Tales From Olympus: Gods Reunited

by Erik Schubach

  I think the Asgard with us frightened my people, as they showed just how dangerous the Ragnarok and Vanger could be as they efficiently and silently took down any prey Caeneus pointed out to them. I'm sure it is surprising to hear that Inatra could actually be stealthy. I was surprised too. Usually, you could hear her hissing from miles away.

  I was so amused, I never drew Wrath once and instead busied myself picking fruits and greens with some of the thirdborn men, so I could get to know them better. Is it bad that I saw them as babies? Just a few centuries old. Born while I was off-world.

  We were out on one such hunt when the alarm sounded over coms as Intark was hefting the carcass of a jungle reaver into a transport. He hadn't even used a weapon to take down the lizard-like ox, he had just dropped from a tree high up in the jungle canopy, striking like a meteor then snapping its neck with his arms thrown wide around it. I hadn't even known where the big man had run off to.

  The sound of the alarm sent a primal terror racing up my spine. Jotunn! Caeneus and I were calling out, “Cloak! Everyone cloak!” I growled as we all shimmered out of the visible light spectrum, the Asgard following suit with their chameleon shroud armor. If Inatra's Verr weren't feeding us their locations in our heads up displays, not even we would know where they were as they didn't even leave footsteps on the ground as we all loaded into the transport and activated its cloak.

  I growled as we took to the air, the pilot keeping our speed below detectable levels as we soared toward the Citadel. I had to limit the chatter on the whisper channel to the defense guard to find out what the hell was going on. The Citadel was in a panic. They normally didn't if a Frost Giant vessel inserted into orbit to discard trash and failed weapons experiments. This was the incoming alarm.

  I was calling out in coms, “Flight, this is Hunter One. Status?”

  A harried woman's voice came over the channel, “Hunter One, Flight. We have thirty vessels incoming. They just appeared on the scope as they started their entry burn. Signs of Mithreal armor alloy detected.”

  I snapped out, “Tych!” Causing all eyes to turn to me, the attention from Asgard of our group was twice as sharp. I had no doubt they were listening in. This meant the Jotunn were indeed here. But I furrowed my brow in confusion. Thirty vessels? In this realm, there were but nine Frost Giant Star Killers and ten Titan Star Killers, only nine of which were fully operational.

  I paled at a question. Had they called in ships from the other nine realms, the other universes the Jotunn lorded over which all had ten vessels, each containing ten Jotunn? We... we were dead already unless we could do an emergency space fold in the Citadel. I doubted it since they had moved the citadel already less than two hundred years ago and the capacitors would only be half charged.

  Then the fact that Flight said the ships were performing an entry burn seeped through my panic. The Star Killers were never designed to land. So these had to be something else, something new. The Jotunn have never needed anything but their lumbering inter-dimensional warships since they could transmit living matter with their stormbridge energy beams.

  I called in for clarifications, “Flight, repeat, thirty vessels? Star Killers?”

  The response was instant. “Negative Hunter One, these are smaller like our transports, we can't get decent scans of them through the Mithreal. Some sort of small crewed vehicles?”

  Inatra hijacked the supposedly point to point communications stream and hissed out, “Get Arina the Whispering Breeze there, Asgard tech can get detailed scans.”

  I added when there was no response, “Do it, Flight. We are inbound, be there in five. Ready orbital cannons.” I prayed our tech was as robust as we hoped. The cloaked orbital cannons had not been fired since the Ragnarok generational vessels arrived eons ago to try to enslave us. It was a one-sided battle that lasted a few seconds. That was our first contact with the Ragnarok race.

  I added, “Prepare the Lances.” I wondered it the space capable fighters still worked after all this time, but I knew Hep serviced them every century or so.

  The Jotunn were here, and in vessels we've never seen before. Were the smaller vessels a response to the Asgard Hornets? The wind riders which were retrofitted to have mag lance spear projectors that could actually damage the Mithreal armor of the gods on their Star Killers. No, the Jotunn were no gods.

  A little voice in the back of my head was warning me that if these new vessels were indeed a response to that, then these were the Titans and not the Frost Giants, as only the Titans have seen the Hornets. For some reason, that thought chilled me even more than if it were the Frost Giants.

  I relayed this, “Flight, these are Titans.”

  Kroth!

  Ok, think Artemis. I pulled up the vectors of the vessels and saw more detailed information slowly bleed into the scans and smiled, Arina was already feeding us Asgard scans of the incoming ships. The targeting subroutines in my cloak automatically plotted the course and intercept vectors, and I cocked my head at their profiles when I heard the Lance squadron requesting clearance to launch.

  I was quickly blurting across coms, “Belay that! Look at their course. I do not believe they are aware of the Citadel's presence.” They seemed to be flying toward the equator, the dumping grounds for discarded Frost Giant junk and cybernetic weapons experiments, instead of the Citadel. I think they were looking to retrieve whatever latest abominations the Frost Giants had been working on to gauge the current capabilities of the Frost Giants in the war against them.

  I added, “They appear to be on a scavenging run.” This was not unheard of. Many times over the eons a Titan star Killer would pass by Olympus and use their powerful stormbridge matter transporters to bring aboard the creatures discarded by their male counterparts, then they would be on their way.

  This was different though, them using smaller, more maneuverable craft. And I understood. What happened in the Ragnarok system has scared them. They don't want to be in weapons range or easy range of the Hornets. So were sending their disposable men to do the scavenging for them.

  If it were true, then it was a little frightening that they were adapting so quickly to a new type of threat. The Jotunn measured time in billions of years instead of days. So this made me afraid that the Titans may have awakened from what the Asgard call the Fog of Ages. Where they simply went through the motions in life never-ending and not really participating in it.

  Kara saw that Fog of Ages in the other nine Titans on Rhea's ship. She said they seemed almost devoid of any interest in life and just merely existed to do what their Queen demanded of them. But Kara... well she seemed to connect with one and shake her from the endless dream of the monotony of her life, Thea. Kara was something different, something that provided a true challenge. Someone who made them have to wake up and think. Was she the catalyst for this apparent swift adaptation to a new type of enemy to them?

  I saw another blip on the map overlays. Another vessel was vectoring to shadow them. I was wondering why Hera or Zeus weren't calling it back when I smiled at the designation. It was because they didn't even know she was out there. I changed com channels, “Pegasus, Kitty. Don't engage, just shadow them. I don't believe they are a threat to us.”

  The chuckle from Kitty and Pegasus' response scrolling in my vision had me shaking my head at the two impulsive children. “Pegasus knows, pretty silly archer. Pegasus sneaky, Kitty says so.”

  Then I signed off, “Love you, little brat,” and went back to the whisper frequency and grinned, knowing the two stinkers would be arguing over who I was talking to. I loved them both.

  I looked up and blinked – everyone was staring at me. I pointed at my ear. “Pegasus and Kitty are out there, shadowing the enemy craft.”

  Caeneus looked concerned, and before he could voice it, I assured him, “Asgard channels are more secure and harder to detect than ours.”

  Intark chuckled and agreed, “It took us fifteen hundred years for the Ragnarok just to find their frequencies, and in the eons
of battling the Valkyrie, we still hadn't broken their encryption. We could only monitor the transmissions they wished us to.”

  He added nudging a thumb toward Talia, “And when Freya's little scrappers joined the fray, even that got harder to accomplish.”

  Talia slapped his thumb away with a smug look on her face as she responded, “Cha. Like the Olympians, we have extensive experience at hiding to preserve our people.”

  It felt like Olympus had been holding its breath until we slid through the holographic projection and landed in the Citadel. And I exhaled one I had been holding as well. The entire world was standing on eggshells, afraid to move, but behind our most sophisticated energy dampening cloak, I felt like I could breathe again.

  I could tell I wasn't the only one with that impression as everyone around us spoke in hushed tones as we disembarked into a courtyard bustling with activity. Women gearing up and strapping on weapons. Women now manning the manual cannons on the walls beside the automated energy weapons. Men were everywhere, checking the women's gear, providing water and supplies. Moving backup power supplies to the gun emplacements.

  I nodded, it was just like the endless drills we endured every year. I smiled a bit, only it would change soon. Maybe not right away, but as Zeus and Hera gain more confidence in the cure, but those men rushing around would be armed and ready to fight alongside our women.

  The Three Embers were waiting for our arrival and without a word, whisked us to the control room of the Citadel. My parents were there and most of the firstborns. I noted that even Apollo was manning the targeting sensors. I could see more detailed information than normal streaming on the virtual screens hovering around his swiveling and rotating chair. I looked at Arina by the main terminals, she was allowing us to interface with their Asgard scanners.

  I saw Hep helping Aphrodite don her silver and gold battle armor she wore under her adaptive fabric cloak. It more than doubled her strength and was designed to ablate the effects of Jotunn organic desiccation fire. Though that was untested. Her hair was so black it almost seemed to swallow the light around her.

  This was the side of her we rarely saw as she always just hid away in her flirty armor of seduction. This was her at her most dangerous, a true warrior. And I found myself distracted, she reminded me so much of Kara just then. This was the first time I had been aroused by her without her teasing, and... I didn't mind. There is a first for everything I guess.

  She caught me watching, and she looked almost bashful as a strand of pinks curled its way through her midnight black locks.

  I turned away after a moment and inhaled and barked out, “Status?”

  Leto turned from her console and slid some information from her screen to Apollo's before cocking an eyebrow at me. I blushed, I hadn't seen her there. Since Apollo had been stripped of his rank, she was the only person who outranked me in the Citadel besides Zeus and Hera. But they just oversaw everything, it was up to us firstborn to command our warriors.

  Leto cocked her head in amusement and said, “Well, ma'am, we are tracking thirty Jotunn vessels at an altitude of three hundred feet.” She hesitated as she read some data on speed, radio, radiation, and heat emission data from the vessels. She muttered to herself, “The data streams that the Asgard are providing us are phenomenal.”

  She shook herself. “They are working a grid pattern at the equator, there is no indication that they have detected us. Ma'am.”

  I muttered to her with a grin as Hephaestus moved over to me and started pulling off my cloak and undressed me to start placing my old black and forest green armor on me, “Don't get smug lady, I didn't see you there.”

  Hera looked amused at my embarrassment, and Leto just chuckled. She and Apollo had always been in the control room calling the shots while I was out in the field leading our warriors.

  Brun and Essa giggled, and I turned to see Samantha staring at me, her mouth agape. Zeus' balls, I forgot the girls were there. We had just given them a show when Hep stripped me. My cheeks burned. At least I had had my undergarments on to cover my modesty.

  My blush intensified when I caught Dite looking on with a hungry look, her black hair streaked with blonde. I almost believed she wasn't teasing. I had to look away. Then I felt my armor on my body, fitting snugly, feeling like a second skin.

  I had missed it in my time away. I had not anticipated a battle, as I was there as an observer. But now? It felt good and right, and I knew it would protect me better than my cloak which has served me well. I shrugged into my cloak and repositioned my bow and quiver on my back.

  Arina was just staring at me wide-eyed as Talia repeated something Kate often said, “Badass.”

  Ok, I was blushing again. I didn't have time to blush, I was the Hunter, a warrior of Olympus.

  Hera came to my rescue. “You said you believe the vessels are Titan?”

  I nodded and explained my reasoning.

  When I was done, the Asgard agreed with my assessment, and we also agreed that it was unlikely any Titans were piloting the vessels, as they tried to stay out of harm's way and make their slaves and Halflings do their dirty work when their technology couldn't.

  This gave mother and father pause as Zeus muttered, “So these are likely Halfling pilots. Half Olympian.”

  I blanched. I hadn't thought of that. If we were forced to fight, it would be against those with our blood running through their veins. That made battle even more unpalatable.

  Everyone sobered at the implication. I nodded and then looked at the plots again and then cocked my head when I noted they had already passed over the limb of the planet and were traversing the other side, yet the detailed scanner feeds were still showing on our own plots from our cloaked satellites.

  I prompted, “How are we still receiving Asgard telemetry Arina? Our satellites don't have this resolution.”

  She smiled like it was obvious. “Pegasus is out there. She is streaming her scans to the satellites.”

  Ahh. Ok, I felt foolish, I knew she was out there with Kitty.

  Zeus perked up. “And they cannot detect your ship... What kind of armaments does it possess?”

  Intark said flatly, “She. And her only armament would be one Valklopt, assuming Kitty is with her.”

  He seemed a little frustrated. “Then why are they out there risking exposing us if they can't do any good?”

  I pointed at the data, including mass, power readings, and armament information and snapped defensively, “That! Is what good they are doing. And don't discount the damage a single Valklopt can inflict nor the capabilities of Pegasus.” Then I added when I realized how accusing my tone was, “Sir.”

  He nodded, bringing his hand to his chin to stroke it as he did when he was deep in thought. He looked at Leto who always had a knack for reading father like a book, and she nodded and keyed up the whisper net. “All women remain at ready stations. Status to move down to level two.”

  She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms behind her head and said, “Looks like this is going to be a long day boys and girls.”

  Chapter 9

  Traitor In Our Midst

  It had been a long day, and a long two and a half weeks. The Citadel had been holding its breath as the Halfling ships slowly and meticulously harvested the hybrid animals and pieces of discarded junk and made trips out past the asteroid belt at the fringes of the system and back. It would have only taken a matter of hours if a Star Killer vessel came in range of their stormbridge.

  We sent Pegasus out earlier to shadow one of the vessels leaving orbit to see where they were going. A Star Killer had to be hiding out there somewhere. Kitty was most upset that Arina 'ordered' her to stay planetside. It was a good thing too since Pegasus was four and a half light hours out after a week's travel and still going and Kitty would have had to turn back after exhausting the emergency food rations stored under the seats in the wind rider.

  If we had known how far out whatever the ships were rendezvousing with was located, Pegasus co
uld have carried provisions to last a few weeks.

  I absently wondered if we could have sent someone with a jump pack, or if we could just mount one in Pegasus and integrate it into her systems if she'd be able to space fold. It would be a one trick pony since it would take years for the pack to recharge unless we rigged multiple packs.

  The jump pack I used had no problems bringing her to Olympus as she just barely fit into the fold envelope, so I don't see why it wouldn't be possible. Unless of course mother and father had a problem sharing our technology with the Asgard.

  No use thinking about that now because as it was, she still had over a week's journey back. Just how much magnetic force could she harvest to power herself that far out in the system? So far her chameleon shroud was still operational, and her Whisker Net com channel was still feeding Valhalla and us near real-time data.

  I smiled at that. Not even the Jotunn had real-time FTL communications unless they opened a quantum window to bridge two points in space with their ships. And that literally took a few suns to power. Which meant we always knew the general vicinity of at least one Frost Giant or Titan vessel. Somewhere along the axis between the two planetary systems the cosmic engine that Jotunn built orbits around. Olympus being at one pole of the Axis, Hades at the other.

  It takes us centuries to track their other ships as our data only comes in at light speed, and we aren't aware of any of their changes in heading or if they slide through a quantum window provided by one of the stationary vessels until centuries after either. And tracking is sketchy at that, as we cannot scan their Mithreal armor so track them by the gravitational eddies they leave in their wake.

  My mind started racing. If we were allowed to integrate the Whisker Net in our cloaked satellites and fighters, and outfit them with jump packs... we could set up listening posts in a grid to monitor the entire cosmic engine in near real-time, with only a maximum delay of the spacing between monitoring posts – say, a light week. And we wouldn't need to monitor the vast empty space between systems, only the space around each inhabited solar system.