Valkyrie Chronicles 4 & 5 Bundle

by Erik Schubach

  I looked at my wrist console and almost laughed at the message that was scrolling from my Verr... “Raugh!” They have always had a better grasp on humor than me. I chuckled at them in my head and checked the time. Any minute now.

  A short time later a raging torrent of energy struck the road to the citadel and Ymir and a second Frost Giant stepped out of it as it faded. Ymir looked at me and that tinny voice came over his guttural noises, “We will take you and your sentient nano-machines now Asgard. The rest of the contamination you have wrought will be sterilized.

  I looked at him and snarled, “Leave this world and these people Jotunn, they are under Asgard protection!”

  Both he and the other man drew those desiccating energy weapons. As one, fifty Einherjergeir drew their sidearms. The Frost Giants rapid fired on all except me. Nano-lattices flared as the energy was absorbed and dissipated then our men opened fire. As expected, the Jotunn were knocked back as each blast struck, leaving pits and small cracks in their armor. They hadn't found a way to counter our magnetic force yet.

  This continued for a few seconds until Ymir hit a stud on his wrist and a block shaped screen of coherent light appeared in front of him and his companion. It didn't stop the incoming fire, but it diffused it enough that it was negligible when it struck them. I had no doubt it would have stopped any particle based weapons fire completely. They adjusted their weapons and fired through their shield in broad net-like fire pattern. My sidearm and all the Asgard sidearms melted into slag and turned into carbon and protein dust, except for Tyr's. He had managed to harden his with his lattice.

  I was starting to understand these new Jotunn sidearms now. They attacked all organic matter and reduced it to its carbon components. Since our plasti-steel was protein and carbon based, the proteins were affected by the weapon. Then our own tamper protection helped the destruction of our weapons along. Our Armor was protected by our lattice and it's own regenerative circuitry, thanks to Aunt Freya.

  Tyr continued to fire as the second Frost Giant charged him. I let loose my battle cry, Inatra crossed over to intercept the man converging on Tyr as I charged Ymir, who was setting his feet for attack. I reached out as I ran into his shield and my lattice absorbed the energy from it. The other Valkyrie were in motion.

  A moment before I reached Ymir, I let loose the power of Thor I had at the ready in a cupped hand and reduced his sidearm to slag. One down, one to go, I thought to myself. I could see that Ymir realized this was our plan, to destroy the sidearms before engaging in battle. His eyes flickered to the main gates of Valhalla and back to me as he started to warn his companion, too late.

  A snarling and hissing Inatra, was actually hanging on to the arm of the other Jotun, dangling off the ground and hacking at his hand and weapon with her lattice claws. I would have laughed at the sight if we weren't fighting for survival here. She really looked like the vicious fox that gained her the name, Fox, among our people.

  She hacked the weapon in half before he struck her with his other arm with such force that she went flying and tumbling along the ground at least forty feet before she slammed into a boulder with a brilliant flash of lattice flaring. But to my relief she was instantly on her feet and leaping back toward the enemy.

  Ymir took advantage of the distraction and hit me with a roundhouse kick that felt like I had been struck with a tank shell. Mist caught me in midair, then we charged together. I said over coms, “Now.” As we dodged and parried and traded blows with the man. Mist gouging his armor with lattice hardened carbon blades and me doing the same with Odin Spears.

  The ground shook as the Gate Guardians stepped aside, allowing five thousand Ragnarok, Vanger, and a single Asgard to charged through to the battle. Over five thousand battle cries were roaring in my ears. The Ragnarok spiraled around the enemy. But leaving the frontal area clear for the Valkyrie to engage.

  Time slowed down and my Verr were projecting data analysis of the battle over my vision as Ymir started attacking the mass around him. Men and women were dying in great sweeps of his spinning and lunging strikes. He was being struck from three sides by carbon blades that were ineffectual against his armor. I saw the thermal spikes in his power pack thanks to a thermal overlay my Verr were providing me. It was working but at a great cost.

  The battle raged on for a half hour. Too many Ragnarok were sacrificing themselves. I growled then charged and spun below a blow and struck up at his armpit as his fist blurred past. I couldn't reach my true target, his head, unless I leapt up, but that would leave me too vulnerable to his far superior strength. I had to keep his focus on me as the Ragnarok overwhelmed his systems. But he knew what we were doing and backhanded me. It was a glancing blow, but even so, it felt like I had been struck by a sledge hammer as I spun away and struck his armpit again, at one of the few visible seams in the armor. That krothing composite alloy was too tough for my physical attacks, especially with his kinetic absorption system blunting my strikes.

  I feigned right, dodged left, then ducked under the blow and fired the power of Thor I had at the ready, directly against his armor at that same seam under his armpit I had been targeting. A jagged chunk of his armor, about twelve inches long broke off as the force of the lightning spun him and staggered him backwards.

  The heat from his power supply doubled as what looked like a photon based force field filled in the gap I had created in the armor. The Ragnarok attack doubled in fury. I glanced over to the other Jotunn, and he was staggering to under the ferocity of the attack. A battered and bloodied Inatra was sitting on his shoulders and striking at his face.

  The photon shield guarding his head faltered a moment as her lattice absorbed the energy. I saw blue liquid on his face where her lattice claws had raked across it. Had she cut him? He grabbed her leg and threw her fifty feet back into the mass of Ragnarok. She stood shakily and hissed more violently in his direction than I had ever seen her do. Then her snarl turned into a smile as she let fly her battle cry as she realized she had actually hurt him.

  The other Valkyrie were faring little better than the Ragnarok in attacking the Frost Giants. I caught a pile driver from Ymir, but this time I was ready. Instead of stopping it, I tightened my grasp and yanked downward, pulling him to his knees. The I dropped into my crouch and struck him in the face with my most powerful blow.

  All at once, my fist broke through the resistance of the photon shield as my lattice absorbed its power and I struck him in the nose. I felt the crunching of bone and blue fluid went flying. Then he struck upwards and I felt bones break in my arm as I went flying into some Ragnarok. Killing one of them when I impacted with tremendous force. Ymir roared in a mix of pain and fury.

  I heard a screeching alarm and looked over to the second Frost Giant. I saw his power source was almost white hot as he hit a stud on his arm and he was taken away by their krothing powerful transport beam. Throwing the Valkyrie and Ragnarok back. Odin's beard! Sigrun was screaming in pain and writhing on the ground. Her legs had been caught in the beam and were no more! Arina was already there grabbing the fallen Valkyrie and running back toward the gates of Valhalla with her, surrounded by the little one's impenetrable bubble shield.

  Ymir turned toward me and yelled with his bloodied face, “Enough of this! I would have liked to examine your Verr. But none may touch a Jotunn! We will dispose of our mistake now!” He unclipped a small device from his waist. My blood went cold, realizing it was one of the culling devices. I started sprinting at him as I charged up the Power of Thor with my unbroken left arm.

  But my head snapped behind me to my left for some reason. I know I saw it coming, I swear to the Tree of Ages... from the mountain peaks, miles away, I saw an arrow traveling at hypersonic speeds. It sliced cleanly through the device and the force of its momentum struck Ymir's armor and it actually embedded into it. It didn't pierce it but came close.

  He was looking at the arrow in his hand in shock, then his eyes flickered to the peaks as he pulled it out and threw it aside.
“Olympians?” He murmured. Then he was taken by surprise in his distraction when he was grabbed from behind, lifted off his feet and thrown to the ground by a huge, howling Ragnarok. It was Rotark! His strength was incredible, the Jotunn must have out-massed him two to one, possibly three to one with that armor, yet the Ragnarok still accomplished the feat. Rotark's hand wrapped around the shard of Jotunn armor on the ground and he jammed it cleanly through the photon shield at the enemy's armpit and into the flesh it was protecting. I took note that the armor shard wasn't affected by the shield.

  Ymir howled in pain and backhanded Rotark, who's body, flew through the air and landed limply twenty feet away. There was nothing but fury in Ymir's eyes as he stood shakily and reached for a stud on his, arm and snapping, “It is no matter, we will just destroy the planet from space then.”

  I dove at the Ragnarok that were converging on him and just barely knocked them away in time as the raging torrent of energy of a Jotunn transport beam struck the ground. We were all blown back a few feet. Then all was silent as it disappeared with the injured Ymir.

  I looked to the sky, then to the arrow on the ground, then the mountaintops. I knocked myself out of my thoughts and my eyes flew wide and I ran to Rotark, with my arm hanging at an unnatural angle. The big man's jaw was obviously broken and his face bloodied but he was alive. His eyes fluttered open as I cradled his head in my lap with my one good arm. He smiled and winced in pain and slurred out, “Hello pretty Valkyrie. Did Rotark protect the children?”

  I chuckled at the man, nodding my head. “Yes. Yes you did, Rotark, Giant's Folly.” I gifted the title to him, as was my right as First Valkyrie and ruling caste. He realized that fact and just beamed with pride as I helped him to his unsteady feet. I reached my broken arm out to him. “Would you?” He squinted not understanding at first, then a flicker of understanding lit in his dull eyes. He nodded and reached out with his giant paws and pulled and twisted my arm. There was a searing pain and a crunching sound as he set the bones. I sighed in relief as I felt my nanites attack the damage and went about mending my bones now that they were aligned.

  I looked around at the people on the battlefield. There were so many dead and wounded, and that was only two Frost Giants. But we were victorious. Mist joined Rotark and I and started helping us toward the gates when Inatra raised her head and let loose her battle cry, the entire field joined in. I couldn't stop my smile.

  I crouched and grabbed the damaged culling device and the mysterious arrow as we passed by them. The arrow must have weighed twenty five pounds. I smiled as Rotark put the shard of Jotunn armor into his belt as a trophy. We walked through the gates. As we passed the Einherjer, I shouted, “Rotark, Giant's Folly!” There was a resounding “Raugh!” The masses were chanting his name throughout the courtyard as we made our way to medical triage.

  The tiny girl, Kate, joined us and led the way, reaching way up and holding Rotark's hand. I smiled down on her and said, “Well met Kitty.” She smiled back and responded with a cute, “Well met Valkyrie.”

  I reached out to Kate through our link. “Kat? Are you well? How did you fare? We are victorious here, the Frost Giants retreated to their ship.” She informed me that no Jotunn came to Heildfine. That confused me. Again, the Frost Giant tactics made no sense to me. Why did they not overwhelm us? Not even the Valkyrie could stand against them if they came in force.

  I was frustrated that just when we were making headway, they were able to escape to their orbiting ship yet again. Plus the new threat Ymir had made, about destroying the planet from space. Could they truly accomplish that?

  I was knocked out of my thoughts at the sight of all the gurneys around the doors of the medical building with dead or dying Ragnarok in them. Wind riders were stacked two per landing pad, flying patients off to other facilities. I could imagine how overwhelmed they were here. I felt guilt seeping into me. These men and women did not need to sacrifice themselves. That is for the Valkyrie.

  The poor healers are used to handling only a dozen or so injured Valkyrie and Einherjer after a battle. This was overwhelming but they were professional and organized. Treating the critical cases here and transporting the individuals with less serious injuries to the various medical buildings around the citadel.

  I paused as I passed a Vanger woman on a stretcher. The healer was pulling a sheet over her face. I fought back a tear, she was no more than an innocent that I am sworn to protect. She had no business being out on the battlefield.

  The doors slid open when we reached them and the healers were automatically trying to lead me to a room. Valkyrie and Einherjer always received priority treatment as they were needed on the lines in case of follow-up attacks. I pushed them away and insisted they take Rotark instead. I told the First Healer, “Rotark, Giant's Folly, was the hero of the field this day. Please, take him in my stead, he possesses no nanites to assist his healing.”

  The man looked at me as if to classify the injuries my nanites were rapidly healing, up at the Ragnarok, then nodded once. He smiled up at Rotark and led him into a room, telling little Kate to stay behind.

  I looked down at the tiny one, she had a serious look on her face as she said, “They will need me at the gates.”

  I smiled at her and crouched to her level and said in earnest, “There is honor in what you do Kitty. You do all of Asgard proud.”

  She nodded in acknowledgment and tried to stand taller as she scurried back out the door. I spun as a healer hurried past and I asked, “Sigrun?”

  The man inhaled and looked down, afraid to meet my eyes. He the said quickly, “Well met Valkyrie. Sigrun lives. She lost a lot of blood, but her nanites were able to stem the flow before she reached here. It will be many cycles before her nanites are able to rebuild her legs for her. I am sorry Wild One.”

  I laid a hand on his forearm. Was he afraid of me? I guess I do not blame the man as I know what I am. Just an animal, a vicious tool with but one purpose. To commit violence upon those that would threaten the weak and innocents of our realm who cannot defend themselves. I said softly, “Do not fear me healer... thank you for all you do. Where can I find Sigrun now?”

  He looked up at me and I smiled. He smiled back nervously and stopped a younger healer running past with a portable console. “Tyron, please escort the Wild One to Sigrun, the Rising Sun.”

  Titles, it is always the titles. I shook my head and said, “Healer, please call me Kara. Thank you.” He nodded once and went back to his duties as the younger man led me to Sigrun's room. At the door, he said quietly, “I would offer myself to your bed this night if you do not find one more suitable.”

  I smiled at the man, he couldn't be more than five or six thousand cycles old. Top marks for bravery. I replied with an amused grin. “Thank you, but my mate and I have claimed exclusivity.”

  He smiled back and bowed out of the way as he said. “But of course. This is the room of the Rising Sun. Well met Valkyrie.”

  “Well met,” I murmured as I entered the room. There were four healers attending to Sigrun with tubes and wires hanging from her arms. Monitoring equipment was strewn all around her. Her armor was still littering the floor from when the healers stripped it from her to get at her injuries. I kept my eyes on her as I absently picked up her discarded armor and stacked it on a chair. She was unconscious and I winced at the smooth flat sheet where her legs should have been.

  My eyes automatically flickered to my left hand. I knew what she was going to go through until her legs were reconstructed. I hoped she would be stronger than me and accept them more readily than I have with my reconstructed hand. It still felt fake to me, like a reflection of the original even though I knew that feeling was just psychological.

  The healers were stripping off the ragged flesh, helping shape the stumps smoothly so the nanites had a simpler base to start with. As odd as it sounds, them removing more flesh would speed the process up by months.

  I looked down at myself, my armor had finished regenerating, hidin
g the damage below it. I knew my nanites would have me completely healed within hours. Even my broken arm. These injuries were nothing compared to some I had survived.

  I walked up to Sigrun and a female healer moved aside. I laid the back of my hand on the fallen Valkyrie's cheek. I whispered, “You did well old friend, there was great valor in your actions.” Then I looked at the healers and said, “Thank you for your services. She is among the best of us.”

  Then I smiled and turned to leave the room to their looks of pride. I needed to get to father's workshop to get a situation report. I stopped as the rest of the Valkyrie, not in Heildfine, streamed into the room. Inatra stood by my side, she had a dangerous look on her face when she looked at Sigrun. I knew she wanted vengeance. Then she suddenly squinted and looked at her stumps then over at my left hand and hissed lovingly at me. Was I that transparent to my sisters and my wife?

  Ina answered across our link in my head, “Yes... you are.”

  I smiled and bumped our hips together. We Valkyrie gave the salute to heroes to the unconscious Sigrun and then filed out. I grabbed Inatra's and Mist's arms and led them quickly down the corridor as I said, “We need to get to father for the after action reports. No doubt Tyr is already with him. Mist I need you to coordinate things at the gate, keep us informed.”

  Mist, ever efficient, nodded and went out the doors and headed directly toward the gates. I paused when I saw an Asgard woman coming out of the exam room on a crutch. She had bandages across one side of her face and she dragged one foot behind her as she moved toward the exit.

  It was the lone Asgard innocent that came to battle for the survival of the people of our various worlds. She yet stood! I intercepted her at the door. “Well met Asgard.”