Armageddon???? (Part Fifty Up)

[brianeyci]

Obviously once the charge has started, it's difficult to control. I read the charge as stupid because they charged too early, not in visual range of the humans, and charged a battalion at a time rather than all at once. They didn't seem to charge in steps either, trot, canter, gallop, but immediately spurred their mounts to full speed ensuring a retarded charge.

I don't really know what "charging by battalion" means except charging a batallion at a time, without any real communication between the riders or any cohesion between batallions at all. As if as soon as they saw the barbed wire, they charged on an individual basis.

What I'm saying is when I said "too stupid to charge all at once" it was a catch all for all these things which seemed obvious to me. Was the charge not meant to be stupid? Charging at that range seems obviously stupid unless I'm missing something.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Obviously once the charge has started, it's difficult to control. I read the charge as stupid because they charged too early, not in visual range of the humans, and charged a battalion at a time rather than all at once. They didn't seem to charge in steps either, trot, canter, gallop, but immediately spurred their mounts to full speed ensuring a retarded charge.

I don't really know what "charging by battalion" means except charging a batallion at a time, without any real communication between the riders or any cohesion between batallions at all. As if as soon as they saw the barbed wire, they charged on an individual basis.

What I'm saying is when I said "too stupid to charge all at once" it was a catch all for all these things which seemed obvious to me. Was the charge not meant to be stupid? Charging at that range seems obviously stupid unless I'm missing something.

They didn't charge a battalion at a time, that's not what it means at all. The term is a highly specific military one. It means that each man in each unit designated does it at exactly the same time. Fire by Company means the company is arrayed so all the men can and do fire at once. Charge by Battalion means that each Battalion is charging in one mass, in one line. So they actually charged with excellent discipline--they charged three ranks deep, each rank consisting of an entire battalion strung out in single depth line. And this formation was extended three times over to maximize the frontage, rather than charging nine-battalions-deep to maximize the mass.

What "charging by battalion" means is that the largest force to be operating independently is the battalion, just like in "firing by company", the largest force firing independently is the company.

[Stuart]

I don't really know what "charging by battalion" means except charging a batallion at a time, without any real communication between the riders or any cohesion between batallions at all. As if as soon as they saw the barbed wire, they charged on an individual basis. What I'm saying is when I said "too stupid to charge all at once" it was a catch all for all these things which seemed obvious to me. Was the charge not meant to be stupid? Charging at that range seems obviously stupid unless I'm missing something.

What you're missing is the purpose of the charge. In human cavalry charges, the primary object is to impact the enemy line and break it. For that the need is velocity to maximize force of impact. Human cavalry uses horses which have limited endurance at a full gallop so they breal into charges at short range. Here, the cavalry charge is intended to close the range quickly so that the target can't run away. The Beasts have much greater full-speed endurance than a horse so the duration of full speed isn't an issue. Covering as much ground as possible as quickly as possible is.

[Stuart]

Headquarters, Randi Institute of Pneumatology, The Pentagon, Arlington, VA

“I see you finally got your new offices.” Julie Adams looked totally different from her first visit here less three weeks ago. Her hair was washed and shining, she was wearing skillfully-applied make-up and was smartly, fashionably, dressed. As with all the latest fashionistas she was wearing chic aluminum foil hat that covered her head and extended down the back of her neck. Producing elegant headwear out of aluminum foil had proved a challenge but the French and Italian designers had come through with flying colors. Julie’s aluminum hat had more to do with her change in appearance than her clothes or make-up. For the first time in many, many years her eyes were quiet and rested, she looked at the world with peaceful confidence not abject terror.

“They’re nice aren’t they.” The Amazing Randi was sitting behind his desk, sorting through the letters received by his unit, trying to pick out the genuine prospects from the fakes. It was a harrowing job. “Our General bullied the decorators until they did what we wanted. By the way, the walls are foil-lined, we’ve got monitoring equipment here and we can’t pick up any extra-dimensional signals. So it looks like we’re safe. I guess the next set of building codes will stipulate aluminum foil in all walls and ceilings.

“Anything.” Julie shuddered at the memories of what Domiklespharatu had done to her.

Randi smiled again, understanding her expression like any skilled cold-reader. “Julie, would you like to get your own back? Punish Domiklespharatu by hurting him the way he hurt you?”

“Sure. Of course. Can I?”

“Come to the laboratory.” The two went into the next room. There was a comfortable reclining chair with some electronics behind it and a swinging table with a microphone. “Don’t ask me how any of this works, I’m a conjuror, not a physicist.”

“It’s quite easy James.” One of the men in white coats was talking. “The baldrick mind control works by quantum entanglement, essentially they transmit their mind signal to a victim and force its mind pattern to match theirs. When we intercepted the baldrick signal, we identified both the baldrick’s pattern and that of Miss Adams. So we just reversed the procedure and we’re going to try and entangle its mind pattern. The catch is its much easier for hell to transmit to us than us to transmit to them. So, since we’re not short of raw electrical power, we’re going to boost it upwards until we can transmit to hell. If we’ve done this right, you can speak into this microphone and broadcast straight into Domiklespharatu’s mind.”

“Thank you gentlemen, I still don’t understand how it works but you’ve done wonders, that I know. If this goes well, what we plan to do is to open a new radio station transmitting to everybody in hell. And, Julie, you’ll be our first newsreader. Now settle down and start to try.”

Julie slipped into the chair and pushed her headset on. Earphones and a simple microphone. Behind her, the systems specialists started to ease the power up, seeking the threshold that would tell them they had breached the barrier between the dimensions. In her seat, all Julie could hear was the signals hum, slowly increasing in pitch and intensity. Then, suddenly it stopped, there was an eerie silence at the other end and Julie could sense the suspicious questioning as Domiklespharatu felt a new presence in his mind.

“Remember me Domiklespharatu? I’m Julie Adams, the woman you got your kicks from torturing. Well, I’m back only I’m in your mind now. I can get into your head but you can’t get into mine any more. So guess what, Domiklespharatu, its my turn to have some fun and yours to suffer. Let’s see, where shall we start? Oh yes, here’s a good one. We’re coming for you and all your kind. You had the impertinence to invade us and we’re slaughtering your kind here. You don’t stand a chance against us. We’re coming for you and we’re going to free all of our people you hold and hand those of you that survive over to them. We’re going to hand you over and watch all our people do to you what you have been doing to them. There’s a new order coming and we’re the ones on top. So, you’d better start running Domiklespharatu because we’re coming for you and we won’t stop. Not now not ever. You’ve pissed off the human race Domiklespharatu and, oh boy, what a price you’ll pay for doing that. Oh, and tell that freak you have in charge there, he’d better find a good lawyer. He’ll need one for the war crimes trial.”

The system powered down and Julie took her headset off. There was an enthusiastic round of applause. Randi laid an approving pat on the shoulder. “Impertinence. That was great. I guess you’ll be taking the job then Julie.”

On the Shore of the Styx River, Fifth Ring, Hell

The woman was crouched behind a rocky outcrop on the edge of the Styx in the fifth circle, watching the scene unfold in front of her. Luck was an amazing thing, wasn't it? For thousands of years, she'd been purposefully moving through hell, taking account of the humans who suffered here – some worthy of her attention, others, weaklings, worthy only of her contempt. Of course, given the billions of souls – there must be billions, now – she could only rely on her instinct to guide her. And now, this. Just as she was in the area, some new arrivals had escaped with apparent ease, had tackled the demonic overseer with impunity, stabbed and bludgeoned it to death with skill, and had just crucified it to the rocks in front of her. Such open defiance was unprecedented and dangerous.

In ten thousand years, she had learned many languages from the screams and gibbering cries of the tormented, so with only a little difficulty she recognized what they were saying. The woman was speaking to a man, something about resistance. She smiled to herself. If only they knew … As they turned to go, she stepped out from behind the rock.

"Hello!"

The two newcomers whirled, the bronze spikes they carried up and ready. The woman smiled and spread her arms, revealing herself unarmed. "I have seen what you have done. Excellent work."

The apparent leader of this group was a woman, short, already healing from the gang rape. She gestured to her companion and he lowered his weapons, though they still stood cautiously at the ready. All were in excellent physical shape, save for the quickly-healing wounds and scars. "Who are you?"

"A fellow resistance member." Suddenly, the woman felt a stab in her back above the kidneys. She almost fainted with terror, had a demon caught her for the spikes against her were certainly the bronze of a trident. She turned slowly, looking over her shoulder. There were more newcomers behind her, one armed with a cut down trident, the other with a club made from the section of haft that had been removed. The woman was shocked, she’d been so pleased at tracking this group, she hadn’t seen they’d spotted her and had set up an ambush.

Now, the leader of the group was speaking, her voice hard, cold, suspicious. "There's already a resistance?"

"Of course there is. There has been a resistance in Hell since it began."

"Well, take us to its leader."

The woman again spread her arms. "I will certainly do that. But first you must tell me your names."

"When we meet the leader."

"Okay. Then follow me; we're going to the rim between the fourth and fifth circles." And she turned and stepped into the waist-deep muck, wading past the still-bleeding corpse of Jarakeflaxis. The six newcomers followed her at a distance. The woman didn’t notice but two of them dropped out of sight, following from the flanks.

Over her shoulder, the woman said, "If I duck under the mud, you do the same. As long as the demons on patrol don't see us, we'll be fine."

The Tango flight members exchanged glances, that remark was more telling than the woman had realized. It should be the demons who lived in fear. First rule of establishing liberated area – those who stayed out of it were safe, those who entered it, died. Obviously what she meant by resistance wasn’t what they meant. Kim started to form a mental picture of what the resistance here really was, probably groups of escapees hiding out, spending their time avoiding capture. Kim had in mind something far more ambitious.

The Galaxy Turkish Bath and Massage Parlor, Bangkok, Thailand

The succubus slipped into the bar carefully, keeping in the dark as much as possible. Once it had been easy to fool the humans but no more. Now fewer and fewer of them seemed vulnerable to mind-masking. This group seemed to be though. All women, that was good, massacring them would cause great alarm and misery. There were a group of them by a long wooden table at the end of the room. The succubus kept her self-image clearly in her mind, a young Asian woman dressed as these were, short skirt, skimpy top, baseball cap perched on their heads. A couple of women were dancing around a pole on a small stage, under a sign that said “Coyote Dancing”. Well, they could wait until last.

The succubus went up to the group by the table, picked the one at the end and drew back her clawed hand ready to plunge it into her victim’s chest and tear out her heart. Then she paused, she’d never realized quite how big a half-inch could look when it was pointing straight at her face.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking, can you kill me before I pull the trigger? Well, seeing as this is a .50AE Desert Eagle, the most powerful semi-automatic hand gun ever made, you have to ask yourself one question. Do you feel lucky?” The human woman chuckled. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

The succubus looked around carefully. She was the center of a ring of gun barrels, all aimed at her, all obeying the third law of gun-fighting – calibers measured in inches should begin with a “.4” or greater. It was pointless, over. She let her image drop and from the lack of shock on the faces of the women, she realized her illusion had been just as pointless. These women had recognized her as soon as she had entered and they’d trapped her.

“So kill me.” She’d failed, it was hopeless. Death was the consequence of failure.

“Perhaps not. Sit down. Don’t try anything stupid and we won’t shoot. Why did you do this?”

“It was my mission. Deumos sent me to seduce a leader and bend him to our will.”

“So Deumos is your pimp.” The woman with the Desert Eagle put a mountain of disgust into the word. “That doesn’t explain why you came here to try and kill us.”

“I failed, we were told that politicians here were easy to seduce but I couldn’t make mind-contact with them. I hoped killing you would buy enough favor to save my life. People here no longer are deceived by our mind mask.” The succubus thought for a second. “What is a pimp?”

“Somebody who lives off the money we earn.”

“I do not get paid.”

“Then you’re a sex-slave?” The women in the bar were genuinely shocked. They frequently told their tourist clients they were poor women, tricked into a life of sin by unscrupulous brothel-owners but that was just a line to get some sympathy-money. They were all Bangkok girls, born and bred in the city. Country girls couldn’t compete with them and didn’t try. Not one of the girls in the bar had ever actually met a real sex-slave.

“Aren’t you?"

“No!” Noi, the girl with the Desert Eagle, was horrified and insulted. “We are business-women. We are free professionals and paid as such. Why last week I made more money than an office lady makes in a year. Look…. What’s your name?”

“Lugasharmanaska.”

“Look Lugasharman… do you mind if we call you Luga? Nobody has the right to go around telling you who you can have sex with. Not unless they pay you for the trouble. It sounds to me like this Deumos person has been treating you pretty badly. You’d be better off staying with us that going back to him.”

“Her. Deumos is a female. A Greater Demon.”

There was another round of indignant snorts. “That’s disgusting. A woman treating you like this? A man, perhaps I can understand, they always want it for free but another woman? That’s sick. You should be free to make your own living. It’s your body.”

“I could make a living doing it here?” Lugasharmanaska’s voice was uneven, curious, confused.

The women in the bar laughed, although that didn’t affect the way they held their guns. “You bet. A real demon whore? There’d be men lining up out the door to do you. You could look like yourself, or like their favorite actress or whatever. You’d make a fortune. Why a couple of months and you’d own a bar like this. Less if an American warship pulled into Pattaya.” A chorus of happy sighs ran around the bar. To the women, an American warship full of Walking ATMs was their idea of the Great Cornucopia. Noi continued. “Look, Luga, last time one American carrier pulled in for a week, I made enough money to buy a new pickup truck. Cash down. Lin over there paid for a whole year’s college tuition for her younger sister and Dip bought a house for her parents. How do you think we all ended up with American guns? Tourists are profitable enough, we all make a good living off them. And this Deumos person makes you do it for nothing. It’s not just disgusting, its unprofessional.”

“Well what can I do?” Lugasharmanaska almost wailed out the question.

The girls did a quick conference. “Come with us, we’ll take you to the Army. They’ll look after you, they know if they don’t look after our friends, they’ll never get any in this city again. I’ll get my truck and we’ll go around to the Cavalry Depot in Thonburi.”

Five minutes later, one succubus and five ladies of the night were piling into Noi’s pickup truck, Lugasharmanaska having been strongly cautioned not to scratch the paint with her claws. A ten-minute drive took them to the depot gates where, for the second time in an evening, Lugasharmanaska was surrounded by guns.

“Hi boys.” Noi’s voice was bright and friendly.

“Sisters, you do know you got a baldrick in the back there?”

“Of course. Her name is Luga. She wants to surrender so we brought her here. We don’t trust the police.”

“I can understand that. I’ll have to call the Officer of the Guard.”

Another ten minutes and the group were telling their story to the Officer of the Guard, making it very clear that the succubus was under their protection and if she was hurt, nobody in the Second Cavalry Division would be welcome in a Bangkok bar again. Most of the troops had gulped at that threat and mentally promised to guard their prisoner with their lives. Within 30 minutes, the Thai MoD was on the telephone to Washington.

Headquarters, Randi Institute of Pneumatology, The Pentagon, Arlington, VA

“Well, it’s a step forward but it doesn’t really get us that far.”

“I thought Julie did well.”

“She did, and we told her she can use the equipment any time she likes to torment Domiklespharatu. But its one-to-one communication. It’s using a telephone and we want to use something like radio. We want to transmit to everybody and this system just can’t do that. It needs a mind-pattern to lock in to, like I said, it’s one-to-one.”

“But baldricks can deceive large numbers of people at once.”

“Sure, but we don’t know how. We’re a long way out from knowing that.”

The telephone on Randi’s desk rang and he picked it up, mouthing an apology as he did so. As he listened, his eyebrows lifted.

“Well, this might change things. That was the Ministry of Defense in Bangkok. We’ve got a defector.”

Tip of the hat to Surlethe who wrote the hell section of this installment.

[Shroom Man 777]

Excellent.

Though it seems silly how quickly the Thailanese hookers were able to gain rapport with their captured demon. Well, even a story about the End of the World ought to have some comedy.

[Stuart]

Though it seems silly how quickly the Thailanese hookers were able to gain rapport with their captured demon. Well, even a story about the End of the World ought to have some comedy.

Not really, The girls make their living by rapidly establishing rapport with the people they deal with and they are very good at it. "In reality" I'd guess it would have taken them a bit longer and I've never known of a one of our Thai slinky sisters actually holding a potential client at gunpoint but basically they're just doing what they do every time they work, manipulating the person they're dealing with into doing what they want. From a storytelling point of view, I cut the process down a bit so it made fun reading.

[dragon]

Very nice even though I'm can only imagine the reaction of the prudish Americans once they start deal with the succubus. Especially once they start asking her what she wants exchange for all her info now that she realizes that she has something to barter.

Also when are all the heavy bombers going to get there? A few flights of B52's or B1B's carpet bombing the demons from 30,000+ feet would be no so nice. Considering we have a few in England, and a few other places.

[Ace Pace]

Very nice even though I'm can only imagine the reaction of the prudish Americans once they start deal with the succubus. Especially once they start asking her what she wants exchange for all her info now that she realizes that she has something to barter.

Also when are all the heavy bombers going to get there? A few flights of B52's or B1B's carpet bombing the demons from 30,000+ feet would be no so nice. Considering we have a few in England, and a few other places.

For what point? Randomly bombing hell without knowing the location of important targets, geography, any sort of anti air? Sounds like a recipee for disaster.

Stuart, another great chapter.

[Shroom Man 777]

It was also kinda cute and...maybe even animu-y. I'm half expecting the succubus to not look exactly THAT grotesque, but be more...cute. Even if she's pointy claw-y fanged cute.

[Wyrm]

Generic encouragements to Stuart.

As to the cuteness of the succumbus, I figure she would look cute... to a demon. But considered demons are mostly humanoid, she shouldn't look that far off from a comely woman.

"That far off" is, of course, undefined.

[dragon]

Very nice even though I'm can only imagine the reaction of the prudish Americans once they start deal with the succubus. Especially once they start asking her what she wants exchange for all her info now that she realizes that she has something to barter.

Also when are all the heavy bombers going to get there? A few flights of B52's or B1B's carpet bombing the demons from 30,000+ feet would be no so nice. Considering we have a few in England, and a few other places.

For what point? Randomly bombing hell without knowing the location of important targets, geography, any sort of anti air? Sounds like a recipee for disaster.

Stuart, another great chapter.

Who said anything about bombing hell I was talking about the demon army.

[Shroom Man 777]

Generic encouragements to Stuart.

As to the cuteness of the succumbus, I figure she would look cute... to a demon. But considered demons are mostly humanoid, she shouldn't look that far off from a comely woman.

"That far off" is, of course, undefined.

Yeah, and she probably doesn't seem to be all too "RAR! humans weak! crush! stomp! kill!" and maybe that's due to her prolonged contact with humans? Acting as a succubus and all that. She must've had some experience, and maybe she could be portrayed as one of the few sympathetic demons.

Maybe even an hero.

I have no idea why I'm suggesting this. Maybe 'cause she's cute in a helpless way. She didn't roar and screech and act like a total bitch. Upon defeat she was like "oh shit. okay." and was actually...well, sorta friendly.

[The Vortex Empire]

I wonder how many people the Hell Resistance has. And how that Succubus is going to help us.

[Starglider]

As to the cuteness of the succumbus, I figure she would look cute... to a demon.

Pointy tails are automatically cute.

Yeah, and she probably doesn't seem to be all too "RAR! humans weak! crush! stomp! kill!" and maybe that's due to her prolonged contact with humans?

There have been hints that the demon troops have been bred to be like that. That kind of bloodlust and contempt would be a liability to impersonating and manipulating humans. Succubi are presumably bred to understand the enemy to a greater extent than other demons, and that may prove to be a liability (for the demons) in this case.

I have no idea why I'm suggesting this. Maybe 'cause she's cute in a helpless way.

She was just about to rip an innocent woman's heart out, and slaugher several more, just for a vague hope of self-preservation. Only massed firepower stopped her. I would not call that 'helpless'.

Presumably hiding out on earth didn't initially seem like a good option because of the past efforts of the inquisition (and similar), or the effectiveness with which hell's punnishment troops can locate rogue demons with cross-dimensional mind scanning. Or it could just be how deep Luga's sense of duty to a superior was ingrained.

[Edward Yee]

Ehh, this chapter was a bit much on the sisterhood part for me (I have an aversion to that), but the beginnings of a joint resistance, as well as potential impending culture clash (again, due to the differing ideas of what it means to be a free human in Hell), are a good one.

[Shroom Man 777]

She was just about to rip an innocent woman's heart out, and slaugher several more, just for a vague hope of self-preservation. Only massed firepower stopped her. I would not call that 'helpless'.

Well, since if she returned home empty handed (without a human's still beating heart in her palm) she would've ended up being executed...

Anyway, I hope she reveals to folks how she managed to get there without walking all the way from Iraq's portal.

[Instant Sunrise]

I was hoping to see them put Miss Adams into an interrogation room set, take the tinfoil hat off and "interrogate" her in a way that would give all kinds of misinformation to the demons, sending them on a wild goose chase.

I'd love/hate to be the producer behind pulling that scene off.

[Starglider]

Anyway, I hope she reveals to folks how she managed to get there without walking all the way from Iraq's portal.

I'm working on the assumption (for the segment I'm attempting to write) that a demon capable of opening portals can use the same power to 'push' another demon 'down' to earth, effectively teleporting the other demon from hell to anywhere on the planet. That's probably how the heralds got to earth without an apparent portal; they may in fact be strong enough to make the jump without outside help.

This process has fairly awful position accuracy (CEP 20km ish) so it's no good for inserting demons into missile silos or similar. I'm also assuming that a sufficiently powerful demon or group of demons can 'pull' another demon back from earth, but that this is much harder work than 'pushing' them down there in the first place. This is handy for placing and retrieving individuals but opening up a portal is much more efficient for sending large numbers of demons.

[Psychic_Sandwich]

I'm looking forward to the reaction of the resistance when they find out that humanity is willing and arguably able to storm hell in order to rescue them. I would imagine the majority of them would be shocked that Tango flight actually managed to take so many demons with them into death, especially in light of the fact that one of them (the leader, no less) is a woman. Assuming they believe them at all of course, but any escapees from the early 1900s onwards would at least be able to recognise what most of the stuff they describe is and therefore back them up. They'd know that powered flight is possible, for example, even if they weren't familiar with a helicopter, so they could say 'yes, we had 'sky chariots' when I was alive. Apparently, they've gotten a bit better.'

[MKSheppard]

Assuming they believe them at all of course, but any escapees from the early 1900s onwards would at least be able to recognise what most of the stuff they describe is and therefore back them up. They'd know that powered flight is possible, for example, even if they weren't familiar with a helicopter, so they could say 'yes, we had 'sky chariots' when I was alive. Apparently, they've gotten a bit better.'

This raised a thought; what has happened during 1914-1918, 1939-1945, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Soviet Afghan War, Chechnya etc?

In those, you had large amounts of trained people dying at once and in very close proximity to each other; look at how rather rapidly Tango Flight was able to reassemble in Hell; for example, a B-17 crew showing up in hell at once; or an entire U-Boat or US WWII Submarine crew all showing up at once too?

[Lonestar]

Here's Hoping Attila the Hun is the leader of the resistance.



...Or George Washington!

[Psychic_Sandwich]

This raised a thought; what has happened during 1914-1918, 1939-1945, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Soviet Afghan War, Chechnya etc?

In those, you had large amounts of trained people dying at once and in very close proximity to each other; look at how rather rapidly Tango Flight was able to reassemble in Hell; for example, a B-17 crew showing up in hell at once; or an entire U-Boat or US WWII Submarine crew all showing up at once too?

I'm inclined to believe that something odd was going on with them. The resistance woman was clearly surprised at how quickly them managed to get free, and I can't believe that other modern or near modern soldiers wouldn't have managed to do similar things in the same situation. Had that happened, you would expect the resistance, at least, to know a bit about the modern world, and this local woman (who presumably knows a fair bit about the resistance if she knows where the leader is), would have recognised that they were soldiers and so on, and have some idea of their capabilities. Their escape, therefore, would not have come as a surprise.

The difference could simply be that they knew what they were getting into before they died, and thus could somewhat prepare themselves mentally. Those that went before would presumably have been unprepared for going to Hell (I imagine most people assume they've been good, and will therefore go to heaven), and thus might not have the presence of mind to try an escape. That goes double for people who died in incredibly traumatic ways. WW1 soldiers, for example, might have entered Hell already effectively broken, considering how they probably died.

If large concentrations of trained people usually popped up close to each other, you'd expect the resistance to be more effective than it apparently is. That it isn't suggests that there's some sort of mechanism to prevent such problems from occuring that didn't work in this case.

Here's Hoping Attila the Hun is the leader of the resistance.




...Or George Washington!

Alexander the Great FTW!

[CaptainChewbacca]

Awesome, we're teaching them prostitution. Its too bad the Succubus has to be WITH its target for the illusion to work, or they could make a fortune with celebrity impersonations. As for their appearance, Succubi are generally depicted as beautiful and well-endowed women with batlike wings. Sometimes they have horns or cloven hooves.

I think they'd be very big in Japan. And yes, men would pay millions to sleep with one. Rule 34 aside, what do you get for the man who has everything? The ultimate seductress.

[Starglider]

As for their appearance, Succubi are generally depicted as beautiful and well-endowed women with batlike wings. Sometimes they have horns or cloven hooves.

Succubi pretty much have to conform relatively closely to human anatomy to maintain the illusion in tight spaces and during 'intimate contact'. Wings are probably more trouble than they're worth for most infiltration missions, to actually work (even for gliding) they'd have to be pretty big and bulky and that could easily blow an agent's cover despite them being effectively invisible (can't sit in most chairs, can't wear human clothes, knocks things over in tight spaces, that kind of thing). That said, there are lots of breeds of demons and there might well be a winged subspecies, for missions that are expected to cover a lot of ground. Going with the general theme of 'the higher up the demon heirarchy, the more powerful the demon', the 'greater succubi' type might be winged and have full telepathy rather than just illusion abilities (the two 'lesser succubi' we've seen didn't seem to be able to read minds the way the grounded harpy could otherwise they wouldn't have been surprised the way they were).

[CaptainChewbacca]

I'm just telling you what's in my research, Starglider. Its up to Stuart as to what's real. The wings could just be an affectation. Besides, the entanglement projection could fool other senses besides just visual. I find it hard to believe a creature fresh from hell wouldn't have an obvious smell that needs to be obscured.