The Salvation War: Pantheocide. Part Eighty One Up

[SCRawl]

You will note that the character using it fell flat on his back the first time he pulled the trigger

Actually, that reminds me of a question I had when I read that line. I don't own a firearm, but it seems to me that if I were to take possession of the world's most powerful handgun -- we'll describe this thing as a handgun for want of a better name for the moment -- one of the first things I would want to do with it is take it to the firing range. Is the ammunition just too expensive or rare to waste on training with it?

[Nematocyst]

A round the size of a Coca Cola can sounds expensive to me.

[Saint_007]

Just thought of something...

If Lemuel (and maybe Michael) are going to ease our entryway into Heaven, would they help the HEA take out the Divine Host the moment it steps out of the portal? Meaning are they going to make it easier for the HEA to make a clean sweep? What I mean, would they divulge the location of the attack/staging area, or would they facilitate it such that the Angelic Host would effectively be marching into a deathtrap?

EDIT: To further clarify my point: Would Michael tell Jesus to walk up to the US Military, or would the Host be somewhere the Humans can simply nuke/annihilate without worrying about civilian casualties? Like Saudia Arabia, Monument Valley, or the Gobi desert?

And yes, I know I might be asking for too much here.

[Bayonet]

it seems to me that if I were to take possession of the world's most powerful handgun -- we'll describe this thing as a handgun for want of a better name for the moment -- one of the first things I would want to do with it is take it to the firing range. Is the ammunition just too expensive or rare to waste on training with it?

You got that right! Anyone taking an unfired weapon into combat is something of a fool. I don't care how expensive the ammunition is, you've gotta know first hand, what the thing will do.

The cartridges for that thing must be bloody expensive.

[Barrigana]

Damn, imagine how strong you would have to be to do Gun Fu with that.

[NITPICKING]
A very minor detail, Manuel's surname would be "Porto" not "Oporto".
[/NITPICKING]

Oporto can be used as a surname, too.

I imagine it can, if the person in question was born in the US. In this case however why would an immigrant already have an anglicized version of his family name? Unless his family had really immigrated to England in a past generation and his name has no relation whatsoever with his nationality that is.

[xthetenth]

Same reason why the Nazis were enamored of the King tiger and were trying to build the P-1000 Ratte, and the same reason the Japanese, Americans, and British were trying to build the biggest warship in the years before WW2. It's a pure dick-swinging competition, and *everybody* loves to say they built the biggest, baddest piece on the market. Are you man enough to use it?

Well, to be honest there wasn't much contest for the biggest warship, the Japanese were on crazy pills and decided that all of their warships needed a qualitative advantage over their American counterparts since they sure as hell weren't going to get a quantitative one (The Washington treaty was a good deal at 3:5 given the two countries' relative production). That's why all their guns tended to be longer ranged than those on their American equivalents and often of higher caliber and why they had such problems building stable ships within the limits of the Washington treaty. The American ships were ludicrously extravagant, don't get me wrong, but it showed very differently from pure size, much to their benefit (I mean seriously, the Iowas were basically built with STS for their interior works for crying out loud). Basically, the Japanese were trying to outdo an adversary which was able to produce much more space efficient designs with brute force. It didn't work out too well, they were tremendous fuel hogs and stuck the Kongos with a lot of work because they weren't worth the fuel to take out of Truk and the Japanese needed fast battleships. Basically the Yamatos were about as practical as that revolver, but they did at least have an (albeit horribly flawed) rationale for their use. The rest of the non-treaty compliant ships were built that large for the very simple reason that the treaty was written with '20s ship designs in mind and after 20 years of advances in propulsion, artillery and metallurgy, those weights were simply too light for a properly outfitted modern warship. The Tigers and Ratte were just insane and horrible ideas, but the Germans had.. issues with how to fight an industrial war, so German tanks are probably the best example of this kind of excess being applied to actual warfighting machines.

[Stuart]

I-270/Old Georgetown Road interchange, Bethesda, Maryland

"Get out of the fucking way Sir." The nurse pushed past Colonel Paschal and joined the scrum of medical personnel working on Maion. She was carrying large transparent packages that had just arrived on the HH-60M Medevac helicopter that was now sitting on the road a few dozen yards back. Volume expanders he guessed to himself, possibly the new oxygen transport therapeutics. I-270 hadn't seen this level of medical activity since a Greyhound bus had rolled over before the war.

"You'll have to forgive Grace Sir. She tends to get very focussed." The man standing beside Paschal was the copilot of the Medevac chopper.

"It's OK, she said 'Sir'. That makes all the difference Lieutenant . . . . Rawlings. What's going on? That was volume expander wasn't it?"

"Sort of. It's one we developed for use on daemons. Lot of them were really badly chewed up in Iraq and it turned out we knew nothing much about their blood chemistry. So we use that stuff, it works regardless of blood groups. Johns Hopkins did a quick test on some angelic blood and it seems to be OK for them too, so Mac and I got orders to fly a few gallons of the stuff down."

"A quick test. Is that all?"

"All we had time for Sir, word is, if we didn’t get that stuff down here fast, she isn’t going to make it." Paschal made 'shusshing' motions with his hand and pointed at Lemuel. "Sorry, Sir, didn’t realize."

Paschal looked at Lemuel-Lan who was staring at the scene around Maion with stunned incredulity. There were at least a dozen doctors around her now with as many nurses helping out, the whole scene illuminated by the blue, red and white lights on the emergency vehicles.. To Paschal's eyes, helping out was a misnomer since the nurses seemed to be doing most of the heavy work. One of the doctors detached from the group and ran over to Lemuel.

"You, angel, what's your blood group?" Lemuel started and looked down at the figure addressing him. "Hurry up, we've got an emergency here."

"What's a blood group?" Leemuel was bewildered.

The doctor twisted his lips. "What color is your blood?"

"Silver."

"Hers is white. We can't take the chance." The doctor turned to the team around Maion and made a 'negate that' gesture. One of the other doctors acknowledged and another bag of volume expander was opened. The doctor was about to go back when he saw Paschal looking at him.

"The wild primary colors in daemon blood? They're daemon equivalent of blood groups. We can transfuse green to green or yellow to yellow but not green to yellow. I was hoping Lofty here would be white blood but he isn’t. Tough on his girl that."

"Is she going to make it?" Paschal said the words softly but he saw Lemuel start and cautiously look around.

The doctor pushed his lower lip out. "She's got a better chance that she had a few minutes ago. Now we've got the volume expander into her, her heart's got something to pump around. Odds still aren't good but we've pulled people back from worse. I hear Yahweh had this done to her?"

"That's right. Or so we've been told. We haven't had a chance to do an interrogation yet."

"Damn. She's a mess. We've given her morphine to kill the pain but it isn't working very well. Either angels have a major resistance to opiates or . . . . " the doctors voice wandered off for a second and his eyes suddenly got suspicious. "As soon as she's got enough of her own blood to live on, we'll run a full panel on her."

"Look between her toes Doc." Malloy's voice cut across the conversation. "That's where women tend to shoot up."

"Our local cop with the howitzer. Malloy, what are you still doing here?"

"Orders from dispatch. Stay here and assist as needed. Reed's over there stuffing trash into bags." Paschal turned back to the doctor but he had already gone, heading back to the team effort.

"Colonel Paschal Sir. Message from Bethesda. They're setting up an emergency ward on the grounds. A big tent, the patient's too large to get through the doors. Bethesda say it'll be as well-equipped as any intensive care unit as long as it doesn’t rain. They've got jury-rigged power lines all over the grass."

Paschal nodded. Over by Maion, the medical team suddenly gave a loud cheer and the work pace slackened. Lemuel saw the reaction and looked over at Paschal, unable to ask the question he wanted to. "Don’t worry Lemuel, that's good news. At a guess, I'd say they've stabilized her for movement. The Doctor will tell you more."

It was the same doctor who had come across earlier. This time he was considerably more relaxed. "Colonel, I'm Doctor Zinder, Dan Zinder. Sorry I was abrupt earlier , but things were pretty close for a while there."

"No problem. This is Lemuel-Lan, your patient's mate."

"Lemuel-Lan. OK, situation. Your mate has lost a lot of blood and has severe internal injuries. We've stopped the internal bleeding for a while at any rate and we've bulked out her blood supply. That's a holding action, we're not quite sure what to do next about her blood loss. Normally we'd give her a blood transfusion but we don’t have any stocks of angelic blood. Johns Hopkins is looking at using daemonic blood and we're checking to see if any colors are compatible with white. Now, her wings. Each wing has been broken in five places, twice on the inner bone, twice on the outer, one on the joint between the two. We've splinted the straightforward breaks but the joints are a very complex injury, one we have no experience with. Our big worry in the short term is marrow getting loose from those broken bones and entering her bloodstream. If that happens and it forms a clot, its all over. Longer term, it looks to me as if the breaks were intended to permanently cripple her ability to fly. I've got a call in to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, they've got more experience in ruined joints there than anybody. If anybody can fix her, they can."

Doctor Zinder stopped as the HH-60 spooled up its engines and started to take off. Over by Maion, the staff surrounding her were bracing themselves. "One, two lift" and they transferred Maion on to a load pallet. The HH60 moved overhead, cables hanging from its slung-load hook. They were fastened to the corners of the pallet and the HH-60 started to lift to take the strain. Three nurses jumped onto the pallet as well, Paschal recognized one of them as 'Grace'.

"Doctor, riding the pallet like that is . . "

"Against regulations and they aren’t wearing safety harnesses either. But we absolutely need them on there to make sure nothing goes horribly wrong in mid-transit. Anyway, ever tried stopping a Navy nurse from looking after a patient?"

The HH-60 climbed away and turned south-east for the Bethesda hospital, Lemuel's eyes following the helicopter as it set off. Paschal thought for a second and then made his decision. "Lemuel, we have to drive around by road, It'll take us ten or twenty minutes. You can fly there much faster, just follow the helicopter. Try not to break anything when you land."

Lemuel's expression was disbelieving. "You will trust me?"

"Of course we trust you. You've got your mate to worry about, that'll come first for you. Now move." Paschal watched Lemuel take off. I wish I could do that. he thought, then he got on the link to the F-22s still circling overhead. Trust, but verify.

Angelic Treatment Ward, Bethesda Naval Hospital, Bethesda, MD

"It's a bit like a bat." Doctor Zinder was looking at the X-ray on the computer screen. "Feathered of course and there's no leading edge claw. There are three bones running back from the leading edge, not two. Otherwise, very similar. That joint, it's complex and it's crushed. Doctor Mackay?"

The reply came over the computer in the harsh accent of northern Ireland. "We know those injuries. The wing breaks, triangular with the shatter pattern downwards. I'd say the wing was held across two blocks and struck by a heavy bar over the space between. The joint the same. Very much like the IRA used to do. We'll need better X-rays than this though. I'll get my team ready to come over."

"Thank Hell for that." Zinder was relieved. "We're out of our depth here with those joints. We're fixing the wing bones now, extending the wing inserting titanium screws to hold the bone parts together and splinting, but that five-way joint. .. . We don’t even know where to start. You're portalling through?"

"Of course." Mackay was laughing. "With that damned volcano in Iceland spouting dust, it's getting to be like Hell here in Ireland. Only aircraft with hell-filters are flying and they can't make it across the Atlantic. We'll be arriving as soon as the portal is opened."

"We'll be waiting for you Eamon. And thank you."

Zinder shut the link off and went back into the main body of the extemporized ward. It was still being set up and a long line of technicians were bringing equipment over and plugging it into the spaghetti-tangle of extension cables. Maion was stretched out on an operating table constructed from stout cargo pallets. Her wings were almost invisible under the array of two-by-four timbers being used as splints. Beside her, Lemuel sat silently, holding her hand.

"What is this?" Lemuel had looked up and was pointing at a display.

"That monitors her heartbeat, the other one is her blood-oxygen level. We call them vital signs indicators. Maion's look pretty strong. She's got this far Lemuel, and she's a fighter. That's the most important thing of all. And she's got all of us fighting alongside her."

"As long as I do what you say." Lemuel assumed that was naturally the case and was shocked when Doctor Zinder exploded in anger, his face going dead white except for redness surrounding his eyes.

"How dare you! How dare you suggest I would neglect a patient because you wouldn't do what somebody else wanted. Listen to me Lemuel, and you'd better remember it. I do not know what kind of society you come from although I can make some guesses. But you are on Earth and this is a hospital. Maion will get the best treatment we can possibly provide. No reservations, no exceptions. When you suggest we might do anything else, you insult me, you insult the people who are working here all night to look after her, you insult the three nurses who risked their lives to make sure she got here safely. You are insulting a group of Irish doctors who are coming thousands of miles on the off-chance that their skills and experience will help Maion fly again."

Zinder paused, took a deep breath and let his blood pressure go down. "That Colonel out there, Colonel Paschal, yes, he will want you to do things. Give us information, provide us with data. Probably more. And he will offer you deals and put other kinds of pressure on you. But if he walks into this ward and tells us to stop work, we'll kick his ass out of here. Or, if he talks to that nurse there," he pointed to Grace, "Colonel or not if he makes the same suggestion to her, she'll probably head-butt him. Now do we understand each other?"

Lemuel nodded. "I am sorry Doctor." What neither of them knew was that was the first time in more than four millennia that an angel had made a sincere apology to a human.

UH-60L Quebec-Four-Two, Approaching Bethesda, Maryland.

"An angel. A real, live angel." Norman Baines was as close to ecstatic as he'd ever been.

"Two of them in fact. Only one of them won't be talking to anybody for a long time. She's in intensive care and the medics are still iffy about whether she will survive." General Schatten hoped that she would, it would make maneuvering her mate so much easier. He looked at Baines and shook his head slightly. Their trip had been slightly delayed while the Director of Research had been found in the archives by his secretary, cleaned up and quickly fed.

"What happened? We shoot her up as she came in?"

"That's what we are trying to get a handle on and that is why you are here. Her mate brought her in. She's been badly treated, lost a lot of blood and her mate said that Yahweh ordered it done. His version is that a woman Yahweh favors was jealous of her so Yahweh ordered her to be imprisoned and beaten. Her mate rescued her and brought her here so we could treat her. His story is pretty incoherent."

The sound of the rotors diminished as the pilot brought the UH-60 in to land. The helicopter landing area was full to capacity with a variety of different birds including one massive helicopter with red-and-blue stars painted on its tail and wings. "What's that." Baines pointed at the big helicopter.

"Russian Mi-26. When they heard we have two angels, the Russkies sent it over in case we needed heavy lift capability. Stuffed it up with medical goodies for the angels and vodka for us to celebrate. Look over to the left, we've got a Hellgate open to speed transport here. I hear kitten herself opened that one. That's how the '26 came in."

The helicopter landed on the road outside the medical center and the passengers disembarked, making the traditional bend down in deference to the wash coming off the rotors. "Sirs, if you will come with me, I'll take you to the Angelic Treatment Ward." Once they would have ridden in an Army staff car or Humvee but the fuel shortage had put an end to those pretensions. These days, even Generals walked.

Much of the frantic chaos that had surrounded the angelic arrival in Bethesda had ebbed away by the time they reached the treatment area. All the necessary equipment was set up, the female angel was stabilized on life support and all that was left was to watch and wait. The male angel was sitting on the grass outside, his head between his knees. That was convenient since it minimized the size difference between him and the humans.

"I'm Norman Baines, Director of Research at DIMO(N) Office of Nonhuman History and Research. How is your mate?"

"Maion is resting comfortably so I am told. The doctors say she is in a chemically-induced therapeutic coma. I hope that means more to you than it does to me."

Baines looked at the angel carefully. "You are of high rank are you not? May I know your name?"

"I am Lemuel-Lan-Michael. I am Ophanim." Lemuel paused for a moment "You know the Hierarchy of the Angelic Host?"

"In outline, yes. Ophanim is very close to the top is it not? And you are a servant of Michael himself, the Great General of Heaven?"

"What is going on?" Schatten was a General, he was supposed to be the one who treated people like mushrooms.

"We've got a real catch here. 'Lan' means 'servant of'. Lemuel here is a direct servant of Michael-Lan-Yahweh which puts him two steps below the supreme power. He's an Ophanim which puts him very close to the apex of the Host hierarchy. The holy texts describe the Ophanim as being four, eye-covered wheels each composed of two nested wheels. It's long been thought that the description is symbolic and actually refers to the Ophanim as being the powers that actually keep Heaven running. If Lemuel is defecting to us, its like, oh, the Secretary of State going over to the enemy." Baines shook with sheer delight. "Lemuel, what was your role in Heaven?"

"I was chief investigator of the League of Holy Court."

"If our references are anything like correct, the League of Holy Court is Yahweh's very own police force and intelligence service. Forget what I said about the Secretary of State going over, this is like the head of the KGB coming over to us in the middle of the Cold War." Baines spoke quietly, then turned his attention back to Lemuel. "Why did you come here Lemuel-Lan-Michael?"

"Maion was badly hurt and might die. Michael-Lan said that only humans could save her." Lemuel gathered his breath and finally committed himself. The outburst from Doctor Zinder was still running through his mind and he thought of the way the doctors and nurses were fighting to save a being who they had never met before and, if anything, was one of their enemies. Yet the sights, sounds and smells of the concentration camp where Yahweh dealt with his foes still swirled in his head and the contrast between the two was tearing his soul apart. When he spoke, he did so very fast as if he was trying to get the words out and commit himself before he could change his mind. "Yahweh has gone mad and is destroying the Angelic Host. He has established camps run by demons where angels who he dislikes are sent. Maion was a victim of one such camp. He is creating factions in Heaven and putting one against the other. After seeing one such camp, Michael-Lan sent me with a message for humans. He says that he will fight Yahweh, try to prevent more slaughter and destruction. He will try and depose Yahweh but he desperately needs help. He tasks me with opening a portal for you so that you can send your armies to depose Yahweh and your . . . . doctors . . . to aid those who have been so cruelly used. If you will allow me, I will open the way to Heaven for you."

[xthetenth]

Beautiful, this is going to be awesome when everything hits all at once, and so far the pacing has been excellent. And the schedule, needless to say, has made my week.

[Ruadhan2300]

I predict serious whoop-ass

another fine chapter Stuart
felt a bit short for my taste mind-you.

now something on my mind is this..fully half of 'Armageddon??' was built around the combat in hell.
for a similar length of story, we're around 3/4s of the way through now. so the combat in heaven is going to be either faster paced, shorter timescaled, or the story will be significantly longer than 'Armageddon??'

I liked the bit about bloodtypes, a nice and neat explanation for it

[Spekio]

Awesome. I just think that if some other character explained why such a statetment would insult the good doctor instead of that eloqüent burst of anger would work better.

[westrim]

now something on my mind is this..fully half of 'Armageddon??' was built around the combat in hell.
for a similar length of story, we're around 3/4s of the way through now. so the combat in heaven is going to be either faster paced, shorter timescaled, or the story will be significantly longer than 'Armageddon??'

There won't be much combat at all. That's kind of the point of all of Micheal's efforts. He wants a human-backed coup, not a civil war or a human siege. Surgical strikes will be the M.O. unless his plans go significantly wrong. Though that may be what the note about their noticing her heroin use is leading to.

[Mobius IO]

now something on my mind is this..fully half of 'Armageddon??' was built around the combat in hell.
for a similar length of story, we're around 3/4s of the way through now. so the combat in heaven is going to be either faster paced, shorter timescaled, or the story will be significantly longer than 'Armageddon??'

There won't be much combat at all. That's kind of the point of all of Micheal's efforts. He wants a human-backed coup, not a civil war or a human siege. Surgical strikes will be the M.O.

Agreed. While I am sure the big Y will have some die hard loyalists he's effectively isolated and the guy running his army is trying to team up with us. Where as in Armageddon we had to destroy Satan's forces.

[Jamesfirecat]

Looks like one way or another, some big stuff is about to go down (hopefully the weekend will give Stuart plenty of time to write) I hope that we get to see at least some of the fighting in Heaven through the eyes of its human residents who are suitably shocked and awed by what their great great offspring are now capable of.

[Baughn]

I didn't realize back in Armageddon??, but there's an issue with the volcanic dust here.

Hell-modified planes can apparently fly in Europe, despite the volcano. That's a nice touch; however, one of the major problems with volcanic ash is that it isn't ash, it's horribly abrasive, sharp-edged rock, and it will ruin your windshield.

It's entirely possible that there isn't enough dust in the atmosphere to make that a problem for planes right now. But what of Hell? Wasn't the dust there also from active volcanoes?

[The Vortex Empire]

Finally, the invasion will begin. Still, Michael's plans will fall apart, and I see Yahweh being a far larger threat than anything humans have yet faced. Lemuel will probably end up as the Abigor-equivalent of Heaven. And it looks like Maion will actually make it.

[Guardsman Bass]

Excellent chapter. And three in a week? Stuart must be really hearing his muse.

The next chapter should be very interesting in certain ways. If Maion dies, then Michael-lan's plan might successfully work, at least as long as he doesn't accidentally get killed or the like (that'd be a bit of irony, there, if he did all these preparations only for Yahweh himself to kill him). But if she lives and starts talking (eventually), then things are a bit more dicey (although Michael-Lan sounded like he'd covered all his tracks).

[Lagmonster]

See, this is the stuff I've been waiting for. Screw tactics and politics, I want me some biology and medicine!

I would prefer Maion to live, because I like stories where innocents survive. I understand, logically, that this particular story deals with a harsher view of things.

[Bayonet]

now something on my mind is this..fully half of 'Armageddon??' was built around the combat in hell.
for a similar length of story, we're around 3/4s of the way through now. so the combat in heaven is going to be either faster paced, shorter timescaled, or the story will be significantly longer than 'Armageddon??'

Stuart has the habit of only describing the blood and gore of combat once, and then alluding to it. Unless something new happens, the details of some incidents (e.g. the Russian chemical final protective fires) could be incorporated by reference. In addition, we have pre-authorized the use of nuclear weapons. The force might get ratcheted up very quickly, resulting in a quick decision.

[TithonusSyndrome]

I didn't realize back in Armageddon??, but there's an issue with the volcanic dust here.

Hell-modified planes can apparently fly in Europe, despite the volcano. That's a nice touch; however, one of the major problems with volcanic ash is that it isn't ash, it's horribly abrasive, sharp-edged rock, and it will ruin your windshield.

It's entirely possible that there isn't enough dust in the atmosphere to make that a problem for planes right now. But what of Hell? Wasn't the dust there also from active volcanoes?

The supervolcano responsible for the terrain of Hell erupted four million years ago. There likely wouldn't be those kind of harsh particles remaining aloft.

[Simon_Jester]

Wow. Things are really flowing; this is good stuff. Thanks!

Lemuel nodded. "I am sorry Doctor." What neither of them knew was that was the first time in more than four millennia that an angel had made a sincere apology to a human.

So... what was the last time?

There won't be much combat at all. That's kind of the point of all of Micheal's efforts. He wants a human-backed coup, not a civil war or a human siege. Surgical strikes will be the M.O. unless his plans go significantly wrong. Thought that may be what the note about their noticing her heroin use is leading to.

Even if they do note the heroin use and deduce everything about Michael's plans, what stops them from just backing Michael's coup and then pulling a "whoosh bam thank you ma'am" bazooka attack on him? If one of your opponents politely offers to eliminate another of your opponents thinking you'll reward him... well, never interrupt an enemy while he's making a mistake.

[Night_stalker]

Nice job, now we can finally show Yaw-Yaw how ticked off we are at him. He wanted a war, and by God we'll give him one!

[Erra]

People seem to be thinking the humans will give two shits if they discover some of Michael's mechinations. I really don't think this would be the case. Michael is giving Heaven and Yahweh to the humans on a silver platter THUS ENDING THE WAR. This is invaluable, and I feel more than makes up for any of Michael's transgressions in the eyes of our leaders and generals.

Michael's retribution will not be at the hands of the humans, if it happens at all. The one person I could see finally bringing Michael to justice is Lemuel, though it would be in a very tragic hero sort of way. If Lemuel EVER found out about Michael masterminding Maion's torture and possible death, no force on Earth or Heaven could stop him from seeking revenge. This leads to an epic confrontation, in which Michael either lets Lemuel slay him in a moment of regret for all the things he's done, or they fight and Michael is defeated by Lemuel thanks to the power of love.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Even if they do note the heroin use and deduce everything about Michael's plans, what stops them from just backing Michael's coup and then pulling a "whoosh bam thank you ma'am" bazooka attack on him? If one of your opponents politely offers to eliminate another of your opponents thinking you'll reward him... well, never interrupt an enemy while he's making a mistake.

Because we need to RUN heaven afterwards. We can't take out Michael unless we have someone as capable (or nearly) to take over for him when he's gone. Lemuel MIGHT be up for the job, but right now as has been said before, getting high and slapping women around doesn't necessarily disqualify you from being a US military ally.

[Nematocyst]

I'm sure there will be some combat. Michael wants Jesus and Yahweh's Guard dead, and Jesus is, apparently, leading the Heavenly Host: 20 million Angels.
Not to mention Belial and the Angels he commands to run the concentration camp.
And finally, Yahweh himself and whoever stands by his side.

What I wonder if we'll get to CC or house-to-house combat, be it down here or up there, with Angels. We may have a problem is every man hesitates before squeezing the trigger because they were stunned by the Angels' beauty

[Agent Fisher]

I'll be honest. I don't want Michael's plan to fail. Someone that ballsy, that magnificent of a bastard must succeed.