Valkyrie Hunter

The flare arced high into the sky above the Hall. It exploded into a fiery red light that cast an eerie glow over the meadow. An uneasy silence followed its slow decent. It gave me a chance to look out over the meadow towards the forest. I felt ill seeing the carnage there and the hordes of rebels gathered at the forest edge. There were more rebels there than I could have imagined only half of them armed with ranged weapons. The rest held an assortment of melee weapons. These were overwhelming numbers. As good as the Silver Guard there were just too many. We would have had a hope if the shields were operational. But it seemed the traitors had played into the Prophet’s hand and doomed Alfheimir. Our only luck was they hadn’t attacked en mass, they’d sent their troops in companies or what I considered to be a company. The flare flickered out allowing me to see the five hundred metres to the forest. The ground between the Halls awash with blood and littered with the bodies of the fallen. As if the dying of the flare was a signal the horde and that was the only word that fitted here charged. I could feel that this would be my last stand no last minute rescue by the Keepers. I suspected the First Ones had seen to that. They wanted to sever my connection to the Keepers and it seemed as if they had. I couldn’t contact them. There could be no surrender and we couldn’t retreat. I gritted my teeth without a chance this would be the end of Alfheimir. My duty as onerous as it was to defend the Halls. I wasn’t going to be like the Keepers and go meekly into the night. It would only be a matter of time before we were overrun.

“Shit, it will be nasty,” I muttered to myself.

“What can we do!” Cutter moaned. “We’re going to die!”

Becky answered before I could. “We keep fighting!” she barked at Cutter.

Cutter dropped her weapon and sat on the floor.

“Bitch,” Laura said bitterly.

“Ignore her, I don’t have time for this shit,” I told Laura.

“Orders ma’am?” Becky asked me.

“As you said we fight.” I really wanted to run, hide and puke my guts out until I had nothing left. But that would do no good. I wasn’t like the Keepers and let myself go down without a fight. My Valkyrie blood was eager for it. The sensible part of my mind said this wasn’t a fight I could win.

Becky saluted. “Good to have you with us LT.”

Xenobi crawled to her feet. “By the Ancients I ain’t going to have a human show me up.” Her eyes flicked to me. “Or the damn Valkyrie!”

“You’re wounded,” I warned her. “You sit this one out.”

“Fuck that. I’ll fight until I’m dead. I’m T’Arni we will not be slaves. United we are free!” she wobbled a bit refusing to let Laura help her.

I had expected that quote from a T’Arni there were enough statues of the First Citizen dotted around the Confederacy all had that quote on it.

“Well that tears it. I can’t let a pointy eared bitch show me up,” Becky said jokingly. “I’ve faced worse on Praxi. Perhaps I could go Sandra Locke on their asses. I want a Confederacy Star of my own. Quit moping ladies we’re Marines! Let’s show these assholes the meaning of fear!” she glanced at the rest of her team. “Check your fire angles.” Her next words were for me. “LT you’re our spotter.”

“Spotter?” I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Aye ma’am.”

“For me,” Laura said as she knelt down and opened a case at her feet. She had surrendered it when she had to surrender her coil assault gun. I hadn’t questioned why she had it in the first place, now I was showing my ignorance.

Inside the case were a number of attachments. Quickly she pulled them out and assembled them attaching the parts to her coil assault gun. While she did I took a quick peek out over the meadow. The rebels had stopped their reckless head on charges. Those with guns were still firing keeping the Silvers heads down. Those rebels with melee weapons had retreated back into the forest. Clearly someone on the enemy side was thinking carefully. I started to worry about the change of tactics it didn’t bode well for us. I saw something off to the right at the edge of the forest. Some of the rebels were erecting something.

“Got a bead on that sergeant,” I said to Becky.

“Where?” Becky instantly responded.

“To my right.”

“MARs,” she grunted. “We need to shut that shit down now!”

“Shit!” I muttered. I’d been on the receiving end of one of those before.

“Collins you’re up!” Becky said to Laura.

Laura stood her coil assault gun looked nothing like what it used to be. It had a long barrel with an upside down ‘V’ shape near the business end of the weapon. The magazine looked longer and wider and there was a scope over the eyepiece. She saw me looking at her weapon.

“Fifteen millimetre explosive rounds. Enough to put a dampener on their day,” She said cheerfully. “LT you point I shoot.”

“Target at twelve ten,” I told her. At least I’d learned a few military terms training with Thirika.

“Got the bitches ma’am. So long suckers!” she exclaimed as she pulled the trigger.

The MARs exploded. What I hadn’t accounted for was the secondary explosions that followed the first one.

Laura laughed. “Dumb asses. Looks like they put the reloads too close to the weapon!”

The battle paused as shock ran through the rebels ranks. I knew it wouldn’t last long.

Although there was a lull the battle was far from over. The loss of the MARs had demoralised the rebels and they held back. What I wished which was far from reality was for the rebels to go home. I knew it was just wishful thinking but I didn’t want anymore senseless deaths. I peered over the edge of the trench to the tree line my hands gripping my coil assault gun hard. I could see several rebels moving amongst the others holding back. They seemed to be cajoling the more reluctant of them.

“What, are those their commanders?” I asked to myself. I hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

“You mean former commanders,” Laura replied sighting down her weapon. She fired one of those commanders exploded showering those around her in a spray of blood and viscera.

Laura’s shot had the opposite effect. The rebels charged on mass. My blood ran cold we we’re going to survive this. Suddenly the air between the charging rebels and us shimmered. It cut through the rebels throwing them backwards and forwards separating and breaking the charge.

“The shields are up!” I shouted relieved but there were still rebels on our side of the barrier.

Above our heads a huge shadow blotted out the sun. I glanced up to see the outline of an Imperial heavy cruiser. I’d never been happier to see the dagger shape of one of the Empire’s biggest ships. If my guess wasn’t off it was Komana’s ship.

“Message from the Iron Duke,” Becky gleefully called out her hand on the side of her helmet. “Hold on to your panties!”

Instinctively I ducked. The ground rumbled like in an earthquake and there was a sound like thunder. I took a chance and looked out wishing I hadn’t. The ground, trees and rebels shattered into a million pieces. A wide swath of the forest vanished underneath the barrage from the Iron Duke. I puked my guts out terrified and nauseated from the total destruction raining down. Those few rebels inside the shields threw down their weapons and surrendered. Slowly the Silver Guard emerged from their trenches and disarmed the rebels. Whatever the Prophet had planned had failed. Yet many questions remained. I felt too ill to consider those now. I slid to the bottom of the trench avoiding my puke, relieved and disgusted at the same time. It was over.