Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Hand of Peace

The rock clattered to the ground with a cracking thud. Captain Vir dusted off his hands, "Cane would be proud." He muttered, shoving General's Cosma's unconscious body to the side with a distasteful foot, kicking her into the dirt a few feet to the left where she was no longer in contact with Sunny. He kneeled then, supporting Sunny's head and shoulders in his arms, "You big..... idiot." He scolded breathlessly, reaching down, and ripping a strip of cloth from his torn pant leg holding it to her face.

Her blood quickly wetted the rag, but there was nothing more he could do than apply pressure to the wound. She lolled heavily in his arms, barely conscious. Her mouth trembled softly voice barely audible past other echoing noises.

"You.... Shouldn't have..... Interfered."

"Shut up, Sunny. I wasn't just going to let you die, you know me better than that." He tried to keep his voice light, though, when he looked up, he found himself alone and exposed in a slowly encroaching circle of Drev soldiers. Their eyes were narrowed with anger, and their weapons were held at the ready.

"It'll be alright, Sunny. Everything's going to be fine, we won, you and me." He kept talking as the circle grew smaller. Sunny's eyes were closed, but he allowed a tail of the rag to rest over her remaining eye. He didn't want the possibility of her seeing what was going to happen next. He knew what he had done, now they were probably both going to die. Him for interfering, and once General Cosma regained consciousness, she would finish what she had started and Kill Sunny too.

It was a real pity, for a moment there he had almost hoped that they would make it out, but who was he kidding. He had been lucky for years now he had had a great and supportive family, he had gotten his dream job, made first contact, participated in peace talks, survived the war, lost a leg but not his life, mostly recovered from post-traumatic stress, lost an eye, but avoided major brain damage, met one of his best friends; Krill, then his other best friend; Sunny somehow having run into the only Drev who would have been willing to befriend him, he had avoided a court-martial and then execution; if only for a few minutes, He was Captain of a SPACE SHIP for crying out loud, everyone dreamed of doing that.

Honestly, it seemed only fair he should die here, in his lifetime, he had received and undue amount of Luck, a disproportional amount compared to others. Now that he thought about it, it seemed sort of unfair. He pulled Sunny closer, "You're going to be alright Sunny, when we're all done with this, I promise we can get you a new eye, like mine. There are a lot of choices, they have ones with targeting systems I think you'd like it. Maybe we can get you one that can see infrared too." The Drev circle was tight now, almost shoulder to shoulder standing around them in a grim, aggressive line.

They looked around at each other before one of the creatures raised his weapon.... It was not dissimilar in style and shape to a human sword, accept cut form volcanic stone and glass. He was sure it would shatter against stone, but against the soft flesh of his throat.... There was no reason to hope.

He closed his eyes, "We'll splurge, my paycheck for a year, how does that sound?"

Something swished softly through the air, cutting towards his throat.

"STOP!"

The blow never landed, Captain Vir opened an eye, his only eye, and glanced upwards. The Drev soldiers had turned away, their circle breaking slowly as they milled in confusion. Beyond them, just outside the village, a large, dark shuttle sat docked still settling into the dust. The ramp had been lowered into the strange, soft moss, and another group of Drev soldiers had spilled outwards watching them all with intent gazes. Their weapons weren't held aggressively, but their posture was cautious.

One of the Drev soldiers surrounding Sunny, and Vir, stepped forward and a bit to the side, opening up his view a little more to reveal a large shape limping towards them. The figure was nine or ten feet tall, with thick plated red armor, and a set of familiar golden eyes.