Invasion Wars 1: Crimes of War (20 page)

Switching to detection mode, she could see the Siegfried suit fighting off a lone opponent, their outlines mixing from being so close together. The wearer of the suit was invisible to thermal imaging, only her equipment able to detect him at all through the wall. After a few times of his enemy pounding a fist upon him, his image disappeared. Valerie refreshed the imagining, but he still wasn’t appearing. His locator system was damaged in the fight, having its main chip cluster in the spine.

She wouldn’t be able to see where he was until it was repaired.

The remaining outline was in red, holding a weapon that gave off a high electrical frequency. Moving in, Valerie had no choice. Using the defensive turret on the rescue craft, she fired off a few shots, its purpose being to dig through aesirium walls and rubble. The blastwaves of the explosives traveled through the outer curve of the Muspell’s hull, shaking the bits loose in a violent boom. Bits of wall floated away into the void of space, releasing everything inside out of the newly formed opening.

Hlӧkk hesitated the second the ship’s hull was breached, looking up to see the cracks tear through the crystalline interior. Emich looked up as well, the explosion sending the shards inward before they were sent in reverse. Once they could see the stars above, a violent gale sweep through the place. Activating his magnetic boots, Emich stood his ground. The corpses of the fallen Niflheim flew out of the Muspell, their weapons and bodies quickly sliding across the floor before they started flying.

Hlӧkk tried to swing his warhammer down on Emich, but as he did, his feet lifted off of the ground, sending him into an unintentional frontflip. Flying out into the void of space with no oxygen, Hlӧkk struggled to breath, holding his throat. Valerie saw that the heat signature floating towards her was still moving. Locking the turret onto Hlӧkk, she fired a round right at him, reducing him to a floating cloud of blood droplets. Flying in, she was able to scan the area from the inside, seeing that Emich was right there under the ship.

The ship lowered, Emich keeping himself pinned to the wall to avoid being crushed. The hatch lowered, hitting the ground for Emich to climb aboard. His legs fought to take a step, weakened from his wounds and struggling to counter the suction of space. Stepping slowly, he reached out for the hatch, almost close enough to grab it.

“Hurry up, Emich. This place is falling apart!”

More of the crystal structure tore away from the Muspell, flying away instead of dropping on top of them. Emich could already feel the floor giving away, bits of it coming off in chunks. His hand got a hold on the bottom step, giving him the grip he needed to release his magnets. Rocking the ship to the side, Valerie flung him inwards; closing the hatch behind him. Firing up the engines, she got them out of there — the rest of the area falling apart more and more.

Hanging by one hand, Emich dropped down, trying to land on his feet. Instead, he collapsed onto the floor, landing with a weak grunt. The hatch closed up, releasing the ship’s air supply with a loud hiss, the tubes in the corners coughing out clouds of vapor. Pressing on the side of his helmet, he receded it into its back compartment, allowing himself to cough up blood all he wanted. Valerie watched from the inside camera, seeing the soldier clinging to life with no way to help him.

Emich barely had enough strength to keep his face away from the puddle of blood under him. The more that came out, the harder it was to move. “Valerie,” he coughed the second he spoke, “... how much longer?”

“ETA is one hour. Just hang in there, you’re almost out of hell.”

“Easier said than done...”

The ceiling was spinning, the pain getting to him. Throbbing, stinging, never ending. The cabin looked like an empty medical bay, its nurses made up of automated drones. Two of them rolled up to him, one on each end. Rocking him into a hover-cot, they lifted him up, the cot floating between them —their bodies acting as magnetic fields.

Setting him down on one of the medical beds, they started to hook him up to the machinery. They couldn’t take off his suit, but they could still help in the only way they were programmed to do.

As they left the Muspell, the light dimmed from its mouth, its petals falling wilting off. Nobody would know that Emich was there, that it was him who prevented disasters beyond recovery. From the ERA base, a squadron space bombers moved in, moving in the second VALKYRIE detected the Niflheim flyers go offline. The Niflheim ships were still, floating aimlessly, their Fricka pilots floating away from their opened cabin — having no other means of escape. Avoiding the space clutter, they got to the Muspell around the same time Emich’s rescue ship was moving down the long barrel on their way down to Earth.

VALKYRIE saw the ship, having one of her escort fighter’s lock-on to it. “There is a survivor from the UAM attempt at destroying the Muspell.” VALKYRIE paused as she processed a solution. “... There has been a change. New occurrences show that the presence of the UAM is insignificant. ERA victory is imminent. Carrying out new orders. War with the UAM is now declared.”

The fighter swung away from the group, following through with VALKYRIE’s orders. The rest of the ships continued their attack on the Muspell, firing off their payload where Emich had just escaped from. Valerie could see the explosions from the ship’s rear cameras. What she couldn’t detect was the ship that was heading right for them — hidden unless she switched to thermal, which there was no reason for. Being smaller and not limited by any human means, the fighter was coming in fast.

“Looks like the ERA are trying to claim victory for themselves,” Valerie remarked, seeing the Muspell slowly crumble away with each bombing run. Flashes of missiles and turrets continued as they flew away from the end of the cannon’s mouth.

“Let them. Everyone can think it was them.”

“They have no idea that you were in there. Once word gets out that it was due to the new Siegfried Exoframe, there’s no way the ERA can take credit. All they are doing is making it so there is one less shadow in the sky for tomorrow.”

Emich grunted, the painkillers being pumped into his system still not having any effect. His immune system seemed to break it down still, even with him stuck in the suit. “The sky… I hope I get to see the sky again.”

“You will. Just stay with me. We’re coming into Earth’s atmosphere. You’re almost home.

Home
, Emich thought bitterly.
Where is home? I’ll never be home. Never again.

The cabin shook violently, waking him up the second he closed his eyes. Red lights flashed, the alarms going off. “What happened? What is going on with the ship?

Valerie was aiming the ship’s turret backwards, locking on to the fighter at their tail. The side rocket homed in on the ERA ship, blowing it up from the center. Huffing, she moved the controls with no response. Checking the ship’s status on the side, the map of it showed the back engines in red. She let go of the controls, taking a second to clear her mind.

“This is terrible. The ERA is out to get you. They got the back pretty good. Too good. There’s no way to steer the thing back to base.”

“What?!”

“This is bad, this is very bad.” She typed up on her handheld in a panic. “Earth’s gravitational pull already has you. There’s no way to stop it.”

Emich tore off the tubes the robots had put into his suit’s ports. Pushing his way through the medical drones, he limped his way down the lines of beds, the pilot seat all the way at the other end. He fell, the shaking of the ship going beyond what the GCB could handle. Outside, the main thruster was off, partially blasted off by the small rocket that hit it. Emich slid across the ground, the ship spinning out of control from its ruined engine.

He tumbled all the way towards the driver’s seat, bracing himself against the back of it so he doesn’t get stuck on the ship’s front. Crawling around the seat and strapping himself into place, the ship’s gravity was completely offline, everything behind him starting to float. Turning on the frontal screen, all he got was static, having no idea where he was going to end up. He tried to stay conscious through the incoming pull of G-force, his suit squeezing his chest and legs. It wasn’t enough.

From the recent blood loss and fatigue, his eyes were already getting blurry again. Breathing was harder than ever. But as he blacked out, he saw it. His mind took him to the Vanir Plane, away from his body. The Song of the Niflheim was in a different verse, telling him more of what they had planned.

Earth was not their only target.

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