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Phase 13:Ripples

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Part 1

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Royal Palace

Asgard

Through Gungnir, Loki was intimately connected with the enchantments weaved across the palace and beyond, as well as its more mundane security systems. He saw that Laufrey failed to reach Odin in time. More importantly, he saw that the Jotun bastard betrayed him, which was something Loki was still trying to wrap his head around. He was making his way towards the vaults, ready to liberate choice pieces from there before making himself scarce when new alerts reached him through the enchantments.

"They did what?!" Loki halted his march and stared into the empty corridor before him, seeing through magic what was happening at the Bifrost. Heimdall and the Warriors three were there, fighting Jotun and losing badly.

Laufrey was a brute, leading primitive, brutish people! How did he plan this?! How did Laufrey slip it all under his notice? Loki saw what was happening and found it hard to believe it. This was insane!

As if to prove him right, or perhaps wrong, the enchantments showed a vast ship arrive above the Bifrost and deploy armored warriors moments after Heimdall and company unsurprisingly failed. The Bifrost was slowly exploding, infected by Frost Magic. The ship's crew had other ideas about it. It surgically blasted the device into tiny pieces, ensuring it wouldn't overload and take much of Asgard with it.

Intellectually, Loki knew General Tyr was in charge of a small, supposedly powerful Asgard fleet. He had been on board Asgardian cruisers. Those ships were nothing to scoff at, yet they were constantly overworked and stuck in the far reaches of Asgardian space, keeping an eye on the borders. The same was true for the 'real' Asgardian military, mainly concentrated on board said fleet. Considering his constant absence and rare trips back to Court to speak with Odin quietly, it was easy to write off General Tyr and plan around him anyway.

The Asgardian fleet and military were not a factor in internal politics. They were only used as a deterrence against other empires.

Otherwise, both Loki and Thor would have been more aware and involved as part of their education. Well, Thor was a blunt instrument. Loki wouldn't have trusted him with the kind of power such a ship implied.

Loki had been on board Asgardian cruisers many times in the past. This monster he just saw was nothing like them!

Why was he surprised that Odin didn't share information about a navy possessing such power with him? He had to suppress it for Loki to be this unaware actively, yet it made perfect sense. He wasn't an Aesir. Odin didn't trust him!

Loki reached the logical conclusion that he saw a contingency aimed against people like him. Odin had played him in a way Loki never gave him credit for. If the situation were different, Loki would have been impressed with the AllFather's cunning. Instead, for the first time, he decided to take over, Loki felt a shiver of fear.

What else didn't he know about? What other deadly secrets did Odin keep close to his chest?

The sound of running feet clad in armored boots hitting the floor broke Loki out of his reverie. He cast his best illusion spells, cloaking himself in magic to avoid detection, turned around, and ran away from the vaults. Securing them after making sure Odin was alive would be the next logical step for Tyr or whoever was in charge of the fleet. Loki decided it might be for the best to be far away from Asgard before they could find him. Improvising, no matter the priceless opportunity, has already ended in disaster. Loki wasn't about to improvise again against a threat he knew very little about.

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Loki was near his exit point, feeling glad he chose to retreat when he did. He barely avoided groups of silver-armored warriors using beam weapons to cut through the Jotun pouring into the palace as if they were wheat ready for harvest.

This was different from the kind of warfare the Nine Realms were accustomed to. Asgard's warriors tended to dismiss ranged weaponry as dishonorable. Their enchanted armor, durability, and limited magic support allowed them to deal quickly with the odd marauder band that had bought such weapons. Besides, it wasn't like such things were particularly relevant to the likes of Thor wielding Mjolnir. They might threaten weaker Aesir, but what couldn't?

This kind of blind arrogance, of course, made his life much easier.

The same wasn't valid for these soldiers. Loki decided that underestimating them or lumping them with the rest of Aesir would be a terrible idea.

He ran ahead of a group of soldiers, using a stream of rushing Jotun as cover. To his chagrin, Loki found out that Tyr's people could see well enough through his illusions, and they opened fire at him as well. Silver energy bolts splashed over a shield he hastily erected using Gungnir. Loki kept running and swung Odin's weapon, channeling raw magic into a beam of condensed liquid fire that vaporized any Jotun it touched. This allowed him to burn himself a way to the dimensional breach that linked Jotunheim and Asgard.

Naturally, going to that frozen hell would do him no good, especially when Loki knew Laufrey had his own plans. He slammed Gungnir into the breach, channeling raw power and intent into it. At the same time, he fished out the Casket of Eternal Winters and pointed it at the soldiers, unleashing its frost magic at them. More shots hit his shield, and it wavered before weakening enough to let a diminished beam through. It burned the outer side of Loki's hand.

Frost covered a few of the soldiers, freezing them solid. Those behind them activated glowing shields the ice magic struggled to overcome and kept firing.

A lance of silver fire struck his shoulder, peeling his enchanted armor open and shoving him back. Another shot hit his already burned hand.

Gungnir dropped from unfeeling fingers. The weakened shield broke, and piercing shots slammed into Loki's chest, blasting his armor to pieces and shoving him into the unstable dimensional breach.

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Loki fell through the gap between dimensions for what felt like forever. His only companions were pain and failure.

Eventually, something latched onto his form, pulling him out of the endless fall. The next thing Loki knew, he was on a hard floor, staring at a huge purple face. A pair of calm eyes looked down at him and eventually crinkled in amusement.

"Loki, the Liesmith. Former Prince of Asgard, and now, Asgard's most wanted fugitive. Do you know how high the reward for your delivery to face judgment is, little godling?"

"I am sure we can discuss this like civilized beings?" Loki croaked.

"Yes, we can. I am Thanos, and I am burdened with glorious purpose, Loki, the Lie-smith! You will serve, as many others. However, you are a liar and a traitor. I can't trust you," The Mad Titan smiled pleasantly. "Let us make sure we can trust you to do what I require of you, shall we?"

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Royal Palace
Asgard

General Tyr marched into the private part of the palace holding the Royal family's quarters. A few of his soldiers followed him as a security detail, trailed by a handful of healers. Cold fury burned within his heart at the sight of the dead and dying.

This mockery wasn't the Asgard he once swore to protect. These so-called warriors… Such arrogant stupidity, such a pointless waste of lives.

Tyr glowered at a cluster of Royal Guards nervously standing at attention in front of Odin's bedchamber. The corridor in front of it was a slaughterhouse filled with butchered Asgardian warriors and Jotun. Here and there, he could see bodies, or what was left of them, cut down by his soldiers who arrived to ensure the King's continued survival. By then, the Jotun's assault on this part of the palace had all. Still, it ended due to the guard mobilizing and cutting off the flow of enemy reinforcements. With that done, the cut-off Jotun had no option but to die.

"General!" A young, pale-faced officer gave him a warrior's salute.

Tyr glowered harder, and the boy hurried out of his way after waving his men to do the same.

"Stay here," He ordered his security detail and marched into Odin's quarters.

The King was slumbering, surrounded by a golden dome of magic he was busy absorbing. Queen Frigga stood nearby, tall and proud. Her own Seidir flowed around her like a furious vortex, betraying her state of mind.

"My Queen," Tyr bowed.

"General, I am thankful for your assistance. I understand that without your arrival, much of Asgard might be gone," The Queen offered him a kind, tired smile in gratitude.

Tyr saw her handiwork outside. She had fought and fought well, which she shouldn't have had to in the first place.

"We need to discuss matters, my Queen," Tyr glowered at Odin's still slumbering form. "Including the succession."

"I am still to hear from Odin's own lips the reasons behind our son's exile. As for Loki…"

"We have him confirmed as a conspirator involved in tonight's attack. He also dispatched the Destroyer to kill Prince Thor," Tyr reported what he learned from the Watcher. Heimdall was going to face a trial if the General had anything to say about it. "The Prince is alive and reasonably well… A Midgardian wielded Mjolnir and was instrumental in striking down the war machine," Tyr was quick to reassure the Queen.

"Loki, what have you done?" Frigga groaned.

"I understand that Prince Thor has been exiled over gross incompetence and almost starting a war of his own volition without even sparing a single thought on the possible consequences or our strategic situation," Tyr grimaced. "My Queen, under these circumstances, I am afraid that the military will be unable to accept Prince Thor as Odin's successor. He will need to prove himself level-headed and capable before we contemplate it. At the same time, Odin's judgment as of late is something I must question."

"What are you saying, General? Speak plainly!" The Queen demanded. Seidir swirled around her protectively, and her eyes glowed with barely restrained power.

"When Odin awakes and explains himself, I might require you to become Queen regent until we can have a proper successor replace Odin permanently."

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Part 2

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SWORD HQ

New York

"Reinforcements are on the way to secure the site and artifacts. Mr. Stark and our visitor are on the way to a military hospital under heavy guard. We chose the place in question due to its proximity to elements of 1st Armored Division that can deploy in defensive posture before the casualties are airlifted there," Danvers reported in front of the whole Oversight Council and the President, who was very interested in the fact that Aliens apparently brought a civil war or a coup attempt to US soil.

"Can we keep things quiet?" Councilor von Holstein inquired.

"So far, we have no major leaks. Persuading the population of the town in question to lie through their teeth and blame everything on a weird weather phenomenon will be going to be expensive and might require twisting hands," Danvers did her best not to grimace at thinking about SHIELD. "As per our operational agreement, such cover-up operations are SHIELD's responsibility due to long-term experience. The agents who attempted to create an interstellar incident might do something constructive for a change."

"We will discuss that later in the meeting, Madam Director," Akira noted. "What are your preliminary evaluations and recommendations?"

"We should remain in a heightened state of alert. Until and unless Prince Thor's people re-establish contact, we won't know the outcome of the coup attempt we suspect occurred. We might see additional attacks aimed at his assassination. We can only guess at this time who might ultimately win. If it happens to be the loyalists, allowing Prince Thor to die in our custody will earn us no favors. The reverse is true if the coup is successful. Keeping the Prince alive will lead to further incursions to see him removed as a threat. However, the lack of follow-up strikes aimed at him might indicate an ongoing civil war, in which case either side's continued survival might not be a priority."

"What do you recommend?" Yen asked.

"I am giving you the facts as we understand them, Councilor,' Danvers calmly explained. "No matter what we do, we face potential dangers and boons in the long run. However, we lack the information to make an educated decision. We must decide how to handle Prince Thor, mostly blind."

"That's less than ideal," Hawley pointed out.

"While true, we can't change the fact facing us. Regarding actual recommendations and observations, there are various things of note. First, we might need to invest in hardened transport infrastructure for rapid deployment that doesn't rely on air transport. This means overhauling and expanding the railways in case of Jotun incursions or such by other entities with a similar way to weaponize and control the weather. At the same time, we will require investment in faster, armored transports to facilitate rapid deployment of combat elements into or near contested regions. The strategic mobility the Asgard demonstrated means makes this critical."

"More investment in R&D and infrastructure. I am sure we can agree on this. There will be benefits beyond the direct military ones. Are there any scientists left on the planet who aren't neck-deep in work?" Hawley wondered aloud.

"Councilor Stark will know. We can ask him when he recovers," Danvers suggested. "Another observation is that for the Asgard, small arms might be obsolete and unable to provide sufficient effective firepower to be worth it. Instead, they appear to favor literal enchanted artifacts and weapons. The sheer durability and self-repair capabilities demonstrated by the combat platform deployed to assassinate Prince Thor backs this hypothesis. Bringing anything short of anti-tank firepower might be pointless if we have to engage Asgard forces, rogue or not."

"Well, we lack magical weapons or the way to mass produce them," Yen grimaced. "So everyone expected to face Asgardians should be carrying anti tanks missiles?"

"Heavy weapons that people can carry thanks to exoskeletons might be useful against regular Asgardian infantry. From what we saw, the Asgardians who engaged the Destroyer were nowhere near as durable as that thing. However, we would almost certainly need proper anti-tank firepower for anything that is not infantry. HMGs and auto-cannons might be useless against light vehicles and, as demonstrated, heavy infantry units."

"Exoskeletons might become from nice to have to indispensable when facing aliens," Yen concluded. He would like that China was already making a killing selling the passive ones.

"That is our preliminary conclusion, yes. The primary issue was that the weapons our infantry carried, except Javelins, simply had insufficient firepower. It should be noted that we have indications that Asgard isn't mass-producing this kind of combat robot. However, the existence and demonstrated capabilities of the Destroyer should compel us to assume the worst in that regard," Danvers explained her thinking.

"We will take this under advisement. It's a good thing that we have a friendly, high-placed source of intelligence about Asgard's capabilities," Hawley smiled. "Prince Thor should be eager to tell us what we should prepare against if for no other reason than so, we could better keep him alive. It's not like we will be a strategic threat to Asgard anytime soon."

"Further debriefing of the Prince after the doctors are done with him is on our to-do list," Carol confirmed. "My final recommendation, for now, is that we continue to utilize Councilor Stark as our point man for first contact. His performance was exemplary both from a diplomatic and military perspective, including defusing an ugly clash between agencies."

"Yes, our colleague continues to prove himself supremely capable. That will be a problem for some people when combined with the increased profits, power, and influence of Stark Industries," Yen scrunched his nose as if trying to chase a headache away.

"Because he is too powerful and independent for the taste of many?" Hawley hummed. "It's a good thing that Tony is one of ours then, isn't it?"

Danvers noticed several Councilors nodded without reservation while others looked less than pleased at the declaration. Apparently, even an alien incursion wasn't enough to keep the political games at bay.

"Speaking about meddling groups, SHIELD," The General grit her teeth. "Do we have an explanation of what Fury was thinking, or better yet, those who aimed to cause a diplomatic incident?"

"From what I gather, until it was too late and the four other Asgardians arrived, no one was taking the Prince Thor situation seriously enough. There were people and groups within SHIELD or able to influence it that saw this as a perfect opportunity to compromise SWORD and, depending on how much Councilor Stark overreacted, use the fallout both against us as an organization and Mr. Stark in particular," Danvers didn't like the picture Hawley painted at all.

"What are we going to be doing about it?" The General asked.

"You and SWORD, Director? Nothing. It is our job to deal with such… mistakes," Yin reminded them.