Valkyrie

by Lucas Marcum

  Aboard the UEAN Thor’s Hammer, November 30, 2247, 1005 hours.

  Elizabeth sat in the portside crew lounge and sipped a cup of the incredibly potent Navy coffee. She set the cup down and absorbed the view of the blue and green world as the Thor’s Hammer pulled away, heading for jump distance. The battle-scarred but defiant Fleet Carrier Shiva’s Wrath wasn’t far away, with the burns and torn armor plates on her hull visible even at this distance. Wrapped up in the view of the planet, she didn’t hear Brian and Elise coming up beside her.

  She started slightly when Brian spoke, “Lot prettier from up here. Less rain, too.”

  The two other Valkyrie crewmen pulled up chairs and sat down. The three of them sat silently for a few minutes. After a moment, Elise spoke in an unusually restrained tone, “We missed you at the remembrance ceremony, Liz.”

  Elizabeth looked down at her coffee cup. “I don’t have a dress uniform. All my stuff got spaced. Plus…you know.”

  Gazing out at the receding world through the window, Elise replied in a soft voice, “I know.”

  After a moment, Brian abruptly said, “The hospital’s going to be reorganized. Apparently the brass thinks getting smashed twice in less than three years is too much.” He was quiet for a minute, then continued, “I’m signing on as the first sergeant of the new Search and Rescue Wing.”

  Elizabeth looked down at her cup and was silent for a moment, then said, “Brian, you have a family. How can you keep doing this? Don’t you miss them? Don’t you want to go home?”

  The imperturbable noncommissioned officer shrugged. “Sure I do. We all do. But if we don’t finish this off, they’ll come for us. I was in one of the first teams on Tau Ceti right after they hit the colony there, back in ‘44.” He paused, then continued somberly, “Let’s just say, you don’t want to see that happen again. Or what they did to the other colonies.” He paused again, and then spoke thoughtfully, “No, I’ll see this through. I owe the soldiers that much, at least.”

  Elise said suddenly, “I’m going to be taking command of a combat search and rescue wing. More admin time, but at least I’ll get a Valk. Mitch is staying, and will step in to command the 348th.”

  Elise turned to Elizabeth and asked in a kind voice, “You ok, Liz?”

  Elizabeth looked down at her cooling coffee. “No. Not really. Tony was recalled to the Marines. They’ve assigned him as a commander of a reconnaissance battalion.” She looked up. “We thought he was going to be in California, teaching at Pendleton.” She stared out at the star field. “But he’s not. He’s going to be leading long-range patrols behind Elai lines.” She looked down again. “He and I…well. I’d hoped it would work out, you know?”

  Gently patting her arm, Brian spoke in a reassuring tone. “Major Harris is going to be ok.”

  With a big smile on her face, Elise agreed, “Yeah. He will. Wanna know how we know?”

  Perplexed, Elizabeth looked at them, glancing from face to face. “What do you mean?”

  Brian smiled slightly, a rare sight on his normally solemn face, and said gently, “Because he’s a Valkyrie now. You know what that means.” Elizabeth felt Elise slip her hand into hers and squeeze it tightly.

  Returning the squeeze, Elizabeth smiled sadly. “Yeah. I do.” She turned her attention to the window just in time to see the Shiva’s Wrath vanish as it activated its jump drive.

  A moment later, the beautiful blue, green, and white globe vanished as the Thor’s Hammer jumped.

  Epilogue

  The fighting over and on planet K3254, better known as ‘Paradise’, proved very clearly that the Elai, while outgunned, outnumbered, and working with a much lower technology level, could and would fight ferociously, and that the casualties suffered on Desolation were no fluke. Their dogged persistence, the strategic ability of their officers, and tactical adaptability on the ground made them more than equal to UEA forces when the substantial technological disadvantages were neutralized. Paradise was a particularly brutal battle in a long line of brutal fights, but the intelligence gained there gave the Earth Alliance forces a crucial piece of information: The location of the Elai home system.

  The war was drawing to a close, but there remained one final struggle: Defeating the cornered, desperate Elai in their home system, on their own terms.

  End of Book One.

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  Valkyrie Book Two

  Attrition

  “Opposed Landing”

  Aboard the Assault Transport UEAN Phantom Fury in low orbit over ‘Onyx’, the fifth moon of planet M3453, Beta Draconis System, August 26, 2248

  Major Anthony ‘Tony’ Harris laid his head back in his armor and blew out a breath, trying to slow his heart rate. He picked up his rifle, checked the function, then loaded a magazine. Checking that it was on safe, he secured it in the stand built in next to the hatch. The speakers in his helmet crackled, and the gravelly voice of his commanding officer, Brigadier General Piasecki, broke through.

  “Thirty seconds. Give ‘em hell, Marines!” Tony grabbed the bars on either side of the hatch in front of him and braced himself in the seat to prepare for the drop pod’s re-entry.

  Taking another deep breath and blowing it out, he watched the timer in his helmet ticking down towards zero. At fifteen seconds, he made a snap decision, and keyed the comm playback in his suit. A small picture appeared in the lower right of his view of a brunette woman smiling into the camera with a stunning blue ocean behind her. He focused his vision on her image.

  The timer continued its inexorable countdown and hit zero, then chirped twice. He took a deep breath and commanded his armor to lock in position, securing his entire body in place. The only thing he could move was his head inside his helmet. There was a series of bumps, then the sensation of increasing speed, then another bump, then he was falling, and outside the pod was silence.

  Commanding the image to play, he fixed his eyes on the woman. She was speaking to the camera.

  “Hey, Tony! Just wanted to drop you a quick note and say hello, so…Hello!” She smiled cheerfully and continued talking as the sensation of falling increased. “I came down to the beach this morning, and was just thinking about how much you’d like it here. I mean, I like it here, so how could you not? Look at this!” The camera swung around, showing a beach with dazzling white sand and the bluest ocean he’d ever seen, stretching out to a cloudless sky.

  Tony smiled slightly at this, then checked his displays. There was another series of numbers in his helmet; altitude, speed. A diagram showed the relative position of the wave of descending pods screaming towards the planet’s surface.

  Elizabeth’s image continued speaking, “I was also thinking that we ought to think about taking some time off. You know, non-military time, and just going exploring. South America, maybe. When you’re back from wherever you are.”

  In Tony’s other ear on the command net, he could hear speaking; multiple voices and call signs all jumbled together.

  A calm voice called out, “Voodoo Three, Kami Nine Six Ident.”

  A rapid, tight response, “Kami, Voodoo Lead. I see them. Voodoo Six, left! Left!”

  Breaking in a low fast tone, “Spindle, this is Dropbox. On the hill there at your six is some sort of gun. We gave it a pass, but took ground fire. Keep an eye on that.”

  “Dropbox, Roger, we’ll keep an eye….” The radio traffic faded into static.

  Elizabeth’s voice continued, “I was worried about being apart. You know. Even though we haven’t ever really had any time in real life. We ought to try that sometime… Real life. The food’s better, or so I’ve been told!” She laughed merrily at her own joke.

  The pod was shaking, a dull roar was now audible through the walls, and the altimeter unwound rapidly. The craft began buffeting and shaking hard. There were several loud banging noises from outside, shaking the pod with each impact. On the display screen in Tony’s helmet several of the symbols indicating his falling troops winked out.

  E
lizabeth’s voice continued softly, “I was thinking about how important you are to me.” She paused sheepishly, then continued, “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being dumb, but I feel closer the further apart we are.”

  The altimeter in Tony’s helmet blinked red, and he clenched his teeth together and forced his head back.

  Her voice had taken on a soft, resolute tone, “I know we’ve deliberately not said it. Well, I don’t care.”

  There was a tremendous roaring under him as the retrorockets fired, with the strange feeling in his stomach as if he’d stopped dead in space. There came another few seconds of silence as the pod fell again, then rapid popping as the decoy system activated, launching rockets all around the slowing ship. Tony locked his eyes on Elizabeth’s face in the screen.

  Looking down, then back at the camera, Elizabeth spoke again, “I don’t know how to say this, so…here goes. Tony, I lo…”

  There was a massive crash as the pod hit the ground, bounced, and rolled disorientingly. His head slammed forward, then back. The pod smashed and rolled to a stop. There was a series of extremely loud popping sounds from directly in front of him as the explosive bolts blew the door off. The restraints released at the same time and, snatching his rifle from its secure points next to the hatch, Tony hurled himself out of the pod, into the smoke and towards the sounds of gunfire.

  Valkyrie: Attrition

  Coming Fall 2019

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