Simon_Jester wrote:This is all reasonable and I agree with it.
But people do strange and often foolish things when they start winning wars easily. "Victory disease" is very real.
For that matter, we might simply be overconfident in our ability to make peaceful contact with potential rivals stronger than ourselves and underestimate the possibility that they'll be too alien to talk to or aggressive enough to attack us as soon as we get their attention.
A good example of "victory disease" is that suffered by the Japanese in WW2. The problems come when you think that you have it all worked out and your planning, already overly complex in the case of the Japanese, assumes the reactions of the adversary. That can often lead to centralised micro-management of fluid tactical and operational situations that generally leads to at least some grief.
Humans aren't anywhere near there yet, in my opinion.
Edward Yee wrote: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?
Modern technological innovations (indicated by the "cell phone technology" reference) has made it very, very difficult for a decoy to actually decoy a seeker. Until someone comes up with a better decoy, that is. However, the Tekuma didn't have anything better, and what they did have wasn't good enough.
The whole field of ASW warfare is very hush-hush. It's very hard to find solid (or at least, solid-like) data about it in open literature, which naturally is very disappointing for the military-fans around (like me).
Still : http://www.defencetalk.com/torpedo-coun ... eet-22423/
Typically, not much is said about how it actually works. Just that it's "innovative" and designed to counter the latest torpedos. I'm willing to believe that it may be the case indeed, given how the submarine nuclear deterrent is France's defense crown jewel (and an expensive one, about 20% of the Defense budget alone).
iborg wrote: The whole field of ASW warfare is very hush-hush. It's very hard to find solid (or at least, solid-like) data about it in open literature, which naturally is very disappointing for the military-fans around (like me).
Still : http://www.defencetalk.com/torpedo-coun ... eet-22423/
Typically, not much is said about how it actually works. Just that it's "innovative" and designed to counter the latest torpedos. I'm willing to believe that it may be the case indeed, given how the submarine nuclear deterrent is France's defense crown jewel (and an expensive one, about 20% of the Defense budget alone).
Typically, discrimination technology is running well ahead of decoy technology and the gap is increasing all the time. That's been the general trend since the 1970s. Using aircraft infra-red decoy flares as an example, in the 1960s virtually any infra-red source would do. Then, as discrimination capability grew, the flares had to have ther ight type of infra red emissions, then they had to have the right types (in combination), then they had to have the right patterns and types. Then, the flare didn't just have to look like an aircraft, it also had to behave like one. The missile head would reject a "target" that suddenly changed course by 90 degrees and did a ballistic arc downwards. That meant flares really didn't work at all and everybody started to go to towed decoys. Unfortunately towed decoys are behind the target aircraft so you can imagine what happened next. The good news about all of this is that these considerations only affect the latest and best missiles; there are still a lot of old ones out there that are easily foxed.
Anti-torpedo decoys work the same way. The earliest just made lots of noise and that drew the torpedo away (equivalent to flares). Other types generated clouds of bubbles that gave a solid sonar return (equivalent to chaff). The same pattern followed; as sensors improved and discrimination techniques got better, they filtered out the early decoys and forced the designers to produce ever more complex systems. It's reached a point now where to be effective, a decoy has to be virtually a miniature submarine in its own right (actually, modified torpedoes fitted with noise emitters). Of course, they are the size of torpedoes and they take away from the submarine's torpedo load-out. Again, the age consideration applies; its one thing trying to fox a torpedo from a U.S. or British SSN, much, much easier trying to fox one from (say) an Indonesian 209.
Every nation in this business (in the case of ASW that's very few) has two teams, the decoy design team and the discrimination design team. The decoy people keep trying to come up with new ideas and the discrimination people try and beat them. At the moment, the discrimination people are drawing further ahead all the time, its getting to the point where they're countering decoy technologies before the decoy people think of them (in other words, as the decoy people come up with new ideas, they're increasingly finding that existing discrimination technologies have already countered them).
In the final analysis, decoys in ASW have limited utility. They're installed on the basis that a low percentage chance of success is better than none at all.
Nations do not survive by setting examples for others
Nations survive by making examples of others
JBG wrote:A good example of "victory disease" is that suffered by the Japanese in WW2. The problems come when you think that you have it all worked out and your planning, already overly complex in the case of the Japanese, assumes the reactions of the adversary. That can often lead to centralised micro-management of fluid tactical and operational situations that generally leads to at least some grief.
Humans aren't anywhere near there yet, in my opinion.
That was a specific instance of victory disease, as applied to a particular group. I'm worried about different versions of the condition cropping up. Overplanning is certainly one way for it to nail you, but strategic overconfidence can do it too.
As a somewhat controversial example I offer the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq with a relatively small occupying force, and their expectation that the conflict would be settled within a few years and a few hundred billion dollars, at most. Both the cost and the time required to win in Iraq look to be something close to an order of magnitude greater than Bush and his advisors expected; what were they missing when they made their plans?
I submit that one of the things they missed was how little the recent 'revolution in military affairs' has actually done for the US's ability to fight guerillas, compared to how much it did for the US's ability to fight conventional militaries. And that two of the reasons they missed it were excessive confidence in Iraq's strategic weakness (that they wouldn't fight a full-out guerilla war against an American occupation force), and excessive confidence in their own strength based on their sense that they had superior firepower.
Assuming the reactions of the adversary and micro-managing your battle plans ahead of time are certainly symptoms of victory disease, but they aren't the only ones. And I'd expect it to manifest differently on the level of strategy than it does at the operational level (where it bit the Japanese the hardest in cases like Midway).
I definitely see the "we don't know what else is out there" point...I'd be inclined to put humans slightly on the high end of the continuum of what would be out there (that is, slightly above the "hump") in terms of technological civilizations, and further up in terms of just what's out there in general (that is, also counting areas with no civilization or without even any advanced lifeforms).
Of course, putting them there doesn't exclude the likely presence of a "long tail"...a civilization that got through a lot of what I'll assume to be standard troubles and had a billion-year head start on us, for example. And this isn't even dealing with stuff back in "normal space"...
Another point that does come to mind is that the demons should be able to "punch through" back to the other worlds they'd laid waste to thousands of years before...worlds which presumably:
A) Are habitable by humans (as human and demon biology come from the same source and are compatible in certain ways);
B) Lack any notable civilization (one assumes that the pre-existing civilization got squashed pretty thoroughly when the angels and demons came storming through, even if the race might have survived in small-but-sustainable numbers...unless they also decided to trash the ecosystem or mess with the atmosphere, I'd expect small numbers of the races to have survived simply through incomplete work in one part of the world or another...one could easily see an Amazon tribe having been missed on Earth had the invasion not been stopped); and
C) Lack any super-deadly diseases which would likely carry back (see A).
Granted, this is very much a "spare time" project, but it's at least something that can be done.
Stuart wrote:In the final analysis, decoys in ASW have limited utility. They're installed on the basis that a low percentage chance of success is better than none at all.
Going off topic for a moment... Wouldn't a small anti-torpedo mine be the logical replacement for decoys? Give it neutral borancy and a moderately smart proximity fuze, and dump it after manouvering into a stearn chase. The fuze would see one big signal moving away at low speed, and one or more small signals moving closer at high speed. Detonate at some optimum range and you might blind or destroy the seeker heads.
ANTIcarrot wrote: Going off topic for a moment... Wouldn't a small anti-torpedo mine be the logical replacement for decoys? Give it neutral buoyancy and a moderately smart proximity fuze, and dump it after manouvering into a stern chase. The fuze would see one big signal moving away at low speed, and one or more small signals moving closer at high speed. Detonate at some optimum range and you might blind or destroy the seeker heads.
People have been playing with active anti-torpedo devices for some time. For surface ships, its possible to use salvo rocket launchers for the purpose; there the idea is just to lay down a barrage of explosions on the torpedo's inward path. Submarines are a bit trickier. The mine idea is plausible but for the expense and load penalties, we might as well go the whole hog and build and anti-torpedo torpedo. Now that's been done and it works quite well in isolation. The problem is that the false alarm rate is horrendous and one's liable to run out of anti-torpedo torpedoes. ATTs have been used from surface ships as well.
With subs, there is another problem. Subs are actually blind astern. That's because of the screw blocking out sonar. Now, if the submarine maneuvers the inbound torpedo into a tailchase, its put the inbound where it can't see it. That makes countermeasures very difficult. All in all, its better to shoot at the launching submarine and hope that doing so will screw up its fire control solution.
Nations do not survive by setting examples for others
Nations survive by making examples of others
I have seen a photograph of a British escort vessel (either a sloop, or frigate) that has just managed to counter-mine a German acoustic torpedo, so it was possible back in WW2. However that was over 60 years ago and technology has moved on since then.
'Fire up the Quattro!'
'I'm arresting you for murdering my car, you dyke-digging tosspot! - Gene Hunt.
JN1 wrote:I have seen a photograph of a British escort vessel (either a sloop, or frigate) that has just managed to counter-mine a German acoustic torpedo, so it was possible back in WW2. However that was over 60 years ago and technology has moved on since then.
Sensor discernment technology works both ways, though, so it would probably be easier now to track a torpedo accurately enough to start firing rockets and anti-torpedo torpedoes at it. Special lightweight 12.75in torpedoes would I imagine work well in the later role for surface ships. Goddess knows that a carrier wouldn't have a problem with carrying enough of those to deal with the false alarm issue.
The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. -- Wikipedia's No Original Research policy page.
Quick question. Where can I find more of Stuart's work? The only things I've read of his so far are the Salvation War series and The Wooden Sword, both of which I immensly enjoyed. However I can't seem to find anything else. Can someone provide me with a link or point me in the right direction?
Also, to Stuart, where do you get your inspiration, writing wise, from? Is there a particular author that has influenced you more than others?
Erra - when you go to the link provided by JN1, you may not see Stuart's stories in the "Alternate Universes" section. You will have to register at the forum for it, and prove that you are not a bot in another forum
Also, some of his works are found only on Amazon. Look for "The Big One", "The Great Game" and some others.
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies,
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Erra, as books in the TBOverse series are completed they are deleted and published in dead tree form. There are a number of stand alone side stories in TBO, such as "Wooden Sword" that remain on HPCA. At present there are two developing books in the TBOverse.
However, much of the old stuff was lost to the evil god Yuku-poo when EzBoard lost its mind so HPCA is now based on a superior program. JN1 even moved his outstanding TLW from Navweaps to HPCA since the former is still Yuku and it fucks with formatting to a degree that Jan had to move TLW to maintain the quality that he requires.
ray245 wrote:Stuart, have you ever thought of publishing your books in an e-book format?
I have; the facility exists at my publisher. It's an option I have decided not to go with at present for a number of reasons. It may happen in the future but some of my questions concerning E-books will have to be resolved first.
Nations do not survive by setting examples for others
Nations survive by making examples of others
JBG wrote:Erra, as books in the TBOverse series are completed they are deleted and published in dead tree form. There are a number of stand alone side stories in TBO, such as "Wooden Sword" that remain on HPCA. At present there are two developing books in the TBOverse.
However, much of the old stuff was lost to the evil god Yuku-poo when EzBoard lost its mind so HPCA is now based on a superior program. JN1 even moved his outstanding TLW from Navweaps to HPCA since the former is still Yuku and it fucks with formatting to a degree that Jan had to move TLW to maintain the quality that he requires.
A hearty recommendation for TLW from me, excellent work, it's noticeable that Jan put a lot of work into it.
Stuart wrote:I have; the facility exists at my publisher. It's an option I have decided not to go with at present for a number of reasons. It may happen in the future but some of my questions concerning E-books will have to be resolved first.
I hope the resolution comes; I, for one, would like to buy your books, but the main problem I face is finding space for them in my stacks.
Yes, I said stacks; at this point I'm out of shelving. Next time I move to a new apartment, I think I'll just sleep in the closet and use the bedroom as a library...
Guardsman Bass wrote: Did that happen to Interstellar Highways? I really hope not.
I still have the text of Interstellar Highway and I've been going through it, doing some cleaning up. It'll be quite some time before it gets published though, probably 2012.
Nations do not survive by setting examples for others
Nations survive by making examples of others
He knew something was wrong the moment he stepped into his home. It wasn't just that the small palace was silent, there was something else. A brooding air of tension and anger. In a way that Lemuel-Lan-Micheal couldn’t quite comprehend, it was as if the house itself was sullen and resentful. It didn't help matters that he wasn't feeling very well. It was strange, he always felt fine when he was with Maion, at the Montmartre Club or at the Temple but as soon as he was away from them for any length of time, his feeling of contentment and gentle bliss would go and be replaced by headaches, irritation and vague, formless anger. It was this pattern, more than any other factor, that had finally reconciled him to the now self-evident truth that the Temple of Ceaseless Compliance was, in fact, merely an over-zealous proponent of the True Path. As his new friends had pointed out, austerity and spirituality had its place once, but new times and new conditions demanded change. If they could better serve The One Above All by following a different way, was it not their duty to do so?
Something else was missing as Lemuel-Lan entered the vestibule of his house, Onniel was nowhere in sight and for that he was grateful. Her sneering, contemptuous voice was the last thing he needed to hear right now. What he really wanted was to stretch out in his pool, let his wing-feathers soak in the limpid waters and feel their warmth wash away his discomfort. That wasn't too much to ask was it? Or to have his wing-feathers combed so they lay flat and comfortable. Maion wouldn't even have to be asked, she would know that such small services would please him.
As it turned out, a warm relaxing bath was too much to ask. On his way to the pool, Lemuel-Lan had to pass one of the entrances to the servants quarters and from therein he heard the sounds of weeping. A few seconds attention identified the sound as one of his human slaves. Sadly, Lemuel-Lan put aside his desire for a bath and entered the quarters to find out what the problem was. That was normally something he would not do but this was not a normal situation. If there was trouble in the servants quarters, his loyal Ishim Zahuliel-Lan-Lemuel would deal with it, a minor affair without bothering him with the details, a more serious problem would result in a briefing after Zahuliel had dealt with it. Only the most major of difficulties would cause him to consult with Lemuel before taking action. But, this time, the matter was obviously not solved now was Zahuliel out here to consult with him. So, Lemuel broke one of his private rules and made his way into the servants quarters.
What he saw there combined with his headache, sickness and general malaise to cause him to completely lose his temper. One of the human maids, Judith, was stretched out on her bed, being tended by the other humans. She had been so badly beaten that her body was covered with rippling shades of blue and violet. The humans and Ishim scattered away from her as they saw Lemuel approach, cringing on the floor in terrified submission. That just added to his anger, he had never demanded submissive displays from his domestic staff and he had never done anything to warrant this show of outright fear.
"What happened here?" His words lashed around the quarters, bringing whimpers from Judith and the other humans.
"Most Honored Ophanim, The Lady Onniel demanded that the evening meal be served at an early time and that the remains be left out for you. Judith told her of your orders that the regular meals only be served in your presence." Zahuliel drew a deep breath. "The Lady Onniel was most displeased. She spoke in great anger, telling Judith that her words were to be obeyed, not yours, and that the meal was to be served. Judith held fast to your orders Most Noble Ophanim and refused to be forced into disobeying you. The Lady Onniel beat her but still Judith held firmly to your command. The beating continued with The Lady Onniel losing all control of herself and only stopped when Judith was unconscious."
"So she is reduced to this sad state by her loyalty to my commands?" Lemuel was well beyond anger now, he was filled with a cold fury that he had not known for millennia.
"That is so, Most Noble of Ophanim." Zahuliel-Lan-Lemuel spoke gravely.
"Then she deserves to be honored. Zahuliel, go to the Temple of Ceaseless Compliance and ask the staff there for assistance. They have skilled healers who have access to hu . . . . . to healing techniques of great value. Judith is to be given the best treatment available for the injuries she received in my service. As for the rest, I will deal with this now."
Rage filling his mind, Lemuel strode out of the servants quarters and returned to the family part of the palace. Onniel had emerged from wherever she had been when he had arrived and was standing in the middle of the vestibule, hands on her hips, wings twitching with anger. "How dare you give orders that meals were not to be served except in your presence. You barely ever come here, this is my home!"
"No longer." Lemuel's words slashed across the gap between them. As a male Ophanim he was much stronger than Onniel and rage added to that differential. He had little difficulty in seizing her by the hair and one wing and dragging her towards the doors. He had to detach one hand to open them and that gave her a chance to try and squirm away, but his grip on her hair held and he dragged her through the open doors onto the steps that led down to the street below. It took only a little more of his rage-augmented strength to hurl Onniel down those steps.
"I, Lemuel-Lan-Michael, Reject You!" His voice, loaded with all the power behind it he could muster boomed around the street, echoing off the temples and palaces and causing the rainbows of light cascading from the semi-precious stones that lined their walls to ripple and flare. Around him, passers-by, both Angelic and human, stopped at the sound. This was something new, something to gossip about. Nothing this interesting had happened on Heaven's streets for millennia. Below him, Onniel looked up, stunned at both his actions and his words.
"I, Lemuel-Lan-Michael, Reject You!" Once again the words boomed around the streets and echoed off the walls. They were met by a collective gasp from the rapidly-increasing crowd of onlookers, all of whom were experiencing a vicarious sense of enjoyment at the unprecedented scene. A public repudiation of a mate hadn't happened in The Eternal City for so long that nobody could put a precise number on the millennia in which it had happened. Those a little more in the know quickly briefed the others on the repeated instructions Onniel had received from the priests on the correct conduct of a mate and how the repetition of those instructions had shown how she had failed to heed their content. It didn’t help that Onniel had been growing steadily less popular in the neighborhood as her bitterness and anger had taken over. Looking down from the top of the steps, Lemuel saw heads nodding wisely. His actions may be virtually unprecedented but the people below approved. It never occurred to him that, following the purges, his position at the League of Holy Court meant that they would approve no matter what he did.
"I, Lemuel-Lan-Michael, Reject You!" The third and last repetition of the formula resounded around the streets, even louder and more firmly than before. There was only one thing left to do and Zahuliel, reliable retainer that he was, had already made the preparations. As he had heard the First Rejection, he had gone to Onniel's room and gathered her robes into a basket. Now he gave that basket to Lemuel who threw it at Onniel cowering on the steps below. The robes fell away from the basket as it tumbled through the air and fluttered down around her. She just looked at them, dumbfounded, unable to accept what was happening to her.
"As I Have Spoken, So Shall It Be!" Lemuel's rage-inspired voice thundered even more loudly and to his amazement there was a weak roll of thunder and a weak, feeble flash of lightning at his words. That ridiculously pleased him and he felt his anger ebb. His thunder and lightning display might have been weak and pathetic by the standards of those Michael-Lan could get Yahweh to generate but they were still one of the few he had managed. He turned around and strode back towards the doors of his palace.
Behind him, he heard Onniel screaming in shocked anger. "You will pay for this." Or words to that effect reflected Lemuel who hadn't quite heard them. As he looked back, he saw Onniel-Lan, her name no longer having the honorific that associated her name with his, scrambling around on the steps trying to gather her robes. She would need those, she had nowhere to go and nobody to look after her. Serve her right, Lemuel thought, she deserved it after what she did to Judith. The people who had gathered to watch the unprecedented event were already departing and Lemuel had no doubt that the story would be echoing around the forums within minutes. There would be consequences, he knew that, but he would live with them.
A few minutes later, the garden at the center of his palace was disturbed as two Angels came into land. One, he didn't recognize but the other was Charmeine-Lan herself. "You came yourself, Noble Lady?"
Charmeine-Lan smiled at him. "Of course I did. Zahuliel-Lan-Lemuel told me of what has happened here. You are one of us, Lemuel-Lan-Michael, one of our people and that means your people are our people also."
She paused for a second, she had spoken the phrase with emphasis for it was critical that Lemuel remember what she had said and how she had said it. She looked at him and saw the realization of what the phrase meant sink in. Now it was time to reinforce the lesson.
"If they need help, it is for us to succor them. Leaders serve their followers Lemuel, just as much as followers serve their leaders. I am not a great healer myself, but Ohimasael-Lan-Charmeine here is the best healer in our part of the Angelic Host,. He will tend to your servant and heal her wounds." Then she looked at him and frowned. "But you are unwell yourself? A glass of 'our' wine might help you I think."
Lemuel took the goblet from her and drank the contents down. It was strange but now he was with his friends again and enjoying their hospitality, his state of bliss was returning.
Michael-Lan's Office, Temple of Righteous Ardor, Eternal City
"So which city do we drop rocks on?" Raphael-Lan sat back in the chair, looking at Michael-Lan getting the final arrangements for the Seventh and last bowl of wrath ready. "Las Vegas?"
"Hardly." Michael-Lan grinned at the friendly barb. "New York I think."
"Why New York?" Raphael-Lan was genuinely curious. In the unofficial Montmartre Club sweepstakes, he had drawn Chicago. He thought over the draw carefully, Leilah-Lan had drawn New York hadn't she?
"Tradition Raffie, tradition. Have you noticed how when the humans make their disaster films, it's always New York that gets flattened? From King Kong onwards. We are traditional creatures Raffie, we must respect the traditions of others. And that means dropping rocks on New York."
"That can't be the only reason." Raphael-Lan knew Michael-Lan too well for that. He was well aware that Michael had about as much respect for tradition as he had for Yahweh which meant none at all. "What's really going on?"
"Why are we pouring the Bowls of Wrath, Raffie?"
"To upset the humans and keep them running around chasing their own tails."
"That's right. Only we don’t want them just upset with Yahweh, we want them screaming mad with anger and hate for him. Then, when they burst into Heaven and find Belial's concentration camp with its tortured inmates, all that rage and hate will pour out and be directed at Yahweh and Yahweh alone. Directed away from the Angelic Host, all thrown at Yahweh himself. I've said this before Raffie and at risk of being a bore, I'll say it again. If humans burst into Heaven and decide to start shooting at us, we’re gone. All of us. Humans are too good at killing, they have to be diverted to another target. Something that will absorb their energy – and their firepower.
"And that's why we're going to drop rocks on New York. There's something there that when we drop rocks on it, will send them mad. They'll be filled with rage and hatred and they'll want only revenge. Then, that's when we'll give them the chance and the target."
Michael-Lan completed the arrangements and decided it was time to set the final pieces of his scheme into motion. "Raffie, we're getting near the endgame now. Soon, I'm going to have to face off against Yahweh. You need to start getting our act together. I'll need every bit of support I can get when that happens and I need to make sure that Yahweh sits on that throne, alone and isolated.
Raphael l-Lan nodded in acknowledgement, went to the window and launched himself from the ledge. Michael watched him flying across The Eternal City and sighed sadly. His comment to Gabriel-Lan had been accurate, things really were getting close to the end-game now and this was where bad things happened. He stepped out on to the ledge himself, inflated his flight sacs and took off.
Slums, The Eternal City, Heaven
"So, what has your progress been to date."
Qaphsiel-Lan-Shekinah looked at the shining white figure that towered over him and shuddered slightly. When he had been recruited into the idea of an insurgency in Heaven, the idea had appealed to him. Now, he had seen what really lay behind the words and concepts and he, more than anything else, simply wanted to turn the clock back.
"As you instructed Mighty Lord, I have instructed the cells in our movement to plant bombs in the market places where the humans and Ishim buy their goods. Each bombing has been followed by demands to release political prisoners, whatever they may be, and make concessions to the humans and the lower-rank members of the Angelic Host. Our demands have been ignored, of course."
"And so, your campaign must continue. Where do you plan to plant your bombs next?"
"In the temples Might Lord, those run for the humans and for the Ishim. We will continue there before returning to bomb the markets."
"Very good. And the other matter you were ordered to watch."
"Lemuel-Lan-Michael, Mighty Lord? There was a great dispute in his abode not more than a few hours ago. He publicly repudiated his mate Onniel and drove her out. She wanders the markets now, in a state of shock, without knowing what to do or where to go. Behind her back, the others laugh at her for when she was Lemuel's mate she struck great poses and was always quick to cut others down with her tongue. None have sympathy for her and none go to her aid."
"Excellent. Now, there is fresh work for you Qaphsiel-Lan-Shekinah. You will plan and execute the abduction of Onniel. When she is in your hands, you will move her to a place of safety from which she will be unable to leave or communicate with anybody. Plan this most carefully so that there is no sign of anything untoward happening to her. It must appear that she has simply left fro another part of The Eternal City. Do you understand that? That is the most important part of this whole operation."
"What is the aim, Mighty Lord? To hold her for ransom? Or make demands that must be fulfilled lest her existence be ended?"
"You are curious Qaphsiel-Lan-Shekinah? Salaphael-Lan was curious also and look what has happened to him. Now, he sits in the darkness, babbling meaningless chants to himself, his mind gone beyond redemption. So, are you curious Qaphsiel-Lan-Shekinah?"
Qaphsiel-Lan almost lost control of his bladder when he thought of what had happened to Salaphael. "No, Mighty Lord, I am not curious. About anything."
"Very good. Do not ask questions above your station again. But, I will tell you this. This kidnapping is but the first. There will be another of much greater importance than this one. You will rehearse your plans well and the kidnapping of Onniel will be the test of your plans. Do you understand this?"
"Yes, Might Leader."
"Then go and make your plans. And plant more of your bombs, the campaign must continue."
Qaphsiel-Lan-Shekinah gathered his wits together and left as quickly as he could. These meetings always filled him with fear of what might happen if he said the wrong thing or failed to complete his orders. He didn't understand what he was doing or why, none of it made any sense to him. But one thing he did know, and he knew it all too well, was that doing exactly as he was told, no more and no less, was the only thing that stood between him and the horrible fate that had befallen Salaphael and the rest of the organization.
Watching him go, Michael-Lan carefully evaluated the scheme that was now running into its most critical phase. It was dangerous, although things had worked more in his favor than against him and the way things had developed had helped him. It was timing that was the problem, he'd been deadly afraid that the problems over the Fourth Bowl would throw his plans so far off schedule that the delay would be critical. The discovery of all the plots against Yahweh and the realization that he was not alone in wishing Yah-Yah's downfall had helped him regain that time. He had feared he would have to subvert or assassinate the whole of Yahweh's inner court; the discovery that they were all plotting against him had saved him from doing that. Now, the last great gambit was starting and, once again, Michael-Lan knew that he would have to be at its center if it stood a chance of succeeding.
He was gambling, he knew it, he was pitching his knowledge of humans, his ability to mold events and his understanding of how Heaven worked against Yahweh's immense power. For all that, it was still a gamble. That was, after all, why he loved Las Vegas so much.
Last edited by Stuart on 2010-03-12 10:25pm, edited 1 time in total.
Nations do not survive by setting examples for others
Nations survive by making examples of others
JBG wrote:Erra, as books in the TBOverse series are completed they are deleted and published in dead tree form. There are a number of stand alone side stories in TBO, such as "Wooden Sword" that remain on HPCA. At present there are two developing books in the TBOverse.
However, much of the old stuff was lost to the evil god Yuku-poo when EzBoard lost its mind so HPCA is now based on a superior program. JN1 even moved his outstanding TLW from Navweaps to HPCA since the former is still Yuku and it fucks with formatting to a degree that Jan had to move TLW to maintain the quality that he requires.
A hearty recommendation for TLW from me, excellent work, it's noticeable that Jan put a lot of work into it.
Thanks very much.
'Fire up the Quattro!'
'I'm arresting you for murdering my car, you dyke-digging tosspot! - Gene Hunt.
Didn't anyone ever tell him that the House ALWAYS wins? I don't think he gets how much the humans already know about what he has done...
Still, NYC...
This is going to be bad. Although it might allow the endgame to go ahead, if that portal opens and they can get readings on it, shoot a UAV through and get specalized spatial data for a sensitive to open up a portal to it...
His Mind is going to get opened all right, I just dont think he comprehends in the precise manner....
Y'know, as in the , "rip off top of skull and scoop brains out" kind?
"Of course, what would really happen is that in Game 7, with the Red Sox winning 20-0 in the 9th inning, with two outs and two strikes on the last Cubs batter, a previously unseen meteor would strike the earth, instantly and forever wiping out all life on the planet, and forever denying the Red Sox a World Series victory..."
