Beyond the Shroud of the Universe (32 page)

“All right boys and girls,” Gunnery Sergeant ‘The Wall’ Dantone said, leaving a small part of the door uncut to hold it in place. “Let’s see what’s behind Door Number One.” The cyborg retracted his cutting laser and reached back over his shoulder to pull out his Hooolong pulse rifle. As it spun up to speed, he leaned back and kicked the door in…right into the face of the creature waiting for them.

The creature’s weapon was jarred out of its claws as it fired, sending a blast of light into the overhead.

Already leveled and ready, The Wall’s pulse rifle fired 30 rounds into the alien, striking it in the chest of the ‘human’ half of the creature and nearly severing it. The creature crashed to the floor where it lay kicking. It emitted a high pitched shrieking noise that left goose bumps on some of the humans in the group until The Wall strode over and fired a three round burst into its head.

The legs kicked a few more times then went still.

“Fuck me,” Sergeant Marcus ‘Spud’ Murphy said, looking up at the ceiling. “That weapon had some punch. It melted a hole six inches deep into the overhead, and it’s metal.” He watched another drop of liquid metal fall from the ceiling. It sizzled when it hit the deck. “Just think what that would do to you.”

“Any idea what that was, Wall?” Lieutenant O’Leary asked. “You had the best view.”

“No idea, sir,” The Wall said. “Some sort of directed-energy weapon more powerful than our lasers, at least up close. Maybe a particle-beam weapon of some sort; I don’t know. All I know is I
don’t
want to get hit with one.”

“No shit,” Spud said. “And just think what it would do to us poor biologicals.”

“
Lieutenant Commander Hobbs, we just found our first living alien,
” Lieutenant O’Leary commed. “
They can take a lot of hits before they go down. Be advised, they also have some sort of particle-beam weapon that can melt metal. Recommend extreme caution.
”

“
Aside from not opening any of the doors, I don’t think we can be any more cautious,
” Calvin said. “
Keep looking for the bridge or engineering.
”

“
All right, you heard Lieutenant O’Leary,
” Calvin said. “
Watch out for their weapons.
”

“
Always good advice,
” Gunnery Sergeant Stasik said.

“
What did he say they had?
” Corporal Sam ‘Mental’ Ward asked.

“
Particle-beam weapons,
” Gunny Stasik replied. “
It’s a weapon that shoots a high-energy beam of atomic or subatomic particles. The particles have massive amounts of kinetic energy and cause catastrophic superheating when they hit you. Aside from disrupting your atomic or molecular structure, it will also hurt like hell and probably kill you, depending on where it hits. Just try not to get shot, all right?
”

“
You got it, Gunny,
” Mental replied.

“
We’ve got them,
”
Shuttle 02’s
WSO, Lieutenant Thomas ‘Mays’ Yilmaz, said. “
Proceeding on mission.
”

“
Copy that,
” Jamming said as the other shuttle jumped to the Jinn Universe. The transfer of the two soldiers to the other shuttle had gone smoothly and quickly. He looked across the cockpit. “So, where do you want to go?”

“Well, let’s see,” Bucket said. “We could take our unarmed and mostly unarmored shuttle into the middle of a major battle to link back up with the
Gulf
, or we could find somewhere else to sit on the sidelines,
out of the way
, and watch. Maybe even pray that we’ve got a ship to recover on when it’s over. I think I’d rather watch at the moment than try to recover onboard the
Vella Gulf
in the middle of a battle. How about you?”

“Works for me.” Motion on his tactical plot caught his peripheral vision. “Oh, shit! The enemy vessel just jumped back! Come right!
Max power!
”

“Dumbass aliens,” Mays said. “Boy, they can’t make this easy, can they? They just jumped back to our universe.”

“What the hell are they doing?” his pilot, Lieutenant Miguel ‘Ghost’ Carvalho, asked.

“Probably trying to make it difficult for additional forces to land on their ship, I imagine,” Mays replied. “Here we go, jumping back.” He threw the switch and everything flashed as they jumped.

“Oh, shit!” Mays said. “The other shuttle is still here! The enemy ship is firing!”

“They don’t have jump or stealth, do they?”

“No, dammit, they don’t. Either of them. They’re sitting ducks…Aw, fuck.
Shuttle 617
has been destroyed.”

“That’s the last of our missiles,” the OSO said. “That’s all I’ve got, unless you want us to close to graser range.” His tone indicated he didn’t think that was a very good idea.

What a waste, thought Captain Sheppard as he looked at his tactical plot. The three biggest ships in the Terran fleet had been destroyed. The Jotunn had also lost three of their capital ships, including their second battleship when a lucky strike from the
Vella Gulf
hit the armory and the ship detonated. It was impossible to tell how many ships the Aesir had lost from the piles of wreckage floating through local space; it had to be at least 10, as well as their battle station. The tangled remains of the station and the Jotunn dreadnought weren’t good for anything except scrap for the replicators.

And now he was out of missiles. He agreed with the OSO; he had no intention of mixing it up with four ships larger than his own, even if they were all damaged. The Jotunn’s allies hadn’t been seen since they destroyed the
Yamato
, but he expected them to pop up at any moment to complicate his life. All he had to fight them with were his grasers, which meant running them down across two universes. That should be fun.

And the fighters? He was at a loss for what to do with all of the fighters.

The battle had gone on for over 24 hours now, and he was dead tired. His decisions were starting to be suspect…and now he was so tired that he had begun talking to himself.

What else could go wrong?

“Sir, one of the Jotunn battlecruisers is calling,” said the communications officer. “It’s the
Soaring Eagle.
”

Never ask what else can go wrong, thought Captain Sheppard. Never. “On screen.”

The image of the Jotunn commander filled the screen.

“I am Fenrir, son of Loki, and captain of the Jotunn ship
Soaring Eagle
,” said the giant.

“I know,” Captain Sheppard said, “We met once before.”

“We did? You puny ones all look alike to me.” Fenrir shrugged. “We seem to be at an impasse. All of our leaders have been killed, and we are out of missiles. Judging from the fact you haven’t fired at us recently, you are out of missiles, as well. I doubt you want to bring your insignificant vessel close enough for us to destroy it, and since you can jump to the other universe, we are unable to make you fight us if you are too afraid to do so. I also haven’t heard from our allies in a while, but they do not seem to be in a hurry to fight you, any more than you want to fight us.”

“That appears to be a pretty accurate assessment of the situation,” Captain Sheppard replied. “What do you suggest we do about it?”

“When I arrived here, I believed this would be the conclusion of Ragnarok; however, Asgard has not been drowned in water as it should have been by now. I suspect you had something to do with that.” He paused, looking for confirmation, but Captain Sheppard just looked at him blankly, neither confirming nor denying.

“Everything else occurred as forecast, but without the drowning of the world, this is not Ragnarok. I must return to my world to form a new council to determine what this means for the prophecy. We will also rearm, and then we will return to finish the conquest.”

He paused and glared at Captain Sheppard. “Make no mistake,” Fenrir continued, “Ragnarok is
not
over, and we
will
return to take back what is rightfully ours. You have only postponed what has been forecast, not prevented it.”

“Yeah, well, I’m kind of tired, so I’ll take ‘postponed’ for now,” Captain Sheppard replied. “Have a nice tribal council, or whatever it is you’re planning on doing. If you think about it, roast a marshmallow over the fire for me. We’ll be waiting for you when you get back.”

“You would be better served to learn manners while I am gone,” Fenrir replied, “or I will pull your disrespectful tongue from your mouth when I return and roast
that
over an open fire.”

“Yeah, okay, buh bye,” Captain Sheppard said. He started to terminate the link, but then another thought came to him. “Hey, when you come back, are you going to bring more of your allies? I’m looking forward to a rematch with them.”

“The Shaitans?” asked Fenrir. “I do not think you want to make them any angrier at you than you already have. They neither forgive, nor forget. You have already destroyed one of their ships; for that, your entire civilization will pay. They will be coming for you, Terran, and they will be coming for you in greater numbers than you will be able to turn away. You will wish you had died here today before they are through with you. Their high lord has decreed that your civilization will be destroyed for your insolence in attacking his forces.”

“As I remember it,” Captain Sheppard said, “they attacked us, but I doubt that’s important any more. I will say one thing for them, at least they are better fighters than you.”

Fenrir’s face went scarlet, and he started to stutter a reply, but Captain Sheppard terminated the connection before he could say anything coherent.

“Was it really wise to antagonize him like that?” Steropes asked.

“Probably not,” the CO said, “but honestly, I’m too tired to care. Besides, at least we now have a name to put on their allies.”

“Speaking of their allies, the other enemy ships just appeared,” the DSO said. “They are at the stargate and it looks like they’re leaving.”

“That is interesting,” Steropes said. “In order for them to already be at the stargate, they must have decided to leave some time ago, certainly well before the Jotunn decided
they
were leaving.”

“What do you suppose that means?” the CO asked.

“Unknown,” Steropes replied. “One thing that can be inferred is that the Jotunn are not in charge of their allies; if anything, it is a loose alliance. It could also be possible the Jotunn are subordinate to the Shaitans.”

“What if the Jotunn told them to leave a while ago, and only told us now?” the OSO asked.

“That is possible also, I guess,” Steropes said. “It seems the nature of their alliance will have to remain a mystery for now.”

“It would seem so,” Captain Sheppard said. “Okay, on to the next mystery. Let’s go find our troopers.”

“
If the dumbass aliens would quit jumping back and forth
,” Mays commed, “
it would make coming to get you a lot easier.
”

“
Understood,
” Calvin replied. “
We’re trying to find the bridge or engineering…something to get them to stop.
”

“
As soon as you do, we’ll be right there for extraction. We wouldn’t mind if you hurried, either, sir; being in stealth this long is eating our fuel pretty quickly. If we don’t get you soon, we won’t be able to make it back to the
Vella Gulf
.
”

“
Yeah, I know. We’re doing what we can.
”

Everything flashed as the ship jumped back to the Jinn Universe.

“This is really starting to piss me off,” Calvin said.

“Hey, sir,” Gunnery Sergeant Jerry ‘Wolf’ Stasik said. “We’ve checked all of the doors on this passageway except the one on the end. They all look like living spaces, or what I think living spaces might look like for cowtaurs.”

“Cowtaurs?” Calvin asked.

“Yeah, the guys said the aliens looked like a cross between a cow and a centaur, or whatever that half-man/half-horse thing was. Cowtaur.”

“Got it,” Calvin said. “All right, let’s see what’s behind the last door. It’s gotta lead somewhere.”

“You heard the man, Ducky,” Wolf said. “Knock it down.”

“Sure thing, Gunny,” Sergeant Declan ‘Ducky’ Jones replied. The cyborg finished his cut and took five steps back from the door while he strapped his rifle to his back. “Here goes.” He lowered his shoulder and charged the door, pushing off as he slammed into it. The remaining portion holding the door attached was ripped apart, and Ducky and the door flew through the air, crashing into a group of three Shaitans waiting for them.

Behind the door was a circular ramp that descended into the ship, curving to the right as it circled back on itself. The Shaitans waited at the curve, and the door cut the legs out from under one of the cowtaurs, while Ducky crashed into another, knocking it down. A third Shaitan, partially around the bend in the ramp, began firing and was met by answering lasers from several of the Terrans and Big Sky’s Mrowry autocannon. It dropped after firing five rounds.

Ducky rolled and came eye-to-eye with the eyestalks of the Shaitan he had knocked down. Without thinking, he reached up and grabbed them in one of his armored hands and squeezed. A horrible scream filled the space as the eyes exploded in his hand, and the cowtaur began kicking out in every direction. Ducky released the remains of the eyestalks and drew his laser pistol, firing it repeatedly into the creature’s head.

The Shaitan stilled, and the Terrans killed the third alien as it started to rise.

“Ouch,” Sergeant Richard ‘Shipwreck’ Shipley said into the silence that followed. He looked down at the hole through his chest, then fell forward onto his knees and then his face. Sergeant Simon Douglas, the squad’s medic, rushed over, but Calvin could tell from the size and placement of the hole that the medic wasn’t going to be able to help.

“
We’re about to open the door at the end of the corridor,
” Lieutenant O’Leary commed.

“
We just opened ours,
” Calvin replied. “
Ours goes to a ramp that leads down into the ship. Beware, several of the Shaitans were waiting for us.
”