The Salvation War: Pantheocide. Part Eighty One Up

[Ritterin Sophia]

My friend, I'm a /b/tard.

Yeah, 4chan humor isn't big outside of adolescents who don't know how to act like adults.

BTW, you can't 'InB4 ITG' if you are acting like an ITG.

[nobody_really]

Thank you for the new chapter, Stuart. I was somewhat surprised to see it on Friday, but only because you mentioned earlier that you intended to get some extra work done on Pantheocide.

"They fled Sir. When the battle turned against them, they abandoned their human troops and fled. The fighters from our allies got many but the rest escaped."

Fucking cowards. And abandoning the Human Levies (is that like "human shields?") to be slaughtered. But then again, they might have figured it was better to run away and fight some other day. Little did they know the range and power of human weaponry. If Gen. Petraeus is right that angels would primarily fight in a very conservative manner, then it would have been expected.

501st Tactical Missile Wing. Heaven.

The transporter-erector-launch vehicle groaned as the four-round missile launcher module elevated to the firing position. It paused there for a few seconds, then the whole system rocked as a missile emerged from one of the tubes. Originally a long cylinder with a rounded nose, it changed as soon as it was out of its tube. Wings sprouted from its fuselage, tail surfaces deployed and an air intake dropped out from under the belly. What had once looked like a torpedo now was an unmanned aircraft. With the Ground-Launched Cruise Missile on its way, the TEL lowered its launch module. The deed was done.

Oh, a cruise missile. Hmmm. I wonder what its target is.

The missile, known officially as the Gryphon but actually called the Glickem by everybody, had its course carefully laid out. It climbed to 100 feet and then set off along the planned route, the radar set in its nose measuring the height of the ground ahead of it and ensuring that the clearance of 100 feet was carefully maintained. By its standards, the missile didn’t have far to go and the task it had been given was insultingly easy. Just fly to the specific point it had been aimed at and then do its thing. A few miles short of that point, another program cut in and the missile began to climb. It was of no interest whatsoever to the missile that the final point on its pre-planned course was directly over the center of a mass of 50,000 angels and more than 450,000 of their human levies.

Oh, Elhmas's main force. okay.

It was at this point that warhead signals from both radar and air pressure sensors prompted an electronics package to begin the initiation process. That package sent an electrical impulse down 72 different wires to various points on an explosive shell at the very heart of the W83 warhead at the center of the missile. After 0.003 microseconds those impulses set off a pair of detonators at each of those 72 points, causing the mixture of explosives to converge into a perfectly spherical explosive wave travelling inward. After 10 microseconds the explosive wave had already started to compress successive hollow spheres of various metals. In 3 more microseconds the compression wave had crossed an empty layer to reach the heart of the warhead--a sphere of uranium 5 inches in diameter. The blast from the explosives crushed that sphere into a fluid mass 2 inches in diameter.

A NUKE?! Oh, shit.

At that time, 19 microseconds after detonation, a small particle accelerator in the front of the warhead fired neutrons into the uranium sphere. These neutrons were absorbed by uranium atoms and caused them to decay. In the highly compressed mass, there was nowhere for the decay particles to go; they hit other uranium atoms and caused them to decay as well. This chain reaction cycled 60 times in the next microsecond before a small amount of compressed deuterium-tritium gas was injected into a hollow in the center of the uranium core, increasing the cycling rate to 80 times in the next 0.1 microseconds. By then, the uranium core had reached a temperature of 40 million degrees fahrenheit. That didn’t matter too much, what was important was that the gamma rays given off by the nuclear reactions radiated through the exploding mass and were absorbed by the weapon casing, 0.003 microseconds later. The casing was heated and reradiated the energy as x-rays. It was those X-rays that set the next part of the chain into action.

At least it looks to only be a fission bomb. (I have only a layman's knowledge of nuclear weapons.) Any reason for using "0.003 microseconds" instead of 3 nanoseconds?

At the rear of the core of the W83 was a cylinder of lithium-deuteride, 10 inches in diameter and 30 inches long with a radiation shield protecting it from direct radiation from the primary. It was surrounded by an inch-thick layer of depleted uranium; it also had a rod of uranium in the center. The x-rays reradiated from the warhead casing heated and compressed the outer wrapping of depleted uranium. In 0.1 microseconds this crushed the lithium-deuteride to a cylinder only 2 inches in diameter. At this point, neutrons from the primary arrived at that inner rod of uranium, coming through a hole in the radiation shield. These caused a nuclear chain reaction to occur in the rod, super-heating the lithium-deuteride from within. Neutrons from the chain reaction split the lithium atoms into helium and tritium atoms. The colliding tritium and deuterium atoms fused into helium for another microsecond. Then, the force of the fusion reaction crushed the original core of the device so thoroughly that the dying fission reaction was revived and what was left of the original fission fuel was consumed in the inferno.

An H-BOMB?! Holy fucking shit.

At that point, 20 microseconds after initiation, the temperature was 600 million degrees Fahrenheit and yet the outside of the warhead was only just beginning to disintegrate. Gamma radiation from the nuclear reactions had already radiated up to 1,300 feet in every direction. A region of space about the size of a small angel over the main body of the Incomparable Legion Of Light now held the equivalent explosive energy of 1.2 megatons. This enormous release of gamma radiation had been absorbed by the surrounding air, heating it to a point where it released radiation itself. This formed a glowing ball of gas that was already 400 feet across and yet was continuing to expand at many times the speed of sound. Oddly, the center remained extremely hot while the temperature of the outer part fell as it pushed the surrounding air away. The heat radiated by the outer layer had produced an initial flash of light as bright as the Sun to the observers at the Third Armored Division 25 miles away, now it generated a blast wave that separated from the fireball surface. This travelled at ten times the speed of sound and pushed the air away before creating a partial vacuum behind it. The blast wave reflected off the ground and the surrounding hills, reinforcing itself in some areas, cancelling itself in others to produce a crazy-quilt pattern of blast effects on the hapless Incomparable Legion Of Light below.

A mere 0.08 seconds after initiation the fireball was no longer pushing the blast wave before it and so it began to release the large amount of thermal energy it contained. At 1.07 seconds after initiation it started to rise rapidly as its surface temperature and brightness began to decline. However, it continued to expand until at 8 seconds after initiation it finally reached its maximum size. With a surface temperature of 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit, the fireball was glowing a dull evil red as it topped the traditional mushroom cloud..

If Elhmas is commanding from the field then this will certainly be the last time he gets "baked." I wonder how far away the blast will be seen, and if Yah-Yah will even understand what happened. Maybe Michael can get another of his multicolored lightning displays when he reports this destruction, and the Mason's bunker will actually be necessary. Either that, or a BSOD, more severe than after Wuffles was killed.

And so it was that the prophecies were fulfilled. The Sun Of Man was indeed rising over Heaven.

Okay, I've gotta ask as well, when did you first think to yourself, "Oh, yeah...I've got to use that line"?

[Simon_Jester]

"They fled Sir. When the battle turned against them, they abandoned their human troops and fled. The fighters from our allies got many but the rest escaped."

Fucking cowards. And abandoning the Human Levies (is that like "human shields?") to be slaughtered. But then again, they might have figured it was better to run away and fight some other day. Little did they know the range and power of human weaponry. If Gen. Petraeus is right that angels would primarily fight in a very conservative manner, then it would have been expected.

The levies can't fly, they can. If they make the decision to retreat at all, it would require immense personal discipline for them to hang around at a pace of four or five miles an hour while the troops retreat under artillery fire. So much so that unless you are a very unusual person, denouncing them as cowards may be unreasonable.

Remember that in real life, 10% casualties for an army are considered heavy. The angelic component of the feinting attack took 4% dead on the field, and given a reasonable ratio of killed to walking wounded, their actual casualties are going to be higher than that.

Whatever it takes to charge machine guns in massive human wave attacks and keep doing it until half or more of them are torn to shreds, they don't have. But I wouldn't call the absence of that trait "cowardice."

If Elhmas is commanding from the field then this will certainly be the last time he gets "baked." I wonder how far away the blast will be seen, and if Yah-Yah will even understand what happened. Maybe Michael can get another of his multicolored lightning displays when he reports this destruction, and the Mason's bunker will actually be necessary. Either that, or a BSOD, more severe than after Wuffles was killed.

I'm missing this, maybe; is Elhmas a name for Jesus?

[Stuart]

I'm missing this, maybe; is Elhmas a name for Jesus?

Yes; Ehlmas = Jesus. Tehnically Jesus was the son of a carpenter who Ehlmas possessed and manipulated. As a result, the two characters became intertwined and Jesus became an informal nickname for Ehlmas.

[nobody_really]

"They fled Sir. When the battle turned against them, they abandoned their human troops and fled. The fighters from our allies got many but the rest escaped."

Fucking cowards. And abandoning the Human Levies (is that like "human shields?") to be slaughtered. But then again, they might have figured it was better to run away and fight some other day. Little did they know the range and power of human weaponry. If Gen. Petraeus is right that angels would primarily fight in a very conservative manner, then it would have been expected.

The levies can't fly, they can. If they make the decision to retreat at all, it would require immense personal discipline for them to hang around at a pace of four or five miles an hour while the troops retreat under artillery fire. So much so that unless you are a very unusual person, denouncing them as cowards may be unreasonable.

Remember that in real life, 10% casualties for an army are considered heavy. The angelic component of the feinting attack took 4% dead on the field, and given a reasonable ratio of killed to walking wounded, their actual casualties are going to be higher than that.

Whatever it takes to charge machine guns in massive human wave attacks and keep doing it until half or more of them are torn to shreds, they don't have. But I wouldn't call the absence of that trait "cowardice."

Good point. I stand corrected. It just seemed at first glance to be awfully cold-hearted of the Angels to leave the Levies to be destroyed, instead of doing what they could to protect their retreat.

If Elhmas is commanding from the field then this will certainly be the last time he gets "baked." I wonder how far away the blast will be seen, and if Yah-Yah will even understand what happened. Maybe Michael can get another of his multicolored lightning displays when he reports this destruction, and the Mason's bunker will actually be necessary. Either that, or a BSOD, more severe than after Wuffles was killed.

I'm missing this, maybe; is Elhmas a name for Jesus?

Yeah, see Chapter Sixty-Seven. Elhmas is Yahweh's son who controlled that carpenter Jeshua bin Joseph about 1980 years ago. I prefer to use the angelic name for whatever the heaven Yahweh's son is.

[nobody_really]

I'm missing this, maybe; is Elhmas a name for Jesus?

Yes; Ehlmas = Jesus. Tehnically Jesus was the son of a carpenter who Ehlmas possessed and manipulated. As a result, the two characters became intertwined and Jesus became an informal nickname for Ehlmas.

Thanks, Stuart. Is it Ehlmas or Elhmas (the only spelling in Chapter 67 is "Enatenael-Lan-Elhmas")

[phongn]

At least it looks to only be a fission bomb. (I have only a layman's knowledge of nuclear weapons.) Any reason for using "0.003 microseconds" instead of 3 nanoseconds?

In a list you try to keep the units consistent.

[nobody_really]

At least it looks to only be a fission bomb. (I have only a layman's knowledge of nuclear weapons.) Any reason for using "0.003 microseconds" instead of 3 nanoseconds?

In a list you try to keep the units consistent.

Oh. Okay. Thanks for the info.

[Simon_Jester]

Good point. I stand corrected. It just seemed at first glance to be awfully cold-hearted of the Angels to leave the Levies to be destroyed, instead of doing what they could to protect their retreat.

If the angels were up to the standards of the world's better militaries, or even to the world's better warrior aristocracies, they probably would.

But unless you're Aeanas or Ori, or from a comparably brave background you're not in a good position to call them "cowards."

Yes; Ehlmas = Jesus. Tehnically Jesus was the son of a carpenter who Ehlmas possessed and manipulated. As a result, the two characters became intertwined and Jesus became an informal nickname for Ehlmas.

Ah. Wow. Guess Michael got his objective, then.

[CaptainChewbacca]

So, if Elhmas is gonna bail on the city, is someone going to have to tap Yaweh on the shoulder and say "Eternal one, Elhmas has left the building."

[Saint_007]

To answer the reason why a lot of us (myself included) were upset the angels turned tail and ran:

Yes, we're being unrealistic. Yes, we're expecting an army that's been out of practice and fought only minor skirmishes for the past 2000 years to suddenly go up against a modern army that is effectively a highly efficient meat-grinder. That's because we keep comparing them mentally to our other big opponent; the baldricks. The baldricks had centuries of internecine warfare to toughen their ranks, millennia of practice to get their discipline and killing prowess in shape. Even though they still got slaughtered, they fought us bravely, and for that we respect them. They were child-eating, torture-loving monsters, but they didn't disappoint on the battlefield; they went up against artillery and air support and kept fighting.

The reason why we're upset with the angels is because we had set our expectations too high. While the baldricks were also strong believers of their superiority over the humans, they were at least willing to prove it on the battlefield. The Angels hurt us with the Seven Bowls, with Uriel and the Beasts of the Apocalypse, and still treat us as inferiors - yet aren't willing to fight to the death. They're claiming to be superior to us yet aren't willing to back their claim when the stakes got high. One of the comments on TV Tropes was that the Daemons started crying "no fair, they hit us back" when the human war machine started tearing huge chunks of their legions; the angels are crying "no fair" the moment we got so much as a scratch on them.

In short, I think the reason we're so pissed at the Angels was also why the Baldricks were so pissed at us: they didn't come out to fight honorably and then generally get slaughtered. Wow, talk about irony.

EDIT: Fortunately, most HEA military commanders, while disappointed with not killing a lot more, are patient, because they know the Angels are just going to give them a second chance. Good hunting, Gen. Petraeus, and may God...

...'s head prove to look very nice hanging on your mantlepiece.

[Night_stalker]

Indeed, good luck and happy hunting!

[Scorpion]

My friend, I'm a /b/tard.

Yeah, 4chan humor isn't big outside of adolescents who don't know how to act like adults.

BTW, you can't 'InB4 ITG' if you are acting like an ITG.

Dude, again, what the hell? Why is it that every time we talk you always levy (unprovoked!) insults at me? Do you relish calling people names? Have I offended you in some way?

[ray245]

My friend, I'm a /b/tard.

Yeah, 4chan humor isn't big outside of adolescents who don't know how to act like adults.

BTW, you can't 'InB4 ITG' if you are acting like an ITG.

Dude, again, what the hell? Why is it that every time we talk you always levy (unprovoked!) insults at me? Do you relish calling people names? Have I offended you in some way?

Take a look at the site motto.

Get your fill of sci-fi, science, and mockery of stupid people

[Scorpion]

Take a look at the site motto.

Get your fill of sci-fi, science, and mockery of stupid people

Wow. I came here thinking it was a nice place to spend my off hours talking with people without being berated and/or insulted at every turn. Guess I was wrong. Thank you for correcting my mistake. Nice way to build a community, BTW.

[Flameblade]

Wow. I came here thinking it was a nice place to spend my off hours talking with people without being berated and/or insulted at every turn. Guess I was wrong. Thank you for correcting my mistake. Nice way to build a community, BTW.

You know, I really don't think the people here are looking to include idiots who say shit like:

I've watched footage from the Nanking Massacre for fun.

in the community. And if you have problems with people calling you such horrible things as 'adolescent' and 'stupid', you're really a thin-skinned, piss-poor excuse for a /b/-tard, beside already being a complete shitstain who doesn't deserve the air he's breathing.


On to subjects that actually matter, this was a brilliant chapter, Stuart. I'm looking forward to seeing the ramifications of the remaining angels realizing the vast gulf in power between modern humanity and Yahweh.

[Night_stalker]

Yeah, can't wait for their terrifed reactions

[Eevin]

To answer the reason why a lot of us (myself included) were upset the angels turned tail and ran:
Long list of good reasons.

Plus the biological fact that angels have a very low reproduction rate. Demons won the last war because they could lose lots of soldiers and spawn more. So, demons though that they only needed to overwhelm the human armies and then they could heal the (numerical) damage. However angels can't fight in this desperate way, they are not getting reinforcements.
Also, I'm sure most middle-level angels think that if the humans "die" they can open the Gates again and get more loyal humans to fight for them. (Completely out of touch with reality.) So, leaving the humans is a smart strategic decision in their mind. Would you sacrifice the fast, strong, not replaceable units for the weak and (theoretically) cheap ones?

Still as Stuart said and Simon_Jester pointed out, we don't need to kill too many. Just drive them over the Despair Event Horizon, when they realize that fighting humans will by definition mean paying in numbers they're not ready or able to handle.

Given that they are so afraid of loosing angels, I think the Despair Event Horizon is really close. They have never suffered a loss like this. And it will take them a looong time to recover their population. When the survivors return to the City it is going to be a huge moral blow for the population. Don't think will need more nukes (hopefully, those are horrible things).


P.D.
As a matter of fact, I've been wondering if the Angelic war was not a caste thing, given that angels and demons are different.
Angels are so beautiful and they look really similar. Also they have a small reproduction rate. That smells of inbreeding and genetic defects to me. Could they be the high, beautiful class?
Demons are big, ugly, with a lot of different shapes and "sub-species". A lower, working class?
It could be that while the really big ones (Satan, Yah-Yah, Uriel, Abigor) where the ones in charge (because of their size and power) there was some kind of discrimination based in the different appearances of demons and angels. Enough that a power-hungry Satan could lead a rebellion.

[westrim]

So, if Elhmas is gonna bail on the city, is someone going to have to tap Yaweh on the shoulder and say "Eternal one, Elhmas has left the building."

groan...

My friend, I'm a /b/tard.

Yeah, 4chan humor isn't big outside of adolescents who don't know how to act like adults.

BTW, you can't 'InB4 ITG' if you are acting like an ITG.

Dude, again, what the hell? Why is it that every time we talk you always levy (unprovoked!) insults at me? Do you relish calling people names? Have I offended you in some way?

He was applying it to 4chan browsers generally. You, by taking offense and responding, made it specific. I, for the record, also visit the site (rarely /b/, though) but I know enough not to apply its brand of humor outside the site.

Take a look at the site motto.

Get your fill of sci-fi, science, and mockery of stupid people

Wow. I came here thinking it was a nice place to spend my off hours talking with people without being berated and/or insulted at every turn. Guess I was wrong. Thank you for correcting my mistake. Nice way to build a community, BTW.

...Says the guy who was loudly proclaiming his /b/tardy and tolerance of the worst humanity has to offer and so on. Glass houses and stones. When you say stupid stuff you will be mocked; why would you expect otherwise?

You know, I really don't think the people here are looking to include idiots who say shit like:

I've watched footage from the Nanking Massacre for fun.

in the community. And if you have problems with people calling you such horrible things as 'adolescent' and 'stupid', you're really a thin-skinned, piss-poor excuse for a /b/-tard, beside already being a complete shitstain who doesn't deserve the air he's breathing.

Hey now, don't blow a blood vessel. He's just not clued in, not actively malicious.

As a matter of fact, I've been wondering if the Angelic war was not a caste thing, given that angels and demons are different.
Angels are so beautiful and they look really similar. Also they have a small reproduction rate. That smells of inbreeding and genetic defects to me. Could they be the high, beautiful class?
Demons are big, ugly, with a lot of different shapes and "sub-species". A lower, working class?
It could be that while the really big ones (Satan, Yah-Yah, Uriel, Abigor) were the ones in charge (because of their size and power) there was some kind of discrimination based in the different appearances of demons and angels. Enough that a power-hungry Satan could lead a rebellion.

My impression was that the genetic split happened after the rebellion (relatively short timespan aside). And we've had no indication that the angels have to abort lots of deformed angel babies, just that they have low fertility. As to subspecies and such, it has been mentioned regularly that the angels do differ greatly in size and have some variation in appearance/ ability.

[Ruadhan2300]

I kinda have to agree with you both...Eevin's thought on castes sounds about right, and ignoring some of the story, it would fit my personal view of the whole heaven/hell dynamic. but yah, I also got the impression the changes came after the split...it'd be interesting if we could meet some demons who were there and among the original split from heaven. and get their explanation of why they look so damn different

[TithonusSyndrome]

Take a look at the site motto.

Get your fill of sci-fi, science, and mockery of stupid people

Wow. I came here thinking it was a nice place to spend my off hours talking with people without being berated and/or insulted at every turn. Guess I was wrong. Thank you for correcting my mistake. Nice way to build a community, BTW.

Yeah, I guess we should build a community around preying on the emotional trauma and misfortunes of others, and harassing them for no good reason. Har har har, lost an iPod and committed suicide, did you? Time to mercilessly make threatening calls to your grieving family!

Get off your high fucking horse, you little shit. If you willingly identify as a member of that exercise in muzzling millions of consciences for the sake of petty amusement, I don't think you're in a position to lecture anyone.

[DKeith2011]

**starts looking around for the 'ignore this user' button**

Step back and take a breath guys.

[Edward Yee]

Onto more relevant questions (I guess... here's hoping Scorpion gets it)...

So "battle damage assessment" (BDA) Elhmas' army, or straight to the Eternal City?

[EdBecerra]

Petraeus looked at the operational displays, calculating safety margins and degrees of separation. Yes, it would work. "Sodom, for Gomorrah they die."

So.

You're basically saying that Petraeus Sodom-ized them all.

Ed.

[EdBecerra]

I'm not familiar with the "demonic-build" Martini-Henry, but can it still fire while the "pig sticker"-type bayonet is mounted? That would be another mark in favor of the bayonet, so I'm guessing that the rise of the M114-type rifle (in .458 Winchester) led to the bucking of the RL trend of omitting bayonet lugs?

I'm sorry I didn't notice this post earlier. I'm a retired gunsmith, so bad on me, as it were.

The standard bayonet for an 1871 Martini-Henry was a socket-mounted spike that looks like this:

http://arms2armor.com/Bayonets/mh1876.htm

Yes, you can fire with the bayonet mounted, assuming the Hell-design is true to the brit original.

It's a damned sturdy rifle design, all in all, and the action can take elephant-cartridges. Probably why Stuart used it in the story. Only the Sharps is better, IMO, and the Martini tended to be easier on new recruits fumbling with reloads.

Ed.