Valkyrie Chronicles 4 & 5 Bundle

by Erik Schubach

  She looked at her readings and was pulling up Ragnarok data then looked at me. “For a ship that small they need around fifteen to eighteen hundred miles.”

  We were all silent as time ticked by, they had nine hundred miles of separation when the main energy weapon fired. It missed by miles. Then it cycled and fired again and again, I realized they were playing Battleship. Firing blindly into the debris until they got a hit. The drop ship angled slightly and moved behind a huge chunk of that insane armor the Jotunn used.

  Inatra hissed under her breath and nodded in appreciation then looked at me and pointed at the areas that the Frost Giants already fired into, all the debris was gone, vaporized, except the chunks of the hull. Their own armament couldn't penetrate that armor! I smiled and nodded.

  The distance climbed to fourteen hundred miles and then the space they occupied was lit up by a hellish torrent of energy. Everything was gone, our sensors were momentarily blinded as I audibly gasped. I swung around. “Father?”

  He held a calming hand up as he tapped static on the com channel once. There was silence for a long second that seemed an eternity as our sensors recalibrated. Then there was a single click on the coms in response. I exhaled and took another shuddering breath. My bondmate seems to have nine lives. Everyone seemed to relax a little.

  Then the drop ship bloomed to life as all their systems came online and all the engines fired, sending them screaming toward the beta moon, Ecliptus. They were hit a couple times with minor damage. Then every frequency was flooded with Kara's battle cry! Intark joined her followed by all the Valkyrie and Tyr in the room. The non warriors cheered.

  My relief was short lived as Tyr muttered, “Kroth.”

  I looked over at him. “What is it Tyr?”

  He zoomed in on the fleeing drop ship and pointed out three tears in the hull as he said, “They won't be able to make re-entry with that damage. They'll need to rendezvous with the Shamir again.”

  What the hell? Were the heaven's just playing with us? Odin pulled up the orbits again and shook his head and said, “It seems the enemy is aware of this too, they are adjusting their orbit to overtake the Shamir. It makes no sense, they will loose more altitude and will not be able to pull out of the gravity well if they move closer to the planet like that. It is suicide.

  I shook my head and said slowly, “A wounded bear. He'll attack his killer, not knowing he is already dead.” Then I shook my head. “No, they intend to end Kara before they escape to the surface. We should prepare for an imminent mass attack after this all unfolds.”

  Tyr, Mist, Geiravor, Arina, and I were all sending alerts to the Einherjer, Valkyrie, Valkfela, and Illrovin, and healers of both citadels, telling them to prepare. Inatra was speaking with Inshak. I shuddered. We saw what but two Frost Giants could do. How could we stand against thousands?

  We watched helplessly as the drop ship swung around Eliptus and toward the Shamir. Even with their increased speed they would be in the dreadnaughts powered weapons range as they arrived. I felt that pressure on my chest again. I refused to let it crush me, I would be strong for Kara!

  They were just entering firing range and started taking enemy fire when Inatra hissed loudly in triumph. We all spun to her as she added another icon to the screen as we saw a mammoth vessel almost strike the dropship and interpose itself between the dropship and the dreadnaught, crossing the enemy's T and firing her broadsides at the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut.

  Inatra growled with a smile. “It is the Overguard!”

  We watched the one sided battle as the dropship escaped. The Overguard was being shredded, but they showed that they had teeth as they fired almost exclusively at the gun ports on the Jotunn ship, taking out proximity cannons.

  Alarms started going off at another console, Tyr moved over and said, “Mass photon tractor transport. It seems most of the crew of the Overguard. Valkyrie, and healers are on their way to get them into the citadel.

  Then the Frost Giants rammed the Overguard, not even slowing, tearing what was left of the vessel in two. There was a great fireball in the sky that marked the death of the brave crew that gave Kara a moment's reprieve from death. I'll be damned if I don't allow that commander's name to be heralded in song.

  We lost track of Kara, there was so much static from the antimatter explosion. The krothing Frost Giants started firing at the Shamir. The vessel was heaving and secondary explosions were breaching the hull in various locations. Father was on coms yelling, “Kara! Daughter! Situation report!?”

  There was too much static. We saw Kara's vital signs spiking then the aft of the Ragnarok ship erupted into a violent fireball.

  Arina zoomed in on something as she uttered, “Odin's beard!” under her breath.

  Oh my god! My heart stopped. I saw two bodies ejected through the gaping hole in the ship into the chaos of the floating debris. But there was movement. Suddenly lightning lanced out at some huge fragments heading their way. They were destroyed. Then the two bodies spun into another hull fragment and bounced off. They seemed to be attached to each other.

  Then there was another blast of lightning and their violent spin was negated. We all watched silently and hopelessly as they just floated in space. Then the Shamir disappeared into a fireball of energy and plasma.

  Kara's vitals were still there but erratic. I heard Kara in my head, “I love you. I'm sorry.” Then moments later, her vitals flat-lined.

  I'm not sure what happened next as I dropped to my knees and started shrieking. The bravest woman I have ever known, the love of my life, just ceased to be. Kara, the Wild One, Valkyrie of legend had passed to the ages. I heard voices trying to speak to me, my mind was joined by the excruciating pain in my daughters minds as their mother was taken from them. Their heartache adding to mine, causing a resonance that doubled then trebled the loss.

  Inatra was in front of me, yelling at me both verbally and in my head across our link, “Kat, sister! Be strong, for the girls! You must be sure we capitalize on the gift Kara has given us!”

  My sobbing stopped, and my heart felt like it was in a vise, I stood defiantly and wiped away the tears. Rage replaced all other feelings. Inatra was right. I growled out in an inhuman voice, “You are right, these krothing Frost Giants are going to pay if I have to hut them down and kill them one at at time.”

  Mist's voice was heavy with loss as she tried to calm me, “No Kat, it is not the Asgard way.”

  I swung at her and grinned evilly. “I, sister, am not Asgard. They will know my wrath.”

  Inatra was hissing like a cat beside me, baring her teeth, “Nor am I!”

  Talia looked as enraged as us. “Cha! Nor I!”

  Geiravor spoke her calm words cut through my rage. “None will deny your right. But right now, we need to prepare. Their ship's orbit is decaying. I fear they will be transporting to the planet soon. We need to prepare Kat. You need to protect your children and the innocents of Folkvangr.”

  I looked over at my children. The Three Embers looked frightened... of me? Oh god! I calmed down and pleaded with them. “I'm sorry children. I did not mean to distress you. I'm sorry...” Then I took a deep breath. “Please, go to your quarters. We are about to discuss things that innocents should not hear. I love you so much.”

  I hugged my crying girls, and Brunie. Inatra quickly tamed her own inner demons and hugged them all.

  When they left, we started planning. With only my power of Thor, and Geiravor's Odin Spears, and the latticed blades of the Valkyrie, we had nothing that could do them harm. Only the Ragnarok suicidal physical attacks could stress the enemy's power packs. We didn't have enough Ragnarok to battle thousands of Jotunn, and we wouldn't use them as fodder. If only we had other ways, we could stress their systems physically.

  At that, Arina, who had been silently crying this whole time, ran for the door with that look she got when she had figured something out. As she left she whispered, “Loki's prophecy.” Her response shocked me and a predatory grin spr
ead on my face. My god, the Little One was brilliant.

  Using that, we started discussing a battle strategy as the warrior caste excused ourselves so we could strategize properly in the barracks. Mist deferred her First Valkyrie of Valhalla rank to my First Valkyrie of Earth. I swore I would make sure that these Jotunn dogs of hell were sent back to where they belonged, as I laid out the plan.

  Chapter 12 – The Flight of Pegasus!

  As I hovered by the peaks of the Craggy Rock range in my broken down troop transport... a relic from an age of war against the Asgard, I watched the projection on the dome of the battle that raged in space. That krothing Demon was spectacular!

  How was I reduced to this? I was a young Ragnarok regiment commander eighty years ago, my men feared my name, Captain Rotarr of Ariel. After the fall of Anharr and this strange, unsteady peace with Valhalla, what was a man of war to do?

  A couple years back I decided to try my hand at prospecting in my middle age. It was good physical labor that kept me in shape for battle and was profitable for certain metals and minerals. Those krothing Asgard simply trade for it, they have no use nor need for credits. But still, I lived well. Then that day last year, the day I curse, they day that caused me to owe a life debt to a krothing machine. A krothing machine with the mind of a child. The war gods must be laughing down upon me.

  I had been prospecting on the cliffs of Ariel, looking for veins of vetricite that I could fly my extractor down to mine for the metal. It was such a spectacular view dangling a grid above the jungle canopy far below. I could appreciate the beauty as I clung to the cliff face with one hand as I chopped away at the surface stone with my laser ax, looking for the tell tale signs of the whitish metal deposits.

  I had swept my gaze down across the green valley when movement caught my eye. There was one of those krothing wind riders of the Asgard swooping and spinning in and out of the treetops below, it seemed to be following a flock of those annoying thresh raptors. Nasty things dropping their excrement all over my equipment as they flew.

  I growled and went back to work, I struck at a crack in the cliff face and the entire face of the cliff in the area crumbled away. As I fell toward my death in the valley below, I cursed at the War Gods for their cruel joke. I was going to the beyond, not as a warrior, but as a simple miner.

  I hadn't fallen more than forty lengths when I crashed down upon a smooth white surface, breaking a wrist and a couple ribs. Nothing I couldn't handle. I looked in surprise, it was the wind rider. It slowly rose through the air to the top of the cliff and then landed in a clearing.

  I leapt off its roof and strode angrily up to door. It opened and I stepped inside yelling at the pilot, “What gives you they right to...” I trailed off. There was nobody in the vessel.

  On a display screen a message scrolled. “Silly big man. Ragnarok cannot fly like the Sky. Pegasus caught you. Keep you safe.”

  I growled and said to the screen, “This is no joking matter, is this ship flown by remote?”

  Another message scrolled. “I need no pilot. I am Pegasus. I live. I saw friend fall off cliff. I help.”

  I tapped the screen soundly in anger, this was a joke? “Who are you? I have no time for foolhardy pranks.”

  Another message scrolled. “No prank. I play with birds. I see you fall. I help. You friend now. I Pegasus.”

  By the war gods, they played with me still, I now owed a life debt to a machine? I disembarked and chased the krothing mechanical fool away. Though the war gods taunt me, I still had my honor. I would repay this debt if I died trying.

  So I repaired this piece of krothing dung troop transport and have followed the witless ship around for the better part of a turning. With war approaching again, maybe one day I can get out from under this debt and...

  My thoughts were cut short when that krothing Pegasus shot out of the portal shield at Valhalla's base and went rocketing toward the sky at unimaginable speeds. I kicked in the engines and went in pursuit, the air breathing engines straining to keep up. Pegasus kept increasing speed as she angled away from Valhalla still gaining altitude at a staggering rate. I kicked in the solid rocket boosters and started closing the gap between us. We would hit escape velocity soon if we kept accelerating.

  I paused. The sky was bright with thousands of meteors streaking through it. What the kroth? They were increasing in density, it was some sort of debris field entering the atmosphere from space!

  Pegasus suddenly veered right and was heading toward a smallish meteor. My scanners were picking up a Ragnarok life sign. Was someone falling from orbit? How had they not burned up already? That's where Pegasus was heading!

  A huge chunk of something, which my sensors couldn't make sense of, was bearing down on the wind rider. The fool didn't see it, she must only be focusing on the Ragnarok! This was my chance! The air was getting so thin that the air breathers couldn't maintain speed, I sealed my EVA suit and fired the main ascent thruster.

  I opened a channel to the wind rider. “Pegasus you krothing machine, we are even now, my debt is paid!” As my transport crossed above her a moment before the debris struck, just as I punched out. The resulting explosion blowing me and my rocket powered escape chair spinning off. I strained against the g-forces and hit the red stabilizer button between my knees and the retros fired on the chair.

  As my plummet to the planet surface slowed, the parachutes exploded from the back of the chair and then I was gently spiraling high up in the Folkvangr atmosphere as a message from the krothing Asgard vessel scrolled across my heads up display. “Thank you falling friend.”

  I growled into my mic but then I smiled, Pegasus had more valor than most Ragnarok I knew. I watched as her speed increased still, flames were starting to form around her bow. Then a second before she hit the falling mass, she impossibly spun to her side as the door opened. It was torn violently away and the hull around the opening started tearing away as the falling Ragnarok disappeared into her. She twisted on her axis and started spiraling in a flat-spin toward the ground. Trailing sparks and smoke.

  Whatever those krothing Asgard use for propulsion seemed to be failing. My heart sank, did she doom herself in an attempt to save a Ragnarok? She indeed had valor! I would be sure that people learned of her sacrifice. I will deny it if this is repeated, but my heart was heavy for my... friend. But for now... I am finally free! A flaming piece of debris streaked past my parachute so close that I could feel the heat as it passed. “Kroth!” ...if I survive this, that is.

  Chapter 13 – The Uniting

  How did I get here? Just a few centuries ago I was simply Kate Summers, a Seattle police detective. Now here I stood at the line on an alien planet, in my Valkyrie armor, with half of the other Valkyrie on either side of me. The rest were in Heildfine with the grieving Geiravor. It stretched us thin, splitting our forces like this, but we had no way of knowing which citadel they would strike, or if they would do a coordinated attack against both.

  I was named as the coordinating supervisor between the races due to the specific circumstances. Mist ceded the command with grace and dignity. The evacuation of Heildfine continued in case we could not hold against the enemy.

  Odin was cold, distant, and professional. I knew that Kara's death hit him as hard as it did me and that he wanted her to be avenged, but that contradicted his very Asgard morals. The ruler of Valhalla could neither show emotional nor moral weakness.

  I kept reaching out across our nanite link to find a void. I hadn't realized how much I had gotten used to her always being there as a presence I could almost feel in my mind. To support me, to... love me. Her strength of will made her unique in our shared nanite link with the other evolved Valkyrie and our children. We could always taste her thoughts, her emotions, through it. They had such strength, such intensity, they always bled through.

  A lump formed in my throat and I changed my line of thoughts to protecting the people not only of Folkvangr, but of the galaxy at large if the Frost Giants are set on “steri
lizing” the contamination of the Asgard. That meant the six other races.

  Who knew how may Jotunn there were, and how many of those krothing dreadnaughts they had. If we survive this, the Asgard are going to have to develop ways to defend space, as well as the citadels. We were at their mercy until my mate stabbed at the heart of the enemy up there. Possibly an Einherjergeir Space Marine contingent for a line in space.

  Our plan was simple, it was Kara's previous plan. The Valkyrie and Einherjergeir would attempt to disarm the Jotunn warriors then allow the volunteers to overwhelm their power systems with physical assaults while the Valkyrie attempt to break through their krothing armor. No... I am human today, not Asgard... break through their fucking armor!

  I sneered in a predatory manner as I thought to myself that this time, thanks to Arina and the Bifrost, the Frost Giants may not be prepared for what is coming. I just feared the numbers we may be facing.

  An alert sounded and I looked at the readout scrolling above the gates. Two hours until the dreadnaught that Kara killed hits the atmosphere. They still hadn't transported their crew to the surface. It would take hours to transport as many as we projected would be on a vessel that size. Some were going to be sacrificed. That was fine by me.

  I turned and hit coms, over the intercom in the packed courtyard I said, “Remember, anyone not protected by a nano-lattice is to stay behind the shields until the enemy can be disarmed. If that proves impossible then we all stay inside the shields until the Transition Capacitors are fully charged and Valhalla can escape through the veil. Nobody attacks until the word is given!”

  There was a huge roar from the gathered warriors. I was in awe of the diversity of the mix.

  I thought about my empty words. We knew we couldn't just wait behind the shields. We had no clue how powerful those damn culling devices were or if the Dome Shield and gate shields could withstand them. We hoped they wouldn't use them since they had no place to retreat to now thanks to my mate.