Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Battlefront

The red earth cracked under his feet, like the brittle shell of an egg, a surface layer of ice or even a thin pane of glass. Behind him, the crunching of other boots on the planet's surface set up a chorus of sound that echoed up and into the yellowed sky rent and torn by a battle being waged between gods.

And here, over the horizon, he could finally see them. An army thousands strong, wide and deep as the sea was endless, and at their head.... A familiar figure. It had been over ten years since Kazna had lead an army into battle, and it had been more than a few thousand since soldiers had met eye to eye in such neat rows across an open plane of battle.

This was it.

He felt like a soldier of the Greek City states, a Spartan standing against the Persians at Thermopylae covering the army's retreat. The more colorful retelling of that story said that 300 lone spartans had stood against the entirety of the persian army, but the truth of history was really that the Spartans had stood with a few hundred other greeks in that battle.

Looking around him, he supposed he could feel like a spartan, standing next to the NeoSpartan king James and his queen Xanthia both arrayed in gold and red armor, helmets shaped to emulate the Corinthian helmets worn by their ancient greek counterparts, red brushes falling in a sweep from their heads, faces obscured by visors. Next to him stood representatives of other proverbial city states.

The Drev led by the Saint of Anin, beautiful with their shining carapace cut like precious gems, and their burnished armor worn in sweeping spikes around their bodies. Spear tips glittered in the hands of both the Neospartans and the Drev as they marched for battle. Behind them marched the legions of the makers, faces burning with a godly golden light, their bodies shedding power wherever they walked. And with them came more, The occasional Tesraki and Rundi scampered across the ground in an attempt to keep up with the marching armies. Etium floated along, beside his chain gun which glowed an ethereal blue.

And more and more

Human soldiers in black armor.

Celex in oversized mech suits.

And finally, their backup.

Adam wasn't sure to this point of Conn would manage it, but as he tilted his head back t outlook at the sky, he saw them, Descending like a swarm from the heavens came the....

Came the starborn.

Thousands strong, snuck in through the open shield by masking their thoughts, and there they had staged themselves, issued gravity belts by their new de facto leader.

Conn.

He floated down from above dressed, for some inexplicable reason, in a three piece suit, coal black eyes burning with hunger almost as if he was excited for something, ribbons flowing out from behind him like the abstracted wings of an angel given form. A terrible destroying angel.

They floated downward and forward, joining the slow procession of warriors cobbling themselves together against impossible odds.

Adam never wanted to go to war.

The Drev War

The war for the Gromm homeworld

The war for Earth.

War after war after war since the moment humanity stepped foot in the GA.

And now this.

The war to end all wars, the war for the universe. Was this it? Armageddon, The apocalypse, Ragnarok.

He wasn't sure if going to war with the people he most loved was a good thing or a bad thing, at his side Sunny, his wife, the woman it had taken him years to fall in love with, but he had somehow managed despite his own self sabotage and stupidity. At his right, his best friend for the past decade better than any friend anyone could ever have asked for, Ramirez, still wearing the patches of a marine despite not having technically been a marine the past few years now.