Christie emerged from the bathroom once her nerves had calmed and found a window that looked out on the western ridgelines. She reached into her handbag and produced a stick of lipstick, sighted it on a

  curve of blackness that intersected a particular constellation rising into the night sky, and pushed a discreet button on the base. The task force now had confirmation that Rayker was inside, and the machine would be set in

  motion.

  As she turned to head back to the party, Christie saw a different range of mountains in the corner of her eye. A fishhook stabbed into the muscle of her heart and tugged. For a moment, a dusty valley surrounded

  her, the rocky ground coursing with streams of blood. The ghostly white face of Rose Djallen was before her, life fading from her eyes. Christie wanted to gasp, but she let the pain wash over her in silence, as they had all

  done so often. A moment’s concentration brought her back to the present, and the dangerous operation ahead.

  Rayker’s expression had been so devoid of warmth—as though she wore her psychopathic nature with pride. Christie couldn’t understand how someone could be so inhuman.

  And what would happen if Rayker sensed the trap that was closing around her? Christie herself, and probably some of the guests, would certainly be taken hostage. No doubt, the dozens of Rangers stalking

  through the darkness would break cover, racing through the night to rescue her, with one particularly hard-headed individual out in front. The highly skilled operators now preparing their own move on the chateau would

  fight their way inside, killing anyone who resisted them. The Banshee, their well-armed gunship, would break its cloak, leaving its position behind Ambrosia’s second moon to rain hellfire

  down on the small army that provided security for the Helvetic League’s pleasure planet. Rayker would probably die in a hail of gunfire, giving Rose her deserved retribution. None would hesitate in the attack—the

  Valkyrie would eagerly sacrifice their own lives before leaving one of their own behind.

  But then the news of the incident would spread, and humanity’s thirty-seven worlds would talk of nothing else but the secret army of super soldiers that protected them from the arsenal of the Jotnar—an

  extinct interstellar civilization, who’s abandoned weapons and warships littered the stars. Nations, corporations and crime syndicates would find ways to track down those weapons, exploiting their incredible destructive

  power for their own selfish purposes. There would be war, billions would die, and, like those who had preceded them, humanity would likely wipe itself out.

  Rose had died protecting Christie from Rayker’s drone army, but she had also died to uphold Valkyrie’s ancient responsibility.

  That operation had ultimately saved the planet Caldera, but in the chaos and confusion of the battle Rayker had managed to slip away. The organization had spent nearly two years trying to hunt her down,

  but she was too skilled, too deeply enmeshed in the Helvetic League’s underworld.

  The council of chiefs, Valkyrie’s inscrutable governing body, had agreed to form Task Force Nemesis under the command of General Smyrna. She was assigned the Mountain Ranger’s Bravo company—the

  Venomous Vipers—a Raider squadron of elite counterterrorists, and a task unit from Orbital Demolition Team Four. Supported by the Banshee and guided by Christie’s intelligence gathering unit, their mission statement was simple—do whatever it took to kill or capture Allana Rayker.

  As they made slow, painstaking process, they began to receive indications that their target had rejoined her old corporate paymasters at VennZech, the most powerful weapons manufacturer in the galaxy. Then,

  the news broke that Joakkim Meissner, one of Rayker’s suspected allies, had been promoted to Chief Executive, arranging his party on Ambrosia to celebrate.

  He had also invited one of the League’s rising stars in physics. The brilliant young doctor Ernst Kolar was a specialist in theoretical energy development. He had recently published a paper describing

  a hypothetical anti-matter reactor alarmingly similar to those that powered the warships and killing machines of the Jotnar. Christie’s team leader and mentor, Jiao Zhang, had offered the high-confidence assessment that

  Rayker would refuse to let such an asset out of her sight. And, on the protected world of Ambrosia, what could she have to fear?

  But Valkyrie had been breaking through security barriers since long before the League existed, and had become extremely good at it. And so, the operation had been set in motion.

  Christie took a deep breath and prepared herself, soothing away any traces of nervousness. She left the outer hall and re-entered the party.

  “Olympus, Olympus, Olympus,” a voice intoned through Kayla’s headset, and her body tensed. Go-time.

  A double burst of static followed; a squad-level transmission from Kes. It was the order to take out the security guards.

  Kayla and Ray had crawled as close as they could to the men, readied their stun rifles and waited patiently. As the signal came in, their targets pushed away from the boulders to resume their patrol through

  the woods. Kayla waited until they had passed her, before she stood slowly, weapon aimed. A faint rustle told her that Ray had done the same.

  The guard at the back, still slurping from a water bottle, fell a little further behind. The stun rifle’s projectile hit him in the neck, shocking his nervous system into an overload state. He seized

  and dropped to the ground, unconscious. The men ahead of him span and there was a mechanical thump from Ray’s weapon. Her shot struck center mass, and the last figure collapsed as Kayla pulled the trigger again. The

  last guard went down quickly, but, to Kayla’s alarm, seemed to remain conscious. He struggled on the ground like a dying fish and tried to reach for his radio, so she sprinted forward and kicked him in the head.

  Kayla wrinkled her nose and cursed quietly. The scientist who had trained her squad on the weapon had explained that a failed shot would result in the victim emptying the contents of their bowels and bladder.

  Looks like she had been right.

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  “Three down,” she muttered into her helmet mic. “No other contacts in sight.”

  Even so, she continued to scan the distant trees.

  Ray secured the guards with serum injections while Tian and Yak, the other two members of the fire team joined them. The projectiles were gathered into Tian’s rucksack, and, when the rest of the squad

  arrived, they moved off through the trees together, climbing the slope until they reached another crest and a chain link fence.

  Half a mile away from the chateau, the main security compound provided a base for the guard’s rapid reaction force. The compound had a single entrance covered by a blockhouse. Out of its windows,

  blue light flickered to the loud chatter of an excited racing commentator.

  Kayla stopped in the shadows of the trees and waited patiently. The air above her head snapped and cracked as rounds shot past, striking security cameras and sensors around the compound. The bullets were

  a large caliber, but with a thermic charge core. Each impact glowed brilliantly as intense temperatures melted through their targets, leaving no evidence of what had neutralized them.

  She grinned. Thandi was going to work, and though her presence and skill made Kayla feel much more confident, she would still tease her about doing the ‘easy part’ later.

  In the near distance, there were a pair of flashes and loud zaps as the base’s generator and backup went out to EMP charges. Another squad from their platoon was working their own approach. That made

  Kayla nervous. The two elements would soon have to meet up, and nothing could be more dangerous to those who owned the night than confusing each other for the enemy.

  She took her team around the base to the now dark main gate as the on-duty guards emerged to investigate the blackout. Stun rifle shots knocked them out, and the squad regrouped behind the cover of a vehicle

  bay, while Kayla identified the largest building in the compound and watched it attentively.

  They waited patiently until the silence was broken by a new voice on the radio.

  “Eyes on the barracks, north side. No movement.”

  “South side clear,” Kayla confirmed.

  “Approaching,” the other squad leader said.

  Kayla waited until she saw shapes emerge from the shadows and sprint behind the back of the large structure. Then, one leaned out from the corner and waited. Kayla tapped a control on her helmet, and a

  perfect white line broke through her gray world, pointing towards the figure. She was answered with a similar flash of infra-red energy, and her anxiety eased.

  Kes, who had also been watching, tapped her shoulder, and Kayla led off towards the barracks.

  From outside, the Rangers could make out the annoyed calls of men and women stumbling around in the darkness. One emerged from a side door and almost yelled a warning before Tian tackled him and knocked

  him out.

  The two squads moved quickly, cracking open doorways and rolling gas grenades inside. Invisible and odorless, the gas contained the signature compound Valkyrie used to erase memories. The Rangers waited

  a few minutes, safe behind their face masks, then entered and confirmed that all inside were unconscious. Kes and Thandi smashed a few liquor bottles against the walls, while others dragged the bodies into the main room, and

  distributed more ‘evidence’.

  Eventually, Kes called ‘all clear’, and Kayla emerged from the building into the night, lifting her faceplate to breathe in some fresh air. She saw her fire team, Ray, Tian and Yak, heading

  to the vehicles to place EMP charges, and began to follow them.

  A sharp rap on her helmet brought her up short. She turned to see Thandi, vizor up, and an expectant expression on her face.

  “Was that a curse word I heard earlier?” Thandi asked, keeping her voice low.

  Kayla shook her head. “Negative. I was providing a biological assessment of the dude.”

  “Ick. Two in the barracks were uh… in the middle of something when they passed out. I had to pull them apart.” She pulled a face. “That was gross.”

  Kayla winked at her friend, who was spiritual enough for the both of them. “Unmarried, I bet. Your god approves.”

  Thandi nodded gratefully, then shot her a look. “He’s not just my—”

  A low whistle stopped her, and Kes marched over, her expression severe. “Do either of you have EMP charges left?” she demanded.

  “Yes, Corporal,” Kayla nodded, and patted her rucksack.

  “There are a couple of transports left in the north corner. Get on it, then rejoin us on the east fence. Come on, we need to move quickly!”

  Kayla scampered away, buzzing with energy. The squad still had to head for the chateau and take up their position in the perimeter that was drawing tighter around Rayker. She glanced at the dark mountains

  around her. In a dozen locations, radar arrays, missile defenses and communications stations were being similarly neutralized by small teams of Valkyrie from the various units. Soon they would have their prey.

  Kayla closed her eyes and almost thought about praying.

  As a child, she had lost her father to the woman’s monstrous creations. As an adult, she had lost her best friend. More than anything, she hoped that Rayker wouldn’t surrender.

  Christie found Doctor Kolar, alone as usual, in the main hall and painfully out of place in the large social gathering. He nursed a champagne glass and smiled at passersby. Christie stared at him until

  their eyes met, and he quickly looked away, pretending to study one of Meissner’s diamond statues.

  She walked in his direction, and as she passed, flashed him a shy smile. Then, returning to her coterie of admirers, she looked back with another friendly expression.

  Kolar awkwardly approached the group, obviously unsure of what to do with himself. The men ignored him, but the second he managed to breach the outer mass of bodies, Christie was on him.

  “Oh hello! I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure!” she cried, extending her hand and beaming like a searchlight.

  The other men frowned as they lost her attention.

  “Um… All mine,” stammered Kolar. “Sorry. I’m—”

  “Doctor Kolar, isn’t it?” interrupted a renowned and pompous pianist. “You’re working on space batteries for VennZech weapons research, or some such thing?”

  “Well…” Kolar gulped. “We’re starting a new project on micro-singularities at the Planck scale, you see the current theory on weak—”

  “It’s weak, you say?” The pianist laughed raucously as he slapped the doctor’s back. “Well, I never would have guessed, old boy.”

  “Tell me, Zotty,” Christie cut in, addressing one of the other men, “Didn’t you just tell me this was one of Meissner’s inner circle?” She tottered forward slightly as

  she spoke.

  “Correct,” the elder son and heir apparent of the largest media corporation in the League replied with a smile. He lifted his gaze from her bosom. “Doctor Kolar’s work is vital for

  the Maestro.”

  Kolar smiled gratefully. “Indeed. Well, it’s about energy generation.”

  “Oh, I hope you aren’t helping him make more of their dreadful bombs,” Christie said, and pouted. “War is very wrong! Really, I don’t know why they haven’t sanctioned

  the company for some of the horrid things they produce.”

  The surrounding billionaires nodded their approval, while Kolar flushed. “No… well, I mustn’t talk about it, but I shouldn’t be getting involved in that side of VennZech’s

  business.”

  “Quite right.” Christie nodded. “Oh, but you’re dry.” She turned to a waiter, grabbed a pair of glasses from his tray and pressed one into Kolar’s hand.