Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Fractured Space

Arcadia hung quiet in the darkness, backed by an infinite field of stars. The closest source of light was distant, but still brighter than any star one might have seen from earth, brighter even than the moon, but still it was too far away to provide much in the way of light or warmth. Thousands of ships, many small some large, deployed in a giant fanning array from the orbital space port, swarming in flocks not dissimilar to the mass wheeling of birds, before separating and spreading out across arcadia's marble face. Each ship paired itself off with one of the orbital nexus guns, and hovered in wait, scanning the dark reaches of space for any more potential breaches.

And at the head of all of those ships sat the Empyrean.

Glowing white in the near darkness she lorded over the flock of ships like a mother eagle, or perhaps, a dragon.

Floating on the bridge of the ship, Ramirez glowed softly with Anima light, the same light which ran in veins over the surface of the ship providing light and powering the engines. His soft Amber eyes burned gold into the darkness.

"See anything."

Outside, Adam had taken up familiar position.

The F-90arkfire, cut a long sweeping parabola across the blackness of space. Inside the cockpit Adam was silent inside his armor, the visor of his helmet feeding him reedings from the ship's outer sensors. This jet was custom, in a way. It was a rather old model. The F-90 had been in military operation since the beginning of the Panasian war, and newer jet models had been developed since. With the event of intergalactic travel jet designs had been created to fit specific needs. Some ships were never meant to see atmosphere while others were meant to handle both.

All came in a series of different designs.

Those ships and jets that were designed for space flight were designed differently than those meant for use in atmosphere. For the most part they didn't require the use of wings, and many designers had simply taken to attaching rotating engines to the pilot pod.

Adam found the designs.

Displeasing.

If you were going to build a spaceship, they at least needed to look cool. That was rule number one.

So that's why he used the old model darkfire. He was comfortable inside it, and he always thought the classic jet looked pretty awesome.

He banked right in another slow arc, 'Sensors aren't picking up anything, but that doesn't mean someone isn't there. Celex, what can you see."

A pinprick of light flared in the darkness, and Adam slowed slightly, catching sight of the figure which hung suspended against the field of stars.

Adam struggled to control his impulse to panic seeing an unsuited body floating in the vacuum of space. He had been exposed to that vacuum before and would not recommend it to anyone, so seeing Celex casually floating in the blackness was disconcerting.

The man had taken on a shape that wasn't entirely human, but neither was it entirely star born. He still had his signature rainbow hair which swirled around him in a lazy sort of cloud, but his skin had gone almost alabaster pale. His eyes were still the same, but at his back, an array of a thousand ribbons held , "him in space and provided him with the energy needed to move forward. Arcadia wasn't near a star, so Conn would need to recharge himself on the planet's surface before attempting to join them.

Celex's ribbons flared glowing white as he sped forward , "No, I don't see anything, but something does seem..... off."

"Which gun was it?" Adam asked

"AA 21." Conn said, sending them information from Arcadia's surface.

Adam used the coordinates to maneuver himself in the direction of the explosion, "Detecting a significant debris field. Were we able to enhance the picture on that camera."