Back when we had first visited Earth with our jump packs, I found it sort of entertaining that the humans of that primitive planet viewed those of us from Olympus as Gods at one time too. When we had traveled to their planet in search of the Gods of Asgard so long ago. No matter how many times we assured them we were not Gods, the humans didn't listen.
I found the Vikings of that time intriguing as they were the ones who spawned the stories of the Asgard, and they didn't seem to worship them as such. Instead, our interpretation of their tales is that they fought alongside the Gods instead of bowing to them. The humans have a different interpretation than we had.
Now I know, much to my amusement, most of the stories to be the drunk ramblings of Kara herself as she was stranded on Earth for five thousand years as she waited for the return of her people. Those ramblings are what brought us to Earth to search for the Asgard when our scout, Magnus, heard them in ancient Rome.
My Valkyrie sister is a source of endless amusement for me, especially when she tries to be all serious all the time.
Arina knocked me out of my musings as she relayed back to the camp. “Forward diplomatic detachment, taking position at point Alpha.” The data she was streaming to them included the map with the point she designated Alpha and all vehicle flight profiles and actual scans of the Citadel behind the coherent holographic shroud.
I'd have laughed at the absurdity of it all if it wasn't equally as frightening how exposed we were because of what little I have shared with the Asgard about our technology. Because if a peace-loving race like them could use that information to do this, then an enemy could do more if the information fell into the wrong hands.
Mother and father are going to have a tyching fit when they learn I have broken the first edict, but I have brought the Gods of Asgard we had sought for so long, so they may forgive my impulsiveness.
I had to smile at the dichotomy of the Asgard. They were created by the Jotunn to study why they failed with the Olympians to breed a warrior race to fight the Titans. So the aggression centers of their brains are stunted, and they abhor violence of any kind, yet they have a fire deep inside that is unmatched in the galaxy when they are backed into a corner. So this peaceful race has bred the most dangerous killers of all the inhabited worlds to secure that peace and protect their own. Entire civilizations were formed around the attempt to defeat the fabled Valkyrie and to secure the technology the Asgard posses.
The irony of it all is that by creating what they believed was a passive race to study, the Frost Giants may have inadvertently created the weapon of their own destruction.
We touched down as I gazed upon the familiar facade of the mountain towering above us, and my chest tightened. I was happy in Valhalla, but this... this was home. I shared a smile with Arina, and she smiled back in that way that told you of that inner peace and joy she possessed in spades. She shrugged one shoulder and asked, pursing her lips, “Now what?”
She said, “Now... we wait. If we approach the Citadel, the defense cannons will make short work of us.” Her smirk had me rolling my eyes at her humor. “Well fine, smartass, they'd make short work of any of us without your impenetrable shield. They know we are here. I've no doubt they have been tracking us since we crested the canopy at the River Styx. I'd just hail them if they hadn't rotated the frequencies on me.”
She squished her lips to one side and exhaled through her nose. “Not as epic a homecoming as you expected, is it?”
I chuckled. “No, no it isn't, but when the foot patrols arrive, they will recognize me.”
She asked, “So, do your people make a habit of just vaporizing anyone who gets close to your Citadel without knowing their intentions?”
I shrugged seeing the sour look on her face. “Pretty much. You have to realize that we are at war for our very existence, have been since before your people existed. We have survived so long solely by keeping ourselves hidden.”
Arina considered that and nodded. She wasn't pleased, but she saw the necessity. It was the same necessity the Asgard had when they created the first Valkyrie to defend themselves against the Ragnarok.
She started to say something but instead was suddenly on guard as she spun around with her shield blooming around her like a great bubble. I saw it try to reach me, but with the limited magnetic force her nanites could harvest for her, she didn't have enough power to engulf me where I stood just fifteen feet from her. It stopped about five feet away.
I spun on instinct as her Verr fed my heads-up display tactical information on two targets in the trees behind us on the edge of the clearing, moving at inhuman speeds. I drew my bow and a vibro-arrow in one motion as I spun.
My systems tracked the hypersonic arrow inbound, and some subsonic javelins. I could react in milliseconds, but it awed me that Arina had been faster, her shield had come up at the speed of thought. Faster maybe if her Verr had raised it instead of her.
I dove into the air as a vibro-arrow struck her shield and deflected to the left, the distortion in the air showing the orb shape of her bubble. I twisted between the two incoming javelins and felt the harmonic vibration in the air as they passed by a hairs breath from my body as I spun. I loosed an arrow just as I caught sight of the other archer in the underbrush, but not before they had loosed a second volley.
I tracked the two arrows as they passed by each other. Whoever it was was good. They had tried to hit my unprotected flank under my raised bow by using Arina's shield to ricochet their shot.
It pushed my enhanced reflexes to their limit, but I was able to snag the incoming shot out of the air as I spun again, leaping up on top of Arina's shield and loosing the archer's arrow back at them. They were still dodging the first arrow I had aimed at the ground by their feet to avoid my second shot that struck their bow, cleaving it in half, sending power lancing everywhere when the power supply blew, sending them tumbling back into a tree.
Kroth, I didn't want to hurt anyone. I flipped to land in front of Arina, I heard her over coms as I loosed two arrows in rapid succession after batting two javelins aside with my bow. The second attacker flew back, pinned to a tree by their stealth cloak. “Um... basecamp, we've made contact, just saying hello now.”
I would have laughed at her comment as I ran forward at my top speed toward the first attacker who was regaining their feet far faster than I would have thought.
I was yelling, “Would you stop for a moment? I don't want to hurt you.”
Spinning away from them as I arrived and they spun on me with an arrow in each hand swinging at me. I kicked one away and spun into the archer, my back to their front, and slammed my bow back into their gut before spinning to the side, wrenching the arrow from their grip. I ended my spin in a flying roundhouse kick that had them slamming into the tree again and falling to the ground. I leapt and pinned them to the ground, my bow drawn, their own arrow in their face.
I muttered, “Zeus' balls, man! Stop fighting. I am Artemis, firstborn of Hera.” I pulled the hood of my cloak back so he could see my face. And what was a male doing with weapons? He wasn't one of the Twelve.
The archer stopped struggling, and I got the first look at his face. He was a pretty man, a mix of masculine and feminine. Kat would have called him androgynous. I could feel the bulky muscle under his cloak. He looked so very familiar, with his bright red hair, but I couldn't place his name. That was frightening because I had perfect recall, how could I not know him? Was he a new child of Olympus? Were they growing our numbers again, at the risk of degradation of our genome?
The huge smile on his face, when I saw recognition in his eyes, had me second guessing myself. “Artemis? Is it really you?” I felt... something stirring under his cloak which had me rolling off of him to my feet, still aiming at him.
“Control yourself, man.” I chastised as I felt a burn on my cheeks. The man was aroused in battle?
He smirked then said as I saw Arina walking calmly to help the other Olympian I had pinned and helpless against a tree, �
��Artie, we thought you passed to the sands of time when you did not return from Folkvangr. Zeus has quarantined that planet, believing the Frost Giants to have taken it.”
Artie? Only one person ever called me that, but she was not... I narrowed my eyes, taking in the man's features then my eyes went wide in the shock of realization as I asked in disbelief, “Caenis?”
She smiled in genuine amusement as ummm... he – said, “It is Caeneus now, Artie. Much has happened since you left Olympus.” Ok, her arousal... his arousal was a little more understandable now.
Caenis and I had that running 'on again, off again' intimate relationship over the eons. Most of us avoided intimate relationships because of our unique procreative situation, not being able to choose who we bred with. So any extracurricular relationships consisted mostly of same-sex relationships, so there were no accidental births.
I heard myself murmuring, “But... you're a man? How?”
Umm... he put out an arm, and I reached out and pulled him to his feet. The pronouns were already making my head spin. How had the overtly feminine Caenis become male, and fully functional as I had just inadvertently found?
He chuckled as I stared at him, seeing my old lover inside him. Ok, I had to smile at the smirk on his face as he wiggled his brows. It was a smirk I was quite used to seeing from her. It was that humor that kept me coming back to her over the eons.
I glanced over at the sound of Arina chastising, “Please, stop that, allow me to assist you.” She was trying to pull the arrows from the tree as the other scout was repeatedly side kicking her as she worked. The reactive cloak was sparking as the damaged camouflage circuits shorted around the arrows. The scout's blows struck harmlessly as her nano-lattice flared.
She ignored their attacks and with the strength of a Valkyrie, she pulled the arrows with no effort at all. It was frightening how strong she was. The average Asgard citizen, being heavy worlders, were almost as strong as an Olympian, but the Valkyrie easily eclipsed our strength.
I recognized the auburn haired woman who dove at Arina as she freed her. She was Peitho, second born. And Arina was looking at her like she was daft as the scout started hitting her to no avail as the blue net of nano-lattice flared.
The Little One grabbed the front of Peitho's cloak, concern on her face as she lifted her into the air with one hand to hold her at a distance. “Please Miss, desist, or you may harm yourself on my lattice.”
It was possibly the most humorous thing I have seen in a long time. Poor Arina dangling the woman like a doll in concern for her welfare.
Both Caeneus and I were chuckling as I called out, “For Hera's sake Pie, would you stop?”
The woman hesitated at the nickname and stopped struggling as she looked over. She always looked so young to me though all our aging stopped at twenty-five. She may be small but was one of the best javelin women we had. She whispered, her face going slack, “Artemis? But you're dead.”
I exhaled. “Do I look dead to you? Arina, the Whispering Breeze, is an ally to Olympus, will you behave now?”
The silly secondborn looked between me and Caeneus who nodded once then she went slack in Arina's grip, and she set her down. She said over her shoulder to us though her wide eyes were on Arina, “She possesses the strength of the Jotunn.”
I shook my head. “No, but her strength is superior to ours.” Then I made the introductions, “Caeneus, Peitho... this is Arina the Whispering Breeze, First Valkyriefrior of Valhalla, and daughter of Odin of Asgard.”
Shock registered on their faces as Arina beamed and offered a forearm in greeting to Peitho, “Well met.”
But then she looked almost panicked as the two dropped to a knee, giving a centurion's salute with their fists on their chests, their eyes diverted down as Caeneus whispered to me, “You did it, Artie. You found the Gods of Asgard.”
Chapter 3
Gods Reunited
A whirlwind of activity followed after Caeneus called it in. I noted the data feed Arina's Verr were sending me showed her nanites had locked onto the current stealth whisper frequency and encoding Caeneus used, and my systems updated. Like I said, it was scary the tech the Asgard possessed. I could hear all the coms traffic, and it was surprisingly a relief to hear it.
Cloaked land skimmer scout vessels were sent to retrieve us, and I dreaded what was to come next when we passed through the coherent photon projection of a mountain, and I saw Zeus and Hera waiting at the heavily fortified gates of the Citadel. Auto-defense cannons tracking us and all other motion outside the shroud.
Theoretically, each of those cannons were designed to destabilize the bond between molecules of the impenetrable Jotunn armor worn by the Frost Giants and Titans, if a burst could be sustained for long enough. They had been tested on the pieces of that armor taken off of the discarded mechanical automatons and hybrids that hunted endlessly in the jungle. But as had been pointed out, many of us doubted a Jotunn opponent would wait around long enough to allow their armor to destabilize.
That being said, they still packed a punch and could vaporize anything that didn't possess Jotunn tech, or, as the case would likely be, Asgard nano-lattice as it, like Arina's shields, absorbed and converted any type of energy to strengthen itself.
Arina looked over at me as we sat in the open air vehicle and approached the gates. Female armed and armored guards flanking them with unarmed men, who were skilled hand to hand combatants, standing at the ready.
The two armed male exceptions in the party being father with his energy weapon and the Bolt of Zeus on his back, and my brother Hephaestus with his own energy weapon, and a half dozen vibro-spears on his back. He has always been the largest of us all in both height and bulk, born from the forges where he worked the weapons we used to defend our race. Both Zeus and Hephaestus were members of the Twelve Olympians. The twelve men who were not affected by the lure of the Titan's mind controlling pheromones.
Hep had a smug but welcoming smirk on his face that sort of reminded me of Caenis'. He was just as glad to see rumors of my death had been premature, as I was to see him. The brat.
It was mother and father I was nervous to see. I had always felt I was a disappointment to them, as I always tried to find excuses to avoid the mating couplings after my first ten children. Always volunteering to use the jump packs to space fold on our endless quest to find Valhalla, or to document the fall of civilizations to the Jotunn. As firstborn, I had first right of refusal to the missions.
I knew they were displeased I had used their own laws against them to avoid what they saw as my duty, but I just felt there had to be a better way. And the other races have shown me it is possible.
Eros has always been their favorite, and I felt as if I were a consolation prize once he was spirited away into slavery by Rhea and the siren's lure of the Titans. And here I was, arriving millennia late from my last mission. I knew that even though I brought the Asgard, I would see the disappointment in their eyes.
As the skimmer settled on the ground twenty yards from them, I hesitated when we stood to disembark, Hera was wringing her hands in a nervous habit she has had since I can remember, and there was anxious disbelief and hope painting her face.
I had expected that dispassionate, disappointed scolding look I have come to know as her default look for me. She looked so elegant in her robes, that double vibrating curved bladed sickle on her hip, the energy sniper rifle on her back. If it weren't for the weight of ruling and the sad wisdom in her eyes which belied her youthful appearance, she looked similar to what I saw in the mirror every morning. She could be my sister.
But she was the mother of our race. All who were came from her. So we were all her children, and that was apparent the way she has fought to defend us over the eons at father's side. Where Zeus had been our default ruler, after the Thinning, and men could not be fully trusted, Hera took up more of a leadership role.
It was sad really, that shadow of mistrust of men. Knowing that at any moment, Rhea or her people co
uld just make them willingly walk into slavery. All except the Twelve. But that would change. I had hope. With the antigen Arina brought with the expedition, Olympus would be free of that threat and free of that mistrust of our own brethren.
Father stood there, unreadable as ever. We stepped to the ground, and that is when they saw Arina. In a wave, all weapons were drawn, following Zeus' lead as he drew our ultimate weapon from his back. The lightning bolt-shaped energy weapon that threw bolts of compressed obsidian matter streams so dense they formed artificial point singularities as they devoured their target.
He has waited for eons to test it on the Titan armor. It has performed well on the samples we obtained from the hybrids. But even if it worked successfully on a Titan, it took ten hours to cycle its power for another blast, so it was essentially a one-shot weapon in any battle.
I slid in front of my Asgard sister, an arrow on the energy string of my bow, as I aimed down the shaft at the Bolt of Zeus as I hissed out, “Father! She is a friend to Olympus!”
Every weapon shifted from Arina to me.
His voice boomed out, “You bring a stranger to the Citadel, Artemis? You would draw upon me?”
I said, “I would defend my friend, even if that means destroying the Bolt. She is one of the Gods of Asgard!”
He wavered, looking at me in disbelief to the tall blonde behind me. Hera's eyes had never left mine as all of this transpired and she reached a hand out slowly and placed it on the Bolt and made father lower it.
Her voice was dulcet and unwavering, which had always made her seem more commanding than if she boomed out her orders like Zeus did. “Asgard?”
I nodded as Arina stepped to my side as I lowered my bow. I looked at her. She looked stressed over the confrontation. I took her hand by the fingertips, as if she were royalty, and led her to stand in front of my parents. Hera looked around in annoyance and made a lowering motion, and my sisters lowered their weapons.
Tales From Olympus: Gods Reunited Page 4