Mark of Odin: The Awakening

Chapter 17: The God of War

The skies above Seville
22:50 GMT+1

The past few minutes had been frantic. The Mechanised Infantry Brigade had reached Seville but was unable to enter the city because a spider was still controlling access to the A-4 motorway, the route being used by the soldiers. General Miguel Santos, in charge of Armadillo Brigade, had requested immediate aerial support. He wasn't prepared to risk his vehicles in a frontal assault.

Preston had sent several pilots over to coordinate an attack on the spider. They wouldn't be able to destroy it, but if they could make it pursue them, the road would be left clear for the mechanised infantry to advance. Four F-18s were charged with launching missiles and shells at the spider. The strategy worked. The spider took the bait and shot off after them just as another three F-35s entered the fray with their weapons. The spider evaded the attacks as best it could, shooting down one of the F-18s, but a hawk suddenly appeared out of nowhere and blew it to smithereens. The new allies appeared to have learned how to make the most of the humans' tactics: the fighter jets distracted the spiders while the hawks finished them off. Under any other circumstances the pilots' pride might have been wounded. But not here. In this battle any such feelings were rapidly cast aside. Anything was welcome if it meant one less of their dreaded enemies.

Unfortunately there was no time to celebrate their success. A blinding flash and heavy turbulence caught all of the airborne vehicles by surprise. Preston quickly looked upwards. He realised that 2012 UA had fired its enormous cannons at hawk mothership, which had evaded a direct hit by a matter of inches. Several explosions erupted across the mothership and he could see damage to its hull. Its shield probably wouldn't withstand another similar attack.

That had been just five minutes ago. Since then, a large number of spiders had focused on attacking the hawk mothership and were now ignoring the city below. In fact, there were practically no spiders left on the ground. Armadillo troops were able to spread out across the city practically without incident, only hampered by blast craters in the streets and destroyed or abandoned vehicles.

"Sparrowhawk 1, calling all units. We've observed a large object leaving the hawk mothership."

Preston looked up at the spaceship again. It was still fighting 2012 UA, constantly moving to evade its shots. He tried to spot the new object but couldn't see it anywhere. Just when he was about to ask Sparrowhawk 1 to send more data on its altitude and speed, he finally spotted it. A small dot in the sky. It was hurtling downwards at full speed, free-falling out of control. At first it was impossible to make out exactly what it was, but as it descended towards the ground it became clearer and clearer. Preston couldn't believe his eyes.

"Diablo Squadron Leader here. I have visual contact with the new object. It's a type of human-shaped vehicle... It looks like a suit of armour... It's falling out of control. All units, do not approach the new object until we have more data," Preston reported.

"Morón Command here. Please clarify what you mean by 'human-shaped armour'?" Colonel Hidalgo asked over the private channel.

"Well, pretty much that... I can see what looks like arms, legs, a head... It's made of some type of pale metal. The first thing that springs to mind is an enormous suit of armour, like the ones from the Middle Ages," Preston struggled to explain. "I'll carry on—"

The words died on his lips when he saw that the armour had suddenly stopped mid-air. A powerful bluish shock wave burst outwards from it, dazzling anyone in a thirty mile radius. Preston was momentarily blinded. The burst of light was followed shortly afterwards by a wave of heavy turbulence; Preston almost lost control of his aircraft.