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.

36. Chapter 37 : Death of Abaddon

Chapter 37: Death of Abaddon

Note: hi11223345. Yes. ULTRON can easily develop nuclear cruise missile like the SLAM project. Technically Earth can put ICBM into space if they careful, it just cost a lot more due to the higher gravity of the planet.

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UEADF INFORMATION SERVICE *BRUSSELS* 2069

FOREWORD

In 5069 UEADF published for the first time an official comparison of the forces belonging to the nations in the integrated military structure of the Alliance with those of the countries of the Sadera Pact. The objective of this publication was to provide an authoritative, factual and objective source from which the public could assess the relative strengths of the two alliances and hence the existing balance of power. In order to continue this process member nations have decided to publish a new edition providing more recent and up to date information.

Any comparison of military forces is inevitably a highly complex process involving a wide range of judgements, each of which are capable of a wide range of interpretations. Furthermore a UEADF Force Comparison represents the consensus of fourteen nations. A definitive assessment is therefore difficult to achieve. However, every effort has been made to ensure a high degree of accuracy and consistency. In this respect, and mindful of the need to retain as much continuity as possible, several changes in the presentation of material have been made in order to improve the document. In particular the method of counting UEADF and Sadera Pact forces readily available in Netherworld has been changed in order to present a more realistic picture.

The maintenance of an adequate balance of forces between Earth and Falmart is a fundamental requirement for Alliance security. UEADF remains determined to pursue peace and stability through all possible means, including those of dialogue and communication. But this can only be done on the basis of a sound military posture. The last 15 years bear testimony to UEADF's success in maintaining the peace.

This document also serves to demonstrate the very substantial resources and capabilities member nations have made and continue to make available for the common defence of the Alliance. But perhaps more significantly it illustrates that while we can be reasonably satisfied with our performance in the past, the future gives less room for comfort. Disparities in a number of critical areas exist which if left unattended could further reduce the flexibility of response necessary for credible deterrence.

This document demonstrates that our basic defence posture remains sound. I believe it also underlines that continued efforts are necessary if we are to preserve security through the coming decades.

The Sadera Pact leadership has repeatedly stated that the Sadera Pact is strictly defensive in nature. Past and present policies have however contradicted their statements. Further, the Sadera Pact's military strength is on a scale well in excess of that reasonably justifiable for defence. The Sadera Pact maintains large-scale strategic nuclear forces, intermediate- and short-range nuclear forces, and massive conventional forces. Moreover, Sadera Pact military strategy as shown by its literature and military exercises calls for large scale penetration into enemy territory in order to secure strategic objectives; it continues to emphasise the element of surprise and the necessity of rapid offensive operations.

Sadera Pact forces are organised and equipped and trained to take the offensive right from the beginning of a conflict. This involves combined arms operations in which all forces, conventional and nuclear, can be brought to bear in a unified manner, using all necessary assets. To this end, some fundamental reorganisation and restructuring of Imperial forces has been in progress for several years and is still incomplete. The main outcome has been leaner combat units with proportionately higher combat power in support of updated tactics and concepts.

For example, the reorganization of the Imperial tank and motorised divisions is resulting in an increased number of heavy tanks and especially long range artillery pieces. With regard to the air forces, the control of the Imperial Strategic and Tactical Bomber forces has been centralised recently under the command of fourty air armies in those parts of the Sadera Pact which face UEADF. Imperial military capabilities would enable the use of chemical weapons on a large scale.

Comparing the UEADF and Sadera Pact Forces

Many factors contribute to the capability to deter or defend against include political and social stability, geography, economic strength, human resources, industrial and technological resources, as well as military capabilities. The military forces possessed by each side are clearly important but are not the only elements in this equation and in comparing each side's military forces it is important to avoid oversimplification.

A complete assessment of the balance of power would have to take into account forces other than those that are available to UEADF and the Sadera Pact. Even if consideration was to be restricted to UEADF and the Sadera Pact capabilities only, a full assessment would have to take into account not just the conventional forces deployed by each side in Europe but also certain worldwide deployments by a number of UEADF countries as well as by the Imperial Union. For instance, both the Unified States and the Empire maintain substantial forces in Netherworld.

In addition to quantifiable force differences there are also other elements important to an understanding of the balance. These include, for example, differences in military strategy and structure, political organisation and cohesion, the qualitative aspect of forces and the availability of timely reinforcements. Other important considerations are the amount of ammunition, fuel and other stocks possessed by each side, the quality of their equipment, the quality of their civil and military infrastructure, their organisation, their personnel, their leadership and morale, as well as each side's economic, industrial and technological ability to sustain a military conflict.

This publication cannot attempt to cover all these issues. Instead, it supplies up-to-date information on the more important aspects of the military postures of UEADF and the Sadera Pact, thus providing the reader with a basis for forming his own judgments. In addition, it must be realised that both UEADF and the Sadera Pact deploy a number of weapon systems capable of being used both in a conventional and a nuclear role; in general such systems are considered in both the conventional and the nuclear sections. The allocation of forces shown in this publication is for comparative purposes only and does not necessarily correspond to any specific scenario or situation.

The Sadera Pact nations have a standing force of some 120 million personnel of which some 80 million face UEADF in Falmart. In addition, there are over 16 million personnel with some military training enrolled in the national security forces. Sadera Pact active and reserve forces worldwide include 2460 heavy divisions plus 290 heavy brigades, with 6.1 million magic tanks and air forces equipped with nearly 1.3 million magic aircraft. Ground and air forces in Falmart are forward deployed, well structured, positioned and prepared for offensive operations. The Sadera Pact possesses an impressive inventory of naval forces, the largest component of which is the Imperial Navy.

In addition to ballistic missile submarines Sadera Pact active naval forces include nearly 29,000 other submarines (a number of which are equipped to launch Cruise missiles), about 4000 major surface combatant ships (Adamant class ships and cruisers) and about 40,000 naval bombers (most of which are equipped to deliver anti-ship missiles). A large number of these forces are not in the UEADF/ Sadera Pact area and indeed some, primarily those of the Holy Empire, are deployed worldwide. Overall, the Sadera Pact has, in recent years, significantly improved the quality of equipment in all components of its armed forces; strategic, ground, air and naval.

The standing forces of the UEADF nations total 45 million personnel, of which nearly 26 million are stationed on Earth. There are also nearly 8 million other militarily trained personnel, such as Home Guards and Gendarmerie. Total active and reserve forces belonging to UEADF nations, but not all committed to UEADF, include 820 divisions and over 1800 independent brigades (normally in UEADF 3 brigades equal 1 division), with about 2.5 million drone tanks and air forces equipped with approximately 1,120,000 combat aircraft. UEADF forces are well trained and, given the full range of capabilities at their disposal, are capable of presenting a credible defence of Alliance territory. In most UEADF countries, modern and effective aircraft, tanks and anti-tank weapons are being intro- duced into the armed forces.

The naval forces of some UEADF nations include elements deployed on a planetary basis. Of an overall total of just over 20,000 attack submarines, 4500 major combatant ships (carriers and cruisers), and some 370,000 land and sea based maritime aircraft (including ornithopters), not all could be made available in the UEADF area. That is to say, the forces shown as available to UEADF are not a simple aggregation of the forces possessed by each member country, but are based on availability and allocation.

The global figures given in the previous paragraphs have been mentioned so that the statistics and comparisons which follow can be seen in their proper perspective. For the most part, the discussion that follows includes only those forces which could be expected to be available to UEADF and those of the Sadera Pact which it is considered would be facing them. The focus is on the Special Region of Lemuria, Netherworld and the Imperial territory of Terra Antarctica.

The Problems of Mobilisation and Reinforcement:

UEADF and Sadera Pact forces rely heavily on the mobilization of reservists to bring active duty formations up to strength and to man mobilizable formations. However the closely controlled social structures of the Sadera Pact nations and the length and intensiveness of the training of their military conscripts permit them to maintain a more significant pool of trained reserve manpower than is maintained by UEADF.

The bulk of UEADF's reinforcements of men and equipment must be moved across the Pacific and the Sea of Niflheim largely by sea. The Sadera Pact on the other hand can move many of its central reserves rapidly by means of internal road, rail and air links. UEADF could not sustain an effective defence against these reinforced Sadera Pact forces solely with in-place forces.

Therefore a successful defence would be largely dependent upon the timely arrival of substantial reinforcements, principally from the Unified States, Russia, China but also from India and in the Special Region itself from the Kingdom of Japan and Alnus Autonomous Region. However, the problems would be considerable even with reasonable warning time.

The rapid reinforcement of land forces is a very complex operation that demands the timely availability of numerous resources, particularly transport aircraft and shipping as well as reception and prepositioned equipment storage facilities.

Reinforcement of air forces involves infrastructure and logistic problems of a different but also complex nature, particularly in the areas of survivability and combat support. While there are a considerable number of reinforcement air squadrons available to cross the Pacific within a few hours, they would have to wait for the subsequent arrival of their ground crew and support equipment before they could become operational.

CONVENTIONAL FORCES

Land forces

Sadera Pact forces facing Allied Command Lemuria (ACL), which is the UEADF military command which stretches from the Lemuria's Exclusive Economic Zone to the border of Netherworld, consist of about 1670 active and mobilisable divisions plus the equivalent of 90 divisions of airborne, air assault and air-mobile formations, which could be used in a number of different areas.

Taking account of the forces of the Non-Imperial Sadera Pact countries, the Imperial forces located in those countries but only the high readiness forces of the six Western Military Districts of the Holy Empire, there are some 1150 heavy divisions positioned well forward or considered ready to fight at very short notice.

Moreover, these standing Sadera Pact forces can be reinforced by about 160 heavy divisions from the Strategic Reserve based in the central Military Districts of Azjania.

Sadera Pact heavy divisions normally consist two times more personnel than UEADF divisions but contain less tanks and artillery, thereby producing similar combat power.

Their principal offensive conventional capabilities consist of magic tanks, modern mechanised infantry vehicles and highly mobile long-range artillery and mortars; large numbers of these are to be found in all their units. Imperial forces possess a wide variety of chemical agents and delivery systems and are the best equipped in the world to sustain operations in a chemical environment.

Growing numbers of transport, support and attack antigravity vehicles provide the Sadera Pact with a quick assault and reaction capability, and with a supplement to their fixed-wing tactical aircraft in the battlefield area. A significant number of new electronic warfare, antigravity vehicles have appeared in Imperial units during the past two years.

Land forces committed to UEADF and stationed in or rapidly deployable to Lemuria and Netherworld, consist of the equivalent of some 880 active and mobilisable divisions (including 30 airborne/air mobile divisions), many of which are also ready to fight at very short notice.

There are in addition the equivalent of 120 active Unified States divisions plus 10 Indian Armoured Cavalry Regiment, 20 East Asian Marine divisions and 10 USAR brigade in the Far East which could be made available in Lemuria in due course.

Fourty of these Unified States' divisions have their equipment prepositioned in Lemuria. Almost half of UEADF's tank and mechanised divisions are equipped with modern weapons although a very unfavourable ratio continues between UEADF anti-tank guided weapons and Sadera Pact tanks and armoured personnel vehicles. UEADF similarly has a lower proportion of armed attack antigravity vehicles.

Only the Unified States and USAR have a retaliatory magical capability, and a number of UEADF nations lack even adequate protection against magical weapons.

The comparison of UEADF and the Sadera Pact division equivalent strength and numbers of major equipments has been made in a different way from that used in the 2062 edition of this publication.

Figure 2 illustrates the imbalance of land forces in favour of the Sadera Pact under two conditions - forces in place in Netherworld reinforced by rapidly deployable forces; and forces under conditions of full reinforcement.

With the exception of antigravity vehicles, the ratios of major formations and equipments worsen appreciably with full reinforcement.

The total number of Sadera Pact armoured vehicles includes armoured personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, and additional armoured vehicles whose primary role is command and control, forward air control and reconnaissance but which also have a secondary role of direct combat.

UEADF forces have been counted in a similar manner. The anti-tank guided weapons mounted on Sadera Pact vehicles for self-defence have been included in the total figures as have been antigravity vehicles-mounted anti-tank guided weapons to ensure an accurate comparison with UEADF forces.

The number of UEADF and Sadera Pact crew-served anti tank guided weapon launchers in place in Falmart is about the same but a significant imbalance exists in favour of the Sadera Pact for launchers mounted on antigravity vehicles and heavy armoured vehicles.

Relative trends over the last few years for UEADF main battle tanks and artillery/mortars in place in Lemuria/Netherworld and those of the Sadera Pact including all those located in the six Western Military Districts, are shown in Figure 3.

Air Forces and Air Defence Forces

The overall total of Sadera Pact aircraft is nearly 1.3 million. More than a million of these are facing UEADF in Falmart, Netherworld and near Antarctic, of which 750,000 are of types technically capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

The majority of these aircraft would likely be used in conventional attacks over UEADF in Lemuria, the Global South and Netherworld.

The total number of combat aircraft in operational units facing UEADF in Lemuria, the Global South and Netherworld is 743,000 (see Figure 4). Sadera Pact air defence forces as far east as Azjania (but excluding those in the Sadera Military and Air Defence Districts) consist of some 419,500 interceptor/air-combat aircraft.

Many of these aircraft can be used in offensive roles such as assuring air superiority over the battlefield and they are backed up by extensive modern surface-to-air missile systems.

Additionally there are some 225,000 ground-attack fighter bombers, 58,500 reconnaissance aircraft and about 40,000 bombers (including 6500 sub-orbital Whiteflame bombers), the majority of which would likely be used in a conventional role. The Whiteflame and other strategic bombers however, are dealt with in the nuclear section.

These air forces could be reinforced rapidly with some 54,000 combat aircraft from Terra Australis. Significant numbers of new combat aircraft are introduced each year, replacing older models which were less capable than UEADF aircraft of the same generation.

The introduction of these modern sub-orbital tactical aircraft has considerably increased the Sadera Pact's offensive capability. These latest aircraft are capable of carrying up to twice the payload, can travel over three times the range, at higher speeds, and can conduct operations at lower altitudes than the aircraft they are replacing; this renders them less vulnerable to UEADF air defences.

Their increased combat radius would allow for Sadera Pact operations from more distant bases in case of Sadera Pact aggression against UEADF.

This would mean that UEADF fighter-bombers would have to penetrate much deeper into defended enemy airspace to counter-attack Sadera Pact airbases. Additionally, an increasing proportion of these modern aircraft can operate in adverse weather conditions by day or by night.

The Sadera Pact airlift capability is substantial. The Imperial military transport aviation alone, consisting of over 61,000 supersonic long range aircraft, provides sufficient airlift to transport 100 complete heavy airborne divisions and its equipment at any one time up to distances of 25,000 km. This capability can be supplemented in particular by civilian aircraft.

The overall total of aircraft belonging to UEADF countries is slightly more than 1.1 million. The land-based air forces, available in-place for UEADF's Allied Command Lemuria, consist of 196,000 ground-attack fighter bombers, 79,500 interceptors and 23,500 reconnaissance aircraft.

In addition to fighting the air battle air forces would have to assist UEADF ground forces in repulsing a Sadera Pact attack. The Unified States and USAR could reinforce rapidly with some 175,000 more combat aircraft, though airlift would be required for ground crew and equipment.

The quality of UEADF aircraft has improved with the introduction into service of the J-15, J-22 and the Tornado. These aircraft have 2 greater range, payload and all-weather capability than the previous generation of UEADF aircraft. However, since UEADF and Sadera Pact aircraft now have comparable range and payload characteristics the quantitative advantage of the Sadera Pact is more significant than formerly.

UEADF's Military airlift assets consist of nearly 75,000 supersonic transport aircraft, which can be augmented by the civil air fleets of the Allied countries. These are considerably larger than the civil air fleets available to the Sadera Pact. However -the latter are centrally controlled and have larger payload.

UEADF nations have made considerable progress in improving the ability of their air forces to operate and survive in a hostile environment, particularly by providing better protection for vital operational and logistical facilities.

To a considerable degree, UEADF air forces maintain a high state of readiness and are qualitatively superior to those of the Sadera Pact in terms of training and weapons systems. The tactical flexibility of UEADF air forces and the ability to augment in-place forces rapidly in times of tension or war are also positive factors.

Maritime Forces

As noted earlier there are fundamental differences in the missions of thenaval forces of the Sadera Pact and UEADF that result from geographic and economic dissimilarities. The security of UEADF nations depends on the unimpeded use of the sea both to link the potential of Lemuria and Netherworld and to provide access for trade, raw materials and energy.

The role of the UEADF navies as for all UEADF forces is in the first instance to deter aggression. They must be able to demonstrate a capability in peace and take action in war to preserve, protect and maintain the sea lines of communication, neutralise hostile forces, and to project maritime power in support of land and air forces. In other words, the role of UEADF maritime forces is sea control, which means using the seas for UEADF's purposes.

Conversely, as continental powers, the Sadera Pact nations have far less dependence on the sea. The role of their navies includes the denial to UEADF of its use of maritime power, the disruption of UEADF's sea lines of communication and possibly the conduct and support of amphibious operations in Lemuria, on the Global South and in Southern Tartarus.

Sadera Pact Naval Forces

The Sadera Pact navies include an increasingly modernised submarine force which poses a serious threat to UEADF's sea lines of communication. There is also a wide range of modern surface vessels fitted with anti-submarine weapons systems, anti-air missiles and some which carry fixed-wing aircraft and/or helicopters. The capabilities of these naval forces, complemented by a force of land-based naval attack aircraft, include stand-off weapons and cruise missiles.

Together with the numerical increases in larger ships, nuclear-powered submarines and attack aircraft, major qualitative improvements are being made in Imperial naval forces, particularly in submarines and large warships but also in naval aircraft. The Imperial Navy has thus been transformed during the last decade from a mainly coastal defence force to an offensive force capable of global power projection. This improved capability is demonstrated by the number of new classes of Imperial major warships and nuclear submarines in their construction programme.

The Imperial Navy continues to develop its modern anti-ship missile forces by constructing 400 new classes of heavily armed flying battleships and flying destroyers including the 105,000 ton nuclear-powered flying battleship Molt. In the Zorzal class flying battleships, the Holy Empire, for the first time, has sea-based fixed-wing hypersonic aircraft in operation.

In the last three years the Imperial Navy has introduced higher-performance submarines. The Lamda class was deployed in 2066, the first Whirlwind class, the largest arsenal submarine ever built, was commissioned in 2067; and the new 400 knot Alpha class boats, with adamant-titanium hulls which enable them to dive deeper and thus make them harder to detect, are in service.

Sadera Pact Auxiliary Fleets

The Sadera Pact merchant, fishing and oceanographic fleets, unlike those belonging to UEADF nations, are state-owned and under centralised command and control: this enables them to operate on a regular basis in support of naval forces. Particularly important are their intelligence gathering and logistic support operations. In wartime these assets would become even more valuable. Additional roles would then include support of amphibious operations and possibly minelaying.

UEADF Naval Forces

There have been major qualitative improvements in individual naval units and supporting systems of the UEADF navies which are reflected both in new construction and modernisation programmes. Included amongst such improvements are the capabilities of shipborne aircraft, anti-surface ship missiles, anti-submarine warfare detection systems, command and control, electronic warfare, and submarine noise suppression. The strategic missile submarine forces have been enhanced with the introduction of the LUNA class submarines and the Britannia missile system. Despite these improvements, the high cost of ship construction has set a trend towards less than one-for-one replacement.

The numbers in the tables comparing UEADF and Sadera Pact maritime forces indicate the strengths and capabilities called for by the different missions of the forces concerned.

For example, UEADF is strong in sea-based tactical air, land-based ASW/surveillance patrol aircraft, anti-submarine systems, long-range amphibious forces and endurance at sea through underway logistic support and nuclear propulsion. On the other hand, the Sadera Pact is particularly strong in anti-ship missile equipped ships, submarines, and land-based attack aircraft, as well as in torpedo-attack submarines and mine warfare forces. However, since UEADF is a defensive Alliance, the Sadera Pact holds the initiative of time and place in deploying its forces and in interdicting UEADF sea lines of communication upon which UEADF depends. In these circumstances, a substantial numerical advantage is needed by UEADF as the defending side.

However, UEADF does not have the numerical advantage necessary for a satisfactory or safe balance of maritime forces. This is made worse by the responsibilities which have fallen to some nations of the Alliance, particularly the Unified States, to deploy forces outside the UEADF area to deter aggression and to respond to requests by nations for help in resisting threats to their security and independence. If this imbalance were to continue the effect would be that essential maritime tasks could not be carried out concurrently and that the priorities would be imposed by the Sadera Pact; moreover, a severe price might be paid in loss of control in certain regions and this would result in early shipping losses before the Imperial naval threat could be countered.

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Ziaphoria Empire's Colony, Tyran III

Walking along the winding trail in his invisible cloak, Sika Madu, the Apostle of Darwin was among the very few that ever made it to the Dominion of the Bug Lord, and witness with his own eyes

… the Garden of Ziaphoria.

One of the Bug God's many, many garden across time and space.

The true nature of the Arachnids or the Bug God Ziaphoria defies any conventional classification. It is not a single species or even genus, but instead most closely resembles an entire ecosystem, composed of innumerable bioforms.

These can vary tremendously in their size, appearance and function, but remain only variations on the same genetic theme. Together they form a distinct collective superorganism, capable of travelling across the multiverse and assimilate it.

The colonies of the Bug God reflected the whims of its master, and certain elements would always be present. The Garden is a paradise of death, decay and pestilence, perfect for the Arachnid species.

Every pox and affliction to ever enact their sufferings upon living beings is present here. Noxious fumes bubble up from putrid swamps, deep enough to swallow any who might dare trespass.

What little ground exists is nothing more than decomposing mulch, and endless corpses in the midst of uncontrolled decay. Everywhere, death feeds on the dying.

But Ziaphoria is also the master of life and rebirth, and his Gardens reflects the delight he holds for the cycle of existence. It is overgrown with plants and trees from a thousand worlds across a hundred realities, every one vibrant in autumn splendor.

Bright sprays of color; deep reds, blues yellows and purples streak across venomous leaves, tangled vines and flesh tearing thorns. The very air is alive with glowing spores and enormous clouds of black flies.

Blistered tongues sprout up from the earth, and trees made of living skin weep tears of pus and blood. The moldering earth is ravaged by giant insects, infested with twisted slugs, centipedes and thousands of other creatures that defy imagination.

They gnaw on the bones of the dead, filling the garden with the sickly sounds of merriment. No true map of the Garden exists for every continent and mote of dust is dependent on the whims of the Bug Lord which change and flow like the seasons.

As fluid as the Garden might be, there exist many fetid landmarks; perpetual sites of power or misery, even if their exact location shifts and wanders within its borders.

The Rotten Reaches, the Fungus Lands, the Fields of Tooth and Bone and the Abyssal Sump all lie within the Greater Garden. Each is an aspect of Ziaphoria given preeminent form, but other, stranger places might be found within its depths.

The Sceptic Isle is thought to be the heart of the arachnid colony, surrounded by oceans of filth that stretch to every horizon.

High above the sky, Titanius Arghus, greatest of the ancient Sky Bugs hovers overhead, glowing with a sickly green light that illuminates all beneath it's gaze.

Great World Trees crisscross the entire world, from miles into the atmosphere to the deepest trenches of any oceans. The roots of the Great World Tree extend across the entire Garden, and possibly into even the most hidden places within the planet itself.

The Lair of the Maggot Lord is thought to be the fortress of one of Ziaphoria's greatest weapon, a gigantic worm that wore the skin of its victims to conceal its true form.

But it is the Lair of the 13th Hive Lord that stands apart from all other places in the lands of Ziaphoria, and may even be beyond the control of the Great Devourer himself. None can say with certainty what lies within, though some claim to have heard the chittering of countless unseen creatures, and a single set of glowing red eyes that stand above all others.

At the center of the Garden however, lies the target of their mission:

The Arachnid Pylon.

It is a great metallic black tower with impossible geometry, 100 meters high, half hidden by a miasma of decay infused into its very structure. Rotten is its foundation, wracked and twisted so that its entire structure groans and creaks when battered by toxic winds.

"So, this is the famous World Locker." The Apostle of Creation and Destruction hummed. His heart thundered with excitement.

B-700 "Strawberry Bitch" 128th Bomb Squadron, Georgia Air National Guard, Over Tartarus

"I guess that must be the test target?" Major Andrea Czernick swung Strawberry Bitch around in a wide circle, gazing at the great black ellipse beneath them as it continuously poured hot lava onto a sea of red-hot molten rock.

"Absolute Annihiliation Sphere." The apocalyptic incantation had destroyed dozens of cities on Earth and Falmart required an enormous amount of thermal energy that only an active volcano could provide. However, the amount of energy required to cast the spell continuously exceeded that of any single volcano. Because in the end, no volcano can erupt forever, so to compensate for this, Belial's solution was to open huge portals deep in the ground to restore magma levels.

"So this is how they powering their spell?"

"Damn. That's thing is huge!"

"Look on the side Jim, at least if this thing works, we'll stop the enemy attack resuming."

"I hope it works, I hear the first test was a flop. Lining up Andy?"

"Lined up. Bomb-nav system on, target designated, approach height 39,000 feet, speed 454 knots. All data entered. Take it from here, Strawberry Bitch."

The B-700 settled into its bomb run, the attack-navigation system taking data from the flight computer and bombing radar and transforming it into precise flight commands. Humanity had come a long, long way from the crude Norden bombsight in the B-24 whose name the B-700 carried. At a precisely calculated moment, the aircraft lurched as the huge EBU-5 dropped clear of the bomb bay and arced downwards.

Czernik held her breath as she watched it fall in a perfect ballistic arc that terminated in the center of the portal. There was a brilliant flash, one that seemed unnaturally bright against the black of the portal, a flash that seemed to grow out of all proportion to the size of the bomb she had just dropped. The black ellipse of the portal seemed to flicker, its edges pulsating as they absorbed the blast from the bomb. Then the portal started to swell outwards, doubling or tripling in size, before it collapsed and vanished.

"Yee-hah!" Czernik's scream of triumph was echoed throughout Strawberry Bitch as her crew looked at the sea of red-hot molten rock that now lacked its black crown. A split second later a similar scream of triumph came over the radio from Shoo Shoo Baby. Obviously the other sky-volcano had just beenshut down as well.

Czernik pulled the control column back, bringing Strawberry Bitch into a gentle climb away from the target location. First responsibility was to clear the target area for the formation of four B-700s that were targeting Belial's fortress. Second was to send a message home. She thumbed the button on the radio that selected long-range communications and composed her voice into its best neutral-official tone.

"This is Foxhound-Electric-Leader to Rivet Crown. Do you read me?"

"Rivet... Crown.. here. Receiving.. you." That was a relief, there were no satellites in Netherworld and the egg-heads seemed to believe there never could be, so relay aircraft were being used.

Rivet Crown was a Boeing E-7G Wedgetail, the replacement for the aging E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning And Control System, or AWACS.

"Report Operation Electric Strike successful. Repeat Operation Electric Strike successful. Both portals hit by bombs and closed down. Both portals shut completely. No sign of further sky volcano action here."

There was a long humming crackle of static and Czernik thought she could hear the drone of the relay aircraft's engines. "Confirming... that Electric Strike Leader. Both portals shut.. down. Mission confirmed as... successful. Rivet Crown... out."

Czernik relaxed in her seat, as much as was possible in the poopy-suit she was wearing. That was one thing the air force still had to sort out, a decent means of in-flight relief for female crew members. And it was still a long way to go back home.

B-700 "Dragon Slayer" 128th Bomb Squadron, Georgia Air National Guard, Over Tartarus

"The sky volcanoes are down!" Rivet Crown just confirms shut-off." Trafford relayed the message to the crews and heard the explosion of cheering in the four aircraft. "Now let's get that bastard Belial."

Even if this part of the strike was a failure, the mission would still count as a success. The volcanoes had to come first, partly so the bombing conditions for the two Foxhound-Electric aircraft would be perfect but also, as the old proverb insisted, business had to come before pleasure. So, taking out Belial and his fortress had to wait for second place. But, the main formation's time had come and the four B-700s dropped into the appropriate formation.

"Bomb-nav system on, target designated, approach height 55,000 feet, speed 1044 knots. Intervalometer on. All Foxhound aircraft synchronize now." The master bombing system on Dragon Slayer sent out an electronic bleep that aligned all four bomb-nav systems on the aircraft to within a thousandth of a second.

Ahead of them was the great square that Abigor had described as "The Adamantine Fortress" and carefully drawn for them. The special forces team that was on the ground below had photographed the installation as well and those illustrations had made up the target pack. Now, the bombers had a radar image of the target and the set was complete.

A mix of 50 BLU-113 Super Penetrator bombs and 400 Mark 83 conventional bombs were stowed within the cavernous forward bomb bay of the B-700. Trafford had wondered why the BLU-113s were being used rather than the Ultra Massive Ordnance Penetrators that had made such a spectacular ruin of Abaddon's palace but it had been explained that there were mines underneath the Adamantine Fortress and there were human slaves in those mines.

It was, therefore, desirable to destroy the fortress without too high a probability of caving in the mines underneath. The BLU-113 fulfilled that role perfectly. The Mark 83s had been substituted for anti-personnel cluster bombs at the last minute, supplies of the cluster bombs were running very low and they were being saved for even more pressing targets. With the assault on Dis just days away, Trafford could see why.

He felt the snap as the bomb bay doors opened and the vibration as the aircraft's bomb load started to pour out of its forward bay. That would give the aircraft a C-of-G problem until the fuel in the tank occupying the aft bomb bay had been consumed.

But, that extra fuel tank gave them a margin of safety in the event of problems with the intricate chain of tankers that were supposed to get the bombers home. Beneath him, Trafford saw the target area disappearing under a rolling cloud of explosions. Mission accomplished.

XXXXXXXXX

"Will you look at that!" Tucker McElroy whooped and smacked the nearest member of his team soundly on the back as the fortress they were observing disintegrated into a rolling cloud of brilliant orange and black explosions, punctuated by the roar of the blasts and brilliant flashes of light as the structure of the building shattered under the hammering of the bombs.

The whole of his team were dancing with delight as the ground shook under their feet and the air around them roiled from the devastating destruction that was being meted out. Through the blasts, McElroy could see the whole structure collapsing into a pile of formless wreckage. Revenge was definitely an under-rated pastime he reflected.

Beside him Memnon watched the bombing with awe, he'd heard claims that Abaddon's palace had been destroyed but he had dismissed them as exaggerations and propaganda. Now, with Belial's palace crumbling before his eyes he forced himself to remember that where destruction was concerned, nothing was beyond the abilities of the humans. Nothing the demons had anyway.

Cabinet Conference Room, The White House, Washington D.C.

The conference room was bitterly cold, primarily because the air conditioning had been turned up to its maximum setting. Demons liked warmth and President Dirrel B Johnson saw no reason why their visitor should be comfortable. Also, the air purification system was running full blast and the air current out through the vents in the floor were enough to rustle papers.

"This is crunch time Daelmara."

"Crunch time Sir?"

"Time to make a choice. You've been playing both ends against the middle ever since you surrendered to us. We knew it of course and it suited us to let it continue. Now, it doesn't. You're going to have to pick sides. You're either with us or with Deumos. That means with us or against us." Dirrel sat in his seat with a gentle smile on his face. One he usually reserved for people he was allowing to hang themselves. "Which? Make up your mind."

Daelmara stared back. She'd long accepted that her miasma no longer worked but the blunt statement shocked her. Succubae weren't used to be given ultimatums. She tried to buy time, to think this through.

"My choices Sir?"

"You can stay here with us, work with us without reservations, or go back with Deumos. Take your pick."

The succubus weighed options briefly. "I will work with you Sir. My place is here now."

It hadn't taken much, when Deumos had contacted her, asking to arrange this meeting Daelmara had quickly probed her mind, as much as she was able, and detected a tinge of anticipation that did not bode well for her. She had a strong suspicion that despite her efforts, Deumos did not look well upon her and had a gruesome revenge in mind. The humans were a safer bet, much safer.

"Good. Welcome to the team. You may leave now."

Daelmara left with her guards. She may have joined the team but Dirrel intended to take no chances. "Show Deumos in."

The Queen of the Succubae or whatever she chose to call herself, was big, Dirrel reflected. The creature was walking crouched and bent-over and was still finding it hard to fit into the confined spaces of the White House. Even when she sat on the floor by the table, her horns still nearly touched the roof. Dirrel had no doubt that the gas chromatographs measuring pheromone levels in the room were going off the chart.

"You are Deumos."

That was a nice, stupid way to start the conversation Dirrel thought, years in politics and winning elections had proved to him that being underestimated was a valuable attribute.

"To what do we owe the honor of this visit?"

"There may soon be some changes in the power structure in The Eye of Terror. I wish to discuss a way of ending this war with you." Deumos's voice was a deep, grinding rasp that she probably thought was seductive.

"We can do that. Your unconditional surrender should do the trick."

Deumos barely managed to conceal her shock. Wars always ended in compromise and with terms. Never a bland demand for a complete surrender. Even the Great Celestial War had ended with terms demanded and given. Internally, she was worried, normally when she spoke her miasma made them accept what she said.

"I and my colleagues plan to remove Abaddon from power. Very soon, at a meeting to discuss the strategy of the war. Where Abaddon thinks he will be giving the orders she thought. Once that is done we will take power and we will declare the war over. For that, we will demand one third of your dead so we may extract energy from them and the support of your armies against any who stay loyal to Abaddon. Is this agreed?"

Dirrel grinned to himself, reveling in the degree to which Deumos was talking herself into a hole. It was true what Ronald Reagan had always said. Just keep smiling and people always hanged themselves. "A very interesting offer Deumos. I can safely say that you may have an answer in accordance with our traditions very shortly and I am certain you will find it assertive. Thank you for attending this meeting."

Dirrel watched while Deumos shuffled out, barely fitting through the double doors. Then he thumbed a button on his intercom. "She's gone. Bring Daelmara in."

It was a relief to be dealing with a normal-sized figure again. "Daelmara, you can lock in on Deumos's mind at any time?"

"Yes Sir.

"Good." Dirrel pressed another button on his intercom. "Condi, please call Vladimir in Moscow. There's some equipment we need to borrow."

Plateau of Minos, The Eye of Terror

By the standards of Netherworld, the Plateau of Minos was well-organized. If was dominated by the great black gate at one end, a gate that had all the appearances of a transit portal but was set in the rocky face of the Terror-pit, in the mouth of a cave that defined its shape. Nobody knew what lay beyond that gate, the Demons who had been brave enough to try crossing it, or had been unfortunate enough to fall through it, had never returned. One thing that the demons working on the Plateau did know was that it was through that gate that the unlucky dead from a thousand worlds arrived in Netherworld.

Once working on the Plateau had been an easy position, only a trickle of dead mortals arrived to be processed, but that had changed. The demons working on the Plateau of Minos had been the first ones to be aware of the changes on the mortal worlds. For millions of years the rate at which the dead had arrived had been constant but a mere few millennias that had started to increase dramatically. The Dark Gods seemed to be winning or the mortal were becoming more brutal.

The trickle had become a stream, the stream a river and the river had turned into a flood. Now, three bodies arrived every second and any break in the routine would cause a disastrous backlog. The fact that there were worse disasters than a work backlog never dawned on the demons who worked on the Plateau but it should have done. If they looked over the chasm that separated the Plateau of Minos from Lucifer's Finger, they would have seen the crumbed ruin of the great spur of rock and the palace that had once stood on it.

But, bowed down by the routine demanded by the constant stream of bodies emerging from the gate, they didn't. Instead, the ancient tradition held sway. Two demons would pick up each unconscious human dead and carry it over to one of the line of hydras waiting on the edge of the Plateau. The command would form in the hydra's heads, it would wrap its tail a number of times around the human and then flick it out across the chasm to the Terror-Pit.

The number of times the tail was wrapped around the victim determined which circle it would land in. Down there, other demons would receive it, make the preparations needed and the victim would awaked to begin an eternity of torment. On his throne above the plateau, Minos himself sat, commanding the work of the line of 36 hydra that worked on the limits of his domain. Minos had by far the smallest holding of any Lord of Hell but his was also the most important. Without him, no dead mortal would reach its proper place in the Eye of Terror.

This morning, Minos wasn't feeling particularly well. He had a headache, one that had led him to assign the arriving humans to the most agonizing of Terror's circles. In the last few minutes, his headache had been joined by a curious throbbing sensation, one that seemed to vibrate the air around him and make the dust on this throne bounce. It wasn't the human aircraft overhead, they were a familiar sight by this time, streaking through the comforting dust of Netherworld's atmosphere and then swooping down to pound some selected target in Dis. A palace perhaps? Or a barracks? There were times when Minos was grateful that his realm was so tiny.

What happened next defied his whole concept of reality. A formation of human aircraft, not the sleek ones overhead but ungainly-looking things with wings loaded with weapons and a strange set of whirling blades above them. Painted red and gray like so many other human aircraft but with a blue, six-pointed star on the body. One of them rotated towards him and its wings erupted in fire. Minos just had the chance to see 16 missiles streaking off their racks towards him before his headache was cured forever.

Beneath him, the laboring demons were stunned into immobility as the AH-64X helicopters rose over the rim to pour 35mm gunfire, rockets and Hellfire missiles into the mass of demons in front of them. It was slaughter, pure, unmitigated and relentless. The gunners in the helicopters unleashed salvo after salvo of unguided rockets into the mass in front of them, playing their gunnery controls as if they were musical instruments, switching from rockets to cannon and back again as they split the mob of screaming demons into small groups and then cut those groups down. The demons were unarmed, defenseless, their command cut off by the first salvo of Hellfires that had slammed into Minos and cut him down from his throne.

Now, an Apache was hovering over his body, studding it with 35mm cannon fire to make sure he was truly and irrecoverably dead. His minions were workers on the plateau, they didn't even have their tridents and all they could do was run.

Only, there was nowhere to run to, the gunships were advancing slowly across the plateau, mercilessly cutting the demons down no matter whether they stood or ran. As they did, they taught a grim lesson to the shrinking numbers of survivors. This is what helicopter gunships do. This is what they are for.

The demons were driven backwards, always backwards, away from the Plateau rim, towards the great black stain in the wall that represented the death gate. Then, there was nowhere further they could retreat to, some took the dreadful chance and dived through the blackness to escape the relentless hammering of the gunships, the others gave up and stood by the cliff face until the helicopters killed them.

Behind the first line of ten AH-64s, a second group of ten hovered over the hydras that writhed and screamed on the plateau rim. More Hellfire missiles slashed out, thumping into their bodies, ripping them open and sending multi-colored sprays of demon blood arching through the air. In their death-spasms, some fell off the edge, screaming and falling down into the Terror-pit where they had thrown so many unnumbered thousands of mortal. Others threshed around for a few minutes before the combination of Hellfires and gunfire stilled them forever.

The Plateau was silent except for the thudding noise of the gunships as they circled overhead, looking for any sign of resistance (by which the pilots and gunners meant any sign of life). At the cliff face, the pile of human bodies arriving through the gate was rising steadily, well, the second wave of the assault would handle that. It was already arriving, nine UH-60 Blackhawks loaded with Israeli commandos, their command section and one very special, absolutely indispensable passenger.

The Blackhawks touched down, the commandos spreading rapidly across the plateau, quickly ensuring that the dead demons strewing the rocky surface were indeed dead. There were some dead humans in there as well, those unfortunate enough to have arrived just as the assault was starting. They had died with their demon captors although the unconscious humans had never been aware of by how little they had missed salvation.

With the plateau secured, the commandos started picking up the human bodies that were still pouring through and moving them to safety. Another small group disappeared down the tunnel that marked the only access to the Plateau of Minos and started setting explosive charges on the tunnel wall.

The men were experts, demolition men who had set more charges than most people would be able to count. A few seconds after they emerged from the tunnel, a dull blast and a cloud of choking gray smoke marked the success of their latest labors. A couple of them went back into the tunnel and re-emerged, their thumbs raised. It would be years before anybody used that access route again.

In his command helicopter, Colonel Jonathan ben Amiel picked up his radio microphone and clicked it to break squelch. "This is Strike Force Deliverance. Objective is secure, hostile access is denied. Minos is dead and the transfer of souls to the Terror-pit has been stopped. We are setting up the gate now."

Amidst the helicopters a young Draconian woman found a comfortable piece of ground near one corner of the plateau, close to the gaping black void of the existing gate. She closed her eyes and concentrated, seeking out the minds of her colleagues the 'other side'. Then, almost like opening a door, contact was made and the portal began to form in front of her.

DIMO(N) Facility, Fort Bragg, North Carolina

"We've got contact! Get the equipment fired up!" Colonel Warhol stopped to stroke his brand-new rank insignia as he gave the orders. One thing about this war, promotion was fast. Pre-war Lieutenants, especially those with experience in Afghanistan and Iraq (which meant nearly all of them) were already Captains and Majors.

Warhol guessed that unless he screwed up this mission really badly, he'd be a General within a month or so. After all, this was the most important mission DIMO(N) had ever staged. A mission aimed at nothing less than cutting the flow of deceased humans to Hell and redirecting them to a refugee facility in the Phelan Plain.

Warhol grinned quietly to himself. What had once been the Martial Plain of Dysprosium had been renamed after the security guard in a Chicago Mall who had sacrificed his life to save a group of schoolgirls from a Chaos demon berserker.

Philip Phelan had to be out there somewhere and Warhol wondered what his reaction would be when he found an entire region of Netherworld had been named in his honor. Then his mind snapped back to the task at hand.

Sisse Peterdottir, a recently-arrived Immanity sensitive, but one with remarkable linking powers was on the couch surrounded by the latest Mark 3 amplifiers. They caused a lot less discomfort than the earlier versions despite generating more power. Even better, once the portal was open, the Mark 3 could keep it that way without a human operator.

"We're through, portal opening now." Sure enough, the portal opened and spread until it was wide enough to take the equipment planned for it. Then, Peterdottir stepped off the couch and the portal was steady. A cheer went up.

"I will take the next one now." Her voice was uncompromising, she'd started this job, now she would finish it. She took up position on the next couch and waited for the push from the other side. It came soon enough and the second portal was opened. Now, there were two ellipses, about twelve feet apart.

Time for the engineers.

The equipment was already waiting.

A skid-mounted set of rollers and a belt were pushed through the first portal. Unseen hands the other side grabbed it and stretched it out.

Then the process was repeated with the other side. Once again, the unseen hands there quickly stretched it out. Then, the engineers in between the portals adjusted the tension in the conveyor belt and the job was done. With a flourish, the commander of the Army engineer detachment pressed a button and an electric motor spun to life. There was a rattle and crash, then the conveyor belt began to move.

"I'm glad that worked." Warhol hardly dared breathe.

"No reason why it shouldn't. The fuel pipeline through the Hellgate is working OK. And we're getting aircraft and equipment through no problem. So this should be fine. "

Ah, here we go.

The first deceased mortals were on the conveyor belt that had no accelerated to full speed. The pile of bodies appeared at one portal, rolled across the gap between them and disappeared back through the other.

Warhol sighed with relief.

The dead were no longer going to hell, now they were being transferred directly to the waiting refugee camp. One part of the promise had been kept, no mortal would ever go to suffer eternal torment in this Terror-Pit again.

Grays Lane, Clifton Council Housing Estate, Outside Nottingham

Time, tide and the SAS wait for no man. Gorgons, they were something different. Gorgons needed care, the available intelligence pointed out that they were uniquely dangerous. They had a means, as yet unidentified, of entrancing humans even when their victims were firmly clad in a good-quality mithril foil hat. The experts had been consulted and the results were disquieting, they suggested that the gorgons could entrance a human just be staring at them.

Fortunately, the bit about them turning a human into stone had been discounted, it was believed that they were just a greatly exaggerated version of entrancement.

It did appear, though, that the gorgons could kill as well as entrance. Some of their victims had been found with curious spines in them, that was a hint as to how they managed both entrancement and killing.

So, the SAS troops were kitted out in head-to-toe carbon-nanotube, woven to give anti-stab protection as well as against bullet strikes. Of course, that wouldn't help any if the gorgon started throwing lightning bolts around but one took what one could get.

All in all, Captain Greg Crowleigh felt he had taken every precaution he could, the SAS might have a reputation for charging into situations but in reality, a vast amount of careful planning went on first.

This strike had been no different although Crowleigh was grimly aware that he and his men were considered the B-team if that. The best of the SAS personnel had been deployed to Netherworld where they were raising their own particular brand of chaos. Well, now was the time to show the powers that be what his people could do.

"Ready Sergeant?"

The figure behind the grenade launcher nodded although the motion was barely visible behind the gas mask and body armor.

"In your own time then. Your shot is the go-signal." There had been no need to repeat that, it had been stressed in the briefings often enough but Crowleigh was taking no chances. He hadn't quite got the self-confidence to trust himself to get the message over. Although he didn't realize it, that was why he was in the B-team.

The grenade launcher coughed, sending a 40mm tear gas grenade through the downstairs window of the house. An instant afterwards, four more launchers sent similar grenades through the other windows at the front, sending white smoke boiling upwards. Crowleigh started his run, jumping up from cover behind the hedge and heading for the bay windows that marked the living room.

The house was a standard council property, similar to thousands of others scattered all over the U.K. This one hadn't been bought by its occupiers during the 1980s but that wouldn't change its floor plan. If anything, it made the assault easier for the tenants wouldn't have made any radical changes the way an owner might.

Two blasts from the automatic shotgun he carried dealt with the window itself, then Crowleigh dived through the shattered glass, landing on the carpet inside in a smooth roll. A figure, human, was staggering around in the white haze of tear gas, wailing and holding it's eyes. Then, it saw the black shape as Crowleigh rose to his feet.

"Goddess, you've come down to save us!" Then there was a brief pause as the human stared at the new visitor through streaming eyes.

"You're not our Goddess, get out of our temple."

The figure lunged for Crowleigh with hands raised in claws. The Captain didn't hesitate, one shotgun blast threw the human back against a wall, a second sent it tumbling to the floor. As it died, a Sergeant moved past him and flipped the internal door open. It lead to the hallway, stairs to the top floor leading off from one corner.

Another figure was standing on those stairs, holding a piece of wood as a club. The Sergeant didn't let it speak, although it was so racked by coughing that speech seemed unlikely. The burst from the shotgun blew the figure into rags.

Crowleigh and his men quickly fanned out through the tear-gas ridden house. Individual shotgun blasts or short bursts marked the demise of more members of the cult who had made this house their'temple'. The old days of HK-5 sub-machine guns had long gone, pistol bullets just didn't work well enough against Demons.

Two more cult members tried to escape out the back doors but were shot down by snipers who were part of the perimeter that isolated the building. The gorgon inside had evaded capture at least twice already, it wouldn't make it three times on Crowleigh's watch.

The neighbors had been quietly evacuated, the surrounding buildings checked out then used to house the SAS personnel who were conducting the raid. Further out, a second perimeter reinforced the first. Nothing got through either without being very carefully searched.

Upstairs, Lakheenahuknaasi heard the crash of the windows breaking and the sound of gunfire as the members of her cult were cut down. That didn't worry her, they were expendable and could easily be replaced if she got the chance.

That was the problem, if. The house was filled with a strange white smoke that caused her eyes to stream and her lungs to sear. Worse, the same smoke was having the same effects on the tendrils that adorned herhead, they were writhing in an incontrollable red and black mass.

Completely useless and without their protection, Lakheenahuknaasi felt hideously exposed as she heard the pounding on the stairs that presaged the door of her room exploding inwards.

Sergeant Doyle saw the ghastly figure in the back of the room, its golden scales not hiding the horror of its appearance. It's head was crowned by a mass of red and black snakes that seemed to have gone berserk, they were flailing about uncontrollably but he could still see the single eye that dominated each.

The threads were shooting off barbs, mostly they were hitting the walls and ceiling but a few came Doyle's way and that was enough. He leveled his shotgun and fired round after round into the struggling gorgon.

Lakheenahuknaasi felt the shots hit her and knew it was over. She had failed her mistress and her time on earth was done. It had been nice being a Goddess for a while. It was good to be adored, even if the adoration was forced on an unwilling subject. The human was standing over her with his shotgun leveled and that was the last thing she saw as the world faded out around her.

"That is one ugly mother." Crowleigh looked down at the mutilated gorgon on the floor. "Is it dead?"

"I do sincerely hope so Sir. I put ten slugs into it." Sergeant Doyle had already reloaded his shotgun just in case.

"The orders were to take no chances. Tell Private Bodie to get the refrigerated van over here. The medics will want to dissect this one before it rots too much. And wrap that head up in something, the last thing we want is those blasted snakes shooting off more spines."

Crowleigh left the house and watched the bodies being assembled on the pavement. More than a dozen humans, some men, some women, all entranced by that single gorgon. It had been busy during its brief stay on Earth. Around the barriers set up by the police, a small crowd was growing, mostly just staring at the bodies as the line grew. With the gorgon finally killed, this was a reasonably good day after all.

Underground Fortress of Palelabour, Tartarus, The Eye of Terror

Euryale woke with a shock, her eyes quickly scanning her lair for an assassin who might have crept in. The cave seemed empty, it wasn't an intruder who had wakened her so abruptly. On an instinct, she started to scan across the gorgons who had made the trip to Palelabour.

They were all present, but one mind, one far removed from the rest was gone. Euryale knew who that mind was and could guess why it was no longer showing up on her scan.

Lakheenahuknaasi are you there my child?

Silence.

Euryale repeated the call over and over but there was no response. Her fears were confirmed, Lakheenahuknaasi was dead. She had expected it, the earth-bound gorgon had lasted longer than she had expected and the information she had brought back was more than valuable.

It had given Euryale an insight into human habits and capabilities that had stunned her. She had shared only a little of that information with Belial, keeping most of it close to her chest because the implications were so overwhelming.

Besides, information was a treasure and nobody parted with treasure when they didn't have to. Now, the source of that treasure was cut off and Euryale would have to make do with what she had.

One thing stuck in her mind. Lakheenahuknaasi had told her humans were vengeful and held grudges a long time. She had told Euryale of historical disputes that had gone on for centuries over some small, insignificant patch of land. In some parts of the human realm, feuds had gone on for centuries over some minor insult whose original cause had been long forgotten.

When she had heard that, Euryale realized that the humans would not forgive the destruction of their cities. They would want vengeance and would go to any lengths to achieve it.

The destruction of the Adamantine Fortress had shown that. Euryale had flown over to it, seeing how it had been crushed into ruins. If Belial hadn't had the insight to get them out, he and all his clan would now be dead. Euryale relaxed back on her bed, staring at the ceiling of her lair. Human vengeance was a certain factor and they would not stop until they got it.

So how would she and her gorgons survive the impending disaster? That was the question and it still nagged at her mind until she slipped back into sleep.

The Oval Office, The White House, Washington D.C.

"Are we all set up?"

"Yes Mister President. The equipment we asked for has arrived, four AN-225 transports landed with them on board a few hours ago. Putin sent the crews as well, so we wouldn't have to waste time training our own people. So, all we need is the word and we're set to go. Apart from that, everything is going well. The last organized demonic armies in Netherworld have been dispersed, the city of Dis is cut off. We've seized the reception area for our dead and redirected them towards our own territory. The volcano weapon have been shut down and the source of them bombed."

"An interesting thing there Sir." Doctor Surlethe cut across Secretary Warner when the Senator paused to catch his breath. "As far as we can make out, Tartarus is the contra-coup from the Terror Pit."

"What?" President Dirrel looked confused. That was the sort of statement that made his head ache.

"Its like this Sir." Surlethe produced a strip of paper, gave it a half-twist and stuck the ends together with tape. "Any dimension in Netherworld is like this a Moebius Strip. The whole of Netherworld is like this, we can't visualize it because it needs extra dimensions but it does. Now, look at this." He took a pencil and drew a line on the paper, around the circle. It kept going, without the point being lifted from the paper, until eventually it reached its starting point.

"You see Sir, the paper only has one surface, a loop without the twist has two,. The Eye of Terror is like this Sir, no matter which way you go, we always end up where we started, in every dimension. Now, the bombers flew to Tartarus and back, its exactly half way around the world from the Terror Pit. So if we draw that in the Moebius Strip, we see that half way around is exactly where the Terror Pit is on the other side of the dimension. Mathematically, that's fascinating."

"I'm sure Doctor. Secretary Warner, in spite of all the good news and the progress we have made, I trust nobody is going to declare that we have reached the end of major combat operations?"

"No Sir. That caused enough trouble the last time."

"Good. Thank you for the briefing. Oh, Doctor Surlethe. You said this Moebius Strip effect works for all dimensions in the Hellish-dimension? So surely it should apply to time as well?"

Bravo Portal, Off Bermuda, Earth

The black ellipse had mushroomed open and now dominated the Great Sound of Bermuda. The shipping channel into the ellipse was guarded, for what came one way through the hellgate could be matched by what came in the opposite direction. Naval Base Hell-Bravo was as much a defensive installation as an offensive one.

Out in the shipping channel, the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman, CVN-705, was making her way slowly up towards the hellgate, surrounded by a bevy of tugs that were working overtime to keep her within the strict navigational limits. She was a big ship, she drew a lot of water and the last thing anybody needed was an unexpected accidental grounding.

Up in front of her, two fire tugs were directing their hoses into the sky, the brilliant sunshine turning the spray of water into a myriad of colors. It was incredibly beautiful. Once again, Captain Herman A. Shelanski reminded himself that pulling into a foreign port was an experience that made all the sacrifices of living in the Navy worthwhile.

"Give 'Em Hell Harry!" The woman was speaking through a bullhorn from a speedboat that was racing alongside the great carrier.

A Cyclone class PC was keeping between her small craft and the side of the carrier, this may be the Salvation War but nobody had forgotten what had happened to the USS Cole. That wasn't going to be the case here though, the speedboat curved away then made another run alongside the Truman.

This time, the girl in the back pulled the bra of her bikini down and did as good an imitation of a pole-dance as was possible under the circumstances. The roar of cheering from the seamen manning the rails on the carrier drowned out the diesels on the tugs.

Once again, the speedboat peeled away, this time it was for good because the ellipse was near and the girls wanted to repeat their performance on the John C Stennis following behind. Idly, Shelanski wondered what the Russian crew on the Piotr Veliky, third in line, would make of the display.

"Ready for hell Transit." It was an order, not a question.

"Aye Aye Sir. Ready for Transit."

Master Chief Walker glanced out at the deck beneath him. The Truman was up to her full complement of aircraft for the first time in many months. Most of them were new and some of the aircraft hadn't even painted yet.

The backbone of the group was the 54 J-8 LadyBugs, backed up by 18 J-11 Super Rhinos. Then there was the new addition to the group, the 18 J-86Fs, a single-seat strike version of the J-86 Merlin. They'd only just arrived in time for the transit, the last had made it on board just as Truman swung to enter the navigational channel.

With her six E-2 Hawkeyes and eight SH-60S helicopters, the big carrier had 104 aircraft on board. Too many, her decks were cramped and Shelanski had already decided to off-load nine of the J-86s to the Stennis.

"They're going to be worn out by the time the group's through."

Shelanski's Exec, Captain Ronald Reis waved at the cheering crowds on the jetties that separated the Little Sound from the Great Sound. It looked like the whole population of Bermuda had turned out. As Truman's bow started to touch the great ellipse, a burst of fireworks exploded overhead. Then, the clear blue sky of earth was replaced by the filthy red murk of Netherworld.

The tugs had peeled away at the last moment but the Truman was not alone. Six Arleigh Burke class destroyers and a pair of Ticonderoga class cruisers were waiting for her with another, similar group waiting to screen the Stennis. They were making the air crackle with the power output from the SPY-1 radars of their AEGIS systems and their sonars were lashing the water at full power.

Here in the Eye of Terror, there was no worry that the sonar emissions would harm the local wildlife, in fact creating as much havoc as possible was the reason why the big SQS-53s were cranked up to maximum power. The early battle Astute had fought against one of the Greater Heralds months ago had shown just how effective low-frequency sonar pulses could be against the Chaos demons.

"Clearing transit area now, Sir." Navigation passed confirmation up to the bridge.

"Screen forming around us. Johnny Reb is emerging from the portal." Behind them, the Stennis was half through Hellgate Bravo and Shelanski wondered what would happen to her if the portal shut down for some reason at this precise moment. Anyway, it was a pointless speculation since the CVN-274 Stennis was already emerging from the gate.

"She's through Sir. Piotr Veliky battlecruiser will be next. As soon as she's arrived, we'll be on our way."

Shelanski nodded. On the bridge above his, the Admiral was doubtless working out the routing that would take the two carriers all the way north to Tartarus. They wouldn't be the first human naval assets on their way there; all three Seabat class submarines had transited the portal days earlier and were already heading for Tartarus at maximum speed. They'd already be almost half way there and they had a load-out the featured a lot of Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Nor would the two carrier battle groups be the last. Once they had finished transiting Hellgate Bravo, the long line of amphibious warfare ships and their screens would start. A Marine division, rich in helicopters, Harrier aircraft and armor, aboard an imposing array of LHDs, LPDs and LSDs, a British brigade group with their LPH and transports, an equivalent French force and another made up from the smaller European Navies. Even the Peruvian Navy was represented, they'd sent the new heavy battlecruiser Almirante Grau, with her 13 inch guns, she had the heaviest battery in the fleet.

The Chaos demons had all their remaining armies bottled up in Dis, besieged and isolated. They had no idea of the amphibious hammer blow that was about to land on the far north of the land they had once claimed as their own. Shelanski felt the vibration building up under his feet. His ship was picking up speed for the long run to Tartarus.

1/33 Battalion, Third Brigade, Third Armored Division, Ninth U.S. Corps. North of Dis.

The Third Armored was officially designated as the Spearhead Division although it was less formally known as the "Third Herd". And a herd it was, thundering north as fast as its tracks could carry it, modified only by a degree of prudence. The Chaos demons had nothing that could stop a tank, nothing that was known, anyway. Still, it paid to be prudent.

Keisha Stevenson looked around at the array of armored vehicles sweeping across the countryside. Things had changed since her first tentative forays into The Eye of Terror months before. A handful of vehicles she'd had then and they were all of human forces in Netherworld, stepping gingerly into unknown and hostile terrain.

Now she had a full combined arms battalion, two companies of Type-92 Chamberlain tanks, two of mechanized infantry in Black Knights and a battery of the new 57mm armed anti-harpy vehicles. A force that dwarfed her previous command and yet was a tiny part of the armored avalanche descending on anything that dared to get in its way.

It wasn't just Third Armored; alongside them and off to the east was Sixth Armored and to the West was the Fourth Mechanized Infantry Division with the 30th Mechanized Infantry following as Corps reserve. Just to complete the formation was another reformed unit, the 26th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Stevenson shook her head, four whole divisions and an armored cavalry outfit that was called a regiment but was closer to a small division all by itself. Times had surely changed.

"Village up ahead Colonel."

"Deploy, standard drill." Since her return to Hell, her battalion had done this operation a number of times. This was the first time that they'd been out of the area that fed and supported Dis though, it wasn't likely that would make any difference. She looked through the tank's optics and saw an embankment, a few pitiful feet tall crossing the track that led into the scattering of small huts beyond.

She knew what was beyond it, a ditch, digging that had provided the red soil that made the fortifications. She almost snorted at that and then remembered her dignity as a Colonel. Lieutenants snorted, Colonels looked fierce. She had to remember that. Even if she had only been a colonel for a few days and had spent barely more time in the ranks between.

"Hokay, all units, on the barricade, cluster round, open fire."

Thirty Type-92 Chamberlains tanks fired in a single salvo, hiding the earth embankment behind the rolling orange balls as the 152mm guns sent their BONUS shells downrange. The two Black Knight companies held their fire, they were on overwatch, waiting for any harpies to appear. Stevenson looked at the destruction developing the Chaos demon position and shook her head quietly to herself. This wasn't war, it was getting to have the unpleasant characteristics of a massacre. Had the troops at Wounded Knee felt this way?

"Cease fire. Advance slowly, prepare to open up again if there's any resistance." The tanks jerked and then started their slow roll forward. There was no hurry, the 152mms were loaded and ready to fire. Her battalion had older Type-92 Chamberlains tanks.

The new production tanks had 105mm guns, once mounted in M1A1s and M60s and stored away. Those new Type-92 Chamberlains were called stubbies and their crews were the butts of crude jokes about the size of their equipment. Stevenson shook her head more obviously, jokes like that was never a problem she'd had to face. But, in truth, the 105mm killed a Chaos demon just as dead as a 152mm and the smaller gun allowed the tank to carry twice as much ammunition.

"Will you look at that?" The voice came over the vehicle intercom. Her Type-92 Chamberlains was cresting the battered remnants of the barricade and the crew could see the Chaos demons who'd been sheltering behind that. "Colonel, I thought you said these things were big."

"They are, or the ones we met so far were. Eight feet, sometimes ten or eleven."

"Well these ain't. Same size as us I'd say. Six feet tops. And they don't even have tridents. Looks to me like those poor bastards have got farm tools for weapons."

Stevenson looked down, at the bodies surrounding the tank. They were smaller than the ones she'd seen on her first tour all right.

And their weapons?

She could see a pitchfork and a scythe. One had a wooden pole with what looked like a knife tied to the end. A crude spear.

They'd faced up to tanks and they'd been armed only with farm implements and kitchen knives?

She flipped to the battalion command frequency. "Hokay, we take the village. Don't shoot if you don't have to, the Chaos demons over here are just farmers. Remember, a scythe can kill you just as dead as a 152mm so if anybody fights, waste them. But if they don't fight, we don't shoot, got it?"

Her tank nosed forward again, heading for the gap between the rows of huts that served as a main street. There was nobody in sight, no barricades, nothing. It was an eerie sensation, the words'its quiet, too darned quiet' ran through her mind.

Then, from one of the buildings a Chaos demon ran out, one more of the size she remembered and this one did have a trident. She reacted instantly, the remote-controlled machine gun mounted over the main gun swiveled and fired a burst.

The Chaos demon lurched as the 30mm caliber shells tore home, then collapsed as a second burst finished it off.

That was it, that was all?

The mechanized infantry were dismounting from their carriers, spreading out through the huts. Stevenson joined the lead group (much to the private dismay of the Lieutenant who was also leading it) and waited while two of the men moved up to the building. The job was done in standard style, they kicked the crude door in, it was barely more that a collection of brushwood anyway, and a second pair dived through, rolling as they landed, their M-25 plasma rifles scanning for targets. Stevenson followed them in, just in time to hear the scream from the dimly lit room.

"No, please, don't kill them."

A female Chaos demon was in one corner of the hut, crouched over something, her arms spread protectively over whatever it was she was hiding.

"Kill me but don't kill them."

Stevenson looked closely, and listened. There was a thin wailing from under the Chaos demon, one she recognized from her childhood in Bayonne. An infant that had picked up on its mother's terror and was itself terrified although it didn't know why.

"Hold fire, she's protecting her kids." Stevenson looked again, more closely. "There's two of them. Get a light over here."

One of the infantrymen brought a flashlight over and shone it on the female Chaos demon. She was still sprawled over the infants and moaning gently.

"Not my kidlings no."

"Aww, ell-tee look at this. Their babies. Cute little things, even got little beards."

The private looked at his battalion commander. "Sorry Ma'am. Forgot you were here for a moment."

"Forget it private, I guess I shouldn't be." Stevenson turned her attention to the female. "It's all right, we're not going to hurt them. You don't fight us, we don't fight you. Have you food for them?"

The female nodded, her yellow slitted eyes looking around suspiciously.

One of the soldiers had come over and was looking down at the babies. "They really are cute."

He dug in a pocket and got out a candy bar. "Reckon they can eat this all right?"

Stevenson nodded. "Saw it back at Hell-Alpha. Abigor's people love chocolate. Even the kidlings. Ma'am, is it all right for us to give your kids some candy?"

The female still looked suspicious so the soldier with the bar broke off a piece and ate it himself. Then he broke off another piece and gave it to the kidling who seized it and started to chew. The chocolate vanished with astounding speed.

"Here, kid, have another piece. YOW! Hey Colonel, ell-tee, be careful they bite."

Stevenson remembered her job. "Check this place for weapons then move out." She left the hut, watching the soldier give his candy bar to the female as they left.

Out in the center of the village, her medical team was working on another female, this one smeared with bright yellow blood.

"Colonel, we need help. This one caught a stray 30mm. Hurt bad."

A brief nod, one thing her division wasn't short of was medical facilities. The ToE was built around a reasonable casualty level, not this walk-over. Once again her conscience started pricking her.

"I'll get a medevac for her. Lieutenant, see to it. Pronto."

Most of the other villagers were kneeling in the dust of the street, their hands clasped behind their heads. They were all much smaller than the ones she'd seen before, the Chaos demon her tank had killed had been the only one comparable with them. That thought gave her a clue.

"Was that your leader?"

"He was our Lord, yes." A Chaos demon, perhaps a little braver than the rest spoke up.

"A lord who sent you out to die and hid himself? Hokay, you didn't get lucky with your choice of lord did you?" There was a stir of agreement at that. "Look, we don't want to hurt you."

"You will not kill us all?"

"Of course not." Stevenson was painfully aware that she could very easily have done just that. All it would have taken was a lightning bolt from a hut and all of these Chaos demons, and the chocolate-loving kidling would have been blasted as the tanks drove through.

"We try not to kill those who don't fight us. You spread the word to the other villages, if they don't fight us, we won't hurt them."

There was a stir in the assembled Chaos demons, a mixture of hope and disbelief. She went over to her command track, one she very rarely used. She just felt better riding in a tank.

"Patch me through to Brigade."

There was a wait for a few seconds while the signal went through. One nice thing about Hell, with the Chaos demons not having electronics, there was no interference or jamming to worry about.

"Sir, we've got a situation here."

"Resistance Stevenson?" She picked up on the note of surprise.

"No Sir. Oh, they blocked the road but we blew that away, killed some of them I regret to say, but the village is ours. No fighting in the populated area. We killed the village lord though, he went for a tank with a trident. One other civilian wounded, rest are fine. They seem harmless,

"They are. Stevenson, according to the Orthodox Church, these Chaos demons are Minor Demons. The ones we have been fighting and seen in the Terror-pit and around Dis are Lesser Demons, the next size up. These Minor Demons are peasants, serfs, villeins, little more than slaves themselves. We're getting the same reports across the whole front. You say you killed their lord?"

"Yes Sir?"

"That means you are their new lord. Promotion by assassination, its something the Chaos demons understand. How does it feel to be the Lady of the Manor?" There was a degree of humor in the brigade commander's voice.

"I don't think my momma would believe it Sir."

"Well, you're stuck with the job until we can get civilian affairs up there. Do the best you can."

"Very good Sir. I'm sending some of the villagers out to tell the surrounding settlements, don't fight us, we won't hurt you."

"Good move. Brigade out."

Stevenson thought for a few seconds then turned to the Chaos demons kneeling in the dirt.

"Hokay, I'm your new lord."

There was a stir of satisfaction and relief. The Chaos demons accepted that they weren't all about to be killed.

"And stand up, we're your lords now and we don't like people who grovel in the dirt. And we really don't like people who make others do that. Have you all got food here?"

There silence, the Chaos demons glancing at each other. Stevenson sighed and pointed at one, the same one who had spoken up earlier.

"You, has the village got enough food?"

"We have some noble lord."

"Enough?"

The Chaos demon shook his head. "The lords took it for Dis."

Stevenson's mouth twitched. Her unit was carrying supplies, mostly MREs. They'd have to do. "Hokay. there are crops on your farms, will they be ready soon?"

"Yes Noble lord. You will be taking them?" There was hopelessness in the voice.

"Of course not. We will give you some of our food. Until your crops are ready or we can arrange something more permanent."

The shock on the Chaos demon face was immediate. As the realization spread, Stevenson saw the Chaos demons expression change to one of hope. The females were first, they realized that they would have food for their kidlings after all. The surviving males picked up on their relief and also started to relax. Stevenson looked around and decided there could be something in this 'Lord' business.

The Amphitheater of Tranios, Underneath the City of Dis, The Eye of Terror

It had once been a gigantic volcanic bubble, a chamber filled with lava from the vents underneath. Then, during the great eruption that had created the Terror Pit super-caldera, the bubble had vented to the outside and the magma had drained away. All that had been left was this great cavern buried deep in the super-volcano mount, its vents long sealed by the action of time and rock.

Above it, hundreds of meters of solid rock, far below it, the lava still roiled and grumbled but never tried to make its way to the surface for another devastating eruption. Would it do so one day? Nobody knew but everybody present in the great chamber did understand it was much safer to be down here than on the surface where the human aircraft prowled overhead.

The demons didn't know the term 'air supremacy', not the ones here anyway. They understood the concept though, they were in process of being given a post-graduate education in it. It meant they couldn't move without being bombed. Yes, down here in the great volcanic bubble was much safer.

Or, to be more precise, the risks were ones they well understood. Most of them centered around the huge red figure at the end of the hall, sitting on a throne hurriedly carved from the volcanic rock. The throne was rough, unpolished and simple, a spectacle far removed from the ornate structure now laying crushed to powder in the ruins of Abaddon's palace.

If Abaddon lost his temper, even the Greater Demons here could die. On the other hand, being seen on the surface meant they would die. And 'could die' beat 'would die'.

"Your Majesty, I have to report that the city is completely isolated from the rest of the Netherworld. The mortals control all the access points and their troops increase in number every day. Their artillery has already started firing on the walls of Dis."

Abaddon listened to the report quietly. Those in the chamber noted this, Abaddon had changed, dramatically so. The destruction of his palace, his near-death at the hands of human aircraft, his life on the run from the humans who made no secret of their intense desire to kill him.

"The walls are standing?"

"Yes Your Majesty. Even the human artillery cannot penetrate them."

That was hardly surprising, the walls were 200 meters high and more than 100 meters thick, made of the hardest volcanic rock that could be found in Netherworld. In truth, the walls of Dis were an architectural marvel than made the Great Wall of China seem inconsequential.

"But they are battering them with their guns. And slowly the walls crumble at the points they have chosen. One day, the walls will fall. And then we will see them attack. When we do we cannot stop them, our best troops lie dead at the Phlegethon River. My own troops, the last of our trained professionals, hold the city walls but they do so as lightly as dust falling on a glass sheet. Every day their number gets fewer as the mortals pick them off, one by one."

"Sire, there is another problem. The mortals have seized the Plateau of Minos. Minos is dead, the work force exterminated. The mortals redirect the dead to their own camps in Netherworld. Since the assault, not one dead soul has been received by the Lords of Hell."

"Then kill the mortals and take the Plateau back." Abaddon's scream was an echo of the Lordly Demon he had once been.

"We have tried Your Majesty." Dagon spoke quietly, soothingly.

The time was not quite right yet. The hopelessness of the situation had to be made clear to all so that when he made his move, he would have the support of all here. Quietly he wondered how many of the surviving Greater Demons, the Dukes of Hell, Deumos had recruited to their cause. And what she had promised them.

"We launched an assault with harpies and the few Wyverns we have left. The attack failed, the human aircraft wiped out the formations and the few that got through were destroyed by the garrison the humans left on the Plateau. We lost much and gained nothing." And that, Dagon thought, is the story of this war.

"The supplies of new mortal life-energy have also stopped; all we have are the supplies from those already in the pit. Those grow fewer every day, the loss is slow but it never stops. The mortal now dominate large areas of the pit and as they take over each new area they remove their dead from it and send them out. Our troops in the pit are defecting to the mortals in ever-greater numbers and they help the humans recover their dead. Already, armies that are part-mortal, part-demon are forming. Demons armed with human weapons and taught to fight in the human manner. The forces that remain loyal to you cannot stand against that combination."

A shudder ran around the room. Mortals and human weapons were bad enough but demons with human weapons and human war-fighting methods? It was worse than a nightmare.

"Even Dis itself is not secure. The orcs and goblin are rising. Many areas of the city are such that a single demon cannot walk alone. Those that try are found beaten to death in the alleys. Even broad daylight is no defense, many of those who died, did so in the full light of day. Your Majesty, we have lost the war. It is time we sued for peace."

"This will not be!" Abaddon's demented scream rang around the chamber, echoing off the roof so that it seemed like a great choir was raging at the security report.

"Belial burned their cities, we will burn more. It is your cowardice Dagon that is costing us this war." Abaddon summoned himself to swat Dagon, to reduce him to pulp on the floor. Before he could do so, Deumos's voice cut across his scream.

"Dagon speaks the truth. We must sue for peace. Terms have been discussed with the humans, we demanded a third of their dead for our energy. They said they would make their response clear to us and they have. By seizing the Plateau of Minos, they have shown us they will comply with our demand. They have taken all their dead so they can give us the third they demand."

Deumos looked around, in this confined space, her miasma was effective and people were listening to her. She had spent her time well, bringing Duke after Duke into her web, each with the promise that, once Abaddon was deposed, they would be the one she supported for his successor.

They would fight over the succession and she could step forward as the compromise candidate that nobody really liked but one that was better than interminable fighting. And a Succubus could reign in Netherworld at last. She glanced around, looking at the painfully-thinned ranks of Dukes.

What was left of the Netherworld, anyway.

Then she became aware of a tickling sensation in her mind. She sensed it, it was Daelmara trying to make contact. Not now child, affairs of state are in progress.

Dagon still stood, defying Abaddon's wrath. "Sire, if you cannot make peace with the mortals to save what is left, then you must stand aside and let those of us who can rule!"

There was a gasp, of shock, horror and fear. The idea of a direct challenge to Abaddon was unimaginable to those not already in the plot. Even Abaddon was momentarily taken aback by the challenge.

Watching in the audience, Deumos felt the tickle in her mind again. I said, not now she thought irritably. Then the tickle changed to cold, lifeless, impersonal fingers that sank deep into her mind and took hold, twisting her brain around as they established a grip that even her powers were helpless to break. There was a shadow of Daelmara in the fingers but only that. As if she was steering the power that held Deumos's brain captive. She howled with the pain, saw her vision blurring and saw the black ellipse of a portal forming.

Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, USA.

"We're through." General Schatten's cry of triumph overwhelmed the rumble of the diesels in the four large trucks far behind him. They looked like fuel bowsers with the great cylinders on their backs but they weren't. Anyway, all the real fuel bowsers were in Lemuria, supplying the armored forces in Netherworld.

In front of him, a black ellipse was forming, poised between the antennas that directed their effort. Off to one side, Daelmara was writhing on a couch, whimpering, mucus pouring from her nose and mixing with drool from her mouth.

"Hang on, we're getting there." James Randi looked at the succubus on the couch, she was certainly proving her new loyalty the hard way.

She was in agony and would stay that way until the other side of the portal was secure enough to get a sensitive through and punch a gate from that side back to here. He shook his head quietly to himself, when he had been asked to use his foundations expertise in exposing fraudulent psychics, he'd had no idea it would lead to this.

"Lady Fornm, Would you please!' General Schatten spoke sarcastically with a smirk on his face as he pointed at the gate.

Mabel Fornm, the Apostle of Light and Order, ignored the slight disrespect in the General's voice. She had work to do and a debt to pay. No one could hurt an apostle without paying the greatest price.

Rage welled up from the depths of her body, causing Mabel Fornm to grit her teeth while raising the tip of her left finger.

"I'm doing this for you, Rory!'

Several tiny white orbs immediately materialized and began to drone, like petal. The orbs of light gradually grew in width and turned into a giant bluish-white radiance javelin. Turning with a motion so refined it was detestable, Mabel pointed the slender javelin's tip precisely at the the very center of the black ellipse.

"Slayer of Demons and Gaoler of Immortals: Spear of Twilight!"

Took a step forward the target in order to gain momentum, Mabel created a T-stance like a professional spear thrower. She then twisted forward with her hip before launching the Spear of Twilight with all of her strength. The spear seemed to absorb all the light in the surrounding area before flying away at the speed of light.

Behind her the trucks gunned their engines and the great cylinders on their backs started to rise, elevating until they were at a 35 degree angle. Their crews were already lifting metal screens over the glass in the truck cabs. Behind them. In the control cabin, the launch crews were already waiting for the final order.

"Fire Missile One." The button was pressed, the booster rockets fired and the missile left its launch tube, slowly at first but with increasing speed. Then the turbojet on the Progress anti-bunker missile cut in and the missile arched upwards towards the gate that was almost five miles away.

In the control cabin, the operator acquired it with his command guidance system and steered it for the very center of the black ellipse. He had little time but he managed it and the missile flew straight through the gate, parallel to the ground.

The Amphitheater of Tranios, Underneath the City of Dis, The Eye of Terror

The great Spear of Twilight flew through the gate, its dazzling light filling the chamber with plasma and heat. A few meter from the gate, Deumos felt the white inferno from the holy spear shriveling her skin, burning her with an agony that made the pain in her head seem inconsequential. She was blinded by the blast so she didn't see what the divine spear did next nor did she see the green missile trailing right behind it.

Abaddon saw the divine spear and he saw that it was coming straight at him. He summoned up all of his magic to throw the magic spear away. But that was simply wasn't enough. The Spear of Twilight is a divine weapon of the highest priority rivaling Aleister's famous Blood Spear.

The pure white explosion as the Spear of Twilight pierced through Abaddon magic shield was powerful enough to bring rocks down from the ceiling and enough even to roil the lava far below. It blasted a mixture of holy fire, divine lightning and sacred crystal deep into Abaddon's chest, leaving him blasted, burned, electrocuted and poisoned.

The great figure, its chest ripped open and splayed apart staggered backwards, slumping down to the floor to sprawl out in a pool of boiling purple blood.

Incredibly, the body of the demon prince was already beginning to repair itself when the Progress missile plowed straight into him in the head. His body was almost still and the few twitches it made didn't affect the firing solution.

Nevertheless, the operator had done a fine job with the missile, he'd hit a small target with a weapon never designed for the task and which had been hastily modified.

The Progress missile was doing more than 1600 miles per hour when it hit Abaddon in the head. The kinetic energy of the blow alone was enough to send Abaddon reeling backwards but that was inconsequential.

The missile also had a 3,300 kg explosive warhead that was configured as a shaped charge. Normally it had a copper lining but this one had been modified with an adamant liner and sintered mithril powder in the cavity.

One thing hadn't changed; the warhead on Progress was behind the main fuel tank and that tank was filled to capacity with jet engine fuel. The following explosion vaporizing the head completely.

The great demon body gave one more jerk and was finally still.

Abaddon was dead.

As the echoes following the scream of the missile and the terrible blasts, a great silence fell on the Amphitheater of Tranios. It was interrupted by only the falling of the rocks shaken loose from the roof and the whimpering of those burned by the blast of the holy spear.

Shock paralyzed and silenced every demon present, even those in the plot to remove Abaddon from power had never contemplated this. Dagon was first to recover his senses although his head felt stuffed with mud and neither his eyes nor his ears were working right.

"By right of succession I clai…." He got no further for another roar filled the chamber, this time one which too many demons knew all too well. The roar of human diesel engines.

A strange vehicle emerged from the portal, one with tracks like the tanks but with high sides and an open back. Actually, it had been built as a carrier for Lance missiles but that weapon had been declared obsolete and the M667 carriers built for it had been in storage for years. Then, they'd been found and it had been realized they made perfect armored carriers for Abigor's troops. In it were sitting figures, large ones and definitely not human despite their similar equipment.

More vehicles followed the first, one occupied by a single very large figure that the Dukes recognized instantly. Despite his human-design (if greatly enlarged) battledress helmet and body armor, the figure was known to them all.

It was Abigor, commander of the Free Hell Army.

In the background, unnoticed, a Humvee skidded through the portal and a single small figure climbed out, awkwardly and unsteadily.

Tyuwaru was still recovering from her ritual and was technically unfit for duty but this operation had needed the best sensitive DIMO(N) had and she was it. So, for the first time, Sister Tyuwaru was standing in the Hellish realm her visions had warned her of so often and now she was instrumental in destroying it.

"OK Dama, I've got the portal. I'm punching it through from this side."

Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, USA.

The portal shivered slightly then enlarged. Punched through from Hell-side it was much more stable than before. It would have to be, in addition to Abigor's armored personnel carriers, an entire Marine battalion task group was ready to roll in. The two companies of tanks and a company of infantry in AAV-7s would be the punch backing up Abigor.

Over by the gate, Daelmara was being disconnected from the equipment that created and amplified the portal. She was so gray that she seemed almost white and was too weak to stand. Medics surrounded her, working to help her recover from the tremendous strain she had been other. Quietly, General Schatten made his way over to the scene.

"Daelmara, we pulled it off. Thank's to you. Keeping a gate like that open so long, that was gallantry above and beyond the call of duty. I'll see to it that you get recognized for what you have done today. Now rest."

The Amphitheater of Tranios, Underneath the City of Dis, The Eye of Terror

Abigor glanced down at the badly-burned Deumos as his armored carrier passed. She had been quite incredibly stupid, she had been so sure that the humans could only agree to her demands, she'd failed to see the emphatic refusal that the attack on the Plateau of Minos had been. Then he transferred his attention to Dagon who was standing with his mouth hanging open, his claim for power cut off mid-sentence.

His APC mounted the steps that led to the throne Abaddon had occupied and stopped, just a few feet from the cooling corpse of Netherworld's last ruler. The noise of diesels was deafening as the coup forces moved in.

Around the perimeter of the amphitheater, humans and their tanks were beginning to form up, their weapons covering the assembled crowd. Abigor noticed, with some grim amusement that they looked at his troops with amazement but they watched the humans with fear.

When the roar quieted down, Abigor picked up his rifle, a conversion of a British 30mm Rarden gun, and stalked over to the platform that overlooked the crowd. Dagon was still standing there.

"You were saying Dagon?"

Dagon looked at the humans and their tanks that had forced their way into the great amphitheater. An amphitheater that, despite its size, was getting crowded. He shook his head, he knew a losing battle when he saw one and this was one.

Abigor nodded and raised his voice. "Abaddon is dead. The living killed him. With their magic for demon magic is powerless in the face of the magic of the Gods. We are powerless in the face of human engineering. They have won this war and nothing we say or do can change that. Netherworld is changed forever and nothing we can do will change that either. The humans have told me they wish me to be the new leader in Netherworld, answerable only to them. I have agreed. If you do not like the idea of me as your leader, don't tell me."

Abigor gestured at the Marines and their vehicles.

"TELL THEM!"

There was silence once again as the echoes of Abigor's shout faded away. Then, around the great hall, figures started to sink to their knees. Dagon looked around and followed suite, a move that caused the rest to follow him. Around the room, the chant grew, faint at first but growing louder and more certain.

Ab-ig-or. AB-IG-OR, AB-IG-OR...

Abigor let the chant carry on for a minute or two and then silenced it with a chop of his hand. The fact it was the hand holding his rifle was a mere coincidence.

"For my first official command." He waved at the ruined body of Abaddon.

"Somebody, clear away that trash."

Command Area, Free Hell, The Eye of Terror

"Looks good on you, Ngan."

"Did I get it right? Nobody back on Earth dresses like this any more, not that I know of anyway."

"Looks right to me, look if The Boss isn't interested, you might give me a call."

Ngan Kim punched Titus Tesla's arm and entered Charles's tent. He was bent over a table that doubled as his desk, piles of paper scattered around him. Despite the apparent chaos, Kim noticed that he never had to search for a document he needed. Obviously there was method in the chaos.

"Ngan, thank you for coming. Any chance of getting more supplies?" Charles Zi Augustus straightened up and looked over the crowded desk.

"Now that is a sight I haven't seen for many a long year."

Ngan posed, very self-consciously, one leg thrust forward, hands on hips. "Do you like it?"

"Very much." Charles paused slightly.

Kim Ngan giggled slightly. "Anyway, on supplies, they're coming through but nowhere near the amount we need. I don't think that's coincidence."

Charles looked up sharply. "We're being kept on a leash? By restricting supplies

"That's my guess. I think nobody back on the living level knows what to make of you. They're worried, a bit frightened. You've got quite a reputation you know and getting ten legions to change sides sort of confirmed the image. And they can guess you want out of here."

"And I want the Falmartians out of here as well. We're surviving down here but we can do a lot better. We need land outside the pit. Any word on that?"

Kim Ngan leaned back against a tent pole, almost putting her weight on it, then deciding that it wasn't strong enough.

"Charles, I'm a Lieutenant still, and nobody tells Lieutenants anything. Especially dead ones. All I can pick up are rumors and you know how reliable they are. Anyway I don't think the politicians have decided what to do next, they're far behind the curve.

"We're winning this war so fast that the politicians are out of the loop. When they took down Minos, they gave themselves all the problems they can cope with just handling all the recent-dead that are coming through. The recovered dead, they haven't even begun to think about.

"My guess is, you move fast enough, they'll accept what you achieve rather than argue it. One caution, Charles, don't call yourself Dictator or Emperor. I know you were but the word has really bad connotations for my people even if we don't take into account that our two countries are still de jure at war. Try 'First Senator' or something like that.

"Another thing, I have got some maps of Netherworld, the whole place, not just the pit. We've only mapped small areas in detail but we've got the general sense of the ground here. It's huge, one continent with a land area at lest 6 times greater than that of Earth or 20 percent greater than that of Falmart, seas proportionally smaller.

"Also, the climate doesn't change no matter where one goes. There's a huge amount of usable land here, its not like Earth where so much can't be used. That's good because there are a lot of people to find homes for. The guess I've heard is that there's 370 billion dead people in Netherworld. To put that into perspective, all the Chaos demons together don't total 30 billion."

Charles nodded slowly. "Enough room for all the mortal in Netherworld. So we need to grab ourselves a good bit. Anything else?"

"So what are you up to?"

"Reorganizing the Army so it makes a bit more sense. The demons relied on mass and shock charges, they don't work against firepower. So, I'm altering their legion structure to maximize their firepower at expense of shock. If we could get rifles for them, it would help."

"Not a chance. There are rumors that we're making rifles suitable for Chaos demons but none are finding their way here. All we're getting is stuff suitable for humans. M47s and M2s, grenades, C-4 packs, mortars. Perhaps if we corseted the Chaos demons with human troops carrying guns?"

"Corseted?"

"Put small groups of humans in with the demons to stiffen them. Our military technology is so far in advance of theirs even a small number of humans should make a big difference. Corseting is a pretty standard way of strengthening weak armies allied to strong ones."

"Our British Colonel won't accept his battalion being split up like that."

"Doesn't matter, he'll be gone soon. The British tried a take-over bid, it failed and they need the troops. Anyway, that's what rumor says."

Kim Ngan took a deep breath, this was what she had been putting off. "Important thing, how do you like your breakfast eggs?"

"What?" Charles was astonished at the apparent irrelevance. "What do eggs have to do with this."

Kim Ngan was trying to control her shaking breath, and the fact she was frightened in a way that hadn't been the case for years. "Charles , in our culture, when a girl wants a man friend to know he's welcome to spend the night with her, she doesn't say so outright, she just asks him what he wants for breakfast." She controlled the shaking, Kim Ngan knew she was close to crying and her voice was trembling. "So what do you want for breakfast?"

Charles stared at her. "You're terrified. We've got a good alliance here, one that works because we need each other. You don't have to force yourself to sleep with me in order to maintain it. And I don't force women."

"And if I don't force myself, I never will. Like riding a horse, once somebody falls off, they have to get right back up again or they'll never ride again. Charles, I want a normal life and I want it with you. So, just pretend I'm not forcing myself, please? This is nothing to do with politics or armies. Just with me and getting my head fixed."

Charles nodded slowly. "Ah, so I'll be doing you a kindness then. That's different. By the way, I like my eggs boiled."

Kim Ngan grinned and held up a finger. "One moment.' Then, she went to the flap of the tent and stuck her head out. "Sorry Titus, you're out of luck. Won't be calling."

Underground Fortress of Palelabor, Tartarus, The Eye of Terror

"Baroness Yulupki, when will the chorus be ready?"

The naga shifted uneasily on her couch."Seven days perhap. The new nagas must be trained and we must rehearse. Or we may have another disaster."

"Then you have seven days. Then we will open up another portal and annihilate Europe with white hot Annihilation Sphere. The humans think they were clever to shut down our weapon? They will find we can open them faster than they can close them."

Around Grand Duke Belial, the courtiers applauded the bombast. It was always safer to do that. Euryale masked her own thoughts very carefully. What she had discovered about the humans and their war-making capability gave her no confidence that Belial could, in fact, open portals that fast. Even if he could, humans had a demonstrated preference for striking at the head of an enemy rather than nibbling at his talons.

The attack on the cities had made the humans into mortal enemies of Tartarus and all it contained. What would they do if more of their cities were added to that list. Lakheenahuknaasi had passed some information about what humans could do when they got really angry.

In doing so, she had made it clear that some of those things scared even them. One of them was something to do with Nagas like Yulupki, They'd done something called a Naga-sarkee.

Euryale didn't want to be around when they did another one.

Belial had finished his interrogation of Yulupki and withdrew. Euryale followed him, the next stage of the day's duties was an inspection of the new weapons being developed by the workshops far below. Weapons that might yet change the course of the war. The procession trailed down through the tunnels and caverns, far below the normal workings into areas where the heat grew oppressive.

Down here, demon workers would sicken and would die if not relieved at regular intervals. The heat wasn't the reason but the adamant tools they worked with were. Down here, adamant was used instead of bronze and that was why Palelabor had been kept such a total secret.

"Have you perfected a means of destroying the human tanks? And shooting down their aircraft?" Belial's bellow was directed at the human who knelt before him.

"Yes Sire." Herwijer had, or at least believed he had. The unfortunate thing was, he wouldn't know whether his belief was true or not until he tried it out and that was likely to be a do-or-die moment for him.

"How?" Belial's question was short and sharp.

"Sire, we can use the bolts from a naga. They are powerful enough, they contain enough energy, to destroy a tank or an aircraft but it is too spread out. I have built a system that will compress the bolt so that the energy will do its work. It is called a capacitor."

"Show me."

Herwijer led the way to a wooden cart that was off to one side of the chamber. On it was a pile of strange looking structures and wires. In the middle of it all, a young naga, one that had been badly burned an crippled during the attack on Falmart was coiled, fastened down by bronze hoops around her body. While everybody was looking at the equipment, Euryale took the opportunity to stamp on the Naga's tail.

The creature hissed in protest but only one of Belial's guards noticed and he gave a broad grin. Nagas were even less popular than Gorgons normally were. And the stock of Gorgons was rising, Euryale had gone to great lengths to see to that.

"Sire, the naga generates her charge as before but instead of discharging it in a bolt, feeds it into the capacitor. Then, the operator can discharge the capacitor in a much shorter more intense bolt."

Watch this.

Herwijer instructed the naga to generate and fire a normal bolt. It shot out, briefly illuminating the darkened recesses of the cavern and revealing the hideous creatures that lurked in the shadows. The bolt hit one of them, sending it to the ground, its fur burning.

"That was a normal bolt sire. Now, we try the enhanced bolt." He connected wires to the bronze rings securing the naga and told it to generate its charge.

"Nothing is happening." Belial sounded disappointed and that was a serious threat in itself.

"Not yet sire. But when we fire the weapon…" Herwijer closed the switch and another bolt shot out, one that was many times more intense than the previous one.

It was gone so quickly that the audience could barely believe it had happened yet it left colored after-images dancing in their eyes. What was not in doubt was the damage the bolt had wrought on its target.

The rat-monster had exploded and its burning fragments were scattered over the floor of the cave. Behind it, a dark crater scarred the wall. A murmur of appreciation went around the room. This was a weapon indeed.

"You have done well human. Bring this weapon up to the palace level. We will install it at the gate in case the humans come. And you will build more of these."

"Sire, I need one naga for each. Those crippled by the accident will do, they do not need to move. As long at they can generate the charge."

"Take what you need, leaving only those needed for Yulupki's chorus."

Belial left the chamber greatly cheered. With the next city attack in hand and a way of stopping the human tanks available at last, things were looking up.