by Jeff Kirvin
"Are you, my Lord?” Susan asked.
"Am I what?” he answered, turning to face Susan.
"Are you close to capturing Cho?"
Michael stroked his chin. “I believe so. We know he's in San Diego, or was there yesterday. Azrael is assembling a strike force that should be ready to wipe out his petty rebellion in a matter of days. More than that you don't need to know. Go. Relay my message."
Susan bowed and left the room, leaving Michael alone with his plans.
Susan took a deep breath as she entered the “broadcast studio", a small room in Heaven with automated cameras and her newsdesk.
This was it. She had taken steps a few weeks before to ensure that when the time was right no one could cut into or block her newscast. Her tampering had gone undetected, but she knew she could only use it once. Now was the time.
She locked the door and seated herself at the desk, turning to the control console mounted just out of sight of the cameras. She flipped a few switches, toggled over to her secure satellite feed, and looked into the dark eye of the camera.
Showtime.
"This is Susan Richardson with a Heavenly News Bulletin.
"As many of you know, the resistance movement known as the Underground attacked the angels in a worldwide strike just over twenty-four hours ago. I've been instructed to tell you that while the angels suffered very few losses, the damage done to the Underground was devastating, and that their leader, Daniel Cho, will soon be in angelic custody.
"I'm supposed to tell you all that, but I can't. It isn't true, and I'm not going to lie for them anymore."
Michael stared at the monitor, mouth agape. “What does she think she's doing?” he breathed.
Only Azrael had the nerve to speak up. “I warned you leaving public relations in the hands of a human could be disastrous. It would appear your ‘mouthpiece’ has grown a mouth of her own."
Michael lifted Azrael off his feet and threw him across the gigantic throne room. “Communications!” Michael screamed.
"Yes, my Lord?” came a harried voice over the intercom.
"Why is she still on the air?"
"We don't know, my Lord. We've tried to cut her off, but the controls aren't responding. I believe she has us blocked at the source. We can't stop this broadcast."
Michael bellowed as he stormed out of the room.
"I've learned things over the past year and a half that no human was ever supposed to know,” Susan said on the screens of televisions around the world. “Until now, I've never had the opportunity to tell you what I've learned, never when it would have done some good. I'm sorry it's taken so long, and I'll get right to the point.
"Michael is the greatest threat to the human race that we've ever encountered. He's Stalin, Hitler, Ghengis Khan and every other evil dictator in human history all rolled into one. The only difference is that if we don't stop him now, while we still can, his reign will never end.
"Many of you have seen friends and loved ones with genetic illnesses or congenital defects shipped off to Care Centers. It's time you knew these Care Centers are actually Nazi-style death camps, where those that don't measure up to Michael's standards are ruthlessly exterminated.
"Michael is engaged in a program to ensure the genetic purity of the human race. While Satan strove to improve us through a chaotic survival of the fittest, Michael wants to improve us by imposing an orderly and merciless plan of weeding out those he deems unfit to survive, regardless of the contributions they could make. Under Michael's reign, Beethoven would never have existed. Neither would Steven Hawking, or anyone born less than physically perfect.
"Michael's plan is to kill anyone that doesn't meet his genetic standards of purity. He'll kill your babies just after they're born if they don't measure up. He'll kill you too, if you can't produce perfect offspring in three tries, no matter how perfect you may be yourself.
"We can't allow this to continue. The world unity the angels have brought isn't worth an eternity of slavery and death.
"The Underground is our only hope. Far from the hapless renegades Michael has painted them as, the Underground is a well-organized, top-notch military organization. Their leader, Daniel Cho, is a great hero and a good friend, and if any human can bring Michael down, Daniel's the one. I'm sorry, Daniel, that I didn't believe you when you told me these things yourself. I was blinded by Michael's accomplishments, and now I'm paying the price."
A loud thundering noise began off camera, like someone pounding on a door. Susan glanced away, then faced the camera again.
"I'm running out of time.
"The angels can be beaten. In yesterday's attack, countless brave men and women lost their lives, but nearly half the angels were destroyed. Another good fight like that and we can destroy them forever. But the Underground needs people. I urge you to seek them out and help mankind destroy these inhuman monsters!"
The pounding ceased and a door flew through the air in front of the camera. Michael strode into the room, looking furious.
"Shut up!” he roared.
"They can be beaten!” Susan continued, standing up and leaning into the camera. “Michael is scared! Daniel has him on the ropes! Gabriel died in yesterday's attack, fighting Daniel's personal troops! The Underground knows how to win, but you've only got a few days until Azrael's strike force is ready to attack! Please! For your children, don't let this go on!"
"Shut up!” Michael screamed again, putting his hands on either side of Susan's head.
A tear ran down Susan's cheek. “Daniel,” she said, “I'm sorry..."
With a primal scream, Michael twisted and ripped Susan Richardson's head away from her shoulders and threw it across the room. Crimson blood fountained up from her neck and drenched his face and golden shirt before her body collapsed across the newsdesk. Michael sneered into the camera and wiped the blood away from his face with his sleeve. He turned at last to the control panel next to Susan's chair.
"Stupid bitch,” he muttered as he flipped a switch, and television sets around the world went black.
Liberty or Death
Daniel walked around the bunker in a mild state of shock. Susan's final broadcast had a huge effect on people. Michael was finally revealed for what he truly was, and the people of Earth had decided not to tolerate him any longer. As he walked, Daniel nodded to so many faces he didn't know. Overnight, the membership of the San Diego Underground had nearly doubled, and he'd received word from other commanders reporting similar or better situations.
Finally, Daniel heard a familiar voice.
"How you feeling, sir?” Jack asked as he fell into step at Daniel's side.
"I honestly don't know,” Daniel answered. “Susan was one of my best and oldest friends. We'd been through so much, and I really don't believe I would have survived to tell the world about the immortals without her. But when I see what her sacrifice has bought us...” Daniel waved his arm around to all the new recruits.
"Yeah, I know,” Jack said. “She's a hero."
"And a martyr,” Daniel added. “And the shitty thing of it is, I know how to use that to our advantage as well, when the time is right."
"So what do we do now, sir?"
"Just before her death, Susan mentioned Azrael and some kind of strike force. She said they'd be ready to move in a few days, but I'm betting now that their cover's blown they plan to move much sooner. We have to be ready before they are. I bet we have no more than twenty-four hours to mount our Second Offensive and destroy Heaven, or we'll be too late to be effective. How's the training going?"
Jack sighed. “As well as could be expected. The vast majority of these people are civilians, with no military or police training at all. With some of them it's all we can do to get them pointing the grenade launchers in the right direction."
Daniel smiled. “The heroes of the American Revolution weren't professional soldiers either, Jack. I'm betting the passion of people fighting for their lives and their futures will outweigh their lack of
technical savvy."
Daniel stopped and looked around, seeing the people around him not as unseasoned civilians or even as individuals, but as a growing, highly-motivated army. “Round up the other local commanders and set up the communications links to the others. We've got an assault to plan."
Michael sat in his darkened throne room and sulked. As loathe as he was to admit it, even to himself, the situation with Cho and the humans had indeed become a war, and he was losing it. His reconnaissance satellites showed heightened activity at many suspected Underground bases, and many of his lieutenants had reported a sudden drop in the visible population. Michael knew where all those people had gone, and what they were doing.
He was stupid to deal with Richardson while on the air, but there was nothing he could do about that now. In a fit of rage, he hadn't thought the situation through, and now his image was forever tainted to this generation of humans. If he won this war (and he had to at least accept the possibility that he might not), he'd probably have to exterminate the adult human population and start over with the children. Such a waste.
He reached over and brought up Azrael's latest report on one of his monitors. At least this was good news. The strike team would be ready far sooner than expected, and they were set to strike at noon the next day. Michael glanced at the clock. Twenty-five hours. Just over a day and Cho would be out of his hair forever. The other rebels didn't concern him if their ringleader was removed. Cho was the catalyst; he'd been at ground zero since it all began with the discovery of Batarel. Without him, the rebel house of cards fell apart, and they really became the directionless bumblers they were before his arrival. Michael slumped in his throne and stared into the darkness.
Twenty-five hours.
Daniel and the other leaders of the Underground spent most of the day planning the following day's attack. Throughout most of the world, the Second Offensive would be a replay of the First Offensive, if more decisive and impassioned. Both sides knew what was at stake now, and neither would yield while still breathing. It promised to be quite a fight, but Daniel was confident it would be successful.
In southern California, the situation was quite different. No one had attacked Heaven directly in the First Offensive, but that's exactly what Daniel had to do. They'd have no air support, the crutch of American military strategists since World War One, and from Daniel's perspective it looked and felt like a much older type of conflict: a castle siege.
Heaven's defenses were formidable, but not impossible to breach. Daniel attributed that to Michael's arrogant underestimation of the human race. It was really Michael's only weakness, and Daniel planned to exploit it to maximum efficiency. While the doors were too heavily defended, Daniel's force should be able to blow a hole in a wall with the weapons they'd cannibalized from the bunker.
Daniel stood before thousands of people in the makeshift auditorium, a theater they'd commandeered. He gestured to floorplan schematics of Heaven on the briefing screens. “Once we're in, destroy anything that moves. It's an unfortunate fact that Michael still has a human guard force inside Heaven that's loyal only to him, but I doubt you're going to have time to determine whether or not your opponent is human before they try to blow you away. Anything you see that isn't part of the Underground, shoot it.
"Unfortunately, this is a no surrender, no retreat situation for both sides. Aside from any humans inside who manage to surrender before we open fire, neither side can afford to back off in this one. It's going to be a bloody, prolonged fight that won't stop until either all of us or all of the angels are dead. It's never easy to invade an enemy fortress, particularly one so vital to defend, but it can be done. As some of my Mexican compatriots enjoy pointing out, Santa Anna eventually took the Alamo."
Daniel stepped away from the briefing screens and stood center stage. “A lot of good people have died to get us this far. Ricardo Jones and Manuel Nogales led many of you into battle, and sacrificed their lives to our cause. Susan Richardson paid with her life to spread the truth about the immortals, and many of you are here now only because she cared enough about what was at stake to risk everything she had, everything she was. We owe it to these heroes that have gone before us to finish the fight they started.
"In 1775, the British army had landed in Boston, and despite ten years of protests by the American colonists, the British rule was growing more severe by the day as the King tried to control a people he knew nothing about, people who were separated from him by a three month ocean voyage. There was talk of a war for independence, but most of the leaders of the day favored the current peace, believing they had no hope against the British army in a declared war. In the midst of this stagnation was a man named Patrick Henry. In a speech delivered on March 23, 1775, he implored his fellow Americans to go to war with the British. To him, liberty was far more valuable than peace and maintaining the status quo. If I may read the last bit of his speech, I think you'll recognize the immortal words at the end."
Daniel pulled a piece of paper from his uniform pocket, unfolded it and began to read. “Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
The theater shook with the shouts and applause of the Underground, but Daniel quieted them and continued on, the paper discarded. “What we fight for tomorrow morning is more than Patrick Henry ever dreamed possible. We fight for liberty, yes, but a liberty like no human has ever known. Should we win the day, we will be the first humans in the history of our race truly free to control our own destiny. For thousands of years, allegedly free men have been influenced and steered by immortal hands. We fight to end this! Should we lose, we will know not only our own deaths, as individuals, but the death of humanity as we know it. The death of our children, should they not meet Michael's standards. The death of our fellow humans, should they dare overstep the narrow bounds Michael sets for them. The death of art, the death of free expression, the death of the human soul. We can not, will not let this happen!"
Daniel raised his arms high above his head. “Liberty or Death!” he shouted.
"Liberty or Death!” the crowd responded.
"LIBERTY OR DEATH!"
Second Offensive
In the pre-dawn darkness the next morning, Daniel's troops assembled outside Heaven's eastern wall. They'd taken two massive energy cannons off the roof of the bunker and loaded them onto flatbed trucks. These cannons were currently trained on a single section of the wall.
Jack and Daniel stood next to one of the cannons. Jack was clad in police riot gear, like most of the Underground fighters, and Daniel wore his black suit of armor.
"This feel a little easy to you?” Daniel asked.
Jack nodded. “The thought had occurred to me,” he said. “But at this point, I'm willing to accept a little good luck and believe we're taking them by surprise."
Daniel walked to the edge of the flatbed and peered up the side of the mammoth gold building. “I don't like it,” he said. “Michael's not this stupid. Arrogant, yes, but not stupid. He knows we're coming. He's got something up his sleeve."
Jack joined Daniel at the edge. “Whether he does or not, it's really academic at this point. We're here."
Daniel paused for a moment, then nodded agreement. “Right. Let's do what we came to do."
Daniel walked back to the men controlling the cannons and gave them some final instructions. Then he keyed the amplifier on his suit and addressed his troops.
"You all know what to do. Good luck.
"On three.” He nodded to the cannon operators.
"One."
The resistance fighters tensed, preparing.
"Two."
Over two thousand eyes focused on the golden wall, ready to burst through it at the first opportunity.
"Three!"
Both angelic energy cannons opened fire, and soon the metal of the wall began to twist and warp. Daniel thought he heard something else over the whine of the cannons, a deep rumble maybe, but he wasn't sure.
Suddenly, the tortured wall gave way and the interior of the angels’ stronghold was open to them. The cannons shut off and Daniel lead the surge forward. Too late, he heard and understood the rumbling noise he had hoped he only imagined.
He stopped and looked to the sky. From the rooftop soared angel after angel, more than two dozen in all. They waited until more than half the humans were through the huge hole in the building, then began to dive.
It was a trap. Daniel and his troops had no choice but to run headlong into the building, where a prepared force no doubt waited for them. There would be no escape, no possibility of retreat, and Daniel's fighters would have to fight in front and behind.
Damn! Daniel thought. How could I have been so stupid? Such introspection would have to wait. By the time he and Jack finally crossed the jagged threshold into the building, the battle was joined.
The fate of humanity was about to be decided.
At the same moment Daniel's forces began their invasion of Heaven, other Underground troops around the world launched attacks on their local targets. As expected, the battles were more heated than in the First Offensive, and the angels were better prepared.
Heinrich von Braun was in a panic.
Michael had informed them that the traitors in the Underground would likely attack during the night, but most of the night had passed without incident. Heinrich was certain the rebellion had had a change of heart, or lost their nerve. An attack against the angels was foolhardy and counterproductive. Surely they saw that. Their lies and fake newscasts would collapse under their own weight, and peace would be restored.