Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Godhunter

"Sir more than 30,000 dead, one station and two ships disabled, sir I have never seen anything like it."

Adam stood in the penthouse of the spiral tower as six uniformed men and women surrounded his dining room table, none of them willing to sit, all of them on edge. Conn floated outside the far window leering at them through the tinted glass.

The uniforms of the Arcadia militia were sharp, black uniforms with high collars and waist high grey belts. The Arcadia crest was stitched as patches onto the left shoulder of every uniform, a black field with a diagonal green stripe going from upper left to bottom right with a closed fist and a laurel superimposed on top in white.

Stars marked their uniforms to symbolize rank, but besides that, there were no awards medals or commendations to set them apart.

Just to the side of them, King James of the Neo-Spartan's stood his body marked with lines of metal where his SE armor clung to muscle, and over that he wore his polished red and gold armor, standing in as a representative of his people, as he did own half the planet. He held his plumed Corinthian helmet under one arm his lips pulled into a thin line.

Just across from him, Dzara was standing in for her absent sister. Sunny was off world, coordinating a mass exodus of Drev clans from Anin, groups that were sympathetic to their cause. She was coordinating primarily with the northern Nakt clan, who had been off world for some time, but were returning to gather followers for what they saw as the coming: war to end all wars.

They weren't wrong

"Do you have the footage."

General Kimball shook his head grey hair flickering in the ambient white light which cascaded down on them from the branches of the blue and silver tree, "No, there is no footage. Whatever happened whipped out all the cameras on all the ships. There was only one coherent survivor, and she can't even articulate what she saw.

There was silence around the table.

"If it was just the station that exploded, than how did everyone else die."

More silence as general Kimball shifted on his feet, "Well, sir, about half of them died as a result of self-inflicted mutilation, the other half... well it wasn't self – inflicted."

A muttering went through the room, "Did.... They see it/"

"It seems so sir, that seems to be what caused the.... Madness."

Adam turned to look out the window, over the horizon of peaceful Arcadia, a city that was now only beginning to wake up. Orbs were slowly shifting from blue to white simulating a sunrise. Early birds were already up walking around I the quiet morning darkness, sitting in parks to enjoy the quiet before the rush of the day.

Little did they know what was going on.

News would hit soon enough, but right now, it was their spy satellites picking up on coded signals sent by the UNSC.

Too bad for them the Omen's frequencies were still coed to all their communications, and he was easily able to listen in, like a fly on the wall.

"If anyone had to be right why did it have to be Lovecraft."

Adam sighed deeply and rubbed his fingers into his temples. He wished Sunny was here, but there was nothing he could do about that now.

"Call everyone to their stations now, the entire armada, even the prototypes. Also, send a signal out to Lord Avex, let him know what is going on and order him to be ready,"

"Sir.... You aren't planning on going after it because if you are I am going to have to highly advise against it. Just looking at that thing caused at least thirty thousand people to go stark raving mad before eating each other, the last thing we need is for our people to do the same."