I shot father an incredulous look. “How can he think that? He resisted when others could not, and was able to sway others from her hold.”
Odin took a deep breath. “He is ashamed that couldn't fire on the woman even when she stood in front of him, so many lives could have been saved.”
I pursed my lips, I had nothing but pride for Tyr, how could he believe we would think ill of him. I locked eyes with Odin. “I shall speak with him. There was nothing but valor in his actions at the gate.”
Father gave me a single nod of appreciation then turned to the door as it opened. Loki strode in with a purposeful gate with mother and Mist flanking her. They love-struck look in Mist's eyes was gone and she looked almost embarrassed and... angry.
Loki gave us greetings then held up a case to father, she seemed more in control of her unhinged side at the moment. The rest of us greeted mother and Mist. Loki spoke with a slight smile on her lips, “We have found a solution to counteract the nano-phage. She opened the case and handed a holo-pad to father. This adaptable self-morphing code can be uploaded to all Asgard nanites to target any biologicals with Titan signatures.”
Then she was lost for a moment. “It truly is a remarkable piece of engineering that phage, and quite enjoyable too.” She blushed then straightened up. Then pulled out a canister, for those without the nanites on any of the worlds, this will give them the antigen needed to combat this type of Titan bio attack. I have sent one to each world to release into the atmosphere. It should go global within ten to twenty hours of release. Use this one in the citadel atmospheric processing plant.”
I nodded at that, there were still thousands of Ragnarok and humans that did not want to accept Asgard nanites even after all these centuries. They preferred to live natural lifespans instead of our pseudo immortality. This would protect them from Titan biological coercion.
Without a word, father took the canister and walked over to one of his consoles and plugged it in and we heard a hissing sound as the contents were dumped into the citadel's environmental systems.
Then he reviewed the data on the holo-pad then nodded in appreciation as Arina looked over his arm and her eyes went wide as she smiled. She was one of the few people who could actually understand Loki's genius. Odin ran his fingers through the instruction-set and flicked it toward the nanite control console.
Then he pulled up a com session with Tyr. “Tyr, the antidote for the Titan pathogen has uploaded to the nanites in the citadel. You should see results...” He paused and looked at Loki, who was slowly spinning around with her arms wide.
She murmured, “Clickity clack, we take our will back.” She noted Odin's eyes on hers and she smiled and added, “In but an instant numbering one, Titan will is all undone.”
He smiled and turned back to the hologram of Tyr. “Immediately.”
Tyr's hologram glanced at Mist then back to Odin and looked embarrassed and said, “I felt the umm... arousal leave. The men at the gate look suitably confused, I am letting them out now.”
Mist chuckled at him. “Do not be embarrassed husband, I would have killed to share Rhea's bed. When Loki used me as a guinea pig for her solution, I felt the same when my attraction was suddenly gone.”
Father just rolled his eyes and cut the transmission. We all turned to the man holo-display to discuss how we could get our people free with Loki singing something in the background about, “Terran bats.”
I said to him, “Freya's cloaking shields do not work against Jotunn scanners. Any attempt to try to insert a boarding party on the Star Killer would be swiftly dealt with by their primary weapons. There is no way to get close enough to surprise them.”
Then I looked at him. “Would the nanite update reach the men on the Titan vessel?” He shook his head. “Not through that ungodly armor of theirs.” My shoulders slumped.
Loki was now swooping through the room flapping her arms and singing, “When the bat goes squee, she gets a squee back.”
Arina stopped and slowly turned toward the woman and a smile slowly bloomed on her face with her “I have an idea!” look. I cocked an eyebrow at her when she glanced at me. She looked back at Loki. “As usual, dear sweet Loki is ten steps ahead of us all.” Then she turned to a virtual console and said, “One moment.” She typed a few things then her smile got bigger. “You were right Loki. It is exactly like our Bifrost.”
In recognition of what was going on Odin said, “Oh!” Kate made an exasperated noise and hissed out, “Do you three care to share with the Neanderthals of the class who can't calculate the the location of an event horizon of a black hole in their head? Remember to dumb it down by an order of magnitude for us normal people.”
Arina smiled almost patiently. “But an event horizon is not something that...” Kat cut her off with an extremely humorous glare. Arina a giggled and said, “Sorry.” Then she pointed at the quantum tunnel on the main display and said comically like a mother talking to a small child just to be funny. “The tunnel, it goes both ways. It is always on.” She started bobbing up and down dancing in place with Loki's singing for the long moment it took for it to sink in.
Oh... OH! Kate smiled and shoved Arina's shoulder just to see Inatra with the same realization on her face. She shoved her back the other way with a predatory grin on her pretty Ragnarok face, as she hissed in anticipation of the hunt like a Terran cat.
I voiced it, “We can use their own Quantum Entanglement Tunnel to park a wind rider on their doorstep before they knew what was happening!” I didn't add that it would also be within their main cannon range as well.
Loki stopped dancing and her madness seemed to vanish as she deadpanned, “Duh.” The workshop broke into boisterous laughter. Odin's beard, we were one probable suicide mission away from attempting a rescue of our people.
Within an hour, Tyr had joined us and we were discussing possible mission plans when we were hailed by the Titan vessel. Father took a deep breath and cleared the main display and then accepted the hail. A strange looking person was on the display, he had Olympian features but had the pale blue tint to the skin of a Frost Giant. There was what I assumed was an Olympian man sitting beside him who wasn't that much smaller. Was this a small Frost Giant? But then my eyes went wide, a Halfling!
I heard Artemis gasp. “Eros?”
The Olympian looked up from his station and looked torn between his duty and ignoring the woman. He looked a little confused. “Artemis?”
There was the guttural clicking offscreen, the Jotunn language. A female voice was telling him to get back to work. He looked away quickly like he was embarrassed. “Yes mistress.”
Artemis was saying, “Eros? Eros, I thought to never see you again. Eros?” But the man ignored her. He had that same dreamy look on his face as the people we saw that were enraptured by Rhea.
Then collectively we all jumped slightly as a deep bass voice came from the Halfling. “Fetch me Odin of Asgard. Our Queen demands it.” The man didn't seem to be as distracted as Eros and he seemed put out to be speaking with people he obviously believed were below his station.”
Father stepped forward. “I am Odin, and you best keep a civil tongue when addressing me.” The glare father gave the man made me glow with pride.
The man didn't blink, he just said, “Our Queen sends a greeting to your gates, it also serves as a warning. Do as she bids you and further demonstrations will not be necessary.” Then he cut the transmission.
We all stared at the blank holo-display then over to Artemis. I asked, “Eros?” Wasn't he like Cupid or something in Earth legend?
She was still pale, in some sort of shock, her lips were pursed into a thin line as she whispered, “My brother.” Then fire lit in her eyes and she stood up straighter and snarled, “If others of my people yet live on that accursed vessel, then we must rescue them with your people.” She said it almost as if in challenge.
I smiled softly at her. “Of course.” This got a returning smile from her but then my eyes snapped wide and I
spun toward the holo-display. “The gates! What did that Halfling mean?”
As if on cue, alarms started going off in the room. Kate was already pulling up tactical displays Tyr at her side. A Jotunn transport beam was depositing dozens of hybrids and other Frost Giant attack units. Arina's hands were flying through the display and Odin's eyes were following her as she blurted out, “They are grabbing hundreds of sentinels from the planet surface and depositing them at our doorstep!”
Tyr brought up a display of the main gate shield as it was taking hits from dozens of Jotunn weapons. It was bowing and warping as their onboard computers started modulating frequencies, trying to defeat the shield.
I started running toward the door as I called up the Valkyrie on coms, “All Valkyrie to the main gates! We are under attack!” The other daughters of Odin were by my side, I heard Tyr right behind us on his own coms instructing all available Einherjer to the lines.
We ran out of the Central Spire and dove into a wind rider and Arina was yelling at the cockpit, “To the main gates!” We had been already in the air before she had sat in the pilot's seat and took control from the computer. As only she could, she rocketed us toward the main gate courtyard and landed gracefully at the nearest pad at speeds that almost boggled the mind. We were already diving out of the doors before she finished her landing.
Data started flowing through my vision as father fed tactical information to us. I could see Kat's glassy look in her eyes indicating she saw what I did. The others checked their wrist consoles for the data. We never slowed as we joined other arriving Valkyrie in a sprint to the line of men at the main gates.
I could feel the thrumming in the ground from mammoth beasts ramming the shields as other spat a continuous assault of energy weapon fire at it. I stared at the sight before me, it was something from a twisted nightmare. There were huge hybrids, some sort of winged sentinels, and other nightmarish Jotunn cybernetic creatures we had not come across yet. Like a giant swirling mass of flesh and machines trying to gain access to Valhalla and send our innocents to the ages.
I gritted my teeth as I ran through the secondary shield. Our men at the line behind the primary shield stood shoulder to shoulder, unflinching at the hellish assault just inches in front of their faces. These were the Gate Guardians that made my heart swell with pride. If we Valkyrie were to fall, these men would hold the line without fail.
I glanced at the women all charging directly into the nightmare with me without hesitation and said, “Let us show these krothing Jotunn beasts that none may threaten the safety of the people of Valhalla. Let us show them the might of the Valkyrie!”
Odin's beard there were hundreds of them, we had never battled so many at once. The creature inside of me, what the Ragnarok had called the Demon, was smiling in anticipation. I was an instrument of destruction, the bringer of violence so that my people would never know it. I was Valkyrie.
I let my battle cry fly and the other women joined in as crackling blades of blue energy extended from my arms. I leapt over the Einherjer at the line and through the main shield directly into the tempest beyond.
I was struck by the continuous fire at the gates. The modulating energy fire was warping my nano-lattice. My skin began to burn as I landed a kick to the leg of some sort of six-legged praying mantis looking creature that had twin turrets mounted on its large front shoulders. It must have been twelve feet tall and had an insect's exoskeleton, reinforced by Jotunn armor in strategic places.
I heard a satisfying crack as the hard shell covering its leg yielded under the ferocity of my strike. I rolled under the creature as it tried striking me with it's massive forearms. I struck at the pincer-like claws with my Odin Spears and one connected, leaving a sizzling gash. The insect stumbled back and reared up in pain, it's hissing squeal something form a night terror.
It lashed out with an ungodly long forearm as it scrambled backward. I felt white hot pain bloom in my shoulder as the impact sent me spinning off into the air, only to collide with a hybrid's huge bony skull shield, knocking the wind out of me. I was already rolling as I hit the ground, avoiding the trampling attack of the creature.
I cupped a hand and lashed out with the power of Thor as I rolled. Blue lightning of pure compressed magnetic energy slammed into its armpit, severing servo connections and tendons alike. The beast fell forward under its own weight and momentum. I rolled to my feet and leaped as another creature landed a blow where I had just been laying. I landed on the crippled hybrid's back and sprang into the air directly at the hobbled mantis in a high arc.
Its turrets blazing at me and my lattice absorbing the hits. I landed on its shoulders as it thrashed and before I could land a blow, I was in it's vice-like jaws. It felt like it was going to split me in two and I grabbed either side of its jaws and screamed out a challenge as I pushed with all my might. There was a sickening tearing sound as I tore its jaws asunder. I snagged its neck as I fell and jammed a glowing Odin Spear through it, severing its head from its body.
It continued to strike at me blindly. I glanced at the battle computer module grafted to the flailing body's back and trust a hand up toward it and released the power of Thor. Reducing the pack to slag. The ground shook as the body of the mantis fell, unmoving. Time seemed to slow down and I instinctively dove left just as a huge horn from a hybrid lashed through the air where I had just been standing. But the huge bone plate still impacted me, sending me tumbling along the ground, lattice flaring at each impact.
I rolled to my feet. Kroth could those things strike hard! I noticed some blood in my vision and wiped it away and took note of the battlefield as I dodged a trample attack. I grinned at Inatra, she was on top of a winged creature hacking away at it's back while Mist attacked it from the front. The other Valkyrie were working in teams of three trying to push the closest of the attackers from the gates.
I was struck again and impacted a small tree, snapping its trunk. Then I caught sight of who I was looking for. Kate was letting loose her battlecry as she gracefully dove and danced across the backs of a group of hybrids that were still firing on the gate shields. Systematically destroying their energy weapons before spinning, dodging and vaulting off to the next.
I loved that she could keep a clear mind and think as she fights. What she was doing would ensure the gate shields would not fail. This left the others, like me, the task of stopping the beasts themselves.
I caught a pile-driving attack from another mantis creature. Its carapace cracking in my grip, then I Slashed upward with an Odin Spear with my other hand that sank deeply into its thorax. I had to roll out of the way as it fell lifelessly to the ground.
I felt the pressure wave and the singing of one of Artemis' hypersonic arrows and one of the winged creatures spiraled from the air then smash into a hybrid with bone snapping force. The more we attacked, the more that seemed to step in to replace the fallen. The Valkyrie were slowly being pushed back toward the gates.
I growled at that and screamed, “Valkyrie, push!” Running, I leaped as deep into the enemy ranks as I could. I saw red as I let fly my battlecry again, some little part of me registered that I was losing control again, that I didn't sound Asgard. I was letting my inner Demon out and that always scared me. I spun in place firing lightning from both hands in huge, deadly arcs. Taking out the legs of at least a dozen beasts. I was being struck from everywhere as I battled deeper into their ranks.
My last rational thought was that I preferred the old days, fighting the Ragnarok, they didn't hit as hard. The battle went on for hours. I was trying to regain control over my baser instincts as I realized that the fighting had just about stopped. I was holding back the charge of a hybrid who had me pinned against the still body of another. I had a huge horn in each hand and my arms were shaking with the supreme effort of holding the beast back.
I suddenly released the horns as I dove into the air into a high arc. Vaulting over the creature's fore-skull as it suddenly fell forward with no resistance. I rolled a
cross its back and hit its battle computer with an Odin Spear, severing its connection. I was thrown off of it's back as it shook as if shedding water.
I rolled as I impacted the ground. It was still bone jarring. The stupid creature was looking around the carnage of the battlefield and turned and looked dumbly at me, it tripped, landing with its head on the ground. I charged it with an Odin Spear shrieking out my intent as it struggled to stand again. I was in mid swing when Arina was suddenly between me and the animal. My strike stopped with the lattice blade mere inches from Arina's head.
I panted, my eyes wide, in that strange half madness of blood-lust. If it had been any other Valkyrie, they wouldn't have been able to stop their attack in mid-swing. I blinked. Arina knew this. She reached out and cupped my cheek, grounding me. Then she leaned down and kissed my cheek. The shock of that pushing back the battle haze inside of me. She smiled and said, “Kara, sister, the field is won, we are victorious. Please show the poor animal mercy. You have freed it of its electronic slavery, it is no threat to the innocents of Valhalla.”
I just blinked at her as I felt Kate's arms slide around me from behind. I just nodded dumbly, taking in the horror of the battlefield. Hundreds of mammoth bodies lay strewn about. Healers were helping a couple of my bloodied Valkyrie hobble off the field and through the main gates.
Kate was saying, once we disabled the energy weapons, the Ragnarok joined us in the battle. “We lost two Ragnarok men and one woman, but we stopped the sentinels from breaching the gates love.” I nodded breathing hard, trying to reassert the rational part of my brain. After the battle of Folkvangr against Ymir, where I had actually become the Demon of Vengeance. I have found it harder and harder to release the rage of battle. I feared that a piece of me actually liked the violence and wholesale destruction I could bring to bear.
I clung to Kate's arms at my waist as I watched Arina, the gentlest of all Asgard step up to the hybrid. She reached out and started petting its snout as it struggled to its feet. It dipped its head so she could continue caressing it. She spoke softly to it, “Come on Tiny, let's get you checked out by the healers.” She reached up and tugged on it's foreskull shield and after a few seconds it walked with her. I just gawked in amazement.
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