A month after Ivan taught Kiera's soothing song to the other skalds, the satyr were defeated on Damsk. With their defeat came a tidal wave of Satyr on Sumi and the Scandian's quickly turned their warriors, armed in new exo-frames courtesy of Admiral Skorv, to the planet to contain them. Olaf the Terrible continued to let his son, Ivan Olafson command the war against the satyr. Of the mercenary bands only the Red Moon, the Legion, and the Brotherhood of Steel remained. The Sarkosians abandoned their contract. Two other mercenary guilds left mid-way through the month, unable to keep their morale high enough. Even with the soothing their soldiers refused to fight. Leifholm stood strong through the assaults, and the satyr that had been attacking all month had set their focus on taking the city over anything else, for the most part.

The fighting was concentrated from Zone forty-five to Zone sixty. The echo-frames were larger than power armor but not as large as a true mecha, but they provided a similar level of protection. The weapons that Skorv provided were scaled down versions of the ones the mecha pilots used. The guns that the Legion used on their turrets could easily be swapped out for the exo-frame weapons. There was a much shallower learning curve to using an exo-frame and only a few special models could fly. The Scandians turned around and sold many of them to the Legion; they gave Kiera two of the better models, even though her team didn't have much use for them. Kiera gave one to Astrid, who relished the idea of being able to fight against the satyr without suffering from their madness or being targeted because she was a woman.

Robyn, their tactical officer, ended up taking the other exo-frame. She put her training and skills to the test, planning out some of their assaults against the satyr rather than waiting and letting them attack the city. Her assault gave them information about where the satyr were coming from. Kinsley and Jaina donned their armor and on the next assault slipped through the satyr's ranks. That had been a week ago and they still weren't back. Kiera was starting to worry.

That month also saw Kiera's relationships with Pelendelar and Astrid progress. In a way Kiera was glad for the satyrs since they inadvertently introduced her to her new lovers. She would never voice that opinion outloud, even to herself. Just thinking about it made her feel sick. She had finally learned what happened in the camps after Pelendelar helped liberate one. He had returned and needed her to hold him. It took Kiera several hours to get him to talk and when he did she needed him as well.

Kiera yawned as she waited for Astrid outside of the meeting hall where she did her soothing. As soon as they arrived, Astrid had received an urgent message and left Kiera in the care of another Valkyrie. She wasn't as skilled with her determination as Astrid was; the Scandian Princess' ability with her Valor had grown by leaps and bounds thanks to the daily use of it she employed with Kiera. The skalds let Kiera choose who to soothe, and she was using her ability on the Legionnaires, the Brotherhood of Steel, and the crew of Ben Uller's other ship. She avoided the Snowdens not liking the looks they always gave her and Astrid. The Brotherhood members showed the same level of professionalism as the Legion did. Kiera had asked one of their engineers if she could bring Tara to their camp and let her look at their machines. The engineer readily agreed as thanks for the soothing that Kiera did.

Tara was over the moon when she received the offer and ended up spending several days with the Brotherhood. When they learned just how skilled she was, their captain tried to hire her offering Tara access to even more schematics and different machines. While tempted, Tara rejected their offer. She joked that she thought she would have to send for help to get out of their camp, but her tension over the next few days indicated that she was half joking. As a precaution Kiera either slept with her or had Gargax act as her bodyguard. Tara relaxed considerably.

Boiling anger caught Kiera's attention. She tracked it flying above her and as it dove towards the meeting hall. A rush of wind and feathers nearly knocked Kiera off her feet as Astrid bolted past her and blew the doors off of their hinges. Kiera immediately ran into the meeting hall after her, ready to release her Radiance at a moment's notice.

"Why do I have reports of your mercenaries attempting to kidnap my people!?" Astrid roared, standing only a few feet away from one of the Snowden captains. Keira couldn't remember his name.

"Because your people don't like us as much as they like Skorv's dogs who flaunt women about? None of my men have touched any of you alien freaks. Not a single jotun, valkyrie, einherjar, or aesyr. Our Admiral may have a taste for aliens, but my boys and I are pro-human only. You should ask that question to Jim Holland, Uller's man. I know that he has a taste for exotic slaves. If anyone is taking your people, it will be him." The man sneered. He turned and walked away, the five crewmen he had with him fell into line behind him.

Kiera released her Radiance, soothing away the next group who took the mercenary's place and her lover. She pulled Astrid into a tight hug. "Catch me up, Valiant. What happened?"

Astrid fumed for a few minutes, not saying anything until she had calmed down. By the time she was ready to talk, Kiera had led her to a nearby park away from everyone. They sat in the grass under a large oak tree. A spot they had taken a picnic breakfast to several times.

"Sigrid contacted me and asked if I knew anything about missing women. She found records of aesyr, einherjar, and valkyries being assigned as support to the Red Moon camps. I personally submitted orders that the Red Moon were not to receive female support with the exception of your crew. I confirmed what she found…and lost my temper."

"Jim wouldn't do anything like that. He's a romantic. The worst any woman would get from him or his crew is propositions. It was odd how that Captain mentioned the same species that you just did in your report unprompted. I would put my money on the Snowden captains trying to get in their Admiral's good graces by bringing him "alien" women to serve in his brothels," Kiera scoffed. "If we found out where they were taken then we could infiltrate that location and rescue them. I bet I could sweet talk Jim into—"

Kiera stopped talking. Ben had said there were brothels on Sangria Luna, the Red Moon's headquarters. Lupin believed that women were only good as 'entertainment' and allowed, more precisely encouraged, them to keep their own brothels aboard the headquarters for Lupin and their crew to browse. If the kidnapped women were sent there, that would mean that Snowden likely used the headquarters as his base of operations. If they were sent elsewhere, then that's where her evidence would be. Her heart started to race. After all this time she had a lead. Astrid's hand on her shoulder snapped her from her thoughts.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Kiera, are you okay?"

"I am," Kiera said. "I've realized how I can get what I'm after and save those women that were kidnapped. I need information first."

"How can I help?"

=+=

Two days later Kinsley and Jaina returned to the Sunrise Eclipse. Both women looked harrowed and pale. Kiera immediately called for Ivan and Tamalyn and rushed them to medical where they spent another three days being healed and soothed. Even after that neither one of them looked like they were completely well. Of the two of them, Jaina was worse. She didn't respond to Tamalyn's halo as well as Kinsley did and drifted in and out of consciousness. Ivan stayed by her side the entire time. Kiera stayed with them, too. Her soothing helped keep the pair calm.

"We found it, the place these satyr originate from," Kinsley said. "There's some kind of creature. It has alabaster skin, a long conical head that is swept backwards and absinthe eyes. It's not happy with the progress we've made destroying the satyr, and I overheard plans that it's going to use something called a 'Void Portal' to move the Satyr to Norwhen. It just needs time to finish its ritual. They don't have many more numbers, a couple hundred at the most."

"Do you remember the coordinates?" Kiera asked.

"They're in my PUC."

Kiera retrieved the device. "I'm going to get this to Ivan. If we can end the satyr threat before they use that Void Portal, then we can be done fighting them. I think that will make us all happy."

"Ivan's right there. Why are you giving my PUC to him?" Kinsley asked.

Kiera gave her a kiss, "Wrong Ivan. I'll send Locke in to sit with you. He's been worried sick."

She gave Kinsley another kiss and left the ship, calling for Locke to come sit with Kinsley on her way out. Kiera immediately headed to the war tent, where she knew Astrid would be. Along the way she downloaded the coordinates onto a data drive that the Scandians could use.Kiera walked into the tent to find the valkyrie looking over the most recent attack by the satyr, noting where they were attacking and with how many numbers.

"Do you want to end this war?" Kiera asked, tossing the drive to Astrid.

The valkyrie caught the drive and raised an eyebrow. "Of course, even though that means you'll probably have to go home."

"You could always come with us," Kiera said. "And I can always visit. Take the coordinates on that drive to your brother. Kinsley and Jaina found out where the satyr are coming from and how they moved between planets. There's some alabaster skinned creature using the Void."

Astrid shuddered at the word. The Void was a place of darkness and endless hunger. The stories said it offers power at a great cost. It once threatened to destroy the universe and was stopped by Seven champions of the Cosmic Light. Their identities were lost to history. The Void was used as a curse these days and some people believe that it all was just a fairy tale to explain how people would do anything for power and there would always be those who stopped them. Kiera had heard multiple people from various galaxies and factions invoke the Void; she didn't think a fairy tale would evoke that kind of thing.

"I will get this to Ivan immediately, and I will consider coming with you. Although, I doubt Father will let me leave. I have too many duties here." Astrid gave Kiera a quick kiss and flew off to the capital.

Kiera sighed, she was going to miss Astrid and their romantic flights.

=+=

Locke followed the Scandians down a long tunnel well within what was considered Satyr territory. Once Ivan Olafson had Kinsley’s coordinates he asked for volunteers to join him in ending the threat that had plagued his people for the last ten months. Locke, Isaac, Gargax, Koda, and Corbin had all volunteered along with members of the Axtellion Legion and the Steel Brotherhood. No one from the other Red Moon ships bothered to join them. Jim Holland, one of Uller’s captains, was working with Kiera on something, and Snowden’s captains didn’t want to risk their necks. They’d done more slaving than anything else and had the brilliant idea of trying to enslave a satyr. Three hundred men had volunteered in total, including a score of skalds led by Ivan Unfrid.

Olafson wouldn’t allow any of the women to join the expedition. To Locke’s surprise, Kiera didn’t protest and agreed with the decision. She and the others were in mecha outside the entrance to the satyr’s lair. They would provide covering fire if needed and stop any satyr that decided to risk an attack against Leifholm.

Several hours later Locke shivered as they crossed an unseen threshold. His power armor regulated the temperature so he was never affected by the elements, but this was something else. It felt like it was chilling his soul. Around him men began to chatter, making remarks about the sudden chill and the sensation of something hungry just ahead of them. A pair of einherjar in front of Locke turned around, their faces ashen.

“Keep moving ahead,” Locke ordered, catching the pair’s attention.

“You’re not my commander,” one of them snarled. “I did not volunteer for some descent into Helheim. Try to stop us from leaving and this place will be your tomb.”

“I say let the cowards leave if they want to. Everyone will know what they did. Better to have fewer numbers then men who don’t have the courage to fight these things in their own lair,” Pelendelar called back. He was leading the Legion squad in place of their Prefect.

“He’s right. Let’s go,” Locke said. He pushed past the two men.

The further they walked the darker it became, their lights had no effect on it. The chill was getting worse and whispers began to sound around them, encouraging them to continue forward, promising them power. Locke didn’t like it one bit.

“Boss, something wrong,” Gargax rumbled.

“I agree. It feels like we’re walking into a trap.”

“Or to our deaths,” Koda said. “Every instinct that I have is screaming for me to turn around and get out of here. These discordant whispers aren’t helping anything. Like the Void in my ear.”

A hiss went through the cavern, echoing off the walls and sending another chill through the group’s bodies. Weapons were raised, a few shots rang out. There was no sound of impact. In a tunnel like this a stray weapon shot would hit something.

“Such clever soldiers, to find this place. Such brave soldiers to venture into it. I’m afraid you are far too late to stop my Void Beasts from finally taking that city. Once it has fallen, they will take the real prize. Goodbye gentlemen. The only way out is forward, and you won’t survive the Void Portal.”

“Full retreat! Go go go!” Locke shouted, turning around and running at full speed. His squad immediately obeyed. Ahead of him other soldiers turned and ran, a couple of them dropped their weapons. A pair of red eyes appeared in the dark as a satyr leapt at one of the men who had abandoned his weapon. Locke shot it as it lept and paused long enough to put a point blank plasma bolt into its head before continuing on. All around him came the sound of combat. Battle cries, plasma blasts, weapons striking flesh and armor. They had walked into a trap. Locke pressed on, he had to believe that they would survive it, and believe that his crew would survive the trap sprung on them.