Valkyrie Chronicles 4 & 5 Bundle

by Erik Schubach

  I was about to contact father when alarms sounded again and multiple Jotunn transport beams struck the roadway one hundred yards down from the main gates. We all tensed, preparing to confront the undoubtedly endless swarms of Frost Giants that were about to emerge.

  You could have heard a pin drop when ten Frost Giants stood in front of us when the beams dissipated. My mind couldn't process this. Ten. There were ten. Ten Frost Giants stood before us. That was enough to lay waste to an army sure, but were they just sacrificing the rest of their crew? But then my blood ran cold. Oh shit! I hit coms and blurted, “Geiravor? Mother? How many?” I was terrified they sent their entire force to Heildfine since their dome was not as powerful as ours.

  There was a slight pause and mother's voice came over my coms, “None Kat. It is all silent here at the gates with Freya.” My confusion doubled. But we didn't have time to think about this. The immediate threats were the ten Jotunn that were now firing on the primary gate shield with those accursed sidearms of theirs.

  The shield was bending and warping as they hit it with varying types of energy. It was like they were pulsating or rotating energy types. Wait, they were rotating through various frequencies! Trying to determine the proper harmonics to defeat the shield!

  I took a deep breath and steeled myself. I had to calm the blood-lust that has seemed to be a part of me these past coupe hours. I simply said, “Shall we?” I stepped out of the shield with my fellow Valkyrie and half of our Einherjergeir, who formed a line behind us Valkyrie.

  We were instantly hit by their sidearms, they were modulating them still and my flesh started to burn. Dammit, they were close to defeating our nano-lattice. The Einherjergeir were firing their sidearms and five of the Jotunn weapons were reduced to slag before the same was done to all of ours.

  I started lancing out with the power of Thor and took out two more. The enemy moved into a triangular formation with gaps between each man, I assumed for firing solutions. The three who were still armed were part of the back row. They knew our tactics already.

  Ymir stood at their front as us Valkyrie arranged ourselves to protect the Einherjergeir through the small firing windows the Jotunn had. We were taking all the fire as the group advanced on us. The blasts were getting extremely painful as our flesh bubbled.

  Could we few Valkyrie truly stand against ten Frost Giants? I could not risk our un-latticed combatants, it would be suicide with those damn energy weapons. I cupped both hands and fired lightning through their ranks and one bolt got through as they sealed the holes in their formation.

  We were down to two sidearms to disable now. I bellowed, “Valkyrie, shall we show these krothing Frost Giants what we are made of? Push!” I let loose my battle cry and the others followed suit. We charged directly at them then the moment before we clashed, as one, the Valkyrie all vaulted their ranks, landing behind the back row. This caught them off guard, they had never truly faced Valkyrie in war before.

  I heard a “Raugh!” as the Einherjergeir took a step forward to meet the front of the Jotunn squad in battle.

  Valkyrie were hacking at the armor of the enemy with lattice hardened carbon blades. Damaging it but not deep enough. Inatra was on the back of one armed Frost Giant, up on his shoulders, hacking away at his face with her lattice claws. He dropped his weapon and Mist came rolling past after being flung like a ragdoll by another.

  She rolled up to a knee and struck the dropped weapon with such ferocity, Kara would have been proud of her. The weapon cracked and sparks started arcing from it. A moment later it exploded in a fury of energy sending Mist flying. Her face was burnt, some energy had made it through her lattice, but she rolled to her feet and let loose not her battle cry but... Kara's!

  I sneered then did the same. Moments later all the Valkyrie were issuing Kara's battle cry in challenge. This gave me renewed energy and I ran at a Frost Giant. The moment he set his feet for a pre-programmed attack, I dropped to the ground in a slide as his powerful blow swooped harmlessly above me as my momentum carried me under him between his legs and I rolled to my feet, ignoring him, as I stood in front of my true target.

  I leapt up and grabbed the last sidearm in the Frost Giant's hand and let loose the power of Thor with both hands. Reducing the weapon to slag and slightly cracking the armor on his hand. I was seeing stars as I collided with a rock outcropping twenty five feet away after he backhanded me with what felt like a Mack truck. I staggered to my feet, ignoring the searing pain, and grabbed my shoulder and yanked. There was a crunching sound as I reset my dislocated arm. My Verr diligently started repairing the tissue.

  I called out, “Valkyrie!” They all retreated back to the sparse line of Einherjergeir, Ymir was laying waste to them! I feared many were dead. Tyr was in front of Ymir, who had struck down at him with a pile driver. The strongest of all Asgard caught the blow with both hands and was driven to his knees. I heard one of his arms snap, but he had stopped the strike. Then Ymir backhanded him. Tyr went flying through the air only to be caught by Mist.

  We all backed up to regroup. I smiled, we had accomplished what we needed to do, now it was time. I hit coms and yelled, “Now!” There was a roar at the line as warriors spilled out of the gates. The ground shook as they formed a semi circle around the Jotunn, who were hesitating in their attack.

  I looked around to the most awe inspiring sight I had ever beheld. Ten thousand warriors of all races. The nine thousand five hundred Ragnarok soldiers alone were intimidating enough. But standing at the front line, two hundred Humans, Vanger, Asgard, and small Ragnarok women in Earth Battle Suits. Backed by three hundred Earth Alliance special forces infantrymen with thirty millimeter chain guns.

  If physical attacks were the only way to overload the Frost Giant power packs, they didn't have a clue just how physical humans and our low tech human weapons could be! Arina had spent the past two hours bringing soldiers and battle suits across the Bifrost from Earth. Five at a time with her shield.

  I recognized the insignia on the eight foot tall battle suits in the center of the group. Those five were from Earth's oldest special assault team, formed almost a thousand years ago by my friend, Jeffery, the Wildcards! You had to be the elite of the elite to have the honor to be put in that squad. It was the equivalent of the old Earth Top Gun designation.

  Here all the advanced races of the galaxy stood in defiance with the First Valkyries of four races standing at their center. What Loki had foretold had come to pass. This was The Uniting!

  Arina stepped forward between us and the Jotunn and started collecting the bodies of the fallen Einherjergeir. She turned to Ymir, who struck at her back only to have his giant fist recoil off of her bubble shield. She actually took a step toward him and glared up at him defiantly for a couple seconds before she turned and walked off the field of battle with a man over each shoulder.

  For once I did not have a reprimand for her, I knew she wished all the violence in the world to befall that man, but she was still the best of us all and turned her back on that violence. I believe she would be the most dangerous of all Valkyrie if she ever actually committed violence. Inatra once said to me, “Imagine what would happen if Arina made her shield expand out from inside of an enemy.” I have never been able to get that image out of my mind since she said it fifty years ago or so.

  I hurt already, and we really hadn't even begun to fight. I heard the Wildcard's commander assigning target designations from Alpha to Juliet, he needed time to coordinate. Ymir started to charge but I yelled at him, “Hold Ymir!” He stutter stepped and looked down toward me. I stepped out to him.

  I tried to figure out how to buy time. I said, “Is it just arrogance that you do not attack us full force? Are you that positive of your superiority that you believe you do not need the rest? You are just sacrificing the rest of your crew to feed your own ego!”

  His tinny translated voice came over his guttural growling. “We are the Jotunn, and this is our crew! As it has always been.”

&nb
sp; I was taken aback and asked, “There were only ten of you on a vessel that size?”

  He responded harshly like I should understand, “That is how it has always been. We number one thousand, since eternity began. Ten ships of ten men in each of the ten parallel universes. We are eternal!”

  I squinted. “So... there are only one hundred of you sprinkled across this universe? It must get lonely. Why are you determined to destroy all our races instead of befriending us? You wouldn't have to be alone anymore.”

  He grunted and said, “You are a mistake, an experiment. The Titans, our enemy since before there was a 'before', were the only others. After an eternity of eternities of fighting, they were finally able to kill one of our people. It has never been done before. Our number fell by one. We were one thousand, now we are nine hundred and ninety nine.”

  He started walking around me, looking for a weakness as he continued, “We couldn't allow this to happen again. So we created the Olympians to battle the Titans. But they refused to fight in our stead. So we attempted to wipe them out and start over, they lost most of their numbers but they were able to injure one of us. We pulled back to determine how this was so and they disappeared. We have chased them for eons, but they hide well. So we tried to start over again with the pocket universe we created to contain you... Asgard. But it is happening all over again. We need to decontaminate and reset yet again.”

  I growled but kept my temper in check. “Why not befriend us instead of enslaving us to do your fighting for you? Or trying to kill us all.”

  He started placing his feet for an attack. “Anything that has done us harm cannot be allowed to exist. We will sterilize this planet and move on when our brethren come to retrieve us.”

  He charged forward, but I knew the pre-programmed attack and rolled under his punch and came up on my feet back at the line. He glared at me, I shouted at him, “We will not cow to you Ymir. Know this, the people of this galaxy have a right to live. If you try to deny us that right we will respond with a fury unmatched.” I heard “Target Charlie” in my earbud then I raised a hand and dropped it and yelled, “Now!”

  It was as if the gates of hell had opened as hellfire rained down upon a single Frost Giant to my left in the form of an almost solid wall of bullets. I bared my teeth in a predatory grin. A gift from the humans of Earth, Ymir.

  My vision blurred and a heads up display appeared in front of me, I had not activated it on my hybrid armor. I couldn't seem to turn it off, then I realized it was different. I saw thermal overlays and attack vectors. Was this... was this the augmented vision Kara had said her Verr were starting to give her? None but she had ever experienced it.

  I could actually see the power source on the hip of the targeted Frost Giant heating up. The rest of the Jotunn charged our lines. We collided with a fury of violence and battle cries. The warriors in battle suits weren't faring any better than us, they were thrown around like leafs in a hurricane as well. But with the Jotunn concentrating on us and them, the marines kept up the fire on target Charlie.

  The Ragnarok were streaming through to spiral around target Juliette to keep out of the line of fire of the marines. I was trading blows with Ymir. Every strike was breaking something inside me, the pain was wearing me down. I started realizing what my Verr were trying to show me. I remembered Loki's unhinged rant that “Code is the weakness.” My Verr were anticipating every one of his pee-programmed strikes, and showing me the vectors milliseconds before a strike. It was helping a bit, but there wasn't enough time to react in most cases, none has the speed of Kara.

  A funny thing happened, as the battle raged, time seemed to start going slower and slower for me. I could see and... feel? Incoming strikes, I was slapping them away. It felt like hitting steel beams, but I was deflecting them. A message from my Verr showed on the vision overlays, “Deadly Dancer is reborn.”

  Odin Spears extended from my arms, and I swung the crackling blue energy at my enemy. I heard an alarm going off to my left and I saw the Photon shield over Charlie's head flicker out as his power pack failed. Almost faster than I could follow even in this strange time dilated state, Inatra sprang up, flying through the air, her reddish black trailing aura twitching like an annoyed fox and her lattice claws extended. She landed on the man's chest and rammed her lattice claws through the man's face.

  In a howl, the Frost Giant slumped to his knees unmoving. Inatra could now touch the ground and she removed her claws and then backhanded him as she dashed off to another target. His unmoving body fell to the ground. I snarled in glee, for the second time since time began, a Frost Giant had been killed.

  Ymir paused when he saw his fallen comrade. I used the distraction to strike at his waist with both Odin Spears where a line was highlighted in my vision. A small crack appeared at the invisible seam.

  The marines were now firing on Delta. The Ragnarok were being slaughtered by target Juliette, but Mist moved over to assist them. That Jotunn's power pack was being taxed. I went flying into the line and the Einherjergeir caught me and shoved me back toward Ymir. I winced at my new broken rib as my Verr attended to it. It was at that point I realized that I was the only one fighting Ymir. Everyone was treating me like Kara and leaving the leader to me, but I didn't posses her strength, her fury, her compassion.

  I spun and caught his waist with a roundhouse kick. His armor sizzled where I struck. That crack was still there. I spun away and parried a series of blows then I tried to sweep his legs, but it was like kicking a tree, he didn't budge. I rolled away from his grasping hand just to be backhanded by another Jotunn. I tumbled across the ground, my lattice flaring. I rolled up onto a knee with the last of my momentum then wiped the blood from my eyes. Ok, that was not a good attack strategy, so concentrate on the crack it is.

  I let fly my battle cry and ran straight at Ymir, I dodged left, feinted right then leapt and twisted in the air above his kicking leg and landed another roundhouse kick to the crack. I felt my solid strike and the crack got almost imperceptibly larger.

  A roar sounded out and I chanced a glance over to see no less than ten Ragnarok standing on the back of the lifeless body of target Juliette with a bloodied and staggering Mist beside them. The battle raged on for almost an hour. I was so beyond tired. Nine Frost Giants had fallen to The Uniting. Tyr's team had taken the ninth down with the only Wildcard left standing.

  Nearly three quarters of the brave souls who dared challenge the enemy lay dead or dying on the battlefield now. I saw Arina picking through the bodies to retrieve the injured. It felt like a physical blow to my heart when I saw a body in Valkyrie armor among the slain. I couldn't tell who it was from my position.

  The few warriors left, circled Ymir and me as we battled. His power pack was taxed, but nowhere near overload as each of our systems leached energy from each other as we fought. He didn't even look tired, but the crack in his armor was now almost two inches long.

  He looked around nervously and hit a stud on his wrist and then started laughing. I hissed out at him, my voice sounding inhuman, “What, you wretched beast?” My god, I sound like an animal!

  He looked around then locked eyes with me and growled out, “You have committed sacrilege by killing your creators. But it was all for naught. Our armored vessel is falling through the atmosphere, homing in on my signal. You are already dead, your infernal shield cannot protect against that impact.”

  Two timers appeared in my vision, one the time until impact, less than an hour. The other, the time until the emergency crash transition of Valhalla into the realm of the Asgard. We weren't going to make it. We had to pray that the Dome Shield of Geiravor would hold.

  I yelled to everyone, “Retreat to the citadel! Warn Odin if he isn't already aware!” There was hesitation and then our people started backing away, across the line, into Valhalla. A broken and bloodied Mist and an equally battered Inatra stood beside me. I glanced at them and my face softened with compassion, “You too sisters, the innocents need you. I shall end thin
gs here. I have been gifted the strength of Kara this day.”

  They paused and each laid the back of their hands on my cheeks as they walked off. I whispered to them as they left me to face Ymir, and most likely my own death, “I love you.”

  Chapter 14 – Kate's Stand

  No sooner had my sisters left me to battle this spawn of the underworld, then time seemed to slow again and I was bending backwards on instinct as a huge arm swung just above me, missing by mere inches. That one could have been my end right there. I silently thanked my nanites and protectors.

  He started a series of rapid combinations, one after the other, not giving me the time to strike. I was twisting and blocking, dodging and slapping strikes away as they came. This was not my kind of opponent. He had too much raw power, and without being able to damage him, I was all but useless. Kara was a brute force fighter and would stand a much better chance against this seemingly unstoppable enemy.

  My fury was building, I couldn't just keep this up, I had to strike. He was going to wear me down too quickly like this. The pain was just becoming part of me now, it really didn't matter anymore, I knew I was hurt, so what was I going to do about it? Just as that thought passed through my mind, one of his blows connected with my jaw with staggering force, I heard the bone snap, but I stayed on my feet and sneered at him.

  I had tried to match Kara's ability to go into a berserker's rage, but I couldn't reach that point of pure instinct. I was so far beyond pain that I just took his strike. He was taken aback that I was still standing after that blow as I smiled a predatory grin at him. If I couldn't fight as an Asgard, fine. This guy wants a brawl? I'll bring it to him Earth style!

  I changed my stance. He backed off a step to study it. He augmented his stance twice, I know I seemed too open to him and he was trying to figure it out. He advanced a step I retreated a step. He advanced I retreated. Until I was to the rock outcropping he had thrown me onto before. I jumped up onto it, about a meter up. This brought us eye to eye. I curled my hands into fists instead of using my open hand style.