Fara i Viking - Chapter 17
Title: Fara í Víking
Rating: R
Characters: Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Sealand. Cameos by Estonia, Latvia, Netherlands, Russia.
Pairings: Sweden/Finland, Denmark/Norway
Warnings: Alternate universe, sexual situations, violence, language, abuse of Norse and Finnish mythology references.
Summary: Space: The Final Frontier. And like any frontier filled with outlaws and criminals. A crew of space Vikings learns of a mythical treasure hidden amidst the ruins of the long dead civilization of Asgard and head out on an epic journey through many trials; from the ice locked planet of Niflheim, to the unstable volcanic Muspellheim, and running out of alcohol light years from any trading post. But it's all worth it for pickled fish and, of course, more gold and glory than five men know what to do with.
Chapter XVII - City of Legend
True to Aleksander's predictions it was three days before the planet of Asgard came within sight; first on their sensors, then a small point in the distance before them, slightly larger than the stars around it, and growing larger as they approached. Eventually the planet loomed recognizable before them and Aleksander put them in orbit above in order to run scans of the surface. The others crowded into the bridge to get their first look at the alien world. But from above it did not look very different from any of the others they had visited. There was land and sea, a canvas covered in blue and brown and green, with dots of white marking the highest mountains, visible even from so far, and wisps of clouds. From above it was nothing spectacular, rather anticlimactic really.
"Where do we go from here?" Tino asked curiously as he peered through the large window.
"We're looking for their capitol city, I would suppose," Aleksander replied. "Unfortunately no stories, nor the Alfar, were specific on the location."
"How do we know what's the capitol?" Tino frowned, beginning to see a flaw in their plan.
"I would assume it is the largest city," Aleksander said, but it was little more than a guess. "The myths say the treasures of Asgard are hidden in Valhalla. But we've no way of knowing if that is a city, a country, or just a building."
"Well, I suppose the largest city is as good a place as any to start," Mathias said, trying to be optimistic when there was little else they could do. "At any rate it should have more information about where we are."
"If we're lucky," Aleksander added. "Eiríkur, have you found anything?"
The younger of the brothers was pouring over various readouts displayed on a screen before him; the results of automated scans being run over the surface of the planet. "Nothing yet," he replied. "Found a few cities, but it's not done yet. It looks like all the settlement was in the northern hemisphere. The southern is almost completely barren." Aleksander nodded, at least that narrowed down their search location.
An hour later the surface scans were completed and Eiríkur had located the largest settlement, situated on the largest continent not far from the coast. The time waiting had been spent imagining what it would be like on the surface, at least by Mathias and Tino; Berwald was silent as usual and Aleksander only shot down their more fantastic ideas. When they finally had a location for the next stage of their quest Aleksander was relieved, it stopped all the wild speculation that he so disliked, and set course as they began their descent through the atmosphere.
The lower they dropped the more apparent were the various structures on the face of the planet. Mountains, valleys, lakes and rivers; later Mathias pointed out what he thought was a road, a bridge, small settlements. Eventually they approached the larger city that Eiríkur had located and its large structures came into sight.
The city was built right up to the edge of a cliff, along which ran a high stone wall that bounded the entire settlement. As they drew lower it could be seen that the wall and all of the buildings beyond it were crumbling. The city lay in ruins. This was no surprise, as they had been well informed of how long this planet had lain abandoned. But it was quite a different thing to face the decay of a dead civilization face-on than hear stories about it. Even from above the gradual, uneven collapse of the city was unsettling.
There seemed to be only two openings in the wall; one on the side of the cliff, below which ran a winding stair that zigzagged back and forth across the hard stone face. The other opening was a grand gateway on the opposite side of the city which opened to a wide plane of rocky hills leading up toward towering grey mountains capped with snow.
“Set us down there, below the mountains,” Mathias said, pointing through the window toward the rocky plains. “I don’t want to climb up a cliff to get there.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Aleksander replied. “It’s pretty rocky, might not be flat enough for a solid landing.”
“Well land as far away as you need to. A kilometer if you have to,” Mathias said. “Anything but that cliff.”
Eiríkur scoffed, “Now you’re just being ridiculous. The cliff is much shorter than a kilometer; it would still be a shorter walk.”
“Yes, but it’s a cliff,” Mathias argued. “It’s inherently harder to get there climbing up a cliff.”
“There’s stairs,” Eiríkur tried to argue with him, but Mathias cut him off swiftly.
“No. No cliff!” he declared in a tone that brokered no further dissent from his crew. “No cliff,” he added one last time, just to be sure he was understood. None disagreed with him this time.
Thankfully, Aleksander was able to find them a place to land much closer than a kilometer from the city gates, between the wall and the distant mountains in a small depression in the landscape. On one end a rock outcropping reared up out of the earth and curved up over the vale, creating a small sheltered area. In all other directions the hills rolled gently away, broken only by smaller stones.
As soon as the ship was down Mathias was bounding out onto the grass, breathing deeply of the fresh air on this strange new world. The others followed him at a more sedate pace, but each made their way out, unable to contain their curiosity. They were the first humans to stand on this planet for thousands of years, and perhaps the first living creatures to stand on it since the city had been abandoned. For a long moment they simply stood and stared, gazing out across the landscape, so alien and yet so familiar.
Tino was the first to move, turning back to the ship and latching onto a ladder mounted on the side. He climbed up it with unparalleled ease until he stood flat on the top of the vessel. From his new vantage point the gunman gazed out across the landscape, taking everything in and squinting to see as far as he possibly could. It was a stunning view. Or it would be, were in not marred by the decaying city in the near distance. They were much closer now than they had been when cruising above the structures. If Tino strained his eyes he thought he could see the outlines of individual stones in the wall, and the vines of plants that had grown up over it. It was a stark contrast to the surrounding countryside. The plain on which they landed was pristine, almost virginal, the shape of the distant mountains dark and crisp against the clear blue sky. But the city was dull, grey, and broken.
“See anything interesting?” Mathias called up from the ground, and Tino tore his gaze off of the horizon to look back down at his crewmates.
“Nothing we haven’t already seen,” The sniper replied, and reluctantly moved to climb back down. “Still need to get closer to make out the details.”
“Let’s get closer, then,” Mathias enthused. But instead of heading off toward their long-awaited final destination, the captain turned right around and headed back toward the ship.
“That’s the wrong way,” Aleksander told him dryly.
“I know that,” Mathias answered without ever losing his ever present optimism. “Gotta get supplies. Can’t just go wandering off into the unknown unprepared,” he paused in his march back toward the hatch and looked over at his shoulder at the pilot, “Isn’t that what you’re always telling me?”
Aleksander huffed indignantly. “Oh now you chose to listen to me,” he muttered, but immediately started off after him because Mathias was right. They needed to have a plan before heading into the city. If they started wandering aimlessly they might get lost, or worse, and never find what they were looking for.
----------
One impromptu and incredibly brief crew meeting later and the men were gathering what they would need for exploration of a practically uncharted world. There was no telling what they would find, and so had to be prepared for anything. However this preparation took different forms.
Aleksander was fussing over the scanner, programming or reprogramming or scanning, no one was quite sure. Tino had wiped down his trusty rifle as well as the two smaller handguns hung at his waist. Berwald had been informed there was at least one more weapon on the sniper’s body, but for the life of him he could not figure out where. The mechanic himself was not a fan of weaponry or fighting, but a wrench or a hammer could be put to several different uses. And overshadowing all of this activity was Mathias’ decision to take with him the antique axe that usually hung on the wall of his quarters.
“Are you seriously taking that thing with you?” Eiríkur asked, as horrified as any teenager currently being embarrassed by their parent.
“Of course!” Mathias grinned and hefted the axe over his shoulder. “What’s wrong with it?”
“That thing’s an antique,” the teen argued. “It’ll fall apart the minute it hits something. And do you even know how to use it?”
“Of course I do!” Mathias announced proudly. “And it’s in perfectly good condition.”
“Leave him be,” Aleksander muttered. “You’ll never convince him to leave it behind now that he’s got it out.”
Mathias gave Eiríkur a smug smile and looked as though he was just barely restraining himself from sticking his tongue out. The teen flustered and huffed indignantly, then turned on his heel. It was not often that his own brother sided against him. “Right, everyone ready to go, then?” the captain asked, and surveyed his crew. It was not often that all five of them left the ship completely unattended. But it was quite unlikely that anything could happen to it on a dead planet. “Let’s go exploring.”
The walk across the plain from where the Hofvar had been landed to the city walls was quite a decent length, and made harder by the rough terrain. But eventually the five men found themselves at the base of a massive stone wall. The stones that made it up were fit together so closely and precisely that the cracks between them were almost invisible. If not for the sprouting of plant life and a few cracks caused by the sheer age of the structure the surface would have appeared solid until much closer investigation. For nearly as far as they could see it ran to either side of their small party, broken only by an equally massive archway.
Two enormous gates stood in the archway, easily wide enough to allow their small ship to pass through. One was closed, still standing strong even as the wooden beams decayed in their iron casings. The other hung on one hinge, chipped and dented, looking ready to fall any moment and yet at the same time solid as stone.
They passed through the gates in stunned silence. There was a weight in the air, a feeling of immense stillness that was stifling. None could bear to break the silence that lay over the ruined city.
The whole settlement was built in and around the rock outcroppings that dotted the plain that ran from the mountains to the cliff at the other end of the city. Though some had been carved out to make way for immense buildings, most were intact. The stones stuck out from between buildings, diverting streets and, in some cases, serving as part of the construction itself. Plants grew from within the cracks in the street, between the stones of buildings and anywhere they could set root. Like in a morbid, stone forest entire sides of buildings were covered in moss where sunlight rarely hit. In one nearby building a tree had forced its way through a decaying roof, beams resting haphazard in its upper branches, its trunk engulfing lower levels.
The structure and style of the buildings was similar to those they had seen on Alfheim, but they lacked the feeling of naturalness and fluidity of the Alfar’s architecture. Where the Alfar’s town had rolled and moved with the lay of the land this city cut through the landscape, all straight lines and sharp corners. Except where the rocks forced compromise, everything was very carefully laid out. But closer inspection revealed similar art decorating the sides of the buildings. There were faded murals and chipped carvings and statuary onto which moss and vines had now made their home.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Mathias said, his voice barely above a whisper as they slowly proceeded down the broken street. It was unusual for him to be so quiet, but even his whisper sounded loud. Their footsteps crunching in the gravel below their feet was the only other sound to break the silence. “It’s too quiet.”
“Me too,” Tino agreed, and he was looking decidedly uncomfortable. Holding his rifle in both hands, the sniper’s gaze kept darting around and he was obviously quite tense. Too quiet was never good. “It’s like there’s nothing alive here at all. I don’t like it.”
It was indeed silent as the grave, as the saying goes. As expected from a dead planet, but still quite unsettling, especially to men so used to the constant drone of a ship’s engines in the background of their everyday lives. Nevertheless, they continued forward. Down the ruined avenue between the crumbling buildings. Aleksander kept his attention fixed on the scanner in his hands, though the others were not entirely certain what he was looking for. None of them really knew what they were looking for. Some sort of temple, the legends said. But for all they knew it could have been a warehouse. Their treasure could be in a dusty crate in a back room somewhere, or it could be in the most splendid of palaces. At this point, there was no way of knowing.
The sound that broke the silence was sudden and deafening. It seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. A terrible roaring, humming, a crackle like lightning, and the unmistakable groan of metal. In an instant Tino’s rifle was on his shoulder, but he had no idea where to aim. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the sound petered off and stopped. Leaving only the ringing in their ears.
“What in Hel was that?” Mathias asked, hands gripped tight on the wooden handle of his axe.
“Someone just broke atmosphere,” Aleksander replied, craning his neck to look up into the sky. But they could see nothing from their current position. “We should get back to the ship.”
“Someone?” Mathias asked. “But this planet’s dead. We’re the only ones here.”
“Not anymore,” Aleksander said. His usually monotonous voice was lined with tension.
----------
They practically ran back the way they had come, eyes still skyward as they searched for some sign of their company. “There!” it was Eiríkur who spotted it first, just as they came streaking through the ruined gates and out onto the plain. He pointed into the distance. All that could be seen was an oblong black spot hovering above the distant horizon. But it had not been there before.
Immediately all heads turned in the direction the teen was pointing. “Is it headed this way?” Mathias demanded.
“I can’t tell,” Tino said, squinting to try and see the spot more clearly. “Still too far away.”
Mathias cursed. But they had to assume it would find them. “Get back to the ship,” he ordered, voice tense. No one argued.
Moments later, panting, the men clambered back aboard their own vessel so quickly there was nearly a traffic jam in hatch and in the hall as they raced into the bridge. As Aleksander took his seat and began pulling up their sensors Tino leaned forward until his face was nearly pressed against the glass of the main window. “It’s definitely coming this way,” the sniper announced. “Headed straight for us.”
And sure enough, as the others looked, the ship was significantly bigger, and growing by the second. It was now quite clear even to the others that it was indeed a space craft of some kind. Long and sleek and comparable in size to the Hofvar. And as it drew closer eventually the markings on the side became visible.
“That’s the same ship that attacked us near Muspellheim!” Tino exclaimed. It was instantly recognizable, the only one of its kind they had ever seen.
“What in Hel? How did they find us?” a flabbergasted Mathias asked. “Have they been following us?”
“I couldn’t say,” Aleksander shook his head, equally dumbfounded. “They didn’t show up on any of our sensors.”
“But theirs might be better than ours,” Eiríkur suggested. “That ship is brand new. They might be able to hide from our sensors or just have a longer range than we do.”
“Well shit. What do we do?” Mathias asked.
But no one had an answer. This was so strange that no one knew how to respond. If the police vessel had been following them this whole time then they probably could have attacked them at any time. Instead they had followed them all the way to Asgard completely undetected until their landing on the planet. But why? How could they have known it was worth the effort to follow this one pirate vessel?
The whole crew practically held their breaths while the police ship landed in the same small valley as them. That was an extremely bold move, and arrogant to show yourself so openly to an enemy without taking any precautions. It made Mathias grind his teeth in annoyance.
But then there was an immediate flurry of movement. With an enemy parked on their doorstep they could expect to get into a fight. Tino ran back to his room to strap on as many guns as he could hold. Mathias, too, outfitted himself for an expected showdown. An outlaw could never be too careful, after all, when face to face with law enforcement.
The five-man crew emerged from their vessel cautiously. So far there was no sign of movement from the other ship, which was making Mathias nervous. Then, when all five stood on solid ground, wary and prepared for anything, a door on the side of the police vessel opened.
Rating: R
Characters: Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Sealand. Cameos by Estonia, Latvia, Netherlands, Russia.
Pairings: Sweden/Finland, Denmark/Norway
Warnings: Alternate universe, sexual situations, violence, language, abuse of Norse and Finnish mythology references.
Summary: Space: The Final Frontier. And like any frontier filled with outlaws and criminals. A crew of space Vikings learns of a mythical treasure hidden amidst the ruins of the long dead civilization of Asgard and head out on an epic journey through many trials; from the ice locked planet of Niflheim, to the unstable volcanic Muspellheim, and running out of alcohol light years from any trading post. But it's all worth it for pickled fish and, of course, more gold and glory than five men know what to do with.
Chapter XVII - City of Legend
True to Aleksander's predictions it was three days before the planet of Asgard came within sight; first on their sensors, then a small point in the distance before them, slightly larger than the stars around it, and growing larger as they approached. Eventually the planet loomed recognizable before them and Aleksander put them in orbit above in order to run scans of the surface. The others crowded into the bridge to get their first look at the alien world. But from above it did not look very different from any of the others they had visited. There was land and sea, a canvas covered in blue and brown and green, with dots of white marking the highest mountains, visible even from so far, and wisps of clouds. From above it was nothing spectacular, rather anticlimactic really.
"Where do we go from here?" Tino asked curiously as he peered through the large window.
"We're looking for their capitol city, I would suppose," Aleksander replied. "Unfortunately no stories, nor the Alfar, were specific on the location."
"How do we know what's the capitol?" Tino frowned, beginning to see a flaw in their plan.
"I would assume it is the largest city," Aleksander said, but it was little more than a guess. "The myths say the treasures of Asgard are hidden in Valhalla. But we've no way of knowing if that is a city, a country, or just a building."
"Well, I suppose the largest city is as good a place as any to start," Mathias said, trying to be optimistic when there was little else they could do. "At any rate it should have more information about where we are."
"If we're lucky," Aleksander added. "Eiríkur, have you found anything?"
The younger of the brothers was pouring over various readouts displayed on a screen before him; the results of automated scans being run over the surface of the planet. "Nothing yet," he replied. "Found a few cities, but it's not done yet. It looks like all the settlement was in the northern hemisphere. The southern is almost completely barren." Aleksander nodded, at least that narrowed down their search location.
An hour later the surface scans were completed and Eiríkur had located the largest settlement, situated on the largest continent not far from the coast. The time waiting had been spent imagining what it would be like on the surface, at least by Mathias and Tino; Berwald was silent as usual and Aleksander only shot down their more fantastic ideas. When they finally had a location for the next stage of their quest Aleksander was relieved, it stopped all the wild speculation that he so disliked, and set course as they began their descent through the atmosphere.
The lower they dropped the more apparent were the various structures on the face of the planet. Mountains, valleys, lakes and rivers; later Mathias pointed out what he thought was a road, a bridge, small settlements. Eventually they approached the larger city that Eiríkur had located and its large structures came into sight.
The city was built right up to the edge of a cliff, along which ran a high stone wall that bounded the entire settlement. As they drew lower it could be seen that the wall and all of the buildings beyond it were crumbling. The city lay in ruins. This was no surprise, as they had been well informed of how long this planet had lain abandoned. But it was quite a different thing to face the decay of a dead civilization face-on than hear stories about it. Even from above the gradual, uneven collapse of the city was unsettling.
There seemed to be only two openings in the wall; one on the side of the cliff, below which ran a winding stair that zigzagged back and forth across the hard stone face. The other opening was a grand gateway on the opposite side of the city which opened to a wide plane of rocky hills leading up toward towering grey mountains capped with snow.
“Set us down there, below the mountains,” Mathias said, pointing through the window toward the rocky plains. “I don’t want to climb up a cliff to get there.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Aleksander replied. “It’s pretty rocky, might not be flat enough for a solid landing.”
“Well land as far away as you need to. A kilometer if you have to,” Mathias said. “Anything but that cliff.”
Eiríkur scoffed, “Now you’re just being ridiculous. The cliff is much shorter than a kilometer; it would still be a shorter walk.”
“Yes, but it’s a cliff,” Mathias argued. “It’s inherently harder to get there climbing up a cliff.”
“There’s stairs,” Eiríkur tried to argue with him, but Mathias cut him off swiftly.
“No. No cliff!” he declared in a tone that brokered no further dissent from his crew. “No cliff,” he added one last time, just to be sure he was understood. None disagreed with him this time.
Thankfully, Aleksander was able to find them a place to land much closer than a kilometer from the city gates, between the wall and the distant mountains in a small depression in the landscape. On one end a rock outcropping reared up out of the earth and curved up over the vale, creating a small sheltered area. In all other directions the hills rolled gently away, broken only by smaller stones.
As soon as the ship was down Mathias was bounding out onto the grass, breathing deeply of the fresh air on this strange new world. The others followed him at a more sedate pace, but each made their way out, unable to contain their curiosity. They were the first humans to stand on this planet for thousands of years, and perhaps the first living creatures to stand on it since the city had been abandoned. For a long moment they simply stood and stared, gazing out across the landscape, so alien and yet so familiar.
Tino was the first to move, turning back to the ship and latching onto a ladder mounted on the side. He climbed up it with unparalleled ease until he stood flat on the top of the vessel. From his new vantage point the gunman gazed out across the landscape, taking everything in and squinting to see as far as he possibly could. It was a stunning view. Or it would be, were in not marred by the decaying city in the near distance. They were much closer now than they had been when cruising above the structures. If Tino strained his eyes he thought he could see the outlines of individual stones in the wall, and the vines of plants that had grown up over it. It was a stark contrast to the surrounding countryside. The plain on which they landed was pristine, almost virginal, the shape of the distant mountains dark and crisp against the clear blue sky. But the city was dull, grey, and broken.
“See anything interesting?” Mathias called up from the ground, and Tino tore his gaze off of the horizon to look back down at his crewmates.
“Nothing we haven’t already seen,” The sniper replied, and reluctantly moved to climb back down. “Still need to get closer to make out the details.”
“Let’s get closer, then,” Mathias enthused. But instead of heading off toward their long-awaited final destination, the captain turned right around and headed back toward the ship.
“That’s the wrong way,” Aleksander told him dryly.
“I know that,” Mathias answered without ever losing his ever present optimism. “Gotta get supplies. Can’t just go wandering off into the unknown unprepared,” he paused in his march back toward the hatch and looked over at his shoulder at the pilot, “Isn’t that what you’re always telling me?”
Aleksander huffed indignantly. “Oh now you chose to listen to me,” he muttered, but immediately started off after him because Mathias was right. They needed to have a plan before heading into the city. If they started wandering aimlessly they might get lost, or worse, and never find what they were looking for.
----------
One impromptu and incredibly brief crew meeting later and the men were gathering what they would need for exploration of a practically uncharted world. There was no telling what they would find, and so had to be prepared for anything. However this preparation took different forms.
Aleksander was fussing over the scanner, programming or reprogramming or scanning, no one was quite sure. Tino had wiped down his trusty rifle as well as the two smaller handguns hung at his waist. Berwald had been informed there was at least one more weapon on the sniper’s body, but for the life of him he could not figure out where. The mechanic himself was not a fan of weaponry or fighting, but a wrench or a hammer could be put to several different uses. And overshadowing all of this activity was Mathias’ decision to take with him the antique axe that usually hung on the wall of his quarters.
“Are you seriously taking that thing with you?” Eiríkur asked, as horrified as any teenager currently being embarrassed by their parent.
“Of course!” Mathias grinned and hefted the axe over his shoulder. “What’s wrong with it?”
“That thing’s an antique,” the teen argued. “It’ll fall apart the minute it hits something. And do you even know how to use it?”
“Of course I do!” Mathias announced proudly. “And it’s in perfectly good condition.”
“Leave him be,” Aleksander muttered. “You’ll never convince him to leave it behind now that he’s got it out.”
Mathias gave Eiríkur a smug smile and looked as though he was just barely restraining himself from sticking his tongue out. The teen flustered and huffed indignantly, then turned on his heel. It was not often that his own brother sided against him. “Right, everyone ready to go, then?” the captain asked, and surveyed his crew. It was not often that all five of them left the ship completely unattended. But it was quite unlikely that anything could happen to it on a dead planet. “Let’s go exploring.”
The walk across the plain from where the Hofvar had been landed to the city walls was quite a decent length, and made harder by the rough terrain. But eventually the five men found themselves at the base of a massive stone wall. The stones that made it up were fit together so closely and precisely that the cracks between them were almost invisible. If not for the sprouting of plant life and a few cracks caused by the sheer age of the structure the surface would have appeared solid until much closer investigation. For nearly as far as they could see it ran to either side of their small party, broken only by an equally massive archway.
Two enormous gates stood in the archway, easily wide enough to allow their small ship to pass through. One was closed, still standing strong even as the wooden beams decayed in their iron casings. The other hung on one hinge, chipped and dented, looking ready to fall any moment and yet at the same time solid as stone.
They passed through the gates in stunned silence. There was a weight in the air, a feeling of immense stillness that was stifling. None could bear to break the silence that lay over the ruined city.
The whole settlement was built in and around the rock outcroppings that dotted the plain that ran from the mountains to the cliff at the other end of the city. Though some had been carved out to make way for immense buildings, most were intact. The stones stuck out from between buildings, diverting streets and, in some cases, serving as part of the construction itself. Plants grew from within the cracks in the street, between the stones of buildings and anywhere they could set root. Like in a morbid, stone forest entire sides of buildings were covered in moss where sunlight rarely hit. In one nearby building a tree had forced its way through a decaying roof, beams resting haphazard in its upper branches, its trunk engulfing lower levels.
The structure and style of the buildings was similar to those they had seen on Alfheim, but they lacked the feeling of naturalness and fluidity of the Alfar’s architecture. Where the Alfar’s town had rolled and moved with the lay of the land this city cut through the landscape, all straight lines and sharp corners. Except where the rocks forced compromise, everything was very carefully laid out. But closer inspection revealed similar art decorating the sides of the buildings. There were faded murals and chipped carvings and statuary onto which moss and vines had now made their home.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Mathias said, his voice barely above a whisper as they slowly proceeded down the broken street. It was unusual for him to be so quiet, but even his whisper sounded loud. Their footsteps crunching in the gravel below their feet was the only other sound to break the silence. “It’s too quiet.”
“Me too,” Tino agreed, and he was looking decidedly uncomfortable. Holding his rifle in both hands, the sniper’s gaze kept darting around and he was obviously quite tense. Too quiet was never good. “It’s like there’s nothing alive here at all. I don’t like it.”
It was indeed silent as the grave, as the saying goes. As expected from a dead planet, but still quite unsettling, especially to men so used to the constant drone of a ship’s engines in the background of their everyday lives. Nevertheless, they continued forward. Down the ruined avenue between the crumbling buildings. Aleksander kept his attention fixed on the scanner in his hands, though the others were not entirely certain what he was looking for. None of them really knew what they were looking for. Some sort of temple, the legends said. But for all they knew it could have been a warehouse. Their treasure could be in a dusty crate in a back room somewhere, or it could be in the most splendid of palaces. At this point, there was no way of knowing.
The sound that broke the silence was sudden and deafening. It seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. A terrible roaring, humming, a crackle like lightning, and the unmistakable groan of metal. In an instant Tino’s rifle was on his shoulder, but he had no idea where to aim. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the sound petered off and stopped. Leaving only the ringing in their ears.
“What in Hel was that?” Mathias asked, hands gripped tight on the wooden handle of his axe.
“Someone just broke atmosphere,” Aleksander replied, craning his neck to look up into the sky. But they could see nothing from their current position. “We should get back to the ship.”
“Someone?” Mathias asked. “But this planet’s dead. We’re the only ones here.”
“Not anymore,” Aleksander said. His usually monotonous voice was lined with tension.
----------
They practically ran back the way they had come, eyes still skyward as they searched for some sign of their company. “There!” it was Eiríkur who spotted it first, just as they came streaking through the ruined gates and out onto the plain. He pointed into the distance. All that could be seen was an oblong black spot hovering above the distant horizon. But it had not been there before.
Immediately all heads turned in the direction the teen was pointing. “Is it headed this way?” Mathias demanded.
“I can’t tell,” Tino said, squinting to try and see the spot more clearly. “Still too far away.”
Mathias cursed. But they had to assume it would find them. “Get back to the ship,” he ordered, voice tense. No one argued.
Moments later, panting, the men clambered back aboard their own vessel so quickly there was nearly a traffic jam in hatch and in the hall as they raced into the bridge. As Aleksander took his seat and began pulling up their sensors Tino leaned forward until his face was nearly pressed against the glass of the main window. “It’s definitely coming this way,” the sniper announced. “Headed straight for us.”
And sure enough, as the others looked, the ship was significantly bigger, and growing by the second. It was now quite clear even to the others that it was indeed a space craft of some kind. Long and sleek and comparable in size to the Hofvar. And as it drew closer eventually the markings on the side became visible.
“That’s the same ship that attacked us near Muspellheim!” Tino exclaimed. It was instantly recognizable, the only one of its kind they had ever seen.
“What in Hel? How did they find us?” a flabbergasted Mathias asked. “Have they been following us?”
“I couldn’t say,” Aleksander shook his head, equally dumbfounded. “They didn’t show up on any of our sensors.”
“But theirs might be better than ours,” Eiríkur suggested. “That ship is brand new. They might be able to hide from our sensors or just have a longer range than we do.”
“Well shit. What do we do?” Mathias asked.
But no one had an answer. This was so strange that no one knew how to respond. If the police vessel had been following them this whole time then they probably could have attacked them at any time. Instead they had followed them all the way to Asgard completely undetected until their landing on the planet. But why? How could they have known it was worth the effort to follow this one pirate vessel?
The whole crew practically held their breaths while the police ship landed in the same small valley as them. That was an extremely bold move, and arrogant to show yourself so openly to an enemy without taking any precautions. It made Mathias grind his teeth in annoyance.
But then there was an immediate flurry of movement. With an enemy parked on their doorstep they could expect to get into a fight. Tino ran back to his room to strap on as many guns as he could hold. Mathias, too, outfitted himself for an expected showdown. An outlaw could never be too careful, after all, when face to face with law enforcement.
The five-man crew emerged from their vessel cautiously. So far there was no sign of movement from the other ship, which was making Mathias nervous. Then, when all five stood on solid ground, wary and prepared for anything, a door on the side of the police vessel opened.