Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Sanctity of Life

               Steel eye Exoskeletons has a very quick reaction time, significantly faster than nerve impulses, which in a human/ drev body are relatively the same reacting at about 300 mph or 400 km/h. The goal of the SE armor is to take nerve impulses directly from the brain and shoot them through the system at speeds faster than that average, while simultaneously disrupting the delayed signal. The result, is an unbelievably fast reaction time (within reason so as not to break bone), When the SE exoskeleton is paired with SE armor, the two share and exchange information at an incredible speed.

Pairing a human's startle response, with a fully equipped combat ready SE armor suit and weaponized combat AI, and the result is startling. Almost as soon as the voice spoke, fifteen weapons were raised into the ai. The last one to move was Sunny herself, augmented only by a combat AI and the strength of a Combat suit, made by the company that makes the SE suits.

Inside Adam's head Fealty had already pinpointed the source of the sound, and his mechanical eye had already switched to thermal readings. With one eye seeing normally, and the other eye seeing in thermal, Adam experienced an odd sensation as his brain automatically overlayed the two types of vision, giving him some strange hybrid version of the world.

And what he saw, was that they weren't alone.

The.

Thing, sat hunched above them in the room's rafters, hardly anything more than a black mass. It was only slightly warmer than the surrounding room, making it difficult to see even in the thermal array. Either way Fealty had already done its best to outline the figure in orange. Fealty was more than 80% sure this thing was a hostile, and the only reason it hadn't urged and attack was that the creature had not yet made a move, and Adam, much to fealty's annoyance, had implemented a policy of diplomacy before violence.

It was one of the only things they disagreed on.

"Oh they did." The voice said again, and Adam watched as it shifted on its perch. From what he could tell of the figure, he was almost positive it was Kree, one of the winged ones. "But by the time they knew what was happening there was nothing they could do, no one to call."

Adam circled the Kree slowly weapon held at the ready, while the others held back, their weapons raised but not ready to fire.

"Why don't you show yourself, and we can talk like civilized people."

The voice chirped a few times, almost like laughter, "If that is what you want."

And then the body fell, and the entire room jumped back as the kree landed on the floor, its body visible now in the collective beam of their tac-lights which cast the creature into otherworldly contrast. It hunched at the center of the circle, a deformed, lopsided thing, that hopped over the ground twitching and jerking in a way that could do nothing but trigger the immediate fight or flight response of the watching humans.

But they all held their line, unmoving.

Adam drew himself up and stepped forward lowering his weapon but not outright ready to relax, "Look me in the eyes."

"If you insist." He watched the creature as it lifted its head, long bald neck arching sliwly upwards, onyx skin glistening in the pool of light.

It lifted its head, beak-like face turning towards him to reveal, glowing orange red eyes, and a lattice of pulsing orange veins pulsing up the left side of it's neck and face.

"Void sickness." Someone said

There was a murmur of nervousness around the room, and one or two shuffled half a step back, though, despite their instincts, they still held their round. Adam held up a calming hand to them. He didn't blame them for their reaction. They were all inoculated against the void sickness, courtesy of Glados's donated and cloned adapted DNA, but still that didn't mean they were entirely safe, and no one wanted to be infected.