When Freya and I arrived at the Citadel, it was obvious that many of the troops were mobilizing – the Einherjar and Valkyries at the stadium had yet to return, but the ones at the Citadel were in the process of getting geared up and ready to deploy. I saluted them as we passed – a Nordic salute, where my right arm crossed my chest and tapped my left shoulder – and was saluted back in return.
“Milady Freya,” I began. “Are we going to discuss the battle plan?”
“Aye, Sannyr. Loki, Heimdall, and Thor will be there, as well as myself. We have some intelligence to show you before you craft your plan of attack.”
“That’s good. Thank you, Milady.”
“It won’t be long now... look!” Freya said, pointing. “They’re waiting for us! Hail, and well met, brothers!”
“Hail, sisters!” Loki replied, grinning.
“Loki... Didn’t we agree to try and keep that quiet until after the mission?” Heimdall replied, sighing heavily.
“I assure you, Heimdall, there is no one here except us – not even my right hand, Rae.”
“Good!” Thor laughed. “She hears almost as much as you do, little brother.”
Loki smiled, a bit thinly. “Which is by design, brother.”
“Now, now,” Freya interrupted. “Let’s not fight. We have a mission to plan – so let’s get on with the briefing.”
I nodded to Loki. “Thank you, Milord Loki...”
“Nonsense, Sannyr. We are family now – all of us. The Milord’s and Milady’s won’t be needed much longer, at least for you. Please, at least for me, dispense with them for this meeting.”
“Of course, Loki. As you wish.” I smiled. Loki might be a trickster god, but he was polite – and he was the only one to welcome me as an equal – which I knew I wasn’t yet – not by a long shot. I wonder what his game is? I also couldn’t help but notice Thor did not look like the actor inspired by him on Earth – this Thor was a giant bear of a man with shaggy red hair and a beard, who looked like a professional weightlifter – chunky around the middle, built like a refrigerator – not like a body builder.
Heimdall motioned to a hologram of a spacecraft, apparently hovering on the dark side of the moon in lunar orbit around Earth. “This is the Krell Warship. It appears your first attack on it, damaged it badly, and it seems to be affecting repairs on the dark side of Midgard’s moon. It’s engines in particular seem damaged – which is why we suspect it hasn’t jumped out of the system to report to Krell High Command. We need to get your teams on board that vessel, and rescue our people, then blow the ship to Hel.”
“What forces will I have at my command, Heimdall?” I asked, Siri subtly guiding me in the background with whispers.
“Risking too many forces to their weapon would be foolish – but if we send too few, they’ll realize something is very wrong. I was thinking perhaps two Valkyries, plus yourself, and maybe a heavy company of Einherjar – perhaps 120 or so. Enough to send the message that we’re there to fight – and not enough to panic them into attempting to flee.” Heimdall handed me a tablet computer with the pertinent details about my units and our firepower, as reference.
That was close to the same number that went up against them last time... And we catastrophically got our butts kicked. This time, we knew about the weapon though – and I had an idea. “When we approach, we need to be in three groups – one from left high, one from right low, and one from out center, pushing them closer to the moon’s gravitational well. We need to be dispersed – so that the weapons area of effect can only hit a few of us at once – the fewer the better. It will weaken our attack – but protect our forces. We move in, inside the range of their cannon – and let the Einherjar destroy their point defence while the Valkyries and I punch a hole in their hull and lead a party inside to rescue our people. Once our people are free and away, I return to disable the ship – and “accidentally” get hit by their cannon... that way, no matter what happens to me, the rest of the mission is completed. If I live, I’ll destroy the ship. If not, my seconds will.”
“And how will they destroy the ship, especially if you are disabled, Sannyr?” Freya asked curiously.
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“When we go aboard to rescue our people, I’ll instruct the Einherjar to bring and set heavy explosive charges on their ship – preferably in critical places. When we leave, I’ll make sure I and my seconds have the detonator. That plus a frontal assault at full power should do what we hope for and destroy the ship.”
“How much of that plan was you, Sannyr, and how much was Sigrid, if I might ask?” Heimdall asked.
“About 50/50, Heimdall. Sigrid made the general battle plan – it was my idea to leave behind the explosives to finish them off.” I replied. “I also came up with the dispersion idea, but it was Siri’s idea to push the enemy ship into the gravitational well so their jump drives would be more likely to malfunction if used.”
“It’s a good plan. Bold, but sneaky. I like it.” Thor laughed, his big shoulders shaking as he chuckled. “I have one thing to add. I will be in the system as well. If – and I mean IF you fail, and the Krell ship is not destroyed, I will finish it with a strike from my hammer, Mjolnir. Don’t worry for my safety – I will stay far out of range of that ships weapon, until we see what happens when it strikes you. I’m sorry to have you do this – it smacks of cowardice to me – but my father has commanded it be so.”
“It’s alright, Thor.” I said. “I made an oath to serve the Aesir, and I meant it. Besides, I’m going to do my damnedest to survive. My life might be messed up right now, but I’m not eager to see it end. I’ll blow those bastards to dust bunnies. In space.”
Thor laughed again, and I even earned a grin from Heimdall, Loki and Freya. An unspoken message seemed to pass between them – but if there was, I was not privy to it. As one, they nodded.
“You’re ready, Child. Siri knows how to transport yourself and the troops. Listen to her guidance – and if you must, let her take control if she needs it. I believe – we believe that you can do this. Make us proud.” Freya said gently. “Dismissed.”
I nodded, and saluted Freya and the others, turned crisply on my heel, and walked out. I could only wonder what they were thinking or saying, but I think I comported myself and our plan well. I realized, though, that I didn’t know what to do next. Siri?
*You did well, Sannyr.* Siri began. *We need to check on the status of our troops, and find the Valkyries who are our lieutenants. Let’s look at the computer Heimdall gave us and check the details.*
“It looks like Grainne and Deanna are our Valkyries – both capable leaders, but not at our old rank of Battle-leader either. Do you know either of them?”
*I’ve heard of Grainne a little – a bit of a hot head, but good in a crisis. I don’t know much about Deanna other than she’s capable and does her job.*
“Okay, we can work with that. We’ve also got 120 Einherjar with a heavy armor and heavy weapons loadout – and it looks like we need to hit the armory and get some new gear too – it says you’re due an upgrade!”
*Sweeeeet! You would not believe some of the toys the Twelve get to play with, Sannyr! Oh my gods! Muahahaha!* Siri squeed, and I laughed – she sounded like a 10 year old girl on Christmas morning mixed with a demented mad scientist!
“I’ll make sure we stop by. The Op begins as soon as everyone is ready – which gives us about 40 minutes to get geared up and address the troops. We’d better get moving.”
* * *
The armory of Asgard was as breathtaking as Siri promised! I wasn’t a warrior born, but even I was geeking out over some of the weapons in the Aesir’s vault – there were guns of all kinds, from every era of humanity, as well as some science fiction weapons as well – but Valkyries were more picky than their Einherjar brethren... Siri directed me over to the melee weapons – and was busy deciding whether to take a spear of radiance – a spear that fired what appeared to be high powered lasers of some kind, or a sword that sheathed itself in sonic energy and could cut through solid steel.
“At the risk of quoting a meme, Siri, why not take both? Surely you’ve earned a few upgrades?”
*You really think I should?* Siri asked, plagued by indecision for the first time since I met her.
“Yes, definitely. Take both – and see if we can get some upgrades to your armor while we’re at it.”
*I thought you thought my armor was stupid.* She joked to me.
“I thought it looked stupid on me. Now, unfortunately, it’ll look awesome on us. If I have to wear it, we might as well have the best Asgard can offer. Maybe we’ll even survive this insane mission?”
*Good idea!* Siri put the Spear of Radiance in her cart, along with the Thunderblade, and wheeled the cart over towards the many dozen racks of armor – bypassing the vast majority of the suits as beneath her rank and station. Finally, we came to the armor she wanted to see – and gods help me, it seemed to cover less than her old armor did, if the mannequin wearing the armor was any judge.
“Is it normal for Valkyries to wear LESS the higher rank they are?” I asked in disbelief.
*Yeah, kinda. The less skilled ones need more coverage – the better you are the less armor coverage you need. Duh.*
I shook my head at the logic, but decided it was wasn’t worth fighting Siri on the subject. “Okay – so what’s better about this armor than your armor?”
*Well, the specs are close to the same for the level of protection – but this one has a couple of boosts. It has a regenerative shield, which means if we get shot at, the damage hurts the shield first, and us only once its depleted. That would have helped a lot against the Krell in the sand pit. It also has a minor regenerative ability that will heal us slowly while we wear it. It’s not as good as my healing power by a long shot – but if we’re so pressed in battle I don’t have time to heal, it might just save our life – which kind of means your life, Sannyr.*
“In that case, I guess we’ll take it.” I laughed, grinning. “I’m all for not dying, but this ‘wearing less the better you get’ is going to take a LOT of getting used to. Does the armor have a concealment mode, or can it become a full suit if we want to disguise our ability?”
*Yes... but why would we want to use it?*
“Well, one – for modesty, and two, for trickery so that they don’t realize how skilled we are. We might lull a few of them off their guard that way. Plus it might make me feel better..... Hey, wait! Our armor could have done that at any time, couldn’t have it?”
*Yup. I was wondering when you’d figure that out.*
I thought about being outraged, and fuming, and almost actually pouted I was so annoyed – but I realized it was pointless. I didn’t ask. Now I knew. And anytime I wanted, I could have Siri’s sexy armor cover up. No harm done. “I guess I should have asked, huh?”
*I guess.* She laughed too. *Not too mad?*
“Nah. Let’s go get this stuff checked out. We’ve got a mission to do.”
She nodded (with my head) and we went off towards the quartermaster to show them our new acquisitions. I don’t know the value of what we took – but the quartermaster started to sweat and looked at us with panic in his eyes – until he saw the copy of Draupnir – Odin’s golden ring – on our finger... Once he saw that, we breezed through without a hitch, and he even saluted us on our way out. I guess rank hath its privileges is real? Siri and I smirked as we headed back to the mission prep area, where our troops were undoubtedly waiting.
It was time to kill some Krell.