The ways to a Valkyries heart are many, but you should pick your battles carefully. Good food, for example, while normally a sure-fire way to impress a prospective partner, is a rather harder proposition with a Valkyrie who by all accounts has access to foods of such superlative quality that anything you're likely to make will pale in comparison. Instead, consider...

--"How to snag a Valkyrie", page 79

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Once we'd finished eating our soup, Katherine and I sat in comfortable silence sharing a plate of chocolate.

"You know, I'm not sure if I love you for introducing me to this chocolate, or hate you for ruining all other snacks for me." Katherine eventually said.

"Love me, obviously." I said. "How could you not? This is the best."

Katherine went rather quiet at that. She looked to be busy staring at her hand, singular.

I forged on. "And it's not like this ruins all other snacks. I'm sure there are other things we can buy for points that are as tasty as this. I just can't think of what they might be right now."

I took the last bite, then curled my toes in pleasure. This was pretty good.

After I'd savoured the chocolate as far as it'd go, I briefly considered buying another plate, but stamped hard on that thought. No. I had places to be, and couldn't waste another half hour in bliss. With that thought firmly in mind, I got up out of my seat and picked up my helmet.

"You ready to go?" I asked. I got no answer, so looked over at Katherine. She looked pretty lost in her thoughts, so I poked her on the cheek, at which she startled into activity.

"Huh-what?" She asked eloquently.

"Are you ready to get going?" I repeated the question with a smile.

"Mm, yeah, I guess."

She stretched her arms out, which made her nearly touch either side of the large vehicle, then got up as well, while I fitted my helmet on my head.

"Time to put on our serious faces again." I joked, at which she politely hah'd. She closed her helmet as well, and I turned to exit the IFV, then reconsidered and talked over the group connection to Red Knight.

"Are we leaving in the IFV, or...?"

"Yeah, although maybe Titanite wants to ride on one of the other vehicles, so she can actively participate if anything shows up." Red Knight answered almost immediately.

"I think I'd prefer that, yes." She answered after a brief pause.

"I'll give you a lift over to the rendezvous point." Red Knight said. Then a moment later he opened the door I wasn't standing at and got in.

Titanite and I both sat back down again, then we lifted off and flew towards the east, towards where the map told us there'd be a convoy waiting for us.

When we arrived it was to find a heap of busses crammed in on a road, with some armoured vehicles at either end. Most of them looked to be armoured jeeps with a machine gun mounted on the roof but at the very front was an actual tank.

Groups of military looking people were walking around, and Red Knight put us down next to a group that looked to be directing the rest, then popped the door open and jumped out. Titanite followed him.

"You got this?" I asked into the group comm.

"Sure." Titanite answered.

I settled in to wait, and soon Red Knight returned.

"Titanite is jogging along at the back, they didn't have anything suitable for her to ride on. Anyway, she should easily be able to keep up. We have the front. Can I expect you to provide early warning to the front and sides of us?" He said.

"I'll do my best." I said and opened to door to let out my swarm. "How fast are we expecting to go?"

"Should be around 30km/h unless we run into something we have to run from. We want to avoid having to race the busses through the streets if we can."

"Alright, good. That shouldn't be a problem to keep up with."

"Great. We're leaving in just a bit here."

I landed a few Wasps on vehicles in the convoy, then sent the rest of my swarm out to scout ahead of us.

After a few minutes, an improvised gate up ahead was opened and the tank led the way further into the city, towards our first destination. The busses rumbled to life, and followed their escorts, followed again by further escorts and Titanite at the rear. We flew up and hovered just to the rear of the tank. Meanwhile, I scouted ahead, and stung the few models I came across, just dogs and tentacles and the occasional bird. Things were looking pretty quiet, and after a few minutes, we arrived at the first shelter, just a couple of kilometres in. We took a detour around the block, then parked in front of the place facing the right way, and a group of soldiers went over to talk to the people inside, to get them to come out and board the busses. It took longer than I had expected, but eventually a stream of people came out, some carrying backpacks, many dressed in what looked like sleepwear, or in one interesting case, a sheet. Regardless, they were waved towards the busses and boarded in relatively good order. A few nosy Model Ones flew close and got gunned down with prejudice, causing the civilians to flinch. I didn't flinch, but only because I saw the soldiers take aim before they started shooting.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

That aside, we soon had the shelter emptied. A couple of soldiers stuck their heads in to make sure, then returned to their armoured jeep things and we were off, back towards the military encampment and out of Anti-infested areas.

"This is a bit of a waste of our time." Red Knight commented.

"How so? We're keeping these people safe, aren't we?" I asked.

"Yeah, but they would probably be safe if we swept the area around here, then went further in. I'm sure there are shelters in much worse shape than that one. But then, it might not be ones this particular PMC are paid to evacuate."

"Paid to... what? PMC?"

"Private Military Company. They take contracts to secure certain areas, and charge people to keep them safe."

"But that's horrid! Where are the actual military?"

"I'm not sure if Poland has one anymore. They mostly got sold off and privatised, back when the European Union turned into the European Company."

"Shouldn't we be helping those other people, then? Rather than hang around here."

"We'll go when we clear the second Shelter, how about that? They should be able to get back fine without us." Red Knight said.

I nodded but kept quiet, while Red Knight murmured on, apparently arranging things with the head of the convoy so they wouldn't be surprised when we left.

We made it back without any real trouble, and the civilians disembarked without too much fuss. They were lead away in groups, and soon we were turned around and ready to head off again. Two new Yellowjackets appeared on my lap, and I silently thanked Eyon, stroked their sleek forms for a minute meditatively, then sent them off out the door with the rest.

The second trip went much like the first, although it was a bit further in, and the trickles of Antithesis came a bit thicker. Still, nothing I really needed to concern the convoy with. Then a Model Six burst out of a building as the tank passed, followed by a small flood of Threes and Fours, and things got interesting for a bit, but it was nothing the convoy couldn't handle. The tank took out the Six and the weight of fire was way too much for the lesser models.

We rolled on and arrived at the shelter and it played out much like the first time, with streams of civilians being herded onto busses. There were a few hysterics, some people trying to bribe the drivers to get rolling already without waiting for the rest of the busses to fill up, but it was handled more or less calmly.

We stayed behind as they rolled off, and Titanite joined us in the IFV.

"Are you ready to go looking for some real trouble?" Red Knight said.

"I don't know, that last trouble with the Thirteens was pretty serious." I said uncertainly and looked over at Titanite.

"What? Oh, don't you go all soft on me." She said. "I'm fine. Never been better. In fact, I'm itching for a rematch. I want to try out some new toys."

Red Knight chuckled. "That's the spirit." He then said. "We won't find any Thirteens unless it's around a Hive, anyway. They don't stray far."

"Okay, I guess. So, what's the plan?" I asked.

"Well, first I figured we'd thin the herd a bit, get the lay of the land." He said as he lifted us off. "We'll fly over the area where they are thickest and drop grenades on their heads. Then we'll see what we do afterwards. Both of you have some grenades or bombs in your catalogues, right?"

I nodded and Titanite answered in the affirmative.

"Great! Let's go see what this Swarm of Antis has really been up to, and give them a warm welcome while we're at it. You should be able to buy in grenades pre-primed just below the IFV, or use the onboard cameras to time their detonation if you prefer."

We continued to fly over deserted streets, albeit by now they were only deserted by humans. The Antis were out in force, although scouting forces initially, but they grew in numbers until it looked like a group getting ready for a massed assault on the barricades. It felt a bit silly to drop a grenade on a single Model Three, but once there were tens of them in the blast radius, it started to make more sense. We even began a bit of a game, trying to get as many in one blast as we could, until I cheated and upped from grenades to the much heavier mortar munitions. That lead to the inevitable arms race, which Titanite ended when she disintegrated half a building alongside all the Antis in range, after which I sued for peace in the name of the local infrastructure. Afterwards, we settled on more reasonably sized explosives. We were challenged by the occasional Model Ones flying towards us, sometimes alone, sometimes in a bigger swarm, but they were easily gunned down by the machine guns on the IFV. Of more concern were the Fives that decided we would make a great pincushion, and thus flung their hypersonic needles at us. The first time that happened, I flinched at the dings of impact they made on the armoured shell of the IFV, but it held, of course. We made a point to target Fives as soon as possible after that. We weren't the only ones out bombing Antis, either, twice we ran into other Valkyries doing similar things from their own setups.

I filled up my quota of fifty Yellowjackets rather soon, and ended up with three thousand odd points besides. So, all in all, it was a rather cathartic experience, but soon enough the streets were reasonably clear of anything but corpses, the surviving Antithesis having hidden themselves in buildings or elsewhere.

That signalled the end of our bombing run, and the beginning of a rather more tedious and perilous next phase, the clearing of the buildings.

We landed on the street in a space clear of Anti-corpses, and stepped out of the vehicle. In the distance there was the occasional boom of explosives, but nowhere near as many or as often as half an hour earlier. I spread out my senses and my swarm, and began searching through the nearby buildings, looking for signs of Antis, which to no ones surprise were rather common. I began taking them out, and though they would occasionally manage to snap or flail at a Wasp and damage it, most of the time they didn't and simply twitched to eventual stillness. Then a stung Anti staggered into the street and found us, only to get shot down, but the sound of the gunshot and possibly some pheromones attracted a larger swarm, and for a few minutes Red Knight and Titanite were busy gunning and slicing down Models to keep us safe. Well, keep me safe, mostly, I don't think either of them were in any real danger from the lower models.

Then we continued the slow business of clearing the buildings, room by room, looking for evidence of Hives as we went.