing for the crew of this submarine and what they had done. Beneath them, the submarine was obviously sinking, its stern was underwater and the bows were rising as flooding aft pulled her under. That made her crew fellow seamen in distress and the slaughter as the machine guns mowed them down was repugnant to him. He knew the rationale, submarines carried shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and it only needed one man to bring down a fabulously expensive maritime patrol aircraft and its crew. It still just seemed wrong to him and he was glad whenHeavenly Body ran out of ammunition for her top turret and waist guns.

By that time, Tekuma was clearly in her last moments. She was almost vertical in the water, her bows pointing skywards, her sail already vanishing beneath the waves. With a final flourish caused by the remaining air bubbling out of her hull, she slipped away, leaving nothing on the surface but oil, debris and the bodies of her crew.

“Hey, old timer, Quebec-Seven here. We’ll write you up as an equal share in the kill. Fair?” The radio message from the P-3C caused a cheer in the old B-25. After more than sixty years, Heavenly Body finally had a kill of her own to paint under her cockpit.

“Very fair kids. Now, we’ll take you home.”

[MKSheppard]

I do not foresee a good future for NEW ROME. We all know how the *first* one ended up -- and is Caesar gonna stay Caesar forever?

EDIT: in Rome, the only way someone at the top generally left power was to die in office, or be assassinated in a palace coup.

One of those options is gone due to Second Life -- who wants to wait for Caesar to die a second time? That might occur at the time of the heat death of the 1# universe. So that just leaves knifing him in the back. So expect assassination to take upticks in NEW ROME as more and more actual Romans are found, and try to start again with their old habits.

[Edward Yee]

There went the INS Tekuma... but was the failure of the decoys to work another Take That at the INS, or just Ben-Shoshan playing a desperate hand that he'd already known was unlikely to work?

[Ritterin Sophia]

There went the INS Tekuma... but was the failure of the decoys to work another Take That at the INS, or just Ben-Shoshan playing a desperate hand that he'd already known was unlikely to work?

The latter of the two, I'm sure.