Reece made his way to the Phoenix and found Pasha, Bjorn, and Ciera already awaiting him. He greeted them all and found Pasha to be a bit curt, leading him to wonder how much she knew and hoping Aika hadn’t left her in the dark. Communication and empathy were going to be vitally important for all of them to have any chance of success.
The four of them boarded the jet by taking the rear ramp up into its belly. Reece noticed several full suits of cold-weather clothing that they would need to survive the radically altered climate of Norway. The climate change that had been allowed to take place decades ago had dropped the average yearly temperature of the entire region by over twenty degrees Celsius.
If they hadn’t found ways of stopping it from continuing, Reece shivered at the thought of how bad things could have gotten. All the extra powerful hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, drought, rampaging fires, and every other climate-related natural disaster had nearly bankrupted most countries on the planet as they fought to deal with the fallout of their collective inaction.
“Grab a seat everyone,” called out Pasha, breaking Reece out of his musings. “It’s time to spark up and fly.”
Reece found his seat next to Ciera. Bjorn took the co-pilot’s seat as he would be communicating with the Norwegian compound. They all buckled in and gave Pasha a thumbs up that they were ready. Two more men that Reece didn’t recognize joined them and grabbed the two seats behind them. They also donned a couple of tactical HUD helmets to assist in the aerial assault once Bjorn, Ciera, and Reece had been delivered.
One man was big and muscular, with dark skin and a shaved head. He had a black goatee sans mustache and gave Reece a white toothy grin when Reece acknowledged him. The other man was paler, much thinner, and older looking. He had long white hair and an unkempt grey beard. He took off his aviator glasses and Reece noticed his light blue irises before the man put on his helmet without so much as a greeting. The two men’s demeanor was as different as their physical appearance. As they finished buckling in, Pasha raised the ramp and started the take-off sequence.
It wasn’t long before the vertical engines lifted them off the flight deck. After it had risen high enough, Pasha turned the prototype jet around and headed off for their destination. They were only a few hundred kilometers from the compound, so it only took the extremely fast jet minutes to arrive over Norway. Reece had given Pasha everything he knew about the location of the place, so it wasn’t surprising when their comms system came to life with a warning.
A man’s voice spoke in a language that Reece didn’t understand but sounded threatening. Bjorn had been waiting for it, however. He quickly answered the man with words of his own. Words that Reece didn’t understand. Luckily, he didn’t have to as Bjorn must have worked something. The tone of the two men quickly became more relaxed to the point where they were both laughing over the comms before they abruptly finished the conversation.
“Alright, they are preparing a landing platform and we have permission to land,” announced the large man to the rest of the crew.
Pasha brought the Phoenix down to only a couple hundred meters above the ground and slowed the jet down significantly.
“If you want to move and start gearing up, now would be a great time,” called back Pasha. “I’m just dropping you guys off. I need to get back to the fight ASAP.”
Ciera, Reece, and Bjorn all got up and started donning the thick cold-weather gear they had brought with them.
“Wow, would you take a look at that,” stated Pasha in awe at something she saw out the windshield.
Looking out one of the thick lower side windows, Reece spotted what had amazed Pasha. There were thousands of zombies across the tundra, all headed in the direction of the compound the jet was quickly approaching. What set these zombies apart from all the other zombie hordes they had seen was that this one was frozen solid. The compound's greatest defense was the incredibly brutal and biting cold of the region.
“Score one for climate change, I guess,” joked Reece under his breath.
Ciera started laughing. Reece hadn’t noticed that she had come up next to him to also take in the view and see what Pasha was talking about.
“Good one,” she said smiling as she absently buttoned up her long thick coat of faux white fur.
As they continued to close in, the frozen horde thinned out until there were no more left. The largest of the behemoths had gotten the closest. They were not only frozen but broken apart as well. Reece only recognized them by their mostly intact lower halves. One thing he didn’t see was the dread wolves. As the fastest of the undead and the only ones covered in fur, they stood the best chance of making it to the compound.
“It’s going to get a bit warm in here,” announced Pasha. “I’ve activated all external and internal heating units to keep all systems, including us, protected from the extreme cold.”
Ciera finished pulling on a matching hat and gloves to go with her long coat before sitting down and sliding her inner boots into the larger cold-weather ones they were paired with. Bjorn wore a thick brown jacket and equally thick black leggings.
By the time he had finished, he looked like a bear compared to the yeti which Ciera resembled. Reece’s thick fake grey fursuit must have made him look absurd as well, like a fuzzy wolf. The last to go on for each of them was the full-face mask. Any skin exposed to the cold would get frostbite within a few minutes, and they didn’t know how long they would need to remain in the harsh conditions.
“Here we go,” called out Pasha as she slowed the jet down to fly over the compound’s outer wall and head towards a pair of figures with flares to guide their way.
Pasha brought the Phoenix in to hover over the spot the flare-holders indicated and lightly set the jet down as she hit the button to open the ramp. The moment the ramp opened; the entire living space started rapidly cooling. Pasha cranked up the internal heaters and Reece saw the six units that were set into the base of the walls start to glow red as they combatted the freezing air rushing in.
“Go, go, go!” shouted Pasha. “And good luck!”
The three bundled companions didn’t need to be asked twice. They all rushed the ramp and cleared it as quickly as they safely could so Pasha could stabilize the internal temperature and return the Phoenix to the fight. As the jet lifted off, Bjorn was already heading for one of the flare-holders.
Unable to communicate effectively, they motioned for the trio to follow them as they tossed their flares to the side. They were both decked out in white fur from head to foot and wore matching white masks, which would all make good camouflage in the snowy white tundra. The pair led them across the frozen compound as Reece marveled at how anyone could survive here.
The compound was old, clearly predating the climate crisis as none of the wood or brick buildings looked remotely useable. The windows were all blown out and many of the doors had fallen off their hinges on the snow- and ice-covered structures. The snow was piled up so high that Reece could only see the top half meter of the doorway. The wind was up, and their visibility was greatly reduced by all the flying snow. The pair led them past several of the buildings and Reece peeked inside as he passed them. Nothing but a few pieces of broken furniture could be seen above the snow-covered floors.
After about ten minutes of trudging through a soft layer of snow over the harder layers below it, they finally reached a building that looked to be in marginally better shape. Reece looked behind him after they all entered the small, unlit structure. Their tracks were quickly being erased by the blowing snow.
One of their two escorts approached a large bulkhead hidden within the unassuming structure and knocked twice and then a third time with something hard in their right hand. A moment passed before the bulkhead slowly swung outward. Inside was a third figure, also dressed in full white furs. The group all shuffled through the bulkhead door and into a marginally warmer room thanks to the geothermal heating vents positioned around the five-meter-wide space.
As the newest escort resealed the outer door, Reece noticed that there was also an inner door. Reece smiled to himself as he recognized the same type of set-up that they had on the Zhengzhou. Once the room had warmed sufficiently, they could open the inner door and enter the underground complex. With very little sun and freezing temperatures, solar and wind power would both be greatly hampered, but geothermal would be perfect for a base of operations in such an inhospitable place. Reece had just arrived, and he was already pleasantly surprised by the ingenuity of the people that had kept the place going.
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Finally, the room reached a good temperature and they were able to enter the facility just as Reece had surmised. What Reece saw inside surprised him even more. The hallway he entered looked very close to Zhengzhou’s hallways. He was confident he was inside a different space station, though this one seemed like it had never gone to space. He added it to the list of questions he already had.
As he pondered this, the third escort resealed the inner door and all three escorts started removing their heavy cold-weather gear and hanging it in large metal lockers on either side of the hallway. The trio followed suit and hung their gear where their escorts indicated. Within a few minutes, they were all back down to normal clothes and inner boots. Reece made sure to keep his backpack and the nightcore with him, slinging it over one shoulder like a satchel.
With their thick clothing removed, Reece was finally able to get a good look at the three escorts. The first two were both large men. One was dark-skinned and a little pudgy with dreadlocks and a thick black beard. The other was lighter-skinned with more muscle and had long dirty-blonde hair and a thick grey-blonde mustache. The third was an imposing light-skinned woman with thick muscles and long blonde hair.
Reece noticed Bjorn grin like a child as he took in her icy blue eyes that sparkled with kindness. She was big for a woman but mostly stout with just a hint of pudginess. She seemed to blush as she smiled at Bjorn while the big man blatantly checked her out. Reece nudged him in the gut.
“Take it down a notch, big guy,” Reece whispered. “Just...play it cool.”
Bjorn nodded and cleared his throat as he tried to look everywhere but at the woman who had caught his eye. The dark-skinned man snapped them out of the moment as he spoke to them with a thick accent.
“Velcome,” he said. “I be Jarn. The big guy dere zis Jotter, and our lady dere zis Ulla.”
“Hello, it’s nice to meet you all” replied Reece as he nodded to each of them. “I’m Reece and this big guy here is Bjorn and the cute one over there is Ciera. Thank you for accepting us inside.”
Ciera gave Reece a little smile as she did her best curtsy for their small welcoming party.
Reece waited as they finished stowing the last of the gear before Jarl beckoned them onwards. The six of them traveled through several bulkheads in the modular underground facility. Reece had the feeling that this place was much bigger than Zhengzhou but was still mystified as to why it was here and how it got here. They eventually arrived at a larger open room with several people working within it. They seemed to be in the middle of something. As Reece watched, he saw that they were directing a pitched battle near a different entrance.
Several dread wolves could be seen on several viewscreens, and the people were communicating over a comms system. Seeing their situation was much more pressing than his, Reece stayed back and observed the crew. There were six of them around the console, four dark-haired men and two blonde women. Each of them was dressed the same, wearing black outfits resembling flight suits, perhaps military. They were all precise and worked as a team to conduct the operation.
From what information Reece could gather, it seemed like they had two teams of five members each. One acted as bait and the other flanked the wolves, quickly turning the hunters into prey before destroying them with flame throwers and incendiary grenades. Within just a handful of minutes, the two groups had eliminated over thirty of the undead mutant wolves that Reece was so familiar with.
When the operation was over, there was no celebrating. The team fell back to the bulkhead sealed entrance to the base and the console crew broke up. One of the blonde women acknowledged the new arrivals and approached Bjorn, giving him a big hug before saying something to him in the other language. Bjorn replied with the same tongue. Whatever he said made the woman frown and look over at Reece and Ciera.
“Apologies,” she said with a little hint of an accent. “Welcome to our little bastion of hope against the dead plague. I’m Josefin, Bjorn’s favorite cousin.”
“Third favorite,” corrected Bjorn, causing them both to laugh at the inside joke
Bjorn introduced them and Josefin led them all to their mess hall to get something to eat and warm up. The mess hall was like the Zhengzhou’s, but bigger, messier, and nothing was bolted down. Several silver-colored metal tables and chairs were scattered around, and the food was mainly seaweed and fish, heated with geothermal ovens. They each grabbed a metal plate and placed it within one of the three ovens. They were extremely hot, and the food was finished quickly. As they ate, Josefin seemed to be sizing them up.
“So, what brings you to one of the most inhospitable places on the planet?” she asked cheerfully.
Reece looked to Bjorn who returned his gaze with an affirming nod. Reece nodded back before reaching into his backpack and pulling forth the nightcore and setting it on the silver metal table where they were sitting. Josefin looked at it before looking at Reece.
“I don’t know what that is,” she stated in a way that indicated she would need more of an explanation.
“This object is called the nightcore and it is something the Order has been after for some time now,” explained Reece. “It’s partly what started the plague and it is also the thing that can help end it.”
Reece went on to explain what he knew and Josefin’s eyes and expression continued to get more and more shocked as the story unfolded. When he finally finished explaining that he had to find a Norn to help summon back the goddess Inanna, Josefin nodded slowly as she considered Reece’s words.
“Well, I’ve heard enough,” came a booming voice from the other side of the mess hall.
It came from an area where no one could have possibly remained hidden. Reece was certain they had been alone in the mess hall. Despite that, there sat a larger-than-life man with the palest of skin and silvery hair, just looking at them. The man must have overheard them and stood up, displaying rippling muscles under a polar bearskin parka. He turned his head towards Reece and his grey eyes seemed to bore into Reece’s very being.
“I see you speak plainly,” boomed the man. “That is refreshing. You have learned much, yet there is much more you need to learn before you can truly understand what has been happening. First, let me introduce myself. I am Heimdall, eternal guardian of the Asgard.”
“The Asgard?” asked Reece, confused by the man’s choice of words.
“Yes, the Asgard,” replied the man. “Suffice to say that we once traveled the stars, but are now forced to hide it here, underground.”
“This is the Asgard?” asked Reece unconvinced.
“No, this construct simply resides on top of the Asgard,” explained the man. “It was manufactured by the same people that made the newer parts of your space station. But that’s neither here nor there. Let’s get you an audience with Inanna, shall we.”
As he finished the last word, two more figures suddenly materialized to either side of him. To his right stood a woman both beautiful and frightening. She had alabaster skin and black irises which gave her an exotic and fearsome look. She was tall and thin and had long straight black hair. Dressed in a form-fitting black dress, she looked more like a villain than a goddess. To his left stood a handsome man who wore a grey robe held in by a thick leather belt studded with golden buttons. Heimdall indicated the woman first.
“Let me also introduce Hel,” said the large man in his commanding voice before motioning next to the grey-robed man. “And this here is Freyr.”
Both new arrivals nodded in Reece’s direction. For his part, he nodded back to each of them in turn. After Heimdall had introduced them, Reece noticed that Bjorn and Ciera had both fallen to their knees at some point in time. His confusion was quickly cleared up by Heimdall.
“How is it that you don’t bow before us gods?” asked Heimdall suspiciously.
“You’re gods? How is that possible? I have it on good authority that gods are aspects of the universe, not space travelers,” queried Reece, now suspicious of the trio.
“Hah!” boomed the big man. “How right you are! We aren’t aspects of the universe. If the gods were kings, we would be their regents. We are stand-ins for the true gods but fulfill their roles as best we can. Some gods may yet return, but some have been imprisoned or exiled. You see, the aspects must always have someone at the helm to maintain equilibrium. That’s the primary reason the earth is in such disarray. Unfortunately, only a few of us demi-gods remain who can harness that kind of power. Many aspects are like rudderless ships right now, flowing through the chaotic maelstrom of time and space. Now that I’ve answered your question, I await your answer to mine. How is it that you do not kneel?”
“Ahh, I forgot to mention that the goddess Shoki gave us some kind of blessing that eliminates the need to bow or kneel to gods,” explained Reece. “She said she found the acts unsavory.”
“Ahh, she must really like you,” said Freyr with a big toothy grin. “And I can understand why. It’s incredibly fortuitous that not one but two of my children have found their way here.”
“Your children?” inquired Reece.
“Yes, I am the god of fertility,” replied Freyr. “Oh, if Freya were here now, she would be absolutely giddy. While you two do fall partly under my purview, you more closely align with her. Of course, as we gods are only aspects of nature, you are the children of many gods as many aspects reside in each one of you. For you Reece, you most closely align with Inanna, the goddess of sex, war, justice, and political power. There have never been many of you.”
“First things first,” cut in Heimdall. “Come forth, you will need something from each of us.”
Reece nodded and approached the three deities. Each held out their open right hand. Hel’s hand was holding a small crystal skull. Heimdall held a round marble eye with a turquoise iris inset within it. Freyr held a large obsidian phallus.
“Really?” asked Reece as he raised an eyebrow at the god.
Freyr merely shrugged and smiled.
Reece grabbed each object, pausing before quickly grabbing the phallus and bringing the items back to the table. He set them all down next to each other and waited. A minute later, the objects started to melt and flow into each other. Another minute passed before the objects finished their transmutation into a pool of black liquid.
Reece grabbed the nightcore and placed it in the pool. It only took a couple of seconds before the liquid began to climb the nightcore and fill in where it had clear damage. When the process was finished, Reece could see a thick latch on the nightcore that bridged a thin line that ran the circumference of the spherical object. Reece could now tell that there was something more to the nightcore than he had ever realized before. What that was, he had yet to discover.
He looked to the gods, but they had vanished even quicker than they had appeared.