Star Wolves (The Tribes of Yggdrasil Book 1) (16 page)

A Fire Team leader was able to slave each of the team member’s rifles to his, in order to accomplish highly coordinated fire. Each member would be assigned a target, aim, then, the Fire Team leader could synchronize the trigger pulls. Each operator retained control in case of emergency (although this could be overridden), but in the case where a small team wanted surprise, a simultaneous firing of multiple weapons at the exact same instant could be devastating—taking away any opportunity for an enemy to react. It wasn’t a feature used very often, but in a situation such as today, the conductor of this orchestra was about to unleash an unholy symphony of destruction on his enemies.

As Vaughn looked through the scope of his LC-5 he could see that each of his three team members had locked on their assigned targets, as he was on his. He thumbed a button which slaved the other rifles, then gently pulled his trigger, activating all four carbines instantaneously—the four Hrymar dropped like inanimate meat-sacks at the same instant. Four head shots with laser-carbines.

“Boarding party down, O-4” Vaughn reported.

“
Nice. Meet up with Alpha at the Hrymar ship,”
Gina said.

“Roger that.”

B
y the time
Hal and Eva got back it was all over. Gina’s marines had taken the Hrymar ship without a single marine sustaining so much as a scratch. They hadn’t had many breaks lately, today was one they would savor.

Once the aircar docked in the stern of the Sleipnir, Hal stepped out to see Gina waiting for him with a triumphant look on her face.

“Have a nice drive, sir?” she asked casually.

“Lovely,” Hal replied with a wry smile, “so, the Captain is off the ship for an hour and the crew turns into a pack of pirates, capturing enemy vessels, taking booty and everything?”

Gina wrinkled her eyebrows. “We got bored.”

Hal laughed. “Well done marine.”

Eva stepped out of the aircar behind Hal, “I’m glad you’re on our side O-4.”

Gina winked.

“Ok, so what have we got?” Hal asked. They began walking forward down Sleipnir’s central corridor toward the bridge.

“Well, we have a shiny new ship to start with, and five Hrymar prisoners. One died on the bridge from the concussive grenade, and we had to take one out leading up to the bridge.”

“Are they talking?”

“Oh yeah…let’s just say, Cadfael can be very ... persuasive. These five aren’t heroes, their Captain got a little
bitchy
until Cadfael straightened him out.” Gina laughed.

“I’d like to bring their ship back to New Midgard, but we’ll likely need them to help fly it back.”

“No worries at all. Glaw popped over to their ship and apparently the Hrymar controls are very similar to those the Alfar use. They
are
related after all,” Gina said.

“Well, that’s good news.”

“And …” Gina continued, “they have some cargo you should take a look at.”

Hal gave a her a crooked glance. “Cargo?”

“C’mon, I’ll take you over and show you.”

G
ina ushered
Hal into the cargo-hold of the Hrymar ship where E-1 Corinne Thul was standing guard at the door. The cargo-hold was easily two stories high, and had a grid of metallic boxes lined up in rows, stacked three high. Most were three-meters tall and a meter-and-a-half wide and faced with a transparent shield.

Hal could see what the cargo were—they were humanoids … lots of them.

“What the fuck?” Hal cursed.

Gina shrugged. “Cargo, sir. They’re slavers, what else would they haul.”

Hal imagined one of the historical ocean going vessels four centuries past, its cargo of African slaves lying shackled to a floor, stacked inches from each other. At least this is a more humane way of transporting them, Hal thought. It was still slavery though.

“My gods…” Hal strolled somberly, shaking his head, looking at the different species in the chambers. They were all humanoid-looking, some man sized, others much larger.

Gina said, “Looks like they're either frozen in cryo, or in some kind of suspended animation. I’ll interrogate the crew to get more details."

Hal walked close up to one chamber and peered in, a hand over his eyes minimize glare from the lights overhead; in it was a frail looking blue creature with large ears, maybe a meter tall. It looked to Hal like a monkey with no tail. What possible use could these little creatures be? He assumed the larger humanoids would have been for physical labor, but these little critters … pets maybe?

“Thul.” Hal shouted over to the marine at the door.

“Yes, sir?”

“Have you done a count?”

“Yes, sir. There are exactly 1,080 chambers, and we’re working on a count of ones with a life-form inside.”

“Ok, thanks. Please let me know how many ... guests we have in here as soon as you have a count.”

“Looks like they’re about sixty-percent occupied, at a glance, Captain,” Gina said.

“You know, Gina, this could be really good for us.” Hal said.

“Oh? How so?”

“We now have potentially six-hundred plus allies. These creatures may know a lot about the Hrymar—this could be a huge intelligence boon for us.”

“Very good point,” Gina said, “but what do you want us to do with them?”

“Leave them in their chambers for now. There's no way we can cope with this many living, breathing creatures. Lets go have a chat with our Hrymar friends,” Hal said with a smile and twitch of his eyebrows.

T
he
Sleipnir
didn’t have
a dedicated brig, so the marines were keeping the prisoners under guard in the large exercise room. This was the room the crew used for hand to hand combat training and even the odd game of basketball.

E-1 Neva Coplin was standing outside the door of the exercise room. Hal nodded to her and she opened the door. Hal walked through, followed by Gina and Cadfael, and found E-1 Grigori Utkin guarding the other side of the door. Smart Hal thought … don’t let them out of our sight for a second.

Utkin had each of the prisoners sitting in a different corner of the room, facing the wall, and one sitting in the center, facing away from him.

“I want to speak with their Captain,” Hal instructed Utkin.

Utkin walked to the center of the room, and roughly manhandled the Hrymar Captain into a standing position, then turned him around to face Hal. He then pulled him forward.

This Hrymar Captain was no small man. He was at least as big as Utkin’s six foot two inches, but was quite round in the middle—a manager Hal thought. He had a similar pale, whitish, blueish, greenish complexion as Devrim had; it was a difficult color to nail down. He also had the same sensitivity to light, and Hal had the red battle light on in the room; even with dim red-lighting the Hrymar was still squinting. Hal seemed to remember Devrim mentioning they lived underground.

The Hrymar Captain wore what looked like a snarl on his face. He looked pissed. He probably thought he was going to swoop down, pick up a few more slaves, maybe a ship, or at least some tech, and call it a day. The marines had put a little dent in his plans.

“I’m Captain Haldor Olsen of the Solar Inclusive Democracy,” Hal said in excellent Yggdrasi. Old Norse was almost identical to Yggdrasi—as Yggdrasi was its parent language.

Yggdrasi was the
lingua franca
amongst the Alfar, Dvergar and a few other minor races. Apparently the Hrymar also used it. Hal hoped this man would at least speak some of it.

“I am Captain Yilmaz,” the Hrymar replied in equally fluent Yggdrasi. Hal was impressed. But if this man was a merchant, he would need to speak Yggdrasi to haggle with other races.

He said nothing else, and Hal just stared at him for a moment. Occasionally Yilmaz glanced over to Cadfael and shot him a dirty look. Yilmaz was sporting a black eye, bloodied lip and a scratched up face—doubtless a result of Cadfael’s initial
questioning
.

Hal gathered his thoughts. “Captain,” he began, “I’m a reasonable man. For some reason your people started a war against my race. I don’t know why, and at this moment, I don’t care. What I need from you is
cooperation
and
information
. If I get those, things will go better for you and your crew. If not, then expect no mercy whatsoever.” Hal delivered the threat evenly, each word measured.

He saw Yilmaz swallow.

“I know nothing of this war with your people. I responded to an attack on our equipment. You began this conflict.” Yilmaz also delivered his response evenly and without undue emotion.

Maybe he was telling the truth? This conflict was quite new. If these slavers were out gathering up
merchandise
, they may have been out of contact with their home world for a while. Whatever the case, if he was Hrymar, then he should have intelligence Hal and SID could use.

“I see. Well, we’ll check your ship’s logs and see if your story has any truth to it.”

Gina spoke up, “Is that your detection grid we tripped?” she asked in pretty rough, but intelligible Yggdrasi.

“Yes,” the Hrymar Captain replied.

“Ok … and what is it there for? We assume it’s there to act as an early warning system for your people.”

“No, it is
ours
. We use it to detect incoming vessels,” he replied

Gina glared. “That’s what I just said.”

In much smoother Yggdrasi, he responded and put her in her place, “No, I said
we
. I did not say the
Hrymar
people. The net is for my ship, the
Gursul
. We detect incoming ships and take what we want. It is our right.”

A fishnet, Hal thought! It was like they set out a net at a bottle neck in a stream and waited for a fish to get caught, then picked up their dinner. Clever. Then Hal figured any good fisherman casts more than one line, or one net, into the water.

Hal tapped his wristcom. “Eva?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Can you check the Gursul’s logs and see where their other detection grids are located?”

“You think there are more, sir?”

“I would bet my life on it. Also, make sure we’re actively scanning for those same types of detection grids at all times in the future.” He saw Yilmaz flush at the awareness of his other f
ishing nets
. Anger, Hal wondered?

Hal stepped a bit closer to Yilmaz, until he was about twenty-centimeters from his face. Utkin still had a firm grip on the man.

Hal spoke in a near whisper, “Do you want to live?”

Yilmaz gave a slight nod.

“Good. If you cooperate, I’ll release you and your crew when I have what I need.”

“Thank you, Captain,” he said, with genuine surprise, “and my ship?”

“Your ship and its cargo are forfeit.” Hal saw the Hrymar’s face flush again, but he made no other overt signs of aggression. He simply nodded again. Hal was impressed, this guy was a cool operator. He had been overly cocky during the first part of their tussle, but now seemed to learn his lesson and was either going to cooperate, or bide his time to act. Hal would make sure he and his crew had no opportunity to do anything but cooperate.

Hal, Gina, and Cadfael, stepped out of the makeshift brig and into the corridor. Hal motioned for the marine to close the door.

“Gina, have those five put into our cryo chambers, and defrost Devrim. Cadfael, I want you and four marines to take Devrim to the Gursul and plot a course back to New Midgard with us, after we have repairs squared away here, ok?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Let’s plot the jump in twenty-four hour segments and check in at each segment along the way.”

“A wise precaution, Captain,” Cadfael agreed.

H
al was sitting
in the crew lounge, cradling a cup of coffee and staring out the window into the absolute blackness of hyperspace.

“Not much of a view, is it?” Gina said as she sat down beside him.

Hal looked up. “Nope, not much of a view at all.” He stared back out the window anyway.

“I just wanted to let you know I’m at a standstill on our murder investigation. I need an Alfar Lie Detector machine to take this any further. Do you think they would have one on any of their warships?” Gina asked.

“I wouldn’t think so,” Hal shook head, “the Alfar rarely have need for them.”

“Well, I’ll check with them once we get back to Epsilon Eridani anyway. You never know.”

“Indeed,” Hal agreed, nodding, “there are a lot of things going on these days I wouldn’t have predicted. I guess I should consult the runes more,” he said with a smile.

Gina looked amused. “Do you really use them?”

“I do, actually,” Hal said, “not as much for divination, as for meditation, or I’ll focus on a particular rune when I have a problem. My ancestors used them as part of a whole magickal tradition. And don’t forget, your Roman ancestors read the future in entrails and bird flight.”

“They did, didn’t they? It’s not something I’ve studied. After the Religious Singularity in 2018, most of my ancestors re-adopted Roman Paganism, but they still had enough Catholic baggage to steer away from the mystical parts of the old ways. But in any case, I’m glad we reconnected with our old gods and goddesses.”

“Indeed. I guess us barbaric Scandinavians and Germanic tribes were still in touch with our mystical side. The Alfar are a very mystical people; that’s something I really appreciated growing up. We lost much of our lore after the conversion to Christianity, but the Alfar have a huge treasure trove of tales of the gods, sagas, and esoteric knowledge. They’ve helped us Asatruar really round out our knowledge of our own mythology in the last century. It’s been a real renaissance.”

“I wonder if we’ll ever get to meet the gods?” Gina mused.

Hal shrugged.

“I mean, think about it,” Gina said “if it’s true what the Alfar told us about the Norse Gods seeding humanity 180,000 years ago, they must be out there somewhere. And if they’re out there … what about the rest of the pantheons of gods?”

“I think scholars have been discussing this for a thousand years. We’ll have to wait and see. This stellar bridge system is an incredible development. Maybe the gods are at the other end of one of those bridges?”

“I hope so. I have lots of questions,” Gina winked and got up from the table, “G’night, Cap’n.”

“Night, O-4," Hal replied.

T
he
Sleipnir
precipitated
out of hyperspace and within a few minutes, was being hailed by a very large warship—seven very, large warships in fact. The Gungnir-class cruiser displaced 30,000 tonnes, and she was accompanied by six of the new 9,000 tonne Skofnung-class destroyers: the
Skofnung
, the
Galatine
, the
Carnwennan
, the
Sharur
, the
Hrunting
and the
Naegling
.

In the Interstellar Fleet, size mattered; this meant the largest ship was usually commanded by the highest ranking officer—in other words, the big ship was in charge.

“Comms, hail the
Gungnir
,” Hal ordered.

“Aye, Captain,” replied O-1 Idwal.

The
Sleipnir’s
view screen came to life with the image of a stout, muscular man with a shock of brown hair.

“Captain Olsen, nice to see you in the flesh,”
said O-5 Steffen Willms.

“Likewise, Captain Willms. That’s a fine looking ship,” Hal said admiringly.

“I would say the same of yours, sir. Smaller, but very sleek,”
he said with a wry smile,
“we’re detecting some damage to your ship, is everything ok?”

“Yeah, under control. It’s been an interesting week.” Hal replied.

“Where’s the other ship from?”
Willms asked, noticing the
Gursul
behind the
Sleipnir
.

“Ah, we made some friends with a Hrymar pirate. We had a scuffle with them, then escaped. Then the bastard tried to board us while we were making repairs planet-side.”

“I look forward to hearing the whole story. All the ship’s Captains are meeting for a planning session over dinner at 18:00. Also, Fleet High Commander Artman is on board the Gungnir. She’s got operational control of our little flotilla.”

Technically, Hal didn’t report directly to Interstellar Fleet High Commander Clare Artman. He reported to her boss, Interstellar Armed Forces Prime Commander Archibald Lowe. But as far as this mission was concerned, she would be calling the shots. Hal had no misgivings, he’d heard great things about her; she was a real tigress apparently. He was glad the IAF was unleashing her on the Hrymar.

“Sound great, Captain. See you then.”

Willms nodded and the display screen went blank

W
illms greeted
Hal in person when he arrived on the Gungnir for dinner. Hal was shocked to find Willms was no taller than five-feet, zero-inches. He wasn’t dwarf-like, just very, very short. Hal was a well composed man, and no hint of surprise crept on his face, but as if he could read Hal’s mind…

“Don’t let my size fool you, I really am thirty-two!” Willms said with a wry smile and extending a hand.