Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Father of Darkness

There was no horizon. Spreading towards infinity, the vast wings of space stretched on to infinity dappled with stars like the crest of a bird. Bits and pieces of discarded metal and scrap floated in the vast deadness, slowly churning in gentle spirals shadowed by the stark light of the distant sun. A large piece of this metal, the size of a partial ship's hull, turned in one slow rotation, convex side spinning to the concave side and revealing five silent passengers, impossible to notice in their matt suits against the slick gray metal.

Like five misshapen space barnacles, they clung to the side of the debris effectively avoiding their enemy's radar. No one spoke, fearing that their radio signals would be intercepted,, but that didn't matter so much as at least three of them had an alternate form of communications.

Admiral Adam Vir turned his head to look at the saint of Anin, who leaned heavily against the metal, her back adhered to the scrap by a series of magnetic grapples that lined the back of her suit. In one hand, she held the shaft of a spear, its cool metal reflecting the distant light of the sun.

"You ready?"

The impression he got was of her humming, a soft sort of noise that Drev liked to make when they were pleased . It was a common sound to hear Drev make when they anticipated a good fight, "The day I am not ready, is the day you push me off the spiral tower." She said, the grimm glee seeping into her thoughts.

ISunny liked to fight, but choosing between a world of glorious battle, and a world where her children would grow up to be happy was a no brainer even for a member of the most warlike race in the universe.

"Get room for you two."

The two of them turned to look reproachfully at Celex, who floated not some distance away. He wore no space suit, and his long, technicolor hair flowed around him in a halo. His face was partially in shadow.

The other two figures remained oblivious.

Adam made a face at Celex, and then raised his hand for the benefit of their silent partners, who perked up at his signal, and readied themselves to move. He kept his hand up as the piece of metal continued to rotate, giving the order only when their rotation brought them into the perfect position.

As one they fired their engines, briefly, shooting off into the blackness on a gentle trajectory forward.

All except for their fifth party member who gently began to drift off course, having timed their momentum poorly. Adam reached down and grabbed their third party member by the massive tank on his back, shoving him back into position.

Seeing the gesture, Sunny turned her head and he could practically hear the raised eyebrow in her voice, "Do you really think bringing him along was a good idea. He has about as much combat experience as a kitchen sponge."

"Probably less,:" Adam admitted, "It was either take him voluntarily or live with the aftermath of letting him follow us by himself because you know that's exactly what he would do."

Good point.

Adam kept one hand clasped tightly around the crash handle on the back of their fifth man's tank as they continued to ease forward . Up ahead something glittered against the backdrop of darkness , icy bluish metal marking it as a Europa hydrostorage vessel. It should have been in orbit around Europa, but sometime in the last week, the little station had found its way out here, into the quietest part of the system where it was unlikely to be disturbed.

The ruse might have worked if they hadn't picked a more obtrusive vessel. The bluish metal, and the big water drop logo on the side was obvious even from this distance, and the outer coating of the station was designed specifically to make the hull more visible in a low level lighting situation. However,, whoever had decided to hijack the vessel had clearly weighed the cons of its visibility with the pros of having access to nearly several years supply of water right at their fingertips, a decision that Adam could admire in a tactical sense.