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82 It was then that Nergal—vilified by Marduk and Nabu, ordered out by his father Enki—“consulting with himself,” concocted the idea of resort to the “Awesome Weapons.” He did not know where they were hidden, but knew that they existed on Earth, locked away in a secret underground place (according to a text catalogued as CT-xvi, lines 44—46, some- where in Africa, in the domain of his brother Gibil): Those seven, in the mountains they abide; In a cavity inside the earth they dwell. Based on our current level of technology, they can be de- scribed as seven nuclear devices: “Clad with terror, with a brilliance they rush forth.” They were brought to Earth unin- tentionally from Nibiru and were hidden away in a secret safe place a long time ago; Enki knew where, but so did En- lil. A War Council of the gods, overruling Enki, voted to fol- low Nergal’s suggestion to give Marduk a punishing blow. There was constant communication with Anu: “Anu to Earth the words was speaking, Earth to Anu the words pro- nounced.” He made it clear that his approval for the unprec- edented step was limited to depriving Marduk of the Sinai spaceport, but that neither gods nor people should be harmed: “Anu, lord of the gods, on the Earth had pity,” the ancient records state. Choosing Nergal and Ninurta to carry out the mission, the gods made absolutely clear to them its limited and conditional scope. But that is not what happened: The “Law of Unintended Consequences” proved itself true on a catastrophic scale. In the aftermath of the calamity that resulted in the death of countless people and the desolation of Sumer, Nergal dictated to a trusted scribe his own version of the events, trying to ex- onerate himself. The long text is known as the Erra Epos, for it refers to Nergal by the epithet Erra (“The Annihilator”) and to Ninurta as /shum (“The Scorcher”). We can put together the true story by adding to this text information from several other Sumerian, Akkadian, and biblical sources. THE END OF DAYS