Valkyrie Chronicles 4 & 5 Bundle

by Erik Schubach

  She first looked at me in disbelief, then the look changed to panic. “We cannot get the proper angle from here to launch you toward the tunnel.”

  I growled out, “Kroth!”

  Then she looked even more panicked as she looked at her chiming wrist console and lights flickered in her eyes. “Ymir's Horn! Rhea is pinging my location!”

  We started running back down the corridor as she said, “We need to get to the airlock near junction three.” We sprinted, my enhanced speed barely keeping up with her and her battle armor augmented speed.

  We skidded to a stop as three Titans appeared in the intersection at the main corridor with their weapons drawn. Thea looked at them and said, “Sisters. Why do you raise arms against me?”

  One of them said, “Our queen says we are betrayed and we are to bring you and the stupid animal to her.”

  Thea pulled her sidearm and raised it at them as her bubble helmet shield rose. “Please Phoebe, we need not fight each other. We are Titans, we are eternal.”

  In answer, Phoebe fired on her sister. Time slowed down as my Verr started feeding me tactical information. As the energy weapon fire struck Thea harmlessly, I rolled off to the wall of the corridor, creating as much space between myself and Thea as I could and let fly my battlecry, warbling my intent as I sent the power of Thor lancing down the corridor and striking Phoebe. Her weapon was turned to slag and her hand went whipping back from the force as her armored gauntlet began to sizzle while the magnetic energy chewed away at her Mithreal armor.

  The other two Titans jockeyed for a good angle in the narrow corridor and started concentrating fire on me. The shifting frequencies started attenuating my lattice but then it stopped as Thea fired on their weapons and then dropped hers as Phoebe came barreling into her and the two giant women grappled.

  I dodged to the side and used the wall as a springboard to alter my course and threw myself at the nearest Titan as she set her feet in a predetermined programmed attack sequence for her armor to execute. Too bad for her I had spent hours studying all of the pre-programmed strikes when I battled Ymir and the Frost Giants.

  I landed in front of her but rolled under the pile-driver and slashed up with my most powerful Odin's spear. The crackling blue blade of energy struck the almost invisible seam in her armpit and sizzled through the weak point, eliciting a shriek of startled pain from the Titan.

  She backhanded me and I hit the opposing wall like a ton of bricks. I rolled away from a swooping strike then gave a predatory grin when I realized the others couldn't engage in the narrow corridor. I hit my opponent with rapid fire strikes from the power of Thor at her shoulder. Then had to defend against a hurricane of strikes. Batting them away or dodging. The ones that got through felt like I was being hit by meteor strikes.

  Kroth that, I slid into my three-point striking stance and struck upward toward an incoming punch. I adjusted twice in mid swing to attain the optimal strike vector as I strengthened the lattice around my fist, digging into the floor with lattice spikes under my feet to anchor me. Our fists connected and there was a sharp crack, like a baseball bat striking a ball and pieces of splintered Mithreal went flying as I shattered the supposed unbreakable armor of her gauntlet.

  I took her moment of shock, to quickly grasp her armored arm and twist my body, and tear with all my might. The armor tore from her arm at the weakened spots I had created at her shoulder and armpit. She tried to strike me and I backhanded her unprotected arm, snapping it like a twig. She fell to her knees, holding her arm. My hand shot forward and grabbed the ragged edge of the armor at her shoulder and neck yanking hard and tearing the control circuits out, and her bubble shield helmet flickered out.

  Phoebe went flying into the wall beside us as Thea reached my side. I pulled my hand back and let Odin's spear crackle to life for the killing blow. I was in mid swing when Thea screamed, “Kara! No!” I stopped my blow with the blade against my oppnent's cheek, sizzling away her skin and I looked back at Thea.

  Her eyes were pleading as she shook her head, saying, “No, please do not kill her.”

  The beast inside me growled in fury, I wanted nothing more than to kill, I was the bringer of violence. I took a deep breath and pushed the animal inside me down and nodded. With a swift motion, I instead, punched the woman in the face, fracturing her nose and she fell limply to the ground, unconscious. I gave Thea a nod of acknowledgment as we engaged the other combatants.

  As more Titans and Titanspawns arrived, filling the corridor with energy weapons fire. We were slowly pushed back. I concentrated the lightning of the power of Thor on disarming them and dispatching the unarmored Titanspawns to the ages.

  In such close quarters, we were fighting a retreat. I had incapacitated three Titans and Thea had taken Phoebe down with a verbal apology as she knocked her unconscious. The corridor was about to widen at the entrance to the airlock. That would be bad, the remaining Titans would be able to surround us then and there was no way the two of us could face the five remaining Titans like that. But I would be no one's slave!

  Just as we reached that point, Thea reached out and threw me backward with a sweep of her arms and she rolled into the airlock with me and hit a control then fused the door controls after it closed.

  She looked at me then out to the corridor as she started typing on the console. I swallowed and she looked at me with profound sadness as she said, “Looks like I will be going with you after all little Valkyrie.”

  A new alarm started sounding as an automated voice announced, “Weapons grid offline.” She put her arm out to me and I looked up at her in amazement and stepped to her. She hugged me to her securely and raised her weapon toward the outer door.

  Now that my Verr were not providing energy for battle, they were finally able to restore the nanite link with Kat. She was awash in frantic emotions, panic, anger, determination... and then shock as I said, “I'm coming home love. I may need a ride.”

  Relief and joy and more of that determination flowed from her as she laughed and said, “We are already on the way Kara.” I just took a moment to share warm thoughts with her before I turned my attention back to my situation.

  I looked back and four Titans had their weapons raised and ready to fire when Rhea stepped in front of them. She stretched out her arm and made a lowering motion and the Titans stepped back. Rhea stepped up to the window and placed her palm against it as she looked at me with sad eyes.

  Thea faltered so I took the decision out of her hands and took a deep breath and fired the power of Thor at the outer door and blew it out into space. The sudden explosive decompression threw Thea and I out into the soundless void and harsh environment of space. I remembered this sensation and I hoped I would never repeat it. My Verr were screaming in pain, providing as much power as they could to the nano-lattice to keep me alive.

  I tried to twist in Thea's arms to fire of the power of Thor to try to aim us back toward the space bridge. But before I did, Thea hit a stud on her belt as her arms tightened on me, almost crushing my ribs and we shot off at an almost terrifying acceleration. A chronometer was counting down in my vision beside a velocity and vector readout. We accelerated to just barely the speed we needed and made one last adjustment to aim us directly at the event horizon of the quantum tunnel when whatever was powering our thrust died away.

  I twisted and looked up at her face, she was crying. Then her photon helmet started to fade. Kroth! The woman had used her armor's power pack to power our escape, she used all of it up to get us on the proper course. She couldn't survive the vacuum of space without her helmet shield. The woman was sacrificing herself for me. She gave a sad smile.

  There was no way I would ever let that happen! It was my duty to protect those who could not protect themselves, it was the reason for my being. It defined who I was, I am Kara the Wild one, and I am VALKYRIE!

  I dug deep inside my reserves and could feel Valhalla's power feed increasing as we neared the tunnel. I screamed in pain as I channeled a
ll my energies into encasing Thea in my nano-lattice from our point of contact to protect her. Leaving my body open to space as we hit the event horizon while the air was ripped from my lungs and I could feel capillaries starting to burst across my skin in the unimaginable cold while my blood began to boil.

  An instant later we emerged on the other side and it felt like we struck something with great force and there was suddenly oxygen and gravity again. I mumbled to the weapons that were all suddenly drawn around us, “Hold Valkyrie... she's a friend, she's with me.” I lost consciousness. The wonderful warm blackness cradled me and took all the pain away.

  Chapter 15 – From the Heavens

  We hurtled through the atmosphere at an incredible pace and were still accelerating, a wake of plasma of super-heated air formed around Pegasus's bow. I watched the skin temperatures rising above reentry temperatures and beyond the vaporization temperature of plasti-steel. I was amazed at Pegasus' new armor. We were multiple times past escape velocity as we hit space.

  I patted the hull of the ship and said, “Wow girl, your upgrades do you good.”

  My wrist buzzed and I looked down to see a message from her scrolling, “Thank you Kat Valkyrie without the whiskers.”

  I grinned at that. It was her humor. It was funny the day I watched Arina trying to explain the difference between a Terran cat and me. But Pegasus said in confusion, “Isn't she a Terran Kat? I thought she was from Earth.”

  Arina had grinned and said, “Well yes. She is, but that is Kat with a K not a C.”

  The wind rider asked, “So she is not a cat?”

  Arina had giggled, “Well I guess she's a Kat without whiskers.”

  That seemed to get through to the childlike intelligence of the vessel and ever since then she likes to joke about me being a Kat without whiskers. She thinks she is clever. I smiled again and stroked the hull and gave a polite chuckle. Most of us Valkyrie see Pegasus and the rest of the Sky as our children. And Pegasus has more valor than most people that I know.

  Another craft was on an intercept course and matched our velocity, the wind rider rotated on its axis, inverting while maintaining speed. It moved above us and we heard the docking clamps engage. The access door in the ceiling slid open and a form dropped lightly to the deck. Standing there with a shit eating grin on her face was Kitty. She said, “Well met! Don't think you're doing this without me.”

  I just rolled my eyes and pulled her into a hug. “We wouldn't think of it Kitty. Well met.” She almost skipped over to the empty pilot's chair and settled in like it was built for her. We all laughed as she greeted the rest of us from her favorite seat and then turned and just started gossiping with Pegasus.

  If you think it was fun to watch Arina trying to explain cat and Kat to the sentient ship, it was twice as funny on her first meeting with Kitty.

  I watched the other wind rider veer off to shadow our flight toward the event horizon.

  While all of this occurred, I had never taken my attention away from the copious overlays on my vision that my Verr were supplying me on the mission. We were basically flying directly into the gates of hell to attempt the suicidal rescue of the woman that defines love for me. The bravest woman I knew. I wondered how badly our plan had been compromised by prematurely executing it when the Titan vessel started to withdraw.

  I would fly through hell and back a thousand times on the slightest chance we could liberate her. I was filled with a million emotions as I watched the countdown timer to arrival at the space bridge. Thirty seconds. I prayed that Pegasus' new armor was up to the task, but I was determined to succeed at all costs.

  Then my legs almost gave out beneath me as a part of my soul awakened when I was suddenly aware of Kara again. I could feel her agony, but most of all her love in my mind, like it was just any other day as she said, “I'm coming home love. I may need a ride.”

  I just about broke down sobbing in joy then and there but we had a job to do so I laughed back at her and said, “We are already on the way Kara.”

  I blurted out into the cabin, “Kara is already on the way, approaching the space bridge from the other side. Can you catch her Pegasus?” We veered off at the last instant, shooting past the space bridge at breakneck speeds. We transmitted the abort signal through the bridge to the Hornets that were already closing on the Elivgar to be our diversion.

  Kitty was already routing telemetry that Valhalla was feeding through its constant scans through the quantum entanglement tunnel. I saw a red beacon lock on and Pegasus displayed some info for Kitty. She grabbed onto her chair firmly, and yelled, “Grab onto something, this is going to be pulling it close to match her velocity!”

  We all grabbed onto anything that was bolted down as we heard the magnetic booster drives whining in protest as we swung in a wide loop and back the way we came. Inertial compensators redlining as we were slung outward by centrifugal force and the gravity systems failed. Kitty was screaming, “Yeeeeetaaaahhhhh!” in elation. An alarm was warbling Pegasus' own battlecry as we heard her chassis groaning with stress.

  I was barely able to grab Talia's hand as she went slinging past me. I screamed with the effort as my arm was almost pulled from its socket. Then the forces equalized as we leveled out and went screaming past the space bridge heading the other way at hypersonic speeds with gravity restored.

  Kitty yelled, “Lattice!” As we decompressed and one of the doors opened while Pegasus rotated ninety degrees on her axis. I winced as I pulled up my nano-lattice and felt the pain of my Verr as they fought off the vacuum of space. In the same instant I felt Kara screaming in pain as she warbled her battle-cry in my head.

  The shimmering event horizon rapidly shrank as we sped past. I saw some motion just before I lost sight of it. Moments later the shape grew and a mass flew through the open door at around fifty miles per hour relative to our speed and it slammed into the far wall with shuddering force as the outer door closed and we repressurized.

  I think we were all stunned as we looked upon an unconscious Titan, cradling Kara in her arms. As one, we all pulled our sidearms, but Kara weakly raised a hand. “Hold Valkyrie... she's a friend, she's with me.” Before she lost consciousness.

  I broke, finally allowing myself to sob as I pulled my mate to me, holding her in my arms, protecting her. Kitty, Inatra, and Talia stood around the Titan that lay on the deck. Inatra looked back at us and I smiled at her, she hissed lovingly then smiled back.

  Kitty looked like she forgot something then she yelled, “Hold on!” Moments later Pegasus veered off again, straining the inertial compensators once more, but not as severely. The Titan slid to the other side of the cabin. Kitty grinned an apology at the group. “Sorry Valkyrie, we didn't think you wanted to go splat into the planet. Even Peggy's new armor can only withstand so much.” I had to grin at her antics and at the fact that Pegasus tolerated her calling her Peggy.

  I just held Kara in my arms, watching the damage that exposure to space had done to her skin heal. Then her eyes fluttered open. There was fear in her eyes for an instant then recognition. She smiled and started to sit up and did a very un-Kara thing. She kissed me so passionately, in front of other people, that I thought I was going to burst into flames. “Well met Valkyrie,” she whispered. “I can't tell you how much I missed you.”

  I chuckled and the others looked over and Kara blushed at her own public display of affection. But then she was suddenly pushing to her feet as we flew back toward Valhalla. She pushed past the others and knelt by the Titan, “Is she ok? Her helmet failed in space, I tried to protect her.”

  She was hitting some controls on the Titan's wrist console like she knew what she was doing, then there were some clicking sounds and Kara started stripping off the Titan's armor. The woman she revealed looked a lot like Rhea, but it was obviously not her. She was more muscled but just as pretty. Kara was looking blankly into space as she ran her hand slowly through the air just in front of the woman. Then she nodded to herself and smiled and looked back
at me. “She's ok. Just unconscious.”

  I couldn't stop from grinning back. I was so confused and had no clue what was going on so I just asked the same question on everyone else's face. “Who the hell is she?”

  Kara exhaled and I could tell she was choosing her words. “This is Thea, she's a friend, sort of. She helped me escape. It was an act of great valor.” She looked around as if in challenge. When none of us rose to it, she smiled in satisfaction as she lifted the Titan to lay her across a row of seats then sat beside me and grasped my hand.

  Then she whispered like a broken child, “Can we go home now?” I just nodded as I stroked her hair with my other hand and the tears started up again. Then I snorted loudly when she added, “I need a krothing drink.”

  Pegasus swooped through the gate and landed at the closest pad to medical. As soon as the doors opened healers started streaming aboard, Kara pushed them away and stood and lifted Thea, it looked almost silly, this tiny Valkyrie carrying the huge form of a Titan. But she growled at the healers that tried to assist and they backed off.

  We all followed her into the Medical Triage spire and Kara followed the healers into a room. They pushed two beds end to end and Kara laid Thea on them and looked at the healers with a dangerous gleam in her eye. “Take good care of her.” The healers paled a bit but nodded and went to work.

  Then before I could blink, her warm hand was where it should always be, in mine, as we fed each other our strength, becoming more than the sum of our parts.

  She said, “We need to destroy the space bridge or Rhea will retaliate once they get organized up there.” She looked at the healers with another of those dangerous glares she gave when family was involved. “Nobody is allowed in this room except healers, I don't care if it is Odin himself! Understood?” They nodded understanding.

  As usual she refused to be examined by the healers as we followed her out of the spire and off toward the main gates, unless they could keep up with her. I told her, “We have a plan in place, the Hornets will be hitting it any moment now.”