To The East.

Well, I definitely seem to be on a Valkyrien kick. This one, and the one that will follow it are mostly set-up for a prolonged story arc I be working on. Be warned of Bad Language, and reference to Violence. It even mentions some of Gorm's history, something I intend to flesh out over time. And When I figure out how to get away with having a Norse Kitsune, I'll explain Vixen's to boot. In fact, give me time, and I intend to have a backstory for each of Gorm's main companions. Anyway, Intellectual property of myself, Jared G. Juckiewicz. And some terminology. Gall-Gaedhill is a corruption of old Gaelic, referring to those Scots and Irish, and particularly Hebrideans, who adopted Norse ways
. Sidhe is also old Gael and depending on who you ask can refer either to an Elf, or a Faerie, the one common trait being they lived underground. Oh, and kudos to any man, woman, or being who can ID the head-tilt to one of my favourite authors...

Anyway, here be the tale...

"You want me to WHAT?" I snarled, glaring at my boss, and those with her. Not an unreasonable response, I reckon, considering what they wanted. I mean, yeah, I could do with the excitement. Ever since that damned trial, I've been held in the warm. Hel, my whole squad has been. And that, sure as Fenrir will escape, did not endear our highers-up to us. Now, they offer us a chance for another op. Put like that... It might be worth considering. They still haven't responded. I betcha they planned this. But, oh well. Right, how to go on. A review, that'll be the thing. "Okay. Let me get this straight." Calmer now, at least in speech. "You want me to take... Five warriors. Without support. Into eastern Georgia. The Georgian-Chechen-Russian border to be precise." A nod from the Valkyrie. "And you want SIX of us to put a serious crimp in terrorist trafficking operations?" Another Nod. "Six of us. Can't be done. Unsupported. Can't be done." The Valkyrie grinned. A feral look. I liked that look, and matched it myself. "What would you need?" she asked, sweetly, syrupy, her voice... like mead actually, more than anything. Sweet and slightly intoxicating. My response was delayed a moment as I looked at the map on the wall, and thought of what I knew of that area. Heavily mountainous and thickly forested. Not many roads weren't dirt. Most of the trafficking they wanted me to go after was by mule. On the roads, windowless work vans. "My squad for one." The Valkyrie nodded. "Already agreed" she answered in that syrupy voice. Now to start pushing. "Two Flights. Draktari and Gryffon." My next demand, obviously unreasonable. Draktari are young dragons. Hideously powerful, Valkyrien only employs one flight, and they spend their time scattered around the globe. As for the Gryffons, well, they be more common, easier to keep hidden, and Valkyrien employs a fair deal, but again, a whole flight is more than we've supplied to any op since the War. Second World, to be precise, back when they recruited me. Not long after Illuss, Vixen and I had deserted after coming across the first of the Camps. But thats another story... But such pleasant reminiscinces are distracting me. I come back to that too-sweet voice going "Not a chance. One flight. Buteo." 'Tis viable, but not what I want. Buteo are manoueverable enough, swift and with plenty of endurance, but they can't cope with heavier weapons in flight. "One Flight. Third Buteo. Third Gryffon. Third Gryfalcon." The last being a peculiar breed of Gryffon. Lighter, faster, they seem to be more like, well, falcons, than the broadwinged eagles and hawks most falcons are braced off. "Done." and a nod. Time to push my like. "We'll want the Ravenwing." Most Gryffons seem to be raptor based, raptor and either lion or tiger for the Gryffon and Cougar or Jaguar for the Gryfalcon. Ravenwing is a rarity. His foreparts are a Raven. His hindquarters a Black Panther. And he's cunning. We'll have need of that. I'd expected argument. I got a nod. Now for the easy stuff. "Mortars. One Detachment. And two more normal squads." That too got a nod. "Minimum" I continued, and then "And I'll be wanting Illuss in overall command." A surprised nod, showing that my bosses don't know me as well as they might, and then the Valkyrie turned to speak to the others present, apparently those employing us. As soon as they got on to discussing how the changes in what was being deployed would affect the price, I took myself to be dismissed. And went to pack. within three days, the assignments went out. Deployed to Eastern Europe: Overall Command: Illuss and his squad
In Support. Custer's Coyotes. And yes, their commander is a descendant. On the other hand, he is also competent. The entire squad was drawn from a single tribe of Native Americans. Not sure which tribe... And how they wound up serving under a half-native descendant of G.A. Custer, I will never know. Expert skirmishers though. Young, most of them. I mean, I remember Custer, but none of them are old enough to have met him. Our other support squad is Black Tyrones. They be another rarity in Valkyrien, where mixed squads is the norm. No, every member of the Black Tyrones is one of the Sidhe. A bit like a cross between an Elf and a Faerie. An Irish Faerie. Tall, fair, fey, and normally haughty. Off course, these ones differ a shade from your normal Sidhe. They be Gall-Gaelidh. Seems this lot had found themselves bound to a small group of Irishmen back in the Tenth. Or maybe the Ninth. Anyway, those Irishmen wound up siding with the Norse, and taking on Norse habits and culture, and bound up to them, the Sidhe had no choice but to do the same.
We got our mortars. Now, a Valkyrien Mortar detachment is three mortars with their crews. And each crew consists of a bearer and two other crewfolk. The bearer tends to be a big burly sort. An ogre for instance, like these were. And the crewfolk turned out to be Goblins. Not so fond of Goblins, on the grounds to one like me they smell funny, but they be clever with mechanical devices, and with disguise and the like. They tend to look like street urchins. As for Ogres, they file down their fangs, and they look like very big, very ugly humans. Oh, it takes a shade more than that, but most of them pull it off. And they be a hell of a lot more clever than most folk give them credit for.
And we got our flight. Two Buteo, who look a bit like angels to anyone who hasn't actually seen an Angel. Birdmen, these two be snipers by trade. They wield the same sort of Recoilless .50 Cal that Elf loves. And a pair of Gryffons, and a pair of Gryfalcons, one in each pair favouring the minigun, and the other being decidedly fond of the auto-loading rocket launcher. And we got Hugin Ravenwing. So we were all set. The next dawn found us seated in a transport plane going over the basic plan. Which basically boiled down to we switch planes in europe to one crossing over our destination, do a HALO jump (High Altitude, Low Opening) and then wreak as much havoc as we can. Additional Ammo would be dropped in by request, and Exfiltration upon request would be through either Russia or Georgia, but not unless we could break contact. Bar that, we had as long as we willed, or at least till we were required elsewhere to do as much damage and have as much fun as we liked. Looked to be a better stint then the last time I'd been here, Taking Tolls from the caravan route at a place called Allerso for the Emperor.