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Phase 12:Hard contact

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Part 1

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Asgard

Laufrey, King of Jotunheim, fought to keep himself from smiling in contempt. He knew who and what Loki was. He was also aware the foolish boy was using him and his people again, and for what? So he could pander to those Aesir fools?

Nevertheless, this opportunity to strike at the heart of Asgard was priceless. The attempt to retrieve the Casket of Eternal Winters served its secondary purpose. The few survivors who returned were sorcerers who tasted the magics of Asgard. They were instrumental in making sure this attack would succeed in crippling the Aesir no matter what.

While Loki quietly led Laufrey through the Palace's halls before making himself scarce, Frost Magic pulsed through the fissure in the realms that allowed their covert arrival. At any other time, this would have been night impossible. However, with the Convergence fast approaching, the dimensional walls weakened, making travel that would have lasted months, if not years, in a fast spacecraft possible through magic.

Laufrey could feel ice spread through Asgard's heart like poison as a strike team slipped inside, then a second and a third, each going after their designated targets.

It wouldn't matter if Odin lived or died, though the Jotun King hungered to taste his old nemesis' blood.

=SI=

Loki sat on Odin's throne, which was soon to be his. One way or another, Odin would die, and Thor would be no more after today, and he would have a war to rally Asgard around.

Now, all he had to do was ensure the Destroyer did its job right, then guarantee that Laufrey succeeded.

There was a little snag with that plan. Instead of facing the challenge as expected, Thor was running, letting the primitive Midgardians and his friends slow down the weapon. That should have been of no consequence. The only things that could even scratch the Destroyer on Midgard would be enchanted Aesir weapons. Thor would die while stripped of his power and before he could redeem himself in Odin's eyes, well, eye.

Midgard possessing man-portable weapons that could damage and slow down the Destroyer was not part of the plan. This was supposed to be one of Odin's masterpieces! While most of the Midgardian weapons were like throwing water against an avalanche, they had those cursed missiles that could blast right through the armor, slowing down the machine and even forcing it to pause to repair itself!

That wouldn't have mattered if Thor only stood and fought like the brute he was! Instead, Loki could feel the fool through the Destroyer's sensors. Thor was fleeing! That wasn't something Loki believed might cross Thor's mind, much less do it!

What was Midgard doing to that fool?! Loki scowled when more missiles fell from the sky and stopped his Destroyer. He didn't have the time for this!

Loki channeled more and more power into the Destroyer. Instead of fueling it into an attack, he cloaked it from sight and made it faster, sending it in pursuit.

=SI=

New Mexico

"Sir, we lost sight of the target. It just vanished from our sensors. It entered a low emission or outright stealth mode," A strike fighter pilot reported.

"Do we have eyes on the Destroyer?" Elis demanded.

"Negative. Thermal is negative. The visual is negative. The thing suddenly cooled off and disappeared!"

Beside me, Thor mumbled something that sounded like Loki.

"We have an invisible kill-bot after us, joy."

The thing didn't appear while we raced toward Site Alpha. Drones, strike fighters, and bombers were on station above us – that was the good news. The plan of bombing the thing non-stop on the way here didn't pan out. There was nothing to detect and bomb. Figuring out new sensors and a way to detect magi-tech illusions, if at all possible, at our level, suddenly jumped high up on my list of priorities. Perhaps adding seismic sensors to secure facilities? While there were ways around those, it would be better than nothing. Portable seismic sensors as well.

"Prince Thor, please go inside and try to pick up your hammer. Captain, get someone to escort him in and avoid problems. The Blackhawks are back here, right?" I asked.

"Sergeant Johnson – escort duty," Elis ordered. "They should be here, yes. Do you intend to retreat further?"

"We can't assume this thing will keep chasing us conventionally, and we can't afford to retreat to a target-rich environment. Whoever sent it might be able to whisk it away near our location if we properly break contact and get away."

"That's a valid concern after what we just saw," the Captain nodded. "The Strykers and Bradlies?"

"We use them to pin it when it shows. Run it over, park a Bradley on it if that is what it takes, and have the air force hammer it down with everything they have on station."

It was damn frustrating that with the power I could channel, I wouldn't be able to scratch it if it could rapidly recover from anti-tank missiles hitting it in the face. Something more exotic might work, yet I lacked the raw juice for that too.

Elis discussed our rough plan with the vehicle commanders, and I followed Thor inside the isolation chamber. I found him surrounded by scientists watching intently, trying and failing to pick up his hammer. The Prince looked despondent and gave up after his latest failure.

"If someone else manages to pick it up, could this thing damage the robot permanently?" I asked.

Thor looked at the hammer, then up at me, and shrugged.

"Get everyone who has yet to try to try to attempt to pick it up. If it works, congratulations, you're going to try charging an alien kill-bot under cover of all firepower we can throw at it."

"That's not a ringing endorsement for success, Dr. Stark," Dr. Wagner huffed.

"We are out of good options."

"You heard Mr. Stark. Line up and start pulling!" The Austrian complied even if he didn't sound happy.

I went outside, hoping that Elis or someone up the chain of command had a better idea than my half-assed plan. I did ask, too, in case someone was feeling shy today.

"Mr. Stark, if I had an idea that might work besides executing a tactical retreat and hoping for the best, I would have said so. We aren't exactly swimming in assets. The Air Force was supposed to provide most of our firepower until heavy reinforcements could reach us, and they can't hit what they can't find."

Sadly, even with the best the US military could do logistically, moving heavy combat assets in place took time. It didn't help that the US was a big country, and we couldn't assume that any given incursion was anything but a feint or a probing raid to test our capabilities. Going all in without a confirmation it was needed was an excellent way to get our highly mobile units caught out of position.

Further, the sheer toughness of that thing limited what we could use. The special forces that would have been our first ground reinforcements were now busy evacuating the town just in case the thing returned, or follow-up enemy forces arrived in the area. They had little in the way of effective firepower they could add. There was no use giving the killer robot more targets to shoot at when it proved it could trivially erase infantry.

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Part 2

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Throne Room

Royal Palace

Asgard

Loki tensed with frustration and vexation. Only because Thor ceased running, the Destroyer could rapidly approach his position. Otherwise, the Midgardian machine he rode was faster than the automaton even when he boosted it. Odin didn't build this thing to move quickly and chase vehicles. Would there be no end to Odin's oversights?!

He guided the Destroyer to the location he could sense Thor's presence and Mjolnir. The last thing Loki needed was for the brute to regain his powers. That would further complicate things, and he was already running out of time. It was a minor miracle the Jotun within the Palace hadn't stumbled upon guards or caused mayhem for the Hel of it!

Loki spared a moment to observe the small number of Midgardian combat machines guarding the place where Thor went. He decided that neutralizing them first would be a waste of time. Instead, he guided the Destroyer straight toward the building and its target.

A Midgardian shouted something that the automaton didn't quite catch. The primitives in sight scattered and began throwing small canisters that released white smoke. What were they… Loki looked down at the cloaked figure of the Destroyer. Smoke billowed around it, making it stand out if barely.

Perhaps the same Midgardian pointed in its direction, and the primitives opened fire. Projectiles glanced off the armor, and Loki hissed in frustration at another setback. He unleashed a beam of fiery destruction. Midgardians scattered, trying to get out of the way. Some even managed it, while others burned.

The vehicles opened fire, and the largest, boxy ones launched missiles. Loki struck one of them later, burning straight through its armor and turning it into a burning furnace for its crew. A moment later, missiles struck, crippling the Destroyer and forcing it to waste precious time and energy to repair itself.

"Kill Thor! Kill every single pest in that place!" Loki ordered. He didn't have the time to see to it personally now that the Midgardians were once again slowing down the Destroyer. He had to ensure Odin was dead and had it all set up to blame the Jotun properly.

Just as Loki stood from the throne and relinquished direct control over the Destroyer, the palace's alarms rang.

Could no one do anything right this day?!

=SI=

After calming herself down, Queen Frigga dismissed her ladies and marched towards Odin's chambers, trailed by her security detail. Enough was enough. Her husband was going to give her a proper explanation. And if Thor deserved an exile, she was going to have words with her son as well, the kind he wouldn't enjoy or forget for a long, long time.

Frigga walked around the corner of the corridor that held only Odin's and her quarters. The Queen halted in her tracks at seeing a small group of Jotun ready for war at Odin's door.

Royal Guards walked behind her and briefly stared as well. A heartbeat later, swords hissed, clearing their sheaths, and spears rose, ready for throwing. Frigga didn't need something as mundane as enchanted weaponry, even if she always had a deadly sword within reach. Seidir gathered around her, forming a protective barrier just in time to intercept a hail of deadly ice shards.

The Queen's guards roared war cries and activated the Palace's alarm before charging to place themselves between her and the danger. Spears flew in retaliation, slamming into ice armor. A Jotun collapsed, roaring in pain, while cool blood splashed on the floor. A Royal Guard fell next, with his face shredded by ice daggers.

Frigga released her first attack. A silver beam of Seidir zigged and zagged between the Aesir, missing them by centimeters, and slammed into the chest of a Jotun. Ice armor boiled and vaporized, followed by flesh and blood.

=SI=

Alpha Site
New Mexico

Creating proper countermeasures against active stealth was another thing I had to look into. Sadly, the most straightforward solution, advanced smoke grenades, was very nasty for anyone who breathed the stuff due to all the sticky particles inside meant to stick upon invisible infiltrators and make them stand out.

In a pinch, regular smoke might work, which is what I went for after the Force did decide to be helpful and warned me of imminent danger.

To my utter disgust, the Bushmaster auto-cannons of the Bradleys sent shells that bounced off the damn Destroyer. Besides their TOW missiles and the Javelins we had, the only other thing that could harm the killer bot was one of the Strykers, which had a tank cannon.

After the missiles damaged the Destroyer, but not before it gutted a Bradley, the gun Stryker managed to take aim and strike it. The anti-tank round went through the Destroyer's chest, tearing a large hole in its back. The resulting shock threw it off its feet, rolling through the desert.

"Keep firing!"

A last TOW missile struck, followed by a rain of Hellfires from armed drones.

"We have a SPECTRE gunship entering the station within the minute. Strike Fighters are…." Large explosions shook the desert, drowning out Elis' voice.

"If that thing is still operational, it might go stealth again and keep picking us up one vehicle at a time," I warned.

There was a downside to the air strikes. All the debris, sand, and dust they threw in the air obscured the target.

"Do we have anything on thermal?!" Elis demanded.

The gun Stryker fired again in response, followed by another air strike.

"Target is still hot!"

"Stark, everyone else except for the vehicle crews already tried the hammer. It's our turn now," Elis shouted. "The rest of you keep that thing pinned down until it finally dies, or we run out of ammo!"

The Captain nodded at me and ran back into the isolation tent, which now had a large smoking gap in its side. I went after him, passing medics trying to keep soldiers that the energy beam didn't quite touch. They still spotted a nasty burn I could smell or get thrown away like toys by a near miss exploding the ground beside them with predictable unpleasant results.

Inside the tent, I was pleased to see someone had the presence of mind to evacuate those who had already tried and failed to pick up the hammer. I saw Thor struggling with Sergeant Johnson and a pair of large soldiers dragging him toward the back of the camp.

Elis grabbed the hammer's hilt and heaved, straining to move it. After two hefty pulls, he shook his head and moved away while asking for a status report over his radio.

It was time to see if a Sith Lord and an industry tycoon could qualify as a worthy ruler of Asgard or something in that vein. As soon as my fingers touched the hammer's hilt, I could sense energy washing over me. An inhuman curiosity and frustration touched my mind, sliding over my mental defenses. The frustration increased. Lightning surged up my arm like a warm embrace. I let the awareness in. The lightning sunk into my flesh, revitalizing me.

I could get the distant sense that I wasn't quite what Mjolnir wanted or needed, yet I passed muster.

There was electricity in the air all around us. Mjolnir was a conduit to a vast reservoir of energy, which, while enormous, wasn't of the same scope as the Force as I remembered it. However, it didn't matter. There was more power beyond the hammer than a person would or should be able to handle without burning to a cinder.

I could feel the power of the storm, of what might be magic, judging me and pulling away, finding me unsuitable.

Lightning, on the other hand? We were old friends. Storm clouds gathered above us, yet I could sense it was merely a side-effect of Mjolnir reawakening. I couldn't control the storm itself. All the lightning it could generate? All the electromagnetic energy Mjolnir could harness? That was another thing. I could use as much as my body could handle.

Lightning bolts danced around me, crackling in eager anticipation.

"Stark, they lost sight of the target! Unless we get damn lucky, it's invisible again! Can you do something about it?" Elis waved at the electricity arcing around me.

"We're about to find out," I drew on the Force, trying to sense where the Destroyer went.