GATE: the clash of the titans

by Qun Nguyn1

Mostly AUs. A Gate has opened in Tokyo by a Roman-esque Empire, familiar scenario with familiar faces but the people marched through the Gate is from a vastly more powerful magic world. The stage is set. Earth Alliance vs The Holy Empire. Science vs Magic. The power of the thousand sun vs The Beast of the Apocalypse. Let the clash of Titans begin. Let the worlds have War.

13. Chapter 13: Deus Vult pt1

Chapter 13 : Deus Vult pt1

Magical Communication Device (Magicom or Manacom) is a device that uses magical power to transmit signals, information and images instead of radio ware or electronic signal.

Magical communication device can only be used by anyone with the ability to use simple magic. In other words, if you can't use magic, you can't use it. Its operational range depends on the type of equipment, but it usually about 1000 km.

There are two types of technology for transmitting long-distance communication through magical power: the Magic Voice Tubes (voice-only communications) and the Magic Crystal Tubes (Magic Communications with videos and images).

Magical Crystal Tubes are the improved version of the Magical Voice Tubes. It has now the ability to transmit and receive video since the output and bandwidth have increased using more magic gems.

Holy Darwinian Empire shows magically recorded then transmitted and displayed elsewhere, in color, using a flat crystalline lens receiver. The exact method differed, but this magic news program was available in both Holy Darwinian Empire and it protectorates, though only Holy Darwinian Empire could watch it in color. Once a day, news from around the world was projected via these crystalline lenses.

Magic Detection ELORP (Echo-Location by Radiant Psion ) is a device that detects the magic of living things. It was developed by Holy Darwinian Empire magicians.

As it name says, it is device that is used to detect magic in living things. On the other hand, their ability to detect scientifically powered aircraft is quite poor.

Comparison to Mechanical Radar.

The magic detection ELORP of the Holy Darwinian Empire's magic naval fleets can detects enemy fleet at a distance of about 60 km. This detection distance exceeds the radar line-of-sight range for large ships around 40 km on Earth. However, in this world, since the horizon is far from the earth, simple comparisons cannot be made and the magic is detected in the specifications, so it is different from the earth's radar.

It is unknown whether the magic detector can be used as shooting radar, but it will be practical enough as warning radar. Thus, night-thinning attacks with a magic power boat appear to be more difficult than on Earth.

---

Holy Darwinian Empire, imperial capital Sadera

Everyone knew about Darwinian … Every single person in the world knew that the Holy Darwinian Empire was the strongest country in the history of Falmart. They had become prosperous by themselves, without any help from other countries. Their level of advancement was so incredible that they used to be known as the "Center of the world" before the Unification Era.

Across all contemporary politicians and scholars, there was a tendency to admire the strength of the first global empire: Holy Darwinian Empire. From the modern perspective, it seems impossible to unify such a diverse and vast political landscape. Many will point to the strength of the Darwinian Emperor, specifically Emperor Charles zi Augustus, and the overwhelming might of the Darwinian Imperial Army as a form of successful and effective governance.

The Holy Darwinian Empire had:

-The world's most advanced magical and biological technology.

-A strong government that stabilized the country's foundation.

-Vast territory and an excellent system for mass producing goods and materials.

-A superior military force that can defeat all enemy in and out.

With all of these world-class advantages, compared to all the other countries in the history of this world, and even compared to other superpowers in the past, there was no doubt that Darwinian's national power far outstripped any other country's.

The Holy Darwinian Empire was surprisingly not an absolute monarchy. It was a form of oligarchic meritocracy based around the DUOCRACY system, with a stable political structure which anyone who proves their merit can join, based on the results of the Imperial Examinations, similar to the Imperial Chinese model on Earth.

DUOCRACY: The system used in the Holy Darwinian Empire and elsewhere, in which there were two powerful forces in government, one was the aristocrats and the other was the religious institution, that dominated all of the economic and social activities in the Holy Darwinian Empire. In this system the power of the church was balanced by that of the monarch. The representatives of the church were the Thirteen Apostles and the Darwinian Emperor was the representative for the aristocrats. States of this kind, with a powerful monarch and a powerful church (or other governmental system) were known as Duocracies ('two rule').

Many of these depend on a constitution or charter of some kind, such as the Holy Darwinian Empire 'Great Charter', to prevent one side or the other from becoming too powerful and unbalancing the system.

Because of the success and stability of the Holy Darwinian Empire it has become an exemplar for other regimes around the world [much like the USA of the real world].

The Falmartian Orthodox Church (Holy Order Of Eden)

The State Religion of the Holy Darwinian Empire, the Falmartian Orthodox Church adheres to the practises used before the reforms of Grand Master Nikon, made in 16530 and reversed in 17700 I.C. These were the practises of what were known as the Old Believers. Even more than the Sadera language, it was considered a vital constituent of the Imperial national identity, and as such was heavily promoted by the Imperial government.

There were two branches to the Falmartian Orthodox Church:

The 'White Clergy', urban priests who work among non-Church people. Many of these were rich and respected members of the community. It was members of this branch of the church who were responsible for the running of the Holy Darwinian Empire and teaching the children of the Empire. All members of the military of the Holy Darwinian Empire were de facto also part of the White Clergy. As such all of its personnel were technically monks, although in practical terms (such as behaviour) they differ little from the soldiers of the Earth nations. Members of this branch wore white uniforms, apart from (for example) in combat, where pragmatism requires that something else, such as camouflage, be worn.

The 'Black Clergy' who make up the monks and nuns of the Church, having given their lives and property over to it. Members of this branch wore black uniforms. Some monasteries ostensibly of the Black Clergy were actually places of discreet exile for those too important or high-ranking to be sent into the common Katorga system. The Black Clergy also includes the magicians, scientists and technologists of the Holy Empire.

Ideology

As part of its belief in the equality of all men under Gods, the Holy Darwinian Empire was a fairly egalitarian society, with anyone of any race and social class who has the ability having, at least nominally, the chance to rise to the highest levels through their own efforts. Everyone was considered to begin life with as much potential to rise before God as any other. At least if one was a man, women remain second-class citizens.

The Holy Darwinian Empire was also strongly theocratic-nationalistic, in that they believe all Falmartian Orthodox believers should be unified into a single state under the Falmartian Orthodox Church, after which all others should be converted to the One True Way of Falmartian Orthodoxy.

However, these policies have been toned down since the end of the War of Unification. For those nations taken over by the Holy Darwinian Empire before this liberalising of policy, such as the Union and Federation, their national cultures and identities now only exist underground or in exile. Those who object to this system will find themselves entering the Katorga system of penal servitude which is used to deal with political and religious dissidents of all kinds.

All of the ethnic minorities within the Holy Darwinian Empire, including the Elves and Dwarves and so on, had also been converted to Falmartian Orthodoxy, at least officially. As part of this, and to help wipe out their pagan beliefs, the Holy Darwinian Empire had, in the past, split up families, and had children raised by foster parents or the state to ensure they were brought up in the One True Way of the Holy Order.

Officially the Holy Darwinian Empire contained nothing but Falmartian Orthodox believers. In reality a very small minority of people secretly clinged to their old beliefs. From time to time these 'heretics' were discovered and harshly punished. Thus, they were the main source of voluntary collaborators with the United Earth Alliance.

The Falmartian Orthodox Church as it standed in this world idealised and desired to protect all things old, while also hating the new, innovative and disruptive. Because of this the Holy Order felt itself entirely justified in keeping technology out of the hands of the populace as they feel it is very ungodly, this was the reason the for the technological stagnation last for almost 50 thousand years.

However, the Orthodox Church had been forced by events and pragmatism to shift away from this 'pure' Old Belief in order that the Holy Darwinian Empire might survive. In particular the pragmatic realisation that some things new must be accepted in order to protect the old and allow the Holy Darwinian Empire to continue to exist has driven a programme of modernisation. Those of the Church made the sacrifice of using these things so that they may protect the general run of the populace allow them to have a godly life, even if they themselves were somewhat tainted by these ungodly things, if under the protection of Thirteen Gods.

The Falmartian Orthodox Church also forbidded necromancy.

In the Holy Darwinian Empire science and technology were referred to as the 'Tools of Gods', which have been revealed to mortalkind to allow it to do the work of Gods. Thus it can only be used with the approval of the Falmartian Orthodox Church, for Godly tasks.

Magics and Titan powers had been widely used as an alternative for science and technology to meet the citizens every needs so there were no large incentive for technological improvement. The use of science and technology for anything else is doing the work of the heathen, and anyone doing so would be suitably punished for it. This was one of the means by which the Falmartian Orthodox Church maintains Imperial society in the form that they consider to be best for its people. As a side effect of this most Falmartians believed that Earthlings were servants of the heathen gods because of the way they live and things they use.

Part of the 'Unification Movement' has been the development of a volunteer army to defend the Falmartian Orthodox Church and the Holy Darwinian Empire against those, like the Arachnid and Chaos Demons, who would corrupt or destroy it. Because of that the Holy Darwinian Empire had one of the earliest volunteer citizen armies of any nation in the world and volunteering for the Holy Darwinian Army was still considered to be an honourable profession in the Holy Darwinian Empire.

Some old soldiers and others in the Holy Darwinian Empire have trophies consisting of 'Devils Items' taken from the demons during the Black Crusade. Most do not know what they are, but do know they are evil. In more cases they are kept in churches as items of the Devil's work to be avoided and shunned.

Another important feature of the Falmartian Orthodox Church was the acceptance of martyrdom in the name of the faith as the only way towards salvation. First arising in 274 (before imperial calendar) B.I.C, during the First Global Arachnid War, suicide tactics were now quite widely used by the Church Militant, particularly in the form of manned missiles and torpedoes known as "Martyrdom Weapons". Imperial soldiers are not expected to throw their lives away lightly, but to do so without question if and when required.

Because all Falmartian Orthodox believer were expected to participate in at least some monastic works, in response to the commandment of The Thirteen Gods, the Holy Darwinian Empire practised a form of National Service in which all males enter the church for a period of two years as they reach adulthood at age of 130. This service is always in the White Clergy, after which most citizens return to civilian life, though some remain in the church for life and some transfer to the Black Clergy.

The Falmartian Orthodox Church also controls most labours within the Holy Darwinian Empire, as local churches provide the basis around which the workers are organised.

The Technical Monasteries

Science and scientific research are not encouraged in the Holy Darwinian Empire and its allies. However, it was realised very quickly during the brief Falmart-Ravernal War in 44019 I.C that some science and technology was required for the protection of the Holy Empire.

Thus a small research community was set up, dedicated to research useful for the defence of the Holy Empire. Larger than this was the Holy Darwinian Espionage Office, set up to simply steal and/or reverse engineer science and technology produced by Earth and others alternate worlds.

Quite early on in their programme to modernise their military, the Imperial government realised that having people with scientific and technical knowledge coming back into the community at large was affecting the community at large, making them more aware of modern technology, making them want that new technology.

To avoid this, male children (and only male, due to the sexism of the Imperial system) who show exceptional intelligence in school are taken off and educated in specialised technical monasteries, which form what are effectively isolated universities/research laboratories, with a religious covering under the aegis of the Black Clergy. This is considered a great honour, and families of such children are rewarded by the state.

The scientists, engineers and so who result from this process are put together in these technical monasteries to work, with only the designs of their products leaving them, apart from occasional rare debugging missions and similar tasks. They are allowed to communicate with their families, but this is strictly controlled and censored.

The technical monasteries also have a support staff who are also kept separate from the rest of Imperial society and who keep things running. The members of the technical monasteries are allowed concessions and eccentricities forbidden to the general run of monks and society, but these are tolerated in order to gain the benefits of their brains.

Given the concessions that are often made to them to keep them working productively, the members of the technical monasteries are often mockingly referred to as the 'Grey Clergy'.

Some Technical Monasteries are situated adjacent to but separate from towns, in order to give them a plenty supply of manpower.

The Industrial Monasteries

Because of the nature of the Technical Monasteries, mass production of the designs that emerge from them is done in such a was as to ensure that the factory workers building them remain ignorant of what they are making and how it works. As such all industry is attached to monasteries of the Falmartian Orthodox Church, forming state-run enterprises known as Industrial Monasteries.

Those few who do come to know too much often end up in the technical monasteries as assistants and support staff.

As with many Technical Monasteries, most Industrial Monasteries are situated adjacent to but separate from towns, in order to give them a supply of manpower.

The Office Of Assessment

Part of the White Clergy, the Office of Assessment was set up in 21792 I.C to assess technology, whether it is allowable in the Holy Darwinian Empire, and if so where, whether everywhere, only in the government, or only in the military. Based on their assessment, magic computers, for example, are usable in the military and in certain areas of government, but certainly not anywhere else.

In addition to its assessment work, it also includes an enforcement arm to ensure its decrees were obeyed, with a traditional, 'proper' lifestyle being enforced for the entire population of the Holy Darwinian Empire.

As the political currents of the Holy Darwinian Empire shifted, the Office of Assessment has varied in its power and influence, from corrupt and weak to being the power in the Holy Darwinian Empire.

In the former case people could often get away with having forbidden items but being discreet about it. In the latter not even the highest in the land were safe. During the Great Falmart-Terran War, with the troubles then, there was a good deal of smuggling and black market activity, and the Office was weak because all of the best people were off fighting the war. This led to all kinds of problems in the future.

The Office Of Contemplation

They were the counterintelligence part of the Holy Order, working in conjunction with their royal counterpart the secret police Oprichnina.

Part of the White Clergy, the Office of Contemplation was set up in the 27029s, not long after the War of Unification, to monitor the people of the Holy Darwinian Empire and weed out disloyalty and unbelief. As such they performed internal security and counter-intelligence duties for the Church within the Empire. Because of the nature of their respective duties they are closely linked to the Office of Assessment.

Because of their covert nature the Office of Contemplation was in general hidden within the Technical Monastery system. It was rumoured that a number of Technical Monasteries of the Empire were in reality entirely run by the Office of Contemplation. These monasteries had come to be referred to as the Invisible Monasteries.

As the political currents of the Holy Darwinian Empire shifted, the Office of Contemplation had varied in its power and influence, from corrupt and weak to being the power in the Holy Darwinian Empire.

The Office Of Perception

Part of the White Clergy, the Office of Perception was founded in 270 B.I.C, after the First Global Arachnid War, to monitor the worlds outside of Falmart for threats to it, and to act to reduce and eliminate those threats. As such they were the main intelligence agency of the Falmartian Orthodox Church. Because of their wide remit, in addition to and as part of their other duties the Office of Perception performs magical, scientific, technical and industrial espionage between the alternate worlds.

Like the Office of Contemplation it was rumoured that the Office of Perception was mainly based in and run from the Invisible Monasteries.

Because of the constant perceived threats to the Holy Darwinian Empire the Office of Perception had always been well-funded and a great power in the Holy Darwinian Empire.

XXXXXXXX

In the Imperial Eternal Capital Sadera, within a room in the Foreign Affairs bureau building, two men were having a discussion.

"I can't believe it, Your Holiness Rory, why ! …... for us, the Holy Darwinian Empire, the sole hyperpower in this world, to actually ask for help… Not only that, but from an enemy outside of this world that we were at war with, some skinny magic-less humans from the Earth… I still can't believe it," the Secretary State of Foreign Affairs, the 5th Prince Bernard Duvauchelle said. "Our Zeroth Divison could easily blow away something on the level of a flame demons division. But, aside from that holy division, and considering the Chaos Demons' magical level, the local military garrison there might have trouble."

"Indeed! That's why, if you could, about this ceasefire proposal…"

"Cardinal Arneus, as the information director in the Office of Perception, I get that you like to go out and gather information, but we're the most powerful country in the history, you know?

For us to be the ones asking to negotiate and sending a delegation… And not only are they our enemy, they don't even have magic, how can they help us fight the 13rd Black Crusade!"

"Your Highness, for all intents and purposes, UEADF now is second most powerful military forces on this world, we can't fight them and Abaddon's army at the same time. Her Holiness Rory Mercury know that, so she offer them this ceasefire proposal so we can focus on one enemy at a time. We should send a delegation and just tack on preparations for opening diplomatic talks. How does that sound?"

"Hmm, if that's how we play it, the members of Royal Court shouldn't raise a stink. Let's run with this plan for now and start laying the groundwork for it, start with the war fee of 500 millions Suwani."

At a later date, the Holy Darwinian Empire approved of sending a diplomatic delegation to Alnus Base.

---

Holy Darwinian Empire, imperial capital Sadera

"All right, let us be off."

The Holy Darwinian Empire, said to be the strongest country in the world, and the largest superpower, was sending an advance delegation in order to deliver 30,000 tones of gold to the UEADF as well as begin preparations for diplomatic negotiations. They were heading west to the Lemuria subcontinent.

There were 300 representatives in the delegation, including:

Diplomat : Duke Phiam

Information Officer : Archbishop Rydorka from Office of Perception

Military Officer : Primus Yao Haa Dushi

Technical Officer : Bishop Baeluno from Office of Assessment

As a group, they headed to the airport parking apron. There was a passenger vehicle with white wings parked there. This skyship was called "The Floating Ship of the Heavens."

The Floating Ship of the Heavens

Type: 35

Cruising distance: 21,000 km

Cruising speed: 800 km/h

Main engine: magical light discharge-type compressed air engine

Fuel: high-purity red magic gems

The 30,000 tones of gold would be transported in 100 of the Type 35 Floating Ship of the Heavens.

If a Earth person were to look at the Floating Ship of the Heavens, they would probably think it looked very, very strange. There were strange shapes carved where the engine was housed, and there was no propeller, so at first glance it might resemble a Boeing 777 jet. However, those carvings were necessary for the plane to reach a speed of 620 km/h, they weren't retracted wings.

They would be receiving assistance from Princess Pina on this trip. There was a planned stop at Princess Pina's base, Italica military fortress, in the Lemuria subcontinent to refuel with magic gems, then they would continue their journey, ultimately landing in the UEADF Alnus Great Base. They would experience all Japan has to offer while sightseeing, steadily making their way to Japan's capital, Tokyo.

All the transportation within Japan would be handled by the Japanese government. During that time, Princess Pina would take custody of the Floating Ship of the Heavens, refueling it with high-purity magic gems they had prepared in advance. On their return trip, they would once again stop in Italica to refuel and resupply.

Information Officer Archbishop Rydorka boarded the plane and sat down in a large seat. Casually glancing to his right, he saw the diplomat Duke Phiam, who had boarded earlier, sporting a rather severe expression.

"Lord Phiam, is something the matter?" asked Archbishop Rydorka

"I know this was explained before, but… We are the most powerful empire not just in the entire planet, but in history , and here we are, going out of our way to travel all the way here to ask our enemy for help… This… sycophancy… does not sit well with me.

"I understand that, for all practical purposes, it is accepted that United Earth Alliance have the most powerful army that we have ever face , but I do not agree the conclusion that we need their help to defeat the 13rd Black Crusade. Earth is our enemy, they just as much as a danger to us as the demons. Their consumptive, hedonic and depraved lifestyle disgusted me.

Didn't their planet just unify recently ? In the first place, I'm not even fully convinced that the United Earth Alliance should even be considered a civilized world, just ten thousand years ago their ancestors live in cave, when mankind was still long millennia away from building the Egyptian pyramids, our sacred Empire already ruled a vast, unchallengeable global empire.

"The way I see it, the Earth is just a small planet populated by groups of primitive, developing countries. Just look at their cities : Earth cities are hideous ramshackle affairs tossed together in a fit of absentmindedness, from the POV of any Imperial urban designer.

Compare to that, Imperial cities are well-designed machines built for regular repairs and maintenance: such things as sewage, water, etc. are designed to be easily accessible for expansion if the city grows, and if it does not to last with minimal maintenance for centuries.

The Holy Empire has been living in cities for ten times as long as humankind, and we are adapted to urban life: Public transportation is always available, everything in conveniently located, everything works and is neat and Swiss-clean, and tends to slowly devour the soul of any ones of the bohemian disposition unfortunate enough to find themselves living there."

Duke Phiam proudly boasted, a typical arrogant assumption by the Imperial higher-up.

"I apologize for my office overstepping… Based on our information… No, whether I tell you or not, you'll understand. Once you see Alnus with your own eyes, I believe you'll come around." Archbishop Rydorka cautiously said.

Duke Phiam frowned, looking... annoyed, he said.

"That reminds me… I believe this delegation was originally suggested by your Office Of Perception. Shouldn't you just stick to gathering information? We of the Empire have our pride as a superpower. We can not show weakness in front of any enemy."

The Floating Ship of the Heavens began to emit a blue light from its engine and taxied down the runway. The ship rose up in the air and began its long flight to Alnus Base.

---

Lemuria, about 700 km southwest of the Alnus region, in the sky

In the cloudless blue sky, a white-painted aircraft flew through the air. The two engines on the plane glowed with a blue light and spewed out air, propelling it forward. This was the Floating Ship of the Heavens Type 35 from the Holy Darwinian Empire, transporting their diplomatic delegation towards Alnus at a speed of 800 km/h. This aircraft was the epitome of their technology, Falmart's strongest country, and it was a product of stolen knowledge from Earth. It was quite irony for the Empire to underestimate Earth while stealing their knowledge.

"We will be entering Alnus's airspace shortly. In addition, two of UEAADF's combat aircraft will soon be arriving as planned. When they do arrive, they will only be here to escort us, so please do not be alarmed."

The in-flight broadcast gave the passengers a flight update using magical crystal tubes.

"That was so long! Another hour or so and we'll finally be there," Information Officer Archbishop Rydorka commented to the diplomat Duke Phiam sitting next to him. "But man, this really was far. It hurts my head just to think of having to fight against the enemy all the way out on the other side of the world. And they're able to launch flying machines not dragons but combat aircrafts to attack anywhere in the world. I guess I should expect no less from the Holy Empire's strongest enemy. I can kind of understand why the Crown Prince so worry. I look forward to seeing what kind of aircraft they are."

"Lord Phiam, I think it would be better if you approached UEA without any preconceptions of a typical barbarian country from the other worlds."

"I shall take your advice under consideration."

"You know, I'm very excited to see what kind of aircraft UAADF is bringing," Technical Officer Bishop Baeluno interjected.

The three started to use a Sensory-Type Magic "Multi Scope" to look beyond the wall of the plane.

XXXXXXXX

Multi-Scope is a long-ranged Visual Perception Type Magic that is used to observe a physical object from multiple angles like a visual radar. It also enables the user to expand their vision to beyond obstructions like walls.

It's a magic that allows the user to monitor without blind spots from various angles, but it's made out to seem like a number of relay cameras in the air are searching. It is the same as being monitored simultaneously by multiple magicians, it doesn't mean though that there is no direction.

XXXXXXXX

Far below, they could see the ocean. Inside the plane, the only things they could hear were the high-pitched trill of the magic engines and the sound of the aircraft cutting through the sky.

All of a sudden, two other aircraft zoomed past them, followed by a delayed boom. Far behind them, the two planes changed course and quickly caught up to the Floating Ship of the Heavens. One plane took the lead to guide them, while the other came up along the side of the Heavens.

"Wh… What?! How are they so fast?!"

"Those are swept wings! They're for surpassing the speed of sound, reducing drag within supersonic flow!" Technical Officer Bishop Baeluno responded excitedly.

When an aircraft travels at supersonic speeds, a shockwave forms in the shape of a cone around the plane, originating from the tip of the nose and sweeping back around the body of plane. If the wings were to touch the boundary layer of this shockwave, swept wings were necessary to maintain stable flight. Baeluno knew all about the theory behind them.

Duke Phiam, trembling in fear, raised his voice. "But that speed! They even surpass the Night Furry, our ultimate dragon!"

"There no need to be worry, Lord Phiam. Our Holy Empire has the most advanced mass production system in the world, and we've inherited many bio-weapons research from the ancient sorcerous! We have an absolute advantage over every other enemy, the Empire will outlast everyone in the end !" Military Officer Yao Haa Dushi cut in.

Phiam watched the UAADF's new combat aircraft, the J-4 Phantom III, his expression clearly betraying his bafflement. "So this is the enemy's new aircraft that can spit a stream of fire-like bullets in the report."

The Floating Ship of the Heavens Type 35 arrived in the skies of Alnus, led by UAADF's combat aircraft. After some time, they could see an extremely advanced megafortress city spreading out before their eyes. The entire delegation had mix-felling about this monstrosity of a "military base".

This was their enemy headquarters and home base, covering an area of approximately 30,000 km2 with over 60 million troops all in armored units, fully mechanized, fully outfitted with tanks, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled artillery and salvo rocket launchers. This was the mightiest forces that had ever in Earth history been deployed against a single foe.

"I heard that Earth was a world without magic, but… is it even possible to build a base this large without magic?" Baeluno asked, mystified.

Finally, the vehicle landed on an entirely too large runway, then was guided to the passenger plane area on the parking apron.

"…!"

Parked between a Boeing C-177 ULTRA and a Tu-688 super heavy bomber, the empire's plane seemed very, very small.

"So this is the infamous 'Devil Rain Maker' Phiam looked at the Boeing C-177 ULTRA next to his plane. With a wing span of 1,120 feet (340 m), that was almost four times longer than even the Vimanas magic heavy bomber under construction by the Imperial Air Force.

When the delegation members alighted from the aircraft, there were representatives from UEA waiting to receive them and exchange greetings. They had prepared a method of transportation, "cars" which were used to bring them to a hotel within the city of Tokyo.

The vehicles called "cars" were very similar to the empire's magic carriages, but their shapes were very sleek, and they were extremely fast and smooth. However, what was most surprising about the cars were their numbers; he heard from the spies on Earth that even the lowest class of citizen could easily purchase a car. As a group, they went straight to the hotel since everyone in the delegation was tired from the long journey.

---

Alnus Base, Lemuria , Falmart

Floating in the air, Rory Mercury was meditating. Floating in a bubble of her own magical energy, her telekinetic prowess could easily levitate both herself and large piles of stone into the air.

Her mana was remarkably dense and so strong that it could visibly affect her surroundings when it released as powerful vortex. Rory was too scary for anyone to do anything so they just let her there in the basketball yard.

She looked like she was just daydreaming.

Rory, herself, was not concentrating on anything.

Nonetheless, what she was doing the complete opposite of the usual meaning of 'daydreaming'.

She was not focusing her mind, her mind was diffusing.

Wider and wider, with Alnus and herself as the two focal points, she laid her perceptions over every nook and cranny in the area.

This was not looking down from a bird's eye view, she was looking at things from the point of view of the information dimension.

It was not an elliptical sphere around the double focal points, it had nothing to do with physical distance; Rory fixedly concentrated her 'eye' intensifying her contact with the law of cause and effect within link space.

So that she wouldn't miss even one thing that could harm this world.

Because she had this 'eye', she were a very effective guardian of the world.

To be correct, she did not normally use this 'observation field'. Normally, she operated this unconsciously, right now she was consciously using it and even intensifying it.

Suddenly invoking her vision of the relationship of cause and effect left her open to 'accidents'; namely leaving her body behind in the physical dimension by incessantly using it; when she was in link space, any wound she suffered wouldn't heal. Becoming engrossed in 'observation' was a situation that could indeed make her switch her mind to that side.

Even if she called it link space, the dimension did not really have that kind of meaning.

The ways you were able to see something formed part of framework of recognition.

Also, even if she called it links, it did not mean she saw red strings or black chains connecting people, she could read no more than the information related to cause and effect. Perhaps someone else would be able to see red strings or black chains if they used those symbols, the images Rory used pointed out the existence of what she realized were focal points jutting out behind the scene indicating the existence of cause and effect and events, etc.

In theory, the way she did things could be used to predict events, however, Rory still could only read information on the 'present' and 48 hours of the 'past'. As a result, it was extraordinarily effective at searching for enemies. It was probably equal to having an innate skill at remote viewing, though it was better than that because it had the potential to distinguish enemies with precision and range.

Within that observation field, the information about the looming adversaries was displayed.

Abaddon and his army were on the move, the first wave of attack was coming. So many of them..! No less than 50,000 legions.

"There isn't much time left, I need to gather the force now before they can spread over the whole continent." She thought.

Suddenly her train of thought was cut off by an emotionless voice.

"Your Holiness, the Global Security Council has passed the resolution approving Operation Trinity. General Itami of the 11th East Asian Army requests your presence to discuss our future cooperation." Said Lelei La Lalena, the viscountess turned priestess trainee, as she kneed in front of Rory in respected.

Lelei wanted to follow Rory to record the greatest war in the history of Falmart so she begged her to let she go along. This was one in ten- thousand years event, there was no way she could miss it, her dignity didn't not allow that.

After all, a sage's ambition was to conquer the mysteries of the world with wisdom.

"Finally! It took them long enough." Rory wondered what took those human so long to decide. Killing demons was no brainer.

"Now it time for WAR!" Rory grinned sadistically, this would be so fun. It had been centuries since she bathed in demon's blood.

"It's time to feed the beloved halberd of mine," Rory look back at the kneeling girl and said. "And Lelei, you contact the Zeroth Division for me. Telling them we will march to the gate of Hell and throw those damn demons back to the hole they crawl out."

"As your command, Your Holiness."

Rory disappeared with her supersonic-speed. She need to prepare for war, there wasn't any time to waste.

XXXXXXXXXX

The Zeroth Division: They are the most elite soldiers of the Falmartian Orthodox Church, great magical warrior monks protected by golden-colored armors, their armor is made of a material called vibranium that help intensifies the user's magical abilities and make them invulnerable to almost every attack including the magical ones.

It is difficult to imagine a time when the Zeroth Division was not a common household name spoken with awe, reverence, and even fear. They were the Empire's strongest soldiers, most talented exorcist, stealthiest assassins, and smartest commanders. Every enemy knows that to stand against the Zeroth Division was to taste crushing defeat. It is within this swirl of admiration and fear, that most forget the Zeroth Division's roots. It is easy to assume that the Emperor collected the best of the best to found this division, yet it is not so. The Zeroth Division was not made of the best of the best or even the best of the mediocre, but rather the one's the Empire wished to have forgotten.

Before they were the Zero Division, they were the 181st: a collection of undesirables, from the disgraced nobles to the political. Just like the Zero Division, they were sent on impossible missions. Unlike the Zeroth Division, they died as expected. Perhaps it was through that hostile environment, those who survived became the best of the best. Yet by assuming that the Zero Division rose because of exceptional men with great skills, we draw from our own superstitions regarding what the Zero Division is now. Back then, the 181st was a collection of nobodies and even the best of the best or demons of supernatural powers would have remained nobodies.

Time had warped our perspective, for the Holy Empire was actually a conglomeration of loosely aligned territories, technically under the governance of a viceroy and the Emperor. Due to the political structure, Darwinian was always embroiled in a civil war (or multiple), although it went by a different name: Game of Throne. Much of the Emperor's time was dedicated to easing tensions between the nobles and supervising peace treaties. Additionally, as the 28th millennium continued, the Empire struggled against rising terrorist/insurgency groups within its conquered territory. Darwinian was teetering at the edge of collapse only held together by nationalism and expansionary military policy.

During the early years of the Global Unification War, the 181st Imperial division was an extremely disreputable legion serving the Holy Empire, nicknamed the One-Eighty-Worst. Commanded by Baron Evir Derricote, who spent most of his time gardening, it was regarded as a unit where careers went to die. Discipline was sloppy and morale was low, with the men simply whiling away time until they expected to be sent to their deaths by the political enemies who had gotten them transferred into the division. Shirtsleeves were the normal dress, drunkenness was common, personnel left their barracks in a state of disarray, and military regulations were ignored. Troops did not even salute or rise for Derricote. Derricote provided extremely little in the way of leadership and was resigned to the divisions condition, preferring to attract as little notice as possible from his superiors and keep from drawing any missions.

In 27019 I.C, Duke Soontir Fel arrived in the unit to take command of the second brigade of the division. He had formerly been an accomplished dragon rider before becoming an instructor at Prefsbelt Fleet Camp. Two of his top students defected to the Federation after graduating, and Fel was disgraced. As a result, he received a punitive transfer to the 181st, where Derricote had received a promotion to Tribuni . A strict disciplinarian, Fel began reshaping the 2/181st into a brigade, drilled, high-performance unit with Derricote's permission.

Eventually, the 2/181st was given the assignment to retake Ord Biniir, which had fallen to the Federation with an entire division defending it. Fel led the brigade through the Second Battle of Ord Biniir, in which the brigade performed extremely well, driving three Federation's divisions off the city. As it so happened, that victory occurred on the same day as the Battle of Yavin, which saw the Empire handed its greatest loss yet with the lost of over a third of its soldiers.

Fel was promoted to Legatus and decorated in a ceremony on Sadera that propagandized the victory at Ord Biniir, attempting to play down the other events of the day. The unit was transferred to Sadera, where it was downsized to a group of three brigades and rebuilt as an elite unit. The 181st Imperial division became the Zeroth Division, and while Derricote retained command, it was Fel who was the real force behind the rebuilding process.

Fel oversaw the recruiting of new, elite troops. He accepted only those with skills that met his expectations and attitudes that would be conducive to building an elite unit. He wanted dedicated, hard-working soldiers, not glory-seekers. One of his recruits was baron Turr Phennir, who quickly became one of the unit's top assassins. Fel spent the next several years drilling the division, and their performance on the battlefield drew praise. They became renowned as an elite unit, feared by enemy troops and celebrated in the Imperial Army, and Fel served as a powerful recruiting symbol for the Rapid response corps. In time, the Zeroth came to be considered the very best unit in the entire Empire and now the Holy Order.

---

Alnus Base, Camp Alpha, Meeting Room

"Gentlemen, I appreciate you coming here on such short notice. We had been trying to schedule this monthly progress report days ago, but well."

Liam Nuttall rubbed his head and gave a sigh. "World changes daily and with all the going ons it's been a busy couple weeks, hell a busy couple months for that matter. And gentlemen? It's only going to get worse from here no doubt."

In front of a mixed audience of officers seated around a large round table, Nuttall continued to pace back and forth in front of a large map of Falmart. Meanwhile Hazama stood off to the side as he let Nuttall take the lead during the brief. The map was mounted to a large whiteboard and was remarkably accurate considering it had all been done via ground and airborne assets. Back on Earth simple GPS would've mapped everything out quickly and efficiently. Of course, obviously it went without saying that such luxuries were a distant dream in Falmart. Especially when the Empire ramped up its orbital denial efforts with its massive space cannons.

The old general stopped pacing for a moment and began motioning to the board, his hand hovering towards the areas around the subcontinent and Alnus.

"Gentlemen, against all hurdles and technological drawbacks we've been able to successfully stabilize the corridor. Free and unrestricted travel of both our forces as well as that of military contractors has finally been achieved and it's all thanks to the efforts of everyone in this room. Let me start this meeting off by saying job well done."

Nuttall glanced at the Great Three's representatives towards the back of the table and nodded. "Especially to the outstanding ladies and gentlemen of the Great Three and who were able to take some of the load off our troops."

The Great Three

The three major trading companies that dominate most of the mercantile activity on Earth are known as the Great Three. These consist of:

Buy n Large Corporation : the corporation got its start as a maker of frozen yogurt. It was a small business called Buy Yogurt. Later on, the business eventually acquired Large Industries, a men's suit company. The combined entity became known as an internet marketing service corporation named Buy n' Large , Buy n' Large was a major economic and political power in the United Earth Alliance. It has interests in most areas of the economy, including significant parts of the commercial and retail markets in US and Europe. The company is not as powerful as the government but can significantly influence the government if it wishes to (which it sometimes does). It is a significant factor in the everyday lives of the average citizens of the United Earth Alliance, and also of the nations with which the company trades, which includes most of the nations of the world. The Board of Directors of the Buy n Large Corporation, based in London and Moscow , are often referred to as the 'Second Parliament ' due to their power and influence.

The Musk Industries . The consolidation of all Elon Musk's companies. By the year 2030, the conglomerate became a worldwide leader in the fields of aerospace, agriculture, construction, consumer goods, corporate grooming, earth transport, electronics, energy, engineering, finance, food services, fusion research, government, hydro-power, infrastructures, inventions, media, medical science, mortgage loans, pet care, pharmaceuticals, psychotherapies, ports and harbors, real estate, repairs, retail, robotics, science/health, space, storage, super centers, super grids, travel services, utilities, and watermills. Musk Industries had its headquarter in the Silicon Valley .

Masrani Global Corporation. A company largely devoted to trade within the Indo-Pacific region and the biggest household name in India. The company has concentrated efforts in the telecommunications, oil, and bioengineering sectors. Masrani Global Corporation has its headquarters in Mumbai in India.

The Great Three each even had their own police, military and intelligence services.

Hazama folded his arms and nodded in agreement. "Indeed, your efforts in helping our troops with the supply aspect of this mission has been invaluable. The soldiers who live in the Alnus Base as well as those in other military districts speak highly of your products ."

The Japanese general chuckled. "The commodities such as the coffee stores and Rec centers have also been great for troop morale too. I was able to catch a showing of Godzilla last night, the irony eh?"

All the officers gave some laughs before Nuttall put his hands up to quiet them down rolling his eyes as only a high ranking officer could. He was too old and dedicated to the Army to be able to busy himself with off duty activities.

Though a phone call to his grand kids over some coffee or a quiet evening reading Tom Clancy always brought him no small amount of joy. The luxuries of being at Alnus.

One of the company representative, an Australian man , nodded in response to this praise as he set his beret aside. "Anytime gentlemen. When I was told we'd get to work with our wonderful troops in another world I told the boys to pack their kit in a heartbeat. Shame we couldn't bring more to the party, we'll have to be sure to send more weed."

More laughter before Nuttall quieted everyone down once more before clearing his throat and pointing back at the board once more.

"Gentlemen, let's get back to business. While the corridor is indeed under our control, I'm sure you're no doubt familiar with the Global Security Council Resolution 666 .We are having an new and very troublesome enemy to deal with."

Nuttall pointed to another photo on the board, this one was the furthest from all the others and had the ugliest face that anyone have ever seen.

Abaddon the Despoiler.

"We know now exactly where the Beast and his army is and with some help from a new friend of ours we also have a chance to get our hands on a new area of influence as well as the potential for some great mines in the future."

The American general cleared his throat, no sooner had he done this the door to the meeting room opened with three new visitors walking in in short order.

The first one was Lelei La Lalena, a face everyone knew being that she was was Alnus' top translator and Rory Mercury's priestess trainee. It was the man who limped in after her and the woman came after him that caused everyone's head to turn.

The first one was an old man, the scars on his face, eye patch and demeanor had all the signs of a practiced warrior however. The simplistic yet no less fine crafted dark red armor he wore only further added to this education suspicion. Even with the walking stick he used to help support his golden metal leg he remained no less authoritative in the slightest. (He lost an eye and leg in the last Black Crusade in the hand of Abaddon himself, his black magic prevent the wound from healing.)

His remaining good eye looked over all of the officers present while he brought a hand up to stroke a grey goatee a small mumble of approval following in short order.

The second one seemed to be a Dark Elf female. She looked to be roughly 300 years old, but on the surface she resembled a human in her late twenties.

She wore a kind of turban used by the southern tribes when they travelled, and a mantle of some sort. The mantle superficially resembled a magician's robes, but it was simpler in design, so it looked like a piece of cloth worn on the body. In a way, it had been carefully made, but the way this woman wore a piece of tatty cloth on her body, with her curves visible through the rents in the fabric, made the people around her quite excited.

To begin with, she looked like the sort of woman any hot-blooded male would want. In addition, she wore the Dark Elves' unique "bondage armor".

"Bondage armor" was just the common name for it. Technically speaking, it would be a piece of protective gear. It was made of tough leather riveted to metal components, and its defensive properties were quite good. It would not interfere with the body's movements in battle and barely impeded the wearer's dexterity, but the armor's design would lewdly display the wearer's body.

The legends of the Dark Elf tribes to the south told of their swift and nimble battle arts. That was why they favored this sort of defensive gear.

"Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Cardinal Augusta Henry Highland the Warmaster of the Zeroth Division and Miss Yao Haa Dushi from the Imperial special are our allies in the fight against devil."

The old Cardinal thumped an armored hand against his chest before speaking in the local tongue, Lelei immediately translating in short order for those who couldn't understand.

"Fellow warriors. It is an honor to finally get to meet you."

His mouth twisted into a smile.

"I have a feeling we'll be of great assistance to one another."

As the various personnel began to take notes Nuttall continued the brief pointing at the screen as he did so.

"Gentleman, ladies. Over here is the Immaterium, an alternate dimension of purely psychic energy that echoes and underlies the familiar four dimensions of the material universe.."

He pointed to a large image of never-ending tides of the psychic energy.

"This is where the Chaos Demons coming from. A Chaos Demon is an intelligent and usually malevolent entity of the Immaterium comprised of purely psychic energy. Demons are sentient embodiments of Chaos and collectively the greatest servants of the Chaos Gods and of Chaos itself as a universal force.

Demons are created at the whim of one of the four major Chaos Gods from a fraction of the god's own power within the Immaterium and act as an extension of its will. A Demon's appearance and intrinsic character reflect the god's own nature. These Demons may be reabsorbed into the god's psychic signature in the Immaterium at their whim.

Instead of possessing a true physical form, Demons project a form conjured from raw psychic energy that is essentially a lesser interpretation of their master's fundamental nature. Hence, the bizarre and inhuman appearances projected by Demons indicate their presence, status and allegiance to a Chaos God.

Though it may appear to be made of normal matter when it materialises in realspace, a Demon's form is no more physical than it is in the Realm of Chaos. In fact, they are beings of pure psychic energy given shape and depth.

When manifested in the material universe, Demons have particular invulnerabilities and weaknesses, as well as many strange powers derived from their nature as psychic beings. Slaying a Demon's physical projection does not kill it, but only severs its presence in reality; its true essence in the Immaterium remains unharmed.

That is why a demonic invasion is all but impossible to stop by conventional means, for the very act of warring against Demons feeds the psychic power keeping them in realspace with fear and hatred. Only the closing of the Eye of Terror can deprive the Demons of their power.

While it is impossible to completely destroy the demons, they can be banished from the realspace with high-level exorcism magic. That is when our friend the Holy Order come in, they have a special magic called Sunforge, basically a powerful holy enchantment magic. demons killed by sunforge enchanted mithirl weapons cannot return for a thousand years."

"So here is our plan. We will send the our strongest armored formations to meet them head on once they are fully supplied with holy ammunition," Nuttall stopped for a moment, looking hesitant for a moment but he continued. "They will be supported by the Holy Oder's Zeroth Division, a special legion comprising 24,000 powerful exorcists, and in order to be able to coordinate well with our main army, they will be trained how to operate the heavy equipment like tanks, self-propelled artillery and salvo rocket launchers."

Hearing this, a lot of officers were socked, handing heavy weaponry to foreign combatants. This plan was too risky.

Of course the troops were not thrilled with the ideal of give heavy weapons to their just yesterday enemy. Nuttall, even heard the voice of reason stepped forward to voice his concerns.

"Sir, with all due respect. I'm not against Zeroth Division supporting us, but why are we giving them heavy weapons, it's too risky ?" asked Tommy Kennedy of the US 3rd Army.

Many of the generals there nodded in response, the UEADF had more than enough firepower. Why risking the chance of imperial backstab us by giving them modern weapons? Before Nuttall could respond Hazama came forward and answered the lieutenant general's question.

"There are two main reasons, lieutenant general, the first is due to the difference in tactics, mechanized warfare emphasizes the smooth coordination of different military branches and attacks from long distance, not power of individuals like the Church.

The Zero Division's role in this campaign will be primarily for propaganda, to secure support from the Orthodox Church. They need to know how to use weapons so they don't get in our way.

The second reason is Cognitohazard, something that poses a danger to any subject that perceives it with any of our five physical senses, with enough number the demons collective psychic power can drive any human into madness, corrupt their souls and mind control them.

Our soldiers don't have experience or training for situations like that. We also lack powerful exorcists that the Zeroth division has.

Their experience in the last Black Crusade are essential and the High command has noticed that. Furthermore, their loyal is toward Her Holiness Rory Mercury not the imperial regime."

Accepting this as a reasonable answer Tommy went back into the crowd, as he did this Nuttall nodded at Hazama before continuing.

---

Headquarters, Human Expeditionary Army, Camp Alpha, Alnus Base

Lieutenant General Tommy Kennedy made his way to the CP he rubbing his head in anguish, the previous night's celebrations had left him with a mean hangover.

Opening the double doors and stepping inside, Tommy made his way through the busy hallways of the UEADF CP. Tommy did his best to avoid the hustle and bustle of other troops as he took a flight of stairs. Stopping at Supreme Allied Commander Nuttall's door he paused for a moment as he listened in on a heated argument.

"Sir! With all due respect, that "Girl" and her army are a threat!"

"Look, I understand your concerns but there is nothing we can do right now. Until they step out of line? We just have to trust that the Japanese know how to pick their friends."

"And when's that gonna be? When people start dieing? Maybe if the goddamn Japanese stopped trying to live out their fantasy adventures they'd see the lack of logic in what they're doing."

"General Smilas that's enough. I've been courteous enough to hear you out, but don't mistake my kindness for weakness. Remember we are having a demon army on our doorstep here. We need their help, at least for now! We are Not going to kill one of the most powerful and beloved religious figure in this world, provoking the wrath of the fanatics. We act out of line? We're done, and you know the world is just waiting for us to fuck up, not them."

"...If you say so."

Things were quiet for a few moments until Tommy heard the sound of boots approaching the door. As he stepped out of the way and tried to look inconspicuous Tommy got a good look at the man who had been arguing with General Nuttall.

The General wore a freshly pressed blue military uniform with an array of badges under his left collar,

Judging by his totally out of regulation facial hair, general swagger, and focused eyes, Tommy deduced he had to be the CO of the Avengers Special Task Forces, Earth mightiest army. He'd seen them enough times to know how they conducted themselves.

The General didn't even bat an eye as he quickly walked past him, he was definitely pissed off.

Composing himself Tommy entered Nuttall's office and stood at attention in front of the Commander's desk. "Sir, Lieutenant General Kennedy reporting as ordered."

Nuttall sighed as he motioned towards one of the chairs in front of his desk. "At ease general, please close the door behind you take a seat, and we can talk."

Closing the door Tommy made his way over to one of the chairs and took a seat as Nuttall began to talk.

"That was General Genes Smiles, good guy. He have been out there kicking ass and taking names since long before we came through the gate when he was a member of GIGN, which is why I didn't completely chew his ass out for his outburst."

Tommy sat there he'd respond when he was given the opportunity.

"It seems that Itami has brought a potentially dangerous individual onto our base. Tell me Kennedy, are you familiar with Rory Mercury?"

The sat there for a moment. He heard the rumors of some crazy Gothic girl, who apparently one of the most powerful and influential being on the planet, sticking her nose into everyone's business.

"I've heard rumors sir, didn't see them first-hand though. All I've heard is she is the Grand Master of the Holy Order, an eccentric as hell individual and likes hanging out around the troops and Itami."

Nuttall folded his hands.

"Tommy what I'm about to tell you might shock you a little bit. Our boys originally saw Miss Mercury during one of their recon sweeps, in their report they talk about her having supersonic speed and destroyed an entire demons army by herself. To be frank it sounds like a bad superhero film, but the scary thing is? More and more reports have been coming in about her exploits."

Tommy merely sat there and listened trying to comprehend what he was hearing.

"Even the refugees revere her, they say she's some sort of deity. Tommy, were this anywhere else I'd dismiss this as superstitious folk tales, but take a look around us. Absolutely everything about this place adheres to an overpower fantasy world and the appearance of a demon incursion didn't help neither. So you have to understand my suspension of disbelief when I say, I believe Smiles."

Tommy saw the logic in that, his men had seen its fair share of craziness during their missions into the heart of Lemuria.

"Which is why I called you here Tom. Smiles thinks we should put this girl and the Zeroth division down, if not nuked them as soon as possible. But I believe she could be a valuable asset if she were to fight by our side or at least neutral in this Great War. I can't call her our ally for sure yet, which is why I want your men to monitor her and the her division, she is close to Itami and you are close to him."

Tommy secretly disdained babysitting jobs, but this was coming from the the big boss himself. It didn't get anymore important than this, but it also didn't mean he had to like it.

"Currently she's with Itami's 11th Army to prepare for Operation Trinity. This mission will make or break our view of her depending on how she and her army act, that been said your mission is as follows. I want you to link up with the 11th Army under the pretense of you simply doing a supporting mission. Additional information will be sent down to you as we compile a mission brief."

Tommy nodded as he responded. "My boys will get it done sir, you can guarantee that. What if they turn hostile though?"

The general leaned forward as his face took a serious expression.

"You'll know what to do, call Smiles and his men for support, we believe General Youji may not pull the trigger if he has to. He's a good soldier, but he's a little soft."

Tommy nodded again as he took the information in. Hopefully it wouldn't have to come to that, but orders were orders.

"Roger that sir."

Nuttall began shuffling papers as he took a pen out." Well then you have your orders, standby for additional information to come down to you and your men as the day progresses. Dismissed."

Tommy stood at attention once more and took his leave. Just as he made his way to the door Nuttall stopped him

"Oh and Tom, the Japanese don't know about this. Your mission is of the utmost secrecy, I'm not sure if you've been up to date with current events, but there's a real political shit storm going on back home. Something tells me its only a matter of time before the talks go down and more of our guys come through the gate. Until then, we need to play nice, once we get additional troops things are going to start changing around here. For better or for worse."

Tommy nodded and closed the door behind him. He then proceeded he made his way to the CP exit, throwing his cigarette to a trash can as he went outside. Once he was a fair distance away from the CP, he took out a roll of joint from his cargo pocket.

"Shits is about to go down. I need to get the boys ready...we've got work to do."

---

Eagle Flight, Over The Eastern Indyjski Ocean

"I, Ezekyle Abaddon, Lord of Hell, Commander of the Legions of the Damned do hereby declare my dominion over Falmart and all that it contains. Crawl to me, mortal beings, knowing the eternity of torment that awaits you."

"Balls." Said Lieutenant Michael Wong. The voice that had come over the radio link, booming in the cockpit of his J88/101, had distracted him from paying proper attention to the cockpit display of his APG-85 radar. The new AESA radar was a vast improvement over the older APG-79 but that was, as always, a slight problem all of its own. Until the pilots learned how to take full advantage of the improved data flow, they could be swamped with it. Wong was experiencing that problem now, the resolution of the new radar was phenomenal but it seemed to indicate that the wings on the targets 60 nautical miles out in front of him were flapping.

"Full of himself isn't he? Or should it be 'it'?" Lieutenant Anthony Squires was genuinely interested, he was renowned as being the Ronald Reagan air group's grammar geek.

"Try a 'that'." Wong wasn't really interested, the targets in front of him were behaving oddly. They were slow, 540 miles per hour at most, too slow for Imperial dragons, they had a strong radar image yet seemed to have no infra-red signature. That was an odd combination to put it mildly. The bombastic message that hadinterrupted his concentration was irritating, no more than that. So what were those contacts in front of him? Birds? They were too fast for that surely? The Fire Bird was the fastest bird known and that could, only, hit 540 mph in a steep dive. These were doing that in level flight. So they had to be some form of aircraft. That was assuming the AESA radar wasn't generating a completely false image of course. And who knew how the electronic systems were malfunctioning following the delivery of The Message three days ago? There was one way to find out.

"Buster, this is Eagle Flight, 200 miles out, bearing 353, we have an anomalous radar contact some 60 miles out in front of us. Please confirm."

There was a pause for a few seconds, electrostatic discharges in the atmosphere were playing havoc with radio communications but the systems filtering programs quickly cleared the white noise from the channel. "Confirm contact Eagle Flight. Bearing 358, range from Buster is 66.6 nautical miles. Target speed 552 knots, course one-three-fiver. For your information, Crown and Scepter are tracking also. They have locks." There was a pause, a series of crackles on the radio, then the message resumed. "If targets are hostile, you are cleared to engage."

Wong translated the message in his head. 'Buster' was BBGN-76 USS Ronald Reagan, 'Crown' was CGN -710 USS Obama, an AEGIS cruiser, while 'Scepter' was DDGN-935 USS Alabama, one of the Arleigh Burke class destroyers that now dominated the fleet's surface combatant force. Also AEGIS-equipped, that meant whatever the targets were, they were now being tracked by three of the most advanced radar systems in the UEA Navy. The 'lock' part of the message was really interesting, that suggested the order to open fire was already being passed out.

"All members, Eagle Flight, increase to fiver-six-zero knots, say again increase to fiver-six-zero knots. Intercept targets in front, range, five-eight nautical miles. Weapons are free, say again, weapons are free. Good hunting Eagle Flight."

The four J88/101Es accelerated out of cruise speed, building up to maximum subsonic. The E model had more range and fuel than the older As and Cs but fuel status was always a concern .Then , he glanced down at his radar scope again. There were four targets, apparently blissfully ignorant of the hypersonic fighters bearing down on them. That was neat, one each.

"Eagle Flight, we are swinging around behind them. I have radar paints on all four, no infra-red signature yet. Each Eagle aircraft, take target corresponding to your flight position, from the left. Use AIM-125 then close in for 20-mike-mike. Not sure AIM-9 will work unless we can get a heat signature off whatever is out there. We'll get a visual ID first."

At twelve nautical miles range, the J88/101Es fighters got their visual ID. The contacts were four giant creatures, jet black in color, looking like a hideous cross between a gorilla and a bird. Four limbs, two wings, flying in an unconcerned, oblivious line.

"Just what the hell are those?"

Wong wasn't sure which pilot had breathed the comment into the radio. Didn't matter, they all knew what to do. So did he come to that. "Buster, this is Eagle. Targets visually identified, large flying humanoids about the same size as a Super-Bug. Wingspan at least twice as great as ours, probably much larger. Engaging."

"Eagle, this is Buster. Acknowledged. Targets designated as demons. Prepare holy enchanted missiles .Good luck Eagle Flight may God go with you." .

Wong switched the annunciator on his special AIM-125s on. They were growling gently, a sustained continuous note that indicated their homing heads were logged on to his selected target, the demon second from the left. The J88/101s were closing fast, the range was dropping to the point where the hits would be almost instantaneous. "Eagle Flight, open fire."

Wong's pressure on the firing button was almost simultaneous with his order. A pair of AIM-125 missiles streaked ahead of his aircraft, curving after the demon he had picked out for his target. He'd been right, the gap was so short that the target couldn't have evaded even if it had wanted to. It never even tried.

Demon Shingroleth was actually aware of the approaching fighters, he'd seen them when they were still 15 miles out, far beyond the range of any human eye, so he had assumed their presence was coincidental. He had other problems to worry about, a few inconsequential humans were of no significant account one ay or the other. What concerned him was the way his skin was itching, it had started a few minutes before and was getting steadily worse. Maddening. He hadn't even worried when the four human machines had swung in behind his group and started to close the range on them. That had been when his skin itch had become really intolerable. Then, the humans had done something really strange; odd streaks of smoke coming out from under their flying machines. Surely they couldn't be resisting the all-powerful armies of the damned?

The holy enchanted AIM-125s worked as advertised. They were good missiles, well designed, well-tested, and they had a target that was proving co-operative to the point of suicide. No maneuvering, no electronic warfare, no interference, if the guidance had been capable of human thought it would have been vaguely offended at being asked to solve a task so undemanding. The first missile exploded between Shingroleth's legs, just underneath his tail. The 50 kilograms explosive warhead was wrapped with heavy-gauge pre-notched wire that disintegrated into an annular hail of pre-formed fragments when the missile's proximity fuse set off the explosive charge. Some of those razor-sharp fragments slashed through Shingroleth's tail, severing it at the root and sending it spinning off in a long arc. Others ripped into his legs and genitals, tearing open the great arteries, sending his fire-and acid blood spraying over his body, and mangling his reproductive organs beyond recognition. Shingroleth's scream of demented agony was heard even in the sound insulated-cockpits of the J88/101s.

The second missile did really serious damage. Its proximity fuse initiated it right underneath Shingroleth's belly. The holocaust of holy enchanted-mithril fragments ripped open his stomach and tore his abdominal cavity to shreds. Even in a mind crazed by the ghastly pain from the first hit, Shingroleth noticed the sudden drop in weight as his intestines dropped out of his body. Then his fire-and-acid blood,spraying from more wounds than could reasonably be counted, set fire to his flesh. Shingroleth tumbled downwards, all hope of control had gone when he had lost his stabilizing tail. By the time his remains hit sea level, all that was left of him was a fine carbon dust.

Immediately on firing, Wong had firewalled his throttles, cut in reheat and taken his J88/101 up into a steep climb. The last thing he had wanted to do was get too close to those things. As he rolled over at the top of the climb, he could see the havoc his attack had wrought on the demon formation below. His target had gone, its death marked by a black streak towards the sea far below. Another one of the formation had taken hits from four AIM-125s, for some reason two J88/101s had fired on the same aircraft, well, that sort of thing happened. It had meant that the demon had been quite literally torn apart by the storm of fragments and blast of the explosions. More than 200 kilos of best explosive American dollars could buy combine with the best exorcism the Empire had to offer had vented its wrath on the hideous creature and all that was left of it was a shower of burning fragments. A third demon was staggering away, it had been the last to get hit and had escaped the eviscerating body hits. Instead, one of its wings had been torn to tiny fragments and it was going down in a helpless spin. Even as Wong watched, two of his J88/101s were closing on it.

Prigrathrath was desperately trying to control his descent. One of his wings had gone, it was just a mass of torn flesh and spurting blood. The only thing that was saving him was that his flight path was keeping the blood-and-acid away from his body, the fate of Shingroleth and Caranaskatos had shown him what would happen when demon blood and body parts mixed. Two of the gray-painted human machines were coming after him, he could see them, but with his crippled wings there was little he could do about it. It was odd, there was a strange twinkling light coming from the front of the two flying machines. Then Prigrathrath's lights went out.

Squires had fired a much longer burst than was normal for the 30mm auto-cannon in the nose of his J88/101. He and his wingman had aimed very carefully, using the plane's on-board computer and continuously-computed impact point sights to place all 100 rounds of their bursts square into the demon's face. The effect was more than either pilot could have hoped. The great, hideously malformed head had just disintegrated as the armor-piercing incendiary shells ripped through the skin and shattered the bones underneath. The demon's eyes, in fact every feature of its face, had been destroyed in the hail of cannon shells tearing through its structure. Once again, fire-and-acid blood spraying from the ruptured veins and arteries finished the job of destructionthat fragments, explosions and blast had started. The demon erupted into flames and dropped like a stone towards the sea below.

That had left one demon, untouched, unharmed by the sudden, vicious attack. Quellarastis simply couldn't believe that the humans had dared to attack him and his colleagues, let alone that they had killed three of his flight-mates with such contemptuous ease. Filled with unrighteous wrath at the effrontery of the attack, he swerved to retaliate at the pair of human flying machines that were comingstraight at him. Now, they would learn what the wrath of a demon meant. He opened his mouth and gave a blast of terrifying hellfire straight at them.

In Eagle-One, Wong saw the fireball leave the demon's mouth and flipped the ailerons over, pulling the stick back in a barrel role around the jet of flame. It wasn't precisely a hard maneuver, the demon may have had powerful lungs but they could only drive a jet of flame so fast. Compared with the problems posed by trying to dodge a multi-mach missile, the flame was easy to avoid. Even better, the jet of fire was a perfect infra-red source for his AIM-9W Sidewinders. Both annunciators were screaming with the demand to be let loose and Wong obliged them both. They streaked from his wingtip mounts, heading straight for the inferno of heat that was the fire-breathing demon's mouth.

Quellarastis did the worst thing he could possibly do under the circumstances. He gulped in shock as the two missiles hurtled into his mouth. Once again, proximity fuses worked to perfection, preformed fragments slashed out, ripping through the slate-black flesh of the demon. Some went up into his brain, bouncing around inside his skull until all that laid within was reduced to a finely-ground slush. Others sawed down through the demon's chest, carving into his heart and lungs. More fragments, from the missile Quellarastis had accidentally swallowed tore the demons neck apart, severing his spinal column and paralyzing him. That was a mercy for Quellarastis, it meant that he did feel it when his blood set his flesh on fire and he vanished within a ball of fire.

"Buster, this is Eagle. All four demons engaged and destroyed. Inform all Buster elements, they blow up and burn if you hit them hard enough. No sign of resurrection, the holy enchanted weapons worked. We're on our way back, we're hitting bingo fuel out here."

"Eagle Flight, this is buster. Come on home, the party is just starting down here."

Wong relaxed in his seat. His Eagle-One had two confirmed kills, Eagle-Three and Eagle-Four had one each. Not ace status yet, but a good start.

HMS Arthur, Lemurian Sea, Falmart

"Any idea what it is?"

The Sonar Operator shook his head. The Type 2576 sonar system was the most advanced the Royal Navy had ever deployed, one Admiral had tried to describe its capability by saying a submarine in Winchester could use that sonar to track a bulldog going around Hyde Park Corner in London.

That comparison wasn't true, but the real capability of 2576 was a closely-guarded secret. Tracking bulldog at that range was child's play compared with what it could really do.

The waterfall display on the sonar panel was showing the target track, it was diverging from norm slightly, first one way and then the other, as if the unidentified contact was snaking in the water. It always came back to the same course though, one that took it to Posidon Naval Base.

Eventually. That was another problem, the target track indicated a speed of around 48 knots. Not the sort of speed that made much sense. Too fast for even the giant sea creatures of this alien world, but too slow for a Titan.

"I'm not getting any blade beat Sir. None at all. In fact I'm getting no machinery noise at all. No pompholugopaphlasmasin." The sonar operator got the odd word out without missing a beat.

He was referring to the odd selection of pops, hisses, squeaks and rattles made by machinery as it went about its daily tasks, an odd selection that was a clear signature to a passive sonar system. "I'm getting broad-band flow noise and that's about it."

"Biological?" Alien 6-eyes whales, clouds of lobster dragons, schools of giant 6-fin fish, all got give strange sonar readings. Pompholugopaphlasmasin was the sonar operator's best tool to distinguish man-made equipment from the natural sounds of the sea.

And there wasn't any.

That would normally point to a biological but the one thing these times were not was normal.

"Not at 48 knots Sir. A biological will either drift or move slowly at random directions. One holding 48 knots would be attacking something and this one isn't. Then, there's it's course. Straight for the Base, never changing. No Sir, this isn't a biological but that doesn't change the fact that we can't pick up anything on our narrow-band demodulated noise tracker."

"You don't suppose it could be…" Lieutenant-Commander Michael Murphy adopted an exaggerated expression of terror. "… the Red October." Across Astute's control room, the duty crew rolled their eyes in disgust, then shook their heads. That wretched author had caused so much trouble…

"No Sir. But respectfully Sir, we are on trials. FOSM may have slipped us a weirdness just to find out what we would do with it."

Murphy nodded. Flag Officer, Submarines was known for doing things like that. "Right, Atkins. We'll treat this like a hostile." His eyes flipped to the tactical display where a long oval marked the position of the anomalous contact. Passive sonar could give fine cuts on bearing but its range data was much less precise.

"We need to fine that up a bit. We'll establish a baseline. Make course one-eight zero, speed 54 knots, hold for 20 minutes. Anybody want to take a head-break, now's the time, we won't be tracking anything at that speed."

That was true enough, Arthur didn't have the phenomenal underwater speed of the American Seadragon class but then few other submarines did. Arthur was still fast enough for the flow noise over her hull to blank out her sonar.

Murphy checked the plot again and thumbed the intercom. "Captain to the bridge."

Captain Phillips materialized almost immediately. Captains tended to do that when trouble was brewing."Problems Number One?"

"Don't know sir, we have a highly anomalous contact. Behaves like a submarine but has the signature of a biological. It's maintaining 48 knots, course takes it to Home. I'm establishing a baseline for range now."

"Very good Number One." Phillips studied the tactical plot with great care. When a new submarine ran sea trials, it wasn't only the ship that was being tested. Her crew were under the microscope as well. "Very good Number One. I have the con. You take over the attack team. If this is FOSM playing games, we'll go along with it."

The crew felt the vibration from the submarine's machinery build up under their feet. One advantage, one of many, held by the nuclear-powered boats was that they never had to worry about fuel status or battery charge.

The Royal Navy nuke-drivers pitied their South America allies who were stuck in diesel-electrics and spent their lives with one eye glued to their battery charge meters. Arthur was barreling through the water, putting distance between herself and the scene of her first set of track readings. Once she got a second set, the cross-bearings would give her the range data she needed.

Twenty minutes later, Arthur dropped back down to her four knot observation speed. The sonar team dropped their relaxed air and immediately got down to work, trying to re-acquire the anomalous signature. That didn't take much effort, they knew where to look and the weird flow noise was distinctive enough.

"Got it Sir. Range 18,000 meters." On the tactical display, a second long oval appeared. The computers eliminated the time delay that had taken place and then superimposed the two sets of reading. What had once been long, thin ovals now crossed and gave a single precise point.

Then the screen blinked again as the computers applied the range data they had just calculated to the bearing figures already on file. A single green line now appeared on the tactical display, one that gave both range and bearing. All that was, in fact, needed for an attack.

Phillips thought quickly. "Stream towed array, sonar team check on passive for any emissions, anything at all. Every frequency band you can think of, whatever we're tracking doesn't have to be using what we are."

It took a few more minutes but the result was worth waiting for."Got him Sir. Active emission, very high frequency, much higher than ours." Atkins' voice was triumphant. "It's like a biological, well more like a bat really, but it isn't. Power too high. I'd guess it's a navigational or mine avoidance sonar but its nothing like anything we have on the books. That's why the computer didn't call it."

"Very good. Helm take us up to periscope deck, sensors prepare to extend radio mast. We'd better call this in." Phillips disappeared into the radio room for several minutes. When he came back, his face was a mixture of grimness and elation.

"Word direct from DOps." A stir went around the control room, when Directorate of Operations gave the orders, things were happening.

"The situation is breaking loose. The American shot down four Chaos Demons a few hours ago. Been a few other similar incidents around the Lemuria. There's nothing friendly out here so we can presume that any unidentifiable target we're tracking is hostile. Torpedo room, load two special Spearfish from the Order, tubes one and two. Load sub-Harpoon into three and four. Helm, take her down to two hundred feet, make speed 54 knots, course one-six-three."

Helm punched the figure into the computers. The tactical display flickered again, the green track turning to red and a blue line superimposed on it. That gave the relative position of Astute and the target. Phillips looked at the position. "Make that 55 knots and one-six-one." A tiny refinement that would put Arthur into a perfect position for a torpedo attack.

Phillips watched the display as the carat marking Arthur's position moved along the blue projected course line. Mentally, he was calculating angles and ranges, the computer could actually do that for him but he preferred to do his own check.

"Drop speed to four knots, say again, to four knots. Bring bows to oh-one-oh. Open bow doors, tubes one and two. Sonar, hit that thing with a low-frequency pulse to check range. One pulse." Phillips took his authorization card from around his neck and inserted it into a slot in the sonar control console.

By using active sonar, Arthur was announcing her presence and position to the world at large, That was why using active sonar required the Captain's explicit authorization. One the card was in place, the BA-WHOOM from the sonar array in the submarine's bows could be heard throughout the boat.

Ralaraspanathsis was swimming quietly through the ocean of this strange planet, his great tail swinging from side to side as it drove .

As one of the Corps of Diabolical Heralds, his job was quite simple, he had to go to the designated place where the mortals gathered and give them the message that informed them of their fate. Not that their fate was ever in any doubt but it seemed as if the powers higher up had got bored with playing their little games with this dimension and decided to wrap things up.

Ralaraspanathsis actually slightly regretted that, this wasn't the first time he'd been on this planet and he'd rather enjoyed the way the mortal had cowered before him on his first visit. Still, perhaps his master would allow him to play with some once they were all in his domain.

It was half way through that pleasurable thought that the pain hit Ralaraspanathsis. His head seemed to explode, his ears crushed by a terrible pressure that shattered the bones in his inner ears. His forearms moved, almost of their own accord, covering his eardrums, trying to shut out the dreadful crushing noise. Then, almost before he could think again, the terrible noise was gone.

"Wow, will you look at that." Atkin's voice was awed. The contact was spinning in circles, threshing in the water creating a maelstrom of flow noise emissions. "It didn't like that at all."

"Hit it again. Full power to the forward sonar transducers." The contact had been settling down when the second pulse hit it. If anything the threshing was even worse than with the first pulse.

"That's a Chaos Demon, no doubt. Weapons, fire tubes one and two. Target that thing."

Taking four tons off the extreme end of the moment arm caused Arthur's bow to dip. It didn't matter to the torpedoes, they were already out and climbing to the shallower water near the surface.

Once there, they kicked up to 81 knots and ran out to the estimated position of the target. At that point they dropped their guidance wires and dived vertically on the contact below them.

A holy enchanted shaped charge can penetrate nine times its diameter; that gave the pair of Spearfish torpedoes a theoretical penetration of 189 inches.

In fact, they did a bit better than that, blasting deep cavities in Ralaraspanathsis's back, severing his spinal column and burning deep into his vital organs.

His body tissues, vaporized by the blast, sprayed out and down, searing and cooking his internal organs and bursting open the swim bladder that kept him afloat.

Crippled and dying, he felt himself floating upwards towardsthe surface. Confusion filled his mind, he was a herald. How could they have done this?

"Well, there's no doubt about, we just scored a Chaos Demon." A cheer went up around the control room.

"Number One, take the boat to the surface, we need to collect samples."

Phillips looked through the periscope again."In fact, if we can tow that wreck in, so much the better. Environmental, keep a check on water conditions, the US said the ones they shot down had acid blood. We don't want our hull plating corroded, the taxpayers would get perturbed."

---

Human Expeditionary Army, Camp Alpha, Alnus Base

"Commander Nuttall, a message from the Ronald Reagan battle group out in the Indyjski Ocean. They've engaged four flying demons, killed all of them. No casualties on our side. The holy enchanted weapons worked." said General Asanee.

"Good job. Get word out to all our armed forces. Tell them to engage these, these things, at every opportunity. Shoot first, hit hard and keep hitting them." Nuttall ordered, then he asked. "How's the situation of the Zeroth division?'

"They are being trained to use modern weapons, they learn very quickly Sir, soon they'll be ready to fight." said General Michael Jackson.

"Nice of them. Well, people, it looks like the war has started. Let's try to do a better job this time round, right ?.This will be important, we won't just be learning how well our own exorcist units fight, we'll be learning how the Falmartian Orthodox Church Order Militant fights. Remember to observe them carefully ,that's going to be important, according to our intel the combat strength of the church militants are in excess of 60 million troops and up to 300 million magic beasts." Nuttall noted the sharp intakes of breath from Jackson and Asanee. "Food for thought isn't it. Our new temporary "Allies" are quite powerful on their own. We need to keep an eye on them."

Everyone remember the meeting yesterday , when they learned the true scale of the Falmartian Orthodox Church and their home city.

The official capital of the Holy Dawinian Empire was the city of Sadera. However, the spiritual capital of the Holy Empire was at the most important Falmartian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Falmartian Orthodox Church, the Ultimate Temple of St. Darwin in the Eternal City of the Holy Court located some 12,000 kilometres to the north-east of Sadera on the road to Olympus Mount near the arctic. Because of its importance to the Holy Dawinian Empire the Eternal City was a gigantic, if entirely industrial city, and very well served by transportation links.

The Eternal City, the sacred heart of the Most Holy Empire was a gleaming translucent rectangular pearl that dazed the eyes of newcomers with its rainbows of refracted light. The buildings were made of vast sheets of precious and semi-precious stone, the streets calcite alabaster, polished smooth first by trained crafts-priests uncounted millennia ago and then by the tread of millions of sandal-clad feet over the years. Together, buildings and streets glowed as heaven's pure white light reflected and refracted from structure to structure in a myriad of interlocking multihued spectra that constantly shifted and changed with every slight movement of the inhabitants therein.

That was within the sight of Darwin's great white throne, in the St. Darwin Ultimate Temple of the Eternal City. Beyond the glittering jasper walls of the inner city, which a discerning priest's eyes could see shimmering in the distance from the steps of the king of all titan's stronghold at the top of the temple mount (although the priest wouldn't look so far for so long, because it would strain his eyes and because lines did strange things far away), things were different. The wide main boulevards of the Eternal City and the palaces of the most powerful grand masters led to the twelve great gates that led out the Eternal City's to the great slums where the servants who served the priests lived.

The Eternal City was built on a smooth basalt plain around the temple mount, the stones of the city quarried from far away– other dimensions even – and beneath its foundations the basalt still stood. There were very deep tunnels in the hard rock, tunnels that were older than the first human settlements here, and though most had forgotten, some, like the 13 Apostles of Holy Court, still used them when there was a need. Generally, that need turned out to be when someone had to disappear quickly, quietly, and efficiently, and then, after disappearing, needed to answer questions.

XXXXXXX

"By the holy half-chewed cigar of Saint Curtis, will you look at the size of that place?" General Norton A. Schwartz looked down at the pictures of The Eternal City with something approaching awe. Large areas were obscured, partially at least, by the smoke clouds from the industrial cities nearby . Yet the rest was stunning in its sheer size. The Eternal City was a lot bigger than even the biggest city on Earth.

"At least 1,500 kilometers per side. Those walls are thick, fifty meters at least, and a hundred meters high. Major redoubt at each corner with even thicker and higher walls. Three gates along each wall. Each gate flanked with guard towers." The photographic analyst looked up ar his audience. "The factories where the worker work are outside the walls of course. They add another band around the city. Those Industrial Areas look pretty much like Rhine-Ruhr as far as density and configuration are concerned. People packed together, narrow twisting streets."

"Meaning we'll be in for a hell of a street fight before we even get to the city walls." Nuttall sounded gloomy. He could see himself being forced into a decision that he really did not want to take.

"At least." Marshal Dorokov sounded even gloomier. The days when the Russian Steamroller had infinite amounts of men at its disposal were long gone. "And punching holes in those walls will not be easy."

"It will." Nuttall disagreed politely. "We can nuke our way in. But, anything short of that and we'll be in a world of hurt."

There was a saddened sigh around the briefing room."Once we're through, Sirs, things might be easier. The city itself is thinly populated. Most of the buildings are these big palaces and the streets are very wide, very straight. We could just roll down them and shoot the buildings on either side to crap. With all these trees, the place is more like a national park than a city. As you can see here in the pictures , the main streets in the city are two kilometers wide."

"Two kilometers?" General Asanee spoke carefully. She'd measured the pictures taken by the Pseudo-satellites (HAPS) for herself and come to the same conclusion as the analysts. The main streets carving The Eternal City into sections were that wide.

"Two kilometers wide and dead straight. Three run north and south, three run east and west. They join the gates, or rather the flanking ones do. The one down the middle is blocked by Darwin's temple here in the middle. They cut the city into sixteen blocks with the palace area forming the seventeenth." The analyst sounded displeased; he didn't like having his work checked so carefully. The great model of The Eternal City was largely his work. He had a feeling it was the supreme achievement of his lifetime. After all, where could he go from making this?

"So each block is 375 kilometers on a side? And these are 20 kilometers wide?" General Nuttall tapped the corner redoubts on the outer walls of the city.

"That's right, Sir. The gatehouses are twenty kilometers wide as well. Each flanking tower is nine kilometers across. How they swing a gate a kilometer wide open and closed is beyond me. No matter how carefully counterbalanced they are, the inertia must be enormous."

"They probably don't open the whole gate. I bet you'll find there are small doors set in the face of the giant ones." Asanee smiled. "That's how we did it in our walled cities."

"Each of the city blocks duplicates the structure of the city as a whole. Cut into 16 sections, each a little under 95 kilometers square, by roads about a kilometer wide. Then each sub-block divided into 16 sub-sub-blocks by roads 500 meters wide. Each sub-sub-block is around 20 kilometers on each side. Populations seem to vary. Some just have four palaces, others have dozens. There are what appear to be temples all over the city. That's hardly surprising of course. We've done a rough estimate of the city population. We think there's around 200 million people living in the City itself."

"Two hundred million." Nutall seemed haunted by the number. "This has all the makings of a nightmare."

"We can chop the City up into isolated blocks using the roads and then take down each sub-sub block individually. It'll be one Hell of a street fight though." Asanee was measuring the likely cost of doing so while she spoke. The answer wasn't one she liked.

"We're better equipped for fighting the Church and Empire militants than the Chaos Demon. Our rifles can actually hurt them." Jackson looked depressed, he was calculating losses as well. His answer varied from Asanee's, reflecting the difference in their characters. "And Church militants don't have the the bloody-minded guts of the Imperial troopers as proven in recent battles."

"We don't know that Michael." Asanee had a warning note in her voice. "That's true in the fighting so far but it all took place away from their holy city. If we attack the Eternal City, it'll be on their home ground, in their sacred city. We can't be sure they'll fold. Where have they got to run to?"

"Doesn't matter anyway. Great victory are waiting for us. As soon as the they betray us, we are going to airlift three army groups in all around it. It's going to be a slaughterhouse." General Bannistre was as non-committal as everybody else.

"General, Sir, I must warn you. The Holy Order Militant is about three times more powerful than an Imperial Army with the same size." Baines cranked some numbers quickly in his head. It's likely to have more than sixty million soldiers in its combat formations."

General Bannistre grinned sympathetically. "Don't sweat it son. we blasted our way into Flamart and stormed Alnus with 30 divisions. If needed, we can land more than three hundred and eighty divisions by air around the Eternal City. We will only be outnumbered twelve to one. And there'll be no holding back, we'll be hitting them with nukes, gas, whatever floats our boat."

"The distance is the real problem." Sir Michael Jackson sounded seriously depressed. "We can't get to the center from outside, not without stopping and refuelling. This place has the same ground area as Algeria. It isn't a city, it's an urbanized country."

"Perhaps we ought to rename it Coruscant." The photo interpreter grinned at his own joke.

The grin slowly faded as Nuttall just stared at him. When the interpreter was feeling thoroughly miserable, Nuttall spoke carefully."That might not be a bad idea. Its present name is certainly inappropriate. We'll make that suggestion to our political masters."

Nuttall looked at the great model again. "Asanee has a good point. They've nowhere left to go. We can't assume they'll fold. Anyway, another point we have to think about. St. Darwin Ultimate Temple, here in the center of the city. Right in the middle. It's in what amounts to a park, 200 kilometers square with that lake beside it. We have to advance through 650 kilometers of urbanized terrain before getting there. That's more than the operating range of our tanks. We'll need every heavy truck we can get to keep the front line forces fighting. We can airlift of course, move the stuff directly in from Earth but it's still going to be a massive effort just to keep the troops supplied.

"Anyway, there's something else I wanted to discuss with you." Nuttall pressed the keypad on his desk and the electronic displays that dominated the wall behind his desk flickered into life.

The map showed the square of The Eternal City. "We've got all three Army Groups prepare, just in case. However ,so far, we haven't actually moved into sight of the city. Not officially anyway. Unofficially, we're picking up communications that suggest a number of countries have moved covert forces into observation points around the city."

At that point Nuttall became aware that Jackson and Asanee were both looking shifty. In fact, they looked downright evasive."Let me guess, you two as well?"

"We have a couple of reconnaissance units near the city walls." Asanee sounded apologetic. "My government insisted we move them up to check on the data we were getting."

"I can honestly say that Her Majesty's Armed Forces have no covert operations groups stationed outside The Eternal City." Sir Michael Jackson sounded positively righteous. Asanee's head snapped around to look at him and one of her eyebrows was raised.

Nuttall smiled."I see the SAS are living up to their reputations then. I suppose it was to be expected. A coalition this big doesn't exist without this kind of thing going on. Just make sure that these groups don't start stepping on each others' feet. Asanee, Michael, I don't care how you do it but set up some sort of system so we don't get mutual interference between these groups. By the way, somebody better talk to our friend General Genes Smiles about that as well. He's hired enough ex-special forces people to have something going. And he's not the kind of leader who'll miss a trick."