Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Void Mother

The sky was dark, rain trickling down from above in thick blanketing sheets, glittering like delicate silver curtains against the light of the floodlights. Two helos circled overhead, the sound of their blades a distant sort of thrumming over the pattering of rain. A barbed wire fence had been hastily erected in a one mile radius outside the compound, and guards stood in pairs of two ever hundred meters or so down the length of the wall. Large black dogs strained against their chains, fur wet in the soaking rain, wet noses glittering like their eyes.

Temporary watchtowers sprouted from the ground at all entrances, and men with high powered rifles could be seen as silhouettes against the floodlights, their weapons pointed inward.

A truck rolled up through the rain, kicking up sprays of mud and gravel from its rear tires as it came skidding to a stop in front of the mobile command center. The door opened and shut quickly as a uniformed officer stepped through the rain and under the tarp. Inside the tent, the air was hot and muggy with the heat of bodies. Several men in tactical dress stood around the table, their weapons cradled at a low ready.

Two of the men lifted their heads and nodded as the officer entered.

"What news?"

The officer shook her head, casting droplets of water from her hair and onto the floor. "We don't have much time. Someone must have leaked soemthing to the press. We have media vehicles at every entrance in a one mile radius, and they won't stop asking questions. If we wait much longer, they are going to sneak past the cordon."

There was a murmur of disquiet from the group.

"At least they won't make it past the outer fence."

The officer snorted running one hand through her hair which spring back into place as her hand passed, "Doesn't matter if they can get past the fence or not, they'll have seen too much by then. We have to go in now."

"We aren't going in."

On the other side of the tent, a man had appeared from the shadow. His uniform was also wet, and he was brushing water droplets from his dark hair as he spoke, clearly having just arrived like her, "Orders from president Hunt." He passed something off to the commanding tactical officer who looked it over with a critical eye.

The look of surprise on his face was obvious, and he looked up in shock, proffering the note, "Is this serious?"

"Couldn't be more serious." The man responded.

She crossed her arms over her chest, "I was sent by command thirty minutes ago wh-"

The man cut her off, "And I was sent by the president himself ten minutes ago. He wants that site destroyed immediately." From down at his side, the man produced a hard black suitcase which he threw down on the table opening its clasps. The room was filled with glowing blue light.

Her eyebrows jolted upwards, raising towards her hairline as she took a step forward, "Is that a...."

"Yes." The man replied curtly, "I have been given access to a single Gomorrah missile and given orders to use it. President wants that void site gone."

The room erupted in low muttering. The Gomorrah missile was no joke named aptly for the biblical city that god had permanently erased from the map with liberal use of fire from the sky. The missile was said to produce so much flash heat in a single moment that it could fuse rock into glass while only affecting an area the size of a city. She didn't know the science behind it, but she knew it was expensive. Expensive enough to know that Hunt was serious.

"We can't do that!" The protest was raised by the tactical team leader, "One of my men is still in there, we have to find her."

"Face it, your man is dead." He flipped a few switches on the controls, "The fact I am even here is a curtesy to your men." He turned the briefcase around so the group of them could see the screen. A view from high above where the silent Seeker drone was circling,