Armageddon?? (87 page)

“Sure
have, damned things go all over the place. Not one flies true. Haven’t had any
luck all day with them crapshoots. You claim you got eight, you’re
bullshitting.”

“Camera
gun doesn’t lie, Lieutenant.” The AFCIO’s voice had dropped through sub-zero.
She called up White’s download, the shots clearly showing the rockets flying
straight and true but passing ahead of the targets. “It’s pretty obvious,
you’re firing from too great a range and leading the target excessively. You’re
using a rocket, not a gun, the lead you need is minimal. You watch Lieutenant
Commander Wong’s downloads, they’ll show you how its done properly. We can’t
give you ammunition to waste, you’re off flight roster until you can get
consistent hits on the simulator.”

Witz
turned away, still cursing under his breath. The AFIO packed up her laptop and
smiled. “O-club’s open Mike.”

“Join
me for a drink, Captain?”

“Be
a pleasure. My name’s Patricia.”

“Is
Witz going to be all right, he doesn’t seem happy.”

“Oh,
don’t worry about him, he’s just Witzless.”

Wyvern
Flight, the Southern Front, Phlegethon River Bulge

If
the wyverns and their riders could have seen the radar tracking plots, they’d
have known they were heading at 250 knots towards the center of the human
positions along the southern flank. They couldn’t so all they knew was they
were heading at their normal speed to where the humans were fighting. Each side
of the wyvern, on panniers made of Beast leather, were loads of sulfur, ready
to be set on fire and dropped on the humans below. Brimstone, burning sulfur,
was one of Hell’s great weapons, an attack that burned, crushed and gassed all
in a single blow. Far below them, they could see the human sky-chariots tearing
into the harpy cloud, leaving the sky studded with the orange-and-red balls of
fire as the harpies died.

Up
here, more than half a league into the sky, the formation of 80 wyverns had
gone more or less unnoticed. That had to be why the human sky-chariots were
ignoring them in favor of rending the harpies. Still, it given the slaughter
that was taking place in the harpy ranks, the wyverns and their riders were
content with what small mercies they were given. There were whispers that more
than seven thousand harpies had died already, more than one legion’s worth out
of the six legions that had started the day’s battle.

Faranigranthis
saw the wing leader up ahead make the signal, it was time for the attack. He
ran a quick glance over his equipment, the sacks of brimstone were ready, all
it would need was to pull the bronze bar from the rings and the sacks would
upend, pouring the burning sulfur on to the enemy below. Behind them were the
bronze flechettes, hardened in Belial’s workshops and also ready to be dropped
on the enemy. Then, he returned his attention to the formation, already the
first rank were peeling off for their dive on the enemy below. His turn came,
he jabbed his spurs into the wyvern and felt it drop out of the sky as its
wings folded and it howled its battle-cry.

This
was the bit that made a wyvern rider’s life worthwhile. The screaming dive on
an enemy below, watching them disperse and run to escape the deluge that was to
come. Faranigranthis saw the humans below, their fortresses built around their
iron chariots besieged by harpies and with the ground forces and beasts closing
in. Off to one side, he saw a strange rippling blue flash tearing at the human
positions and realized that had to be the naga at work, pouring their lightning
bolts into the enemy ranks. As his wyvern dropped, Faranigranthis could see
them more clearly, could see the great coiled forms strapped to the back of the
Great Beasts that carried them. He touched his wyvern with his mind and the
creature changed the angle of its dive so he could dump its load on the humans
engaged by the naga.

It
was time, nearly time. Faranigranthis calculated angle and speed, He had selected
a line of three fortresses for his attack, a group that was already under heavy
fire from the naga, the blue lightning bolts rippling off their armor. He
touched the igniter that set the left hand set of brimstone bags on fire, then
hesitated slightly and pulled the drop bar. To his delight he saw his aim was
true and the deluge of burning yellow stones swept across the human iron
chariots. Beneath him, the harpies swarmed over the stricken vehicles and the
infantry floundering across the open space between the Phlegethon and the human
defenses gained fresh heart. They swarmed up the banks and over the iron
chariots that lay within them

Then,
Faranigranthis saw how the human defenses worked. As soon as the three
fortresses he had hot were in danger, those on either side opened fire on them,
the little red flashes that streamed from them raking the position held by
their fellows. From beneath the seething mass of harpies and infantry, he saw
the iron chariots moving backwards, out of the overrun fortress, back towards
the safety of the line behind. Still they were being raked by their fellows,
but Faranigranthis saw the red fireflies bouncing off the iron chariots and he
realized what was happening. The human fireflies couldn’t penetrate iron so they
bounced off and just killed those outside its protection. None of whom were
human of course.

Well,
Faranigranthis knew what to do about that. He still had his right side pouches
of brimstone and his flechettes. He dragged his wyvern’s nose around, touched
its mind and gave it the instructions necessary. His next run would be on the
second line of fortresses, the ones that were covering the escape of his first
target. Once more his aim was true and the yellow cloud of flaming sulfur
engulfed the iron chariots in their fortress. Their fireflies faded away and
stopped as the chariots tried to back out from the cloud. Above them,
Faranigranthis turned his wyvern again and headed for the chariots that had
been the victim of his first pass. They were still there, fighting the infantry
and Beasts that surrounded them and the harpies that flew over them. He aimed
carefully and saw his flechettes hail down upon them. As he turned away, his
load gone, he could see a rolling cloud of black smoke, laced with orange. An iron
chariot was burning and he, Faranigranthis, had killed it.

It
was time to go home. The Wyverns were assembling back at their original height
above the battlefield and Faranigranthis could sense the exultation of the
riders. They’d got in and they had struck a savage blow at the humans. Then, he
did a count, there were fifty three Wyverns flying in the formation of the
eighty that had dived on the humans just a few minutes before.

Naga
Group, the Southern Front, Phlegethon River Bulge

Baroness
Yuku fought the exhaustion that was growing throughout her body. The naga were
built for maintaining a constant series of discharges but the rate at which she
and her fellow naga had been firing them at the humans was greater than they
had ever attempted before. Yet it had to be done, the humans had to be kept
under fire if the assault was to stand a chance. Yuku mentally thanked her Lord
that he had had the wisdom to ‘modify’ the instructions to send his best naga
to aid Belial in his mad schemes. He’d interpreted ‘best’ to mean his youngest
and least experienced coven, keeping his two most experienced groups with him
for this battle. By the look of it, several other lords had done the same and
that was a good thing, otherwise the assembled covens would be collapsed into
semi-consciousness by now.

Those
that still lived that was. There had been 54 covens assembled for this assault,
just over 700 naga, and Chiknathragothem had grouped them in the center of his
formation top punch a hole for the rest of his army to follow. That had seemed
like a good idea until the holocaust of human mage-fire had descended upon
them. The casualties had been dreadful but the soft, unarmored nagas had been
hard hit. Less than 300 had survived the mage bolts and the churning ground. They’d
forded the river and kept the human chariots under a constant series of bolts
but nobody could do much more until the wyverns had doused their positions with
burning brimstone. That had forced the humans back and out of their defensive
positions.

The
combination of bolts and brimstone from above, the relentless fire of the nagas
and the advancing infantry and fliers had done it, they’d started to destroy
the human defense. From her position on the river bank, Yuku could see the
black, rolling smoke rising from more than a dozen iron chariots that had been
overwhelmed and destroyed. Around them lay the bodies of their crews, many half
eaten as they had been cut down. That might once have been a satisfying sight
but Yuku could see more. The ground was black with the bodies of
Chiknathragothem’s army where human magery had caused its terrible toll.

One
of the infantry cohort commanders waved her forward, the foot-soldiers and
cavalry were trying to clear the evil metal snakes and exploding mage-bars that
covered the ground. The mage bars could be cleared by the simple expedient of
picking them up and throwing them away, if they exploded, the mage-bar was
gone, if it did not, it was gone. Slowly, a way was being cleared through the
defenses, even though the human mage-fire never ceased and the casualties of
those doing the clearing were high beyond counting. Yuku started to lead the
seven surviving members of her coven forward along the cleared path, summoning
up enough energy to unleash another series of bolts against the defenders. That
was when the foot soldier leading her raised his trident.

“No
further Highness. This is as far as we can go, the next line of human defenses
is ahead of us.

And
on either side of us and behind us thought Yuku. Nowhere is protected on this
battlefield where the humans can see all and their mages can strike where they
will.

Then,
she heard a strange whistling sound and more mage-bolt explosions. Only these
were soft in comparison with those she had experienced on the banks of the
Phlegethon and they looked different. Instead of rolling clouds of black and
red smoke, surrounded by thrown earth, they were gentle and white, almost
angelic in the purity of their whiteness. Yuku watched confused as the white
feather-like tendrils spread into a cloud that was utterly opaque yet still had
the blinding white purity of the initial bursts. The clouds started to rise and
that was when Yuku felt the intense heat as more of the mage bolts spread the
white cloud still further.

Yuku
was suddenly aware that the white cloud was irritating her eyes and her nose
was running. A stray cloud of the white smoke swept over her and she coughed,
an explosive cough that shook her whole body. She looked around, she and her
nagas were surrounded by white fragments that were falling over the whole area.
One of the fragments landed on her skin and she looked at it, curiously at
first but then in horror as her scales started to bubble and smolder. The lump
was eating its way into her body, she could feel it searing into her flesh as
it bit deeper and deeper. The agonizing pain started to spread as more and more
of the lumps touched her and started the process of her destruction. All around
her figures were on the ground, rolling and screaming, trying to brush away the
fragments that brought this unbelievable horror to them. Even as they did so,
more of the rounds thumped down, adding yet more smoke and fragments to the
cloud that was enveloping them.

The
Great Beast that bore Baroness Yuku was on the ground, writhing and bellowing
in agony as the white mage-fire burned into its body. Yuku was trapped
underneath it, her body being crushed by the beast’s weight even as it burned
from the white mage-fire. As she died in searing, mind-crushing agony, Yuku
learned that it was very unwise to upset humans.

Chapter
Sixty One

Comercia
Tower, Detroit, Michigan

It
was a nondescript conference room in a nondescript office in downtown Detroit.
Oh, certainly some lawyer's name was on the door, but this was just a quiet
place for two sons of Michigan's most powerful political family. "You know
we have to resolve the issue, Carl. You’d think she’d shut up when Barry got
the nod." US Representative Sander Levin of Michigan's twelfth sighed.
"We can't let those two keep sniping at each-other like a couple of
fifth-graders, not when the world is going to hell."

"Hell's
coming to the world is more like it, Sandy." Senator Carl Levin, Sander's
younger brother, joked. "I know, its bad. But what do you want me to do?
Anyway, I don't LIKE that woman. I'd rather have a baldrick on the ticket than
her. At least then we know what we'd be getting."

Sander
laughed, and blocked out words with his hand. "Beelzebub-Levin in 08, why
settle for a lesser evil?" He shook his head. "No, I think the best
we can do is to keep supporting Barry and ……" suddenly there was a rumble
that turned into a steady vibration, and the lights in the room flickered.

The
door burst open. "Sirs!" A secret-service agent stepped in, listening
on his earpiece and with a weapon in-hand. "A portal has opened pretty
close to us, north of here. Its looking like a replay of Sheffield, and we have
orders to get you out of here." His voice made it clear it wasn't a
request. After the incident with Bill Clinton, the Secret Service had mandated
that all members of congress be protected with at least one agent at all times,
to prevent demonic possession. "If you'll follow me to the street, we will
evacuate you to the west, we have an airplane waiting but all of the
metro-airspace has been locked down."