Path to Hell, page 1
part #2 of Federal Witch Universe: Arcane Corps Series
Path to Hell
by TS Paul
ARCANE CORPS BOOK TWO
IN THE FEDERAL WITCH WORLD
Table of Contents
Title Page
Legal Stuff
Dedications
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Author Notes
Author - T S Paul
Coming Soon!
Legal Stuff
Copyright © 2018 TS Paul, All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction of any kind is strictly prohibited unless written permission granted by the authors.
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
No actual Unicorns, Demons, Fae, Dragons, Mermaids, or Witches were harmed in the making of this book. Promise.
Cover designed by Heather Hamilton-Senter
Editing by Diane Velasquez, Dorene Johnson, and Kat Lind
Dedications
Special thanks to my wife Heather who keeps me grounded and to Merlin the Cat, we are his minions and to all the members of Phoenix Prime.
Chapter 1
“What the hell?” Sergeant House’s first thought was it had to be a drill. Some of the alarms going off he’d never heard before! He gripped the doorway next to him as the control room shook and trembled.
Private Gabriel Zolman lurched sideways as his foot caught on a fallen soda can. Rocking backward he lost control and fell back. The crunch of his head hitting the weapons console was like that of a baseball hitting the bat.
Crack!
“Gabe!” Bakes tried to stand up out of her chair and was tossed backward. Even more lights began to flash now. A siren wailed its alert for all to hear.
Sergeant House still gripped the doorframe. Like the others, he’d watched in horror as Private Zolman’s head cracked on the console, but he’d seen blood before. “Leave him! What do your screens say?”
Corporal Stevenson rolled her chair over to Zolman’s station. She began throwing switches and toggles. The mechanical gun parts of the weapons systems were updated every year, but not the electronic systems that controlled them. Only a select few troops knew what was in this room. “We have what the board says is an incursion. Sensors five, seven, and twelve are reading Demonic presences in the hole!”
“Bakes! Remove Zolman’s key and prepare to activate all the guns.” Sergeant House grabbed the red phone off the wall and started dialing. His chubby fingers could barely make the antique rotary phone work.
“I don’t know about this Sergeant. Orders say we’re to wait for our duty officer and he’s supposed to call the intelligence unit to reissue the key. You know what happened that one time during the drill. I love the Army I don’t…” Bakes started muttering about all the reasons to not take the key.
“Take the damn key! Does this look like a drill to you?” Sergeant House yelled almost dropping the phone. He put the phone to his ear and listened for the voice to say it was all a drill. It wasn’t.
Bakes tried to ignore the blood streaming down Private Zolman’s head as she thrust her hand under the moaning man’s shirt looking for the key. Her fingers clasped the chain just as his bloody hand grabbed her arm, “Help me.”
Jerking her arm back she ripped the key from around the man’s neck. She closed her eyes. Looking into the dying man’s eyes was something she wanted to forget, not embed in her memory. Sergeant House was right.
“Bring up all the monitors and send arming signals to the cannon. Command says this is the real deal! We’re the first line of defense. Get ready.” House started giving orders.
One by one the large wall monitors started coming to life. All six showed the hole from different angles, the largest from overhead.
“Beta Command just started firing.” Corporal Stevenson commented as the room shook another time.
Sergeant House grabbed the edge of the console in an iron grip and looked up. “At what? I don’t see a thing out there.”
Arcing shells and tracer fire could be seen on the big monitors, but there wasn’t anything in the Bowl except the hole.
“Zoom in on camera four. Is that movement?” All three of them stared up at the large monitor. As the camera zoomed in there appeared to be movement in the hole.
“Too many shells. I can’t see a thing. Call those idiots over in Beta, tell them to stop firing!” Corporal Stevenson yelled at the others.
Sergeant House peered at what everyone called the ‘Bowl.’ Gun emplacements were lined up in and around a metal wall containing the hole. It was erected in the 1970s when the current theory was if Demons attacked they could be confined here. Military planners weren’t ones to change horses mid-stream, so they incorporated the wall into the newer designs. “What is that? Is that a tooth?”
What looked almost like gigantic shark’s teeth, or maybe the blades of a saw appeared at the edge. The objects kept moving upward until there were now sharp objects sticking up from the hole.
“Target whatever that is and fire!” Sergeant House ordered.
All the turrets and other gun emplacements on their side of the bowl opened fire at once.
Cannon fire began to bounce back from the objects, exploding harmlessly inside the metal containment.
“Oh no!” Corporal Stevenson crossed herself and brought her cross up to kiss.
She realized that the sharp objects weren’t teeth but nails. Gigantic fingernails attached to an enormous Demonic hand that reached up and crushed the closest gun turret.
Like a snake entering a house, the Demonic Captain wiggled and wormed its way out of the ground and stood. It smashed any weapons nearby and waved off attacks by man-powered anti-tank guns.
Taking a step forward the Captain pulled a sword from thin air. The Demon’s sword smashed through the Alpha control center and silenced all its guns.
Inside the crew were scrambling to reactivate the guns, any of the weapons.
“Try the backup panel!” Sergeant House pressed every button on the console in succession.
Corporal Stevenson yanked open the panel on the wall and scanned the numbers. She flipped the main back into the on position. “Try it now.”
The console in front of the Sergeant lit up suddenly. Many of the switches remained dark, but fire buttons for half the primary weapons were still active.
“Burn that thing back to Hell!” Sergeant House ordered.
“Firing!” Private Bakes depressed the all guns button. All the remaining lights in the booth dimmed for a moment then the explosions started.
Only turrets two through five were active, but it was enough to take care of the imps and Cambion Demons pouring out of the hole. The even numbered guns were 90mm repurposed anti-aircraft artilleries initially installed on the base. The odd-numbered weapons were Uncle Sam’s latest and greatest, laser and plasma cannons.
“Bakes, target three and five on the big boy. This might be the only time they see action. Zolman, keep chopping up the smaller creatures!” Sergeant House ordered as he watched the screens.
“Sergeant, Zolman’s dead. I’ve got command of the evens too,” Bakes replied.
The big sergeant grimaced, “transfer control of the even guns to Stevenson and kill that thing.”
Bakes quickly typed in a command on her board setting up the transfer orders. The fail-safe system was set up this way in case a controller was overcome by Demonic energy. During the last war, there were several documented cases of artillery teams firing on their own troops.
Small to middle-sized Demons were crawling out of the hole faster than the main guns could destroy. The older M1 guns could only fire twenty-five shells per minute.
“Switch to fragmentation on the evens. If we can’t kill them, maybe we can slow them down some. Bakes, target the small ones until the switchover is made,” Sergeant House ordered.
“If I let up on the big one it could overwhelm our defenses!” Bakes shouted as she targeted the huge Demon’s body again.
Sergeant House left his station to hover over the private, “look at the concentration of the smaller ones. They’re building a damned ladder with their bodies. If they get out, we won’t have any defenses!”
“At least let me notify Beta section. They might be able to take up the slack,” Bakes slammed her left hand down on the communicator.
Nothing came through the speakers, not even a crackle of static.
“Transferring now. Sorry Sergeant.” Bakes hit three buttons in a specific order activating the system.
For almost thirty seconds the guns fell silent as Corporal Stevenson assumed control of them, in that time the Demonic Captain was able to destroy both the laser cannon and the plasma cannon with his sword.
Bakes’ entire console went dead as she let out a curse, “Frak! I’m out, Sergeant.”
House shook his head as he watched the main monitor. The Demonic Captain roared as he ripped what was left of the Army’s newest plasma cannon off the top of the wall. The piles of dead Demons were almost deep enough for it to reach the lip of the bowl. “Run to Beta section, Bakes. Inform them of our situation and attach yourself to them. We have nothing left for you here.”
Bakes stared at
“I’m not asking your opinion here, soldier! Move it!” House bellowed at her.
Bakes ducked her head grabbing her sidearm and ran. Taking one last look at the command center, she slid through the open door and out into the pressurized tunnel. Beta section was down the tube and to the left.
“Oliver, she just wanted to help you know,” Stevenson remarked as her hands flew over the board in front of her. The fragmentation shells were working against the smaller Demons, but the big one wasn’t hurt at all.
Blam!
A loud explosion shook the command center. Already loose consoles shifted, and the sound of glass breaking could be heard.
“What the hell was that?” House cried out.
“Gun Two. I can’t tell if it was internal, or the Demon got it,” Stevenson glanced at the computer readouts.
Stepping over Zolman’s body, the sergeant peered out the only outside window the building had. “The Demon didn’t get it. Keep firing.”
“Are we using the ‘last resort’ option?” Stevenson asked.
Sergeant House looked back over his shoulder at the corporal. “We may have to. It’s going to get out. Either stop it now or not at all. It will only stem the tide though. Looks to be thousands of them.”
Stevenson sighed as she targeted the large Demon with her shells. “At least I'm going out doing my duty.”
<<< >>>
Conception base was the most heavily defended area in the United States. Military forces had been in place here since the end of the Demon War in 1948. At first, it was tank units with the most substantial artillery available to the military. Those were replaced by what personnel nicknamed the Bowl. The area around the California Hellmouth was encased in a titanium bowl. It’s construction in the 1950s almost bankrupted the nation, but American deaths on a scale like those in Central Europe was unthinkable. The walled system was longer than three football fields. The idea was to provide a killing ground reachable by every weapon available. Gun emplacements of varying strengths were layered around the edges to facilitate that.
Like any bureaucracy, the Army and Marine Corps were no different. Over time, more unnecessary structures were added as well as upgrades to the system. Even though more advanced weapons were available, the expense was shelved in favor of just upgrading rather than replacing. Beta Command was one such decision. Unlike Alpha, they were in command of the Phalanx CIWS and light anti-aircraft guns. Staggered behind them was Delta Command. They controlled battleship grade turrets whose only purpose was to engage the threat when and if it escaped.
Bakes pressed the entrance button with her left hand and banged on the porthole window with her right. There was no immediate danger from the Demons but informing Beta Command was extremely important.
There was a loud clunk, and the door to Beta Command hissed open. Bakes quickly stepped inside and sealed the door behind her.
“Private Bakes, did you have something to report?” Lieutenant Blue asked.
Saluting, Bakes explained Alpha’s situation.
The lieutenant nodded. “Are they triggering the fail-safe?”
Bakes blinked. Fail-safe? “Sir, what’s the fail-safe?”
Lieutenant Blue shook his head. “Come with me.”
Following the officer, Private Bakes left the entrance portal and stepped into the control room. Unlike Alpha, this one was at least twenty years newer and much more spacious. Over a dozen soldiers sat behind monitoring stations firing at the Demons.
Stopping for a moment, she watched as the controller targeted a larger group of Cambion Demons crawling out of the hole. The 40mm cannons he controlled were strong enough to cause severe injuries to the lower Demons, scattering them. The crosshairs on the screen shifted to the next group sweeping across the lower half of the Captain Demon. The shells bounced off like they were made of rubber.
“Sir. Lieutenant Blue, sir? Sergeant House sent me to tell you. He said… He said…” The Private paused and looked at another monitor. Like the other, it was wreaking havoc on the lower Demons but couldn’t touch the big one.
The Lieutenant reached out and grabbed Private Bakes’s shirt collar. “Over here private.” He dragged her to a table at the back of the room.
“The Demons…” She pointed at the screens.
“I know. We can’t stop them. This base was built to slow them down. We’re the sacrifice needed to save the nation,” Blue explained.
Bakes looked up at the primary monitor. The interior of the bowl was lit up like the Fourth of July. It was an abattoir of blood and pain. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of Demons were pouring forth from the hole. For every hundred killed, one or two survived to create the steps. A virtual pyramid of living beings was to be steps to enable the Captain his freedom.
“The fail-safe was something the eggheads thought up at the end of the war. Immolation. At first, they loaded the tanks with white phosphorus and napalm. Studies showed that the Demons might survive that, so they switched to plasma a few years ago. No idea how they knew the original stuff wouldn’t work. Your section had control of it,” Blue pointed to the screen. “See the nozzles next to the guns? That is the fail-safe. If it works, it will kill the initial force and give Delta and Gamma time to set up. There is only so much ammunition in the world, Private.”
A bright flash caught Bakes attention as the 90mm gun exploded. The Demons roared and surged ever forward toward the stairs they were building.
“Concentrate all fire on the hole. Slow them down as much as possible!” Lieutenant Blue commanded.
Lights on the screen started to flash as bright blue spots began popping up on the sensors.
“He did it! Plasma system is operational. Burn you bastards,” Blue yelled.
True plasma is a form of ionized gas that when ignited can reach more than ten thousand kelvins. Someone somehow developed a system to harness that energy and use it as a weapon. The two plasma cannons in Alpha Command were such weapons. The fail-safe was another. Over a dozen nozzles directed the superheated gas directly at the Demons. Everything it touched was instantly incinerated. Demons, titanium, and humans. The area known as the Bowl and everything around it for more than a hundred feet ceased to exist in the time it took to take a breath. The Demon hole bubbled with molten metal as what was once a defense became a deterrent.
“Say a prayer for them later private. We don’t have long before the Demons break through again. Grab a station and hold one because round two is about to begin,” the lieutenant directed.
Chapter 2
Amber Carson, Class Three Mage and team leader of Theta Section looked up from her studies at the first rumble. She looked straight ahead and shook her head. When deep in concentration she occasionally imagined things. Then the entire room seemed to shimmy for just a moment. Looking skyward she began to yell, “Sheldon, what the hell was that?”
Now the room began to shake in earnest. Amber wondered if they were being subjected to an infamous “Cali earthquake.” Pictures rattled and bounced on the walls, and a glass of water on her desk slid off shattering on the floor. Lights, previously hidden, started to flash.
Gripping the table in front of her for stabilization, Amber shakily stood. Designed like a wheel, Theta was compartmentalized for efficiency. The study area was just the tip of the iceberg here. Another wave of shaking threw books and pictures on to the floor and almost tossed the Mage off her feet.
“Sheldon, report!” Lurching, Amber burst through the door into the large common room or hub of the section.
Two other members of Theta Section were present. They sat on the team couch staring at the large screen TV in the center of the room.
“What the hell’s going on?” Amber demanded as she staggered across the room.
Nadya Perry, the team’s other Mage looked at her leader with a rictus of fear. Her hand came up to point at the screen. “It’s an incursion.”
Without looking at the screen, Amber replied to her, “Impossible! We would have sensed the ritual. It has to be something else.”
“Are you even looking, boss? They aren’t aliens,” Alexander pointed a remote toward the screen.
Turning to the screen, Amber glimpsed a gigantic hand emerging from the hole before the screen shorted out vanishing the picture. Snatching the remote from the weapons specialist, Amber cried out, “Get it back!”
