Prime Valkyrie

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “I’ll move them up here if you three can stack them at the back of the car.” I gestured to the small shelf at the back of the vehicle. It could only fit two of the cells side by side with maybe one more stacked on top.

  I ran to the rear of the office, grabbed three more cells, and then shuffled to the car. The women loaded the three cells they had already moved in the back of the vehicle, and they took one more off my stack to make it an even four. Then they put the last two on the rear passenger seats.

  “I’ll go with you to the side door. We’ll have two stacks there because I think those fuckers will come in that way.” I pointed to the spot where I’d just set the other pods, and then I jumped back into the shotgun seat.

  Waiola drove the car back to the side door, and I yanked the cells out as quickly as I could. My shoulder argued with me when I reached for each one, but the pain was slowly fading, and it had stopped protesting when I placed the last cell in a stack next to the door.

  “Wait,” I said as I held my hand out to Waiola and stepped toward the closed door. I didn’t want to open it because they might see me, but I also needed to get a better feel for how much more time we had left.

  I cracked open the door and saw that it has started to snow. The weather was a bit of a blessing because I could make out the thrusters on the rear parts of the soldier’s armor and see their exact position, but they were going to have a harder time seeing me open the door. The Vaish warriors were moving away from one of the hangar buildings and floating toward the structure three positions removed from me. I did a bit of mental math and figured that we had maybe four more minutes until they got to our building.

  But then one of the Vaish floated around the corner of the hangar right next to ours.

  The heavily armored warrior was only thirty meters away, and it was apparent that he or she saw me. They raised their plasma rifle, and I threw closed the door.

  “Go! Go!” I yelled to Waiola as I jumped in the trunk of the car. She peeled out, and the vehicle rocketed away from the door two seconds before the armored warrior kicked it open.

  I was already lifting up my shotgun from my strap, and I squeezed the fuck out of the weapon’s trigger. A flurry of shells ripped out of my barrel and flew into the stacks of power cells I’d put next to the door. I half expected them not to erupt, but they did.

  And as the car Waiola and I rode in lifted two meters off the floor of the hangar, I realized I might have stacked a bit too many cells by the door.

  The power of the blast almost made my face feel like it had been melted off, but it was just a brief sensation caused by the purple tinted explosion that the cells made. What hurt more was when the car landed back on the floor of the hangar. Waiola let out a scream, and I was thrown free of the vehicle. I came down hard on my right shoulder, and the injury screamed through my nerves.

  I didn’t have much time to agonize. I knew that the explosion had killed the warrior at the door, and I raised my shotgun to cover the entrance. It was now a swirling ball of purple fire, and the metal sides of the hangar were starting to melt.

  Along with the top beams that were holding the structure together.

  “Shit.” I could feel the incredible heat coming off the flame from across the hangar, and I guessed it was going to consume the building, or at least melt enough of it so that it collapsed.

  We needed to get out of here, but the only exit was the roll-up door, and the other soldiers would be waiting for us. We were fucked either way; the other soldiers had to have heard the explosion. They surely saw the flames and would be heading over here in a few seconds.

  “Open up the roller door and get into the car!” I shouted at Hegeia and Uma. They were both peering out at the fire from the office, and I doubted they could hear me over the roar of the flames, but they understood my hand gestures and started to run toward the control panel for the roll-up door.

  “Waiola,” I said to her after I sprinted to the car. “Drive out the door, make a left to go around the opposite side of the building, then we are going to take the back route around to the other hangars.” I motioned with my hand when I spoke and prayed that she understood me.

  “Run!” I shouted at Hegeia and Uma after they hit the button to open the roll-up door. The metal began to lift, but a quick glance up told me it might not be able to raise completely. The purple flames were already eating into the sides of the hangar near the roll-up gearing.

  I got in the rear left seat, grabbed the support bar for the car’s roof, and then pivoted back out with my shotgun pointed back to the entrance. I’d felt certain that the soldier in the fire had died, but I also half expected him to walk out of the flames and start shooting at us.

  Uma jumped into the passenger seat, and Waiola slammed on the accelerator pedal as soon as Hegeia followed her. The tires chirped, the car tilted as Waiola twisted the wheel, and then we shot toward the roll-up door.

  I stepped up on the back trunk part of the car so I could see over the roof. The flame had reached the side of the winding roll-up door, but the motor was still working, and the door was raising.

  “Faster!” I screamed, even though I knew that Waiola was pushing the pedal down as hard as she could. We still had about seventy meters to go though, and my stomach dropped when the roll-up door jerked to a stop.

  The metal of the hangar let out a death screech, and I saw the front corner began to twist away from us.

  “Go faster! Just punch out! Go to the main building!” I yelled, but I knew the order was next to useless. Even if Waiola understood me, and drove straight out of the hangar at full speed instead of slowing to turn around the corner, there would just be a group of warriors waiting for us. They would fry us with their plasma rifles before we could get away.

  Then the roll-up door slowly began to lower, and I feared we wouldn’t even make it out of the melting hangar.

  Waiola and Hegeia screamed as we shot toward the lowering door. One moment it looked like we had enough speed to make it out, the next it seemed as if we were going to slam right into the metal.

  I ducked my head down under the roofline of the car and prayed that we’d make it out. Then I felt the bottom edge of the door whizz by my head, the cold air hit my face, and the snowy sky filled my vision. My heart leapt for joy, but then it got caught in my throat when I saw the advancing group of armored warriors. They were flying toward the swiftly melting hangar, and I saw the glowing eyes of their helmets turn toward our speeding car.

  “Fuck,” I growled as the group of power armored figures raised their rifles toward us. They were still about a hundred meters away, and our car was tearing ass down the road between the main airport building and the melting hangar, but I had no doubt that they would be able to hit us with plasma.

  The women screamed as the Vaish rifles fired. I had thought they were plasma, but the guns sprayed very tiny bits of power, instead of the giant orbs or beams I was used to seeing. The shots almost looked like glowing bullets, and Waiola turned the wheel to avoid the first spray of shots they sent in our direction.

  One of the bullets hit the roof of the car and burnt a path through the metal. Another bullet parted the air between the women and me. Another brushed across the top of the car’s front hood, but the remaining smashed into the ground behind us.

  Their next shots would be closer to the mark.

  I pointed my shotgun in their direction but figured it would be next to futile. I was a great shot, but my targets were a hundred meters away, I was on the back of a speeding car, and the other soldiers were zipping around on thrusters. Shotguns weren’t the most accurate of weapons. I still squeezed my trigger, and I sent as many shots as I could into the group. I got a few hits on the pair closest to us, but those just confirmed my belief that their armor was too strong.

  “Faster!” I screamed at Waiola. We were actually gaining some distance on them, and I had a small shred of hope we might be able to get to the main airport structure.

  Then
the armored warriors let out another volley of glowing bullets, and they were right on target.

  The women screamed as the bullets tore through the front part of the car, the roof, the sides, and the wheels. I expected to feel a hot flash of pain or to see blood spray across the road from one of the women, but the swarm of bullets somehow managed to miss us. The car had taken critical damage though, and the combination of destroyed tires and engine was causing us to slow.

  “So close,” I growled as I looked longingly at the main building. It was another three hundred meters away from us. Our only hope was to make the run, but the floating warriors behind us were closing fast.

  This was it. I was out of luck. Now I just had one decision to make: did I want to die in my human form or my tiger-man form?

  “Adam!” I heard Waiola scream, and then the approaching warriors disappeared in a blast of dark reddish-purple plasma fire. It was a massive blast that destroyed almost a two hundred square meter area. I could feel the heat of the blast, and the force of its impact caused the slowing car to lurch forward.

  I turned up to the sky and felt the air leave my lungs.

  Persephone.

  She spun through the air like a stunt plane and then lobbed another round of plasma down toward the ground. Three craft were chasing Persephone, and her spin in the air had enabled her to dodge all of their plasma blasts. For half a moment, I was almost dumbstruck by the sight of the beautiful manta ray spacecraft, but then I saw her rear cannons return fire on the ships chasing her, and my mind returned its focus to the task at hand.

  “Run to the building!” I shouted to the women as I leapt from the back of the car. They were still looking at the dogfight in the air, but they ejected from the car and followed me in a mad dash across the tarmac.

  Thunderous blasts and the sound of engines roaring threatened to deafen us, and I spared a glance up to see that Persephone was now engaged with four other craft. They were smaller vessels, but whoever was piloting my ship was a master, and the waves of plasma shots seemed to part the air just moments after Persephone made aggressive banking maneuvers.

  I looked down from the sky so I could focus on the building ahead. It might have been a terrible idea to try and take shelter there, but staying out in the open was a worse option. At least inside, we’d have some kind of visual cover.

  Then I saw the group of armored warriors from the dropship hover around the corner of the main building. They were still about a kilometer away, but it was obvious that they could see us since we were still in the open.

  I glanced up to Persephone and saw a pair of figures jump out of the starship. They both plummeted through the dark air, but I could see a faint outline of blue energy around their armor. Then purple colored energy thrusters fired from their backs, and they spun like plummeting corkscrews.

  I didn’t know how, but I knew it was Madalena and Lux. I could feel the Prime Valkyrie’s presence from the sky just like I could feel someone breathing in my ear, and through Madalena, I could feel Lux’s presence.

  “Down!” I yelled to the women as the distant soldiers fired their weapons at us. They weren’t very accurate from this distance, but the spray of blue-tinted energy bullets was still way too close for comfort. If we had not dived onto the tarmac, one of them might have hit us.

  Then Madalena and Lux’s energy bullets tore into the group.

  It was like a rain of energy, or an orbital strike from an armada. An impossible amount of shots seemed to descend on the cluster of warriors in the distance. Their armor melted under the fire, and the ground turned into a black lava soup.

  “Adam! More ships!” Hegeia screamed after we all got back on our feet. I followed her finger to the sky behind us and saw the other three drop ships heading toward us from the city.

  “Fucking shit,” I groaned. “Keep running to the main building.”

  We set off again, but I kept my eyes on the sky. Persephone was still engaged with the smaller ships, and it looked like they were fighting each other to a bit of a stalemate. The enemy vessels couldn’t seem to pin her down with a shot because she was twirling and dancing through the air in a manner that wasn’t allowing Madalena’s crew to get an accurate shot off with Persephone’s cannons.

  The Prime Valkyrie and Lux were still falling through the air, but their trajectory had changed so that it appeared they were aiming right toward the front entrance of the main airport building. The wing looking thrusters coming out of their backs flared as soon as they were some twenty meters above us, and the surge of energy slowed their fall enough so they dropped before us gracefully. Both of the women had their horrific looking helmets over their heads, but as soon as they landed, the metal turned into liquid, drained from their faces, and then seemed to pool around their neck joints.

  “I have disobeyed your order,” Madalena said before I could open my mouth. Seeing her made my heart skip a few beats, and it felt like someone was squeezing my throat. I had missed her, and I was angry at myself for feeling that way.

  “What the fuck is going on?” I gasped as my eyes focused on the front of her armor, she had a pack strapped there, and I saw my revolver, pistols, and shotgun attached to the outside of the bag.

  “My father is trying to kill you,” she replied evenly. “I apologize for disobeying you. Once I have helped you, you may execute me for my--”

  “Of course he’s trying to kill me! Why? I was going to fucking--”

  “Adam,” Madalena held up her armored hand and pointed to the horizon behind me. I turned and saw each of the three shuttles dropping dozens of armored warriors. They floated to the ground with much less finesse than Magdalena and Lux, but there were at least sixty that I could count. “We do not have much time. Will you follow my instructions for the next few minutes?”

  I turned back to her and met her gray eyes. Once I had thought them cold and emotionless, but now I could feel her passion, desire, and love. It poured from her like alluring perfume, and even though we were in the middle of combat, I still wanted to take her in my arms.

  The emotions made me hate myself.

  “Yeah. Fine. Let’s get through this. Tell me what to do,” I said, and the woman I was bonded to smiled like a lioness.

  Chapter 12

  “We will move to the other side of this building,” Madalena said as she gestured to the main structure. “It will provide us cover from the drop ships. Nikki will bring Persephone low with the hold door open. Lux and I will use our wings to carry you into the hold. Then we will escape.”

  “What about my friends?” I asked as I looked at Hegeia, Uma, and Waiola. I didn’t see them, and then I realized it was because the three women had prostrated themselves in front of Madalena. Their faces were pressed into the tarmac, and I could actually see their shoulders trembling.

  “Leave them. We don’t have time--”

  “No,” I growled. “We take them.”

  “We can only carry you,” Madalena said calmly, and I saw her eyes dart behind me to the approaching legion of armored warriors. These were her clansmen, but she had just killed over twenty of them. What the fuck was going on with her people?

  “There is a shuttle parked on the runway past the building. I was going to steal it; we can fly into Persephone--”

  “You said you would follow my instructions.” Madalena’s eyes narrowed, and I could feel the anger radiate to me through our connection.

  “Your instructions are shit,” I growled at her. “I don’t leave my friends behind. We are taking the shuttle. Hegeia, Uma, and Waiola get up.”

  The women looked up at me, then over to Madalena, and then back at me. The Prime Valkyrie barked three words, and my friends shot to their feet as if Madalena had just kicked them in the asshole.

  “Move,” Madalena sneered to me and then she kicked the front door of the building. They were stout looking double security doors, but they exploded inward as if a semi-truck had driven into them.

  We ran into the building t
hen made a left to head toward the back side where the shuttle was. This was definitely the terminal building for processing passenger flights out of the airport, and the interior was one long corridor with wings that would lead to connector gates.

  Nikki’s voice sounded from Madalena’s armor, and the Prime Valkyrie barked a few words back in their language. I turned to look at Lux, hoping she would translate, but the dark-haired woman just gave me a disapproving look before her skull helmet reformed around her beautiful face.

  My three friends were struggling to keep up with Lux, Madalena, and my running speeds, and I felt the Prime Valkyrie’s annoyance begin to boil over the pot of her conflicting emotions. I knew she wanted to save me, and that she felt terrible about me having to do this rite, but I also felt her anger mixed with love, fear, and sadness. It was too much for me to grasp at once, and I tried to pull my attention away from her. Was this how Eve felt around others? Was she constantly reading minds and sensing their emotions? It seemed like there was another person inside of my head.

  And my heart.

  What the fuck did that submission process do to me?

  “Here,” Madalena said after we had turned the corner at the end of the building, there were a series of windows here, and I could see the shuttle through the snow storm. The craft was a good two-hundred meters away, and there were two warriors still guarding it, but it didn’t seem like they knew we were in the building.

  “Put on your armor,” Madalena said to me as she yanked the bag from her chest and dropped it on the ground. Then she turned to Hegeia, Uma, and Waiola and barked an order in their language.

  “Prime Valkyrie!” they shouted, and then the women began to grab at my clothes.

  “Lux and I will retrieve your shuttle and fly it back here. Be prepared to board.” Madalena’s armored helmet slid back over her face, and the two women jumped through the window. Glass, snow, and cold wind sprayed everywhere, but the three women didn’t even flinch.