Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Fueled By hatred

They met u with the Drev team at a third door, half of each team fell back leaving Captain Vir, and the leader of the Drev stacked up on the door. The Drev commander nodded to Captain Vir who allowed the door to be opened for him, he swung into the room, and then stopped very suddenly. The Drev glanced over his head and had a similar reaction.

A waft of frigid air chilled Krill to the bone.

"Captain?" A team member whispered.

After a long pause the man turned to face them.

Krill felt the room grow cold and it wasn't just the air from the freezer unit. It was as if time had cowered to the corners, and all sense of lighthearted laughter had fled from the man. His face grew pale and then tipped back towards red. His hands balled into white knuckled fists, his lips tightened mouth twitching. But his eyes, horror drained to be replaced by pure absolute rage and hatred.

Mercy winked out.

The ten foot tall Drev commander stepped back a pace.

One of the other humans saw the reaction and peered over his shoulder. His reaction was instant turning to the wall and retching violently. The human on the back of the Drev leaped to the floor and trotted over. Captain Vir grabbed her arm as if to stop her, but it was too late.

The plasma rifle shattered in her hands as if it were made of aluminum or glass.

Everyone took a step back.

When she turned to face them, her face was twisted into an expression of such predatory rage that Krill felt his heart freeze.

Captain Vir shut the door, but the damage had been done, whispers spread around the room, and quietly, one after another the humans grew still and silent aside from shaking hands of absolute unadulterated wrath.

The Rundi appeared somewhere during this and eventually Krill learned what had happened.

From what he understood, when the captain had opened the door, he had seen a meat processing plant and freezer. Meet was being disassembled into its component parts for packaging and eventual sale, the problem?

They were human parts, and they weren't very big.

The rest of the hallway watched in fear as the creatures, once known as human, stalked passed them. Their teeth were bared like wolves, their hands twisted into talons their eyes were dark, their backs bent forward, focused pits of hatred, and in their hands they brandished any weapon they could find. The Drev crewwoman held a massive knife in her hand in replacement to her broken weapon.

And they moved like shadows, feet that had once shuffled were absolutely silent bodies moving with unparalleled predatory precision. Writhing muscle churned in the shoulders, veins stood out on hands and necks, teeth glinted.

Krill kept well back with the Drev following at a distance as the humans moved forward flowing like a ribbon of death on a sour wind.

The humans made it to the next room before the rest of them, and they wiped through like a wave of decimation.

The Prodigi had been sitting in a large circle playing some sort of game when the humans attacked.

They didn't stand a chance.

Krill had never seen anyone kill with that sort of emotionless precision. The first humans moved taking one violent movement to slit the throats of the guards. Thick green ichor sprayed violently from the slits as bodies slumped to the ground.

Green oozed from the walls.

Other humans spilled through the gap overwhelming their foe before action could be taken. The next creature was bludgeoned to death. Rifle butts glowed with luminous liquid.

And still the humans did not stop.

Without fear or thought they stalked towards their enemies taking terrible hits with barely a sound. When weapons refused to work, they used whatever weapons they had, their fists, their fingernails, their teeth.

The last and largest of the creatures was able to stabilize himself enough to fight backhanding captain Vir into a stack of cages with a clatter. Cries rang out from inside those cages.

The cries of human young.

The massive creature tried escaping, but he had missed one of the humans crouching in the darkness as chaos reigned around her.

The screams of the dying.

Then she leaped coughing the creature around the shoulders locking her legs around its massive neck, and then squeezing.

The creature bellowed and then choked swatting at her and flailing about, but she did not let go allowing the massive muscles of her legs to slowly choke the life out of the creature. She never let go clinging tighter as the thrashing grew more frenzied. The creature sunk to its knees she snarled in rage.

It fell to it's back flailing pathetically.

The rest of the humans had stopped to watch completely silent. Krill moved forward as if to stop the human, the danger was passed, but a strong arm stopped him. Krill looked up to find Captain Vir holding him back. Blood leaked from a cut at his temple painting his face red. His eyes were absolutely cold devoid of sympathy as he watched the creature choke.

The room was absolutely silent but for those gurgling cries.

The humans did not move to stop their companion, and neither did the rest of the crews.

She squeezed harder constricting like a snake crushing the creature to death.

He eventually grew still, she held on longer.

At first no one moved.

And then it was like a light was flipped on. The human eyes widened, their bodies straightened, their hands unclenched, and they turned rushing to the cages smiling and whispering encouragement as they broke open the cages and liberated their young. The wide eyed children clung to the adult humans spirited away from their imprisonment.

Captain Vir grinned at Krill as he walked form the room carrying two, one for each arm, "Adorable aren't they?"

Krill just watched.

***

Turns out that since humans are so soft, their meat is a prized delicacy on the black market. The more tender the meat, the better, so certain groups of aliens had been paying for the meat of children like a human would pay for veil.

They had harvested their prey and packaged it in this area and then sent it out to specific buyers. This error had cost them their lives.

Though the galactic assembly did an investigation, nothing ever came of it. Both the Rundi and the Drev kept silent about the whole situation. The humans claimed self-defense, krill kept what he had seen locked away in the back of his head always aware of what hid inside his smiling human companions.

Humans are willing to kill, fueled by rage they are ruthless and without mercy.

To hurt a human child is to immediately forfeit your life.

They will unmake you