The Salvation War: Pantheocide. Part Eighty One Up

[SCRawl]

No, what I'm concerned about is that it appears they've beaten her to the point where she's going to need a great deal of medical care to keep breathing. I'm not questioning their ability to beat the crap out of someone, just whether it's wise for them to have done so already, unless they finished a fresh round of beatings under Michael's orders before they arrived.

I see your point -- if it was the intention of the guards to beat her, and then incarcerate her, then inflicting fatal damage would seem to be counter-productive. On the other hand, I think it's more likely that the humans are over-estimating the amount of damage done, or rather, under-estimating the abilities of angels to recover from that damage.

[Darth Wong]

They actually needed to beat her to within an inch of her life. The idea is to ally Lemuel with humans, in part by making him grateful to them for their medical assistance. If her injuries are minor, this won't be necessary. Her injuries must be so severe that Lemuel decides it's worth it to beg humans for their help. Now that he has, and he has seen how they swarm around her and try to save her with the urgency that our fine medical professionals always bring to such situations, she could die and he would still be grateful to them.

[Stuart]

A cop with a .600 nitro revolver? Who in God's name would agree to let him carry that on the job?!

You've obviously never been in Prince George's County, MD. The cops there have a REPUTATION.

A Crown Vic, capable going 170 MPH? That would be awesome, but the theoretical top speed of the '98- '03 model is 123 MPH.

That's correct for a civilian model; Cop Crown Vics are not civilian models. Anyway. car chases are measured at peaks; what tends to happen is the chased pulls ahead when things are good but when the road/traffic conditions close in, the chaser closes up. Also, remember, gas rationing - the road are pretty empty.

PS there are Corvette chase cars. DON'T try to outrun one. Where do you think Corvette ZR-1 comes from?

PPS One can, properly equipped, outrun a police Crown Vic. One cannot outrun his radio.

Why should that surprise you? If I was a mobster or some similarly unsavoury character, I could beat you to death in less than 10 seconds with a baseball bat. One good swing will break whatever bone it hits; do the math. It really doesn't take long to cause very serious injuries. An angel would be more durable, but she's also being beaten by individuals who are much stronger as well.

Exactly. One of the things that I've been trying to do throughout TSW is to point out how much damage even seemingly innocuous weapons can do. Even "superficial" bullet wounds cause a lot of damage thet never quite heals right. Hit somebody on the head with a baseball bat and it's odds-on you will kill them. They will not get up, shake their head a little and then wade back into the fray. All weapons can do a lot of very ugly damage very fast. One cop friend of mine put it rather neatly. "It's much easier to beat somebody to death that not to." In short, NEVER underestimate weapons.

I see your point -- if it was the intention of the guards to beat her, and then incarcerate her, then inflicting fatal damage would seem to be counter-productive. On the other hand, I think it's more likely that the humans are over-estimating the amount of damage done, or rather, under-estimating the abilities of angels to recover from that damage.

remember she's been picked up, carried and dropped after having multiple broken bones. Also, the humans haven't treated angels before. My experience with doctors is that udner such circumstances they'll always give the worst possible prognosis. That way, if the victim survives, they look like heroes, if the victim doesn;t, their relatives will be prepared. The worst thing to do is say "oh yeah, they'll make it" and then they don't.

[GrayAnderson]

A Crown Vic, capable going 170 MPH? That would be awesome, but the theoretical top speed of the '98- '03 model is 123 MPH.

It's more likely that the 'Vette was the car that got to 170 mph, which was how the driver made a clean getaway. Also, not every police car in the U.S. is a Crown Victoria.

I know some cops have "unofficial" modifications that will add 10-20 MPH to the official top speeds of their cars. This tends to result in a lot of smiling and nodding when they get caught with the modifications by being able to keep up with such a chase.

They actually needed to beat her to within an inch of her life. The idea is to ally Lemuel with humans, in part by making him grateful to them for their medical assistance. If her injuries are minor, this won't be necessary. Her injuries must be so severe that Lemuel decides it's worth it to beg humans for their help. Now that he has, and he has seen how they swarm around her and try to save her with the urgency that our fine medical professionals always bring to such situations, she could die and he would still be grateful to them.

Good point. Of course, whether the order was express or implied is always a good question, and whether they went a bit harder than was planned or not is also always a good question.

A cop with a .600 nitro revolver? Who in God's name would agree to let him carry that on the job?!

You've obviously never been in Prince George's County, MD. The cops there have a REPUTATION.

Remember, Prince George's County has an MS-13 problem. Also, do remember that a lot of departments started equipping to deal with a loose demon, not just humans, during the first war.

All in all, another excellent chapter.

[xthetenth]

A Crown Vic, capable going 170 MPH? That would be awesome, but the theoretical top speed of the '98- '03 model is 123 MPH.

That's correct for a civilian model; Cop Crown Vics are not civilian models. Anyway. car chases are measured at peaks; what tends to happen is the chased pulls ahead when things are good but when the road/traffic conditions close in, the chaser closes up. Also, remember, gas rationing - the road are pretty empty.

PS there are Corvette chase cars. DON'T try to outrun one. Where do you think Corvette ZR-1 comes from?

PPS One can, properly equipped, outrun a police Crown Vic. One cannot outrun his radio.

Yeah, I recall an article from back home in New York about how they were looking for proper pursuit cars for the police since they'd replaced the crown vics in huge numbers and the impalas they were using didn't have nearly enough power to keep up with an increased number of exotic cars that required the speed they'd given up by going to a cheaper car. I also got the impression that after the vette'd gotten up to 170 the chase ended somewhat soon afterwards. That, and why do you think the bluesmobile got traded for a cop car? (Speaking of said home in New York, I got serious cold shivers when I finally drew a line on a map of Manhattan between Ground Zero and the Intrepid. Any word on how Chelsea fared?)

[CaptainChewbacca]

One thing that surprised me was that Lemuel could not fly and carry Maion at the same time. Are the margins of an angel's ability to fly that narrow that they can't accomodate a second adult?

[JN1]

Cops have always modified their cars to get a little bit of extra speed out of them. In the '80s, for example, the Met's Traffic Department had several Rover SD1s with their V8s bored out to 4.0 litres to allow them to catch Ford Sierra Cosworths. One force did briefly use a Lotus Esprit as a traffic car.
I'd put money on the fact that the engines under the bonnets of the various Volvos, Vauxhalls and BMWs that serve Roads Policing Units over here are not the same as the standard civilian models.

Stu is quite right to say that while you might be able to outrun a cop's patrol car, you definitely can't get beyond the reach of his radio, the force's helicopter (if they have one), or the PNC if they get your registration number. Now that traffic cars are fitted with ANPR cameras they'll know who you are and where you live within seconds.

A 170MPH chase will do well on one of those cop car chase shows.

[Nematocyst]

What about 'pimped' civilian cars? Unless there are regulations to prevent those vehicles from getting parts or engines that would outrun the police.

You've obviously never been in Prince George's County, MD. The cops there have a REPUTATION.

I bet crime rates there are zero. All a cop needs to do is show you his handcannon and you'll be a model citizen...

[Simon_Jester]

Oh, no. No no no.

It's the other way around. Relatively high crime and relatively overzealous police. And a fair number of police brutality incidents.

[Nematocyst]

What? Even knowing that the police carries weapons that there would be nothing left of you to bury if they decided to use them on you?

[nightwyrm]

One thing that surprised me was that Lemuel could not fly and carry Maion at the same time. Are the margins of an angel's ability to fly that narrow that they can't accomodate a second adult?

Flying has always been a rather delicate method of travel if we're going by actual biology. Most birds of prey cannot carry something that is even close to their own body mass and still fly.

[Darth Yan]

I think Maion will die, Mikey will let slip what he did by accident, and Lemuel will work out the truth. He will then call him a monster, they fight, mikey kills lemuel, and the entire scene is witnessed by humans exposing Michael as the monster he truely is. mikey dies in a hail of bullets and gunfire.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I think Maion will die, Mikey will let slip what he did by accident, and Lemuel will work out the truth. He will then call him a monster, they fight, mikey kills lemuel, and the entire scene is witnessed by humans exposing Michael as the monster he truely is. mikey dies in a hail of bullets and gunfire.

That would be disappointing AND anti-climactic, and really, really lame.

[Nematocyst]

Not to mention OOC for someone as careful of the details as Michael.

[Darth Yan]

in retrospect your right. still watching him loose his mind as his plans fall apart would be satisfying after all the douchebaggery he's been doing. still what would you expect to happen? I'm also really curious as to whether this is in real time (i.e. April 21 2010)

[CaptainChewbacca]

Its all approximately in real time, at least that's what Stuart has been working for. I have no idea what will happen to Michael; I know what I WANT to happen, but I learned long ago that you can't predict Stuart.

[Nematocyst]

Bad as it is, I think Michael will sit on his throne as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Heaven.
There's next to nothing we can do about it if we have to save face to the Angels.

[Mobius IO]

Just wanted to stop by and say I really enjoy this series and seeing what Michael's plan is has been very interesting.

It does leave me wonder though if Heaven could have beaten Earth if Michael had really been trying? Between the huge numbers of the host and Michael's understanding of humans it certainly could have been a much more brutal war. And staging from Heaven --> X ---> Earth like he has been doing would continue to keep us on the defensive indefinitely.

[Night_stalker]

A cop with a .600 nitro revolver? Who in God's name would agree to let him carry that on the job?!

Who in God's name is NOT going to let him carry it? What are they going to do, take it away from him? What if a Baldrick shows up? Plus, there's the intimidation factor to be considered.

[TithonusSyndrome]

They actually needed to beat her to within an inch of her life. The idea is to ally Lemuel with humans, in part by making him grateful to them for their medical assistance. If her injuries are minor, this won't be necessary. Her injuries must be so severe that Lemuel decides it's worth it to beg humans for their help. Now that he has, and he has seen how they swarm around her and try to save her with the urgency that our fine medical professionals always bring to such situations, she could die and he would still be grateful to them.

It depends on how superstitious and set in his ways Lemuel is. We already have more than our share of backwoods white trash assholes who blame "the doctors" for killing their loved ones who were probably beyond help, and they didn't have millenia of loyalty to an ever-present deity ingrained into them.

[xthetenth]

They actually needed to beat her to within an inch of her life. The idea is to ally Lemuel with humans, in part by making him grateful to them for their medical assistance. If her injuries are minor, this won't be necessary. Her injuries must be so severe that Lemuel decides it's worth it to beg humans for their help. Now that he has, and he has seen how they swarm around her and try to save her with the urgency that our fine medical professionals always bring to such situations, she could die and he would still be grateful to them.

It depends on how superstitious and set in his ways Lemuel is. We already have more than our share of backwoods white trash assholes who blame "the doctors" for killing their loved ones who were probably beyond help, and they didn't have millenia of loyalty to an ever-present deity ingrained into them.

Luckily, it seems he understands how close to death she is and that nothing the doctors do could kill her more effectively than leaving her to her own devices, otherwise he wouldn't be there. In addition, he just had those millenia of loyalty torn away from him, so he's already got somebody to blame, without needing to blame the people who tried to save her.

[Night_stalker]

It also helps that he knows security will use him for target practice if he tries to interfere.

[UnderAGreySky]

And F-22 Lightning? Don't you mean Raptor?

And the endgame approaches. Looking forward to see Lemuel's interrogation.

[Stuart]

And F-22 Lightning? Don't you mean Raptor?

I did; good catch. I've been doing too much defense budget work recently

[Spekio]

Wow, Stuart must be really inspired. 2 chapters in less than one week?