“Any idea what that was, Wall?” Lieutenant O’Leary asked. “You had the best view.”
“No idea, sir,” The Wall said. “Some sort of directed-energy weapon more powerful than our lasers, at least up close. Maybe a particle-beam weapon of some sort; I don’t know. All I know is I don’t want to get hit with one.”
“No shit,” Spud said. “And just think what it would do to us poor biologicals.”
“Lieutenant Commander Hobbs, we just found our first living alien,” Lieutenant O’Leary commed. “They can take a lot of hits before they go down. Be advised, they also have some sort of particle-beam weapon that can melt metal. Recommend extreme caution.”
“Aside from not opening any of the doors, I don’t think we can be any more cautious,” Calvin said. “Keep looking for the bridge or engineering.”
Task Force Calvin, Alien Ship, HD 69830 System, November 9, 2021
“All right, you heard Lieutenant O’Leary,” Calvin said. “Watch out for their weapons.”
“Always good advice,” Gunnery Sergeant Stasik said.
“What did he say they had?” Corporal Sam ‘Mental’ Ward asked.
“Particle-beam weapons,” Gunny Stasik replied. “It’s a weapon that shoots a high-energy beam of atomic or subatomic particles. The particles have massive amounts of kinetic energy and cause catastrophic superheating when they hit you. Aside from disrupting your atomic or molecular structure, it will also hurt like hell and probably kill you, depending on where it hits. Just try not to get shot, all right?”
“You got it, Gunny,” Mental replied.
Cockpit, Shuttle 617, HD 69830 System, November 9, 2021
“We’ve got them,” Shuttle 02’s WSO, Lieutenant Thomas ‘Mays’ Yilmaz, said. “Proceeding on mission.”
“Copy that,” Jamming said as the other shuttle jumped to the Jinn Universe. The transfer of the two soldiers to the other shuttle had gone smoothly and quickly. He looked across the cockpit. “So, where do you want to go?”
“Well, let’s see,” Bucket said. “We could take our unarmed and mostly unarmored shuttle into the middle of a major battle to link back up with the Gulf, or we could find somewhere else to sit on the sidelines, out of the way, and watch. Maybe even pray that we’ve got a ship to recover on when it’s over. I think I’d rather watch at the moment than try to recover onboard the Vella Gulf in the middle of a battle. How about you?”
“Works for me.” Motion on his tactical plot caught his peripheral vision. “Oh, shit! The enemy vessel just jumped back! Come right! Max power!”
Cockpit, Shuttle 02, Anti-HD 69830 System, November 9, 2021
“Dumbass aliens,” Mays said. “Boy, they can’t make this easy, can they? They just jumped back to our universe.”
“What the hell are they doing?” his pilot, Lieutenant Miguel ‘Ghost’ Carvalho, asked.
“Probably trying to make it difficult for additional forces to land on their ship, I imagine,” Mays replied. “Here we go, jumping back.” He threw the switch and everything flashed as they jumped.
“Oh, shit!” Mays said. “The other shuttle is still here! The enemy ship is firing!”
“They don’t have jump or stealth, do they?”
“No, dammit, they don’t. Either of them. They’re sitting ducks…Aw, fuck. Shuttle 617 has been destroyed.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, HD 69830 System, November 9, 2021
“That’s the last of our missiles,” the OSO said. “That’s all I’ve got, unless you want us to close to graser range.” His tone indicated he didn’t think that was a very good idea.
What a waste, thought Captain Sheppard as he looked at his tactical plot. The three biggest ships in the Terran fleet had been destroyed. The Jotunn had also lost three of their capital ships, including their second battleship when a lucky strike from the Vella Gulf hit the armory and the ship detonated. It was impossible to tell how many ships the Aesir had lost from the piles of wreckage floating through local space; it had to be at least 10, as well as their battle station. The tangled remains of the station and the Jotunn dreadnought weren’t good for anything except scrap for the replicators.
And now he was out of missiles. He agreed with the OSO; he had no intention of mixing it up with four ships larger than his own, even if they were all damaged. The Jotunn’s allies hadn’t been seen since they destroyed the Yamato, but he expected them to pop up at any moment to complicate his life. All he had to fight them with were his grasers, which meant running them down across two universes. That should be fun.
And the fighters? He was at a loss for what to do with all of the fighters.
The battle had gone on for over 24 hours now, and he was dead tired. His decisions were starting to be suspect…and now he was so tired that he had begun talking to himself.
What else could go wrong?
“Sir, one of the Jotunn battlecruisers is calling,” said the communications officer. “It’s the Soaring Eagle.”
Never ask what else can go wrong, thought Captain Sheppard. Never. “On screen.”
The image of the Jotunn commander filled the screen.
“I am Fenrir, son of Loki, and captain of the Jotunn ship Soaring Eagle,” said the giant.
“I know,” Captain Sheppard said, “We met once before.”
“We did? You puny ones all look alike to me.” Fenrir shrugged. “We seem to be at an impasse. All of our leaders have been killed, and we are out of missiles. Judging from the fact you haven’t fired at us recently, you are out of missiles, as well. I doubt you want to bring your insignificant vessel close enough for us to destroy it, and since you can jump to the other universe, we are unable to make you fight us if you are too afraid to do so. I also haven’t heard from our allies in a while, but they do not seem to be in a hurry to fight you, any more than you want to fight us.”
“That appears to be a pretty accurate assessment of the situation,” Captain Sheppard replied. “What do you suggest we do about it?”
“When I arrived here, I believed this would be the conclusion of Ragnarok; however, Asgard has not been drowned in water as it should have been by now. I suspect you had something to do with that.” He paused, looking for confirmation, but Captain Sheppard just looked at him blankly, neither confirming nor denying.
“Everything else occurred as forecast, but without the drowning of the world, this is not Ragnarok. I must return to my world to form a new council to determine what this means for the prophecy. We will also rearm, and then we will return to finish the conquest.”
He paused and glared at Captain Sheppard. “Make no mistake,” Fenrir continued, “Ragnarok is not over, and we will return to take back what is rightfully ours. You have only postponed what has been forecast, not prevented it.”
“Yeah, well, I’m kind of tired, so I’ll take ‘postponed’ for now,” Captain Sheppard replied. “Have a nice tribal council, or whatever it is you’re planning on doing. If you think about it, roast a marshmallow over the fire for me. We’ll be waiting for you when you get back.”
“You would be better served to learn manners while I am gone,” Fenrir replied, “or I will pull your disrespectful tongue from your mouth when I return and roast that over an open fire.”
“Yeah, okay, buh bye,” Captain Sheppard said. He started to terminate the link, but then another thought came to him. “Hey, when you come back, are you going to bring more of your allies? I’m looking forward to a rematch with them.”
“The Shaitans?” asked Fenrir. “I do not think you want to make them any angrier at you than you already have. They neither forgive, nor forget. You have already destroyed one of their ships; for that, your entire civilization will pay. They will be coming for you, Terran, and they will be coming for you in greater numbers than you will be able to turn away. You will wish you had died here today before they are through with you. Their high lord has decreed that your civilization will be destroyed for your insolence in att
acking his forces.”
“As I remember it,” Captain Sheppard said, “they attacked us, but I doubt that’s important any more. I will say one thing for them, at least they are better fighters than you.”
Fenrir’s face went scarlet, and he started to stutter a reply, but Captain Sheppard terminated the connection before he could say anything coherent.
“Was it really wise to antagonize him like that?” Steropes asked.
“Probably not,” the CO said, “but honestly, I’m too tired to care. Besides, at least we now have a name to put on their allies.”
“Speaking of their allies, the other enemy ships just appeared,” the DSO said. “They are at the stargate and it looks like they’re leaving.”
“That is interesting,” Steropes said. “In order for them to already be at the stargate, they must have decided to leave some time ago, certainly well before the Jotunn decided they were leaving.”
“What do you suppose that means?” the CO asked.
“Unknown,” Steropes replied. “One thing that can be inferred is that the Jotunn are not in charge of their allies; if anything, it is a loose alliance. It could also be possible the Jotunn are subordinate to the Shaitans.”
“What if the Jotunn told them to leave a while ago, and only told us now?” the OSO asked.
“That is possible also, I guess,” Steropes said. “It seems the nature of their alliance will have to remain a mystery for now.”
“It would seem so,” Captain Sheppard said. “Okay, on to the next mystery. Let’s go find our troopers.”
Task Force Calvin, Alien Ship, HD 69830 System, November 9, 2021
“If the dumbass aliens would quit jumping back and forth,” Mays commed, “it would make coming to get you a lot easier.”
“Understood,” Calvin replied. “We’re trying to find the bridge or engineering…something to get them to stop.”
“As soon as you do, we’ll be right there for extraction. We wouldn’t mind if you hurried, either, sir; being in stealth this long is eating our fuel pretty quickly. If we don’t get you soon, we won’t be able to make it back to the Vella Gulf.”
“Yeah, I know. We’re doing what we can.”
Everything flashed as the ship jumped back to the Jinn Universe.
“This is really starting to piss me off,” Calvin said.
“Hey, sir,” Gunnery Sergeant Jerry ‘Wolf’ Stasik said. “We’ve checked all of the doors on this passageway except the one on the end. They all look like living spaces, or what I think living spaces might look like for cowtaurs.”
“Cowtaurs?” Calvin asked.
“Yeah, the guys said the aliens looked like a cross between a cow and a centaur, or whatever that half-man/half-horse thing was. Cowtaur.”
“Got it,” Calvin said. “All right, let’s see what’s behind the last door. It’s gotta lead somewhere.”
“You heard the man, Ducky,” Wolf said. “Knock it down.”
“Sure thing, Gunny,” Sergeant Declan ‘Ducky’ Jones replied. The cyborg finished his cut and took five steps back from the door while he strapped his rifle to his back. “Here goes.” He lowered his shoulder and charged the door, pushing off as he slammed into it. The remaining portion holding the door attached was ripped apart, and Ducky and the door flew through the air, crashing into a group of three Shaitans waiting for them.
Behind the door was a circular ramp that descended into the ship, curving to the right as it circled back on itself. The Shaitans waited at the curve, and the door cut the legs out from under one of the cowtaurs, while Ducky crashed into another, knocking it down. A third Shaitan, partially around the bend in the ramp, began firing and was met by answering lasers from several of the Terrans and Big Sky’s Mrowry autocannon. It dropped after firing five rounds.
Ducky rolled and came eye-to-eye with the eyestalks of the Shaitan he had knocked down. Without thinking, he reached up and grabbed them in one of his armored hands and squeezed. A horrible scream filled the space as the eyes exploded in his hand, and the cowtaur began kicking out in every direction. Ducky released the remains of the eyestalks and drew his laser pistol, firing it repeatedly into the creature’s head.
The Shaitan stilled, and the Terrans killed the third alien as it started to rise.
“Ouch,” Sergeant Richard ‘Shipwreck’ Shipley said into the silence that followed. He looked down at the hole through his chest, then fell forward onto his knees and then his face. Sergeant Simon Douglas, the squad’s medic, rushed over, but Calvin could tell from the size and placement of the hole that the medic wasn’t going to be able to help.
“We’re about to open the door at the end of the corridor,” Lieutenant O’Leary commed.
“We just opened ours,” Calvin replied. “Ours goes to a ramp that leads down into the ship. Beware, several of the Shaitans were waiting for us.”
Task Force O’Leary, Alien Ship, Anti-HD 69830 System, Unknown Date
“There may be a ramp behind the door,” Lieutenant O’Leary commed on the squad’s network. “Be ready; the skipper said there was a welcoming party behind their door.” Several troopers adjusted their weapons. “Okay, Chaos, open ‘er up.”
“You got it, LT,” Sergeant Jacob ‘Chaos’ Braig said. The cyborg cycled both of his shotguns to full auto, then said, “Here we go.” He leaned back and kicked the door open. Already weakened with a plasma torch, the door crashed backward onto a circular ramp with a resounding ‘boom!’” The ramp turned counterclockwise as it descended, and the door slid a quarter turn down the ramp.
The area was empty.
Keeping the shotguns ready for close quarters work, the cyborg walked onto the ramp and looked into the center of the well. “Looks like an opening halfway around,” he commed.
“Roger, that,” Lieutenant O’Leary said. “You’ve got point. Let’s find out where this goes.”
Chaos worked his way around the ramp with the rest of the squad close behind. He reached the opening and pulled a small mirror from a pocket.
“Big, tough cyborg’s afraid to look around the corner himself?” Corporal Jonny ‘Dark’ Minion asked.
“Big, tough cyborg was a biological once,” replied Chaos, “and he remembers what it was like to get shot to shit. If you’d rather look, go ahead.”
“Nah, that’s all right. Go ahead and use your mirror.”
“If you insist,” Chaos replied. He attached it to the end of his middle finger and eased it into the passageway. Before he could turn it to see down the hall, a blast of plasma took off the mirror and the last inch of his finger. “Bitch!”
“Spud, throw some grenades in there and soften them up,” Lieutenant O’Leary ordered.
“Sure thing,” Sergeant Marcus ‘Spud’ Murphy said. He adjusted his trident and fired a string of double strength grenades into the opening.
“That ought to do it,” Chaos said. He jumped forward into the opening.
“Ziiiiiip-PEW! Ziiiiiip-PEW! Ziiiiiip-PEW!” Plasma bursts struck him in the head and chest, and he fell backward onto the ramp, the hole in his head still smoking.
“Bastards!” Corporal Calvin ‘Bossman’ Davis shouted. He dove into the opening, firing before he hit the floor. He continued firing down the passageway as several plasma bolts went over his head. “Ro—” he commed, as two plasma bolts went through his head. A third struck his rifle, shattering it.
Sergeant Anne ‘Fox’ Stasik dove across the gap, several plasma rounds narrowly missing her as she crashed to the ground on the other side. “There are three of their robots side-by-side in the passageway,” she commed as she came to rest. “They look bigger than the ones we fought in the Jinn Universe.”
“Understood,” Lieutenant O’Leary said. He switched to the command network. “We’ve got several robots blocking our path. They’re armed with plasma weapons and have already killed two of my squad.”
“Is there any way to get around them?” Calvin asked.
“We may be able to get by t
hem, but they may also be guarding where we need to go. Also, if we bypass them, they could pin us down somewhere. Their weapons are extremely powerful; I don’t want them behind me.”
“Roger that. We haven’t run into any of them yet. Why don’t you hold your position and maybe we can find a way to take them from behind.”
“Okay, I will hold here. O’Leary out.” He switched to the squad’s network. “Everyone just sit tight. The CO is going to try to hit them from behind.”
“Lieutenant!” Corporal ‘Bill’ Obillossilllolis screamed. “I have movement from behind us. Cowtaurs behind us!” O’Leary could hear the Kuji firing his rifle faster than what it was rated for.
“I’m on it,” Gunnery Sergeant Dantone commed. “Fire Team Two with me! Jones, you’re on the left. Rozhkov, you’re right. I’ve got the middle.”
Lieutenant O’Leary could hear antimatter blasts and lasers firing from above him, then the distinctive sound of a Hooolong pulse rifle on full automatic.
“We may need to do something about the robots,” Gunny Dantone commed 30 seconds later. “We’ve got an ass load of cowtaurs coming from behind us. Looks like they’ve gone outside the ship and are coming in through the entrance we made.” There was a pause, then he added, “Fuck. These have some sort of combat suit on, and they are taking even more firepower to bring down. Look out!” Another blast of pulse rife. “Lieutenant, we’ll need to bypass the robots; we’re not going to be able to hold them here for long.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Spud said.
“Have I ever told you I hate it when you have ideas?” Lieutenant O’Leary asked. “Is this something likely to get you killed?”
“I hope not,” Spud commed, dialing up the setting on his trident. “I’m going to try to bounce some antimatter grenades off the wall behind the robots so that it hits them in their softer spots. Wish me luck.”
Beyond the Shroud of the Universe Page 26
