Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Heretic

Mitzen was in awe.

Not that that was an entirely difficult thing to do, Mitzen could be struck silent by a particularly beautiful sunrise or the waves of a rolling ocean. He had a great appreciation for aesthetic beauty or even the demonstration of a simple skill, so it was no surprise when the stranger's ship appeared out the window of his shuttle, that he was struck with an overwhelming sense of awe.

She was an incredible, her scale difficult to determine when there was nothing close to compare her to, but still mitzen knew her scale was on another level from even their largest cargo freighters. And not only was she at a scale he was having trouble wrapping his head around, but she was beautiful. From bow to stern she was a beautiful piece of architecture rot in graceful flowing lines that evoked the essence of soemthing that had been grown organically rather than built.

Each line of was deliberate, and each protrusion seemed to serve a purpose.

She had no visible engines that Mitzen could see, but the entire ship seemed to glow with an inner golden light past her radiant white skin.

The ship had not been made for stealth, but perhaps it didn't need to.

As they approached a golden field, encompassing the ship like a large bubble, pulsed once to let them through and then faded away.

Complex shielding.

Mitzen was impressed. Their ships had shielding for sure, but they used advanced computational machines to calibrate their shields. Shields took up a lot of power so instead of finding a power source to keep them running at all times, their machines used a series of radar and other detection equipment to determine the weight and velocity of projectiles. The computer would then generate a shield precisely at the point of impact for the split second it would take the impact to happen.

Saved them a lot of energy

But looking up at this ship, energy did not seem to be something they were lacking in.

As their ship approached, a panel in the side of the ship opened, revealing a crackling field of blue energy the only barrier between him and what lay beyond.

"Friendly aircraft please relinquish control of your ship."

Mitzen didn't like the sound of that but he gave the order to his pilot who cut the engines and pulled away.

Their hull groaned a bit, and then they were moving forward, passing through the blue field and into the waiting cargo hold. It was hard to believe that nothing stood between them and the vacuum of space except for a field of blue energy, but he tried not to think about it as the thought put his teeth on edge.

Stepping out of the ship, he found a waiting entourage.

Humans

Multiple humans

One of them was very tall and rather brightly colored. He had long technicolor fur on his head and matching hair surrounding his mouth almost like some sort of mane. He is the one who translated for the others.

How he could have known mitzen's language was unknown to him, but it was rather convenient.

Beside him, a very tall creature almost three heads higher than the colorful human, with a beaklike face and four full arms. It was a fierce looking beast, and the armor on its body indicated a creature that was not a stranger to war. He could see he nicks in the armor, and knew it wasn't simply for ceremony.

To its other side there was another, unknown alien with light brown yellow fur, and large ears not so dissimilar to Mitezen, though it was much taller, and had a long thick tail which it used to support itself against the ground.