Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Maximum Discomfort

Krill was trapped in a prison of fear, worst of all, he was trapped in a prison prison, a human prison, the most brutal species in the galaxy putting their own most brutal into close confines with no way out and no connection to the outside world. What was worse, this wasn't even a licensed prison overseen by the UNSC or the GA, this was an outlier, a maximum security penitentiary on a border moon designed specifically to deal with the people that no one else wanted to. It was lawless, it was mad, and it was a great way to get yourself Killed.

After seeing his life flash before his eyes earlier, when confronted by one of the other prisoners, he now clutched desperately to the back of Commander Vir's jumpsuit forever thankful to the human for his act of courage, in offering to fight the entire prison population to protect him, but Krill new the truth. Commander Vir was no alpha here, he wasn't the right kind of human, these ones were hardened, cold and calculating. The commander had the tendency to be juvenile naive and trusting at times.

He was going to have to bluff hard to survive, or neither of them were going to last a day.

Together they were dragged across the room and seated rather aggressively at the center of the human table . Adam grimaced visibly as he sat held fast by the large man from earlier who looked around the group of humans and made eye contact with each and every one of them, "Well everyone please welcome our newest guest, "Captain Jack."

Adam looked up his confusion overriding his worry, "What?"

"You have an eyepatch and a peg leg, that makes you a pirate."

"I mean, yeah, but if I Recall Captain Jack had both eyes AND both legs."

The man's smile fell brows falling, "Are you questioning my nickname choice."

Adam shrunk back a bit, "I ur.... No sir...."

The man glowered at him and then began to laugh. The rest of the group followed suit, Krill shrank closer to Adam's legs. It may have been laughter, but it definitely wasn't the inviting kind, he chucked wiping tears from his eyes, "Sir ... ain't that quaint.... This little bastard thinks I'm a sir."

More laughter.

Suddenly Adam felt himself jerked to his feet held at least an inch off the ground by the front of his jumpsuit staring the large man in the eyes, nose to nose, "Don't call me, sir."

"S-sorry s-si.... I mean yes.... Of course..... It's just a bad habit." His composure from earlier was beginning to crack a little. Krill hid under the bench.

"What you army or something."

"Yes.... yes. I have the tattoo to prove it." That seemed to ease their curiosity and he was set down and ordered to show them. He did as he was told, pulling off the top layer of his jumpsuit to hang around his waist, and pull down the neck of his T-shirt to show the tattoo. There was a murmur from the group, "Aviation, so you can fly planes and shit?"

Adam let go, "Yes.... more like jets and shit...."

"You ever been in combat?" One of the men asked interested

Adam rubbed the back of his head glanced towards the Drev side of the room, made a decision and nodded, "Yes I.... I was deployed during the Drev war. The atmosphere on their planet doesn't.... Exactly allow for much flying, so I was ground infantry during our last push."

There was another murmur around the table.

"So you gotta kill you some of those battle bastards." Andam jerked forward uncomfortably as he was slapped on the back, "Thank you for your service!"

"Wait..... Is that where you lost your leg and your eye."

Adam swallowed, "Just the leg, the eye was an accident."