Chapter 51: The Battle of Babylon

Time: July 4, 8244 4:00 PM

At sunset I broke up my meeting with my council and wandered into another communications room which was in contact with the civilian section of Babylon. I moment later I was addressing a CL-2 militia Priest who was near Babylon's primary train terminal. It clearly looked as if he wanted to kneel before me, but current law discouraged that. He called me by my name instead and stood there trembling.

"Name?" I asked, trying to look friendly.

"Nusrat, oh Servant of the Guide," he squeaked back.

"Nusrat, who is in charge of the CL-2 militia at Babylon?"

The man blushed for a moment and then replied, "I am, Abdul Hadi, trying to get things organized here I mean. I don't mean to usurp my superiors, but"

"Yes, I know. Your superiors decided to go to war with each other. You are to be commended for taking the initiative. Tell me, is their warfare still confined to the sacred monastery?"

He paused for a second. "Currently yes. We have pulled all our available Priests from the child monasteries and have our forces scattered around the adult monastery's perimeter, about 500 CL-2 militia and 400 CL-2 police. We can't match the monks' weaponry though."

"No, I don't intend that you should. Nusrat, until help arrives, I'm placing you in acting command. Maintain the troops in an observer status. If possible, try to evacuate the citizens adjacent to the monastery."

The man nodded. "Yes, Abdul Hadi. That is what we are currently trying to do."

"Excellent. Well done Nusrat. Don't defend the township if the fighting spreads outside the monastery. Return fire only if directly fired upon or if the monks start attacking the civilians."

"Yes Abdul Hadi. Those are our current engagement rules. Thank you Abdul Hadi." The man looked quite relieved. He had made several militarily correct but politically dangerous decisions over the last few hours, and I had just backed him up. I took a moment to think when reinforcements would arrive.

Babylon is perhaps the most isolated township on the South American continent. By Holy Law, no other township can be within a 1000 km of its boundaries. The three closest townships are Az Zarqa, Zoser, and Zabbut. They are all about 1100 km distant. Babylon was the single exception to the planning of bullet-train connections across South America. The monks want to retain their isolation.

Abigail! She has such insight! About two months ago she suggested I have a large, mobile troop presence in the area if possible, and I picked Zabbut to host the annual winter war exercises. Located at the ancient site of Rio Branco, Brazil, it is the home township of the Utility Guild specializing in excavation and grading equipment. The township has some of the best aviation support facilities in the world.

I checked with my local Commanders in the comm room and then turned back to Nusrat. "The paratroopers will be at Babylon in another hour. I'm also going to attempt to land a single military transport plane at the airport. I don't think the monks will be insane enough to shoot at it. We also have 6,000 militia arriving by train, 400 from Az Zarqa, 1200 from the tri-townships of the Xerxes area, and the rest from Zabbut. They should all be arriving between 9 PM and midnight tonight."

"Yes Abdul Hadi." The man's relief was clearly visible.

"Remember the law Nusrat. The monks reign supreme only on their monastery grounds. Unless there is a direct decree from The Code of Bel'dar, the township itself is under Royal jurisdiction. So unless you're on sacred ground Nusrat, your orders flow from Royalty, from me."

"Yes Abdul Hadi, that is clear. But what if the monks start commanding us with a Bel'dar decree?"

"You're under my orders on this Nusrat. Any such decree by a monk below CL-6 has to be verified as genuine. I know this is unusual, but under the circumstances, you are ordered to ignore any unverified claim of Holy Decree until you check with someone here." I spent a few more minutes discussing logistics with him, and then left the room to rejoin my Council.

The rest of the day proved uneventful. After leaving orders to be called if there were a change in conditions, I rejoined my Council for a light supper and then we all attended evening Prayers. It was interesting to observe my Council's demeanor during the Prayers. Some were joyful, while others appeared very thoughtful.

After the close of the Hour of Repose at 10 PM, I checked in briefly with the military and saw we were making great progress in surrounding the monks' campus and isolating it from the rest of Babylon. Miraculously there were no reports of civilian casualties, in spite of the continued warfare. The carnage on the campus itself was immense.

Latest reports from the ground and satellite imagery were showing that the battle was winding down, with the remaining monks concentrated in the relatively undamaged northwestern quadrant of the campus. The massive northeastern vaults holding The Code of Bel'dar appeared shielded and intact. The southern half of the monastery campus appeared completely gutted. It looked worse than some of the pictures of the nuclear war eight thousand years ago.

I got back to my private quarters shortly after 11 PM. Deep within my capital palace, there was a solid aura of security, but we all knew that the real foundation for our safety lay in the invisible shields around us. There were several minutes of intense diagnostics before Chanah and Shephatiah pronounced the system was functioning normally. We contacted Australia immediately afterwards.

"We have so much to report Abdul Hadi," said Dalis as the Australian council appeared before us. "Where would you like us to begin?"

I was wondering if she would be smiling, the day had been so successful for us. But the attitude of all the women was somber. It matched my own. The deaths of the monks were weighing on all of us. And yet, at the last Judgment, I had presided over a process that had sent tens of thousands of children to their deaths. The possibility to end such madness justified today's actions.

"What is the status of The Code?" I asked. "Can you still communicate with it? Be wary of the laser link. The arriving troops have equipment sensitive enough to detect the beam if it gets scattered by smoke."

"Yes, we know. We have an elegant solution to that. To answer your first question, the The Code of Bel'dar is in full lock-down mode. The vault has successfully sealed itself, over 200 meters of rock and steel, and we're the only ones now with the encryption keys to open it. We should be safe for quite a while."

"And the monks within the vault complex?"

"All dead."

I sighed. "Was that necessary?"

Dalis nodded her head. "Yes. We had to accelerate our plan. As soon as the top-level monks were killed at the capital, the duty staff at Babylon logged in as prime-user. They tried to initiate trace diagnostics into The Code. Strictly against Bel'dar's holy directives I know, but that's what they were doing, no question. We were in imminent danger of being detected. So we activated the vault's emergency security program. The monks had three minutes to evacuate before the vault would seal and release the biologicals."