Valkyrie Chronicles 4 & 5 Bundle

by Erik Schubach

  He squinted his eye trying to determine if I were lying. Then he manipulated some controls and a crude holographic display came up in front of me as he said, “Show me this speed Valkyrie. Let us run simulations.”

  We spent the next thirty minutes running a dozen simulations. I only failed to release the simulated space rock on the proper trajectory twice. Intark's eye was sparkling with humor as he said, “Odin's beard woman! It is no wonder we could never vanquish you on the battlefield.”

  I smirked playfully at him and replied, “I thought it was because your backs hurt when you had to keep striking so far down to hit me.” His booming laughter echoed throughout the vessel. I tried to keep a straight face but failed.

  He tied the systems together and rigged them to be operated remotely from the drop ship. His demeanor was getting harder and more aggressive as we neared the drop ship. I could tell that he was already steeling himself for battle. I, on the other hand, was oddly getting more and more calm. I knew the probable outcome, but this is what I did, I was Valkyrie! I was at peace with myself.

  We strapped in and he gently disengaged us from the docking port and smoothly swung us around to behind the asteroid. He growled harshly and smiled evilly as he pulled up the holo-displays in front of us. He looked over. “We will be on reactionary thrusters only when all systems and gyros go down, this is going to be a rough ride, prepare yourself Valkyrie.”

  I reactivated my earbud, it seemed that everyone was gathered in father's workshop now in a show of solidarity instead of trying to talk us out of it, even mother was there. Arina's voice was hoarse and mechanical as she fed us additional targeting data, father had to take over when she faltered. We transmitted details on our plan back to them. Kate wouldn't say anything, but I could feel her concern and pride over our nanite link. He finished with, “We will monitor from the ground daughter. May the fates smile upon you.”

  I looked at Intark and nodded once then turned to my display as he started the countdown. Time slowed down for me as I exhaled and watched the milliseconds tick down toward zero while my finger hovered over the tractor release. My Verr snapped up overlays in my vision that helped sharpen my hand eye coordination. At zero, my finger twitched and the powerful photon tractor beams of the Shamir hurled the huge space rock from our current twenty thousand miles per hour up to thirty thousand in less than ten seconds before it got out of range and they released it.

  I watched the projected trajectory as I was pressed back in my seat as all the thrusters on board fired as one, sending us chasing the asteroid's shadow as a bat out of hell with Intark's guttural battle cry ringing out as he fought the controls. The orbital projection lines of the Jotunn vessel and the asteroid adjusted then merged. All indicators lit up green. When I could catch my breath as the g-forces reduced when we were in position, I said with pride, “Trajectory nominal.”

  He gave me a predatory grin and said, “Let us have at these spawns of the underworld shall we?” He shut down all systems except reactionary propulsion. The cabin went dark.

  So there we sat with the cold of space slowly seeping into the cabin as we breathed what air was in the cabin. We were silent for the two hour journey, waiting for the signal for me to make my way to the drop bay, where the clunky magnetic boots Intark had placed in there for me, waited.

  Chapter 10 - Kara's Wrath

  A chime on my wrist console told us that it was time for me to prepare. We couldn't see the Frost Giant vessel growing in the distance since we were hiding behind the asteroid. But I could see it in my mind's eye looming like an unstoppable leviathan, unaware of the chaos about to befall it.

  I floated out of the bridge and into the short corridor using the zero-g handrails mounted everywhere to maneuver, as Intark sealed his helmet on his EVA suit. Once inside I looped one arm through a handrail by the pressure door and pulled one of the boots off the bulkhead and donned it. I stepped on the grated floor with it then released the handrail and then strapped on the second boot. I took some experimental, clunky steps. I was using more muscles than normal to walk as I had to keep myself upright by flexing my muscles in my legs and torso.

  My wrist console chimed again. This was going to hurt. I made my way quickly back to the drop doors and laid against it with my back to it. Even from behind the asteroid I could see the gigantic Jotunn vessel stretching out in the distance to my left through a viewport on the bulkhead now.

  There was a tick in my earbud, it was Intark's signal that we were in range of the Frost Giant's main energy cannons. There was an answering tick from Valhalla. The seconds crawled by as the vessel grew in my vision. We were thirty seconds from impact, just at the inner range of the main cannons when the gates of hell opened.

  A blinding flash of energy bloomed from the enemy vessel at a shallow angle from the left. I started taking deep breaths, conditioning my lungs. Then two million metric tons of space rock were blown into bits. The energy shockwave hit us and our vessel shook and groaned violently. I heard alarms sounding in the corridor. They silenced almost immediately as Intark brought up all systems and fired the main plasma engine sending us directly into the heart of the tempest.

  Even with inertial dampeners online now, I felt as though I were being crushed against the bulkhead. My nano-lattice actually had to flare to harden me. The drop ship started on an erratic weaving and bobbing path as I saw incoming fire streaking toward us from smaller proximity weapons. I know it is impossible since they fire at light speed, but I could follow them. I did smile internally; indeed we were not striking first, Intark was true to his word.

  Most missed, unable to lock on with the evasive course Intark was weaving as we approached our goal. One struck us and I heard decompression alarms outside the bay as the ship shuddered. The turrets on the drop ship started rapidly cycling as it threw torrents of energy in a hopeless fury back against the impossibly armored dreadnaught. But then one of our energy weapon blasts struck one of the gun ports on the enemy vessel and I covered my eyes as it disappeared into a chaotic fireball explosion of energy discharge and flame. I could hear Intark's roar over coms.

  Then suddenly all the chaos ceased as I saw the rim of the crater in the enemy's armor looming on either side of the bay. We were out of the line of sight of the Jotunn weapons in here. I grabbed the handrail with all my might moments before our craft flipped one hundred and eighty degrees on its axis and the main thruster and all the reactionary thrusters fired at full power again. We decelerated to a standstill as proximity and collision alarms started blaring throughout the vessel. They silenced when we were brought to a stop relative to our target.

  I tapped my earbud and informed father, “In position.” I walked up the drop bay door using the magnetic boots and stopped near the top, keeping my body perpendicular to it then I said, “Now.”

  I took a deep breath and my nano-lattice flared past its normal maximum as the bay decompressed. I heard decompression alarms start to go off, but they faded to silence as the atmosphere was sucked from the bay, then a yellow strobe started going off in the extreme silence and the bay door started opening down and out.

  All I could see was scorched alloy in front of me and as far as I could see in all directions. When the door stopped moving, there, in front of me, no more than four feet away, was a small ragged hole in the armor and I could see energy fluctuating inside it. Kroth, Intark was indeed a skilled pilot.

  Then my earbud crackled, I must not have sealed it well because it was extremely faint, I must be losing the atmosphere stuck between it and my eardrum. “We bring vengeance in the form of Valkyrie fury, Frost Giants. Behold the wrath of Kara, the Wild One, Demon of Valhalla!”

  I cupped both hands and felt the energy building up in them and I thrust my hands forward as I released the Power of Thor through the crack in the Jotunn armor and into the heart of the mammoth engine. I was straining and then I heard my Verr scream with the effort in my head and impossibly, my power doubled. I was having problems keeping myse
lf in place, I could feel the magnetic boots slipping back.

  My feet caught on a handrail, which stopped my slipping, and I snarled inwardly and pushed my hands forward, straining as the power level increased again. My hands were starting to burn from the sheer amount of energy Valhalla was feeding me, my valiant Verr were somehow stressing themselves beyond their limit to relay it to me, I could not be more proud of them.

  Then it happened. It was like the energy of a small sun bloomed inside the engine. The armor of their hull contained most of it, but some bled through and the shockwave sent me flying violently into the far wall, knocking the wind out of me. The ship was thrown forward and the bay door was closing as I gasped for air that wasn't there. Then the bay pressurized. I was never so happy to breath stale, recirculated, oily air in my entire life.

  I could see secondary explosions through a viewport as the enemy's engine tore itself apart. I was tumbling in the bay as the main engines and all the thrusters fired on the Dropship. I pulled myself along using the zero-g handrails, straining against the forces the inertial compensators couldn't counter. I got to the pressure door by the corridor and it wouldn't open. The amber indicators showing vacuum beyond.

  I hit my earbud. “Intark, I need you to override the pressure door.” I took a deep breath and my lattice flared as the door started opening. I had to grab a handrail as the bay went through explosive decompression. Once the pressure was equalized I kicked off the magnetic boots as my nanites fought the harsh environment of space from revenging my body. I floated through the corridor and banged silently on the pressure door into the bridge.

  Intark looked back and hit a control, I saw the green indicator inside the door cycle to yellow as he depressurized the cabin. The door slid open and I pulled myself through. He hit another control and the cabin re-pressurized. I took a deep breath and swung myself into the copilot's seat and strapped in as he removed his helmet. I grinned at him as I watched him skillfully fly along the curve of the crater toward the blackness of space at the rear of the Frost Giant vessel. I said ruefully, “Well met Intark.”

  He grinned at me with a twinkle in his eye and replied, “Well met Valkyrie. It was as though you were death itself, channeling the hellfire of the underworld. The krothing Frost Giants know not what they had awakened when they challenged the Asgard!”

  Moments later we crested the rim of the crater and were instantly under fire by the proximity cannons. Intark was twisting and turning the vessel on an erratic course as the onboard cannons belched energy in return. A second cannon on the Jotunn vessel disappeared into a fireball. The drop ship shuddered twice as it took two more strikes. Intark shut off the new alarms that were sounding.

  We swooped into the shadow of their engines and the firing ceased. We knew it was a temporary reprieve. The moment we made our run toward the beta moon we would be in range of their main cannons for sixty-eight seconds. I was on coms speaking, “Father, status report?”

  He was instantly responding. “The energy weapon has ceased its assault on the planet. Their energy output readings are down forty percent. They seem to be struggling against Folkvangr's gravity well, but are able to maintain orbit at this time.” He was relaying scans and visual records of our assault and the resulting explosion that looked like a small sun in the sky from the ground.

  I almost gasped at the damage done to the quite dead third engine on the vessel. I was thankful, looking at the stream of debris trailing behind the ship that their unholy armor on the engine shroud held or we would have been vaporized on the spot. The other two engines seemed damaged as they flickered less brightly than before.

  Intark growled then looked at me, “Well done itsy bitsy Ragnarok warrior.”

  I smiled at the man and responded, “Now it's your turn. Do you think you can make this NOT a suicide mission?”

  He chuckled and replied, “I shall do my best, but if not, what a spectacular way to be lost to the ages.”

  A timer counted down as he positioned us in the debris cloud from the destroyed engine. Most of the chunks were larger than us. He looked over at me and said, “Hmmm... Let us hide in plain sight instead of making a run for it like Ragnarok cellar rodents.”

  He shut down all the systems except the reaction thrusters again and started singing an ancient Ragnarok war song I remember Inatra singing during the first few decades she was with us.

  I was so calm for some reason. I had done what I set out to do, Folkvangr was safe for now, whatever came now was inconsequential, whether I lived or died, I had done my duty. I was Valkyrie.

  I chimed in when he hit the chorus and I heard everyone in Odin's workshop join in over the speakers in the cabin. “To face the Valkyrie's might. To the last man we'll fight! Until the wrath of the War Gods sets us free!”

  There was chuckling as we finished. Then Intark sat up and cut the coms. This was it, we were moving out of the engine's shadow. The Jotunn expected us to be at full power, trying to escape. The timer hit zero just as Folkvangr's star, Primus, rose over the horizon. It was deathly silent as the minutes ticked by while the distance between our ships increased.

  The Ragnarok calculated that the effective range of the Frost Giant's main cannons was just over one thousand miles. After that their destructive power, dwindled quickly to zero in the next thousand miles. Even then, a mere drop ship was nothing against the reduced energy. We needed to be at least eighteen hundred miles from them to be safe.

  We were at around nine hundred miles of separation when the first blast came tearing through the debris field. They knew we were out here somewhere, but with our energy signature at virtually zero and their own armor fragments between us, their systems couldn't pick us out.

  Another blast ripped through the wreckage. By the third one, we determined they were firing in a grid pattern. They meant to destroy the entire debris field to find us. I looked at one of the areas where they had already fired. A lot of debris was destroyed, but the armor fragments seemed untouched. I silently pointed it out to Inatrk, who got a predatory sneer on his face and delicately moved the drop ship toward a huge shard of Jotunn armor.

  I heard the clang as we touched it. More gently than I could have done. I smiled at him in appreciation. He wiggled his eyebrows then we just sat and waited. We saw flashes of energy getting closer and closer. Our separation was fourteen hundred miles now.

  Then it happened, they finally fired in the right area and the ship shook as the shard was struck, shielding us from annihilation, propelling us faster through space. It was like we were in the eye of a hurricane, debris in our general vicinity was reduced to atoms but all armor fragments stayed intact. Alarm indicators were lighting up across the panels then suddenly it was over. Most of the alarm lights went out.

  A few seconds later, there was a single click on coms. Valhalla most likely thought us dead. I tapped my coms once in response. I could feel relief streaming in across the nanite link from Arina, Inatra, Kate, and... the children? Intark laid a large hand on my arm to get my attention. He pointed at the separation distance indicator. I nodded in understanding and pushed back in my seat to prepare.

  The distance clicked over to fifteen hundred miles and he instantly powered up all systems and fired the main engine and all the thrusters, sending us hurtling toward the beta moon, our engines howling like a banshee. The enemy was firing on us and doing minimal damage as I flicked the switch to broadcast on all frequencies and let loose my battle cry, Intark joined in as we barreled toward the moon we would use to slingshot around and re-enter Folkvangr's atmosphere.

  The dreadnaught stopped firing and started altering its course a little. Intark frowned. “They are attempting to alter course to intercept us at a shallower orbit when we emerge from behind the beta moon. They won't be able to get out of the planet's gravity well if they do that. They are acting like a wounded beast, striking at their own killer.”

  My fingers flew across the controls in front of me as I did some calculations then said,
“We will be just out of range when we cross their T. It is a wasted effort on their part.”

  But then Intark frowned and tapped at some controls then smashed his great fist into the console. He looked at me. “Kroth! Maybe not. The hull has suffered too much damage for re-entry. We will have to rendezvous with the Shamir to use the last escape pod. That is their course, they know we are wounded.”

  He disengaged the engine safeties and said, “Hold on Valkyrie, this could be an explosive ride.” He increased power to the main engine to one hundred and ten percent. “Every second is going to count.” The vessel creaked and groaned as our speed increased while he altered course slightly so that the slingshot would aim us at the Shamir instead.

  Less than an hour later we were captured by the gravity of the small moon and our speed increased as we rounded it and hit escape velocity. We were flung at staggering speeds toward a point in space that the Shamir would occupy when we reached it. Intark started singing the Valkyrie song again. He truly did not fear death. His bravery and valor beyond compare.

  I had multiple orbital paths showing on a holo-display, the red and purple trajectories of the Dropship and the Shamir changed green as they merged. We were right on target. The yellow path of the Jotunn dreadnaught showed we would be at the extreme range of their weapons envelope as we arrived. Kroth!

  Ten minutes later Intark flipped the drop ship and fired a deceleration burn. He glanced at me and shrugged his shoulders and I returned the gesture. He murmured, “May the War Gods be with us.” I set a countdown for the time before we would be within the enemy firing envelope and we sat silently, waiting.

  He looked over at me. “It was glorious you know. Your attack on the engine. It is no wonder Ragnarok could not stand against Valhalla when Valkyrie are capable of such wondrous fury.” I reached over and squeezed his forearm then went back to watching the countdown.