“Speaking of reconnaissance, the Predator should be up by now. Lemuel, the gate if you please.”
“We using an Air Force bird?” Paschal was curious. This whole situation had come apart so fast, everybody was playing patch, grabbing whatever assets could be used.
“No. CIA. In fact the guy flying it is the same man who flew one through Abigor’s Hellgate a couple of years back. I guess the CIA do have a sense of humor.”
Paschal and Warhol looked at each other. “Naaah.”
“Lemuel, we want to send a recon bird in to tell us what Heaven is like. We lost people, quite a lot of people, because we weren’t properly prepared when we went into Hell. So, we’re going to send a Predator in. That’s an unmanned aircraft and it’ll be carrying a reconnaissance pack that will take air samples and other environmental data. Provided that shows us everything is OK, we will have a battle group on the ground in hours. Now, if you could please open up the portal. Big enough to take one of those.” Warhol pointed at a Predator on the ground a few yards away.
Lemuel concentrated and the familiar black ellipse opened up close to the ground. The Predator assigned to the mission dived down and flew through the portal. Ten minutes later, it reappeared, its shining gray and white paintwork still pristine.
The Yamantau Council, Yamantau National Redoubt, Russia
“Gentlemen, Ladies, I have news of the utmost importance. A few minutes ago, we flew a Predator reconnaissance drone into Heaven. Doctor Surlethe has just arrived with the results.” President Obama sat down, noting the rapt interest that the 15 members of the council were devoting to Doctor Surlethe.
Surlethe cleared his throat. “Members of the council, we can confirm that we are have broken through the walls that prevented us from entering Heaven. Early this morning, a Predator unmanned reconnaissance aircraft flew through a portal opened by one of the two angels who defected last night and spent ten minutes flying in Heaven airspace. We gathered air samples, radiation readings and visual imagery. Also, of course, we recorded the process by which Lemuel opened the gateway to Heaven. With some work and careful digitalization of that signal we should be able to modify our standard GSY-1portal opening system to work with Heaven as well as Hell.
“Conditions in heaven are, as far as we can determine, near-perfect for us. The air is clean, identical to Earth in its make-up and contains no toxic elements. The light is brilliant white, we are recommending that First-Life humans going into Heaven wear sunglasses but there is no need for any other precautions. Unless something goes wrong or we find something totally unexpected, we are ready to invade.”
“What is the terrain like?” The Singaporean Prime Minister asked the question.
“Rolling hills, covered with green grass. Perfect tank country so I am told. Lots of hull-down positions to fight from, long open ranges. The geometry of Heaven is off by the way, just as it is in Hell. In fact, according to our initial measurements, the spatial distortion in Heaven is exactly the same as it is in Hell. We believe that this is strong confirmation that both Heaven and Hell are separate planet-equivalents in Universe-Two. This, of course, also suggests that any other bubble-planets we find in Universe-Two will obey the same physical laws.”
Putin nodded happily. “Thank you Doctor. Do you have word on the other Angel, the one who was badly injured.”
“She is still unconscious Sir. Deliberately so. The medical team do not wish to operate again on her quite yet, she is too weak for a further spell on the table. They hope they’ll be able to start reconstructing her wing joints in a day or so. Whether they will be successful or not, nobody knows.”
“Very good. I now call for a vote of the Council. The motion is that General Petraeus be instructed to execute the invasion of Heaven.”
The screen that dominated the conference chamber flicked over to show a line of 15 boxes. Each box was randomly assigned to a member of the council so that votes were secret. The code was simple, green for yes, red for no. There was a flickering and the majority of the boxes turned green. As the seconds ticked by, the remaining boxes filled with green as well. Eventually, the 15th and last blocked in with the same color.
“Very well, the vote is unanimous. General Petraeus?” Another display screen came to life, showing the General sitting behind his desk. “The Council has voted unanimously to authorize the invasion of Heaven. How soon will you be able to execute the assault.”
“We will have a bridgehead in 48 hours. Thereafter, we will be moving First, Second and Third Army Groups into their assault positions in Heaven. I’ve got the geographical information from our Angelic friend and used it to select the appropriate plans from the options we have prepared. We’ll be hitting the Eternal City from three sides. All we need to do is to get the beacons set up.”
“Thank you General.”
Putin turned around and looked at the members of the council, a broad grin on his face. The Americans may have got the credit for the assault on Hell, but he would go down in history as the man in charge when Heaven fell. “That leaves us with just one thing to decide. Shall we have milk or plain chocolate biscuits with our tea?”
Headquarters, First Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, California.
“How deep is this water?” General Mills tapped the rough sketch map of The Eternal City. A river ran from the Ultimate Temple to a vast lake in the city center.
“Hundreds of feet according to our source.” The operations officer blinked at the sudden thought. “Sir, you’re not thinking of a direct assault are you?”
“Of course not. Not unless we already have a surrender in our pocket. But it’s an option we should have.” He paused and grinned. “And it is in accordance with the prophecies.”
Chapter Sixty Four
Headquarters, 118th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Virginia National Guard, Phelan Plain, Hell
The screen blacked out suddenly and the General sitting behind it looked as if he was about to explode. He managed to contain himself and when he spoke, his voice was courteous and calm. “Could you tell me what happened please?”
“I’m afraid you just got killed.” Captain Ledasha Oates took a quick look at the Umpire’s situation log. “As I thought, General, you haven’t moved your command location for more than 30 minutes. The Opposing Force, the Opfor, picked up your radio transmissions and got your location by a combination of direction finding and deduction accurately enough to drop a rocket launcher salvo on you.”
“But I only used the burst transmission facility sparingly. Is their, our, direction finding capability that good?”
“They probably only got a loose fix but I would guess they looked at a map. They saw the crossroads in the suspect area and made a calculated guess you would set up either on it or very close to it. So they took the crossroads out.”
The General gave a gusty sigh that set his beard shivering. “But a crossroads gave me good communications and allowed us to move quickly in multiple directions.”
“And that’s what made it a good target General. You must learn to look at a map and see what the enemy will see. If it looks good to you for a reason, it will make a good target for the enemy by that same logic. Information isn’t quite a weapon in its own right but it’s an invaluable force multiplier. That applies both ways, you have to think of what the enemy knows and make allowances for it.”
“So a good defensive position is a bad defensive position because it is obviously a good position.”
“Exactly. That’s exactly right. And don’t worry too much about roads, our cross-country mobility is good enough so we can do without them.”
General Robert E Lee sighed again, gently this time. “Did I do anything right in this exercise?”
Oates looked at the print out again. “To be honest Sir, no. Your frontal attack was walking right into a fire trap and your flanking move was far too close to the main body. It was going to swing across the Opfor front, not into their flank. You were thinking in horse cavalry terms and didn’t allow for how much more ground a modern cavalry unit covers or the ranges its weaponry can cover. For us, four hundred yards is close range. And, Sir, you must remember artillery fire. As long as a forward observer has a line of sight, they can bring intense fire on your positions. That observer can be an unmanned aircraft just as easily as a traditional observer. Frankly Sir.” Oates bit her lip, wondered whether to sugarcoat the judgement and decided not to. “You’d have got the entire regiment wiped out. Again.”