Armageddon?? (75 page)

It
was classic stuff, fire and maneuver, each squad moving forward while the
others covered it from their own positions. There were a few bolts coming out
from the beleaguered baldrick positions but they were wild, McElroy suspected
some of the enemy were just holding their tridents over whatever it was they
were hiding behind and blasting away at random. It took only three jumps to
close in on the marketplace and by then what few baldricks were left alive had
pulled back into their camp, but doubtless they’d be re-organizing in there.
Time was short.

That
wouldn’t matter much. The great cart that was the object of the attack was in
front of them, the mortar and grenade crews had been careful to keep there
patterns of shells and bombs away from it. McElroy saw a baldrick, his legs
shattered by fragments, trying to drag himself away from the slaughterhouse
that had once been a market. He didn’t even pause before shooting the crippled
demon in the head.

Indira,
are you there?

Waiting
for you. Ready now?

Biggest
portal possible Indi, big as you can, it will only be for a few seconds. We’re
on our way out.

In
front of him, the red air of hell shimmered and a black ellipse formed. McElroy
and the rest of his unit grabbed the cart and started it rolling forward,
ignoring the screams from the children inside, Behind them, the mortar crews
already had their weapons on their carts and were rolling them towards the hole
while the rest of the special forces group gave covering fire. Then, the
red/gray environment of Hell vanished and McElroy found himself inside a large
building, a hangar, lit from outside by the clear yellow light of earth’s sun.

Behind
him, the heavy weapons group were already through the portal, and the special
forces troopers were backing out, firing through the black ellipse as they
withdrew. Six of them were bringing three others who were obviously hurt,
another carried a dead man in a fireman’s lift. Then, as the last came through,
the portal shut down.

DIMO(N)
Transit Facility, Moffet Field, Mountain View, California

As
the last of the raiding group cleared the portal, a wave of cheering erupted
across the occupants of the transit facility. The building had once been used
as an airship hangar but had been quickly modified into its present role. It
was a much better deal than the cramped Pentagon quarters that had been used
before. The size was valuable, the great cart that had been wheeled through the
ellipse was testimony to that. Around it, the deceased humans of McElroy’s unit
were standing bewildered.

“You
OK Sergeant?”

“Its
Corporal Sir, Corporal McElroy.”

“No,
its Sergeant (deceased) McElroy and if you knew how much trouble you were
causing the pay corps, you would be a very happy man.”

“I’m
just happy to be here Sir. Out of that place, shit, I feel crappy.”

“You
can’t stay here son. You’ll have to go back, but we’re linking you directly to
Camp Hell-Alpha. That’s a U.S. Army facility by the Hellmouth. A Colonel
Paschal will be waiting for you and your unit, he has orders for you. By the
way, you’ll be losing Ori and Aeneas, the historians want to talk to them and,
frankly, they’re dead weight for where you’ll be going.” Major Warhol sounded
apologetic but in truth he  wasn’t. Anyway, he wanted to talk to somebody who
had fought at Thermopylae.

“Sir,
I don’t think….”

“No
choice Sergeant.” Warhol softened a little. “Look over there, Your mom and one
of your sisters has come in. You’ve got a few minutes to say ‘Hi’ then you’re
on your way to Hell-Alpha. You can’t stay here, this level will kill you soon.

Warhol
looked over to the small crowd of people who were standing beside the doors of
the hangar. McElroy’s men had run over to them, recognizing their relatives.
Cassidy had her head buried in a young man’s chest while he stroked her hair.
At their feet, a dog was sniffing at her, confused, knowing this had been his
human before she’d gone but also that she wasn’t human any more. That confused
him and dogs do not like to be confused.

‘Sir,
over here!”

The
staff had the gates at the back of the cart open and were quieting the children
inside. They too would have to go back to Hell but to the area occupied by
humans. What would happen to them in the longer term was anybody’s guess.
People were only just beginning to realize the implications of seizing hell and
Warhol knew in his heart that the problems facing humanity when it occupied
Heaven and kicked out the previous management were going to be just as bad.

“What
have you got?” To his surprise, two of the troopers who had opened up the cart
had vomited and three others were openly crying. This was not something he had
expected to see from the “Screaming Eagles”

“Look
at this Sir, just look at it.”

‘This’
was a large pot, looking for all the world like an old-fashioned chamber-pot.
Larger than any thunder-jug he had ever seen though. Warhol looked inside and
saw a writhing mass of small red things, some looking fairly human, others
barely formed.

Warhol
was confused. “What are they? Baldrick kidlings?’

“No
Sir. Ours. They’re human embryos. Perhaps those that were miscarried or
aborted, I don’t know. But they’re our fetuses and the baldricks just ate them
like snacks.” The tears were streaming down the airborne soldier’s face and he
didn’t even bother to wipe them away.

Well,
that’s the end of Roe versus Wade Warhol thought to himself, more to deny the
horror of the scene than anything else. “Right, we have to get this lot back
into Hell. Round up McElroy’s people and get them ready. Time to reinsert.

Over
by the equipment bay, Indira Singh had shifted off the couch and Jennie Kwang
had taken her place. “Ready to go Jennie?” She gave a big thumbs-up and settled
back to make contact.

Are
you there Private Chestnut?

Do
I have any choice? The mind-voice was weak and sulky. From Jennie’s experience
in the People’s Liberation Army, the Sergeants were in process of breaking down
the spoiled little brat and building the man that would replace him. It was a
form of rebirth as well.

No,
so please open up the portal. It was much easier to do it from his end and
would cause her little or no pain. Even humans needed only marginal
amplification when opening a portal from Hell-side. The black ellipse popped
open almost immediately,

“Right,
McElroy, take your people though, everybody else, get that cart through.”
Warhol snapped out the orders. McElroy’s unit finished saying their good-byes
to their families and stepped through the portal to Camp Hell-Alpha. When everything
that had to go was gone, Kwang snapped the portal shut. Given electronics, and
a presence the other side, humans had the best of both worlds, they could open
gates easily from hellside and close them equally easily from earthside. Would
that the Sheffield problem was so easy to solve.

Warhol
was speaking into a mobile radio. “They’re gone General, just a few seconds
ago. The kids as well and that’s a sight that I don’t want to ever see again.”

Indira
was standing beside him, politely waiting for him to finish. Her normally olive
skin was gray but her tinfoil hat shone in the sun streaming through the
windows, making it seem as if she was wearing a halo.

“Will
they be coming back through here Sir?”

“McElroy’s
people? Yes, we can’t portal from place to place in Hell, for some reason the
portals can’t form when there isn’t a barrier. Like you can’t have a door
without a wall to put it in I guess. But, they’ll be coming back through, in
around three days if all goes well.

Oval
Office, White House, Washington.

“Well,
that’s the end of Roe versus Wade. The public won’t balk at ‘right to life’
legislation now.”

President
Bush lifted his eyes from the report and looked steadily at the speaker. “Karl,
hear me on this and don’t even think of crossing me. You will say nothing of
this, do you understand, nothing. We’re classifying this report so deep that it
will never be found.”

“But
Dubya, it’s a prime opportunity to get that judgment reversed.”

“I
don’t care. Karl, have you any idea how much suffering this report will cause
if it gets out? All the women who have lost babies for any reason, natural or
otherwise, read it, they’ll think of their baby in those vats, waiting to be
used as a baldrick snack. You’ve read the reports on depression and stress disorders
amongst women who’ve lost or aborted babies, I will not be responsible for
increasing their suffering. We will have a quiet word with the Justices, share
this information with them, then when the opportunity comes, they can make the
ruling that they think fit. But we will not cause the suffering and grief that
results from this report to force their hands in public.”

“But….”

“I
said No Karl, what part of that don’t you understand. And I’ll repeat this,
don’t try a leak or ‘arrange’ for somebody else to do it for you. Got that into
your head? Because it is a warning.”

Camo
Hell-Alpha, Martial Plain of Dysprosium

“McElroy?
This your unit? Good. We’ll get you to a briefing room ASAP. We’ve got three
days to train you up on operating the navigational beacons and get you prepared
for the next part of this operation. Your instructors will be with you
shortly.”

McElroy
looked around at the Army base, its scene familiar even of its setting wasn’t.
He might be out of the Hell-Pit but he was back in the regular Army. And its
habits hadn’t changed, it was still ‘hurry up and wait.’

Chapter
Fifty Three

Banks
of the Phlegethon River, Hell

It
wasn’t the way Abigor had described in the last report he had made before his
disgrace and desertion. He’d spoken of the human forces lining up behind
ridges, ready to hurl their mage-fire bolts into an attacking enemy. That
wasn’t how these humans were deploying at all. They were spread out, small
strong-points forming, each built around four of their iron chariots. There
were hundreds of those little forts, arranged in staggered rows with great
distances between them, stretching back as far as he could see. The iron
chariots were surrounded by earthworks, the red soil of hell piled up in great
banks so that only the curious round structures on top of the chariots peered
over the crest. Another thing that didn’t make sense, didn’t that provide dead
ground close in to each little fortress? Beelzebub thought that over carefully.

“The
day of glory draws closer master.” Chiknathragothem spoke deferentially to the
great demon he served, Satan’s favorite and nearest-thing-to-trusted General.
“Soon we shall lead the great charge that will tear these humans apart.”

“I
think not.” Beelzebub was still mulling over the sight before him.

“Sire?”
That had been an unexpected retort and Chiknathragothem didn’t quite know what
to make of it.

“Abigor
made a wild charge at the enemy and look where it got him. Defeated and
disgraced. We must try to be a little more cunning. Where is Asmodeus’s Army?”

“A
day’s march out Sire. Coming up from the south. Two hundred and thirty three
legions including nine of cavalry and three of fliers. All he had save for the
ten he took down to the pit.”

“Where
they did him little good eh Chiknathragothem?” The death of Asmodeus was still
causing shock-waves throughout Hell. The other Great Dukes had descended on his
estates and property with unparalleled avarice, hoping to divide the spoils
between themselves. And what spoils there were for Asmodeus had been a rich and
powerful Duke, to absorb even a portion of his holdings would enhance the power
and status of any noble demon.

That
was what had made the next step so inexplicable. Normally Satan encouraged
infighting and maneuvering amongst his entourage on the very sensible basis
that when they were conspiring against each other, they would not be conspiring
against him. But this time Satan Mekratrig had stilled the struggle with a
single booming command that had echoed throughout the streets of Dis. Rather
like the strange flying chariots of the humans that made no noise when coming
but went overhead with a dreadful crash and left a deafening scream behind
them. Satan had gathered his court and harangued them all for their disloyalty
and treachery, asking them why they fought each other when the humans needed
destroying. Only his loyal vassals Beelzebub and Belial were standing by him, he
said, while others looked only to their own gain. As a result, the holdings of
Asmodeus would be distributed by Satan when the war against the humans was over
and the extent of the rewards would be measured by the service the recipients
had provided. And so far, Satan had concluded darkly, only Belial had
qualified.

The
thought that Belial might inherit the whole of Asmodeus’s vast holdings had
horrified the demon hierarchy. All too many remembered the slights and
humiliations they had visited upon him when to do so won them favor in Satan’s
eyes. The destruction of Sheffield had added very real fear to the horror, was
it not possible that Belial might take his vengeance by doing the same to them?
And there were his gorgons to consider; Euryale was well-known for her large
collection of cherished and carefully-maintained grudges.