She said, “Well met. Of course. Thea?”
The tall woman inclined her head and placed her palm on the control pad, and with a hum, a shield bubble built itself around and around in a spiral, like dragon scales being laid upon each other, until almost a full third of the Citadel was enclosed. The sky shimmered, and I was amazed at what the two women had cobbled together so quickly. It protected all of our core buildings.
I cocked my head at Thea, the blue haze that had hits of red around everyone was more of a purple around her, with blue breaking through that violet. This is what the women of Asgard called Valkyrie sight. I swallowed, knowing my suspicions had to be true. Somehow Inatra's nanites had infested me, and they were busy rewriting my body, making me something... more. What was I going to tell mother?
The hair on the back of my neck prickled and I spun, drawing Wrath and almost overextending the string as it pulled like a child's toy. My strength felt almost doubled and my fingers were arcing blue with the beginnings of a nano-lattice. Good lords, I was becoming Valkyrie.
We had found the missing Halfling, who had moved out of hiding by a building behind us and drew his sidearm to aim at Zeus froze when Thea dove between him and me yelling, “Hold!”
Hundreds of weapons turned toward the Halfling who was staring wide-eyed, and he dropped his sidearm and dropped to a knee, head bowing as he said roughly, “Goddess! Forgive me, I did not know you were here.” He looked ashamed and disgusted with himself.
My arms shook as I forced myself not to let fly my arrow like every fiber of my being wanted to. But the pleading look on Thea's face gave me pause. I loved the woman like a sister and would not be the cause of her pain.
Thea said to the man, “Deactivate your armor, pet. Allow the Olympians to take you.”
He looked confused, but eons of doing as his Goddesses told him, and his love and devotion to them had him bowing again as his armor powered down and he allowed the swarm of women and men to haul him to his feet.
How had he defeated our coherent photonic holographic shroud? No doubt the systems in his armor had devised a way through it. It demonstrated how ill prepared we were to face the Titans.
But then I blinked at the fact that now we had a prisoner of war. I was at a loss for what to do. We never thought we'd be able to take one alive. It was his blind devotion to the Titans that afforded us this boon. And Thea... well Thea looked ashamed. She knew the man would be a prisoner now until the end of any hostilities, and she had basically given him to us to save his life.
I lowered then sheathed my bow and moved up to her, looking up and then taking her hand to give it a squeeze as Hera bellowed for the guards to take the Halfling to an isolation cell, and remove his armor. Arina would find it a blessing to be able to examine the Jotunn tech in a fully functional suit for once.
When my pulse got back to normal as the Three Embers joined us now that their shield wasn't needed, I asked after greeting them with hugs, shielding my eyes from the blinding blue auras they possessed, “Status?”
The girls were all busy looking at my new armor appreciatively as Leto said from behind me with humor in her tone, “The enemy stopped just short of the auto-cannon kill box after one wandered into range and was blown back into the jungle undergrowth, unharmed. They seem to be digging in instead of approaching. I don't know what they are playing at.” Then she added with a chuckle, “Ma'am.”
It caused me to wince. Again I hadn't seen the one person who outranked me in the group.
I nodded and offered, “Sorry.”
She smirked and offered, “It's ok, sweetheart. Just learn to read a room before you go barking out orders.”
I blushed then chuckled when Janus chimed in, “We're not in a room, you daft firstborn.”
People chuckled.
My grin faded as I offered, “They're likely waiting to hear from their mistresses on the Star Killer. We should start prepping for the possibility of abandoning the Citadel. This temporary shield, as amazing as it is, wouldn't hold up against fire from the main weapons of the mothership.”
Zeus nodded as he moved closer, his attention split between watching the Halfling being dragged away and us. “How many of these 'wind riders' do the Asgard possess? Enough to carry all of us through to their realm?”
I nodded. “And then some.”
Hera completed his thought, “Then we should have them start sending them through just in case.” She smiled over at Arina who was consoling Thea. “Looks like we have an accord, Whispering Breeze.”
Arina grinned like a pleased chipmunk, and for some reason, I relaxed a tension I didn't know I had had building inside me since we arrived in the Citadel. I realized it was because I wasn't confident that Olympus could let go of its hidebound ways. We were ready now to step out into the light.
An alarm sounded almost the same instant a synthesized voice came over the Asgard Whisker Net. “Pegasus sneaky. Pegasus watch big Titan ship. They not know I here. They start to move toward Olympus. Second big Titan ship comes through rip in the big dark. Pegasus come home now.”
I paled as her telemetry streamed in my vision, at their best sublight speed, the Titan vessels would arrive on orbit in about two weeks, Pegasus a couple days sooner. Not one, but two Star Killers were heading to Olympus. By the Celestial Temple, this would be the end of the Citadel. We needed to leave.
Then coms traffic exploded with chatter as Pegasus' data was routed through the main control room. I could see our people's confidence shattering like a spun glass butterfly upon unforgiving stone.
Hera looked so pale just then as she said to Zeus while we all tried to comprehend the danger that two Star Killers posed, “We can't stand against two Titan ships... we must jump away, nothing can save us now.”
It is strange how you can find a certain calm in utter despair. An insight into the universe in ways that are not fully rational nor quantifiable. But a calmness flowed over me at her statement, which was almost a plea to the gods.
With the hissing of ice vaporizing and the crackling of blue power burning the very air around her, Kara, the Wild One, First Valkyrie of Valhalla, Right Hand of Kenatar, Demon of Ragnarok, stepped through the Bifrost into Olympus.
She looked up, her eyes crackling with energy, while she radiated an air of dangerous, barely contained power as she simply said in the growling tone of the predator she was, “Well met, Hera, I beg to differ.”
And I could hear them. The drums Kara spoke of in whispers when she doubted her own sanity. The war drums approached. And I realized what it was. Kara wasn't mad. It was the combined heartbeats of those of us who possessed evolved Valkyrie nanites.
I looked to the heavens as I somehow felt the resolve of the others through this new link I had with them, and I turned my head toward the oncoming enemy. They were coming... but we would be here to hold the line.
The End
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Novels by Erik Schubach
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Books in the Techromancy Scrolls series...
Adept
Soras
Masquerade
Westlands
Avalon (2018)
Books in the Urban Fairytales series...
Red Hood: The Hunt
Snow: The White Crow
Ella: Cinders and Ash
Rose: Briar's Thorn
Let Down Your Hair
Hair of Gold: Just Right
The Hood of Locksley
Beauty In the Beast
No Place Like Home
Shadow Of The Hook (2018)
Books in the New Sentinels series...
Djinn: Cursed
Raven Maid: Out of the Darkness
Fate: No Strings Attached
Open Seas: Just Add Water
Ghost-ish: Lazarus (2018)
Books in the Drakon series...
Awakening
Dragonfall
Book
s in the Valkyrie Chronicles series...
Return of the Asgard
Bloodlines
Folkvangr
Seventy Two Hours
Titans
Books in the Tales From Olympus series...
Gods Reunited
Alfheim (2018)
Books in the Bridge series...
Trolls
Traitor
Unbroken
Books in the Fracture series...
Divergence
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Romance Novels by Erik Schubach
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Books in the Music of the Soul universe...
(All books are standalone and can be read in any order)
Music of the Soul
A Deafening Whisper
Dating Game
Karaoke Queen
Silent Bob
Five Feet or Less
Broken Song
Syncopated Rhythm
Progeny
Girl Next Door
Lightning Strikes Twice
June
Dead Shot
Music of the Soul Shorts...
(All short stories are standalone and can be read in any order)
Misadventures of Victoria Davenport: Operation Matchmaker
Wallflower
Accidental Date
Holiday Morsels
What Happened In Vegas?
Books in the London Harmony series...
(All books are standalone and can be read in any order)
Water Gypsy
Feel the Beat
Roctoberfest
Small Fry
Doghouse
Minuette
Squid Hugs
The Pike
Flotilla
Books in the Pike series...
(All books are standalone and can be read in any order)
Ships In The Night
Right To Remain Silent
Evermore
Books in the Flotilla series...
(All books are standalone and can be read in any order)
Making Waves
Keeping Time
The Temp
Books in the Unleashed series...
Case of the Collie Flour
Case of the Hot Dog
Case of the Gold Retriever (2018)
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Novellas by Erik Schubach
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The Hollow
Novellas in the Paranormals series...
Fleas
This Sucks
Jinx (2018)
Novellas in the Fixit Adventures...
Fixit
Glitch
Vashon
Descent (2018)
Novellas in the Emily Monroe Is Not The Chosen One series...
Night Shift (2018)
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Short Stories by Erik Schubach
(These short stories span many different genres)
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A Little Favor
Lost in the Woods
MUB
Mirror Mirror On The Wall
Oops!
Rift Jumpers: Faster Than Light
Scythe
Snack Run
Something Pretty
Tales From Olympus: Gods Reunited Page 16
