Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Exo-Skeleton

The rundi chairwoman stood outside the triage tent watching little flakes of ash as they drifted down from the darkened sky above them. Two human bodyguards stood at her back staring into the darkness with her, their predatory human eyes wide with intent, the little black pupils in their eyes reacting to the shifting light.

She knew something was up when the humans suddenly turned their heads to the side staring off into the ash. Their bodies had gone tense, and their hands were tight around their weapons, though they did not raise them assuming that anything that tried to get into camp unwanted would be rebuffed by the perimeter guards. Nervously, she shifted in place wondering what it is the humans could know that she didn't. They stared out intently at the falling ash shifting back and forth on two legs as if they were warming themselves up for something.

It was almost a good minute later before she was able to detect what they had heard. It was a distant rumbling sound rising slowly through the thick silence of the falling ash with an undertone of a high pitched wine. Upon hearing it more closely, the humans relaxed somewhat, though the Rundi chairwoman couldn't have determined what it was.

That was until a set of light cut through the ash, and the humans moved to stand in front of her. She peered around their backs as the five large vehicles came rolling to a stop their engines still roaring. She could tell they were human simply based on the sound they made. No other alien technology sounded like that. And with the drab green/grey color, like the tents and the uniforms which the soldiers wore, it was pretty clear who they had been sent by.

Powerful beams of light at the front of the vehicles highlighted great swaths of falling ash which coated the ground and plunged the entire landscape into darkness. The doors to the side of the trucks opened, and a group of humans filed out into the ash. They were wearing clean olive uniforms that were quickly marred by the falling ash. In their hands, they were holding large metal boxes with strange red and white symbols on them.

"Move, move, move, every second counts people, get in there and get to work. If you ever forget what you are doing let me remind you WE ARE WINNING THE WAR." THe rundi chairwoman shifted and turned her heard towards the booming voice, finding a short squat female human at the front of the trucks, wearing the grey uniform her hands on her hips as se lorded over her human companions.

In response to her words, the humans sped up marching with each other in formation towards the triage tent.

A familiar face appeared for the ash, and the admiral came up next to the woman making quick conversation nodding towards the tent and then gesturing wildly with his hands. The rundi chairwoman could not hear what they were saying from here, but whatever it was, it had both of them very excited. He made a motion towards the Rundi chairwoman, before both moving to join her and her guards amidst the falling ash.

"Chairwoman, meet Colonel Price, overseer of operation Steel eye."

The Chairwoman looked between them confused, "Steel eye? What is that."

"That is what is going to win us the war." He announced proudly

She looked on skeptical, "Not to question you or anything, but the drev have proven themselves to be more difficult to defeat than we first intended. What makes you so sure that this is going to change anything."

The human didn't seem bothered by her question but allowed his grin to grow wider. The two humans exchanged a glance, and she was motioned to follow them as they made their way back towards the triage tent.

"Our biggest problem during this war was to assume the Drev were more primitive than they actually are. Surely, we said to ourselves, they use spears and plate armor, how dangerous can they be. But of course we failed to remember that the Drev have made their way to space, and most of what they do is heavily based in tradition than it is in actual ability. We quickly lost ground, and the Drev war practice focuses on maiming the opponent rather than killing them outright. This works as an effective tool. Suddenly we have hundreds of wounded soldiers, and no way to take care of them. This puts a great burden on our camp, and the people in it. We have to move them, take care of them, and our resources are being eaten up quickly. They are intentionally drowning us in our own wounded. It turns out we may have as many wounded as we do living..... But what if I old you we could bring our wounded back into the game, stronger and better than before."