Armageddon?? (123 page)

“Something’s
coming.” The words were whispered, alerting the defenders. “A demon from the
left, another group from the right.

This
is it. Simplicus thought carefully. The demons were coming back, now the
fighting would really start. A war of traps and ambushes against the demon’s
strength and magic tridents. Perhaps they could get the single demon first and
flee, leading the group into another ambush? That should work, doubtless Publius
was already thinking that out.

What
happened next was totally outside his experience. There were a short series of
yells from the group and a series of loud explosions that lit up the tunnels
with their flashes and echoed around the rock walls, making Simplicus’s ears
hurt with the reverberations. The single demon was hurled back against the
wall, his bright blue blood splattering all over the floor of the tunnel. He
fell, half-sitting against the cave wall and another barrage of explosions
caused more of the injuries that had brought him down. Then, he fell sideways
to lay on the floor, very obviously dead.

The
group who had killed him came into better view. They were the same size as
humans, but they wore red-and-gray mottled clothes that seemed to blend into
the cave walls. They were loaded down with equipment and each man carried a
strange lance-like object in his hands. Their faces were half-hidden by
strangely-shaped helmets that gave them a strange, beetle-browed ferocity but
Simplicus could see that their real faces were hidden behind a mask that
covered their nose and mouth and goggles that covered their eyes. Strange
goggles, black ones that seemed to project forward from their faces and glowed
with a strange green light. With a sudden insight, Simplicus knew that these
new arrivals were human.

“You
human slaves down here?” The leader of the group spoke curtly as if he had a
lot to do and not much time to do it.

“We
were, we’re rebelling against the demons.”

“Good
for you.” The same voice was now warm and friendly. “You don’t know it, but
you’ve won. This place surrendered a couple of hours ago and its previous
owners are in custody. There’s been a war between Earth and Hell and Earth won.
You’re free. Just follow the way we’ve marked to the surface and there’s people
there waiting to look after you.”

The
leader of the group stepped forward and to his horror, Simplicus realized he
hadn’t seen the tripwire leading to the booby trap. There was only one thing to
do and Simplicus did it without thinking. “Look out!” He yelled the words as he
dived forward, pushing the human leader backwards, out of the way of the rocks.
In doing so, he hit the tripwire himself and the last thing he registered was
the battering of the rocks as they hit him.

Publius
stared down at the body of his friend, crushed beneath the carefully-built
deadfall. The leader of the humans picked himself up from the floor where
Simplicus had pushed him and carefully inspected the body. Then, he looked at
Publius and shook his head sadly.

“And
to think that we came down here to rescue you.”

“He
was my friend.” Publius’s voice was loaded with grief.

“He
was also a Marine.” Sergeant Voight looked down at the man who had saved his
life. “You men, take him to the surface, with an honor guard. The rest of us
will keep looking down here.”

“My
name is Publius. I was a legionary once. May I come with you? I can help you
find your way around, show you where the rest of us are.”

“Very
well. Lead on Publius.”

Outside
Palelabor, Tartarus, Hell

The
humans were streaming out, most blinking at the unfamiliar light. As they did,
they were being greeted, their names taken for the ever-growing database of the
rescued humans and herded out of the way. Not all of them though, a few, a
small handful of them were being shepherded to one side where they were guarded
by hard-looking men who wore white helmets, white scarves and white gloves. The
soldiers were military police, those they guarded were the humans who had
turned traitor and aided the baldricks in their plans against Earth. The guards
weren’t there to keep them in, they were there to stop the other rescued humans
tearing them limb from limb. That had already happened to some, the men here
were the survivors.

Beside
them, a Humvee pulled up and a man got out, one whose uniform was subtly
different from the Marines. He walked over to General Waldhauser, and saluted
crisply. “Sir, may I have permission to see the names of those we have
recovered.

“Yes,
of course Major.” Waldhauser waved and carter passed a notebook computer with
the latest records on it.

The
strange major loaded a flashdrive into the side and pressed a key. Then his
eyebrows went up. “With your permission Sir, I would like to take this one.” He
passed the notebook back.

“Obersturmbannfuhrer
Herwijer. Guard at Majdanek. Sure, Major you can have him. Take good care of
him.”

“Yes
Sir, I will take very good care of him,” said Major Ben-Ari of the Israeli
Defense Forces.

Route
One, Hell.

“So
you renamed it Route One.” Gaius Julius Caesar looked at what had once been the
Dis-Dysprosium Highway.

“That’s
right, makes things a lot easier.” Second Consul Jade Kim watched the humans
walking out of Hell. Caesar had assembled his people fast and they were already
on their way to the area he had picked out as suitable for his new home. “Its
all fixed Gaius, I’ve resigned my commission so I’m a free agent now. A word to
the wise, the U.S Army knows what you’re up to and they don’t object too
strenuously as long as you don’t make it too obvious. As far as they’re
concerned, as long as you keep the peace in the area, its one they don’t have
to worry about. The officer who processed my papers kept referring to a Roman
Awakening. I’ll explain that later.

“While
I was away, I checked my finances, I’ve got my separation bonus, my back salary
and a few other things. I also contacted a publisher back on Earth, your
original books are public domain but you’ve rewritten them so the rrewritten
versions are copyright. You can make a fortune off the royalties.”

“She’s
saying things we don’t understand again.” Titus Pullo pulled an exaggerated
face of despair.

“It
just means our First Consul is going to be rich. Again. And our new state needs
the money. For vehicles, weapons, fuel and other equipment.”

“And
radios,” added Gaius Julius Caesar. “Don’t forget radios

Banks
of the Styx. Fifth Circle of Hell

“Fire
in the hole!” The combat engineers gave the time honored cry and watched the
workers scrambling clear. A stretch of the Styx and the swamps that surrounded
it had been painstakingly cleared of imprisoned humans, then the charges set.
They would blow the bank away at a specific spot, diverting the water away down
a series of channels. Once the previous river bed was drained, the remaining
humans could be located, rescued and taken out of Hell.

“Firing,
bank charges, in Three, Two One GO!” The blast rocked the area’s ending ripples
across the surface of the Styx and causing the mud in the swamps to shiver. The
bank vanished in a carefully-controlled blast that left a deep hole where the
high bank had been. The Styx started to flow down its new path and the water
level in the old bed started to fall.

“Firing,
Bed charges in Three, Two, One. Go!” A second series of charges blasted mud
into the old river bed, forming a dam. The remaining water in the old bed
drained away, exposing thousands of bodies, nailed to crude crosses.

“Thank
thee friend. We can work now and bring help to these poor creatures. Where art
thou going now?” The Quaker looked solemnly at the Army engineer.

“To
the Sixth Circle. There is a river of lava there that also must be diverted and
drained. And after that? Your guess is as good as mine, there’s more than
enough work down here for one generation. Clearing this place out will be a job
for our children and their children.”

“I
fear thou art right friend. But we shall all do what we can.”

Ninth
Circle of Hell

“So
this is the Ninth Circle of Hell. General Schatten looked at the area beneath
him. A tiny area, a sheet of ice on which strange creatures, a mix of gorillas,
bears, horses and things he couldn’t even imagine paced. They wandered from
place to place, chewing on the heads of humans who were frozen in the ice. From
where he stood, Schatten could see six of them. Doubtless, there were more.
“Who are these people.”

Abigor
looked down on them. “The greatest traitors of history. Brutus and Cassius,
Andrey Vlasov, Ephialtes of Trachis, John Anthony Walker, Vidkum Quisling, many
more.”

Schatten
looked more carefully. In the middle of one group was an unfilled hole. “The
unfilled hole. Who is that for.”

Abigor
searched his memory. “A countryman of yours I think. One called Robert
Macnamara.”

Headquarters,
First Human Expeditionary Army, Camp Hell-Alpha, Phelan Plain, Hell.

General
Petraeus sighed quietly to himself. He was now commanding, if not quite the
largest, certainly the most powerful, army humanity had even put together. A
force that was growing all the time as more and more units joined the ranks.
Five Army Groups, each with five Armies, each with five Corps. None of them
were complete yet of course, the units reflected nationalities, equipment
standards, operational doctrine rather than actual numbers. But, one day, they
would represent numbers as well. Over three thousand divisions, more than 39
million men. All in armored units, fully mechanized, fully outfitted with
tanks, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled artillery and salvo rocket
launchers. Supported by air forces to match. The factories were humming, the
production lines churning out equipment at a rate not seen since the Second
World War. Already the museum-pieces were leaving the ranks, sent back to the
retirement they had earned yet again.

Petraeus
smiled at that, on his desk was a brief note. A unit that had been flying
F-105s had just finished converting to F-22s and its aircraft, those that had
survived, were going back to their museums. It was a good thing, the losses of
the F-105s and all the other old aircraft had been high. Very few had been shot
down but they were tricky to fly by modern standards and their structures had
been old and tired. The number of crashes due to structural failure and pilot
error had been far too high.

“Sir,
a letter for you.” A letter thought Petraeus, now that was unusual. The reason
why an American General was commanding this Army was that only the United
States Army had the communications and command-control facilities needed to run
a force this size. Everything was done by email and datalinks, nobody wrote
letters any more. He picked up the envelope, noting the script on it. It was
beautiful, clear, precise, easily legible yet also beautiful and a pleasure to
see. Petraeus was aware, rather guiltily, that his own handwriting was an
almost indecipherable scrawl. The art of penmanship and calligraphy were long
lost, and this beautiful copperplate showed him just how tragic that loss had
been.

The
letter inside was equally beautifully written and Petraeus read it with
pleasure. Then he re-read it with shock although it was something he should
have anticipated. Now this, he thought was a problem, and he started to re-read
the elegant letter for a third time.

September
11th, 2008

To
General of the Army David Petraeus, U.S,

I
regret that ill health caused by my confinement has delayed my communication
with you but I have pleasure to report that I am now fit for any duty to which
I may be assigned.

I
therefore respectfully offer my services to the country and flag once more
again.

Very
respectfully, your ob'dt servant,

R.E.
Lee

Epilogue

Heavengate,
Hell

Belial
looked at the great fortress that guarded the one single gate that led directly
from Hell to Heaven. The guards were sloppy, ill-disciplined and this compared
badly with the days under Satan’s rule. The humans hadn’t found out about this
place yet and their machines were not surrounding it. To Belial, it looked as
if the whole place was about to fall apart. That was an insult of course,
Belial knew this place, knew how solidly it was built, in fact he knew it far
better than anybody suspected. He knew there was a way in that by-passed the
narrow twisting tunnel that the guards here used.

In
the darkness, he slipped over the wall, making his way down the stairway
towards the entrance. It was tiny, too small by far for him to use. But, once
he had found it, he was able to orientate himself. He had to go one hundred
blocks to the left, ten blocks up, then five back to the right. It was a
measure of how cunningly this place had been built that going 95 blocks to the
left and then five up would not take him to the same place. In any case,
climbing at anywhere other than the right place was impossible.

“Sire,
what are you doing here?” The demon guard had come on him unexpectedly. Belial
cursed himself for being so distracted that he had allowed a traitor to some so
close. Had Euryale sent him? Or the humans? It didn’t matter. Belial swung
around and fired the modified human shotgun that had been made at Palelabor,
watching the iron fragments blast the unfortunate demon into wherever came
next.