[The following story contains graphic descriptions of violence and mildly suggestive content. Reader discretion is advised.]



“Hey, sweetie. Where’d you go?” Nora Denton wrapped her arms around her husband’s shoulders as he sat down beside her in the bed. “I was hoping we could have some fun before going to bed, but you’ve been gone for hours. Did something happen? Are Angus and Summer alright?”

That was always Nora’s first thought when Larry came back unscathed. While he was gone, her worries were usually focused a bit more centrally on him, but once she knew he was alright, she started worrying about the other family she had in the Resistance. Larry was always careful not to give any details about ongoing missions, but if she was ever connected to the Lieutenant, it would already be too late to pretend she didn’t know about the Resistance’s activities. Her family had bigger secrets to keep than that.

“Yes, Nora. Everyone’s fine. I was just checking out some new armor and a nifty little piece of equipment Sara gave to Summer to give to me. I’m pretty sure she got it from Drake, too, because it’s some seriously impressive stuff, Nora. There was an artificial–”

He was interrupted by the sounds of repeater fire from outside. Snapping to his feet, he crouched down slightly before moving to the window. He motioned for Nora to secure the door, and by the time he looked behind him, she had already deadlocked it and started moving toward the kids’ room. Looking back to the window, Larry peeked through the blinds to the streets below.

There wasn’t too much to see from the top floor, but Larry had good eyes. Down on the street, there seemed to be a group of heavily armed men firing on Armadian Police Forces. All Larry could think of that particular idea was that it was a very bad one. A few uniformed Armadians were lying on the street, arms sprawled and blood spreading about them. That being said, the rebels, who obviously hadn’t thought this through properly, had spread out on the sides of the road.

A few Armadians were still alive, though, and they started laying down suppressive fire on the rebels, who were dropping like flies for lack of cover. Eventually, the rebels started using their fallen comrades as shields to hold back the Thorlinthian fire. The Armadians were wittling down the rebel forces, but they were still taking heavy casualties. After a few more minutes of mixed gun and repeater fire, rounds stopped flying about. The last Armadian had dropped.

It was now, Larry thought, that the rebels made their biggest mistake. Instead of dispersing and moving out, they grouped together and started confirming their kills. These men weren’t professionals. They were hunters, and hunters need trophies. Larry started to feel sick as the rebels removed the Armadians’ helmets and started on one of the most disgusting human-hunting rituals mankind ever invented: scalping.

Larry watched in horror as the rebels pulled out their knives and grabbed their kills by the hair as they began to saw away the flesh over the heads of the Armadians. He was reminded in that moment that his team was the exception, rather than the rule, when it came to civilized operations in the Resistance. They would never have performed such a messy operation as a full-on firefight in the middle of a heavily populated, civilian area. They certainly wouldn’t have resorted to barbarism as these men were, defacing the bodies of their fellow man.

But many rebels didn’t see the Thorlinthians as members of mankind. They just thought of them as alien animals and enemies. Even now, as they tore away the flesh of someone so like themselves, with families and pets, the rebels only saw what they wanted to see: demons. It was like a World War II video game. If it was German, it was a Nazi war criminal as evil as Hitler, who would clearly be a match for Satan when it came down to who was a worse person. But Larry hated that outlook. These were people. He knew some of those men, he was sure. He had been asked so many times for autographs or photo ops with Armadians in and out of uniform that he was certain at least one of those men was in the street, dead, right now.

The rebels were almost done securing their trophies when they found out why Larry had already known it was a strategic mistake to do so. Dragon Riders may have been the most feared mortal men on the planet, but the eight blue-haired women that just dropped onto the street from the sky were something worse.

Valkyries were known for their raw potency as warriors. A single Valkyrie could take down a city. The rebels had just pissed off eight of them. Despite being outnumbered almost twelve to one, the Valkyries had already won. The men on the street right now were walking dead. They knew it even as the Valkyries pressed slowly in on their position, walking as calmly and peacefully through the hail of resumed gunfire as one might walk through the store. After several seconds, the rebels had to r
eload. The Valkyries used this moment to strike.

Armadian Special Forces were known for using precision weaponry akin to sniper rifles and heavy repeaters similar to standard assault rifles. Dragon Riders were known for using knives and the occasional sword, getting within arms’ reach of their opponent, though they still carried small repeaters on their sides. Valkyries, too, carried these weapons, but they weren’t exactly known for using them. They even had suits with built-in weapons that were often used in medium to long-range stealth attacks. In close quarters, however, the Valkyries used no weapons. It was the one reason you might be pleased to see a Dragon Rider. Dragon Riders were kinder than a Valkyrie.

Now, Larry watched as eight furious Valkyries used their hands to slowly tear apart the men who were still making a futile attempt to kill them. The first man to be touched by one of the Valkyries screamed as she pressed her thumb into his eye socket and used it to grip his head as she ripped it off of the rest of his body. His screaming didn’t last long. The second man actually seemed to have some martial arts training. When the Valkyrie’s hand reached out, he swiftly moved around her in one smooth movement which would normally have dropped a grown man to the ground with a dislocated shoulder. Instead, the Valkyrie merely danced through the motion and used the fall to grab his shoulder with her feet. Quickly, she kicked her legs downward, swinging the man beneath her and bringing herself to an upright position as she pulled his hand off for daring to touch her. His throat soon met her foot as she crushed it.

Larry watched sadly as the spectacle below turned into a scene straight out of a horror film. There was nothing the men could have done against a single Dragon Rider, let alone the eight Valkyries. If they had known the Valkyries were in New Qzcivden, Larry doubted they would have been so keen to stick around, though they still probably would have performed the attack. Men’s egos weren’t easy to deflate, after all.

Now, as the men below found themselves being made into many more pieces than they were designed to have, they must certainly have regretted the attack. Larry watched as the last of the rebels dropped to his knees, his hands above his head in surrender. The Valkyries walked about him in a tight circle, then started to walk away. Just as he was sure he would live, however, the man’s lips began to move.

Larry didn’t know what the man said, but it clearly wasn’t anything the Valkyries wanted to hear. They stopped in unison and turned around like they were the same person. Then, seven of the Valkyries took a single step back while the one directly facing the man began to walk forward. It was like a well-rehearsed dance as the other seven began moving in a circle, evening out the gaps between themselves and never turning away. The Valkyrie who had stepped forward reached the man and knelt down, bringing herself to his eye level before placing both her hands on his shoulders. She seemed to speak a few words, probably explaining that he could have lived, before moving one hand to the man’s hip and one to the base of his neck. She then swept her arms in front of herself, flipping the man sideways like a coin before driving the hand on his neck into the street. The man’s skull collapsed as it collided with the ground, and his brains spread across the road like pancake batter.

The Valkyrie rose to her feet. The others stopped their circling. As they moved toward her, Terira Khuda’Cronell looked up to her cousin’s window. Larry quickly dropped his finger and stepped away from the blinds, as if he had touched something hot. After that, he didn’t look back out the window or go back to talking to Nora.The couple just made sure that the children were still asleep in their windowless room (though it did have a beautiful skylight) and went straight to bed without saying another word. Nora simply curled up tightly into the embrace of her husband as they both set off into a restless sleep.

When Larry awoke in the morning, he returned to the window and looked out to the street. As he had expected, the bodies and even the bloodstains were gone. Larry wondered if it had been an act of mercy that Drigondii had allowed the Valkyries to eliminate the rebels when he had been so close. Drigondii Sheii’Cronell didn’t need hands to kill a man. With that chilling thought reverberating through his mind, Larry turned the wireless straight to a children’s program before setting about making breakfast while Nora got little Drake into his day clothes. He wasn’t going to let his children hear the news today.