Valkyrie Hunter

It was over but for how long. I stood on the trench step watching the Silver Guards stripping the rebels of everything including their clothes.

“Do they have to strip them naked?” Becky asked me. She was staring at the unfolding scene.

“It’s the Valkyrie way,” I responded automatically. I felt sick and tired. I really wanted to be as far away as I could from here. Little wonder the Keepers wanted no part of things like this. Although I wouldn’t go as far as they did and just lie down and die I’d fight to my last breath. “They are making sure there are no concealed weapons.”

“Concealed weapons? Where? Oh God that’s gross?” she shuddered. I couldn’t see her face but I did hear the disgust in her voice.

“When in Rome,” I reminded her.

“Rome?”

I sighed at that I forgot she was pure Confederacy she didn’t understand. “I’ll explain later.”

“Ok we just hold here and wait for an evac.”

I doubted things were going to be that simple with the Valkyrie. I looked back to see a lone armoured Valkyrie exit the Hall and walk straight across to us.

“Initiate!”

I recognised Thirika’s voice instantly. “Moi?”

“Come with me and bring your friends.”

“I ain’t going anywhere!” Cutter groused.

“Leave the coward there. I’ve no time for a snivelling brat,” Thirika remarked.

Cutter leapt up. “Valkyrie bitch!”

Becky kicked Cutter’s feet out from under her. She hit the ground with a crash. “You’re on report Cutter. Don’t make it worse. These Valkyrie will eat you from breakfast and shit out the bones.”

I winced at Becky’s remark but she was right. I’d been on the receiving end of Thirika’s butt kicking more times than I could count. I’d never ever beaten her in a fight.

“Where are we going?” I asked Thirika calmly before things escalated out of hand.

“Unfortunately into that. I don’t have enough guards and you’re up.”

“We don’t follow your orders, ours are from Admiral Komana.”

“You do now.”

I knew it was no use arguing with Thirika when she was in this mind set. “Just do it sergeant. The faster we do this the better?”

“Aye LT.”

I scrambled out of the trench my guards following. I was really reluctant to do this but I didn’t have a choice. The devastation inflicted by the Iron Duke was worse from this angle. A group of naked rebels under the direction of guards were picking up bodies and making piles of them. In the distance a shuttle landed and number of red tuniced medics exited. I just followed Thirika trying hard not to see things that made me want to puke what little I had left in my guts. The shields shimmered and dropped as we approached. Beyond it there was total destruction. No matter where I looked all I could see were bloodstained splinters and stumps of trees. A wide swath of the forest had vanished leaving nothing but flesh and bone covered wood. I stepped carefully trying hard to avoid what I was trying hard not to see.

“I’m sorry,” I apologised.

“What are you sorry for?” Thirika asked me.

“For this?” I gestured to the remains of the forest. “I know the forest was sacred to the Valkyrie.”

Thirika merely shrugged. “Don’t lose sleep over it, what is done is done.”

Yet I still felt guilty about it.

Thirika made a gesture. “We aren’t here to debate the rights and wrongs of what happened here we have to look for survivors.”

“Survivors in this carnage. Ancients, I thought Praxi was bad. Not Anoxi bad but bad enough,” Becky said.

I noted the rest of the team were silent I really didn’t blame them. I didn’t want to look at what was around me. As much as I tried desperately to block it out I could see things. Here and there I could make out bits of once were living and breathing people and pieces of broken and destroyed equipment.

“Why?” I asked Thirika despondently.

“Why what?”

“This is senseless,” I said to her.

“I know, I know. But lucky for us?”

I stared at her shocked at her statement. I made a dramatic gesture. “You’re calling this lucky.”

“Someone and I do mean someone tipped their hand they attacked before they were ready.”

I took the hint for what it was. Thirika was implying my arrival at the Hall pre-empted the attack.

“If they had organised they would overwhelmed the Hall. That would have spelled the end for the Valkyrie.

That I definitely understood. I had listened to what Thirika had said but that only left more questions than answers.

“How were they able to get so many rebels into place?”

“Complacency,” Thirika said bitterly. “We failed to learn the lessons of the earlier attack. They used shuttles then and we were prepared for that.”

“But not this time?” I hazarded.

“We didn’t expect them to use the mag-lev tunnels. They must have been planning this for months. The shuttle attack was a diversion. We were too busy looking at the sky.”

“How?” I was sure what I was talking about then I’d only ever been in the mag-lev tunnels once. There must be more to Thirika’s words.

“The trains weren’t running so they were able to gather their resources for the attack. They must have been planning for months ever since the Elders locked down the comms.” I heard a buzz of anger in her voice. “The first inkling we had that something was wrong was that two patrols hadn’t reached their rendezvous point.”

“Could you have commed them?” I knew the Elders had allowed local comms.

“The Elders in their wisdom had our comms blocked. I suspect that was the traitors’ doing. I lost two dozen of my best warriors because of it?”

Becky spoke up suddenly. “Excuse me could you tell me why the enemy didn’t overwhelm you in an all out attack. From what I could see they were attacking in groups. I’m sure they had the numbers?”

“Clan pride,” Thirika answered.

“I see ma’am so they attack in Clans and not as an army?”

I wasn’t sure where Becky was going with this but she was making sense.

“Isn’t that how the Orsini operate ma’am?” Holder asked.

I was surprised by her input she hadn’t said a word so far. I also noted they were treating Thirika with a lot of respect.

“Yes,” Thirika replied sounding pleased.

“And the remaining Rhosani are in the Commonwealth?”

Suddenly it clicked. “Of course the Rhosani are behaving like the Orsini. So anyone else they’re in contact with would do the same?”

“Well done Initiate,” Thirika said.

“We don’t know where in the Commonwealth the Rhosani are?” Becky nodded to me acknowledging that I was an Imperial. “We can’t just attack like the Terrans did.”

“That was Augustus and the Rhosani controlling him!” I replied more sharply than I intended. “They were intent on destroying the Empire and the Confederacy.” I added that last part to make them see I wasn’t all Imperial.

Thirika cut through us before things could escalate into a full argument. “Enough talking!” she made a sharp gesture. “We need to complete our sweep.”

We moved on through the devastation. Finally we reached the forest it was quieter in beneath the canopy of the tall pine like trees. Thirika halted waving for us to stop.

“Spread out two metre intervals.”

She waited as we spread out. I found myself on the far left edge. It seemed that Thirika wasn’t playing favourites or she’d was confident I could my hold my own in a fight. We cautiously moved forward I could see scraps on bark and crushed plants, signs of heavy traffic. There were also blood splashed around a good indicator that the some of the rebels had survived long enough to reach the safety of the remaining forest.

A mist sprung up around me and obscured the others. I moved more cautiously my senses on full alert. A figure coalesced in the mist. I went on full alert. The figure stepped closer the mist parting around her. I instantly recognised who I was seeing.

“Mouse?” I said shocked. I should have sensed her I felt as if something was off about her.

“Oh Little One I’m so sorry?” It definitely sounded like her.

“I’ve been worried about you?” I told her.

“If I could have spared you this torment I would have.” Mouse hesitated, “The First Ones….” Her voice trailed off.

“Them, I‘ve met them.”

“I’m sorry,” she repeated. With that she faded.

“Mouse!” I called out. “Mouse!” I took a step towards where she had been. “Mouse, damn it don’t do this to me!”

The mist cleared I saw Thirika move towards me. “Initiate what are you doing standing there?”

“The mist?” I said to her.

“Mist? What mist?”

“I tell you later,” I told her lamely.

We continued our sweep.