Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Vanth

"Mariner one, this is alpha one initiating lateral descending drop into atmosphere."

An eerie green light filtered through the front blast shield as the shuttle began to rock and sway, casting its strange glow back across five faces. The pilots face was locked into a rictus of nervous concentration as he guided their ship through an unfamiliar atmosphere, his hands gripped tight to the joystick. The green light from the approaching planet fell onto his face from above as blue light from the control dials below his fingers glowed up to illuminate the underside of his chin.

Behind him two Drev, and three humans sat, rocking gently in their seats. The two Drev were equipped with lightly padded body armor, silvery glittering spears, for their lower arms, and large black rifles for their upper arms, which they now cradled gently in the darkness.

Just across from them, two humans sat; one of them was tall and muscular, eager to show off his proverbial "guns" as he had removed the sleeves from the tactical suit he wore. He had a bandana with a skull on it, wrapped around his neck and a tattoo of a voluptuous woman with devil horns on his right arm. The man, just to his other side, was considerably smaller, and had not tampered with his suit, though he maintained a rather unfortunate tick, which caused him to twitch his head to the side every few seconds.

His feet shuffled nervously as he sat cradling his weapon in his arms. He glanced down at his wrist, from which more green light glowed, emanating from the face of a tactical, digital watch working on earth-military time.

"Three minutes to land." The pilot said announcing the information to the benefit of both his men and the people back on the ship.

"Alright this is just supposed to be a quick pickup mission boys, in and out, nothing serious. Find the stranded survivors and then get out of there before it gets dark."

The nervous man shifted once more, "I still think that this should have been UNSC business."

The big brute to his right snorted, "Fuck the UNSC." He wiped a hand over his nose, "Bunch of ass hats anyway besides a couple missing civilians isn't important enough for the likes of the GA or the UNSC to give a shit about." He looked down at his gun, stroking his fingers down the barrel, rails and dust cover like he was stroking the face of a lover.

The Drev remained noticeably silent.

Up in his seat the pilot also shifted as the green glow of the planet grew up around them. They dipped down into the upper atmosphere and their ship began to rock fire licking up at he outside of the blast shield. The pilot gripped to the controls as the shuttle dipped wildly. The two humans and two Drev gripped heavily to their seats.

"What the hell! Learn how to drive!"

"Shut up! Do you want to try?" The pilot snarled, resting the shuttle back under his control as they entered the middling layers of cloud over the vast green world below them. The clouds parted, and they were given a magnificent view of the vast green and blue terrain of Vanth, so similar to both of their ancestral homes, Earth and Anin covered in a thick layer of vegetation and dotted with small inland oceans and spider webbing rivers.

The ship rocked harder as they descended, and the crew remained silent as they made their final descent, finally landing in a grassy open field, with a blue sky stretching over them, and the towering heights of alien trees marking the edge of an alien forest. The group of Drev and humans stood from their seats, unbuckling seatbelts and reading their weapons and they staggered up on the shuttle door.

Radio crackled over their comms.

"Now remember, whatever you do, don't stick around for nightfall."