Chapter 175 Survivors.



For the sake of their mission, some alterations were made to the Bifrost. They needed one that can be opened from both sides, unless they wanted to risk getting stuck of course. The new portal was one equipped into a large space ship like aircraft that doubled as an operation base as well. It carried all the equipment the Valkyries needed and it has great stealth capabilities so there was little risk of the enemy finding it, unless they have more advanced tech, of course.

Once they arrived on the other side Sam found the most optimal place to land and had the Valkyries prepare to start the investigation. First of all he sent out a swarm of drones to scan the surrounding area and a small satellite to get a wider range. Once he was sure there is no danger in their immediate vicinity he went out to take a look for himself.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Sam found it ridiculous that his first line upon setting foot in the Nephilim's world was that. Never in his life did he think he would be dimension-hopping before going to space, then again nothing was as expected for the past decade.

It has been around twenty years since the extermination of humans in this world. Twenty whole years. No cars, no planes, no boats, no factories. No carbon emissions, no pollution. Sam had expected a nuclear wasteland upon his arrival, but what he found was a green landscape spreading for miles on end.

Data arrived from the drones he sent out after a while. Apparently the plant life mutated thanks to the nuclear disaster and has been spreading uncontrollably for the past two decades. Now most of the land is covered in green and animal life has been thriving without humans there to ruin everything.

"Maybe humans really shouldn't exist," Sam said as he observed the surrounding forest.

"Hmm… I don't really like this place…" Zero Three said.

"Yeah… it somehow… feels wrong…" added B3.

The two of them had disgusted looks on their faces for some reason. Before Sam could ask Nino stepped in to offer her input on the matter, running a hand through her silky raven hair as she spoke.

"Most forests are supposed to be green, you know. Our world was just painted red by the Nephilim's drones."

"Even if you say that…"

When he thought about it, Sam realized that the Valkyries only knew of the red-covered ruins left behind by the Calamities. They never got to see the plains, forests, mountains, and cities as they were before the war, and while Asgard offered a glimpse at what once was, this was their first experience seeing nature in it… well, natural way.

"This is too much green though," Sam said with a chuckle.

PING!

Just then a notification came informing him that the satellite has taken its place in orbit and was in the process of scanning the plane. He had it positioned halfway between them and Odin's castle, which was somewhere in North America, just in case the enemy detected their presence.

"Strange…" he murmured while looking at the scan data. "There are no other active satellites…"

With no one to maintain them the satellites in the sky have long since fallen, well, the ones that weren't shot down during the war at least. Sam had expected the enemy, dubbed the Olympians, to have installed their own for communication and surveillance purposes but apparently, they didn't bother to.

"Isn't it because the planet is mostly empty?" Nino asked.

"I doubt that would be their reason," Sam replied. "Even if they knew the humans on this world are gone, they would still need something to detect interdimensional portals…"

The only explanation he could think of is that the Olympians had some other, more efficient way to monitor the whole planet. It wouldn't make sense for them to be so careless unless they were sure of their fighting power and decided to leave themselves open on purpose.

"Hm?"

The footage captured by the satellite soon came in and Sam could only raise an eyebrow when he went through them. He gazed at the west again seeing the faint red taint in the sky, he then looked at the digital clock on his tablet which told him it was 13:45 and realized it was way too soon for the sun to be setting down.

"What the hell…?"

The coordinates pointed at the exact location where Odin's castle is supposed to be. From that exact spot crimson beam shot up piercing the sky and cutting through an immeasurable distance through space.

Sam was baffled by how he failed to notice it until now. His first guess was that the bright sky made it difficult to see, but that didn't make sense considering his enhanced sight and all the drones he sent out.

"Hey, aren't those lines a bit strange?" Said Nino as she peeked at the tablet from his side.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Zero Three did the same. The way she clung to his arm told Sam that the young Valkyrie wasn't too happy about the Japanese doll sticking close to him this entire time.

"Your job is to keep guard, you know?" Heaving a sigh he zoomed in on the tower-like beam of light. The lines Nino spoke of turned out to be strings of runes forming complex shapes as they encircled the giant crimson beam.

"This… doesn't look good…" Sam had no idea what they did, but no matter how he looked at it something of that magnitude couldn't possibly be a good thing.

PING!

Another notification came in, this time from one of the drones surveilling the area. The moment he saw it Sam turned to his Valkyrie.

"Five, three and a half miles to the east."

"Understood!"

Without asking questions Five teleported along with two other Valkyries heading to the location he pointed out. The notification he received indicated that the drone was destroyed, but the data captured by its sensors didn't pick up anything.

Knowing they couldn't afford to play around anymore the Valkyries prepared for a potential fight. Zero Three let go of the Doctor's arm and summoned her halo, same as the others.

Something glinted in the corner of her eye and she instantly put a triangular shield in its direction. A moment later something collided with the shield and from the trajectory it was easy to tell who they were targeting.

"They're after Doctor!" Zero Three shouted.

"Leave it to me!" Nino said before disappearing.

There were no follow-ups so Sam suspected that there is only one sniper. He wasn't surprised about him being the first to be targeted anymore, after all he stood out like a sore thumb among the gorgeous Valkyries.

"Doctor… check this out…"

Zero Three was pointing at the ground. Squinting his eyes immediately picked up what it was and he raised an eyebrow when recognizing what it was.

"A bullet head?"

More specifically, a 7.62×54mmR. But the size or type didn't matter. What mattered is the fact that it was a physical bullet, not energy or plasma. It was a primitive type of ammunition that was barely used nowadays mainly because it had no effect on Calamities.

[Doctor… I think you need to see this…]

When Five's voice came in, tinged with confusion and bewilderment, Sam got a feeling that his suspicions might not be so off after all.

"Three of you will be coming with me. The rest will form a barrier around the ship and remain inside until we return."

Taking Three's hand the two teleported twice before arriving above Five's location. By the time they landed Sam already had a read on the situation and couldn't help but grimace at the sight.

Sitting on the ground were two men in dirty ragged clothes wrapped with leaves and veins. Each was in pain, their arms broken from being restrained by the Valkyries. The girls seemed flustered as their strength had unintentionally caused them harm, but seeing the knives on the ground beside them told a short story of what happened before Sam got there.

All that aside, the most surprising part is that those two were men. Dark-skinned, flesh-and-blood men. Sam didn't even need to do any scans; the terror on their faces as the two Valkyries kept them still confirmed the fact that they were both humans.

Up to this point, the fact that the Nephilim eradicated the humans in their world was never questioned. Looking at the results of the war that went on for the last decade, Sam had no trouble believing in the Nephilim's ability to commit such atrocities. But was there ever a confirmation? Did the Nephilim search every last corner of the planet and make sure no humans were left behind?

The answer was there, right in front of him. There are still some survivors, and from the looks of it, they still had some fight in them, at least until the angels came went down from the sky.