“Our battle against Yahweh now reaches its climax. Never forget that we have turned him away by the force of our arms before. Dare we forget the valor of our ancestors? When the Heroes at Troy wounded the Gods and drove them from the field? When the mortal hand of Rama struck down the demon Ravana after invading Sri Lanka on his bridge of hurled stone? Remember that Yahweh himself quailed and fled before the Iron Chariots of Sisera. Satan might have been the Prince of Hell but it was Yahweh who put him there and it was Yahweh who controlled who was to be tortured and who wasn’t. Daemon and human alike, he oppressed us. Now, this is our moment to break free from the cycle-curse. If we can turn away the strength of Yahweh with Iron, then that is reason enough for us to make common cause and turn on the ruler of Heaven with full fury. The angels choose to make war on us. More fool them; we’ll kill them, and we’ll drive Yahweh from his throne at gunpoint. Then we will exhort the moral in spirit who reside in Heaven to rise against the injustice of a God turned against his own word.”
McElroy looked up. “I’ve just got one more thing to say. First-life humans, they look on us second-lifers as helpless victims who had to be rescued and you daemons as little more than massed targets. It’s time to show them that we can fight as well as they can. So start digging, the spade is brother to the sword.”
Chapter Sixty Eight
Helicopter Base, Third Legion. Heaven
“What you’re going to be doing is very dangerous isn’t it.” First Consul Gaius Julius Caesar looked along the line of MH-6T helicopters. Their pilots were mostly inside or around them, doing the final checks necessary before take-off but the pilot of Diana-One was sitting on a Hellfire missile, speaking to her husband. Second Consul Jade Kim was going to back to war, this time in a way she was trained to do. At the head of a helicopter attack squadron.
“Very. Last time I tried this, I got killed. Things are different now, we have fighters up to cover us if we run into flying angels and the ground here is nearly perfect for what we will be doing. Lots of cover we can duck behind.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Don’t try and stop me doing this Gaius or we will have a falling-out.”
“Stop you? I’m applauding you. A Consul leading from the front is in the best possible Roman tradition. I just wish I could come with you. Just waiting here doesn’t sit well with me.”
“Both Consuls in the same helicopter is a bad idea Gaius. We’re getting our new state working properly at last, we don’t want it decapitated. In fact, you and I should never be on the same aircraft together. Can’t you oversee the ground troops or something?”
“I’m not wanted there. Oh, nobody has said anything, but it’s obvious I’m just in the way. I can’t understand what they are doing or why. The strategic stuff, that I already have in hand but I’ve given the orders and other people are executing them.”
“Welcome to being a modern general Gaius.”
“It doesn’t please me. What’s worse, on the ground, what’s happening makes no sense to me. So I have to sit here, out of the way, while I watch and learn.” He poked his breastplate ruefully. “They tell me my armor just makes me a better target.”
“And they’re right. I can see that gold shining on my optronic display from miles away. I hope the angelic commanders have the same shiny breastplates, I’ve got four Hellfires loaded up ready for them.” She grinned very nastily. “So you can say bye-bye to at least thirty of their top commanders by the time we’ve finished. Then we’ll be back here to re-arm and refuel.”
She stood up, hugged Caesar and rested her head quickly on his chest, her flight helmet making a dull thud as it hit his breastplate. “Now, wish me good hunting and a full bag of kills.”
Caesar gave her a Roman salute which she gravely returned, then she slid away and climbed into her MH-6. Her hands moved over the engine controls, starting the ignition sequence. While the rotor was spooling up, she glanced quickly at her co-pilot. A newbie, a police pilot who’d crashed his helicopter trying to pick up survivors after a hurricane had devastated a South Carolina town. Before that, he’d flown UH-1s for the Army. She’d have preferred it if she could have had her original copilot on board but all her veterans were spread out across the other helicopters.
“Ready for lift-off?” He grinned at her and gave a thumbs-up. “All Diana Birds, lift off.”
Her hands moved on the controls again and the helicopter lifted, its nose dipping as she gained forward momentum. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the figure of Caesar shrinking and she watched him give another salute. Then, he was gone and she concentrated on the flight plan. The Global Hawk overhead was tracking a large formation approaching the hill held by Third Legion. The position was being relayed directly to her, showing up on her navigation screen. The same screen gave her details of the terrain between that position and her flight of nine helicopters. It was time to do something about that.
“All Diana Birds. Separate into three-ship formations and spread out to attack positions. It’s time to party.”
She led her element of three helicopters down into a valley, the young trees underneath bending and swaying as the MH-6s passed. The map showed it leading to a low ridge with the center of the Angelic column just over the other side. In other words, a perfect set-up for the kind of ambush the MH-6 was designed to execute. Overhead, Kim saw a flash of light, surprisingly yellowish in the brilliant white light of Heaven. Reflection from the cockpit of a fighter, probably a Lawn Dart she thought. The filthy atmosphere in Hell had been rough on single-engined aircraft. After the initial panic had subsided, they’d been pulled out and flying missions in Hell had been assigned to twin-engined birds. Here in Heaven it was different and the single-engined fighters had come back into their own. The yellow reflection was almost certainly from the gold-inlaid cockpit canopy of an F-16.
Kim brought her helicopter into a hover behind the comforting screen of the ridge, then allowed it to rise slowly. As soon as the mast-mounted sight was exposed, she got a good view of the army that was advancing on the positions held by Third Legion. It didn’t actually look that much different from the last force she had ambushed this way and her skin crawled slightly when she remembered how that had turned out. The dominant color here was white, not black, but there were still the columns of troops marching on the ground while overhead flew their cover. This time they were angels, not harpies.
Then her face broke out into a broad grin as black clouds of smoke erupted in the center of the flying groups. The Lawn Darts had launched a salvo of missiles at them and were now racing in to the attack. The Angelic ability to hit aircraft with trumpet blasts had been a nasty surprise but countermeasures were available. Primarily, to move fast. If the aircraft came in beyond the speed of sound, the angels would be most unlikely to see them before they were hit by rocket and cannon fire. Once the jets were past, by definition the trumpet blast couldn’t catch them. A dozen or more angels were already dying in the missile blasts as a quartet of F-16s streaked through them. Then, the fighters were up and away, climbing for altitude and distance, leaving chaos behind them.
Kim let her helicopter rise until it was just over the ridge and rippled off her four Hellfire missiles. She’d already designated one angel whose size marked him out and the gleam of his armor made him vulnerable. He was still looking up, searching for the fighters that had slashed through his formation so quickly when the Hellfire struck him. He vanished in the rolling black and red cloud that marked a missile hit while Kim shifted her designator to another likely-looking angel. A few seconds later, her last missile had struck home and her MH-6 dropped below the ridge. She spun the Little Bird around and poured on the throttle. Bitter experience at work here, she would not hang around.