GATE: the clash of the titans V2

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.

25. Chapter 25: The Silence Before The Storm

Chapter 25: The Silence Before The Storm

Note:

+ The Church did fight alongside the earth army (chapter 18), but their role was mainly ceremonial and propaganda. The reason is due to the difference in tactics, the Empire and the Church favor close combat, relying on individual strength while the Earth's army fights in formation from a distance, they will only stand in each other's way. Try to imagine cavalry and tanks going together. Also, the holy ammunition situation has reached its limit, they can't waste ammo on ineffective mean of fighting.

+ The Prehistoric Worm seem to be immortal if you read the final disgraceful chapter of Attack on Titan. Path dimension seem to be an energy or astral realm, It cannot be accessed by physical means. The Eye of Terror is an area of space where the Immaterium and realspace overlap so physical beings can enter it.

+ Low-frequency sonic weapons can temporarily stun a Falmartian, but their pain threshold is so high that it only buys you a minute of action at best. Also it's completely useless to a demigod, their bioelectric field is almost impregnable.

---

Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ) Geneva, Switzerland, 2030

The UEADF Allied Forces Command usually holds a monthly session to review the situation of the war and make policy decisions. But today's meeting had a number of differences compared to usual, the first difference was that this session included some of the most powerful heads of state in the world such as US President Dirrel B Johnson, Supreme Chancellor of the Greater Russian Union Republic, Vladimir Putin, Margaret Walpole, Prime Minister of the United Republic of Europia, Chairman Xi Jinping of the Federal Republic of China. The second difference was that they did not meet at The Assembly Hall as usual, but at the Strategic Technology Office.

At the front of the room, an officer called for silence and for everyone present to take their seats. A suited man promptly took the stage and introduced himself as Director Lí Chiến Long, from the Musk Industries's Strategic Technology Office.

A projector snapped on, and a slide displayed the title of the presentation.

ACHIEVED ORBITAL SUPREMACY VIA HYPER VELOCITY ELECTROMAGNETIC MASS DRIVER (HYVELOCELEMAD).

(AKA MOON WRATH)

The name brought out some murmurs, of course, to which the Director stated, "Yes, I know. We are working on the abbreviation. We're still piecing together how much of this works, and it's been a bit difficult to produce a prototype with the current budget, but we'll get into that during the presentation."

"I think we should call it "Non-Nuclear Orbital Kinetic Impactor Artillery." or NOKIA for short." US President Dirrel B Johnson suggested an alternative name.

"Director Li, how's the progress of Phase One?" Margaret Walpole, Prime Minister of the United Republic of Europe asked. Margaret Walpole, known as the Steel Lady of Europe, was a tough and pragmatic woman. She wanted to see actual results and figures, not empty promises. Europe would not waste her money on the vain projects of the American.

"Madam Prime Minister, Phase One has progressed on schedule," Director Li pointed to the main screen showing the six moons of Falmart, "These are the six moons of Falmart, four are just rocks under 1000 km wide but one is 2100 km (1300 mi) across, called Manannan. The sixth moon is as big as Titan: 5000 km/3100 mi. They called it Oisin. Our partners on the NASA and ESA side have been researching for the past 2 months the best location to place our Super Cannon."

The image switched to a series animated loops of hyperspectral imaging and X-ray-scans. "The location we were looking for is here," he said pointing to an area of the displayed moon Manannan.

"Manannan is the second largest moon of Falmart with size of Pluto. Manannan orbits about 100,000 km from Falmart, with the mass of about a quarter of the mass of our moon. Manannan has a very thin atmosphere and with the escape velocity of 1.5 km/s is extremely convenient for placing our space cannon."

Now he pointed to the X-ray scan image. "The images from the shaded area of the moon indicated substantial natural resources which could be exploited to build the cannon.

"Solar power, oxygen, and metals are abundant resources on the south polar region. By locating a Manannan resource processing facility near the south pole, solar-generated electrical power will allow for nearly constant operation. Elements known to be present on Manannan surface include, among others, hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), aluminium (Al), manganese (Mn) and titanium (Ti). Among the more abundant are oxygen, iron and silicon. The oxygen content is estimated at 45% (by weight).

"Regolith (lunar soil) is the easiest product to obtain; it can provide radiation and micrometeoroid protection as well as construction and paving material by melting. Oxygen from Manannan regolith oxides can be a source for metabolic oxygen and rocket propellant oxidizer. Water ice can provide water for radiation shielding, life-support, oxygen and rocket propellant feedstock. Volatiles from permanently shadowed craters may provide methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO 2) and carbon monoxide (CO). Metals and other elements for local industry may be obtained from the various minerals found in regolith."

"All of that is very interesting but I'm sure that you're wondering how does the moon cannon work," Li said with a smirk.

"The MOON WRATH is a relativistic weapons system consisting of an unmanned launch vehicle and dense projectiles. The concept of a Relativistic Kill Vehicle (or RKV), in some ways, it's just the natural progression of warfare. Leaving the stone age, we developed weapons that took advantage of our newfound ability to manipulate metals. Later, we had a revolution as our understanding of chemistry grew and we realised we could use chemical reactions to propel projectiles. The Outer Space Treaty bars placing weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the moon, or on or around any other celestial body, or stationing them in outer space in any capacity.

"However, the RKV doesn't appear to be a weapon of mass destruction on the surface of things; it doesn't need materials like uranium or plutonium in order to function, instead relying upon mass and acceleration.

"So how does an RKV work? It's actually very simple; it's all in the kinetic energy. When we think about how fast we can propel an object we tend to think in a very down to Earth manner; a human can handle an acceleration of a few G-forces, whereas a missile can handle dozens, its non-biological components able to withstand far more than biological components ever could. The RKV, however, can simply be a solid slug launched from a cannon such as a mass driver.

"What's a mass driver? It's also known as an electromagnetic catapult and is a hypothetical non-rocket launching system that would use a linear motor to accelerate the solid slug of the RKV to high speeds and catapult it. The R in RKV comes into play when the mass driver is built to the scale that allows for the slug to reach relativistic speeds. Because the slug is a solid object with no biological or moving parts it is able to handle G-force much more like a bullet would, taking on G's in the hundreds, if not thousands.

The launch vehicle has a powerful drive system and can accelerate to near light speed fairly quickly. Upon arrival in the target the launch vehicle orients itself to its target(s) and releases its payload of projectiles. Each projectile is little more than a dense block of mass with a minimal maneuvering system for terminal course corrections."

"I heard that your people have successfully built a prototype on the moon, is that true?" asked Chairman Xi.

"Your information is correct, Mr. Chairman" Director Li confirmed.

The theory magnetic monopoles, nasty discussion on quantum field, hypervelocity electromagnetic linear acceleration, and virtual particles… which are way, way, way over my head and, to be perfectly honest, a real chore to talk about anyway."

Some of the audience members chuckled, and Li said, "I'd like to turn the floor over to NASA Administrator Kovalevsky, to discuss the technical aspect of the weapon. Andrew, if you would?"

There was a brief applause as Andrew Kovalevsky stood and made his way to the front of the room. "Good morning," he said, "On behalf of NASA, I'd like to thank you for your willingness to include us in the research. We pride ourselves in seventy years of cooperation with the Department of Defense, and appreciate your continued trust and patronage.

"As you can see, this is a quarter-scale prototype of the real weapons we will build on Manannan." Kovalevsky opened a video file. "We achieved our first success on January 26, 2030, that used projectile with a mass of 0.7 g and achieved 99 % of light speed, and with a mass of 1.1 g and reached 99.9% of light speed on March 16, 2030 . The prototype used a track length of 7 km to achieve those speed."

"As you can see the test area is the most distant point from land, the Pacific pole of inaccessibility (also called "Point Nemo") which lies in the South Pacific Ocean at 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W, approximately 2,688 km (1,670 mi) from the nearest land."

Upon impact each projectile released its accumulated relativistic mass in a huge explosion. At 99.9% of light speed, an RKKS projectile had a gamma of 22.4, and each proton had an energy of about 21 GeV, each electron 11 MeV.

After penetrating a sectional density of about 0.7 ton/m^2, each proton or neutron in the projectile collided with a nucleus of a molecule in the air. This disintegrated any atomic nucleus involved and give a spray of hadrons and mesons.

Since the atmosphere of Earth holds about 10 tons per square meter of surface area, no part of the projectile could reach the ground un-disintegrated.

The protons, neutrons, and mesons produced interacted with air nuclei before they hit the ground, and the particles they produced would interact, and so on, until 10 tons/m^2 was reached.

This about 14 interaction lengths, with each interaction dividing the energy of that hadron or meson amongst all the particles coming out of that collision. Since electronic losses alone would stop a 1 GeV proton within about 3 tons/m^2 (and the 1 GeV proton will participate in several nuclear interactions before this, thus dumping its energy even sooner), none of the hadrons or mesons produced in this collision would hit the ground.

Muons from charged pi-meson decays would hit the ground, this required the pi-mesons to decay before they hit an air nucleus in order to produce muons. Neutral pi-mesons would decay almost immediately into high energy gamma rays, which will produce electromagnetic showers (a gamma ray is absorbed in producing a high energy electron and positron pair, which then produce more gamma rays as they slam into atoms, which produce more electrons and positrons). Some of the gammas from these showers may also make it to the ground.

In fact the proportion of primary radiation that will reach the ground from the 20 GeV initial proton and neutron energies will be very small, but a small proportion of a large number (the original kinetic energy of the projectile) is still significant.

The radiation that makes it through the air to the ground were scattered over a footprint with a radius of several hundred meters. Anything within that footprint will suffer the effects of the radiation. Anything outside that footprint is likely safe from the primary radiation.

This means that a RKKS projectile would dump most of its energy in the upper to middle stratosphere. This amounts to about 2E18 J per kg of projectile, or about 400 megaton per kg. It took about 1 MJ/m^2 of radiant flux to flash fabric to flame and cause third degree burns to exposed skin.

Assuming a 10 gam RKKS weapon the energy of impact would be 2E16 J. If half of this energy went into the heat pulse, this would produced a radiant flux of 1 MJ/m^2 at a distance of 30 km. Anything within line of sight of the air-burst would be burnt to a crisp.

He switched to another view, this time from some satellite instrument. "This picture," he explained, "Is from the Eagle Eye spy satellite, and it's a picture of the aftermath of the impact. And as you can see NOKIA is the ultimate cannon, firing from the ultimate high ground. The projectile touched down one hundred thousand times faster than the speed of a bullet and with a force significantly greater than a nuclear warhead with none of the fallout but all of the fun. With this weapon we can safely destroy the Empire underground facilities."

The image shocked everyone, the Americans had once again shocked the world with their ultimate weapon, nuclear weapons in World War II, ULTRON in the early 21st century and then the ultimate cannon NOKIA. Many wondered what would happen after the war ended.

We needed to have a piece of it, was what everyone had in their mind.

"So, how quick can this cannon shoot. And what is the cost per shot?" Asked Supreme Chancellor of Russia Vladimir Putin. Putin was not the type to panic easily, he knew very well that all weapons had weakness or drawback.

"Uh!"

Li and Kovalevsky exchanged a glance before Li answered, "Well Chancellor, due to the extreme heat produced during the firing, It would take 24 hours before the cannon can fire again. As for the cost per shot, we estimate the cost per shot at $100 million. The total cost of the cannon is est to be $ 1,5 trillion."

"So, this shit is as costly as a normal nuke ?" said Margaret Walpole feeling unconvinced," Then why not using normal fusion bomb instead."

"For Fear, Madam Prime Minister, for Fear."

"What?!" Margaret turned her head towards the voice.

"This is a Weapon of Terror, a weapon that cannot be intercepted," US President Dirrel pointed out," The overwhelming displays of force, rather than force itself, is the most effective means of maintaining security and the loyalty of surrender nations."

"So, how much will this cannon weigh?" asked Chairman Xi Jinping of the Federal Republic of China. A weapon of this size couldn't be light.

"22,5 million metric tons, according to our latest estimates." Li answered awkwardly.

"SO," Chairman Xi wiped his eyeglasses before continuing, "How on Earth will we transport 22,5 Million Tons to Manannan?" Even a five-year-old can see the madness of this plan.

"Actually, Mr. Chairman. We will only need to transport 4.5 million tons, or 20% of the actual weight, the remaining 80% will be made from recycled materials from regolith by 3D printers."

"So 4.5 million tons, how will we do it?" Even that weight wasn't a small number.

"It's a good question, Chairman Xi," he said then opened a new slide.

NUCLEAR PULSE PROPULSION SPACECRAFT SUPER ORION

"This is a species of the Orion Drive in the 60s, including the useful ability to boost absurdly huge masses of payload into orbit. But with the attractive difference of not using dirty fission explosives for propulsion. It uses fusion explosions, triggered by convergent shock waves from chemical high explosives. Meaning there is zero radioactive fallout and arguably no problems from the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

"Yes, there will be some neutron radiation but you can't have everything.

"The performance is very similar to the gas-core nuclear rocket Liberty Ship. But without the Liberty Ship's huge load of highly enriched uranium fuel, aka flying nuclear disaster waiting to happen. The Thermonuclear Orion's fuel would be non-radioactive deuterium and/or tritium. Both ships have approximately the same thrust (about 30,000,000 Newtons), approximately the same exhaust velocity (about 30,000 m/s, Isp around 3,060 secs), and approximately the same propellant mass flow (about 1,000 kg/sec).

"Since they have the same exhaust velocity, both could manage the delta V for orbit (8,000 m/s) with a reasonable mass ratio of 1.3, or the delta V for orbit plus a powered landing (15,000 m/s) with a still reasonable mass ratio of 1.65. Which among other things means you don't have to deal with the design and maintenance nightmare called multi-staging, unlike pretty much all chemical rockets.

"The amount of payload that can be carried depends upon design assumptions. As an example: the Liberty Ship was scaled to have the same mass as a Saturn V, but instead of the Saturn's top-notch payload of 118 metric tons, the Liberty Ship could boost a jaw-dropping 1,000 metric tons!

"Eight and a half times as much payload in one trip. And be resuable to boot. The Thermonuclear Orion's payload would be similar. Meaning a single launch could boost into orbit three International Space Stations and have enough spare payload capacity to squeeze in one Mir.

"The biggest design above is the Super Orion design; at 8 million tonnes with the diameter of 400 meters, it could easily be a city. It would have been propelled by over 1000 nukes detonating behind in succession."

"A 8 million tonnes spaceship with 1000 nukes detonating behind. Of cause, Why not!? You American are insane, absolutely insane !" Chairman Xi Jinping grumbled.

"So, How long will it take to build this "Spaceship", and how much will it cost? " Asked Margaret Walpole, as practical as always.

"The original plan was 14 months but with the enemy launching a massive number of orbital-denial-gravel into Low Falmart Orbit, it made flying through the LFO very dangerous. We will have to triple the thickness of the hull to ensure fly safety. So the cost of the ship will increase from $1.7 trillion to $1.9 trillion."

---

Itami's office, Alnus Base, 2030

"I need to do what, Sir ?" Colonel Shino Kuribayashi was confused by General Itami's strange request.

"It's exactly what I said Kuribayashi-chan, Buy n Large Corporation, the main contractor of the next generation MRE program, has launched a new product line and they need a beta testing, and they want a cute face to do this job, for better response." Itami tried his best to sound convincing.

Kuribayashi crossed her arms in front of her massive breasts and raised an eyebrow then said, "Do I really have to do this, sir?"

"Yes, Kuribayashi, this is an order from the superiors but think about it, it's a very easy job to do, all you have to do is eat the new MRE in front of the camera and make a comment, they even pay for you." Itami tried his best to convince the brunette.

"Do you know how impolite is it to watch women eat, General?" Kuribayashi replied angrily. Shino didn't want videos of her having lunch going viral on Youtube. She would be ashamed to death.

"Come on, Kuribayashi, online taste tester is a respectable profession. Have you read Shokugeki no Soma, everyone likes a girl with big breasts who likes to taste good food and beverage. You can be famous Twitch star like Su-Yeon. " Itami tried to convince her again before raising his serious voice." No more discussion. This is an order, Colonel."

"But General?"

"No but, Colonel, that is an order. You are dismissed."

Kuribayashi walked out grimly and headed to the canteen.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Ten minutes in, and Kuribayashi came to an unfortunate realization. Filming a promotional video is like a press conference - extremely annoying. They both have too much light and too many people.

Why they had to put so many makeup on her. She was here to eat some MRE, not filming a Korean drama. This was soo embarrassing. Kuribayashi face turned red, her expression lost its natural earnestness. She let out a small curse that no one could hear.

"Miss Kuribayashi, we will begin in 3..2...1..."

And here it was, considered the holy grail of all MREs. Menu 45 Self Heating with pepperoni pizza. Five years and ten billion dollars, the pinnacle of military culinary art. Kuribayashi wondered if this was the cheapest option and whose Buy n Large CEO daughter was going to marry whose general's son?

"Let's check this out real quick though, there were a lot code at the bottom of the bag." Kuribayashi picked up the package to check the date of manufacture.

"Three zero four five that mean the 45th day of 2030." So this was new, good to know. Kuribayashi opened the package. There was a inner wrapper as well.

"Alright, so right off the bat, we got a hot beverage bag, flameless ration heater, MRE spoon, chocolate protein drink powder. Well, look at this, 12 grams of protein 36 grams of sugar. Good stuff," She commened. "Italian breadsticks trans fat-free. It also got the standard accessory packet."

"Cheese spread with jalapenos, nice ! that's like gold. Oatmeal cookie also trans fat-free."

Kuribayashi took out the main dish. "Pepperoni pizza with cheese and sauce," She said. "It have a pretty long list of ingredients. Yeah, with 30 years of development Buy n Large food labs has corrected the issues with shelf stability early versions like this one. I'm going to show you."

The screen projected images of the early versions of the pizza.

"That one had moisture oxygen and pH issues that would make the pizza mold. You know, It would get moldy before the three year inspection."

"Ah, cardboard sleeve for the last item: Cherry Blueberry Cobbler," Kuribayashi oppened the next packet. "Now, the accessory packet. It have a pack of salt, a moist towelette, a pack of sugar, instant coffee type II. They brought it back, I'm sure that's gonna be much better than coffee instant type three. Next we have anti-nitrogen narcosis chewing gum and the same old roll of toilet paper and matches."

"That's a serious layout of food," Kuribayashi said as she watched all packets on the table. "All right so let's get this out on your tray."

Nice-

"Okay, so we're gonna first start with this pizza. Okay let's see if we can get this Italian bread sticks in there too." Said Kuribayashi as she tried to put the bread sticks packet into the flameless ration heater (FRH).

"The FRH don't have a lot of space so it's a tight fit," Kuribayashi tried to put the bread sticks package into the FRH with no success. "This is not going to fit in there as well. So let's try out the cherry blueberry cobbler first. This cobbler will be great heated up anyway."

Oh, yeah this is what's supposed to go in with it.

Perfect fit, nice and snug.

Kuribayashi poured water into the FRH. "That's definitely doing its thing already." Kuribayashi said as she watched the water begin to boil. Shino started shaking the FRH to make sure the blueberry was well cooked.

"Now let's check out this oatmeal cookie," She opened the small package and sniffed the cookies before commenting. "I smell rich, cinnamon and like a little bit of nutmeg, really smells like a doughnut and then for the coffee." Kuribayashi picked up the coffee package. "I can't believe they brought coffee instant type II back."

Kuribayashi patted the coffee packet a few times to dissolve the powder before tearing off the package. "That smells almost identical to the old spray dried coffee," Kuribayashi poured coffee into the cup before commenting. "Not quite as much powder as the old one. I'm gonna leave the creamer and sugar out." Then she poured hot water into the cup and stirred the coffee to dissolve it and leave it there.

Kuribayashi moved on to the next packet. "And then this chocolate protein drink powder," Kuribayashi held a packet of chocolate protein drink powder and read the instructions. "Let's see, put the powder in a cup and mix it with 8 pounds of cold water (1/3 cantten cup)." As soon as Kuribayashi tore the packet of powder, the scent hit her nose. "Wow smells rich of chocolate and very sweet." Kuribayashi poured cold water into the packet then shook it vigorously before pouring it into the cup.

"Italian bread sticks and jalapeno cheese spread that seems like a nice combo," Kuribayashi tore the packet before sniffing it. "Wow, I smell basil and oregano like right off the bat."

The bread sticks was shaped like a large cookie with four longitudinal grooves. Kuribayashi broke the bread into 4 equal parts before spreading jalapeno cheese on those. "It's a perfect allotment of cheese, spread for three of the four breadsticks. Do that then we can try one on its own."

Kuribayashi had to admit that Buy n Large knows how to choose cheese. "Jalapeno cheese spread, it blows bacon cheese spread and standard plain cheese spread right out of the water, so much flavor."

"So let's check out this coffee," Kuribayashi took a sip of instant coffee type II. "Wow this is a near-perfect coffee that is a robust, lightly acidic next to no bitterness, no sugar or creamer required, instant Joe," Kuribayashi took another sip. "You can't go wrong, I think. It'd be perfect with this cookie. I mean having dessert first, no rules against that that."

Kuribayashi tried a small piece of cookie." It has a fair amount of shortening, it's not overlysweet, little bits of roughage with the oats, it's a very crunchy cookie with a fair amount of cinnamon and nutmeg, hmmm...so good."

Kuribayashi continued. "When you're waiting for your cobbler and pizza to heat up this is the perfect thing to try, you just have your coffee and your cookie, this is a decadent combination, just dip the cookie into the coffee, followed up with a sip of this chocolate protein drink...oh.

Wow, that is an overpowering slight chemical flavor with a chocolaty cheapness overtone. The only way I can put it is that it doesn't taste very normal."

"Okay, so let's check out this Italian breadstick, the one without cheese first." Kuribayashi took a bite then said. "There's a light sweetness to that it's very soft, it almost seems malleable, like a kind of clay, you can roll this into a ball like this," As Kuribayashi was playing with her food she said "Look at that, it has like the texture of sliced white bread, light flavor of onion, oregano and again basil, it's a really nice imitation breadstick, it's the closest that you're gonna get to one in a ration."

Then she tried the one with cheese. "Wow, this is truly genius, with the jalapeno cheese spread, I feel like my head's can explode. This is so much flavour, the jalapeno, it's a little bit spicy with that creamy artificial cheese. I could eat these so fast, this requires very little effort to chew, you don't have to put the cheese right on it, you could have the cheese in one hand squeeze it out and eat the cheese with each bite of this, if you're on the go it wouldn't be too difficult to do."

Kuribayashi continued "I think this is ready," She opened the FRH and said. "Oh yeah it's nice and hot." She held the packet in her hand and felt the heat. "Wow, a perfect flameless ration heater. Here's the pizza thirty years in the making." She opened the packet and the scent filled her nose. "Oh, that smells like some freshly heated up frozen pizza, look at that got the fresh pack. Oh yeah pepperoni, some chunks and then some flat slices up there and let's see the cobbler," Kuribayashi held the opened cherry blueberry cobbler packet. "Wow that was definitely the thing to do, heating it up. Look at the a sweet and inviting smell of primarily cherry."

She began with the pizza." Here's the grand finale...Well this is better than some frozen pizza out there. Oops cheese went in the cobbler. Speaking of the cheese, this is a special mozzarella put in a special mix and it can't melt. If ou put in the microwave or the oven, it'll burn before it melts."

She tried a little pieces of pepperoni. "It has great texture, let's get another piece, can't really tell if it's pork or beef, paintsville's savory not overly dry pieces of pepperoni. "

"In 2027, there are still issues with this pizza and they sale the project, they would take the pizza and they put it in this hot box that was a hundred degrees Fahrenheit for six months, it was a perfect replication of how the Pisa would look in three years and the pizza turned brown, it didn't affect it nutritionally, it's just government didn't want to give soldiers brown pizzas this is supposed to boost morale not decrease." Kuribayashi added.

She continued "You know, the brown makes soldiers don't want to open up their MRE Pizza. The pizza is a highly anticipated item, soldiers were asking for it since the birth of the MRE back in 1981 so the last thing the government wanted to do was give them brown pizza even though tasted fine and it had, you know, full nutritional value but that oxidation was just visually unappealing. So seeing the bread, the sauce, the cheese and that pepperoni together in this pizza not getting moldy is amazing."

"Let's check out this cobbler," Kuribayashi tried the cherry blueberry cobbler. "Oh yeah, this is perfect heat it up. There's like dough mixed in with it and it's not mushy, they have pieces of cherry and blueberry, the fruit isn't mushy, that dough, that's mixed in with it that actually is one of the best desserts in a ration."

"So this MRE had two desserts, the oatmeal cookie and this cobbler, the cobblers not overly sweet."

Hmm...

"Hey I think I just hit a little crunch or something, that was nice." Kuribayashi chuckled. "Wow... yeah, it's like a dough or crust that's mixed in with it or like an imitation type crust, it's a shortening flavor. Hey I think those are little nuts in there, maybe a little chunks of pecan or pecawn, they are the same thing, depends on where you're from."

"This is a menu, guys are gonna be fighting over, trying to get trade, probably by regular other menus for one of these things, I can see it now. Let's me finish this - real quick," Kuribayashi had an ideal. "I just thought of something, here take the jalapeno cheese spread put it on this pizza.

Oh... godddd... that was ...perfect.

Right there, that was that was the way to go, next time I get one of these MRE pizzas, I'm gonna take the cheese spread and put it on the pizza or at least half of it, save the other half for those breadsticks. None of this is thirst provoking because I totally forgot about this." Kuribayashi pointed at her glass of perfectly formulated chocolate protein drink.

"I didn't even need a drink... but ...gotta... get your protein...ahhh."

"This ration.. this is... this was, seriously one of the best MREs ever made and you know why, all the components are great. I'm gonna want to eat them all and that's what the MRE is all about. You have to consume every component to get your nutrition but if you don't have those components, you're missing out so you have to eat the whole MRE. Menu 45 is incredible, this pizza was worth the wait and it's finally happened, it's no longer a rumor." Kuribayashi praised non-stop.

Kuribayashi moved to the final dessert. Menu 45 was also palated with some MRE anti-nitrogen narcosis gum, that gum, was a lot better when it was fresh.

The gum was not only a dessert, but also an important medicine to combat nitrogen narcosis caused by high atmospheric pressure, up to 6 atm, on Falmart. "That's pretty right there, a strong peppermint but not too strong, the gum base itself is a little bit firm when you chew into it, it's kind of tough."

Kuribayashi moved to the finish. "So this was the newest MRE menu 45 pepperoni pizza slice. I want to thank Buy n Large Corporation and all their staffs in the Nevada food lab for making this happen. I also want to give a shout out to Chris, the staff and the kids at Camp Barnabas, it's a special needs camp that helps people out with all kinds of disabilities and Chris hit me up, he asked me if I give can't Barnabas a shout out those are amazing people but again thanks to Buy n Large Corporation and their food processing expert for making this one happen. This was an amazing experience. I'm glad I could share this with everybody this is Colonel Shino Kuribayashi from the JASDF. I hope you like the video, I'll be coming back at you with something new, all right cool. See you soon, Kuribayashi out."

---

War Room, Imperial High Command, Ula Pianca (Imperial Subterranean Castle )

The Imperial War Room, located kilometers deep underground, was the nerve center for the entire imperial military. The room design was remarkably spacious and modern by imperial standard, filled with rows and rows of consoles with 8 massive magic monitors, 24 magic radar scopes and a magic hologram. At the center of the room these was a large circular golden table. This was where the emperor and his generals discussed the direction of the war. Above the golden table there was an epic 22-meter wide ring pendant light hangs over the upper echelon of the imperial military.

Today meeting was quite special, including all members of the King's Council, which forms the administrative and governmental apparatus around the Emperor and the Holy Emperor Molt Sol Augustus himself. Due to the rapidly changing war situation, the King's Council needed to take timely countermeasures to regain the initiative for the Empire.

"Pina, how was the current situation on the ground in Lemuria," Molt asked his daughter with a rather serious voice using the new magic hologram communicator that used advaced astral projection magic to create very realistic hologram. "Is that true that the grand duke of demon Abigor had surrender?"

The Fifth Princess of the Empire, Pina Co Lala, appeared gloriously in her new Imperial Lord Protector's uniform. The new Imperial Lord Protector's uniform featured a symmetrical gold chest piece which extended from both shoulders to the center line of the jacket that match perfectly with her vermillion hair and white porcelain skin. Her jacket featured a metallic division-colored collar with a sliver-colored zipper closure running from the center line of the jacket at the bottom to the center of the collar. The gold-colored metallic imperial insignia was worn on the right breast while decorations and medals were worn on the left breast. The uniform included shin-high boots, with division-colored trim around the edges of the soles and black fingerless gloves. The uniform also featured a gold thick belt in which the princess could keep her pistol and sword.

Saluting with her right arm crossed in front of her chest, her left hand behind her back, and her head down. Pina displayed flawless court etiquettes, as expected from the Emperor's daughter.

"Yes ,Your Majesty, the 13th Black Crusade have been decisively defeat in a series of battles. No, calling those are battles is an insult, more like in a series of one-sided massacre. The ground assault was so overwhelming that the demon army didn't stand a chance despite their overwhelming numerical advantage. The UEAADF were sending bombers from as far as France and Louisiana to bombed the demons here in Lemuria. This wasn't a war. It was clubbing a baby seal. In the dark, with an army, using chainsaws with a chain made out of diamond. This whole war was basically a joint military training exercise."

A thrill of horror and conflicted went through the room, the demons of chaos were one of the empire's most dangerous and persistence enemy and they were annihilated. Even with the help of the Holy Order, the efficiency of earth weapons were absolutely terrifying. Their weapons could unleash unbelievable firepower with a horrify precision in a short amount of time, leaving the enemy no time to response. As the human had a say: "You can run but you can't hide."

Many wondered how to feel about the current situation, on the one hand, thanks to Her Holiness Rory Mercucy, the Empire didn't have to fight a two fronts war but on the other hand Earth's position on Falmart was more powerful than ever before.

"Leaving us in this troublesome situation, I don't know whether to thank the Her Holiness or curse her." Crown Prince Odysseus made a complaint.

"Not quite, my dear brother, Her Holiness Rory Mercucy may have put us in a... not quite pleasant situation to say at least, but she also gives us a golden opportunity to observe how the earth army works, how they deploy their army, what tactics do they use, how they communicate, how they provide logistics for their huge army, their strengths and weaknesses. Those information will become extremely important in our future planning."

Imperial Minister of Defence Zorzal El Caesar inhaled a small dose of heroin with a straw before asking in an euphoric voice. "So what can you tell us about the UEADFs tactic after watching them closely for the past two months."

"Your Majesty, Crown Prince, Minister of Defense, after carefully evaluating and examining the operation of the earth army, I have drawn four main features of their tactics.

Firstly, the enemy are heavily reliant on their armored and aerial formations as a force mutilplier factors for their combined arms doctrines. This may or may not be an exploitable weakness depend on our countermeasures.

Secondly, fixed fortification will not work, the advances in modern warfare since World War II have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations only underground bunkers are still able to provide some protection in modern wars. The downfall of permanent fortifications had two causes:

+ The ever-escalating power, speed, and reach of artillery and air power meant that almost any target that could be located could be destroyed, if sufficient force were massed against it. As such, the more resources a defender devoted to reinforcing a fortification, the more combat power that fortification justified being devoted to destroying it, if the fortification's destruction was demanded by an attacker's strategy.

+ The second weakness of permanent fortification was its very permanency. Because of this it was often easier to go around a fortification and, with the rise of mobile warfare in the beginning of World War II, this became a viable offensive choice. When a defensive line was too extensive to be entirely bypassed, massive offensive might could be massed against one part of the line allowing a breakthrough, after which the rest of the line could be bypassed.

Thirdly, the success of the enemy's armed forces depends heavily on their communication and reconnaissance capabilities. According to our estimates, the UEADF will lose up to 90% of its effectiveness without effective means of communication and 60% of its effectiveness without accurate information or good situation awareness.

Finally, the democratic nature of our enemies means that they are susceptible to the mood swings of the public, making them less likely to take risks or accept high casualties. The less centralized nature of our enemies can also mean their military are burdened with the task of trying to coordinate men and women who possessed not only differences in language, but culture as well.

This of course will impact unit cohesion, since it isn't uncommon for officers to be the only person present who can speak the necessary languages in order to command their troops. And since it is a common trait for the common solider to target officers in the field, this place tremendous stress on combat units in the field.

The Imperial military possess none of these language barriers and enjoy a far more unified political structure while possessed none of the quarrelsome nature that is quite prevalent in the UEADF High Command. The Empire spoke one common language, possessed one culture, though there were some regional differences and for the most part only allowed its citizens to serve as soldiers."

"You have a pretty good analysis, little sister," Prime Minister of the Holy Empire, Diabo El Caesar, jokingly said. "Letting you stole all those books in the royal archives wasn't a bad ideal after all. See, Zorzal, I knew I was right, you are always overacting."

"Diaboo...!" Pina scream blushingly.

Zorzal glared at Diablo fiercely before replying. "Diabo, you and your pointless historical plays always have bad influence on Pina and other princesses. Thanks to your good deed, we have Six new Knight Orders. Do you know how much paperwork I have to deal with Thanks to You ?!"

Emperor Molt Sol Augustus watched his children tease each other in front of the sacred King's Council and wondered may be packing the court with his offspring to strengthen his personal power wasn't the best ideal. They were getting too relaxing and acting unfitting with their position. He was about to speak up before this meeting turned into a farce but realized that doing so would embarrass him as he would look more like a father scolding his children than a powerful emperor.

So he signaling to Crown Prince Odysseus telling him to deal with his misbehaved siblings.

"Diabo, Zorzal, Pina, you are the heads of the imperial court, behave properly." Odysseus scolded his siblings and reestablished order in the War Room.

Odysseus was useful. He mediated disputes and dealt with things that would make the Emperor look weak. He also kept the rest of the royals in line, so they don't bother him much and he never complains. And in return, the Emperor entertained whatever silly social justice ideas he brings.

"Pina, can you elaborate more about the enemy tactics, their strengh and weakness. "The Emperor asked, wanting to return to the main topic.

"As you wish, Your Majesty," Pina pointed to a big board on the wall. "Our enemy, the UEADF, usually deploys two fairly similar but distinct tactics. They are Blitzkrieg and Shock and awe.

"Blitzkrieg is a military doctrine in which a surprise attack using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that consist of armoured and motorised or mechanised infantry formations, together with close air support, has the intent to break through the opponent's lines of defense, then dislocate the defenders, unbalance the enemy by making it difficult to respond to the continuously changing front, and defeat them in a decisive battle of annihilation.

"Shock and awe (technically known as rapid dominance) is a tactic based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight. The concept is dubbed "Shock and Awe" because it seeks the psychological overwhelming of the enemy, and, by extension, the intimidation of the world's population.

"The key objective of Rapid Dominance is to impose an overwhelming level of Shock and Awe against an adversary on an immediate or sufficiently timely basis to paralyze its will to carry on.

"In crude terms, Rapid Dominance would seize control of the environment and paralyze or so overload an adversary's perceptions and understanding of events that the enemy would be incapable of resistance at tactical and strategic levels. An adversary would be rendered totally impotent and vulnerable to our actions.

"In practice Shock and awe and Blitzkrieg are pretty similar, the difference is in their objective. Blitzkrieg's objective is to surprise the enemy with speed and maneuvers to break the enemy defenses, whereas shock and awe tries to surprise the enemy with the use of a lot of firepower ( eg strategic bombing) to weaken enemy morale."

Pina ordered a staff to open a film before continue. "These footages were recently shot in the Acrifa plain, as you can see the UEADF opened the battle with a rain of MLRS, after destroy their opponent initiative, they used 180mm, 203mm and 240mm howitzers to pound the shit out of the demon army. Once the sky was cleared of harpies, the UEADF launched an all-out attack using heavy tanks and AFVs supported by attack helicopters to perform a pincer movement to completely encircle the enemy center.

With their mechanized weapons, the UEADF enjoy an unparalleled level of mobility allowing them to deploy a wide range of tactics like:

Fake Retreat in Helm's Deep valley: The East Asian 11th Army pretended to run away to lure the enemy out of their formation into favorable terrain.

Defeat in detail in Euphia river delta: The German 6th Army used a large force to attack a smaller enemy forces instead of attacking the large main force all at once.

Ambush in the Atlas Mushroom Forest: Chinese 8th Army used concealment to strike enemies before they were ready, while also using terrain and weather conditions to their advantage.

"High mobility, rapid deployment, overwhelming firepower, this type of warfare must required enormous level of logistic and uninterrupted supply lines." Commented Zorzal, like many royal members here, prince Zorzal was not one to panic easily.

"You are correct, Honorable brother of mine," Pina was delighted that her older brother grasped the point very quickly. "Such display of power require unbelievable amount of fuel and ammunition."

The pounding of the major strongpoint of the Indyjski Wall and the rapid destruction of the desperate Abigor Line was a round the clock celebration of UEADF logistical genius. Well over 100 thousand miles of railroad trackage was laid to reduce the need for truck fuel to transport munitions and vehicles forward, as were eighty 32-inch underground pipelines for the movement of vehicle and aircraft fuel to the battle front across Lemuria.

While the manpower available to the Allies to complete this work staggers the mind nearly as much as the $900 billion cost of the work, it remains a remarkable achievement in construction, one that paid dividends for decades. With the transportation hub in place the famed "Factories of Freedom" were hard pressed to keep up with the ability to move material across the Pacific, Indian Ocean, and through the Tokyo Gate to the fighting men in Lemuria.

Just the The East Asian 11th Army required a MINIMUM of 120,000 TONS of supplies each day it was engaged in combat, or 30,000 tons while at rest, when one realized that the 11th was just one of Seven Hundred Allied Armies in Lemuria, the true dimension of the United Earth Alliance effort becomes clear, as does the reason that for every combat soldier the Allied armies used eleven men in support functions, as well has provided jobs to thousands of civilians across the occupation zones (the Allies had actually hoped to employ over a million civilians in direct support positions (cooking, cleaning, translation, etc.) as they advanced, but the reality on the ground reduced this number by around 15%.

"My best estimate is that in order to maintain its combat effectiveness, the UEADF requires MINIMUM 50 MILLIONS TONS of supplies each day it engages in combat." Pina made an educated guess.

"Well, they did say, "Amateurs speak only of tactics. Professionals speak of logistics." Diabo commented.

"That, I can sympathize with them, army logistics can be a real son of bitch. The amount of paperwork is really exhausting." Zorzal added from his own experience at the War Ministry.

"So I guess my first targets are those 32-inch underground pipelines," Secretary of State of the Air Force, 11th Princess Élodie Valadon lazily said.

"Élodie, what happened to you, you look like you haven't slept in a week ?" Diablo asked in surprise, she looked like a panda with those dark circles around her eyes.

"I am working on the Conductive Magnetic Radar, this new radar can detect both magical and non-magical objects by converting magical energy into electrical energy and emits radio waves to detect non-magical objects. It works similar to a mechanical-based radar used by the UEADF, only that it is magic-powered. If my work success, in less than three years we can have more reliable AAA and SAM systems."

"Good job, Élodie." Molt praised.

"It was my honor, Your Majesty." Elodie bowed gracefully. Father was getting old, if she could bring great victories to Darwinia, her future position in the new administration would be secured. "Also, can you increase my allowance Your Majesty, my other projects need more funding? I also have some people I need to deal with."

"I thought we discussed this, 6 assassinations a month, no more! If you want a 7th person dead-do it yourself, hired killers are expensive! You are the thirteen person who spent more than was allowed on getting rid of enemies to the state."

Hearing her father say that, a picture formed in Princess Pina head of His Majesty and big brother Diabo sitting in a study of some kind at different tasks, wearing glasses as they pour over receipts and bills to try and balance the books. The thought of Father yelling through the walls asking who spent more then was allowed on getting rid of rivals and/or enemies to the state' was amusing.

"So to wrap up. Elodie, you and Yves will be tasked with finding a way to sabotage the logistics of the UEADF. Is that clear?" Crown Prince Odysseus ordered.

Secretary of State of the Army, The 8th Princess Yves Sertillanges and Secretary of State of the Air Force, the 11th Princess Élodie Valadon replied in unison.

"Yes, Commander."

While the State gave absolute command of the entire armed forces to the reigning Emperor, the Crown Prince (Supreme Commander) was the highest distinctly military office in the Holy Empire. He was the commander who formulates the Empire's military policy and global strategic goals after the Emperor's input.

"Now let's get on with our defensive strategy, anyone have any ideas?" Molt asked his children. His offspring enjoyed the best education the Empire had to offer, lets see what could they come up with.

"Your Majesty, as far as i can tell, our best chance to stop the enemy is using Defence in Depth combined with Scorched Earth tactic," Pina replied." Blitzkrieg can be compared to a very sharp spear so, what's the best way to defend against a spear? that is allow the steel head to pass and cut off the wooden shaft. Don't get critically engaged. Bleed the attacking units until you have the advantage. Let the attacking units outrun their support then cut them off."

"Can you elaborate more on that, Pina ?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. Defence in depth is a military strategy that seeks to delay rather than prevent the advance of an attacker, buying time and causing additional casualties by yielding space.

"Rather than defeating an attacker with a single, strong defensive line, defence in depth relies on the tendency of an attack to lose momentum over time or as it covers a larger area.

"A defender can thus yield lightly defended territory in an effort to stress an attacker's logistics or spread out a numerically superior attacking force.

"Once an attacker has lost momentum or is forced to spread out to pacify a large area, defensive counter-attacks can be mounted on the attacker's weak points, with the goal being to cause attrition or drive the attacker back to its original starting position.

"Our conventional defence strategy would concentrate all military resources at a strong front line, which, if breached by an attacker, would leave the remaining defenders in danger of being outflanked and surrounded and would leave supply lines, communications, and command vulnerable.

"Defence in depth requires that a defender deploy their resources, such as fortifications, field works and military units at and well behind the front line. Although attackers may find it easier to breach the more weakly defended front line, as they advance, they continue to meet resistance. As they penetrate deeper, their flanks become vulnerable, and, should the advance stall, they risk being enveloped.

"The defence in depth strategy is particularly effective against attackers who are able to concentrate their forces and attack a small number of places on an extended defensive line.

"Defenders that can fall back to a succession of prepared positions can extract a high price from the advancing enemy while themselves avoiding the danger of being overrun or outflanked. Delaying the enemy advance mitigates the attacker's advantage of surprise and allows time to move defending units to make a defence and to prepare a counter-attack.

"A well-planned defence in depth strategy will deploy forces in mutually supportive positions and in appropriate roles.

"For example, poorly trained troops may be deployed in static defences at the front line, whereas better trained and equipped troops form a mobile reserve.

"Successive layers of defence may use different technologies against various targets; for example, dragon's teeth might present a challenge for tanks but is easily circumvented by infantry, while another barrier of wire entanglements has the opposite effects on the respective forces.

"Defence in depth may allow a defender to maximise the defensive possibilities of natural terrain and other advantages.

"The best example of a successful defence in depth is that of a battle on Earth called

"Battle of Kursk. During the battle, the Red Army deliberately drew the Germans into an attritional battle in multiple, well-prepared defensive lines, before launching massive counter-attacks on either side of the 9th Army in the north and the 4th Panzer Army in the south. The initial German offensive never fully penetrated the Red Army lines. By contrast, the subsequent Red Army counter-offensive pushed the front line hundreds of miles westwards."

"And how will this "Defense in Depth" protect our troops from nuclear weapons?" asked the Emperor.

"By not being there, Your Majesty," Pina replied. "Instead of building an extremely solid fortress or bunker, we will build an immense network of interconnected bunkers with below ground access tunnels connecting them to a central citadel.

These extensive bunker system, with most bunkers interconnected by below ground tunnels, and extremely strong blockhouses will provide both protection and remarkable mobility for the defenders.

The tunnels will provided underground, or more properly, under concrete hiding spots during combat as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for local defenders and letting them "survive to fight another day."

"Not bad, so we're going to use the same strategy as the arachnids, by being decentralized underground, the UEADF won't be able to destroy us, unless they dig through the bedrock." Molt, satisfied with the answer he was given, said.

"I almost forgot, what is your sister Katerina doing?" Molt asked curiously, Katerina was a smart but soft-hearted girl, Molt send her to support Pina hoping she could learn from her older sister.

"Hmm... Kate, Oh, she's working at Kings Palate trying to come up with tastier and easier-to-preserve rations for soldiers, she said : "The food you eat as a soldier should make you think about your country, not think about wanting to defect."

"Hahahaaaa..."

Molt and others burst out laughing. "That is our little Katy! Always care too much for other. Well at least she is trying to do something usefull, I guess."

Italica Base, Lemuria, Falmart

Katerina Tsaristla Volga La Romanoff, the 15th Princess of the Empire was a very beautiful young lady with long fuchsia hair that she wore either loose or in a half up-half down crown-braid with two strands framing her face. Her eyes were lavender purple and her lips had a natural pink tint, though she usually wore magenta lipstick in public. Although Katerina was a member of the Darwinian imperial family, she remained kind-hearted and open-minded to everyone around her and treated everyone with respect even if they weren't an imperial subject.

"Guild Master James Townsend, how does your work on the military ration?" Katerina asked softly.

James Townsend, the head of the famous adventure guild White Lotus, was a men in his 500s (40s in human term). He look like a combination of an old-school adventurer and a new noble, who got rich from trading.

Upon hearing Her Highness, James lifted his head and had a bright smile, you could see great passion for adventure in his emerald green eyes.

"Your Highness, It is an honor to have you visit this place," The Guild Master bowed respectfully. "You come at the right time, Your Highness. Let me instroduce you to the Portable Soup, a very concentrated form of essence of meat, sort of like a solidified broth."

A curious gleam shone in Princess Katerina's eyes. "Can I see how you do it ?"

"It will be my pleasure, Your Highness."

"Princess, the dish I'm about to cook has many different names. In period texts you'll see it as portable soup, portable broth, pocket soup, veal glue - I like this one - portmanteau potage and the list goes on and on.

"Portable soup was extremely convenient. It doesn't take up very much space, it's very light, it's a very condensed food source, and it's very flavorful in that very condensed form flavor, It's a booster that's all natural. You can use it in sauces, soups, gravies. It was used by the military, by travellers...[It was] even used as an invalid food source at times, especially aboard ships, so it was used in many different situations.

"But it was very difficult to make, especially in a home setting. It took a long period of time to make. You have to watch it all the time because if you turn your back on it and it got too hot it would ruin all your work, so it was very laborious.

"The meat I'm using is gigantelope shank, gigantelope shank is a hard-working muscle, so it's a tough cut of meat. It has a lot of collagen in it which makes it especially good for this recipe. Another good cut of gigantelope would be the neck bone. Other cuts will work, but just not as well.

"Now this can be done with poultry; you can boil that in water and that will be the basis of this portable soup. So you can go ahead and place your meat in your slow magic cooker and cover it with water. Most of the recipes I found suggested adding nothing else [because] seasoning can come later when it's actually used as the portable soup."

"Some of the recipes suggest using only the meat, other ones include the bones and that's what we're doing in the recipe today. Turn your slow cooker on low and go about your business for the next eight to ten hours."

"Eight to ten hours, is that a little bit long, Mr Townsend?" Katerina asked. Her eyebrows drew together, and she tilted her head. "Surely, we can't expect soldier waiting that long for his meal."

The Guild Master nodded. "No need to worry, Your Highness. Using a basic oscillation spell and you can reduce the waiting time to 8 to 10 minutes."

'Like this,' Mr. Townsend pointed two fingers and said, "Heat On."

"Once the time has gone by, remove the meat. You can now pick it clean of the bones and any remaining gristle and fat."

"This is really good tasting gigantelope ...," He commented. "At this point turn off your slow cooker and let it cool completely. As it cools the fat on the top will solidify making it very easy to remove. Once you're done with that, strain your broth and filter it through a piece of cloth to get out all the settled particles of meat. So go ahead and rinse out your slow cooker and return to clarified broth to it and turn it back on low. Let it go and leave the lid off; let it cook for anywhere from 18 to 24 hours or 10 minutes using oscillation magic.

"What we're doing at this stage in the process is reducing the broth down to a gelatin. Gelatin is an interesting thing: don't expect to be able to reduce this down into a hard block. What you end up with is a nice, medium brown gluey substance. If you overcook it, you will burn it, giving it a very, very, unpleasant taste.

"Once your soup reaches this stage turn off your slow cooker and let it cool completely. Then you can turn the gel out onto a cloth.

"Now the soup is still very gelatinous, to get it to the point where you can store it, put it in your pocket, [et cetera] it needs to be dried.

"Now, you cannot do this with heat. Any temperature of heat, will just turn this into a liquid again; and then you'll just burn it. So it needs to be done without heat, you can do this with a dispersion spell, but you need to make sure the Dispersion spell doesn't heat anything up.

"The period recipe actually suggests turning it out on to a woollen flannel cloth, just like we've done here and flipping it over two or three times a day for 10 days or two weeks or so. If you want to speed this process up at home, put this on a cooling rack and using a dry up spell, and it'll dry out in a couple of minutes. The end results will be a very stiff paste. It's almost like leather. You're going to cut this up into chunks and then wrap it up in paper or something similar to store it away. It'll continue to harden as it ages, But it's completely usable in this leathery, hard form."

Nuttall's Private Office, Alnus Base, Lemuria, Falmart

"Dr. Heisenberg, have your team come up with a countermeasure to Rory's Teleportation." Asked Supreme Allied Commander Liam Nuttall.

Martin Heisenberg and his team of leading scientists in quantum mechanics were tasked with finding a way to prevent a decapitation strike on the high command. No pressure ah...

"Yes, Commander, we believe we have found a way. The basis of teleportation is to find the 11th dimensional position of the object of interest and then compute the vectors to move. Calculations were more complex than the commands of ordinary spells, and therefore mages could not use their abilities when distracted by anxiety, confusion, or pain.

While we can't cause anxiety, confusion, or pain to Rory. We can prevent her spell by jamming the location. Teleportation requires precise coordinates, we can use Cast Jamming, a device that scatters the area of interest with vast amounts of meaningless Psion waves.

The scattered Psion waves function as "noise" which disrupts meaningful Psion wave activity. This reduces the data upload speed of magicians in the affected area to their base station by means of overwhelming it with large amounts of useless data.

This in turn causes the Magical Rituals (Magical Sequences) the magicians use to be unable to affect Eidos. The Psion noise propagates in a random manner, and rapidly across all magic frequencies. This results in them becoming what's essentially an antennae that blocks all forms of Psion transmission.

The only drawback is that the device uses a lot of Antinite material, of which we only have a small amount."

"What a shame!" Nuttall shook his head and said, "I wish we can have more of this." He added, "How about the new bomb collar ?"

"Hmm...Oh, it work well, Commander. The Mark 5 bomb collar uses TyNoX D-3 LVG (liquid to vapor gas).

TyNoX D-3 had the curious property of which 20 milliliters had the same rapid explosive expansion effect, within one meter, as a half kilogram of C4 plastic explosive but without the incendiary side effects and only a third of the concussive force.

If the POWs try to turn into titan, the Mark 5 bomb collar will send them to Hardy without their head." Heisenberg had a sadistic smile before continuing. "The Mark 5 also equipped with the Variable Voltage Shock Guards (VVSG).

Powered by its own dedicated high density crystal matrix batteries, the VVSG could produce effects from simple discomfort, to extreme pain, unconsciousness, and even death.

The amount of electricity that could be generated through the VVSG was enough to melt combat gloves, set clothes and hair on fire, and boil blood in the body.

On its highest lethal setting, the VVSG could reduce an adult human and their bones to charred ash in under seven seconds, literally leaving a pile of smoking dust and teeth."

Overseer Barracks, Kubelethakka Drift Mine, Tartarus

We are done here. Take it away, bring me a fresh one."

The overseer gave a sharp tug on the brass chain connected to the human's collar, jerking the still slightly dazed creature off its feet. Lakheenahuknaasi sighed. She had long since ceased to be amused by such petty cruelty, but the lesser demons never seemed to tire of it. Still, it might be uncreative, but every little torment contributed to keeping the mortals bleeding out precious spiritual energy. Euryale's quotas were strict though and she wasn't going to let this simpleton make her miss it.

"Now!" Lakheenahuknaasi hissed, baring her black poison-tentacles at the overseer, who grudgingly stopped kicking the fallen man and backed off.

The human managed to regain its footing, only lightly gashed by the rocky floor, and was quickly dragged away. Within seconds a new human was shoved into her niche. This one had skin the color of sulfur. After a few centuries in hell it took a lot to scare a typical human, but Lakheenahuknaasi's stare was enough to reduce most to gibbering. It wasn't so much her bronze-scaled face or slitted golden pupils as the writhing cloud of black and red tentacles that surrounded her head, each tipped by four spines and a single unblinking eye.

This particular specimen was kept whispering "Yato-no-kami, Yato-no-kami!", whatever that meant.

Six ought to do it Lakheenahuknaasi thought, gauging the human's body mass. A pair of the red tentacles idly trained themselves on the prey, and with a wet crackling noise a flurry of spines leapt from their tips to embed themselves in the man's shoulders. He screamed and writhed, futilely seeking some means of escape. The venom worked quickly however and in less than a minute his struggles had subsided into docility.

She shifted back on her haunches, considering what history to give this one. "What is your name?"

"Hijikata Katamori"

"You lived in Tokyo. It held for many weeks but it was eventually reduced by the legions of Merafawlazes."

"No, I lived… wait… the forces of Yomi assaulted Edo? What became of Shogun Ieharu?"

"All the humans were slaughtered. Their defiance bought them only ruin. Their iron chariots killed many demons but they could not save them in the end."

"Iron chariots?" asked Katamori, "That sounds impractical."

Lakheenahuknaasi slapped the human roughly across the face. Her claws left deep scratches on the man's cheek. "Listen carefully. You watched the fire throwers on the city walls kill many of our cavalry, but once they revealed themselves they were destroyed by our fliers. You ran from the walls as they were scaled by our infantry. The lightning from their tridents cut down humans to your left, to your right, but you found shelter."

Katamori was nodding vaguely, beginning to get into the fantasy. "I hid behind an overturned cart. The lightning set it on fire."

"You tried to hide but it was hopeless."

"We hid in the ruins but they had magic that could track us unfailingly!" Katamori could see the scene vividly in his mind.

"You were caught and executed."

"They ate the children, as if they were delicacies! For a moment I thought I had been spared, but then flying beasts swooped down and set the whole city aflame! One passed over me… and… I was burned alive…" he sobbed.

And that's enough of that thought Lakheenahuknaasi. This one must be a peasant that he knows nothing of the iron chariots, probably died in a house fire, no sense wasting more time on him. Now for the finishing touch…

This time it was a black tentacle that loosed a pair of spines, which bored straight into the human's neck. Again the man reeled, trying to scream but this time no sound would come.

Euryale had discovered this particular technique and instructed all the gorgons in its use; a moderate dose of poison delivered directly to the brain would scramble the human's memories just enough to imitate a fresh arrival, which were almost always slightly crazed. As a side benefit it tended to hide the flaws in their stories.

Lakheenahuknaasi's forked tongue flicked out and licked the traces of blood from her claws. "This one is done. Next!"

Base Camp, Outer Ring, Seventh Circle of Terror

McElroy was running the handcrank on the universal charger when Tyuwaru's voice penetrated his thoughts. Corporal McElroy, are you there? May we speak now?

Sure thing, my dear. McElroy smiled, despite himself. How've you been? Are they treatin' you OK?

I'm fine, and I've been treated very well.

Well, that's great to hear. McElroy stopped charging and lifted the lid on the laptop. It was a military-grade device, built to withstand just about anything you'd expect in a hostile environment. It booted to life quickly. Shall we get down to business?

Yes, please.

McElroy went over his notes. This appears to be a rural region of Hell. Based on the information contained in the laptop here, it'd be extremely difficult to hook up with any of the current cells of the HFTLN. I've observed no geographical features or landmarks that match anything described or photographed by those cells.

I have been photographing my surroundings and attempting to map my location, though I never was much for computers. Tyuwaru was quiet for a moment. Acknowledged. Four your information, you are now The Holy Front for The Liberation of Netherworld. Have you established a safe base of operations?

Affirmative. We've taken up residence in a cave which is deep in a forest. If the colors weren't all wrong, I'd say we were up in the Catskills or somethin'. Looks like the divider between two circles.

I'm sorry, did you just say 'we'?

Affirmative. I've pulled seven U.S. soldiers out of the river of lava. Well, they pulled themselves out. I blasted the Chaos demons trying to chuck them back in. As an aside, please pass my compliments along to whoever designed the rifle you guys gave me. This sucker'll put a hole in a Chaos demon the size of your head! Tyuwaru's tone was vaguely amused. I'll be sure to do that, Corporal. They're asking for the names and service numbers of the personnel you freed. Could you get them for me?

Yup, one sec…damn computers. OK, here we go. First is Private First Class Arthur DeVanzo. Service number… and he rattled off the rest of the names, before concluding, We got one other fellow, too, but he's Japanese, and not exactly military.

Oh, I see. A pause. If you'll give us his name and as much personal information as you can, we'll try to locate his family.

Ah, well, that might be a touch difficult. He's, uh, been in The Eye of Terror for a while. He's a Samurai, and from what he's told me, he's a warrior from the Ashikaga shogunate, and from what I can remember from my college history classes, that puts him anywhere from five to seven hundred years old. But why these were souls of earth human in the Eye of Terror anyway, I thought they only attack Falmart.

Tyuwaru was silent for a moment, then said, the demon of chaos invaded many world, not just this one, so while Falmart was their prime target, it wasn't hard to believe they had visted your world before. Ok, so that makes nine of you?

Correct.

The people here are curious: how is it that you knew the people you were rescuing were U.S. military?

McElroy laughed out loud. I didn't. I just hung by the same stretch of river that I was in. It's like they're stacking us up like cordwood; the more recently you die, the further downriver you are. Or, at least, that's what the Chaos demons in this particular region are doing. That's why I was surprised when Ori showed up; he told me that he'd been flailing around blindly in the river for a very long time, so I guess he managed to swim a good distance away from where he was put in.

And how are you communicating with him? Does one of you speak Japanese?

McElroy shook his head, before realizing the idiocy of such a motion. This telepathy stuff sure did mess with your mind. Nope. We just talk. He seems to understand us. When he talks, we understand him. It's like with the Chaos demons. When they speak, we understand what they're saying, right? But how could they tell, just from looking at us, what language to speak? There's somethin' funky goin' on here, Tyuwaru. I wish I could tell you more, but I'm just a Tennessee hillbilly at heart. I mighta gone to college, but I got a liberal arts degree, for G-for Asshole's sake. Pardon my language.

McElroy could actually hear Tyuwaru's laugh in his mind. It felt like someone had tickled his brain. Well, another item on a long list of things we'll investigate.

Alright, Tyuwaru. I guess that brings us to our final item: resupply.

There was silence in McElroy's head; like someone had left the mic depressed by accident and was flooding the two-way with dead air. Finally, Tyuwaru said, You won't be being resupplied for at least four weeks.

You're shitting me. McElroy would've kept the anger out of his tone, as well as any vulgarities, were he speaking, but he couldn't conceal it within his mind. Four weeks? How am I supposed to continue operations here? What's the holdup?

I am, Tyuwaru replied. I'm the only one who can do this, and opening a portal causes me great pain, and I simply can't take supplying seven separate cells all at once. I'm sorry, Corporal.

McElroy cringed. Oh, Tyuwaru, I'm, uh, no. No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have… please forgive me, it's real crappy of me to blame you. Look, we owe you everything-we all owe you everything, and nobody ever thought what it must be costing you! My daddy would whale the tar out of me if he knew what I'd just said. Please, accept my apology.

I accept, Corporal. I would've told you earlier, but, well, it shames me that I can't push myself harder to keep you all supplied. It's just…it hurts a great deal…

McElroy blinked back tears. I won't hear none of that! We're all managing as best we can, and I cannot bear the thought of you suffering on my account. We'll get by just fine. And you tell the brass that I want my next allocated portal window to go unused, so that you might have a respite.

Thank you, Corporal. McElroy could hear that Tyuwaru was flattered. But it is matter of personal pride that I work as hard as I can. I've been able to see into The Eye of Terror for a long time. I know what goes on there. I want to do everything I can to end that evil. May Flare bless us, let his light shine through this hellish place.

Well, fair enough, Tyuwaru.

So, as a final matter, what is your current armament?

Well, we got a mess of tridents from the Chaos demons. All different designs. I photographed each, so you'll be able to study them in further detail later. Oh, when you do get a portal to us next, can you send a sword for Ori. He doesn't approve of guns. Talking of which, we got the one rifle, twenty total plasma pulse cartridges left. Nine are reserved.

Reserved for what?

One for each of us. If things go south, I'm not going back to that river. None of us are. We'll take our chances with oblivion…or super-Hell, if that's what's next. Tyuwaru was silent for a moment. Understood, Corporal. I'll do my best to get you fresh supplies in four weeks' time. In the mean time, we'll continue with our scheduled briefings.

Acknowledged, Tyuwaru. Thank you for everything. Be well, we'll speak next week.

Thank you, Corporal.

McElroy closed the lid of the laptop and sighed. "Four weeks, guys. Can't use the rifle anymore, except in emergencies. Looks like we're going to be strictly recon for a while."

The others gathered around him in the cave groaned. "Look," he continued. "They got this poor…girl doing all this shit on her own. It damn near kills her when she opens a portal, even for a few seconds. I ain't gonna ask her to go through that. Are you? Look, it'll get better soon, I'm sure. If one magician on Falmart can do it, I'm sure others can. It'll just take time to find 'em and train'em."

"Got another one!" Private Tom Walsch said from the mouth of the cave. Holding the rifle in one hand and a charred human in the other, he and Corporal Juan Menendez dragged the half-sensate creature into the cavern and dumped it onto the floor.

They were all used to this by now, and McElroy took point. He kneeled down next to the trembling figure and asked, "Name, rank?"

"Puh-puh-private Joanna Cassidy, USMC," the figure croaked.

"Huh, first marine! Well, Private Cassidy. You're among humans, among friends. We're part of the resistance here in Hell. You feel like kicking some Chaos demon ass?"

Cassidy opened her eyes, revealing half-formed, half-seeing blobs of pigment and ichor. "You bet your ass I do."

This was met with a chorus of approval by the assembled people, even Ori. "Alright, Private," McElroy continued. "Take a breather, grow back your skin." He looked up. "DeVanzo, grab a couple tridents. I knew there was a good reason to collect those things. I want to check out what's beyond the north ridge."

Before he left, he set a rifle round aside with the other nine.

Randi Institute of Pneumatology, the Pentagon, Arlington, VA

"I guess it'll be a relief dealing with normal people after having that sick freak around." There was a stir of anger in the room, Tyuwaru's boyfriend had started to get up but she put her hand on his and stopped him. It was a gesture that did not go unnoticed by most of the people in the room.

Martin Chestnut, a minor noble, was one who didn't, he looked around smugly, the angry reaction to the insult aimed at Tyuwaru amused and satisfied him. Another thing he didn't notice was two of the Special Forces troopers exchanging significant glances, they knew what Tyuwaru had gone through to keep the link to the teams in Hell open. Chestnut had just scheduled himself for an old military custom, a blanket party, at the first available opportunity.

James Randi cast a very sharp look at Chestnut, he'd spent his life exposing frauds and imposters and he was convinced Chestnut was one although in what sense he wasn't quite sure yet. There was no doubt in Randi's mind that the man had skills though, he'd made everybody in the room hate him. Randi had caught a whispered comment from a visiting Marine, something about Chestnut being a candidate for wall-to-wall counseling. Still, business first.

"We have to evaluate your ability to open a link before we can take this matter any further. We have several people now who can speak to various people in The Eye of Terror, but so far Tyuwaru is the only person we have found who can sustain a link and open a portal. She's worked very hard for the last few weeks and she needs a break. So, we are going to try and open a portal to a team we have on the Seventh Circle, they are desperately short of ammunition and need resupply urgently. So, Tyuwaru's going to talk to them and they we'll see if you can open a portal."

"Just keep that pervert away from me." The Marine and the Special Forces troopers exchanged glances, the blanket party attendance had just grown. On one of the seats, Tyuwaru relaxed and opened her mind up.

Tucker? Are you there? Can you speak?

Hey Tyuwaru, sure can. We're having a rest, we've just got a new member here. Private Joanna Cassidy, USMC. He rattled the serial number off. She's in a bad way but she'll mend, physically anyway.

"Got her, Marine Private Cassidy. Killed in a tank wreck about six days ago, in Lemuria." The Marine had typed the number into a notepad and the answer was immediate.

Confirmed Tucker. Now, we're going to try something. We've got another guy here who can contact The Eye of Terror so we're going to see if he can open a portal. If he can, we'll be able to get you some stuff, we have a sword for Ori, one he'll like we think. Its called a Katana, it's a gift from the Holy Order. A swordmaster over there made it from holy enhanced mithril. We have more ammunition and some nexgenbinaslex for you.

That's fabulous Tyuwaru, sure you're not going to get hurt for this?

Quite sure, I'm not going to hurt. At the other end, Tucker noticed the satisfaction in her thoughts and wondered what was going on back there.

"Link's set up. Martin, please make the portal."

"Its Lord Chestnut to you." He relaxed on the couch and had the wiring set up around him. Meanwhile Tyuwaru disconnected and isolated herself from the system. Behind the control bank, the operator started running the power up to portal threshold. Chestnut started writhing and moaning on the couch. "Shit, this hurts, you never told me it would hurt like this."

Then, the black ellipse started to form in the room and Chestnut's wailing reached a new level. The sword was the first thing to get thrown through, followed by some packs of nexgenbinaslex and boxes of rifle ammunition. Then, the ellipse slammed down. Tyuwaru grabbed her head-set and pushed through a contact. Tucker, did you get anything?

Yeah, thanks, the sword's here and we got two box of ammo and five of the nexgenbinaslex. Guess your guy wasn't too hot huh?

Very noisy. Bye Tucker, talk to you soon.

Bye Tyuwaru

"They got a little stuff, the sword, 5 kilos of nexgenbinaslex, 3 batteries and 360 rounds of ammunition." Tyuwaru relaxed a little.

"And that's all anybody will get until you agree to my terms." Chestnut had a predatory grin on his face.

"What terms?" Randi spoke cautiously.

"I want a million a year retainer. A hundred thou bonus every time I have to open a portal up for you. You'll buy an apartment for me wherever I choose to live and I want the thing you people called sport car. I'll tell you which kind later."

"That all?" Randi was beginning to lose his temper.

"No, but I'll add the rest later. You might as well agree now though, you haven't got any choice."

"Actually we do." The voice from the door was contralto and silky. For those who knew the General, this meant trouble was coming for somebody. Nobody had ever heard her swear, she'd never had to. "We have three more candidates coming in today from the Holy Order. An Elf, a catgirl and a dwarf. All have passed the initial tests you laid down James, they're looking very good." The General was staring at Chestnut expressionlessly. It occurred to Randi that the lack of feeling was more terrifying than any display of dislike could have been.

"General Schatten? A useful recruit this one? For the field test?"

"Yes indeed Ma'am. Lord Chestnut." Schatten loaded the 'Lord' with irony. "Here's our counter-offer. We give you a nice green suit with a red-brown one for work-wear. We will pay you one thousand two hundred and forty five dollars and ninety cents per month, before deductions. We'll also provide you with a comfortable pair of boots for walking around in. They may even fit. We'll even feed you and give you a bed to sleep in."

"Forget it. No way."

"You don't have any choice, Private Chestnut. You're in the Army now. The Holy Order have give you to us, you know." Schatten's voice was richly amused by the sudden change on the man's face.

"You can't make me do the portal thing. Or anything else. And I won't. Not unless I get my money."

"It's Sir to you. No, we can't. But I must advise you that you're being assigned to a field test program. We know that sensitives can contact The Eye of Terror, but what happens if we put a sensitive in there and try to contact out? We need to know that but Tyuwaru was much, much too valuable to use that way. Still is. But you're not. So, we're assigning you to Camp Hell-Alpha and you'll stay there until the program is complete. Of course, if you don't co-operate that may take a very long time. You two." Schatten gestured at the two Special Forces men. "Take Private Chestnut away and show him how the Army works."

"It'll be a pleasure Sir."

"I thought it might be." The two Special Forces men led Chestnut out and closed the door behind them. A few seconds later there was a muffled thud and the door shook, followed by an apologetic "oops". The Marine in the room suddenly developed a satisfied expression in his face, General Asanee had sat down beside Tyuwaru."How are you doing?"

"Well, thank you ma'am."

"Good, for I have some news for you. If our three new recruits work out a bit better than Mis… than Private Chestnut… did, you'll get some leave soon."