Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Cataclysm

An uneasy standstill, the calm before the storm. The war had begun, yet the only shots to be fired were still contained upon the derelict space station. Space itself was still, a tense chess game waiting to break out into violence. Pieces moved on either side while the sacrificial pawns had yet to be played.

Adam sat in the cockpit of the F-90 Darkfire, roosting in tense silence with several other squadrons of aircraft, Maker designed and human designed all intermingled. The F-90 had been retrofitted to run on Anima energy, and when the instruments lit up, they glowed a delicate gold.

He took a deep breath, slow and steady through his nose and closed his eyes.

He could feel his heart racing inside his chest dancing out a manic rhythm.

"Fealty?"

The AI who had been humming subtly in the background of his suit, responded to his command, appearing on his hud as a little cartoon dog with its head tilted. The image sort of reminded him of waffles, and pancake, and those thoughts made his heart hurt.

"Show me/"

The little cartoon dog vanished, replaced by a reel of pictures: Kay curled up with waffles and Pancake, Kay in his Halloween costume, Kay asleep as a baby inside his mother's helmet. Sunny holding Astra and Nyx, His parents Holding the twins, He squeezed his eyes shut and his head hurt.

They had to win this.

He would do anything to be able to see his children again even if that meant saving the universe to do it..... Another part of him realized that he would do anything..... Just to let his kids live, even if it meant never seeing them again. He opened his eyes, looking through the docking bay's energy field and out towards the great black behemoth that lurked at the center of the galaxy

Sagittarius A*

Adam was willing to exist the destruction of his soul, willing to exist never existing.

Just so they could

The thought clawed its way into his throat, choking him, but he fought it down.

No time to think about himself, only time to think about his family and his friends.

His hand tightened on the joystick.

"T-Minus thirty." Someone announced over the coms.

Red lights started flashing inside the docking bay. Adam could feel the sudden rumble of engines as they moved from idle.

He did the same with his own jet, watching as the docking bay crew scuttle around on the floor ahead of them, waving flags and markers as everyone was settled into last minute position.

His headset chirped to life, and from he copilot seat Krill's voice came, "You know, after all of these years being terrified for my life, this might be the first time I will actually have the ability to wet myself."

Adam snorted.

It had taken an entire team and a half to get Krill fitted into the copilot seat.

In order to come at all his SE armor had been fitted with a pressurized amniotic compartment where his real body was stashed inside a thick viscous liquid, kind of like the brain inside spinal fluid. It was krill's belief that his more fragile body would be protected, while his more human form could operate with impunity. However, that meant the suit he wore was absolutely massive, more like a mech than a suit at all, and it had taken some creative thinking to fit him inside.

Still, Adam was glad for the company, no shade to Krill, but he missed Sunny.

As battle partner they had sworn to be at each other's backs always, but a conversation before the operation began had resulted in the two of them coming to the decision that they needed to go in separately on the off chance one of them didn't make it, they wanted at least one parent to survive.