Prime Valkyrie

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “I can do that,” I said as I yanked my jacket off.

  “Prime Valkyrie told us to have you ready, or she will destroy us,” Hegeia said calmly as she jerked open the bag with my armor. I saw my flight suit neatly folded on top of the plates there,

  “She’s not going to do--”

  “Hurry,” Hegeia hissed as I felt Uma unbuckle my ammo belts.

  It was a slower process because of the three women trying to help me strip out of my clothes and boots, but once I’d put on my flight suit, they each went to work putting the armored plates onto the mesh. I was surprised they knew how to put the armor on, but soon remembered that Hegeia told me all Nordar were warriors, and the armor hadn’t taken me a long time to figure out.

  While they put the armor plates on my back, I kneeled down and pushed my feet into the pair of boots that were in the bag. They weren’t my old pair, but the hard armored plates on the surface and the material on the inside looked like it would expand to fit me when I shifted.

  I had been too busy changing to see how Madalena and Lux killed the guard, but I saw the shuttle lift off the runway, twist in the air, and then float toward us. I still had a quarter of my armor pieces to put on, as well as my weapons, but my friends had figured out how to work together, and they finished attaching all the plates by the time the shuttle landed outside of the window.

  “Move!” Madalene’s voice somehow managed to reach my ears over the roar of the shuttle’s thrusters and the screech of the snow storm outside. She was standing at the side door of the shuttle and made a motion for us to hurry the fuck up and get inside.

  I grabbed the chest holster for my big ass revolver, the spread of ammo belts, and my trusty shotgun. The other women picked up my other gear, and we all jumped through the window.

  A second before the hallway behind us was showered with hundreds of energy bullets.

  “Run!” Madalena shouted as she aimed her weapon at some point behind us. Her rifle sprayed energy bullets like a hose, but I didn’t want to waste time looking behind me to see if she had killed the armored warriors advancing tailing us.

  We sprinted the short distance to the hovering shuttle and jumped inside. I made sure I was the last one in since I didn’t trust Lux to not take off without the three women that helped me.

  The shuttle rocketed up from the ground, and the g-forces slammed me into the floor of the ship. A few moments later I was able to push myself up, and I worked on getting my revolver strapped to my chest.

  “Move!” I heard Hegeia scream, and I looked up from my chest to see one of the other shuttles angle toward us. I also saw half a dozen new ships in the sky, but they weren’t all shooting at Persephone, some were shooting against each other. It was like a war, and my ship was dancing between the burning starcraft like a hummingbird.

  I grabbed my old ammo belt with my twin pistols and clasped them around my waist, then I reached for my trusty shotgun. Before I could grab it, our shuttle lurched, I fell on my armored ass, and the pile of weapons and ammo slid to the rear of the cabin along with my three friends.

  Madalena shouted something at Lux, who yelled something back from her pilot’s seat. The Prime Valkyrie was leaning against the bulkhead of the shuttle, and she raised her rifle to aim out the open door. Her weapon screeched as it poured out energy bullets, and she shouted something else at Lux.

  I climbed to my feet and then stepped toward the open door. As soon as I came to stand next to the opening, something hit me in the chest, and I was catapulted to the far side of the cabin. The back of my head slammed into the bulkhead, the air exploded from my lungs, and my vision swam.

  Two of these power armored fuckers had somehow flown through the open shuttle door.

  The one who was on me was trying to untangle his arms from mine so he could pull up his rifle. The stars in my eyes cleared as soon as he lifted his weapon, and I managed to grab onto his right wrist with my left hand.

  “Fucker!” I screamed as we struggled for control of his weapon. He reached back with his left arm to punch me, but I got my right hand on his shoulder so that he couldn’t move it. The positioning gave his gun hand a bit more leverage though, and his gun began to crawl up toward my face. The blue eyes of his helmet glowed, and I could hear the servos in his power armor strain against my strength. I was using everything I had, but the armor was giving him the edge, and the barrel of his gun moved another centimeter closer to my head.

  I shifted.

  The beast had been screaming the entire time, but his usual screeches were being muted by Madalena’s presence. My change came to my back first, as usual, but then the strength flowed through my arms, hands, and clawed fingers.

  My right hand squeezed his shoulder, and I felt his armor compress against his flesh. He didn’t scream when the metal crushed the bone, but his left hand went limp.

  He tried to push his body into his right arm so that the gun would finish rising toward my face, but I was now stronger than he was, and the weapon didn’t budge. I let go of his left shoulder, grabbed the massive handgun from my chest holster, pushed the barrel into the eye slot of his power armor, and pulled the trigger. The thumb-sized bullet exited the back of the helmet with a spray of brain and blood that decorated the bulkhead next to the open door.

  I pried the energy rifle out of the dead man’s hands and pointed it at the man who had crashed into Madalena. They were both trying to wrestle each other’s weapons away, but Madalena’s head was actually dangling out of the shuttle and she had virtually no leverage. I angled my weapon upward so I wouldn’t hit the armored woman and pulled the trigger. The bullet from my rifle took the man in the back of the helmet, and the energy bullet punched three burning holes through his skull.

  As soon as the man fell off Madalena, she started to slip out of the shuttle. I tossed aside the rifle and grabbed her ankle before she fell. Then I yanked her back inside.

  “Thank you, my lord,” it looked like her lips said, but I couldn’t hear her over the sound of the thrusters and the wind screaming.

  I pushed my revolver back in my chest holster and then reached for the energy rifle I had just dropped.

  The shuttle rocked again, and I felt my feet lift off the ground.

  Then I was falling through the cold air outside of the shuttle.

  I spun through the clouds of snow and the chill burnt through the fur on my face. The weightless sensation reminded me of when I fell from the Magate Order ship, and I felt a roar of frustration. I could assume that this suit had a parachute built in the back, but even if it did go off, I’d be stuck on the ground with the rest of the warriors hunting me. They’d see me falling and pick me out of the air with their rifles.

  I fell for another few seconds and began to fear my chute wouldn’t open. I couldn’t quite tell how high I was because of the snow, but then there was a break in the clouds, and the dawn light illuminated the surface of the planet. I was still really far up, and the massive airport building looked like it was a dab on an artist’s painting.

  The spaceships hovering in the atmosphere were all around me, as were explosions, plasma fire, and plumes of smoke. I saw armor clad soldiers pour out of the back hold of a ship a few thousand feet away, and then I twisted out of the flight path of one of the carrier shuttles. It looked like more soldiers were jumping out of that door also, and I knew I was going to die as soon as my chute went off. They’d just shoot me.

  I was also going to die when my chute didn’t go off.

  Then Madalena was in my arms. Or I was in her arms. Maybe it didn’t matter because the thrusters on her back engaged and we both grabbed onto each other. Our trajectory began to level slightly, and I glanced up to see a group of armored figures diving behind us. I opened my mouth to yell at her, but the wind was too loud for anyone to hear. She still seemed to understand, looked up, and then twisted her body against my chest so we leaned at an angle pointed more toward the ground. The change in direction increased our speed, but then one of
the fuckers plowed into us, and I felt my arm break in three parts.

  I spun away from Madalena, and the asshole that hit me grabbed onto my broken left arm. I punched his helmeted face, and his head snapped back, but he still didn’t let go of my arm.

  The limb had already healed, and I extended the claws on my finger so they sunk into his armor. He reached down for his rifle, but the weapon was on his right side, and I yanked him back to me so I could drive my claws into his eye socket. I couldn’t hear him scream, but his body twitched, and blood poured out of his helmet holes as soon as I yanked my hand out.

  I reached for the dead man’s rifle, but another armored figure hit me on the left side, and that same arm broke again, along with what felt like three of my ribs. This fucker was too smart to grapple with me. Instead, he brought up his rifle and tried to shoot.

  He was only about two meters away, but our falling speed had an adverse effect on the laser bullets he shot. I dove downward, but the bullets would have missed me anyways; they all arched up into the air.

  His missed shots gave me an idea, so I spun my body to position myself under him. I yanked my revolver out of my holster and shot him before he could punch his rifle bullets through me. My hand cannon expelled a flame that traveled the distance between us, and my bullet crumpled his helmet as if it was made of tin.

  I saw movement up at my eleven o’clock and twisted to aim my handgun in the direction, but almost as soon as I moved, I knew it was Madelena, and we wrapped our arms around each other again. We were still in freefall, but instead of engaging her back thrusters, she twisted our bodies around so we faced the sky.

  Three fuckers were diving toward us, and we both lifted our weapons toward them. I aimed a little lower than I might normally have and squeezed the trigger on my revolver. I half expected to miss, but the massive flame roared right into the armored chest of the nearest warrior, and his torso burst apart as if he was made of confetti.

  I hadn’t expected my shot to take him out that easily, and I wondered if Madalena switched my ammo out for armor piercing rounds.

  Her energy bullets tore into the other two soldiers like a swarm of blue wasps. The back thruster of the rightmost warrior exploded, and both of their armored bodies were incinerated by the blast.

  Madalena’s back thrusters engaged, and my vision spun as she twisted upward and level. There was another fucker falling down at us, but I was the only one who had a sight on him. I aimed my revolver as well as I could, waited for him to get a few dozen meters closer, and shot as his first energy bullets left his rifle. His shots fell short because of our speed, but my massive bullet hit him in the shoulder, ripped through his armor, and then blew out the back of one of his thrusters. Black smoke exploded from his injury, and his body spun through the air like a crashing helicopter.

  I swiveled my head up so I could see where Madalena was flying. Then I felt my blood chill when I saw how many fucking ships were in the sky. I couldn’t count them all, but the air that wasn’t filled with starships was filled with plasma balls, lasers, or drones.

  Her thrusters burst with a bit of extra power, and our trajectory shifted, so we were actually angling up a bit. I focused my eyes on where we were heading and realized that she was throwing us right toward one of the other drop shuttles. Its door was open, and two armored soldiers were shooting at us with their rifles.

  Blue bullets arched through the air, but Madalena seemed to guess where they were going to shoot before they knew, and she twisted us around the streams of death as if she was leading me in a ballroom dance.

  We were going really damn fast toward the shuttle though, and I kept wondering if she was going to slow the speed of her thrust. She glanced down to me, and I felt time slow as we stared into each other’s eyes. Then she smiled, and her armor crawled up her skin to cover her face in the horrific banshee scream visage.

  She wasn’t going to slow the fuck down.

  I focused on holding onto my revolver and keeping my body loose, but I still felt my armor compress, and my ribs snap when we made a body sized dent in the shuttle’s innards. Madalena had shielded my head and face with her left arm, but I was still slightly stunned from the impact, and my chest was having problems sucking in air.

  We’d knocked one of the armored warriors down when we flew through the door, but there were two more men in the cabin. They spun toward us with their rifles, but my bullet punched through the neck joint of the one on the left and Madlena’s shots tore through the other one’s armor like a buzz saw.

  The man we’d knocked down raised his rifle, but I kicked it aside a half moment before he pulled the trigger. My attack threw me off balance, and I fell to the deck with a growl of pain. Energy bullets sprayed across the interior hull of the shuttle, and a bullet caught the head of the armor wearing pilot. Dozens of electrical parts started to smoke, and the ship lurched toward the shuttle’s open door. Madalena kicked out with her boot, hit the man in the shoulder, and then launched him out into the atmosphere. To ensure that he was dead, she stepped to the edge of the tilting shuttle and drilled a half dozen energy bullets into his body before he could engage his thrusters.

  “The pilot!” I wheezed, hacked, and spat blood onto the floor of the leaning shuttle as I tried to crawl toward the two pilots’ chairs. Madalena was already moving though, and she grabbed the controls of the unoccupied seat as her helmet melted away from her face. The drop ship leveled out a second later, and we started to lift upward.

  “Nikki,” Madalena shouted over the wind howling through our small ship. “Adam and I are safe in a second shuttle. Lux is in the one nearest to you. What is the status?”

  Nikki spoke in their language, and Madalena replied as she swung her head across the cockpit view glass. Lux said something I couldn’t understand, and then Madalena issued an order.

  My ribs and lungs had healed, and oxygen started pouring back into my blood, so I holstered my empty revolver, grabbed a rifle from one of the men we just killed, and stood up behind Madalena’s chair. As soon as I leaned over her, I saw Persephone break through a thick cluster of clouds and then bank away from us. The four smaller ships were still harassing her, but I didn’t see any damage to her hull.

  “We will have to be quick!” Madalena shouted as she glanced up at me, and I realized she was going to try and fly our shuttle into Persephone's hold while in the middle of a dogfight. It was all sorts of insane, but it was a plan that I probably would have tried.

  “Lux and my friends first!” I shouted over the sound of the freezing air coming through the open door.

  “We have better position!” she snarled as she turned away from me and accelerated our shuttle toward the center of the battle.

  “No, I want them to go--” I stopped mid-sentence and then looked back over my shoulder. “Our fucking shuttle is on fire!” I stepped away from the flames so that I was standing between the pilots’ chairs. There was a fire extinguisher down at the bottom of one of the seats, and I ripped it free of the mounting with a twist of my hand. The spray of foam took care of some of the flames, but the smoke was now pouring out of every seam.

  “Lux, fly the shuttle in first!” Madalena’s voice sounded surprisingly calm, but she still had to shout over the wind.

  Lux said something, and then Nikki replied in their language. I saw Persephone dart through the clouds, bank upward, and then dive again. At the crest of her movement, her rear cannons fired, and the blasts connected with two of the pursuing craft.

  “We are climbing,” I thought I heard Madalena say, but her actions spoke enough, and our shuttle’s nose lifted to point up at the massive battle taking place above us. It looked like the entire Vaish fleet was fighting with itself, and there were more explosions than stars.

  I turned to look back into the cabin, but the smoke was almost too thick to see through, which was quite an accomplishment given how much wind was billowing through the open side door. It was starting to pool around our heads though, and Madalen
a shot me a quick glance.

  “Lux, are you in?” she yelled.

  “No, too many hostiles. I cannot line up an entrance.”

  “I will have a break in three,” Nikki said. “Head toward the bottom curve of my swoop.”

  “Understood,” Lux answered.

  “Our shuttle is damaged,” Madalena said. “I think it will explode shortly. Adam and I must jump. Catch us after Lux mounts her shuttle inside of Persephone’s hold.”

  “Understood,” Nikki said with all the calmness of a waitress taking an order for breakfast toast.

  Madalena stood from the chair, and we stared at each other for a few moments.

  “We are probably going to die,” she said.

  “I can’t die,” I growled. “I have friends I need to find.”

  “I am sorry about--”

  “Save it,” I cut her off with a snarl. “It wasn’t your fault. I understand you better now. I take it I don’t have to complete the rite?”

  “We will talk about it if we live through this,” she said.

  “That’s not the answer I want to hear,” I growled again.

  “It is a long explanation, and our shuttle will either lose power or explode at any moment.” Her face was emotionless, but I could feel her anger and frustration.

  “Then you’ll have to tell me later.” I grabbed her hand, and then we jumped out of the shuttle.

  We floated through the light of the dawn. Amongst the explosions, the plasma fire, and the thousands of dying I enjoyed the deafening scream of the air zipping past my ears. My fur protected me from most of the cold, but I saw that Madalena’s helmet had slithered back over her head again.

  Her arms hooked under my shoulders, and my arms wrapped around her lower back. She was a tall, athletic woman wearing armor, but I was in my tiger-man form, so she felt small and feminine squeezed against my chest.

  I looked upward, which was really toward the ground then saw Lux’s shuttle dart into Persephone’s top triangle shuttle hatch. As soon as the ship entered, Persephone’s hatch closed, and the black starship banked hard to her right. Nikki was going to loop her around to intercept us, but she also had the two smaller craft pursuing her.