Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

The Gathering

A wall of sand gathered on the horizon, he could see it as a dusty blue haze just brewing over the azure vastness of the Irus desert sand . It had been a few years since Adam had stepped foot on this planet, even longer if he accounted for the two years he had been absent.

Not much had changed in that time, though eager little robots in the shape of small silver balls rushed in groups over the tarmac pushing away any sand that dare stray to far onto the launch field. Adam lifted his head slowly towards the green/ yellow hewed sky in opposition to the blue copper sand. The Irus star was slowly expanding, it would probably take a few thousand years for it to grow hot enough that Irus would no longer be viable. Once, Adam heard, this desert land had been full up with trees and exotic plants, but the slowly expanding sun had burned away those plants over thousands of years leaving the dessert vast and barren.

The Rundi had evolved with this changing landscape, and the lack of water, which ran in underground rivers and congregated at the planet's poles.

He sighed and lifted his head to the sky.

He remembered the days when things were different, when he had the time and energy to know miscellaneous facts about every planet on which he stepped. Hard to think that it had been what? Almost a decade since the war, maybe a little less?

A lot had happened in that time.

They had gone from not knowing about aliens, to a full scale war on life's very existence in a matter of years.

Though he still felt 28, in everyone else's time he was in his thirties now.

Truthfully a decade wasn't that long, but so much had happened in so short a time, it was hard to wrap his head around.

He took his first step onto the tarmac feeling a soft breeze brush past him, bringing with it particles of sand that peppered his cheeks. His long dark coat, whipped around his ankles. It was sweltering inside his clothing, but there was no way to change that now. Behind him his soldiers must have felt similarly dressed in their sharp black uniforms.

Adam wore no uniform, at his mother's behest. He was a king now, and it was beholden to him to dress like one.

Horrible images of king Louis the XIV of France had flashed in his mind for weeks before she came back with her final product.

He should never have doubted her of course. She had presented him with a long jacket that swept down to the angles, pulled in tight at the waist made from a patchwork of leather and other odd materials in his accent colors of green and black. Underneath the coat came a bit of an old fashioned influence with a waistcoat and tie managing to appear formal and informal at the same time. The sleves of his under shirt were tight to his wrists leaving room for his gloves. The pants were lose and black, his boots calf hugging but flexible buckled up the side with tight straps of leather. His mask hung from a loop at the front of his waist, and a low hanging hood concealed part of the sleek black jetpack strapped to his back.

They were not the only ones present on the planet.

Off to one side he could se a shuttle with the Martian crest.

They were greeted by a nervous group of Rundi pages, who hurried them up the walkway and towards the GA courtyard glancing nervously at the horizon where the sandstorm was only growing in strength.

Sunny rested a hand on his shoulder as they walked.

Perhaps it would have been better if they had not come together, but that was simply not how Drev worked.

If he was going into battle so did she.

Sunny had mentioned that during her pregnancy she had avoided conflict like the plague. It was a hard thing to imagine as she had whipped him soundly on more than one occasion since his return. Despite having Kay to take care of, she had spent a significant amount of her time honing her skills.