Armageddon?? (98 page)

Lugasharmanaska’s
mind-voice betrayed her suspicion. Another thing for which Deumos decided that
she would have to pay later. My Liege, I can arrange such a meeting but I must
counsel caution. The humans are in an uncompromising mood and will not listen
to much in the way of appeasement. The leaders here speak of unconditional
surrender when they think of the future of Hell. They will not settle for less
than that. If you wish to have influence with them, then you must offer them a
way to achieve that.

The
impertinence of the comment ground further at Deumos’s nerves. How dare this
minor vassal give her such advice? She would, Deumos decided, spend many, many
years screaming in agony for such impudence. If she liked humans so much,
perhaps tossing her into a boiling lava pit with them might be suitable. Your
wise advice comforts me child. I will think on this. But arrange for me to meet
the leaders with whom you deal and I will see what agreements we can make.

Deumos
closed the contact and relaxed. Now, how could she bring enough Dukes into her
orbit to make her an ally the humans would value?

Conference
Room, White House Washington DC.

“Mister
President, the supplemental funding is through. I just hope we can survive the
peace when the war ends.”

“That
may be a long time. What’s the progress in production.”

“It’s
picking up, but we’re still expending munitions a lot faster than we can make
them. We’re running low, the projections are that we’ll bottom out before we
are completely expended but it’s going to be close. It’s lucky the Russians are
carrying the load in the latest battle and that they can use a lot of Chinese
stuff. Otherwise we would be really hurting right now.

“Army’s
doing OK, we’ve recommissioned most of the Abrams and Bradleys we had in
storage and we’re working on the M113s right now. Light note Sir, we had some
idiot called Sparks turning up and demanding we name the M113 the Gavin and
build our forces around them. Anyway, we drafted him and sent him to Alaska.
Apparently there’s a shortage of latrines up there and he’d digging the new
ones. Anyway, as fast as we get the vehicles, we’re building up new units
around them. The veterans from the battles against Abigor are worth their
weight in gold as cadre for the new divisions.

“Air
Force, well, we’re desperately short of heavy bombers and it’ll be months
before we get more. Northrop are working on a simplified B-2, they’re stripping
out all the stealth stuff and that cuts cost and production time drastically.
Boeing are doing the same with the B-1, they’re using the B-1A as a base, not
the dash 1B. Northrop say they’ll have a prototype B-2B up by the end of the
year, Boeing a B-1C at the same time.

“F-22
and F-15E production is ramping up fast, F-16 more slowly. F-18s are doing
pretty well and the first A-45s are coming off the lines. They’ll be going to
the Navy for the carriers. The navy’s rebuilding some of its discarded ships,
mostly Spru-Cans and Fig-sevens. Gas turbine ships we can bring back, the steam
turbine ones are gone. It’ll be years before the Navy gets a lot of new
construction though, we just don’t have the shipbuilding base we used to.”

“Any
other problems we have to deal with John?”

“One
big one Sir. Command. We’ve done pretty well so far but the command of the
forces deployed is a mess. It’s just been thrown together as the forces arrived
and the situation had been moving faster than we can get things tidied up.
We’ve only got away with it this long because the guys at the top back there
are professionals and are making it work. But, we had a minor fracas with the
British yesterday.”

“Not
another friendly fire incident?”

“No,
although we’ve had all too many of those. Our lodgment in Hell is about to come
under attack and the British sent reinforcements. Their commander wanted
operational control, which was quite reasonable of course, but there were some
disagreements on that and a local deceased human took over. One Gaius Julius
Caesar.”

“I’ve
heard of him.” Bush’s voice was reflective.

I
should hope so thought Secretary Warner. “Anyway, its all sorted out and it
never really amounted to much but it’s a warning. We’ve got to get a permanent,
proper, flexible and fast-reacting command structure sorted out. Otherwise, one
day we’re going to have a real problem that’ll get people killed. A lot of
them.

“Two
final things. One is that the kiddies on Kos are claiming you and Halliburton
conspired to get this war started so you could make money on the share prices.”

“Good
idea, I wish we’d thought of it.”

“Quite
Sir. The other is our contact with the Succubi in Hell has said that Deumos,
the Succubi Leader has asked for a meeting, she wants to come over to our
side.”

“Aren’t
we grooming Abigor as our ruler down there?”

“We
are Sir, but the faster we can bring about the collapse of hell the better.
We’ve still got Heaven to deal with, they’re quiet at the moment but how long
they’ll stay that way is another matter. If this Deumos creature comes over to
us, it might split hell up and bring them down. That’s why we whacked Satan
after all.”

“Any
word on that?”

“No,
Mister President. Pictures show the whole palace and its foundation rock are
gone, blasted to dust. But we still have no confirmation that he was in there.
Abigor says he spends nearly all his time in that Palace so its pretty good
odds we got him.”

“Hope
so. Anyway, thank you John. Condi, do you have any thoughts on this command
issue?”

Chapter
Sixty Eight

Headquarters,
302nd Motor Rifle Division, Left Flank, Phlegethon River Front, Hell

“Lieutenant
Edovin, Georgii Aleksandrovich reporting for duty Tovarish Colonel.”

Colonel
Aleksandr Klavdievich Parfenov looked up at the young Lieutenant standing
before his desk. Reinforcements were always needed but this was an inconvenient
time to say the least of it. The baldricks had ground their way through his
division, at frightful cost, certainly but they had ground their way through.
One of his regiments had been virtually destroyed, the other two had been badly
mauled but they had done their duty. The baldricks had been pinned down by
their defense, allowed to entrap themselves on the maze of strongpoints,
minefields and barbed wire. The harpies had exacted their toll and the wyverns
had been a bad surprise certainly. The nagas strapped to the backs of
rhinolobsters had also taken their toll. The real cost to the baldricks was
that their unit structure had been destroyed by the defenses, where once they
had been cleanly divided into their legions, cohorts and maniples, now they
were an amorphous mass of mixed units. What that mass didn’t know was that
ahead of them, sitting quietly behind a ridgeline, were more that two divisions
of tanks including his own tank regiment. What he didn’t need was another green
Lieutenant.

“Transfer
papers.” Parfenov stretched out his hand.

“I
don’t have any Tovarish Colonel. But I am already assigned to your division.”

That
triggered something in Parfenov’s memory. He dug through the status reports on
his desk, trying to find the one he needed. As was always the case, it was on
the bottom of the pile. As he had thought, the name was there on the casualty
roster. “Edovin, Georgii Aleksandrovich, you are dead.”

“Yes
Tovarish Colonel. But I am reporting for duty still.”

That
thought Parfenov represents dedication to duty even by Russian standards. This
was something he had to find out more about. He would indulge himself, he had
the time to listen before the tanks went in.

“Tovarish
Lieutenant. Tell me what happened.”

“It
was harpies Tovarish Colonel. They set the engine compartment of my Shilka on
fire and we had to bail out. We all got out of the ZSU all right, but the
harpies got us as we were in the open. The BMPs we were covering tried to help
us with their machine guns but there were too many of the harpies and they tore
us apart. The next thing I remember was sailing through the air and landing in
a river of molten lava. The pain was terrible, I was blinded and deafened, all
I could think of was to get out somehow. I tried to crawl, or swim, a mixture
of both really, to where I remembered the shore was. I got there and got out of
the lava and started to crawl away. My hearing came back first, I heard a
crackle of gunfire, then my sight slowly came back.

“There
were Marines there Tovarish Colonel, American Marines. They had shot down a
group of six baldricks, the bodies were still on the shore, and they were
helping the people escaping from the lava. One of them came to me and asked me
who I was. I understood every word he said, even though he spoke in English. I
identified myself and told him I had been killed in the fighting along the Phlegethon.
He asked my unit, then called on the radio to report finding me. Soon a portal
was opened that took me to somewhere in America and then another brought me
back to the great American base at the Hellmouth. From there, one of the
Americans gave me a lift in a Humvee so here I am. Reporting for duty, Tovarish
Colonel.”

Parfenov
shook his head. It was quite a story. It also put a quite different complexion
on this war, if they could get their casualties back this way, it would solve
many problems. Create a few as well but that was for others to think about.
“Were other of our brothers there?”

“I
think so Tovarish Colonel. The baldricks just stack people into their pits and
swamps as they are received. So those who die together tend to stay together. I
looked for my crew but did not find them before I was taken out. But the
Marines are guarding the whole stretch of that lava river, if they can get out
the lava, they will return.”

“Good,
Bratischka, very good. I have an assignment for you. There is an American
anti-harpy unit not far away, a trials unit. They need a Russian officer as
liaison, since you are dead and can thus understand Americans, I will assign
you to them. Stay with them, help them as best you can and remember to report
anything interesting you learn.

Site
of Satan’s Palace, City of Dis

Belial
did not know how long he had been standing there, looking down at the settling
ruins of Satan’s palace. Time had a different meaning in a hell where eternity
was a real, present concept. It might have been a few seconds, perhaps longer.
All he knew was that tears of rage and frustration were pouring down his cheeks
at the sight. Then, slowly, he became aware of a growing crowd crossing the
broken stones of the causeway and staring also at the ruins. That jerked him
back into the present.

“You,
all of you, get down there, start digging. There may be survivors down there,
waiting for us to free them. Get to work.”

“Why?”
One voice echoed from the crowd. “Leave us alone,” was another. “He’s dead at
last,” was a third. Belial looked at the mutinous crowd of demons and orcs and
grabbed a trident from one of the dead guards. It was one of his best, he
noted, a definitely premium product as befitted Satan’s personal guard. As he
charged it, he swung his eyes over the crowd.

“You
don’t rule an……” The orc had spoken unwisely, while Belial was looking straight
at him. The trident flashed and the lightning bolt charred him instantly, his
body collapsing on the stone. Next to him, two others were burned by the discharge
and also fell, wailing with the pain.

“Any
more arguments?” Belial looked around grimly. The killing had made him feel a
lot better. There was a rumble of discontent but the outright mutiny had
simmered down. For the moment. “Then get down there and start digging.”

The
crowd edged over the rim and started to make their way down the wall of the
crater to where the stone jumble started. Belial stood on the rim and watched,
with more of the demons from the city joining him as word spread and curiosity
brought out bystanders. Belial spread them along the crater rim so that the
orcs working down below could be watched. The first down there had picked up
bits of shattered rock and looked around for places to put them. Eventually,
they set up a chain, carrying the rocks out of the crater and to the edge of
the causeway where they could be dropped into the caldera far below. It took a
long time but slowly a dent was made in the pile of wreckage that had once been
Satan’s palace. It exposed the first victim, a crushed figure, lifeless.

Belial
recognized her, it was Naphula. He recognized her griffin-like wings and the
lion-like head. Once she had been a powerful Great Duke of Hell who had
commanded thirty-six legions of demons. Belial had liked her, she had shared
his taste for mechanical things and the unusual. Once he had even sought an
alliance with her but his position as a virtual outcast, only just barely
tolerated at court had precluded that. Her pride would not tolerate an alliance
with as lowly a lord as he. Now, she was dead and her crushed body looked small
and useless. “Take her body out to the causeway and place it up there. Do the
same with the rest of the bodies you find. And dig faster. We may find our
master awaiting our rescue at any moment.”