The Valkyrie Chronicles: Titans (7 page)

Father stepped forward. “I am Odin, and you best keep a civil tongue when addressing me.”  The glare father gave the man made me glow with pride.

The man didn't blink, he just said, “Our Queen sends a greeting to your gates, it also serves as a warning.  Do as she bids you and further demonstrations will not be necessary.”  Then he cut the transmission.

We all stared at the blank holo-display then over to Artemis.  I asked, “Eros?”  Wasn't he like Cupid or something in Earth legend?

She was still pale, in some sort of shock, her lips were pursed into a thin line as she whispered, “My brother.”  Then fire lit in her eyes and she stood up straighter and snarled, “If others of my people yet live on that accursed vessel, then we must rescue them with your people.”  She said it almost as if in challenge.

I smiled softly at her. “Of course.”  This got a returning smile from her but then my eyes snapped wide and I spun toward the holo-display.  “The gates!  What did that Halfling mean?”

As if on cue, alarms started going off in the room.  Kate was already pulling up tactical displays Tyr at her side.  A Jotunn transport beam was depositing dozens of hybrids and other Frost Giant attack units.  Arina's hands were flying through the display and Odin's eyes were following her as she blurted out, “They are grabbing hundreds of sentinels from the planet surface and depositing them at our doorstep!”

Tyr brought up a display of the main gate shield as it was taking hits from dozens of Jotunn weapons. It was bowing and warping as their onboard computers started modulating frequencies, trying to defeat the shield.

I started running toward the door as I called up the Valkyrie on coms,  “All Valkyrie to the main gates!  We are under attack!”  The other daughters of Odin were by my side, I heard Tyr right behind us on his own coms instructing all available Einherjer to the lines.

We ran out of the Central Spire and dove into a wind rider and Arina was yelling at the cockpit, “To the main gates!” We had been already in the air before she had sat in the pilot's seat and took control from the computer.  As only she could, she rocketed us toward the main gate courtyard and landed gracefully at the nearest pad at speeds that almost boggled the mind.  We were already diving out of the doors before she finished her landing.

Data started flowing through my vision as father fed tactical information to us.  I could see Kat's glassy look in her eyes indicating she saw what I did.  The others checked their wrist consoles for the data.  We never slowed as we joined other arriving Valkyrie in a sprint to the line of men at the main gates.

I could feel the thrumming in the ground from mammoth beasts ramming the shields as other spat a continuous assault of energy weapon fire at it.  I stared at the sight before me, it was something from a twisted nightmare.  There were huge hybrids, some sort of winged sentinels, and other nightmarish Jotunn cybernetic creatures we had not come across yet.  Like a giant swirling mass of flesh and machines trying to gain access to Valhalla and send our innocents to the ages.

I gritted my teeth as I ran through the secondary shield.  Our men at the line behind the primary shield stood shoulder to shoulder, unflinching at the hellish assault just inches in front of their faces.  These were the Gate Guardians that made my heart swell with pride.  If we Valkyrie were to fall, these men would hold the line without fail.

I glanced at the women all charging directly into the nightmare with me without hesitation and said, “Let us show these krothing Jotunn beasts that none may threaten the safety of the people of Valhalla.  Let us show them the might of the Valkyrie!”

Odin's beard there were hundreds of them, we had never battled so many at once.  The creature inside of me, what the Ragnarok had called the Demon, was smiling in anticipation.  I was an instrument of destruction, the bringer of violence so that my people would never know it.  I was Valkyrie.

I let my battle cry fly and the other women joined in as crackling blades of blue energy extended from my arms. I leapt over the Einherjer at the line and through the main shield directly into the tempest beyond.

I was struck by the continuous fire at the gates. The modulating energy fire was warping my nano-lattice.  My skin began to burn as I landed a kick to the leg of some sort of six-legged praying mantis looking creature that hads twin turrets mounted on its large front shoulders.  It must have been twelve feet tall and had an insect's exoskeleton, reinforced by Jotunn armor in strategic places.

I heard a satisfying crack as the hard shell covering its leg yielded under the ferocity of my strike.  I rolled under the creature as it tried striking me with it's massive forearms.  I struck at the pincer-like claws with my Odin Spears and one connected, leaving a sizzling gash.  The insect stumbled back and read up in pain, it's hissing squeal something form a night terror.

It lashed out with an ungodly long forearm as it scrambled backward. I felt white hot pain bloom in my shoulder as the impact sent me spinning off into the air, only to collide with a hybrid's huge bony skull shield, knocking the wind out of me.  I was already rolling as I hit the ground, avoiding the trampling attack of the creature.

I cupped a hand and lashed out with the power of Thor as I rolled.  Blue lightning of pure compressed magnetic energy slammed into its armpit, severing servo connections and tendons alike.  The beast fell forward under its own weight and momentum.  I rolled to my feet and leaped as another creature landed a blow where I had just been standing.  I landed on the crippled hybrid's back and sprang into the air directly at the hobbled mantis in a high arc.

Its turrets blazing at me and my lattice absorbing the hits.  I landed on its shoulders as it thrashed and before I could land a blow, I was in it's vice-like jaws.  It felt like it was going to split me in two and I grabbed either side of its jaws and screamed out a challenge as I pushed with all my might.  There was a sickening tearing sound as I tore its jaws asunder.  I snagged its neck as I fell and jammed a glowing Odin Spear through it, severing its head from its body.

It continued to strike at me blindly.  I glanced at the battle computer module grafted to the flailing body's back and trust a hand up toward it and released the power of Thor.  Reducing the pack to slag.  The ground shook as the body of the mantis fell, unmoving.  Time seemed to slow down and I instinctively dove left just as a huge horn from a hybrid lashed through the air where I had just been standing.  But the huge bone plate still impacted me, sending me tumbling along the ground, lattice flaring at each impact.

I rolled to my feet.  Kroth could those things strike hard!  I noticed some blood in my vision and wiped it away and took note of the battlefield as I dodged a trample attack.  I grinned at Inatra, she was on top of a winged creature hacking away at it's back while Mist attacked it from the front.  The other Valkyrie were working in teams of three trying to push the closest of the attackers from the gates.

I was struck again and impacted a small tree, snapping its trunk.  Then I caught sight of who I was looking for.  Kate was letting loose her battlecry as she gracefully dove and danced across the backs of a group of hybrids that were still firing on the gate shields.  Systematically destroying their energy weapons before spinning, dodging and vaulting off to the next.

I loved that she could keep a clear mind and think as she fights.  What she was doing would ensure the gate shields would not fail.  This left the others, like me, the task of stopping the beasts themselves.

I caught a pile-driving attack from another mantis creature.  Its carapace cracking in my grip, then I Slashed upward with an Odin Spear with my other hand that sank deeply into its thorax.  I had to roll out of the way as it fell lifelessly to the ground.

I felt the pressure wave and the singing of one of Artemis' hypersonic arrows and one of the winged creatures spiraled from the air then smash into a hybrid with bone snapping force.  The more we attacked, the more that seemed to step in to replace the fallen.  The Valkyrie were slowly being pushed back toward the gates.

I growled at that and screamed, “Valkyrie, push!”  Running, I leaped as deep into the enemy ranks as I could.  I saw red as I let fly my battlecry again, some little part of me registered that I was losing control again, that I didn't sound Asgard.  I was letting my inner Demon out and that always scared me.  I spun in place firing lightning from both hands in huge, deadly arcs.  Taking out the legs of  at least a dozen beasts.  I was being struck from everywhere as I battled deeper into their ranks.

My last rational thought was that I preferred the old days, fighting the Ragnarok, they didn't hit as hard.  The battle went on for hours.  I was trying to regain control over my baser instincts as I realized that the fighting had just about stopped.  I was holding back the charge of a hybrid who had me pinned against the still body of another.  I had a huge horn in each hand and my arms were shaking with the supreme effort of holding the beast back.

I suddenly released the horns as I dove into the air into a high arc.  Vaulting over the creature's fore-skull as it suddenly fell forward with no resistance. I rolled across its back and hit its battle computer with an Odin Spear, severing its connection.  I was thrown off of it's back as it shook as if shedding water.

I rolled as I impacted the ground.  It was still bone jarring.  The stupid creature was looking around the carnage of the battlefield and turned and looked dumbly at me, it tripped, landing with its head on the ground.  I charged it with an Odin Spear shrieking out my intent as it struggled to stand again.  I was in mid swing when Arina was suddenly between me and the animal.  My strike stopped with the lattice blade mere inches from Arina's head.

I panted, my eyes wide, in that strange half madness of blood-lust.  If it had been any other Valkyrie, they wouldn't have been able to stop their attack in mid-swing.  I blinked.  Arina knew this.  She reached out and cupped my cheek, grounding me.  Then she leaned down and kissed my cheek.  The shock of that pushing back the battle haze inside of me.  She smiled and said, “Kara, sister, the field is won, we are victorious.  Please show the poor animal mercy.  You have freed it of its electronic slavery, it is no threat to the innocents of Valhalla.”

I just blinked at her as I felt Kate's arms slide around me from behind.  I just nodded dumbly, taking in the horror of the battlefield.  Hundreds of mammoth bodies lay strewn about.  Healers were helping a couple of my bloodied Valkyrie hobble off the field and through the main gates.

Kate was saying, once we disabled the energy weapons, the Ragnarok joined us in the battle.  “We lost two Ragnarok men and one woman, but we stopped the sentinels from breaching the gates love.”  I nodded breathing hard, trying to reassert the rational part of my brain.  After the battle of Folkvangr against Ymir, where I had actually become the Demon of Vengeance.  I have found it harder and harder to release the rage of battle.  I feared that a piece of me actually liked the violence and wholesale destruction I could bring to bear.

I clung to Kate's arms at my waist as I watched Arina, the gentlest of all Asgard step up to the hybrid.  She reached out and started petting its snout as it struggled to its feet.  It dipped its head so she could continue caressing it.  She spoke softly to it, “Come on Tiny, let's get you checked out by the healers.”  She reached up and tugged on it's foreskull shield and after a few seconds it walked with her.  I just gawked in amazement.

Inatra looked similarly shocked as she wiped the blood from her forehead and walked with her mate.  Arina glanced back at Kate with a childlike look on her face. “Can we keep him?”

Kate's laugh sounded like silver chimes to me as she chuckled. “You better ask Father that.  Who is going to feed him, and clean up after him?”

I finally smiled at the sight of the Little One leading a dinosaur through the main gates of Valhalla.  Only her pure heart could have even contemplated that.  I glanced back at Kate as I pulled her around in front of me and looked into her eyes and whispered, “I'm sorry.”  I always felt shame at the joy I was taking in the battle lately.

She shut me up with a kiss then said, “You have nothing to be sorry about.”  Then she led me back into the gates.

We retired to the barracks after being checked out in medical while Arina stayed with Tiny.  The healers had wanted Inatra and I to spend at least a day with them but we politely refused.  Back in the day, we took more damage than this fighting the Ragnarok hordes.  I snorted at the thought of comparing a flood of rampaging prehistoric beasts to the Ragnarok.  Inatra slapped the back of my head as she gently hissed at me.  Kroth, I was broadcasting again.

I turned toward the cafeteria with my sisters in tow, mumbling, “ I need mead.”

Artemis snorted this time and said with genuine mirth in her voice, “Of course you do.”

Us Valkyrie started almost inhaling multiple plates of food and copious amounts of alcohol to give our nanites biologicals to repair the damage to our bodies.  The krothing archer made a show of just snacking on a little cheese with a self-satisfied grin on her face.  Showoff.  I gave her an indignant look and said, “You are eating for one, I am eating for over a few million.”

She chuckled as she popped a grape into her mouth.  “Your Verr don't require sustenance, they get their power from the citadel.  You're just a little piggy Valkyrie.”

Kate took a huge bite of her beef brisket and spoke with a full mouth, “She's got you there love.”

I smiled and took a matching bite from my plate.  Inatra cocked an eyebrow at Artemis in challenge, but the Olympian held up a hand in surrender. “I would never presume to call you a pig, Fox.”  Then Inatra grinned with satisfaction and hissed softly at the smug looking Olympian.

Kate was staring at her hands as she was tearing a chunk off of her bread.  “Has anyone given it any thought.  What Arina said?  That the Jotunn beasts we have been fighting here on Ragnarok are just enslaved and fighting against their will?”

We were all silent at that, indicating that like me, they couldn't get it out of their heads.  I know the hybrids were not evolved creatures but were they truly innocents?  Were they no different than the Olympians or us Asgard?  Created by the Frost Giants to fight the Titans for them?  And like the blunt weapon I am, I have been slaughtering them since we arrived here in Ragnarok without a thought.

I spoke barely above a whisper, “We will need to adjust our strategy when dealing with them in the future.”

Everyone nodded silent agreement then we finished our meal in silence.  We went to the showers to clean up then met with all the available Valkyrie and Einherjer to discuss rescue options.

Tyr joined us there and shared casualty numbers.  Besides the three Ragnarok warriors we had lost, fifty-three were wounded.  Seven humans and one Vanger were on the injured list as well.  Two Valkyrie, Sigrdrifa, and Rota, were trampled and sustained significant injuries, it would be a week or possibly two before the healers cleared them for duty again.

Two of the main shield projector nodes suffered some minor circuitry damage from the warping of the frequency rotation of the assault.  But the secondaries held, it would be a day before the primary projectors were replaced.

Clean up crews of Einherjergeir were using heavy equipment to clear away the huge carcasses of the slain Hybrids.  Two were still alive but heavily wounded.  One, a giant mantis creature was trying to attack the men and was put out of its misery.  The other, a winged cross between a pterodactyl and a giant bat, Arina ordered brought through the gates. There the healers would examine and make sure the remains of the battle computer grafted to the base of its skull were extracted.

Then I pulled up the new holo-tank that was installed after the battle against Ymir.  The huge display made the one in father's workshop seem small.  The tables in the room had been rearranged in concentric circles around the display. Three rings of white Einherjer tables on the outside surrounding the single ring of black Valkyrie tables  The table that I sat was a red, so dark it almost matched the black tables on either side.

Here sat three First Valkyrie of three different races.  Kate, Inatra, and myself, representing Earth, Ragnarok, and Asgard.  Artemis sat with us, representing the Olympians.  Interspersed around the outer ring of Einherjer tables were some yellow tables where any Ragnarok, Vanger, or Human warriors who wished, could sit in.

I grinned at Intark who didn't care about protocol and just sat at the primary Einherjer table with Tyr and Jeffery.  That man would never miss any planning that might involve violence and a chance of something blowing up while protecting the innocents of any of the allied races.  My daughter, Essa, chose well.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in frustration, trying to come up with a plan that wasn't a suicide mission.  My last suicide mission, where I had actually died, was burned into my being, leaving a scar inside of me that would never heal.  I preferred not to repeat the experience.

We had a risky extraction strategy that could possibly work.  But the huge glaring flaw was that we had to somehow first board the Star Killer before we could put it into effect.  Their main cannons and closer in point defense weapons would shred any incoming vessels.  Our Hornets and the Sky could take any of the point defense energy weapons fire without blinking. But those main cannons, the Sky could take one, possibly two hits with Arina's beefed up energy shunting units onboard.  The Hornets would be lucky to survive a single strike.

The Hornet's main defense was their random evasion course programming that could get them in strike range momentarily to strike at the gunports on the Jotunn vessels that were a known weakness. They then swoop back out of the main cannon's effective firing envelope.  We doubted it was good enough to get them all the way through to the point defense weapons envelope that was below the main cannon's line of fire.

I checked in on father to see if there was any news on the diplomatic front.  He relayed, “They have not accepted any of our hails as of yet daughter.”  I sighed internally.  Kroth!  Of course, there wouldn't be a peaceful way to do this.  Then he added, “Inshak told me that someone accessed the Ragnarok databases at the Ragnarok embassy spire and did a mass data dump minutes before the attack.  One of the enthralled men must have initiated the transfer.”  The implications of that were chilling.  That would be every scrap of knowledge and history of the Ragnarok race.  It wouldn't have any technical or strategic information about the Asgard, but what the Ragnarok had learned on their own.

I put that information aside, then we in the warrior caste redoubled our efforts in finding a solution that wouldn't end in everyone passing to the ages.  There was also the sobering truth that it was entirely possible that the Titans would just kill all of the hostages out of spite when we began our assault.  I saw no distinction between good and evil in Rhea's aura, the two mixed freely, just like Ymir's.  They held no moral distinction between the two.  It would be just like tuning on a light to Rhea to kill them all, and it wouldn't be of any more consequence than flipping that switch.

We calculated the spacing and placements of the main cannons.  They had a virtually three hundred and sixty degree sphere covered with the seven cannons.  Six spiraled around its axis and one forward cannon.  There was a small cone directly astern that was unprotected but was impossible to approach.  With the engines powered up, anything in that zone would be vaporized.  Leaving the only weak point, going head on, only the forward canon could protect a similar cone at the bow of the ship.

So we concentrated on any boarding party rescue missions utilizing that approach vector.  Kate at one point sat back in frustration, running her fingers through her hair and pulling it tight against her scalp.  “Why does it look like we'll all be wearing red shirts on this away mission no matter what we do?”

Then she sat up straight.  “What if we do what you and Intark did?  Ride an asteroid in?  The deception worked against Ymir's people.”

Intark growled like a wolf from his seat behind us.  He said in his deep baritone, “They would be looking for that exact deception.  They have our Ragnarok records now.  The entire assault on the Ginnungagap would be in them.”  Kate nodded and my heart fell.

I changed my line of thinking.  What is it that Rhea wanted from those men and Asgard women?  An army to use as a weapon against the Frost Giants.  And why was she still in the system now and not bringing her vessel in range to destroy the entire world like Ymir had tried on Folkvangr?  I exhaled, it was because she still wanted our men, but we had denied her all but a few when she fled the citadel.  I grinned, she wouldn't attack until she had what she wanted.  Our people were safe until then.

Then I frowned, but then why the attack with that huge group of Jotunn sentinels from the planet?  Arina chose that moment to walk into the room and said in her sweet voice, “A test maybe sister?”

I grinned at her.  “It isn't polite to listen in on my thoughts Little One.”

She grinned cutely and looked like she just wanted to hug herself as she said, “Then stop yelling.”  Then she stood behind Inatra and laid a hands on her shoulder, in plain view of everyone.  I blushed for her.  Then she said as she swept her gaze around the room. With an almost mothering look at some of the most deadly warriors in the galaxy and said with a smile, “It is very late, you all need to eat and retire.  You will all think better on the morrow, with fresh minds and body.  You are all no good to the innocents if your minds are dulled by exhaustion.”

She placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head as if in challenge.  I almost chuckled as I said, “Yes Arina.” A  murmur of chuckles sounded throughout the room.  None of them would talk back to the gentle Arina, our first Valkyriefrior, Valkyrie of Peace, either.

I looked around.  “Ok everyone, get some rest.  We will have at the problem on the morrow with fresh minds.”  Everyone mumbled assent as we all stood and started filing out.

After everyone filed out it was just us at the First Valkyrie table, Intark, Tyr, Jeffery, and Mist.  Mist reached out and grabbed the hands of her mates, Tyr, and Jeffery and dragged them toward the door calling, “On the morrow ladies.”  We all murmured a good night.

Intark loomed over us all and gave a tired smile and addressed us as he bowed his head slightly. “Ladies...”  He beamed a sarcastic grin down to me as he tugged on the scarf tied to my left arm.  “Itty bitty Ragnarok.”  He was already jumping out of the way when I tried to backhand him in the gut.

That left the five of us.  As we walked out Inatra chuckled at me and said in a childlike mocking tone with an Asgard accent, “Yes Arina!”

I rolled my eyes and shoved her into the door frame as we left the room with an, “Oops.”

She hissed and chuckled. “I will end you Valkyrie.”

“You shush love,” Arina replied.

And we all broke out in boisterous laughter when Ina said in a resigned tone, “Yes Arina.”

Artemis opened her mouth to chide us all for being softies around the Little One when Arina raised a finger at her and cocked an eyebrow expectantly.  Artemis shut her mouth and we all shared another bout of laughter.  We all knew the laughter broke the tension of the daunting task of what lay before us, but it still felt good.

As we sat in a wind rider on the way back to the Central Spire, I had to do a double-take at our adopted pseudo-sister from Olympus.  “Artemis?  You have been smiling ever since we left the barracks, what has you in such jovial spirits?”

She shrugged and replied like it was common sense, “My brother is alive.”  This brought a smile to all of our lips.

Kate assured her with undeniable surety. “And we will make sure to bring him, and any Olympian who yet lives on Rhea's vessel, home along with our people.”  We all added in our yea's of agreement.

After landing, we made our way into the spire and up to our quarters.  Inatra and Arina said their goodnights, and shared touches with us, then retired to their quarters next door.  I almost chuckled as Kate and I started dropping armor across the floor as we peeled out of it and made our way toward our  bed chambers.  I heard Artemis' bow then arrow sheath clunk on the ground too as she headed for her and Samantha's room.  I chuckled inwardly, we were acting like old ladies.

We all knew we should probably eat, but we were tired, we could have a big breakfast instead.  Kat had just gently pushed me back on the bed and straddled me, leaning in to lay a wanting kiss on my lips when an incoming message started pinging from a wall console.

In mid-kiss we both sighed and chuckled, our lips still connected. I backhanded the air and accepted the call in audio only.  “This had better be good, or by the Tree of Ages, I will hunt you down.”

I sat up straight when father's voice came through. “Daughter, we have an incoming transmission from Rhea's vessel.  It is coded for you only.”

I sighed and closed my eyes for a second, feeling the pleasant warmth of the arousal I had experienced with my mate just moments earlier ebb away.  Another thing Rhea will answer for.  Kate climbed off of me and started grabbing some of our discarded armor off the floor as I responded, “We will be there momentarily father.”  I made a dismissing gesture in the air and cut the transmission.

Kat's eyes were glittering in mirth as she handed me my chest plate while bending to retrieve her's, “Once more unto the breach love?”  I rolled my eyes, she knew I didn't like Shakespeare, I had met the man and he was a positively insufferable little man.  Though he could indeed hold his alcohol, I did give him that much.