Chapter Twenty Three
USS Normandy, CG-60, Off San Diego, California, Earth
“Anything on the plot?”
The Combat Direction Center, known as the CDC to the world in general and “the Pit” to the crew, resembled something inspired by a television movie. The four screens that dominated the compartment showed the coast of California up to a range that would sent the security weenies screaming into a catatonic trance if anybody unauthorized got wind of it. It wasn’t just the ship’s own sensors that were creating the massive coverage, Normandy was pulling in raw radar data from other ships up and down the coast and integrating it with her own. That sounded simple but it wasn’t. It would need only minor differences in calibration for contacts that appeared on both sets of data to be duplicated and reduplicated until the whole system crashed. That had happened often enough while the Cooperative Engagement Capability system had been under development and it had taken years to fix it.
It wasn’t just CEC that gave Normandy her enormous radar range. The cruiser was part of the AEGIS-ABM system. There was an incredible amount of alphabet soup attached to that particular modernization reflected Captain William Pelranius. The AEGIS system itself was Baseline 7.3cV(5) with the SPY-1D(V) radars baseline 5.3.8. What it all amounted to was that the radars on Normandy were an order of magnitude more powerful than those on non-ABM ships and the battle management technology was upgraded to match. That’s why she was stationed off San Diego. After the attack on El Paso, all border and coastal towns were considered to be at risk and San Diego was both.
“We’ve got nothing Sir.” The radar operator leaned back in her seat and flexed her shoulders. OSCSAW Annette Serafina had been staring at the display screens for more than an hour, watching the movement of aircraft up and down the California coast. The coverage wasn’t as dense as it might have been two years or more ago. These days, with the war on, a lot of civilian aircraft had been drafted into military service and fuel shortages had curtailed much of regular airline activities. On the other hand, military flight were way up.
“Axehorn, this is CAP-Three-Three-One requesting speed and altitude check.” Axehorn was Normandy’s call sign.
“CAP-Three-Three-One, we have you at altitude level six-zero, ground speed one-five-zero knots” Serafina’s voice was calm and neutral. The Civilian Air Patrol was doing its job, flying patrol missions and watching for anything unusual. With all the crazy nonsense that Yahweh had been throwing at the world for the last year, there was no telling what would come next.
“Axehorn, this is Eagle-One-Fiver, requesting speed and altitude check.” The voice had a smug note to it.
“Eagle-One-Five, we have you at altitude level one-two-zero, ground speed five-six-five knots.” She covered the microphone with her hand. “Navy airdale wanting to impress the Civil Air Patrol guy,” Serafina explained. The captain nodded sympathetically.
“Axehorn, Eagle-One-Fiver, please give clearance for flight at altitude level three-fiver-zero.”
Serafina glanced at the restrictions for the day and raised her eyebrows slightly. “Eagle-One-Fiver, that’s a negative. Remain at altitude level one-two-zero.”
“Come on honey, give me what I want.” The fighter pilot’s voice had a cooing overtone.
“No way Eagle-One-Fiver. Last time I gave an airdale what he wanted, I was on penicillin for three weeks. Remain at one-two-zero.”
“Axehorn, Habu-Zero-One requesting speed and altitude check.” There was a rich vein of amusement in the voice.
Serafina took one look at the track readings and saw why. In a slightly strangled voice she replied “Habu Zero-One, I have you at Altitude Level Nine-Nine-Five, Ground speed, Two-Eight-Seven-Zero knots.”
“Thank you Axehorn, and please thank CAP-Three-Three-One for his assist.”
“Two thousand, eight hundred and seventy knots, ninety-nine thousand, five hundred feet. What the blazes was that bird.”
“What bird, Sir? With respect Sir, I don’t know what you are referring to. You might note that call, if it had existed which it didn’t, came in on a special circuit, if that existed, which it doesn’t.” Serafina took pity on her Captain, he’d only been on board for three days and had come in from the Atlantic Fleet. It was rumored he’d done a six-month rotation in Hell before getting command of Normandy. “Sir, there are a lot of strange things around here that come out of inland that it’s better not to remember or ask questions about.”
“Senior Chief, we’re getting a warning from the DIMO(N) warning net. Cell Phone towers are dropping signals north west of San Diego. Probable portal opening, if so, it’s a small one.”
“Nothing on radar.” Serafina was tempted to up the transmission power a little but Normandy was only fifty miles of San Diego. If a normal AEGIS cruiser went to full transmission power this close in, she’d blow every television and radio set in the city, what an AEGIS-BMD would do defied rational imagination. “More precise location?”
“Around the El Capitan Reservoir. In the mountains. The trace has gone now. DIMO(N) say, probably one entity only passed through.”
“Uriel.” The hiss went around the CDC.
Captain Pelranius didn’t hesitate. “Sound battle stations. Assume one very hostile angel inbound. Send out the warning to Army and Air Force units as well. We don’t want the son-of-a-bitch to get away this time.”
West of El Capitan Reservoir, California.
Uriel popped out of the portal over the oddly-shaped lake that he’d selected as his entry point. In the past, he would have set off to the community he had selected for annihilation, confident in the knowledge of his unchallenged supremacy but those days were gone. His wing was still stiff from the injuries he’d suffered at El Paso and his skin itched with the memory of that battle. So, he stayed down amongst the mountains and made sure that his position was secure before he started his sacred mission of bringing final peace to the humans who lived below.
Safe in the darkness, his senses stretched out, he could feel the existence of life here, some of it animal and of no great importance but more was human. Once, this whole area had been uninhabitable desert but humans in their arrogance had challenged that divine judgment and brought water to the sand. Great cities had grown up on the coast, cities that could not exist without the constant exercise of human ingenuity and there obstinate refusal to accept that things that were should not be challenged. The thought of human challenge was enough to make his skin itch more
Then it occurred to him that his skin wasn’t itching as a result of his memories of the battle over El Paso, it really was burning. Only very slightly but it was there and it told Uriel much. He’d noted that it always preceded an attack and that made him guess that the humans knew he was coming. That would make things much, much harder. He decided that discretion was the better part of valor and he would approach his target from behind the ridgelines that were a little to the north of his present position. The humans wouldn’t see him until he was on top of them and then it would be too late. His new plan would take him over the small town of Eucalyptus Hills. Uriel didn’t know the name, and didn’t care about it but he decided that the community would make a useful practice target for his powers.
Home of Caroline Howarth, Eucalyptus Hills, California.
The sirens going off only added to Caroline Howarth’s distress. She knew what they meant, everybody did. The continuous wailing noise meant that a Netherworld attack was imminent and a portal had opened nearby. During the Curb Stomp War, the threat had been Baldrick Berserkers who would materialize somewhere and destroy anything they found. Now, with Yahweh responsible for the attacks, the sirens leant Uriel was on his way. Howarth had heard of El Paso and the result of a Uriel attack. Thirty thousand dead the reports said.
“Rex? Rex? Here boy.” The rottweiler came galloping into the room at his human’s call. He sat in front of her when she made the right hand gesture and waited patiently while she strapped a silver cap over his head. Rex didn’t understand this, but it was something that made his human happy and that was enough for him. He also noted that she was wearing a silver cap as well and that was good because it made the big dog feel part of the pack.
Howarth looked around. She’d modified this room as a shelter when she’d heard about El Paso. She couldn’t line all the walls of her house with aluminum foil but she’d taken the room furthest away from the outside walls and covered the walls and ceiling of that room with as much tinfoil as she could afford. She closed the door then took
