Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

No Man Left Behind

Adam threw himself into the engines as the others piled on. Celex and Ramirez came last, Celex holding Ramirez around the chest as he struggled and kicked to break the former emperor's grip.

"WE HAVE TO HELP HER!" The doors hissed shut, and only then did Celex finally let Ramirez go. As soon as he was free, Ramirez ran to the door, but Adam responded by locking the hatch for takeoff.

"Stop." Celex said, reaching out a hand for Ramirez's shoulder, but the marine was not having that. He turned on Celex, his teeth clenched into a snarl and swung at him. Celex looked surprised, and only just managed to duck at the last second, missing a blow that would have knocked him back into the wall.

"Ramirez!" Adam shouted, but he couldn't do anything from the pilot's seat.

Ramirez snarled again and went for Celex, but this time, Sunny responded by grabbing the marine around the chest with her lower arms and pinning his hands behind him with her upper arms. He kicked and struggled, "We can't just leave her!" His voice cracked, "You bastards!" His anger came in full force now, "HOW COULD YOU! She's our friend, and you'd just leave her behind! Do you even care!"

Adam tried to understand where Ramirez was coming from, how he must have been hurting, but he couldn't deny that the comment struck home, made him bristle, "Stand down marine!"

And when he spoke it wasn't Adam that spoke, but Admiral Vir, his voice deep and resonant as it boomed through the small shuttle. He kept his eyes trained ahead on the starfield, his hands gripped hard upon the controls , jaw set in a tight rictus teeth acting as a cage to all of the angry words he was holding back.

Ramirez went quiet, giving Adam time to close his eyes and take a long, slow breath.

The shuttle was quiet.

Krill sat in the copilot's chair, white knuckling the seat, eyes wide behind his orange tinted spectacles. Celex leaned against the wall Ramirez had backed him into, his hands down calmly at his sides though he eyed the marine warily.

"We aren't abandoning her." Adam said, his voice soft, bur stern. And you of all people should know that. I know you love her Ramirez, but so do we even if its not in the same way." The shuttle was still quiet. Sunny did not let go of the marine sensing the tension that was still stored in the taught cords of muscle.

He glowered at Adam from the back stumbling with Sunny only once as Adam rapidly course corrected, following the beacon back to the Empyrean

"You heard what she said, and you heard what we've been told about her." They had been doing their best to collect new intel over the past few weeks and days, and some of that intel had been centered around Kazna's new pet general.

Rebel/renegade/the architect's first warrior.

"Renegade is dangerous, she's billions of years old, and has just as much combat experience."

"Maverick is still there!" Ramirez protested

Still keeping his eyes forward, Adam nodded, "I know that, and if you didn't notice she fought Renegade off just long enough to get us in the clear. How do you think she would have felt if we stayed behind and gotten ourselves killed because we didn't take her opening."

Ramirez stayed quiet, but Adam continued.

"How do you think she would feel if she let Renegade kill us? Do you think she'd ever forgive herself?" More silence, "We are going to help Maverick, I swear by the architect but we aren't going to do it by needlessly throwing our lives away." Behind him Sunny did her best to gage Ramirez's reaction through the trembling lines of angry muscle.