I'll walk across and see if I can't find the controls to switch them off in the clearing so that our un-latticed people can make it through.
Intark made a frustrated sound and just stepped up beside me shaking his head. The jungle echoed the deafening roar of his chain gun as he moved back and forth, blowing a twenty foot wide path along the ground through the minefield. Jotunn mines shredded along with the ground under the onslaught.
Just as suddenly as it started, my ears were ringing with the silence as the big Ragnarok slung Buttercup lazily over his shoulder. He stomped off along the path he had cleared, calling back to the rest of us, “Coming?”
I snorted and rushed to get in front of him to shield him from any energy weapon fire, patting the scarf tied to his left arm as I passed. “Subtle isn't in your vocabulary is it?” He just looked down at me with a toothy grin in response.
A minute later we were standing on the huge transport pad. I walked over to a protrusion on the perimeter that wound up being some sort of eight foot tall metal alloy box that was camouflaged to look like a rock outcropping. I had a small blade of crackling energy extend from my lattice and cut off what appeared to be an access panel of some sort. I pulled the panel free after I went around the seam, melting the alloy.
I stretched up as far as I could to see what looked to be some sort of control panel, but I couldn't understand the gibberish written by the controls. I looked back at the Olympians that were always scanning the perimeter with arrows drawn. “I can't make any sense of it, it is in Jotunn.”
Eros gave one last quick look around then shouldered his bow and stepped up to the panel. “These are the manual overrides for the transport platform.”
My mind mulled that over, “Is it independent from the rest of the facility?” He pulled up a hologram on the console and he studied it a minute, it was a three-dimensional layout of the facility. He shook his head. “No it shares the computer core and power core.”
Then my eyes shot skyward. “Can it get us to the Elivagar?”
He shook his head. “No, this is a Jotunn transport, the Elivagar would have it locked out. Think of Titan and Jotunn tech as different even though it is the same.”
I nodded understanding opposing sides making sure the enemy couldn't use their own tech against them. I asked, “Can you modify the system so a transport appears to be Titan?”
He shook his head sadly and shrugged as he said, “We only operated the equipment for our Quee... for Rhea and the Titans. I have no clue how any of it works, the inner workings of the systems was witchcraft, the realm of the gods.”
I closed my eyes and nodded, you can't blame a woman for trying. I could understand the Titan's need to be in control of everything and keep the people under them in ignorance. It helped with the facade of superiority they projected. I looked at the man and asked, “So it is of no tactical advantage to us?”
He shook his head. “Other than giving you instant transport to virtually anywhere on the planet, no.”
I laid a hand on his shoulder in thanks then strode out on the transport pad. I squinted at the huge doors set into the mountainside, painted like the rocks around it, to see if I could see any obvious defenses. A window in my vision zoomed in, I grinned at my Verr. There were four ports around the door at regular intervals, there was no indication as to what they were except that they were clad in Jotunn armor. This lead me to believe they were some sort of security devices.
I zoomed in tighter and scanned for energy signatures, there were passive sensors that were radiating slightly more energy than the background radiation. I assumed proximity sensors like the mines.
To either side of the entry I could make out huge pieces of machinery that had camouflage netting over them that had decayed over the eons of sitting there. The jungle had claimed the machines for their own as they were overrun by trees and underbrush. I figured they were the automated machines left behind to construct the base when the Jotunn left Ragnarok orbit to chase down the escaping generational ships.
I pointed out the ports. Artemis could apparently see them, but Intark and the others used their wrist consoles to zoom in on them. We approached carefully with Intark to the rear. When we were no more than thirty yards away, I repeated what I had done with the mines. Throwing a rock then a branch. Nothing happened with both.
My Verr were feeding me attack vectors, leading me to believe that five yards more was a prime kill box if they were weapons. I stood up from behind the moss covered, rotting trunk of an ancient tree that had fallen across the path ages ago, and took a deep breath.
I said to the others, “Well... fortune favors the bold.” Then I strode out with my Verr overpowering my nano-lattice. Ten steps later, hell was unleashed upon me. The four ports proved to be high powered energy turrets that were multiple times more powerful than the ones mounted on the hybids.
They were all oscillating on different frequencies as they maintained a constant barrage of fire on me. I could feel some bleed through as they tuned themselves, trying to find the frequency to defeat my lattice shield. My skin was starting to redden and boil.
I heard the roar of Buttercup behind me as I dashed at the lowest turret mount as long blades of crackling energy slowly extended from my arms. The second turret was struck by a continuous wave of projectiles, the armor deflected them easily. But then the fire was directed at the wall around the turret and the thermite rounds chewed their way through. There was a what would have been a blinding flash if my Verr hadn't of dimmed my vision and I saw one of Artemis' arrows sticking out of the smoking remains of the upper left turret.
Two of Eros' arrows just missed the lower left one and embedded in the wall no more than the width of the arrow tip.
I arrived at the lower right turret and sprang into the air and let loose my battle cry. I collided with the turret at my apogee and drove both blades through its protective armor and into the turret itself. It kept trying to fire though it was now whirling around randomly. I pulled my blades out as I took the full brunt of the blasts.
As I clung to the turret with one hand, I cupped the other and released the power of Thor into the gashes I had created. The lightning lanced forward and then I was blown away from the entrance by the resulting explosion. I landed almost clumsily in a sliding backward three-point stance as I winced in pain. Some shrapnel had got through my lattice and embedded in my shoulder.
There was a blur in my vision that my Verr identified as Eros. He was moving almost too fast to follow and he sprang into the air while executing a back spin, his cloak absorbing a blast, and jammed one of his arrows through the turret he had missed earlier with a thrust of his powerful arm. Holy crap! I blinked, he was multiple times faster than his sister. Though he was a terrible shot. I grinned.
I glanced up as a moment later there was silence. Buttercup had done her job and there was a huge hole in the wall where the final turret was just hanging down and sparking. I stood and winced then turned toward my strike squad with a grin as they stepped into the now silent kill zone. I said, “Easy as pie.”
Inatra snorted as she stepped up to me and grabbed a large Jotunn armor shard that was embedded in my shoulder and yanked hard, pulling it out. Then she hissed lovingly at my wince of pain. “Your idea of pie and mine are quite dissimilar Kat. I like apple. This...” She motioned around to the destruction we had wrought as I watched my wound heal itself and my Valkyrie armor slowly rebuild itself. “...is not apple.”
Intark stepped past us with Buttercup slung over his shoulder to examine the bay doors and said, “You Valkyrie are confusing. I don't know why you speak of food when we need to determine how to get inside.”
I looked between both of the Ragnarok and shook my head. “It's a figure of speech.” They exchanged smiles with me, telling me they had only been teasing me. I rolled my eyes and looked at the doors. They were coated in Frost Giant armor alloy. I sighed. “Get back, everyone find cover, we don't know what is beyond these doors.”
I let fly my battle cry again and released the power of Thor from both hands. Coherent magnetic lightning slammed into the doors. The huge bay doors shuddered and started heating up as the armor started melting and bubbling away.
I took a page from the Three Embers' book, and slowly brought my hands together. The effort was immense, they didn't want to get that close, I think it may be a polarity thing, but finally I clasped my fingers and the power flowing from me became an almost coherent beam of energy. I was nearly blown back by the force rebounding off the doors. Then in the screeching sound of fatiguing metal, the doors fell to the ground with a resounding boom as they missed flattening me by mere inches.
I staggered, and fell to one knee, the effort had almost exhausted me. But then I stood as everyone joined me as I stared into the gaping corridor beyond the entrance.
I caught Eros speaking in low tones to his sister, “The Asgard truly are gods like the Titans.”
I snapped at him maybe a little too harshly, “We are not gods!” I blinked then reigned in my emotions, now I knew how father felt when the Ragnarok called him a war god. It felt almost dirty, tainted. Then I closed my eyes. “My apologies Eros. We are just people like you. We just have some technology that is hard to digest sometimes.”
He looked at me nonplussed then grinned. “Truly. It appeared quite godlike to me.” Then he gave a chivalrous bow of acknowledgment.
I rolled my eyes then grinned. “You think that's something, you should see me cook.”
He turned a confused look toward his sister and Artemis explained to him, “It is the confusing way Earth humans speak. I find it best to just politely nod like I understand her blabbing.”
Eros then turned to me and nodded politely. I reached out and shoved the grinning Artemis into her brother. “Hey, it isn't my fault you lot can't understand sophisticated humor.”
I looked at the entrance and zoomed in, my Verr scanning the vast corridor. There was nothing visible, and it stood to reason that there wasn't any interior armament. The Jotunn were so arrogant that they probably believed nobody could possibly breech their outer defenses, let alone survive their hybrids.
I took two deep breaths and said, “Stay back twenty yards and cover me.” Ina's hand on my arm stopped me. “Should you not rest Kat? You look exhausted, I have never seen you wield the power of Thor in that manner.”
I leaned over and kissed her cheek and whispered, “There will be time enough to rest when I pass to the ages.”
She grinned and said in a normal tone, “Odin's beard you would have made a fine Ragnarok.” I winked at her and strode forward into the mountainside with far more confidence than I was feeling. Lights turned on as I walked, illuminating the space. Nothing untoward happened.
We followed the corridor as it sloped down into the mountain. Then it opened into an impossibly vast cavern. The only words I could use to describe it was a factory floor. There were pens of hybrids in various degrees of development and two automated conveyor systems that held two of the triceratops looking hybrids as they were bellowing in pain as cybernetic implants were grafted to them.
I glanced over at Eros as we arrived at what looked like a huge control panel. I asked, “Can you disable it?”
He was squinting at the controls and he pulled up some data streams then adjusted some things then made a fist in the virtual console and all the robotic arms and conveyors stopped moving. I stepped up to the railing and looked down. There must have been over two thousand of the dinosaurs milling about in the pens, it was an awe inspiring sight. There were some caged off areas with the more violent predators, but there were far less of them.
I looked at my squad. “Let's clear this place then call the demolition team in.” I glanced back at the peaceful looking herbivores and an involuntary smile came to my lips as I added, “Arina is going to love this.”
***
The sun was setting as we watched the last herds of hybrids making their way down the mountainside, through the jungle, toward the grasslands. I saw two of the bat winged creatures soaring the skies below. The happy and content look on Arina's face made me believe I had done the right thing.
We loaded our weary selves into the wind riders and as soon as we began the flight back to Valhalla I pressed a glowing red icon on the holo-console beside my seat and the demolition charges started going off. We made one pass over the imploding mountaintop before turning back toward home.
Chapter 11 – Collapse
Once Pegasus had rejoined us in Valhalla, sporting her luminescent pearl exterior of Jotunn armor with her retractable armor shield for the main windows we gathered in father's workshop to discuss the rescue plan.
It was a full house with Arina, Inatra, Mist, Tyr, Odin, Geiravor, Sif, Loki, Freya, Talia, Artemis, Intark, and Eros. We all stood around the primary holo-display as we laid out our plan.
We finalized on a small strike team consisting of myself, Inatra, Mist, and Talia. We would proceed as originally planned by first destabilizing the gateway and hopefully crippling the Titan vessel. Then using the Hornets as a diversion to draw fire transmitting their telemetry through the space bridge so we would have near-realtime coordination while we waited on the Ragnarok side of the tunnel.
Once they were drawing fire, then we would gather as much velocity as we could and then travel unpowered through the quantum tunnel with our personal nano-lattices protecting us. When we emerged on the Elivagar side, we would continue coasting on our ballistic course until we either arrived at the Titan vessel or we started taking fire, at which time we would power up. Loki believes that Pegasus should be able to take five or ten point blank direct hits before the thin layer of Jotunn armor fails.
Pegasus would use her mag-spear to breach one of their only known weak points, a gun port, and then dock with the vessel. In contact with the ship's hull, she should be safe from enemy fire. Once the boarding party is inside the ship, our scanners should be able to pick up Kara's Asgard life signs and her Verr, even though they are seemingly at extremely low power levels thanks to that energy leeching collar.
We would hit them hard and fast before more than one or two Titans could respond, because any more than that and it would all be over. I would take point as I had the only weapon that could hurt them at a distance besides our sidearms. The Jotunn were always quick to destroy our sidearms at the onset of any battle, so there is no reason to believe the Titans wouldn't do the same. But my power of Thor, they cannot deal with, and after my battle with Ymir on Folkvangr, the energy I can throw has almost doubled. It is almost two thirds of what Kara herself can wield.
We are counting on Artemis' supposition that Kara is just biding her time. Any commotion we make with any luck would signal her to make her move, adding to our strike power. Then once, we retrieve her, we exit the way we came and fly like a bat out of hell to the quantum tunnel.
Once we are through, then the Hornets would attack the orbs creating the space bridge to prevent the Star Killer from attacking the planet directly with its main cannons. Any new orbs released would be dealt with similarly until they exhausted their supply.
The only part of the plan, besides the part where it was most certainly a suicide run, was that it would leave the Titan vessel in the Ragnarok system until they could effect repairs and become a threat again. Unless they withdrew. Plus, they could call in reinforcements since we are not sure about whether or not their communication systems are limited to light speed or not.
We were all agreed and were about to go to our assigned stations when an alarm started going off in the workshop. Tyr was quickly grabbing the data out of the air in the di
rection of tactical and throwing it at the main display. We saw the Elivagar almost turning imperceptibly like some huge juggernaut as Tyr said, “They are increasing power to their main engines and starting to turn toward the gateway. It will take them seven minutes to make the turn. It appears the orbs of the space bridge are starting to power up their own thrusters as well. They are retreating, did they know of our plan?”
I asked Arina across our link, “Why so slow and what are they doing?”
I heard her panicked voice in my head as her hands were flying through the data. “The mass of that ship is incredible, it takes a huge amount of energy to get it moving from a static position. It will accelerate as it builds kinetic momentum.”
I was panicking, I couldn't lose Kara! If they left, then we would never get her back. Father slammed his hand down on a control in front of him and the entire citadel dimmed as a huge blast of magnetic force left the citadel toward the space bridge. A moment later we saw the impossible gateway destabilize as the blast warped space at the fringe of it and then it was gone.
There was a tremendous flash of an explosion from the Elivgar as half of the third engine simply wasn't there anymore. The blast was contained by the quarter mile thick armor of the ship. Father was yelling to us as we already started into motion, “Go now! Bring back Kara!”
I nodded as the strike team ran out of the Central Spire toward Pegasus. I prayed that the premature execution of our plan hadn't just doomed us to failure.
Chapter 12 – Thea
If it weren't for my nanites telling me, I wouldn't know how long I had been here on this krothing Titan ship, all the days and all the pain just sort of blurred together. My Verr displayed, “Three weeks Fire Soul.” They keep begging me to let them deal with the collar around my neck that is causing me, and them, such pain.
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