Draft84


 * 1) In the wake of the parley  between John Glenn and Robyn at Taurus  City in  the autumn of 1974 on  Timetrack Theta  the  fortunes of  the  United States declined markedly due to  the irrational   response   of   certain Christians who led the country.
 * 2)  They were faced with  the  actual angels, gods, messiahs and devils of their  own theology. The  revolution was from the top down and was chief- ly manifested by the predations of a secret  agency called Domestic  Ene- mies  Classification,   Observation, and Neutralization, or DECON.
 * 3)  Domestic enemies were defined  as those American citizens who embraced the imcomprehensible changes brought by the B'nei Elohim. Mere possession of  a  micro, for  instance,  was  a felony no different from  possession of heroin.
 * 4) It was a curious fact that  parti- san  politics had very little to  do with it. Control of DECON had passed between  Republicans  and  Democrats several  times  and the  agency  had been  created  by FDR in  the  first place to manage the internment camps of Japanese-Americans.
 * 5) Two hundred DECON agents making up an  expedition  to invade  the  Moon were lofted using a new launch laser constructed at Cape Kennedy. In  the sudden  zero  gravity  many  of  the agents began vomiting, some from  an upset stomach, but more perhaps from fear.
 * 6) It set off a chain reaction of vo- miting  and  there  was  misery  all around in the earliest hours of  the flight. Even the well-traveled space veteran John Glenn had to close  his helmet  before  the smell  made  him puke.
 * 7) The troop transports  accompanying Asmodeus and Apollyon was joined  by seven  more largely empty  one,  and all of these flew in formation  with the  spacecraft carrier  Trespasser, whose name, at this particular time, was apropos.
 * 8) On their second day of patrol  Ba- ron Bayard Sala and Debby were about five  thousand miles away  from  the radio  observatory operated  by  the Organization of the Nations of Earth at  the second  Earth-Moon  Lagrange point.
 * 9) Their red and gray square Sandwich fighters  linked together by a  long thin cable so they could talk  with- out revealing their presence by  ra- dio.
 * 10) Bayard and Debby wore helmets with their  name  on them,  primarily  to keep  their hair from floating  into their  eyes,  but the  helmets  also held their earpieces and microphones and  kept  them from  bumping  their head  if they took a  surprise  hit.
 * 11)  Other  than that,  they  wore  no pressure  suits,  but  instead  they sported  comfortable  red  and  gray cotton  uniforms.
 * 12)  Behind their seat in the  angular flight-deck (Hunky and Dory insisted on never calling it a cockpit) was a tunnel providing access to the  main subsystems  of the fighter,  and  it was  long enough to stretch  out  in and go to sleep.
 * 13)  "Deb?" Bayard  said  tentatively.  "Deb, I know it's not your watch yet but  I have a contact." Deb  stirred awake  at the sound of  the  baron's voice. She floated all the way  for- ward, placed her seat in the upright locked position, and put her  helmet on. "Okay, I'm awake, Baron, what do you got?"
 * 14) "Search radar, in band seven,  off our starboard beam and down a little bit in Z." Debby booted up her Elec- tronic Surveillance Measures system.  "All  I see is the telescope at  one seven  five, and you at  zero  eight zero."
 * 15)  Wait a few seconds. It's a  long- range radar so the pulses are spaced far apart. Presently a diamond  sym- bol was displayed on Debby's screen, captioned  with the small amount  of information   her  instruments   had gleaned so far.
 * 16)  Debby said, "Okay, now I got  the enemy symbol on ESM. I'm slewing  my telescope over to have a  look-see."
 * 17)  On  the stubby  cylindrical  post that attached the top solar panel to the  rest of her fighter  the  tele- scope spun over to the right on  the lower gimbals while Debby's  primary weapons,  the twin lasers,  remained locked straight ahead.
 * 18)  Soon  Debby saw on her  screen  a distant  winged brown bulb  trailing glowing smoke against a hailstorm of stars.  She said, "Now I  see  him!" Deb, "I want you to move off about a hundred miles to get a good baseline so  we  can triangulate  and  get  a range."
 * 19)  Okay, breaking the wire, talk  to you  when I get back. Their  contact was the spacecraft carrier Trespass- er  of the Navy of Mastema,  and  no less  a personage than  the  Emperor himself, Patriarch Asmodeus  Gerash, was aboard that ship, together  with his son Apollyon.
 * 20)  "Sire,  we have  something,"  the Cherub  Belphegor  called,  and  the Emperor  drifted over to him in  the large  but  cluttered space  of  the Combat Engagement Center, or CEC.
 * 21)  Their human host John  Glenn  was also present in CEC, for combat  op- erations were about to commence, and he joined them as well.  #When  Asmodeus, Apollyon  and  Glen all hovered in freefall nearby  over his shoulder the Cherub said, "Sire, we assumed Tracks 4022 and 4023 were just boulders, but now Track 4022 is showing independent movement."
 * 22)  "We've been  detected."  Asmodeus pointed  at  the  cherub's   screen.  "Commence electronic countermeasures against  lunar  communications   and send   everything  in  this   octant against  the  hostile  tracks.  They must not escape."
 * 23)  While  the attack on  Bayard  and Debby got underway, a number of spe- cially  configured  and   previously deployed  Imperial bombers  assailed the Moon with such a heavy  bombard- ment of broadband radio and neutrino noise  such that no broadcasts  from space  above  the farside  could  be discerned  at  all.
 * 24)  But Bayard and Debby  were  still above  this  electroweak  storm  and knew nothing of it. "What the? Sorry to break radio silence, Baron but  I just  took  a  hit."
 * 25)  "Are  you all right?"  They  were both  broadcasting in the  clear  to avoid the small delays involved with encryption,  but that hardly  seemed to matter now.
 * 26) A big ragged smoking bite was tak- en  out of Debby's solar panel,  and debris glittered around her like  so many twinkling golden stars. "My top panel is fucked. Just one secondb&"
 * 27)  Debby swung her twin laser  mount to bear on the offender, an  insect- like  dark brown  Imperial  fighter.  After few rounds expended on  target she  was rewarded with a  satisfying hot ball of expanding gas where  the fighter  and its two pilots used  to be.
 * 28)  First  blood went to  Debby.  "Oh yeah!  Now I'm okay!" It  was  fifty miles away but Bayard saw the bright explosion of the enemy fighter  with her own eyes as a little puff  ball.  Nice  shot.  Then  Bayard  tried  to raise his people on the Moon to  re- port  the  attack, but  no  one  an- swered, which was strange.
 * 29) "For what it's worth," Debby said, sending  raw  data over  to  Bayard, "here's  my angle on the  intruder." The baron played around with Debby's numbers for a bit. "Damn, that thing is twelve hundred feet long! It must be one of the Emperor's fleet carri- ers come out to play."
 * 30)  "I  have more  bad  news,  Baron.  There's  a whole swarm  of  Imperial bugs  between  here  and  the  Moon, fighters  and shuttle-bombers  all." "Get back here with me so I can cov- er you!"
 * 31) "Too late. I'm gonna punch a  hole for you right through the  bastards.  Look  how tight they're bunched  up, the  morons. Honestly,  doesn't  the Empire know anything?"
 * 32)  "Uplink  your memories to  me  as long  as you can," Bayard said.  See you in the next life! And that,  for the  B'nei Elohim, was not a  matter of  faith or an idle hope.  But  the jamming made it problematic for both of them.
 * 33)  Bayard  and Debby  had  run  into Squadron  21  from  the  Trespasser, about a dozen two-man fighters  like the one that assaulted Debby plus  a handful  of larger five-man  bombers with their articulated insect  heads that  could  send a  flat,  powerful lase in any direction.
 * 34)  Admiral Belphegor ordered all  of them  to hold station about a  thou- sand  miles nearer to the Moon  than the  radio observatory to block  any escape to there.
 * 35) Debby came into range and  Admiral Belphegor  ordered  Squadron  21  to fire  at  will. Deb was  killed  in- stantly, but Bayard safely  obtained the entire stream of bits which rep- resented her final memories.
 * 36)  Debby's ship broke up  under  the withering  Imperial  firepower,  but included in the debris was one fully armed Brushfire-C missile.
 * 37) When the pile of expanding garbage that was the corpse of Debby's  ship passed  her  attackers,  at  exactly that instant, the Brushfire detonat- ed,  antimatter, destroying most  of the  planes,  disabling all  of  the others, and clearing a neat hole for the baron to escape through.
 * 38)  When the spherical  fireball  had grown  to fill half of the  sky  and dimmed  to  invisibility  the  baron dared  to  look again,  and  in  his telescope  she saw the ellipsoid  of the enemy carrier looming ever clos- er.
 * 39)  There was a second  capital  ship following as well. This was the  Im- perial destroyer Persecutor, escort- ing  the carrier.
 * 40)  As she neared the Moon the  baron found  himself entering the  various cones  of Imperial jamming  and  she understood why he had been unable to warn Taurus City of their danger.
 * 41) When he got very close he put  her laser on low power and locked onto a solar  panel in the city's  roof  to talk through the radio noise by mod- ulating the light. "Taurus, this  is Bayard flying Illustrious. I've been in a scrap, and Debby is gone.  Pre- pare to receive me."
 * 42)  It was a long shot but they  must have   heard  him.  Hunky   probably thought  of this trick too,  at  the same time. A docking port slid  open and  Bayard  Sala entered  a  hollow space   in  the  two-story   ceiling structure  that covered  the  entire city.
 * 43) Under withering anti-aircraft fire from  the  city  the  two   Imperial fighters  in the van of the  pursuit veered off and returned to Trespass- er.
 * 44)  Taurus  had been built  using  an economical  cut and cover  technique of tunnel construction, and most  of the  materials for Taurus  had  been manufactured  from local  resources, but   it  was  still  an   expensive property.
 * 45)  Bayard climbed backwards  out  of the rear hatch of his fighter,  near the  twin nozzles, marked with  blue arrows  and EGRESS in bold  letters.  Already  his ship was  being  topped off with more water for the macros.
 * 46) "What hornet's nest did you  stum- ble  into?"  Asked  Hunky,  who  was large and in charge at Taurus  while Lilith was dead and Robyn off  doing something else.
 * 47)  "It's  the Empire  boys,"  Bayard said when he let his long blond hair fly  free of his helmet,  and  there was  a hint of joy on his face  when he  said that. He wanted it to  hap- pen.
 * 48)  Bayard had drilled endlessly  for this day, and couldn't wait to  roll out everything the B'nei Elohim  had laid  away  in preparation  for  it.
 * 49)  "They've  finally  come  out   in force,  breaking the  agreement  be- tween  the gods. So Hunky, it  looks like we've got to show them a little deterrent of our own."
 * 50)  "Actually it's going to be a  lot of  deterrent,"  Hunky said  with  a grin  of her own, even with Del  out of the picture for now.
 * 51) At the precise moment when Del was storming  the  beach south  of  Suez City, three hundred and eight Ameri- can and nephilim troops aboard four- teen  Empire of Belial shuttles  ap- proached  the Moon.
 * 52)  It was a great gamble to  destroy the Ark of the Covenant so it  could not be used to contact an eloah out- side of Mastema's harem.
 * 53) The curious timing of their attack was  by design, of course.  Asmodeus knew  he  would have  absolutely  no chance of victory if he had to  face Del,  who seemed to be exactly  like Kandiel in a second life as a human.
 * 54)  So knowing Del's  priorities,  he arranged for the Egyptians, aided by the Americans, to stir the Levantine shit pot one more time as a distrac- tion,  to their own everlasting  re- gret.
 * 55)  The invasion force  was  launched from the Imperial carrier  Trespass- er,  together with a mix  of  thirty fighters and bombers to provide  air cover,  as it was still called  even in  the vacuum of space.
 * 56) Additional muscle was provided  by the  guns  and missiles of  the  de- stroyer Persecutor.
 * 57)  Then  the  Trespasser  hung  back about a hundred thousand miles  from the Moon, with another third of  her fighters  and  bombers  circling  on CSP, or Combat Space Patrol, and the final third still aboard the carrier in reserve.
 * 58) The Persecutor and Asmodeus' inva- sion force whipped around the  other side  of the Moon from the  city  of Taurus  and  entered orbit.  In  de- fense,  all Hunky could do  at  that point was transmit the signal to arm hundreds  of space  mines.
 * 59)  These had orbited the  moon  like silent, tireless sentries for years.  Mines were a dangerous nuisance  but they  were not really  considered  a game-changer.
 * 60) Admiral Belphegor, who had already transferred his flag to the Persecu- tor, considered them to be good tar- get practice for his gunners whenev- er  one  popped up from  behind  the limb of the moon.
 * 61) The space mines deployed by Taurus City were officially referred to  as Semi-Maneuverable Anti-Spy Satellite satellites (SMASSS). None had nucle- ar warheads, but macro warheads were nasty  enough.
 * 62)  Mines  were  generally  easy   to avoid,  being  in orbit  where  they marched to the precise laws of phys- ics and gravity and their  positions were  known  to all parties  at  all times, B'nei Elohim mines had primi- tive AI and they also had  thrusters to maneuver.
 * 63) When the mines saw the enemy ships they made small alterations in their orbits with puffs of propellant gas.  Each  Imperial ship immediately  no- ticed  the discrepancy on radar  and changed  their own course  to  swing clear.
 * 64) After a few near-misses, the fleet began constantly doing random course changes to avoid becoming more  pre- dictable to the mines than the mines were to them.
 * 65) It took one more orbit around  the moon  before the orbital pattern  of the mines could be crafted by  their internal micros, working as a  team, into a concentrated phalanx.
 * 66)  The invaders were gathered  close in  to the Moon. They were  a  loose cluster  of  ships less  than  fifty miles  in altitude, but the  sharply bending lunar horizon was still dis- tant enough to allow time for  emer- gency evasive action.
 * 67) hundreds of the space mines popped up over the lunar limb in a gigantic surprise. Evasion began  immediately but many of the devices had actually repositioned themselves to take  ad- vantage  of the most likely  evasion plans.   The  mines  were   thinking ahead.
 * 68) A last ditch laser barrage defense was turned against the rapidly clos- ing mines but there were simply  too many of them and some of the  invad- ers were too slow and clumsy to  get out  of the way.
 * 69) The shuttles Conqueror and Brutal- izer  actually  collided,  crippling each other for the remainder of  the battle.
 * 70)  Six nephilim officers  from  both ships  salvaged what they  could  of the  fiasco, jettisoning  themselves in their command sections and making their  way down to  the  prearranged rendezvous  point on the surface  of the  Moon.
 * 71) But the forty-four angry  American troops left behind would continue to flounder  in orbit until  the  B'nei Elohim captured them a week later.
 * 72)  Fourteen of the  other  transport ships  successfully evaded the  mine attack. But the shuttle Harasser was not  so  lucky and  seemed  to  walk right  into them.
 * 73) The artificially intelligent mines were ecstatic that they could final- ly  fulfill their  intended  purpose and explode. Harasser was struck  by the  cresting wave of mines and  all twenty-five nephilim soldiers aboard her   died.
 * 74)  Hunky had definitely grabbed  As- modeus'  attention now. So much  for the cakewalk he had in mind.
 * 75)  Next Taurus City  unleashed  hun- dreds  of surface-to-space  missiles from  hidden batteries all over  the Moon.  Half of these  missiles  were not  armed with explosives.
 * 76)  Instead they were tasked to  haul up  inflatable mylar balloons,  long strips of chaff, aluminum foil, dum- my warheads and canisters of  infra- red-emitting aerosols.
 * 77)  In  the middle of all  this  pure trash  the real live Brushfire  mis- siles in- side the threat cloud were completely hidden by an opaque white smear  on radar, made even worse  by the  Imperial's own jamming  from  a higher orbit which backlit the whole mess.
 * 78)  When Admiral  Belphegor  realized this and ordered everyone to  switch to visual acquisition on  telescopes hyz  list of potential  threats  was ten times larger than the number  of real  threats.
 * 79)  This was all thanks to the  B'nei Elohim deployment of decoy  inflata- ble missiles. By the time  Belphegor figured that out the real  Brushfire missiles  were already  on  terminal cruise
 * 80) They were  aided by targeting  us- ing passive and active sensors scat- tered  in odd corners all  over  the surface of the Moon. Odd that  these formidable preparations on the  part of  the B'nei Elohim seemed to  slip the  Emperor's mind when he  planned his raid.
 * 81) Cherub Belphegor tried jamming the Brushfires.  He  tried  substituting the real radar reflection of  Perse- cutor  with an  electronic  impostor and  then moving that impostor  blip off to a new course hoping the  mis- siles would follow.
 * 82)  And it did seem to work. Many  of the  Brushfire  rounds  did  go  off course.
 * 83)  Then the Imperial  fighters  pro- tecting  Persecutor (and  Persecutor herself) started taking potshots  at the  rest of the  incoming  missiles with  thumping  80  kilowatt   laser firepower, two rounds per second per turret.
 * 84)  With all these defensive  efforts at  a  peak the big wave  broke  and sprinkled only a relative handful of Brushfire  missiles through  to  hit the shuttles Degrader and Immolator, which were destroyed in spectacular, silent  explosions  with  all  hands aboard.
 * 85) The Persecutor had escaped  damage for  the time being, but  the  fire- works show was just getting started.
 * 86) Seven B'nei Elohim Sandwich fight- er pilots leaped into the Lunar  sky from the roof of Taurus to enter the fray. Baron Bayard established  good old-fashioned  encrypted radio  con- tact  on a UHF frequency.  "This  is Illustrious, radio check, over."
 * 87)  They  reported in by  rank.  Ash- blonde  Stephanie  leveled  out  her fighter and said, "Illustrious, this is Valorous, roger, over." Red-head- ed Amanda checked in saying, "Illus- trious,   this  is  Ardent,   roger, over."
 * 88) When it was her turn pretty  dark- haired Adirael Larund said,  "Illus- trious,  this  is  Resolute,  roger, over."
 * 89)  Blonde  pixie  Suzanne  set   her fighter  busy doing a  Built-In-Test and  piped up saying,  "Illustrious, this is Lancer, roger, over."
 * 90)  Shaven-headed Tori got her  buggy transmitter working just in time and said, "Illustrious, this is Tornado, roger, over."
 * 91) Dark-haired, slender little Candra looked  through  her canopy  at  Ba- yard's fighter nearby and chimed in, "Illustrious, this is Talon,  roger, over."
 * 92)  "Pink Wing this  is  Illustrious, roger,  close it up tight ladies.  I want visual contact with all of you.  Illustrious, out."
 * 93)  From  the first day  these  women joined  his team, Bayard  made  them drill.  And  drill.  Bayard  drilled because  he wanted no  hesitancy  to remain.  Combat must be  learned  in the  muscles. It should be a  dance.  Second  nature.
 * 94) There should be no transition from training to the real thing, and  the real thing had finally come.
 * 95) The Persecutor was easily  identi- fied.  Each enemy ship had  a  radar with  unique  "fingerprints",  which were  certain defects in the  trans- mitter.
 * 96)  These defects, which were  little dips  on the tops of the pulses,  or slightly  ringing  pulses,  lent  an electronic "personality" to the sig- nal going out.
 * 97)  The Beaters had long ago  matched the radar fingerprints to the  ship, and they had also shared that infor- mation with the B'nei Elohim. Steph- anie said, "This is Valorous, I have identified the destroyer,  designate track one zero niner."
 * 98) Soon after the seven fighters  had all  gathered close together  Bayard barked his initial orders. "So let's get them interested in us.
 * 99) Spread to every corner of the sky.  Then make your runs. Sting 'em  with random attacks. No pattern! Set your Multiblip Repeater to attack  forma- tion Delta."
 * 100) The Multiblip Repeater was a  jam- ming  device unlike any other.  Most jammers  filled  the  enemy's  radar picture  with clouds of static.  But the Multiblip Repeater simulated the echoes of real contacts.
 * 101) So mixed in with the real blips of Bayard's   seven   randomly   flying fighters  were the false blips of  a dozen  ghost ships in a precise  "V" attack profile. This was Attack For- mation Delta.
 * 102) Belphegor directed his arsenal to- ward the juicy targets of all  those blips lined up in a straight "V". He instructed the ships under his  com- mand to ignore the other blips,  the randomly moving blips, as silly  at- tempts to jam their search radars.
 * 103)  The Multiblip Repeater  was  even more clever in that it deleted  con- tacts  one  by one as  the  invaders thought they scored "hits." Not  un- til Bayard's people actually  passed to within visual range did the cher- ub realize he had been tricked.
 * 104) By then it was much too late.  The first  pass had to  count.  Bayard's people made sure to hit all the good stuff, the missile racks and most of the gun mounts.
 * 105) Still, the Persecutor reached  out and slapped Candra as she passed by, crippling  her  ship  with  close-in laser fire. "I'm hit!" she  screamed as  her fighter spun wildly  out  of the  zone of combat.
 * 106) But eventually her nerves  settled down  and she was able to bring  her ship  under semi-control.  "This  is Talon," she said when the  immediate crisis had passed. "I'm all right."
 * 107)  "Can  you  make it  back  to  the city?"  Bayard asked her.  "I  don't know.  I'm going to set down on  the surface  until I can check  out  the extent of my damage."
 * 108) "If it's bad, Candra, don't try to limp back into the battle."  "Roger, out."
 * 109) Candra didn't know it yet, but the Battle of Luna was over for her. The damage was far worse than she  real- ized,  and  when she suited  up  and went  over the exterior of her  ship she  would marvel that she had  made it down to the ground in one piece.
 * 110)  At the same time that Candra  had sustained her disabling hit,  Amanda and  Suzanne's  blows  combined   to score a fatal hit on the  Repressor.
 * 111)  It fell like a stone to the  sur- face of the Moon and impacted on the hard  regolith, killing all  twenty- five  men aboard. Then the  six  re- maining  sandwich  fighters   headed back  out and regrouped,  tearing  a path away to free space.
 * 112) Bayard had set out to interest the destroyer in his tiny force.
 * 113)  Persecutor was definitely  inter- ested now. With the small shreds  of dignity it had left remaining to  it the  wounded  warship  and  her  own retinue  of fighters,  bombers,  and shuttles  turned to  stately  pursue their attackers.
 * 114)  Bayard said, "Pink Wing,  execute Formation  Delta. Scramble your  re- peaters."  Everyone  expertly   com- plied. Now it was the actual  fight- ers  which were in a precise V  pat- tern and the false electronic  blips which were moving randomly.
 * 115) Cherub Belphegor had picked up  on things right away. Now he scoffed at the  primitive attempt to  fool  his radar with a V of dots all lined  up with (it was so obvious now) machine precision.
 * 116) Not the rough formations to be ex- pected from inexperienced human wom- en pretending to be combat star  pi- lots like the battle-hardened nephi- lim aviation officers of House  Ger- ash.
 * 117)  This time he directed his  ship's missile and gun-fire to the randomly moving contacts.
 * 118) "It's electronic warfare,"  Bayard said to himself when he watched  his deception  work. He was in a  rhythm with  the other five gals. They  all functioned  as  one unit,  and  more important,  they  were  all   having enormous fun.
 * 119)  Bayard  allowed the  burning  de- stroyer  to  pass into the  zone  of space  defined  by himself  and  the five  planes under his command.  The cornered Persecutor slowly  withered away  under Pink  Wing's  continuing attack.
 * 120) Belphegor's smooth brown ellipsoid was  on  fire and had  giant  ragged bites taken out of it. Parts of  the hull  had  been exposed  to  vacuum, sucking  some  unstrapped  personnel out into space.
 * 121)  Command  shifted to  a  secondary bridge deeper within the highly com- partmentalized interior where  pres- surized  and undamaged  work  spaces were still to be found, but it was a fool's  errand.
 * 122) Persecutor could no longer run nor see  nor fight. There remained  only vengeance.
 * 123)  In her death  throes  Persecutor, true to her name, lashed out with  a blind  Bulldog missile  which  found its way to the Resolute. Impact.
 * 124) The dense knot of water held in  a phantom  quantum  state  inside  her fighter went up all at once,  creat- ing a vast white explosion complete- ly  out of proportion to the  fight- er's tiny size, much as a macro-bomb punched well above its own weight.
 * 125)  "Poor  Adirael!"  Suzanne  cried, breaking  radio  discipline  in  her grief,  because she knew the  Fallen Angel,  not  having  been   Changed, would never live again.
 * 126)  Bayard  smiled  through  his  own tears. "This never was about us try- ing  to live as long as we can,"  he said. "Don't you see? Avoiding death never  was  the glue that  bound  us together."  Suzanne nodded  to  her- self. No, that glue is love!
 * 127)   When  the  overlapping   glowing swirls of water vapor from Adirael's demise grew and faded to invisibili- ty all eyes turned to the final doom of  the imperial destroyer.
 * 128)  None of the officers and  crewmen of  Persecutor  survived  the  final blow,  a  ship-to-ship   Brushfire-B missile  fired by Bayard  through  a gap  in  the hull  with  a  thousand pound  macro warhead.
 * 129)  This  blew the ship  into  bright glowing  embers which  scattered  to every corner of the sky.
 * 130) So ended Cherub Belphegor,  victor of  countless campaigns in the  Egg- beater  at  Alpha Centauri,  at  the hands of a Gold Beard and four human females  pretending (as  the  cherub supposed) to be star pilots.
 * 131) After only a few moments of  shak- ing themselves and checking for bro- ken  bones the troop transports  and their  escorting  wings  turned  and lumbered hell-for-leather after  the B'nei Elohim fighters to avenge  the Persecutor.
 * 132) Gradually the battle became strung out  on a line only  fifty  thousand feet  above the Moon, making a  bee- line for the city of Taurus.
 * 133)  "There's  gotta be  an  idiot  in charge," Bayard told her girls  over the  coded  channel.  "This  is  too easy. No way a worthy foe just  walk into our triple A over the city."
 * 134)  The line of Pink and  Blue  beads lengthened  and  thinned  out.  Blue forces slowly found themselves  iso- lated  with  small  enemies  on  two sides.  The five gnats became  four.
 * 135) In the slug-match that ensued Tori aboard the Tornado suffered a  disa- bling  hit. It wasn't as serious  as the damage to the Talon, but she had to withdraw from the battle and  re- turn to Taurus.
 * 136) Still, the forces of Asmodeus were strung  out  along  one   vulnerable line.  Configured this way,  one-di- mensionally, each ship could  assist only it's two immediate neighbors or assail  at most two fighters.
 * 137)  Meanwhile, the  entire  formation passed  directly over  Taurus  City, which attacked the enemy ships  from below using its heavy defensive las- ers  with impunity.
 * 138) Asmodeus dared not return fire be- cause he assumed his unnamed  objec- tive was somewhere inside Taurus and he needed the city intact.
 * 139)  This was a classic textbook  case of what not to do, studied by  naval historians  for centuries, from  the time  of wooden sailing ships  right through the era of steel battleships in the first and second world  wars.
 * 140)  Asmodeus  had allowed  the  B'nei Elohim  to cross his "T".  And  what made  it even more unforgivable  was that it was a stationary city  bris- tling with cannon (and not a line of maneuvering  warships) that did  the crossing.
 * 141)  In the ensuing storm of fire  the invasion fleet broke formation, went into complete disarray, and individ- ually  set  course  to  get  to  the Moon's surface as quickly as  possi- ble.
 * 142)  All of the enemy ships took  dam- age, but the Subjugator was crippled by  a particularly  well-paced  shot from the city and her descent turned into  a  free-fall as  she  spiraled down to the ground. All hands aboard died in the crash.
 * 143) Hunky noted this sparrowfall  from the  War  Room in the heart  of  the city and said, "I get the impression the Empire came out here with  their second-best  football team  and  ex- pected to go up against nothing  but cheerleaders."
 * 144) So only nine Imperial troop trans- port shuttles successfully landed in the  predesignated  place,  a  small valley  in the Taurus-Littrow  high- lands  about ten miles from  Taurus.
 * 145) Very close by was the actual land- ing spot of the 1972 Apollo 17 expe- dition,  where the initials of  Gene Cernan's  daughter had remained  in- tact as Robyn had promised him.
 * 146)  Bayard came in low over them  and scored a direct hit on the troopship Oppressor before they could  debark, killing  or seriously wounding  six- teen of the Americans aboard.
 * 147)  Asmodeus saw this and his  anger, already smoldering from the loss  of Persecutor, burned white hot. Bayard came around again for another  pass, this  time with his surviving  girls in  formation behind  him.
 * 148)  Asmodeus prepared to  let  Bayard have  it  with  a  shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile (although the Moon had no air, so a different name for his weapon would have been  more appropriate).
 * 149)  With effortlessness derived  from countless  opportunities  over   two centuries affording him  experience, Asmodeus shouldered his rocket  can- ister and took meticulous aim  while the rest of his people dove for cov- er.
 * 150)  From Bayard a laser  touched  the ground  at  the  feet  of  Asmodeus, visible only as a glowing, searching orange  cloud of dust. Azibeel  took aim and fired, unperturbed and unde- terred by Bayard's attack.
 * 151) The passive, IR-homing,  radar-si- lent  surface-to-air  missile  found its  way unerringly toward  the  in- tense heat of Bayard's  underthrust- ers.
 * 152)  Two objects crossed in the  black lunar  sky:  Asmodeus'  missile  and Bayard's spacecraft. The intervening factor  was a hot puff ball  at  the point of closest approach only three feet away from Bayard's wildly evad- ing fighter. "I'm hit!"
 * 153) Bayard's fighter tumbled in a flat spin to the surface of the moon like a  tile thrown out a window. And  so passed the second son of Queen  Aur- ra,  though she was long  gone  her- self,  two thousand years gone.
 * 154)  Bayard  was dead and  the  sudden loss of their leader frightened  the remaining three star pilots off. The so-called "air" campaign was largely over.  Now  the  surviving  Imperial shuttles could unload Asmodeus' peo- ple  and supplies unmolested in  the vale of Taurus.
 * 155) Emperor Asmodeus set up a  perime- ter with some of John Glenn's  DECON troops stationed at the four  points of the compass armed with  shoulder- launched  SAMs, in case any  of  the remaining   sandwich  fighters   re- turned.
 * 156)  Inside that perimeter  the  half- bubbles  of many  pressurized  tents dotted  the  plain here  and  there, scattered too far apart for a single strike to take any two of them out.
 * 157) The tents were psychologically im- portant.  They permitted the  troops to get out of the vacuum suits  they wore  on the way down, or  at  least take  their helmets off for an  hour or two.
 * 158) No one could spend all their  time inside  a spacesuit, no  matter  how disciplined they were, not even  the disciplined officers hardened by the constant violence of Barbelo.
 * 159) Asmodeus' command tent was identi- fied by gold and black banners. John Glenn  and his two  senior  officers entered  it and passed  through  the vestibule  sealing the  air  inside.
 * 160) They found the Emperor in the mid- dle of a meeting with his son  Apol- lyon and the surviving nephilim  of- ficers. "Good, Glenn, you made  it," Asmodeus said. "You're the last  one to come in. Give me your report."
 * 161)  "Our  transport  took  hits  from fighters  and from the city  but  we landed with no casualties." "Then we finally  have a complete picture  of what  happened. Give him the  latest figures, son."
 * 162)   "Yes,  Sire."  Apollyon   rifled through his papers, did some  figur- ing,  then  he said,  "Punisher  and five troop ships are total losses. A sixth transport was attacked on  the ground and we only saved nine  human troops troops from that one.
 * 163) We have a total of forty-four  hu- man troops stuck in orbit aboard the Conqueror  and Brutalizer who  can't land but six nephilim officers  from those  two ships are here  now.
 * 164)  All told we now have just  forty- three  nephilim troops and one  hun- dred  eight-five human troops  ready for action."
 * 165)  There was some shocked gasps  and murmuring from Glenn and his two men at  that. Casualties were at  forty- three percent!
 * 166) Asmodeus cut them off harshly, and barked,   "This  mission   has   not failed.  The carrier Trespasser  re- mains  out  of  danger,  and  stands ready to pull us out when we achieve our  objective. As long as one  sol- dier  lives this mission  goes  for- ward. Is that clear?"
 * 167) The nephilim and men blurted their assent.  Then the forces  split  up.  John Glenn took command of the human forces, the bulk of their  remaining strength,  and departed to  assemble them for the assault up the  eastern face of the North Massif mountain.
 * 168) Emperor Abizeel planned to  assail Taurus with his nephilim from anoth- er  direction  along a  small  rille which  crossed the mountain  to  the west.
 * 169)  Leading  his  forty-two  nephilim soldiers, Asmodeus started  marching cross-country over what Buzz  Aldrin once called the "magnificent desola- tion" of the Moon.
 * 170)  After  the  Emperor  had  forayed north into the Sculptured Hills  for an  hour the Yellow Rille (so  named because of the many sulfur  outcrop- pings  found in it) became  a  steep canyon.
 * 171)   Asmodeus  veered   right.   They climbed  to a small  plateau  called Yellowbanks on the B'nei Elohim moon map,  and let the rille go it's  own way for the time being.
 * 172) As the Moon went this was high and rugged  terrain, a combination of  a classic crater rim and the extensive volcanism  in the wake of the  large asteroid  that  created the  Sea  of Serenity  over three  billion  years ago.
 * 173) The rille itself was a steep chan- nel carved by a river of lava  after the impact and undisturbed all  that time  except  from  micro-meteoroids which  pitted the whole  surface  of the Moon.
 * 174)   They stayed on the high  ground, walking on black gravel and sand and dust as fine as the ashes left  over in  a barbecue.
 * 175) Their backpacks and various  port- able weapons were enormous loads for each of them but the seventeen  per- cent gravity helped. They made  good time.
 * 176)  Presently the rille finished  its wide bend and rejoined them from the west.  Dull red and  green  minerals formed  layers in the walls  of  the gorge, dotted by bright yellow  sul- fur  deposits.
 * 177)  There was a certain stark  beauty to it all, Asmodeus thought. Io did- n't have a monopoly on this.
 * 178) Twice during the march they buried themselves under gray camouflage  at the  sight of sandwich fighters.  It wasn't a concerted search.
 * 179)  Asmodeus hadn't made his dent  in this country yet and the B'nei  Elo- him  probably didn't have a clue  he was  up  here. Still,  the  fighters seemed to be either using the  rille for  a  navigational guide  or  they were actively patrolling it.
 * 180) He decided to march overland  away from the rille again, so they  began peeling away from it.
 * 181) Returning to the edge of the rille again  some  hours  later,  Asmodeus cast  his gaze "upstream" and  noted that the rille had shrunk to just  a third  of its normal depth  yet  was still coming out of the north and  a little east of north.
 * 182) If they stayed on this side of it, it  would continue to bend east  and take  then away from  Taurus  rather than toward it.
 * 183) Consulting his map, he said to his troops  over the radio,  "The  rille has  forked. This is just  a  feeder gully. We cross here."
 * 184) There was a dirt road at the  bot- tom  of the gully, the main road  to Taurus, but traffic was sparse.
 * 185)  The  problem of fording  a  chasm without  specialists, even  a  rela- tively small one such as this  North Fork of the Yellow Rille, was  going to have to be overcome with a little creativity.
 * 186)  There was no question  of  hiking down one side and up the other,  the pumice  stones littering  the  whole area  would make it like walking  on marbles. Most of the officers  paced around, at a total loss for ideas.
 * 187)  Asmodeus asked around  if  anyone had  packed some cable. There was  a flurry  of  searching  and   finally someone  produced a coil with  about four hundred yards of it.
 * 188)  The  cable wasn't very  thick  or heavy, but it would be strong enough to support the weight of a nephil in the lunar gravity, Asmodeus decided.
 * 189) The Emperor attached the long  ca- ble to a surface-to-air missile  and took  aim  at the far  side  of  the rille, aiming near the top where  it began to flare out and become  level with the land on the other side.
 * 190)  He  chose his  target  carefully, trying  to get as high  as  possible but  not too high, lest the  missile skip off the soil instead of  diving into it. Then he pressed the  firing stud.
 * 191)  Success!  The rocket  dug  itself deep into the lunar regolith  before burning  out, taking the cable  with it.  The  tunnel it  made  collapsed behind  it.
 * 192) Asmodeus tugged hard on the  cable to make sure it was snugly anchored.  He  ordered his men to  anchor  this side  of the cable around a  boulder and snip the excess off.
 * 193) The next part was easier. Asmodeus repeated his trick with the rest  of the  cable, but this time  he  aimed about  four  feet  below  where  the first cable had buried itself.
 * 194)  Hy made doubly sure it  was  snug because this was the one that  would bear  the most weight. Soon  he  had two wires stretched tight across the gap,  one wire for under  the  boots and another at chest level for  bal- ance.
 * 195)  Asmodeus hymself made  the  first crossing  to prove it was  safe.  An hour later the entire group had made the  crossing.  The last  nephil  to come over cut the two cables and let them  fall slack against  the  steep western wall of the tributary rille.
 * 196) This was virgin land, inaccessible to all without taking  extraordinary measures. They had placed themselves far beyond reach.
 * 197)  After another mile following  the small  tributary rille on  its  west bank Asmodeus authorized an hour  of such  rest as could be  taken  while wearing a pressure suit.
 * 198) On the next march Asmodeus contin- ued to follow the North Fork of  the Yellow Rille again, ever higher  to- ward its source.
 * 199)  It curved needlessly, often  back almost  on itself, but it  gradually and  inexorably drew nearer  to  the high volcano in the north which they had begun to glimpse from the  hill- tops.
 * 200)  These were the doldrums of  B'nei Elohim territory. The combination of the terrain and the angle of the sun and Earth gave the land the  appear- ance of being moody, as if the  Moon itself were taking a nap.
 * 201)  The heavy shade,  almost  totally black in parts, made it seem  secre- tive, even gloomy. The dull thumping of  artillery could not be heard  in the near-vacuum of the Moon, but  it could be felt as bursts of vibration under their feet.
 * 202) The light-flashes of warfare never lagged  far  behind. It  had  to  be Glenn  who led the bulk of the  sur- viving  troops on a frontal  assault along  the  main road to  the  city.
 * 203)   Asmodeus  was  feeding   Glenn's forces through the shredder to  keep the B'nei Elohim from checking their back door.
 * 204) For the American invaders the  net effect of wearing their heavy  suits and  the small lunar gravity was  to be  fighting under roughly the  same gravity as Mercury, which was a  ma- jor  consideration when the  Emperor planned this raid and chose Glenn to participate.
 * 205)  For protection  their  spacesuits were covered entirely with  mirrored reflective surfaces, but some joints and parts of the life-support  back- pack,  despite the best  efforts  of design engineers, were vulnerable to a laser hit.
 * 206)  Glenn personally led  an  assault with all of his men across the  open while  Ambe  Omphal and a  force  of Fallen Angels with company  strength hid  behind  rocks at the top  of  a gray  slope and took leisurely  pot- shots at them.
 * 207) For the invaders the trick was  to present a moving target, hustling to the left or right, jumping up, flip- ping  through the air,  tucking  and sliding  to  the ground,  never  the same sequence of moves twice.
 * 208) Troops who fell into the error  of patterned  movement were  awarded  a laser  hit and quick death.  Glenn's troops  dropped  like flies  as  the scored  hit after hit.
 * 209)  Heedless of their  losses,  Glenn and his DECON forces just kept  com- ing, each trooper dancing and  duck- ing  to avoid being hit. The  random movement  came as second  nature  to them.  Presently some forty of  them overran  the Fallen Angel  position, led by Glenn himself.
 * 210)  Ambe  grappled  with  Glenn   and placed her faceplate against his  so he  could hear. "You took our  posi- tion  but it was awful, just  awful!  You lost a third of your boys, easy!  Godspeed John Glenn!"
 * 211)  Then with her knife  Ambe  ripped the fabric of Glenn's spacesuit from crotch  to sternum, letting him  de- flate like a tire.
 * 212) While they remained hidden here in the  highlands, Asmodeus  could  see the  gully  road about  two  hundred feet  below  was now busy  with  the traffic of war, mostly B'nei  Elohim armored  trucks all climbing  slowly in single file.
 * 213) Asmodeus scrambled up a small rise to  get  a clear view back  the  way they'd come. From there he could see all the way to the plain where  they began  this little hike.
 * 214) The entire area was intermittently lit  with reflected  laser  flashes.  Binoculars  revealed  B'nei   Elohim vehicles  exchanging colored  light- ning with unseen adversaries.
 * 215)  On the eastern side of the  North Massif  summit plateau B'nei  Elohim defenders  began popping up  out  of the  woodwork  to  stall  the  DECON forces with a vast confusing  hodge- podge  of  engagements.
 * 216)  They fired their big towed  five- inch  guns, which had a range of  an incredible  49  miles in  the  lunar gravity.  Each  gun,  standing  well off,  could shoot three  rounds  per minute, and these shells began rain- ing randomly down on Glenn people.
 * 217)  Artillery was called  the  "troop killer"  for  good  reason.   Within eighty  feet of an  exploding  shell half  of  the DECON  personnel  were injured,  on average, and  one-third of these injuries were fatal.
 * 218) Even a little schrapnel that would only  cause a minor injury on  Earth was  sufficient  to  puncture  their pressure suits here. So it became  a grinding war of attrition, with  al- most all of the losses on the Ameri- can side.
 * 219)  If  Glenn was detained  for  some time  or  even defeated  that  would suit the Emperor just fine. At  that point  he didn't know Glenn was  al- ready dead. The Americans were  just cover all along.
 * 220)  Asmodeus' objective was to  seize or destroy the Ark of the  Covenant, and  if the raid became a huge  sui- cide run, he would still consider it a  success if the Ark was taken  out of the picture.
 * 221) Asmodeus had given the front  door of the city to Glenn after  pretend- ing reluctance, but the Emperor knew it would be defended ferociously.
 * 222) So he and his nephilim plunged on, heading  north,  and  gradually  the road  and Asmodeus's party began  to come together. The rille was getting more  and more shallow as  they  ap- proached  its source. Asmodeus  felt high,  in  elevation as well  as  in spirits.
 * 223)  Finally they had gone as  far  as they could possibly go while remain- ing  out of view. This was the  very source  of the North Fork  rille:  a single unremarkable fumarole.
 * 224) It was nearly the same in  appear- ance  as every other crater  on  the moon,  but different in that it  lay sideways and hadn't been created  by impact. Now they were forced to take the road.
 * 225) Far above them the road wound  its way  up a set of switchbacks to  the broad  summit plateau of North  Mas- sif.  There  were  no  straightaways longer  than  three  hundred   feet.
 * 226)  Three  light APCs  ascending  the mountain rounded a corner just then.  It was too short a distance  between the  time they saw Asmodeus and  the decision  point  where it  would  be surrender or ram.
 * 227) Forty-three nephilim soldiers aim- ing  lasers and rockets swayed  them to  pull over peacefully. The  girls in the three trucks were  stragglers of the big caravan Asmodeus had seen from the edge of the rille.
 * 228)  Asmodeus didn't take any time  to ask  questions and he wasn't  inter- ested killing them. The girls, still wearing their vacsuits, were  simply bound  with  plastic  tie-wraps  and left  on the side of the road.
 * 229) Then Asmodeus's platoon found  it- self with transportation. They  were all  thinking how good it was to  be moving  while sitting on  their  ass and dangling their poor abused boot- ed feet.
 * 230) The APCs had a 1.5 inch main  gun, a  30-caliber  machine gun,  and  an anti- tank missile launcher, but the nephilim  would  encounter  no  more enemies  on  that road.  Taurus  lay just  beyond  a  stony  fault  scarp looming above them.
 * 231) The road made a final turn and As- modeus  was  staring at  a  darkened tunnel  drilled  right  through  the final jagged wall. A trap?  Asmodeus no  longer  cared.
 * 232)  Whooping it up, without a  second thought,  Asmodeus led  his  company plunging  through the  tunnel.  They were the first (indeed they would be the only ones) to crack Robyn's  fi- nal line of defense.
 * 233)  Asmodeus and his  nephilim  drove right  out onto the roof  of  Taurus and  parked.  They quickly  found  a walkway  hemmed by a guardrail,  and this walkway led them to an  airlock big enough to take all of Asmodeus's men  in two groups. It was all  very easy. Perhaps it was too easy.
 * 234)  When the pressure came up to  the three pounds of pure oxygen that was standard inside the city of  Taurus, the  High Lord  Patriarch  Asmodeus, his son Apollyon, and the  forty-one officers  accompanying them  stepped out.
 * 235) They dropped a flight of stairs to the  main floor below. All  of  them longed to shed their spacesuits once and  for  all but  they  dared  not, fearing that they would all be  suf- focated by Robyn with the touch of a button.
 * 236)  Soon  Asmodeus and  his  nephilim found  themselves in a labyrinth  of passageways without a clue of  where they went.
 * 237)  The maze of corridors  opened  up into a roomy area, like a food court in  a shopping mall, and  there  As- modeus's commando team ran into  the first  members of the  B'nei  Elohim prepared  to  stop them.
 * 238) It was a small squad led by Chuck, the son of Chayn and Gordon and  the cousin  of Victoria. Chuck  and  his three  Girl  Guards  pointed   their weapons  directly at Asmodeus  face, and no wonder, his elaborate regalia clearly marked him as the most  sen- ior nephilim present.
 * 239)  Chuck made signs for Asmodeus  to lift the faceplate on his helmet  so he  could see who he was.  When  As- modeus  complied,  Chuck  recognized his fuzzy face and uniquely  braided white  beard.
 * 240)  He  said, "Well, well,  it's  the Gerash Patriarch himself. Tell  your team  to let their guns drop to  the floor,  Asmodeus, or you'll get  it.  Now!"
 * 241)  Asmodeus carefully  complied.  He and his team did nothing which might make Chuck or his girls squeeze  the trigger on their weapons.
 * 242)  "Good, Sire, now reach  over  and slowly unsheathe your sword  halfway out  with your right  hand.  Halfway out only, mind you Sire. That's per- fect.
 * 243) Okay, now grab the hilt with  your left  hand so that when you pull  it out,  the  sword's tip  is  pointing back your way and not my way."
 * 244)  When Asmodeus had done  all  this Chuck  motioned for him to pull  the sword the rest of the way out of its sheathe. "Slowly, Sire. Slowly  now!  I know you're tricky, Lord Asmodeus.  Okay, now hand it to me."
 * 245)  When he was about to  give  Chuck his  blade, Asmodeus's thumb  hit  a switch  on the hilt and the  cap  on the very bottom flipped up to reveal a lens. Chuck looked at it in aston- ishment.
 * 246)  A powerful laser in the hilt  in- stantly   blinded  him.   Her   eyes slammed shut, but there were  bright spots  dominating  his  vision,  and there was also great pain. "Ah, dam- mit! Damn you! I'm blind!"
 * 247) What followed was a fierce  tussle where  Chuck's three  squad  members had  the better of it at  first  be- cause  they were still armed,  while Asmodeus's people had to scramble on the floor for their weapons.
 * 248)  Asmodeus  ducked and  rolled  and swerved to avoid being burned. Even- tually Asmodeus' sheer numbers  pre- vailed, as they must. Seven  members of his group were hit before  Dory's three girls were shot. As for  Apol- lyon, he was hiding behind an obsta- cle.
 * 249)  Chuck  was still  alive,  but  he groped around in his blindness. None of his girls were left alive to pro- vide  imagery of the scene  to  Dory via the Swarm.
 * 250)  Asmodeus decapitated  Chuck  with his sword without a word of  warning while he was crawling around on  the floor,  blind as a bat. Then he  put his still-living head, dripping with blood,  into a gray translucent  me- tallic bag and closed it with a yel- low sticker.
 * 251) "I know you can still hear me, man of the B'nei Elohim," he said to him through  the bag, not  knowing  pre- cisely who he was, "but as you  have discovered by now, it's hard to  up- load  your memories  with  neutrinos through  the material of  this  bag.
 * 252) You're my insurance. So let's  see what   extraordinary  lengths   your friends will go to in capturing your final memories to let you avoid  the True Death."
 * 253)  And  he gave the  bag  containing Chuck's  head to young  Apollyon  to carry for him while some of his oth- er  officers carried took point  and rearguard.
 * 254)  Obviously  the  whole  area   was rigged for sound, because now  doors magically  opened in front of  them, indicating the way the B'nei  Elohim wanted the Emperor to go.
 * 255)  The  thick  doors  they   already passed through refused to budge. The weapons of the Imperials would  take too  long  to cut through  them  and they  would run out of power at  any rate.
 * 256)  Grenades could do it,  but  there were too many doors and too few gre- nades,  and it might break the  air- tight  integrity of the  city.
 * 257) Only two floors separated the bulk of the city with its park-like flora from the hard vacuum of the  surface of the moon.
 * 258)  As  they  proceeded  through  the doors  they were silently bidden  to use, Asmodeus noticed a scarcity  of girl  scouts along the way.
 * 259)  Instead of presenting  themselves for  slaughter they seemed  to  back off as if on orders. The only excep- tion to that rule was Chayn Shybear, the mother of Chuck, who  approached Asmodeus with arms raised and  palms forward to show she had no weapons.
 * 260)  Asmodeus thought she closely  re- sembled  the  woman  named  Joy  who served him long ago on Barbelo,  but her  hair was very  different.  When she had drawn near, she sank to  one knee, lowered her face, and said, "I am Chayn, Lord, the daughter of  Ro- byn. Command me."
 * 261)  Asmodeus thought the  resemblance to Joy extended even to the  woman's voice. He said, "Command you?  Would you attempt to deceive a god?"
 * 262) "Deceive you, Lord? Far be it from my mind. Not all of the B'nei Elohim share  the same aims of  El  Shaddai and  Bat-El, as my Lord has  already discerned  by  the  service  of   my brother  Edgar.
 * 263) Name the thing you seek, Lord, and I  shall try to get it for you  with no  further violence." "I have  come for the Ark of the Covenant." Chayn  suddenly raised her  face  to see  if Asmodeus was  serious.  "The Ark?  My  Lord has  been  tragically deceived  if he thought the  Ark  of the Covenant to be here on Luna."
 * 264)  "Then where is it?" "In  a  space station we call Midway, Lord,  which is in orbit some four thousand miles above the second planet of this star system." "I don't believe you!"
 * 265)  "I  speak only the  truth  to  my Lord," Chayn protested. "He will not find the Ark of the Covenant in Tau- rus City."
 * 266) "And yet, I would see the taberna- cle, the meeting tent where El Shad- dai  always insisted the Ark  should be  kept. Where is this  tabernacle, woman of the B'nei Elohim?"
 * 267)  "I can show you that, Lord,"  And there  was a place in the  two-story thick  structure that comprised  the ceiling  of Taurus where  the  floor had  been replaced by  thick  glass.
 * 268)  It was such that one  could  look down past one's feet at the floor of the  city. It was easy for  Asmodeus to identify what he was seeking.
 * 269)  The Tabernacle, or Meeting  Tent, was  constructed  by  materials  and labor which was donated by  artisans from  Israel, Hamar, and  Nath.
 * 270) The required materials were  gold, silver,  brass, fine  linen,  goats' hair, rams' skins dyed red, badgers' skins,  shittim  wood, oil  for  the light, spices for anointing oil  and for sweet incense, plus onyx stones.  There were stones to be set for  the ephod  and  the  breastplate.   With these materials, craftsmen made  the tabernacle, the staves to carry  the Ark,  the altar and its staves,  all the  altar's vessels, and the  show- bread.
 * 271) They made the candlestick for  the light,  the incense altar,  and  the hanging for the door at the entrance of the tabernacle.
 * 272) There was a glass elevator leading to  the floor of Taurus but  it  was only large enough to hold two nephi- lim, laden as they were with weapons and  spacesuit backpacks and  a  bag carrying Chuck's head.
 * 273) Asmodeus hesitated for a moment to think. Then he stepped inside accom- panied only by his son Apollyon, who carried  the  head of Chuck.
 * 274)  For a delicate few  moments  they would  both be trapped at the  mercy of  B'nei  Elohim operators  who  if they chose could run the capsule  to a  dead stop halfway down the  tube, then  kill both of them  with  laser light fired through the glass  tube.
 * 275) But nothing like that happened be- cause Chayn was being covered by the officers  Asmodeus left  behind,  as the Emperor's life insurance.
 * 276)  The forest sector of Taurus  City was  arranged around 300  foot  tall Green Hill, the highest point on the surface.  Asmodeus  could  see  foot trails spreading out like a web from the  summit as they  descended.
 * 277)  One side of the hill had  a  farm with 13 acres of fruits and  vegeta- bles  plus a ten acre fruit  orchard with  room for about thirty head  of cattle among the trees.
 * 278) On the other side of the hill were tall pines and about a thousand foot long stretch of whitewater in a deep chasm.  This  was a part  of  Taurus deliberately  sculpted to  be  wild, which was quite a valuable commodity in  space.
 * 279) There was a deep human (and nephi- lim)  need to be immersed  in  chaos periodically to balance the  sterile order of technology.
 * 280) The scenic drop ended with a  gen- tle stop in an abandoned station  on the hilltop. The castle of Robyn was at  the far end of Taurus's  central park  perched  on a  slightly  lower hill.
 * 281)  Beyond  the castle  was  a  small "downtown"  modeled after small  ci- ties  on Earth, and beyond that  was the far end of the city.
 * 282)  Asmodeus  and his  son  zigzagged down  Green Hill on paths between  a creek  and  a  stretch  of  road  on another piece of rugged "wild"  land between  the  two  mile-long  walls, which  were more than  five  hundred feet  apart.
 * 283)  Soon they found  themselves  sur- rounded by perhaps fifty  well-armed members of the Girl Guard in a large level area at the base of the  hill, where  the Tabernacle had  been  set up.
 * 284) A tall, muscular woman with  short hair  was at the center of the  ring of  women,  and she pulled  a  sword from  a sheath held in the hands  of another woman and stepped forward to meet the intruders.
 * 285)  "I'm Hunky," she said. "Robyn  is indisposed  at the  moment,  Emperor Asmodeus Gerash, so if you came  all the  way  here because  you  want  a piece  of  B'nei Elohim  ass  you'll have to settle for Number Two."
 * 286) Asmodeus hesitated. He was  nearly exhausted,  for one thing.  And  for another, while Hunky was no  substi- tute for Lilith or Del as a command- er on the field of battle, in a one- on-one  situation Hunky was said  to be  far more fierce than  either  of them.
 * 287)  Still, despite  Hunky's  nephilim Amazon  body frame, in Empire  dogma she was nothing but a silly and weak female.  The Emperor could not  back down in the sight of his son without contradicting many centuries of  pa- triarchy bluster, and Hunky knew  it full well.
 * 288) This situation was reinforced when the rest of the officers in the par- ty  of Asmodeus arrived to  observe, with Chayn in tow, after having come down to the city floor two-by-two.
 * 289)  Humans, demigods, and Fallen  An- gels arranged themselves as  specta- tors  on balconies and  alcoves,  in nooks  and crannies all  around  the open  space. Whatever  happened,  it was  going to be even better than  a game of Freeball, which was the  of- ficial sport of the B'nei Elohim.
 * 290) Intrepid television journalist An- drea  Mitchell rushed to  the  scene with a crew bearing lights and  cam- era gear, yelling "Wait!" Immediate- ly  she had her Interworld crew  set up  their equipment, while  a  half- dozen girls attended to both  Gordon and Abaddon with make-up.
 * 291)  "Asmodeus'  divine  and  imperial dignity  was  at a  breaking  point.  "What is this?" he yelled.
 * 292) Andrea gaped at hym. "Do you real- ize  how  many people  are  watching this war, Sire? Do you want to  look like  hell  on camera? And  she  mo- tioned for the girls to continue  to make  Asmodeus and Hunky  look  good but ridiculous.
 * 293)  Finally Asmodeus and  Hunky  were left unmolested by the make-up crew.  In  a sign of contempt for his  foe, Asmodeus  bypassed  the  traditional opening  formalities of  salute  and counter-salute.
 * 294)  He set down the macro and  simply stood  there with his blade in  hand and  tried to stare Hunky down.  Few could  withstand the withering  gaze of   the  Patriarch  of  the   White Beards.
 * 295) So Hunky, in reply, also  bypassed the traditional opening formalities.  She  skipped the  stupid  alpha-male bluster that always reminded her  of rams  beating their heads  together.
 * 296)  She  was thinking  of  that  crap where  the opponents circled  around one  another and talked trash  while they  made little quick thrusts  and parries to gauge their opponent  and tried  to  shake loose  an  opening.
 * 297) Don't men always have to do  that?  she  thought. Even in a  fist  fight they  will always begin by  throwing their  open palms against each  oth- er's  chest, saying "Come on!"  over and over again until they make  each other angry enough to start throwing fists.
 * 298)  But the B'nei Elohim  Girl  Guard knew closed fists were lousy weapons and  open  hands even  more  so.
 * 299)  At Shangri-La in the Green  River Gorge, also known as Boot Camp, they were trained to grab their foe imme- diately and actually pull them clos- er, bringing surprised male face (or testicles)  into raised female  knee or lowered female skull.
 * 300) So it was that Hunky, in her  very first  move, simply threw her  sharp steel  blade  into  Asmodeus'  chest like one of those oriental  throwing stars.  No fanfare. No boasting.
 * 301)  No  playing with her  food  which from  much past experience even  her B'nei Elohim associates expected her to  do.  In fact, Hunky's  move  was totally  unexpected,  therefore   it could  not fail.
 * 302)  Some of the women gathered  there were disappointed, but when Del  re- viewed  this  memory  later  on  the Swarm she would have high praise for Hunky indeed. The point was to  kill the emperor, not jerk off.
 * 303) Standing there with Hunky's  sword penetrating  his  heart,  Asmodeus's face  was  a  grimace  of  pain  and shock. He could not believe what had just happened to him, yet the  agony was  so  intense he could  not  even speak.
 * 304)  It's  not fair! I  wasn't  ready!  Hunky  cheated and skipped  all  the customary  preliminaries!   Apollyon saw that his father's wound was mor- tal.
 * 305)  Asmodeus  turned to his  son  and tried  to speak, but no  words  came out.  Before he could die,  Apollyon was determined to let his father see that his son was determined to  com- plete the mission.
 * 306)  He pointed a gun at the bag  con- taining  Chuck's  severed  head  and stood  forth so everyone  could  see him.  Bring  forth the  Ark  of  the Covenant  or this man's final  memo- ries will be lost forever.
 * 307) Chayn caught Hunky's eye. "I tried to  tell them the Ark wasn't  here." Hunky,  for one, was not willing  to allow  Chuck  to  suffer  the   True Death.  She yelled, "Everyone  hold!  Point your weapons at the deck.  No- body try anything."
 * 308)  "Excellent,"  Apollyon   growled.  This move was the only way he  could save  his  life, but he also  saw  a chance  to at least salvage his  fa- ther's  mission,  now that  his  fa- ther's life was forfeit.