Authors: Stuart Slade
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. “Satan is dead. Humans killed him with their
weapons. With their weapons, not with magic for magic and superstition is
powerless in the face of human science. We are powerless in the face of human
engineering. They have won this war and nothing we say or do can change that.
Hell 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 Hell, 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 Satan.
“Somebody, clear away that trash.”
Chapter
Eighty One
Command
Area, Free Hell
“Looks
good on you Jade.”
“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.”
Jade
Kim punched Titus Pullo’s arm and entered Caesar’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.
“Jade,
thank you for coming. Any chance of getting more supplies?” Gaius Julius Caesar
straightened up and looked over the crowded desk. “Now that is a sight I
haven’t seen for many a long year.”
Kim
posed, very self-consciously, one leg thrust forward, hands on hips. “I had it
copied from one of Servilia’s dresses in ‘Rome’. Do you like it?”
“Very
much.” Caesar paused slightly. “That play of yours was very unkind to her you
know. And to Atia.”
“So
some historians said.” Kim giggled slightly. “I suppose they’re all out of a
job now. Why go through ancient records when they can ask the person who wrote
them? Anyway, on supplies, they’re coming through but nowhere near the amount
we need. I don’t think that’s coincidence.”
Caesar
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 Romans 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
leaned back against a tent pole, almost putting her weight on it, then deciding
that it wasn’t strong enough. “Gaius, 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, Gaius, don’t call yourself
Dictator. I know you were but the word has really bad connotations for my
people. Try ‘First Senator’ or something like that.
“Another
thing, I have got some maps of Hell, 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 50 percent greater than
that of Earth, 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 90 billion
humans in Hell. To put that into perspective, baldricks and orcs together don’t
total a billion.”
Caesar
nodded slowly. “Enough room for all the humans in Hell. 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 baldricks but
none are finding their way here. All we’re getting is stuff suitable for
humans. M114s and 115s, grenades, C-4 packs, mortars. Perhaps if we corseted
the baldricks 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 took a deep breath,
this was what she had been putting off. “Important thing, how do you like your
breakfast eggs?”
“What?”
Caesar was astonished at the apparent irrelevance. “What do eggs have to do
with this.”
Kim
was trying to control her shaking breath, and the fact she was frightened in a
way that hadn’t been the case for years. “Gaius, 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 knew she was close to crying and her voice was
trembling. “So what do you want for breakfast?”
Caesar
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. Gaius, 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.”
Caesar
nodded slowly. “Ah, so I’ll be doing you a kindness then. That’s different. By
the way, I like my eggs boiled.”
Kim
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, Hell
“Baroness
Yulupki, when will the chorus be ready?”
The
naga shifted uneasily on her couch. “Sssseven dayssss perhapsss. The new
nagasss must be trained and we mussssst rehearse. Or we may have another
dissssasssster.”
“Then
you have seven days. Then we will open up another portal and drown Turin in
white hot boiling lava. The humans think they were clever to shut down our
previous portals? 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. Sheffield and Dee-troyt 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 iron tools they worked with were. Down here,
iron 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
Detroit 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 lava attack in hand and a way
of stopping the human tanks available at last, things were looking up.