Arina took a deep breath, I could see her dumbing down her explanation in her head so those of us non-techs could understand more readily. “By doing so, they are keeping part of their ship between the two points, so they can peer out of the spatial distortion like windows at the other systems. Plus the energy required to maintain the quantum gateway is like the equivalent of multiple stars going supernova. Which means, wherever their point of origin is, is the only place that can create the tunnels as their ships don't have even a fraction of that power.”
She thought a second then added, “Their own systems seem taxed by maintaining even the small quantum tunnel of their space bridge.” She motioned with her hand like she was setting that fact aside and said, “The Titans, like the Jotunn, are masters of deception. While their technology is phenomenal, their strength is mostly based on slight of hand, putting on the appearance of gods with unlimited power.”
She grinned slightly. “So they are not only using the distortion to spy on the other systems, but it is their escape route if they are forced to... retreat.” Then her smile curved almost predatory at that point when she said, “So, if we were able to somehow close the gateway, they would not be able to reopen it here with their limited power. Their only means of escape would be at fractional C sublight speeds where we could track and pursue them.”
Then she took a bite of her favorite cheese as if to reward herself and said, “So we need only cause a simple imbalance in the gateway and it will collapse. Maintaining a gateway is an extremely delicate feat.”
I nodded. That was all well and fine long-term, but it didn't help us in rescuing Kara. I think Arina saw this in my eyes and her's dropped a bit. “I know that doesn't help Kara much now.”
I smiled sadly and reached over and cupped Arina's cheek in my hand, she leaned into the contact, closing her eyes. I smiled and removed my hand and said, “No, that is good news Little One. Once we do get her back, then we can put the krothing Titans on the run if they don't decide to destroy the planet first.” But Arina grinned at me like I had missed something.
Inatra had got it before I did as she suddenly sat up straight and said, “But you said that part of the vessel is still on the other side of the gateway. So if the tunnel collapses...”
Artemis shared her grin and popped a piece of cheese into her mouth as she finished for her. “Then the vessel would be crippled. And injured prey will run rather than fight if they are not in a corner.”
I quickly pulled down the main holo-display and looked at the ship. I twisted my hand and the view rotated until we were looking down on the Star Killer, a portion of its starboard engine just wasn't there, it was on the other side of the gateway. Losing one of its three main engines would certainly cripple them.
To get in range of the planet for a sustained attack on the planet's core without falling into its gravity well with only two engines would be impossible, we saw that at Folkvangr. The only way to get into range of their main cannons would be to make a flyby of the planet at escape velocities. So the only logical thing to do would be to run and repair the vessel or call for help. Even at light speeds that would give us a respite of centuries.
But then my smile flickered. “Can they fire their main cannons through their space bridge?”
Arina's smile faded too. “Oh... Yes they could.”
But Artemis and Inatra were looking at us like we were fools. Ina said, “But we know those spheres are not armed and the Jotunn armor on them cannot be any thicker than their battle suits. Our Hornets and Sky would have no problems disabling them with magnetic spears. They have to have a finite number of replacements on board.”
I nodded. “Ok, we have a solid plan for after we rescue Kara, that just leaves the rescue itself. We need some sort of advantage if we are going to take on ten Titans.” Then the same conundrum that has vexed us for four months sobered us all.
Artemis moved her hands in the air and a virtual console appeared in front of her in the main holo-display. She pulled up an image of a beaten and bloodied Kara being struck by Rhea in one of the videos the Titans sent us to break our moral. She mused out loud, “If only we could get a message to Kara then she could fight her way free, and we could meet her half way.”
I blinked at Artemis and looked at that energy tether to the collar around Kara's neck. “How can she fight free, that collar seems to be leaching her energy, we can barely detect any healing in the videos.”
Artemis shook her head and actually chuckled. “We are talking about Kara the Wild One here, the Reaper of Ymir. We know that her nanites can infest Jotunn tech, why would that collar be any different? She is a survivor. I believe she is just biding her time, choosing her moment. She is over a hundred light minutes away in space, she must be trying to figure out a way home before she moves.”
I blinked at that and looked back at the image being displayed, there was that almost imperceptible smirk on Kara's face. Was she really just allowing herself to be tortured, until she saw a window of escape? I had not thought about the Verr's ability to defeat Jotunn tech so that energy leach she was just allowing them to use as well, to give them false confidence? But what if Artemis was wrong?
I closed my fist in the air and the display disappeared. I put my mug down on the table and said, “We need to speak with Odin.”
Chapter 10 – Hybrid Facility
We shared Artemis' theory with father and he cautioned us to not take leaps, it was safer for us to proceed with our plan assuming that Kara would not be able to help us. It would make our attempt that much easier if it were true. I agreed, it was smarter for us to assume we would have to perpetrate the rescue unassisted.
But then father looked around his workshop at the people assembled. “Since we cannot further that plan until Pegasus' retrofit has been completed, I have a fortuitous distraction for the Valkyrie.” He was grinning.
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Do tell father.”
He said, “You have noticed a sudden decrease in hybrids that Rhea has moved to the gates lately?” We all nodded and he continued, “Well it seems that she has inadvertently helped us in two ways. Our scans detect only two hybrids on the planet, and a third one just emerged. Which means that one, she has helped us clear the planet and make it safe for habitation. And more importantly, second, we now now the location of the hybrid facility on the planet knowing the location of the remaining hybrids and where the third one appeared from.”
He walked toward the center of the workshop and made a grabbing and dragging motion back to his workstation and his display bloomed on the main display. A remote portion of the main continent in the Great Tusk mountain range was displayed. We could see two triceratops and one huge centipede looking hybrid were moving toward a well camouflaged transport platform to be moved to their stations somewhere on the planet.
Father pointed at the scanner data and I realized that the area seemed not to exist on our scans, that is why we had missed it all these years. But now it stood out like a sore thumb by its nothingness in the data for the area. He said, “There was a low-level scattering field around the area using anti-protons that we had never scanned for when we looked for Jotunn armor and power signatures.”
He grinned at Arina expectantly and she gave him a crinkle nosed smile and made some adjustments on the data stream then a subterranean hybrid factory bloomed on the screen. They were harvesting biologicals and minerals to create the beasts from the planet's crust. The only evidence of its presence above ground was the transport platform and the camouflaged bay doors into the mountainside.
I smiled and looked around the room, meeting eyes with Inatra and Mist, and said, “Mount up Valkyrie, let us rid this planet of the last of the Jotunn scourge. It will be a good distraction for us. Artemis are you with us?” She nodded with a predatory smile. Then I told Mist, “Let us do two strike teams so we can make short work of this. We will need six more volunteers, Ragnarok if you can since it is the final step in liberating their homeworld. Bu
t make them aware that they are to remain on the vessels until we disable any energy weapons at the base.” The damn Jotunn energy weapons were designed to desiccate biological matter, and only those who possessed nano-lattices could survive an attack from them. Which was why we rarely took Ragnarok out with us to fight the hybrids since our Ragnarok only possessed standard Asgard nanites.
Mist nodded once and left the workshop. I grinned knowing the first Ragnarok to volunteer would be my son in law, Intark. It still amazed me that two Ragnarok, my former mortal enemies, were now two of the people I loved most in my life. Inatra and Intark. I don't think that my baby girl Essa could have chosen a better mate. Intark was one of the bravest men I have ever met.
We marched toward the doors and Arina intercepted me and said with a strained voice, “Don't hurt them if you do not have to Kat. It isn't their fault.” Her eyes were pleading with me.
I smiled at her. Arina and her kind heart. The people of the citadel called her The Innocent and she was more or less the moral compass we Valkyrie guided ourselves by. I smiled lovingly at her, still seeing the young girl in her that I had met back in another life when Valhalla had arrived on Earth when I was truly human.
She was still so pure of heart. She had actually befriended a dinosaur that was being used as a weapon of destruction against her people. It is such a docile animal. Tiny is more like Arina's pet now than any sort of threat, so I saw the wisdom in her words. The beasts were being used against their will, like slaves.
Though other hybrids were not as peaceful, like the wounded bat-winged creature that she had the healers see to. Once the beast was nursed back to health, it was released into the skies of Ragnarok, I still saw that one as a predator, though no longer under the influence of the Frost Giants.
I said softly as I placed the back of my hand on her cheek, “We will try Little One.” Then I paused. “Come with us.” A huge smile bloomed on her face as she rushed out the door, no doubt to don her armor.
I looked at Inatra, who pursed her lips shaking her head. “You are such a soft Valkyrie. How have you survived so long?”
Then she smiled, not able to keep her dour expression as I chided her, “Oh you shush sister, you know you would have caved too with her big doe eyes on you.”
She shook her head and bumped hips with me as she and Artemis moved toward the doors, Inatra chuckling. “Are you coming sister?”
I called back to father as the doors were closing behind me, “I truly don't know how you put up with us father. I'll com when we are in the air.”
We went out to the courtyard of the Central Spire and I naturally scanned the pads for Pegasus before remembering she was on Earth. It was so strange using a regular wind rider instead of Pegasus, she was always around when we needed her.
Arina joined us a couple minutes later in her Valkyriefrior armor and automatically sat in the pilot's chair and flew us quickly and efficiently to the main gates. We stepped out and waited until another wind rider settled beside ours.
Mist strode off followed by Intark, Inshak, and three other Ragnarok warriors I recognized but couldn't place their names. I was surprised by the final volunteer. I glanced over at Artemis and back at Eros, standing there in a makeshift Olympian cloak holding a cobbled together bow, similar to Artemis'.
She stepped up to him quickly and hugged him. “Brother.”
He spoke in his smooth bass, “Sister.”
I smiled, knowing he had no need to volunteer, nobody expected it from him, but it gave me a measure of respect for the man that he did. It let me know he was cut from the same moral cloth as my adopted sister of Olympus. Plus he was a fine specimen of a man, my lips quirked at the thought. Well, duh Kat, he is a Greek god after all.
I spoke, “Ok we are going in two teams. The main strike team Alpha, will clear the base of energy weapon placements and disable any on any hybrids as we go. That will be myself, Inatra, Artemis, Eros, and...”
I hated bringing an unshielded individual on the team but my eyes lingered on Intark and that ridiculously huge chain gun he carried around. He had proven himself over and over in combat, staying behind the protection of the Valkyrie nano-lattices until he had an opening to unleash the hellfire that his gun, Buttercup, could throw at a target.
So I grinned and rolled my eyes while he posed with the gun for me with a very un-Ragnarok cheesy grin on his face as I finished, “against my better judgment, Intark.”
His boisterous laughter boomed and he said, “Just try to keep up...” He paused then added in a teasing manner, “...mother.”
I backhanded him in the gut so hard he almost dropped his precious weapon as I muttered, “Smartass.”
Then I looked around. “Mist will head up the demolition team with the rest of you Ragnarok. It is time for you to take back your planet!” They all growled like Terran wolves in agreement and excitement.
Then someone cleared their throat behind me. I grinned as I looked back at a blushing Arina. I added, “And whenever possible, do not harm the hybrids. Target the battle computers grafted to their exoskeletons. Arina will stay behind with the wind riders to shepherd any beasts we can free from Jotunn control.”
I took one last look at my strike teams. Mist looked uncomfortable and I knew why, it went against everything the Asgard believed in to strike first like this, the Valkyrie existed for the protection of the innocents. Going on the offensive was an alien concept that warred with their morals. But after the arrival of the Jotunn, and all the races of the galaxy were under threat of annihilation by a superior force, a lot of things have changed in Asgard.
I smiled at her. “Sister, this is in defense of the people, this is where the hybrids that Rhea attacks us with daily come from. Besides it is unmanned.” This put her at ease and she nodded once. The rest of us did not have that same moral conundrum. Besides Arina and her, the rest of us did not start out as Asgard. The primal predator inside me relished the thought of doing battle to protect my territory, my family, the people I loved. I often wondered if that made me a bad person.
I glanced at the Olympians and asked, “You any good with that thing Eros?”
Artemis snorted and answered before he could, “His aim is abysmal but acceptable. But Eros is fast.”
I quirked an eyebrow and almost faster than my Verr could track in a tactical overlay in my vision, he pulled arrows from his quiver in rapid succession. They didn't have the speed or deadly hum of Artemis's arrows, but they struck around a tree stump with deadly force. Two hitting near the center of one of the trees lining the courtyard and one missing and embedding in the ground. Holy crap that was fast!
He squinted an eye in pain at his missed shot and smiled as he said over his shoulder to his sister, “Quantity over quality dear sister.”
She rolled her eyes and then stared at him as she unsheathed an arrow without looking and blindly fired one of her hypersonic arrows. One of his arrows and half the tree trunk exploded into splinters as she prompted, “Verily?”
He shoved her shoulder as he walked past to collect the two remaining arrows for his quiver. Artemis walked to the base wall of the citadel behind the tree and pulled out the arrow that had buried itself more than a foot into the plasticrete, then replaced it to her quiver. I just grinned at the sibling rivalry. I have not seen Artemis smiling so much since we met her.
She winced at the tree as she walked back to join the group. “My apologies to the groundskeeper.”
I shook my head and before my mind could again drift to Kara, I said, “Ok teams let's mount up.” Then I glanced at Arina. “See if you can coordinate with Tyr since this is going to be a long flight and have him send out Valkyrie to wherever the last three hybrids were sent to free them from Jotunn control.”
She smiled enthusiastically and we all boarded the wind riders. Moments later our vessels were rocketing through the main gates and into the skies of Ragnarok.
***
A couple hours later, we did a slow flyby of the Hybrid
Facility. Without our instruments, we wouldn't even have known it was there it was camouflaged so well. We scanned for weapons, but none was apparent, so we landed in the dense jungle a couple hundred yards from the transport pad.
Arina stayed with the wind riders and the demolition team, heavily laden with dozens of magnetic lance demolition charges, followed my strike team into the brush. It was so odd, the jungle was so silent with no insect or animal life on the planet. It hit me every time we left the citadel here on the planet.
I went first, my Verr enhanced vision was better than any scanners we possessed. The race of microscopic nanites were so amazing to me. They were a playful lot, and my friends. They have kept me alive though so many battles and so many injuries that would have been the end of me without them. They just keep evolving. The third evolution affected Kara and me, giving us the ability to interface directly with the collective consciousness of the fantastic living machines inside our bodies.
No sooner had we crossed over into a clearing than a new overlay snapped over my vision and a message from my nanites flowed past. “Deadly Dancer. The ground.” I looked down and I could see various dense patches just under the surface. Data streamed in my eyes, metallic and organic structures, inert with no energy signatures other than a slightly elevated background radiation that our wind rider's scanners had missed.
I called out to everyone, “Mines.” I threw a softball sized rock twenty yards to one of them, and it just bounced harmlessly off. I squinted at that and thought about Frost Giant weaponry. I reached over to a tree and tore off a branch about as big around as my leg. I hefted it in my hand, testing its weight and balance then threw it to the same mine.
We covered our eyes as a brilliant flash streaked skyward, vaporizing the organic matter in the branch. We walked the entire perimeter of the clearing up to the mountain face and the ground was covered with them at even intervals. I threw a couple smaller branches between the mines and they were vaporized too. I said, “Ok, apparently their range is a six foot diameter and their zones are overlapped.”
Valkyrie Chronicles 4 & 5 Bundle Page 26
