A Traitorous House on Traitorous Earth: Shattered Past Book 3

Rise of the Valkyrie

The strife that came down on Variks post the Wolves rebellion came down hard. He wasn't allowed to go near any of the communication centers anymore, and his meetings with Petra were seldom. He felt alone as if the entire universe was against him and he knew exactly why. He sat in his quarters, which were now locked with him inside from eight to seven. The door then opened, and he looked up from the amethyst that he was working on.

"Hello, Variks," Petra said shutting the door behind her.

"Beloved!" He exclaimed. Variks quickly put down the gem and gave her a hug. "I've missed you."

"So have I," She replied. "I'm sorry, but things have gotten tied up recently with the whole wolves thing, and nobody trusting you hasn't made it any easier," Petra said to him sadly.

"I am sorry beloved, but I cannot help their opinions of me." He muttered. He looked down at himself, he wasn't wearing his helmet, his face was slightly wrinkled with age, and his hairs were gray in some areas. "I cannot change who I am, or who I was." He said turning away.

"Variks, when this is over, why don't we go to Earth? Live among the Last City?"

"My dearest, I appreciate you thinking of me. However, I believe that it would be even worse." He said sitting down on his bed.

"You think it would be worse?" She asked him sitting down next to him. Then a buzz came on her commlink summoning her to the communications room. "Sorry, I need to go. I'll be back as soon as I can." She said giving him a kiss goodbye. "I love you." She said heading out of the room. The door locked behind her and she sped off to the comms center to find it empty. She then pressed a few buttons on the control panel, placing the headset on her head.

"Yo, Pets you there?"

"Wait, did you just give me a nickname James?" 

"Yeah, do you not like it?"

"Well, I prefer Petra, to be honest." She replied to the Exo. "Isn't it almost two in the morning for you two?"

"Yes Petra, it's two o'clock back at Earth. We're up in orbit right now hoping that we can crack some skulls before we head to bed. You got any ideas?" Cameron asked her.

"Let me take a look here; I'm more than certain we've got something." She said typing up on the console. "Alright, it sounds like we've got an intercepted transmission between Skolas and a mercenary that they hired."

"A merc? Who'd be out for hire in a place like this?"

"That's a real question; odds are he came here looking for a new prize."

"Prize?" James asked her.

"From what Variks told me this mercenary doesn't just do work for pay, sometimes he takes HVT's for fun."

"Well, where's he?"

"He's in command of a battalion of Wolves on Ganymede, a moon near Jupiter." James and Cameron looked at each other uneasily. "Is something wrong?"

"Well, yes, that was somewhere important in our past. It was where the Valkyrie project was developed. Where I met a good friend of mine." He said sadly.

"Who was it?"

"A three-story tall war machine named Caesar. He was a robotic exoskeleton that I piloted during the time of the Terror Wars. He grew to be like a big brother of mine,"

"You sound like you miss him."

"I do, I miss all of my friends from the MDU." He then looked over to Cameron and smiled. "Well, I'm glad one of them is still here."