VALKYRIE SMASH

The Calamities were gone and the world finally seemed to enter a period of peace. Just as Nathaniel Carter, previously Command of the twenty seventh Resistance base, began to have such thoughts, the clear blue sky was suddenly painted red casting a dreadful glint on the surrounding lands.

He took the day off to oversee the construction of the city that would take his name. Now that the lands have been cleansed of the red paint he had to be quick and establish his domain before any of the others expanded theirs. The borders of the old world were gone and new ones must be created. For the time being everyone agreed to leave the two Americas alone, but once the new nations had formed and the Resistance disintegrated a new war would start, one to decide who gets to keep the two continents.

Unfortunately it appears they didn't have the luxury to fight against each other. Not yet, at least.

As the head of the new Resistance council General Carter was quick to contact the forty sixth base demanding an explanation for what was happening. He was already used to a Valkyrie being the one to answer his calls, but he still couldn't wrap his head around how General Sanderson gave such a responsibility to an autonomous weapon. He was aware that nearly all human soldiers had been relocated to other bases leaving the Valkyries to run the forty sixth base, but with how busy he was it was only recently that he began to question if gathering all of humanity's most powerful weapons in a single base was a good idea.

Learning that the red sky was just the result of a global scale anti-inter-dimensional travel barrier put his mind at ease if only for a moment. Humanity was brought to its knees by an enemy from another dimension and there were the intruders from a couple of weeks ago so it was best if they had something to prevent anyone else from invading them once again.

Panic spread through the surviving settlements like wildfire and an announcement had to be made to quench the chaos. Still, it took five whole days before the Resistance received news from the forty sixth base.

Carter was on the verge of sending envoys to demand answers. The fact that they had very little info on what was happening there was starting to bother him, but fortunately General Sanderson summoned the council for a meeting to address their concerns.

Since the end of the war several alliances were made between the surviving bases leading to six factions forming, seven including the forty sixth base. Each faction was led by a single General so it was rather strange to see nine seats on the council table, which was only the start of the bizarre occurrences.

General Sam Sanderson was the last to arrive, same as their last meeting. Everyone expected him to show up with a couple of Valkyries as well but seeing that the number had increased to five gave them a bad premonition. There were also a few new faces, clearly human, but the generals didn't pay them much mind as they were captivated by the beauty of the crimson haired Valkyrie.

To their surprise General Sanderson introduced her as Thor, the current Nephilim queen. All of them knew that he was in contact with her as he handled the negotiations with the Nephilim, however the idea that they might end up meeting her so soon never crossed their minds. Accompanying her was Mimir, her adviser and Mjölnir, a bodyguard.

General Sanderson introduced the other participants next; Kamala Mabaso and her assistant Sipho Nkosi, who were representatives of the human refugees that were relocated to their world recently.

Again and again the man wearing a lab coat kept adding to the pile of confusion pressing on the Generals' minds, however their only choice was to wait and hope for an explanation, knowing that asking questions would just worsen their mental health.

What followed next were the most stress inducing hours the six Generals had to live through, surpassed only by what they experienced when the Calamities first invaded.

They were informed about the Olympians, the Primordials, the Fallen and Madness, the Keys and Akasha.

There was way too much for them to take in. The horrors depicted in the footage shown to them were difficult to believe, like overdone visual effects in those superhero movies from back in the day. Unfortunately, having lived through the decade long war, the six Generals knew there was no hope of them waking up to learn that it was all just a sickening nightmare.

The Nephilim world has experienced another catastrophe after everything Odin has done forcing them to flee to another world. It didn't seem like they had any hope of reclaiming their world so for the time being they were going to stay. Everyone understood that there was nothing to be done about it, but Carter wasn't too happy with that decision.

He didn't like how Sam Sanderson kept making decisions for them ever since he earned his title as humanity's savior. Even if it were all just a misunderstanding, the Nephilim were the enemy that almost erased humanity from the face of Earth. They were powerful entities that could eradicate the surviving population in a single day so if they wanted to they could just take over the world.

History has shown that people don't really get along with foreigners coming into their lands uninvited. If things go wrong humanity could have another war on their hands.

Technology speaking, they were already at war with the Olympians so having the Nephilim as their allies was reassuring, but just as General Carter began debating how he should go about strengthening his relationship with them, seeing that he was currently the highest authority in the resistance, Sam Sanderson made an announcement that shocked everyone in the room.

Without wavering even a bit he informed them that he would be taking over. Their world was being forced into a conflict much larger than any of them could fathom so, to ensure their survival, he needed to take hold of the reigns and command their forces himself without having to answer to any of them.

It was then that they all realized how much they'd messed up. He had played them for fools, tricking them into fighting each other and making them believe that the war was over. While they were busy dividing the world among themselves and trying to build their empires, he was setting things up for when it was time for him to take hold of the steering wheel, gathering the Valkyries under his command and forming an alliance with the Nephilim, gaining enough power to make any resistance futile.

The situation was completely hopeless. Greed had blinded them leading a single man to claim all that power for himself, leaving them with no choice but to follow his command. Some were relieved, having surrendered the idea of involving themselves in whatever mess was ahead of them. Carter wasn't thrilled, however. Though he kept his mouth shut in the presence of the mad scientist and his Valkyries, in his mind he refused to accept defeat and resign himself to fate.