Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Rule Number 1

Adam had an army.

He also had a baby Celzex in his pocket, but that was beside the point, and secondary only to the army. Had Sunny rolled her eyes at him? Yes, yes she had saying, "Don't you have enough children already." To which he had pointed out that Celzex were significantly lower maintenance than all of his previous children.. If he could have adopted an armful of the little fluffballs he would have, but, while he was relatively sure he could get one past his wife, he wasn't entirely sure he could get an armful.

So today, armed with a rifle, a handgun, two collapsible spears, three knives, and both of his fists, he stood at the head of his army. The Bob shown down from above, ha, he loved saying that, lighting the arcadian morning with cutting rays of blinding, white light. Before him, his waiting army stood on the green, rows and rows of men and women, many of which he recognized.

This was it.

This is where it all began.

He straightened himself, and flexed his shoulders, listening as the SE armor whirred lazily to life.

On the right, the spartans: With their own SE division standing proudly at the front, towering men and women in towering exosuits and bulky armor topped by corinthian style helmets. King James and his Queen Xanthia stood at the forefront. To their left the arcadian army, technically that phrase was sort of a misnomer as almost everyone on arcadia was combat capable.

It would be a safer bet to say that in front of him stood, a fraction of the Arcadian standing army, specifically those who made it their full time job to protect their little planet. The Arcadian SE division also stood out front, though there was a conspicuous hole gaping open in the front ranks, still yet to be filled, despite a few new additions to the fold: previous SE Soldiers Kier Lindsay and Jane, his old MTI Kimball, and the senator's son Pier. A few other faces had since added themselves to the cause, including old friends from the Bramble and Hathor colony, joining not because they were particularly fond of war, but because they were tired of living in fear of the void.

To the left of them stood the Drev, battalions upon battalions of waiting soldiers eager and raring for battle including every member of the Nakt clan, and quite a few members of Sunny's home clan growing up. Dzara led a sizable contingent of her own soldiers, and Even kanan had taken up his spear again. Unfortunately, and to Adam's great dismay Hijan had also taken up her spear. Adam had argued with her for a long time about how she was simply too old to be risking her life, but that argument just proved her point.

She was too old, and if she was going to die, she wanted to do it with a spear in her hand.

It wasn't a request he could deny the old Drev, who had become like a third grandmother to him, and a surrogate mother to Sunny.

Beyond them stood the odds and ends, their borrowed Celex battalion, who were the least intimidating and probably most dangerous soldiers on the field. Standing close to them was Etium heading a squad of soldiers that included everyone that wasn't either human or Drev, simply for organizations sake, this including mostly tesraki, but also had the odd rundi or burg to name a few.

They had some Mikes and Lumin around here somewhere, but the were not' part of the combat portion of things.

This was it, the moment they would finally fill the Empyrean to her full capacity.

Members of the old guard stood with him. Nairobi, Admiral Simon, Glados, Conn, Krill, Riss, Dr. Adric, Katie, Celex, and Ramirez, who stood stoic and silent at the back of the group belying his usually expected cheerful demeanor distantly eyeing that hole in the SE line.

And then, of course, there was Sunny at his side where he always hoped she would be, where she would belong until the day he died.

Their previous mission to find and root out the void had been a bust, but this time, they knew where they were going and what they were doing.