The Raven of Cyberspace

Link to article: The Raven of Cyberspace.

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Freya, Dróttning of the Valkyries sat in her office looking over some papers when she heard a knock at her door.

"Come in." She said in a neutral tone. The door opened and in walked Brynhilde, squad leader of the Sverðmeyja. Brynhilde's had her blonde hair up in a bun behind her head, her Adamantine chassis covered in a running jacket and sweatpants.

"You called for me, Dróttning? Excuse my appearance, I was out on a run." Brynhilde explained.

"At ease, Brynhilde. Sit down." Freya motioned to the chair and Brynhilde promptly sat.

"Is this about a mission? You sending us after more books in the Set? Or is it the wolves [[[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/aar-7890-logovo-volka |again]]]?"

"Neither. The trail on the books at the moment has gone cold, your being assigned to a more... financial matter."

"You'll have to be a bit more specific, everything we do is related to money."

"It's the financial department. They are concerned about the Hephaestus upgrade program. They don't believe it's cost effective with the SCP Foundation tightening the grip on the anomalous resources required to make the improvements to our forces."

"Pardon my language but that's bullshit. That technology would keep our girls alive longer on the battlefield."

"Oh I'm well aware, which is where you come in. The financial department wants a field demonstration of the capabilities of the Hephaestus upgrades." She slides Brynhilde a folder, who opens it and begins reading it's contents. "Are you familiar with the Shishi Ryu Clan?"

"Yeah they're the assholes that scarred Göndul. You want us to go after them?"

"A specific family. There's a Japanese MP that wants them cleared out of his district so he'll have a better chance at re-election. Simple extermination mission. You'll send in Göndul to kill everyone inside, no witnesses."

Brynhilde squinted at some of the images, seeing the members using anomalous pyrokinetic abilities during bouts of gang warfare.

"Thaumaturges, we have no idea if the Kinetic shielding will hold against-"

"Live demo remember? You will have to hope that it holds."

"Well that's not my primary concern. You said you wanted just Göndul to go in?"

"Is there a problem?"

"Göndul is one Valkyrie and this is forty trained killers in one building. She's proven herself in small skirmishes but this out of her wheelhouse. Not to mention, she hasn't dealt with these guys since the incident. What if she freezes?"

"Then she isn't a Valkyrie, and doesn't deserve a spot in Valhalla." Freya said, coldly. "Göndul is the most augmented out of all of you and as the tech specialist is more than capable of using it."

Brynhilde sighed, annoyed by Freya's coldness although she'd come to expect it. She knew there was no arguing with her. "Fine. I will gather the rest of my Sverðmeyja and we will get that funding we need."

"That's the attitude I like to hear. Dismissed."

/-/

Göndul sat firmly in her virtual chair inside "The Net", while her real self lay comatose inside of her chair in her dormitory. Her mind was connected and beamed inside of it through an interface located at the back of her skull and built into her brain stem. To put it simply, "The Net" is a way of accessing the petabytes of data that make up the World Wide Web in a 3D space.

Göndul only had a taste of it through underground cyber cafes as Mari Sukumiya but since her transcendence into a cyborg form, she could finally interface fully with it. It had it's limits, a human consciousness cannot stay in the "The Net" forever without suffering a dissociation of consciousness but Göndul much preferred "The Net" to the real world.

She looked over at her side, her eyes scrolling through thousands of news headlines to find anything relevant to her. Göndul's eyes caught one, "[[span class="shadow"]]The Specter[[/span]] sighted again, cops left puzzled at the scene."

"You go, [[span class="shadow"]]Specter[[/span]]." Göndul whispered. "I'll be a hero like you someday." The bit of inspiration steeled her to get back to what she came in here to do. A task that only the most hardened of Valkyries could fathom.

Speaking to Gamers Against Weed.

Adopting her old handle of Kitsukumi7015, Göndul began to type in the chat.

[[div class="danke agent"]]

Kitsukumi7015: So... what do you all know about the PDF on [Potential Memetic Hazard Expunged]? I tried accessing the link but it's since been taken down.

PeppaPig'sStrongestSoldier1337: I ain't telling you anything fed.

Kitsukumi7015: Who said I was a fed? I'll have you know I was hacking banks while you were still trying to figure out how to turn water into mountain dew.

PeppaPig'sStrongestSoldier1337: GLOWIE ALERT.

Lesbian_Gengar: Shut up Peppa. Do you know who this is?

PeppaPig'sStrongestSoldier1337: A CIA plant that's who. How did they even get in this chat?

Lesbian_Gengar: You are too paranoid. This is Kitsukumi7015, she's a famous Japanese hacker who disappeared off the face of the earth a couple of years ago. You a ghost in the machine now?

Kitsukumi7015: I'm not dead if that's what you mean. My flesh is still intact... somewhat.

PeppaPig'sStrongestSoldier1337: What is that supposed to mean?

Kitsukumi7015: Irrelevant. PDF. What do you know?

Lesbian_Gengar: Just to let you know, I'm only going to tell you because I respect what you do. We had it for a while, but we didn't write the damn thing.

Kitsukumi7015: Then who is?

PeppaPig'sStrongestSoldier1337: No one knows. The server that contained it just kinda... showed up.

Kitsukumi7015: Nobody tried tracing the file's origin? Or popping the PDF into existence?

Lesbian_Gengar: Whoever made it has a stronger grasp on reality-bending than we do. We're not poking around with it anymore. We had our fun and it got taken away from us.

Kitsukumi7015: Something tells me I know who took it.

[[/div]]

There was a knocking on her door, loud enough to pick up inside The Net.

"Göndul, it's Brynhilde, open up."

"Sorry gents, that's the end of that." Göndul sighed and reached into the back of her head, pulling the wire from her brain and feeling herself slam back to reality. Her vision was blurry as her brain lagged in reconnecting to her cybernetic eyes. She stood up a little woozy, she had gotten used to the side effects of prolonged "Net" usage but that didn't mean it wasn't still horrible.

She rubbed the metal plate between her eyes and let out a yawn before heading over to the door. She was only wearing an extra large Valravn T-Shirt with their creed on it, to cover up her chassis. She undid the locks and Brynhilde came in, Göndul returned to her chair.

Göndul's room was nothing that you would expect from one of the most dangerous killers on the planet. It resembled any Otaku's room, with figures and other memorabilia strewn everywhere, posters of her favorite figures of the Anomalous world; Podcaster Shaun Saxum and [[span class="shadow"]]The Specter[[/span]] and others covering her walls. As well as her behemoth of a computer setup to perform her duties as tech support.

"You really ought to go outside sometime, Göndul. This isn't good for you."

Göndul looked up at her superior. Brynhilde was everything you strived for in being a Valkyrie but that didn't mean that Göndul would do everything she asked. "Last time I checked, we don't have muscles Brynhilde. I don't need to stretch them anymore."

"You do still have a heart and lungs which need exercising. Plus your actuators are gonna lock up if you keep them in one place for too long."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. I was just doing some recon work." Göndul sighed. "I'm assuming if you're here you got a mission for me? Poland I'm assuming?"

"We aren't being sent after Polish tome. We're still trying to ascertain its location. Instead, we are going to pay your old friends a visit." Brynhilde tossed Göndul the folder.

"Oh, the Shishi Ryu." Göndul rubbed the plate that made up the orbitals in her skull. "It still hurts you know?"

"Your eyes?"

"Yeah its like... I don't know. Like this prosthesis don't exactly fit. I mean I know they do, I've gone over the schematics but my brain's got this inkling that they don't quite sit right in my head." Göndul quickly flipped through it, her cybernetic eyes analyzing every detail.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, I wanted to make sure that your prior history with them wouldn't get in the way of your performance."

"You mean Mari Sukumiya's history with them? I'm not that person anymore, I'm not like Sigrun. I don't have any vendetta against the Shishi Ryu although..." Göndul handed the folder back to Brynhilde. "Mari Sukumiya never got the justice she deserved. I'll be the one to give it to her."

"Glad to see your focused, you are going in solo on this one."

"I-I ummmm, huh?" Göndul said with surprise.

"Yes, you are to be equipped with the latest upgrades of the Hephaestus program and will enter their offices with the objective of killing everything inside and leaving no witnesses. Civilians as well. The businessmen want a demonstration that they're money is being well spent."

"What am I being given?"

"The under wrist Gauss cannon, fires one shot every thirty seconds. The eggheads couldn't exactly get more than one charge on the small battery. There's also the Arc Thrower that will be installed onto your left arm."

"Arc thrower?"

"Nickname by R&D. It's actual name is the Odin Plasma Dispersal Device. It fires an electrostatic discharge about two time hotter than a bolt of lightning. It's anomalous of course so you don't have to worry about it arcing all over the place."

"Odin's Beard, that's ridiculous. I can't wait to try it."

"And the prototype Kinetic shielding module."

"That's ready?"

"S-somewhat? We know it should protect you against melee strikes and small arms fire but against the Yakuza's anomalous abilities. I'm not quite sure."

"That's not very reassuring."

"That's your orders, whether you like it or not. Göndul."

"Look, Brynhilde. I've never done anything this big before, and I'm not as a good a fighter as the rest of the team. This seems like your just shipping me a one way ticket to Valhalla. Granted, it wouldn't be a bad thing; I never liked the mortal plane much anyway."

"Every mission we take on could be our last Göndul. It's having the bravery to accept it that makes us Valkyries. If you want I can try and negotiate with Freya to-"

"No. It has to be me, I'm the only one who knows the ins and outs of all of the tech. I'll manage somehow." Göndul got up from her chair.

"Good to hear. I'll get Sigrun and Herja. We leave in the next eight hours. Óðinn á yðr alla"

"Óðinn á yðr alla." Göndul saluted.

/-/

Several hours later on the flight to Japan....

"Make sure the electromagnetic shielding is working. I don't need her being ripped apart by her own augments." Brynhilde commanded.

"Electromagnetic shielding is at 100%." Göndul replied as Sigrun and Herja were working on her Chassis, her HUD display currently in diagnostic mode. Her vision was filled with readouts displaying every aspect of her augmented person.

"Göndul test for me if you can prime the coil of the Gauss cannon." Herja asked as she finished fitting the tungsten magazine into the inside of Göndul's left arm. With a simple thought, Göndul diverted power from her main systems to power the battery and the coil began to hum.

"Excellent, now do you have access to the Arc Thrower?" Sigrun asked, using a tablet connect to the weapon to ensure the software was running optimally.

At the top right of Göndul's HUD she could see a new entry appearing under the Gauss cannon recharge timer which was the percentage of charge still left in the Arc Thrower. She turned to look at the device now wired into the top of her left forearm. The Arc Thrower had a large circular ribbed base that contained the anomalous machinery that superheated the electrons into plasma to fired out of the barrel that extended from the main housing. With a single thought, the device turned on and the rings around the housing began to light up as it charged.

"Perfect! Those Yakuza won't know what hit em. Now let me just calibrate your eye prosthesis..." Sigrun reached for Göndul's face and soon as her finger touched the metal place surrounding her eyes, Göndul's hand reached forward and put Sigrun's wrist in a vice grip.

"Do. Not. Touch. I will handle the calibration of my HUD." Göndul let go of Sigrun's hand who could quickly see she needed to back off, removing her tablet from the Arc Thrower and giving her some space.

"Easy Göndul. No need to snap at Little Raven." Herja finished the installation of the kinetic shielding, turning it on as a faint blue glow ran over her body and disappeared. "We're all on the same side."

"I know, it's just a... sore spot." Göndul pushed her long black hair back to mess with panel on the side of her skull prosthesis to turn off diagnostic mode.

"It's my bad, should have asked." Sigrun said. "How goes the hunt for that URL I found on the last mission?"

"My contacts seemed spooked. I think they played with fire with that E-book and the Foundation took control of it. That doesn't mean anything that was inside of it is still out there in some shape or form."

"Wait, didn't in it say in those notes we recovered that something bad would happen if the books all came together? And the Foundation has three now?" Herja inquired

"Perhaps when they are all together they will initiate Ragnarok." Sigrun suggested. "It seems we are already in the beginnings of it. So much has occurred in the world this past year, from wars to now all of these anomalous groups scrambling over these nine anomalies, us included."

"End of the world huh? Think we'll get to see the world serpent?" Brynhilde played along.

"It will be quite the battle if that's the case." Herja let out a hearty laugh. "Our blades will sing and the skalds will sing songs of our deeds in the world reborn."

"My estimates say there is only a 0.0000001% chance of Ragnarok actually occuring. Sigrun." Göndul said. "I've gone over all of the requisites for an Ragnarok-Class end of the world scenario and these books do not appear to be shepherding us to the end. In any case, I do hope Odin has a virtualscape for me in his hall.

"Way to be a buzzkill, Göndul." Sigrun laughed. "I don't think "The Net" would even be in Vallhalla. Are their virtual enemies to slay?"

"Trolls." Göndul smiled.

"She has a point little Raven. Perhaps in Valhalla, keyboard warriors are real warriors."

"All good theories." Brynhilde smiled. "We should leave Göndul to get her stuff sorted and for the record.... I'd join Göndul in her quest to slay the internet trolls."

"Their pixels will taste my blade." Herja raised her sword from her belt, prompting a laugh from Göndul; knowing it might just be the last good time she had with her friends before entering the fire.

/-/

Göndul stood outside the Yakuza family office clad in her Adamantine armor, which consisted of metal knee pads, a form-fitting chest plate, elbow guards, and shoulder pauldrons. On her right, pauldron listed her unit number, "S-04". Her armor was decorated with various runes, meant to give Freya's blessings. She held her helmet in her hands, an all-black raven-shaped helm with a long beak and red glowing eyes staring back at her.

"Are you ready?" Brynhilde asked on her comms.

"Óðinn á yðr alla." Göndul placed her helmet on her head and felt it lock around her gorget. Her cybernetic eyes linked to the helmet's ocular interface, increasing her visual acuity.

"Go then and feast."

Göndul stepped forward and entered the office seeing a young man working the desk. Göndul couldn't tell if he was a civilian or just a junior member, but the distinction didn't matter.

"Who are you? What is that get up? " He asked.

"Sorry for this." Göndul muttered under her breath as she raised her left hand and fired her Gauss cannon.The tungsten round accelerated to Mach 3 and ripped through the man's skull, killing him instantly. He hit the table as the blood splattered against the wall and Göndul made her way into the next room.

"Deploy, Huginn." She said, and a disc-shaped drone deployed from her back as she entered the office. Six gangsters with their hair slicked back and wearing flashy clothes had gotten up after hearing the noise from the other room.

"Who the hell are you? Where's Michio?" One of them said, grabbing a bat from under their desk.

"Did the Dojin clan send you punk? That get up ain't gonna save ya." Another said, cracking his knuckles."

"Huginn. Exterminate." Göndul said coldly, her drone deploying an undermounted machinegun that began firing on the Yakuza. The gangsters were just a split second off in their movement, three of them getting riddled with bullets as the rest moved to take cover. Göndul leapt forward, closing the distance on one of them and thrusting her right arm forward, deploying her arm blade and stabbing him through the abdomen. She retracted her arm as he fell down, then finished him off by impaling the blade into his skull. She looked up staring into the eyes of a scared Yakuza as she heard her drone leaving to deal with more rushing down the stairs. She heard their screams over the gunfire and continued to the one in cover.

"Wh- what are you!" He screamed, reaching for a knife on the counter and trying to stab Göndul with it. The knife, however, hovered harmlessly against the kinetic shielding covering her leg. Göndul stared at the man, her shield percentage on her HUD dropping by 0.01 percent as he tried to push it in.

"Pathetic." She raised her arm and fired a round into the man's skull, turning her attention elsewhere. The other men got out from behind their desks with weapons raised, charging at Göndul hopelessly. Their weapons smacked against her, doing nothing. Retaliating, she grabbed the man on her left by the neck while stabbing her blade through the chest of the man in the middle. She tightened her grip on the man's neck and slashed through his bat.

Her HUD was displaying that 30 hostiles remained, Huginn had eliminated four extra but she didn't see him on her display.

//Those were the grunts clearly. Where at the Thaumaturges?// She thought to herself, looking at the stairs as a group of four tattooed men came down the stairs. One of them tossed her smashed drone back at her, she looked at it and back at them.

"Karasu." One of them sneered. "You killed our youngest before they could receive their ink. Don't think we'll fall so easy."

Göndul began to charge the Arc Thrower as the man in front of her came sprinting in for a punch faster than a normal human. She quickly sidestepped, countering with a right hook that knocked the spit from the man's mouth, she felt like she heard some bones crack but he wasn't floored like she was expecting.

Her blade unsheathed and did a back hand swipe that he dodged. She came at him again and again with her sword, the two near evenly matched in speed. He dodged as she swiped and she moved as he struck.

[Arc Thrower 100% Charged. Ready to fire.]

She knew her chance had come and unexpectedly she struck downwards. The man groaned as her Adamantine blade dove into his knee. Göndul then punched the man in the chest as she released the discharge of the Arc thrower. The bolt of electricity ripped through his body, obliterating his heart and blowing out of his back. The sheer energy of the weapon cause his body to seize and catch fire, the lightning not stopping there. The bolt of energy struck another man behind him and sent him flying into the wall.

Göndul quickly removed her blade from the man's knee to deal with the approaching storm. The other two still standing, summoned fire into their hands molding it into a ball and threw it at Göndul. She jumped to the side, firing off her Gauss cannon and blowing out the side of one of their legs but they still stood despite the injury.

//Their tattoos give them incredible resilience. This'll be tougher than I thought.// She dodged another fire volley and closed the distance with her blade. Her blade came down on one of them, who blocked it with their forearm. Her blade dug in and got stuck in the bone. The man struck her abdomen with his palm, transferring a blast of fire energy into her depleted her shields by 25% and knocked her back a few feet, removing her blade from his arm as she went hurtling back.

"Damn." As the other stood up, burns across his body from being struck by the lightning bolt, she unsheathed her blade and removed her naginata from her back.She took a deep breath and made her move, bringing her right hand forward she struck the first man across the face with the staff end and then brought it back to attack the man to his right. The Yakuza blocked her incoming strike, trying to wrestle the weapon from her as the third pulled a knife and tried to go in for the kill.

She realized her Gauss was at the perfect angle with how she was wrestling with the man and fired it off. The round hit the knife wielding Thaumaturge in the right eye and blew out the side of his skull, dropping him. The shocked man looked to the right, giving Göndul plenty of room to shove him off and run him through.Her enhanced strength easily put the Naginata straight through him and into the wall. She then spun around as the other man was on her, hitting her in the head with a fiery crescent kick that knocked her to 66% shielding. She reached by jamming her blade into the man's torso, grabbing her right wrist and forcing it to the side. She nearly cleaved him all the way through, the man falling back as his guts spilled across the floor.

Göndul was panting hard, she turned around hearing the man she impaled against the wall groaning. Promptly she turned around and approached him. She grabbed his head and promptly smashed into the wall, hard enough to splat the back of his head open. Göndul removed her Naginata from the man's guts and stared up the steps in front of her. The presence of 26 more people in the building was confirmed by her X-Ray/Thermal vision.

She was already tiring, and if the remaining Thaumaturges were stronger than them...

No. She had to continue. She grabbed tightened the grip on her trusty Naginata and continued forward.

/-/

20 minutes later...

[WARNING! 0% Shields remaining. Please wait for recharge.]

Göndul felt her chin smashing into the floor as her shields broke, a fireball to the back being the cause. //Just nine more... get up.// She tried pushing herself up but found herself being dragged backwards by the leg. A horde of footsteps stampeded towards her, her enemies swarming and surrounding her. She felt there hands pulling her up and trying to get a hold of her. She fought as hard as she could to stop them from restraining her arms, firing off her last Gauss round into an unlucky Yakuza, who hand pulled her wrist back in range of his face. As the gangster dropped, she threw her arm forward before it could be grabbed and eliminated two more as the arc of lightning shot through the air and fried two more of the gangsters.

This was all she was able to do before the enhanced strength of the Thaumaturges holding onto her got the better of her. They pinned her arms to the sides while one took came around front and started hammering her helmet with blows. The man hit like a train but it wasn't anything Göndul hadn't felt before.

"Take the helmet off." She heard a voice behind them say, she figured it was their captain. The man currently laying a beating on her grabbed the neck of her helmet as she tried to tear away from him, but his sheer strength pulled the helmet off and tossed it to the ground.

Their captain stood up from his seat, he was a large imposing man with an intricate lion tattoo on his back. He walked over to the struggling Göndul. "I know what you are, Valkyrie. I bet that scheming politician hired the Valravn to come take us down. I'm surprised just one small girl killed almost all of my men, but now an example has to be made."

Göndul's mechanical eyelids opened wide, she knew exactly what was about to happen. She gritted her teeth, knowing her options were slim as he approached and placed his hand on the metal prothesis that made up the orbits and middle of her face. She felt the metal begin to warm up, breathing heavily and trying not to scream for mercy.

[WARNING! NEARING MAXIMUM OPERATING TEMPERATURE, OCULAR PROTHESIS WILL BEGIN TO MALFUNCTION]

Göndul let out a gasp as she mentally returned back to her apartment all those years ago. Begging and pleading for the Yakuza she stole money from to not burn her.

"PLEASE! YOU CAN HAVE THE MONEY BACK! NOT MY EYES!" The screams of Mari Sukumiya, the person she used to be echoed through her mind as her mouth finally opened into a scream.

/-/

......

//Did you know that Valkyries can't cry?//

//That's not even metaphorical. As part of the augmentation process they make you unable to cry. Valkyries are supposed to remain stalwart as they lay dying.//

//I didn't get that choice, it was stolen from me. I had my tear ducts burned out of my skull.//

//Some people ask me what was the worst part and their always surprised when I tell them it's not the pain. Once your nerve endings burn away, you stop feeling it as much.//

//It's the smell. I'll never get the smell of my melted eyeballs and charred skull out of my head.//

[Electromagnetic Shielding disabled. WARNING! Using electromagnetic augments may cause damage to sytems.]

//That's last thing I remember about being Mari Sukumiya, the pain, the smell, the trauma. The fact that my family thinks I'm dead and I may never see them again.//

//I only have one chance at this. These idiots are all touching my metal frame. If I allow the current to pass through my body I can fry all of them.//

//I ran the calculations, there only a five percent chance that this doesn't completely fry my brain. Haha, still likelier than Ragnarok.//

//I guess this is goodbye, Byrnhilde, Sigrun, Herja. I proved myself on the battlefield and now...//

[Arc Thrower 100% Charged. Ready to fire.]

//I feast.//

/-/

A brilliant flash erupted in a circle around Göndul, the lightning exploding through the bodies of her enemies. When it was all said in done, they were a pile of charred husks surrounding her. Göndul's mechanical body twitched and seized, sparks flying off her body and the electricity still ran through her body.

"S..s...see you in... Valhalla... Sisters."

[System shutting down....]

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The Raven of Cyberspace

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