Three Suns

by S King

I shrugged, “Emric created a new weapon.”

  “What does it do?” Even though my grandmother had been behind the table for the past fifteen years, that didn’t stop her from continuing the routine that had been ingrained in her since she was enlisted. She still ate the same meal as I did and followed the same workout and training guidelines that the military set forth.

  “It shoots arson bullets and sprays acid. I actually got to try it out when he came by the training arena earlier.”

  “And?” Her lighter garnet eyes looked at me with excitement dancing in the red pools.

  For the first time tonight, I smiled, “it's amazing, grandmother. I think it’s going to help a lot on the battlefield and not only that, but it can incinerate several adversaries at once.” I shook my head. “I couldn't believe he was able to create that, from scrap none the less."

  She smiled at me, finishing her meal, “I don't think he could have created a better pre-engagement gift for you.”

  I choked on the kale and rice, dropping my fork on the table as I reached for my drink. Pre-engagement? What was she talking about? When the food finally cleared my esophagus, I stared at her.

  “What are you talking about?”

  She stood from the table, taking her plate to the recycling shoot, and looked at me, “Emric...hasn't proposed?”

  “Absolutely not!” I shot out of my chair, “where did that even come from?”

  “Don't get excited,” she took my own tray and disposed of it, turning back to me she frowned, “have you two even spoke about an arrangement?”

  I rubbed my forehead, trying to grasp what she was saying, “and why would we do that?”

  “Because you're the squadron leader and he's second in command?”

  I scoffed, “right because the last time an agreement like that happened, it worked out so amazing.” I snatched my coat from the back of the chair and looked at my time piece, “I have to go, I'll see you in the jutro and,” I turned back to her, “don't bring up that subject again. Ok?”

  She sighed crossing her arms over her chest, “I’m just trying to look out for you, Ostana. That's all.”

  “I know, but please,” as if on cue Emric knocked on our front door. “I have to go.”

  My grandmother bid me a godnat before going back into her room. Knowing I had hurt her feelings, I had to tell myself that matters of the heart would have to wait for another dana. Right now, I had to go deal with the dredges of the Pya society.

  “Are you ok?” Emric looked at me as I came out of my domicile.

  I adjusted my warrior jacket and started for the debriefing base, “I'm fine, did you talk to Claud?”

  “Yeah, he said that his squadron blew up their rations and made them retreat. He thinks that we'll have an easy nakti.” We nodded to other comrades as we took the metal stars down to the military entry base.

  Well at least Xerminara and Claud were on the same page. Maybe we were going to have a good nakti. After the conversation with my grandmother I didn't need anything else on my mind.

  “Claud can't make it to the projection, did Xerminara say anything?” Emric held the door open for me as we scanned the debriefing base.

  “I haven't talked to her about it yet. Are they still preparing the Magdolonian?” I signed my name for the weapons release case before swiping my wrist across the case to get my heart-wind slasher.

  The blade was at least six inches in length and nearly four inches wide. Whenever I was drained from battling Eynos, the blade in my hand was the ultimate life saver.

  “For now, so we'll have to take the Citlail.” Emric got his own weapons from his case and took the debriefing paperwork from the hologram man at the desk.

  Taking a deep breath, I headed for our comrades strapping their weapons on, “what'd Colonel say about your invention?”

  “He said, he'd think about it,” Emric sobered, turning his attention to the job at hand, “attention!”

  I took the handheld from a mechanic that focused more on the aircrafts than he did on the reports from the different shifts. Nodding to him in respect, I reviewed the thing, noticing that nothing was different from what Claud and Xerminara had reported.

  “Alpha, what’s going on with the northern border?” I glanced at the smaller squadron leader, only listening halfheartedly at the explanation that was given for why the warriors weren’t able to completely destroy the Eyno airbase.

  I rubbed my forehead, “ok,” I stopped him for saying anything else and handed the reigns over to Emric to finish the debriefing before departing.

  When Emric was done and handed the control panel to me for the aircraft.

  “Move out!” I ordered, clearing the reports and airstrike requests from the handheld.

  Emric followed me to the aircraft and made sure our guys were prepared for the nakti ahead. I wasn't the type to believe a piece of paper or someone else's account of events until I saw it for myself.

  Buckling my chest straps into place, I waited for the Citlail to wake from its slumber and come online. I didn't care for the aircraft in question strictly based off its handling, then again, I had learned to fly on the Magdolonian and claimed the craft as solely mine. But thanks to a little mishap two tjedna ago, my aircraft was in for repairs and an overhaul of its control system.

  “Where's Charlie and Bravo?” I asked Emric as soon as he sat down in his co-captain chair.

  He shoved his transmitter into his ear, “preparing for takeoff in section twelve. Something about the Citlail in four being busted.”

  “Of course,” I grumbled, waiting for the dome over the base to fully retract in on itself so we could go to the battlefield. I looked at Emric, “why haven't you made a proposal offer to anyone?”

  He frowned at me, “what?”

  Glancing out of the windshield at the mechanic, I set the course and started to let the aircraft take off from the ground.

  “A proposal offer, why haven't you made one to someone yet?”

  Emric twisted his mouth as he watched the holographic map for any oncoming Eynos, “why haven't you accepted any proposals?”

  I cut my eyes at him and tried not to snap when I said, “because I don't have time, your turn.”

  “I have my reasons,” was all he said.

  The end of the conversation caused a suffocating silence to wash over the cabin and silence any further talk. I brushed off his comment, focusing my attention on watching the purple tinted sky.

  Eynos may have been unorganized, uneducated things, but one thing was for certain, they knew how to fall out of the sky for an aerial attack and make the most out of their advantage. It was rare for a band of Eynos to complete an aerial attack, but when they did, they normally went for the biggest craft they could find. I always concluded that it was because the seven eyed jerks thought the biggest craft had the most warriors on board. Besides that, what other reason could they have?

  “Alpha, what's your coordinates?” The colonel's holograph appeared in between the middle of the control panel with a stern look on his face.

  Emric glanced at me before rattling off our current position, while I zeroed my sights on where we were supposed to be landing. Before I could open my mouth to ask what was wrong, another aircraft, one that was unfamiliar to me came from the right.

  In the split second that it would've taken me to jerk the Citlail out of danger’s way, the aircraft would've caused even more damage. All I remember was hearing a pop before the world went black.

  I flinched as the light from the overhead drones caught my eyes.

  “Good you're awake,” my grandmother sat up in the hard chair and looked at me, “how are you feeling?”

  Ripping the needle from my arm I glanced at her, “what happened?”

  “We got in a crash.” Emric's voice came from my right.

  Like me, he was just waking up and pulling off the chords from the health monitoring machines. With the exception of a few bandages on his head and a brace on his arm, he seemed
fine. He must've taken the brunt of impact; I felt my own face for bandages and found none. Although, my body was warning me against movement.

  “Those Eynos have got a lot of nerve,” I mumbled, pulling away the last of the chords and searching the room for my clothes.

  “Well,” my grandmother started.

  Emric and I glanced at each other before turning our gazes to her.

  “Well what?” I asked, finding the clothing container in the wall and grabbed my belongings.

  She opened her mouth to respond when a man walked into the room. Like most men of the purple sun society, he stood at six-foot eight with dark blond hair and yam colored eyes. His bone structure and nose were the very definition of perfection; the way his eyes scanned the room and how he carried himself hinted at his grade A genetics and the type of fire that coursed through his veins.

  “I'm glad you two are awake,” he smiled as he looked between Emric and I, settling his eyes on me. “How are you feeling, Ostana?”

  I glanced at him as I shoved a leg into my cargo pants, “fine.”

  “And you Emric?”

  “Peachy,” Emric snapped as he glanced between the physician and me.

  “I’m physician Caleum, I’ll be looking over your recovery.” Caleum looked at his handheld before meeting my eyes, “you both are extremely lucky to being alive. The crash was caused because the aircraft from the blue sun society took a serious hit from—”

  “What?” Emric and I both said at the same time.

  Caleum looked between us again, “the offender in this situation was an aircraft from Parlan.”

  I laced up my boots and shook my head, “no, that's not right. The blue sun society knows better than to cross over the rings to come into the purple sun. Not to mention,” I snatched my shirt from the mattress, “they can't fight, so why risk going into Eyno territory?”

  “They were headed for the entertainment district and somehow got disoriented, when they went to turn around—”

  “They got hit by the Eyno strike,” Emric finished for Caleum.

  “That would be correct,” the physician nodded.

  Parlan. The blue sun society was coming into our territory without the proper forewarning and clearance. Unless that was what our colonel was trying to warn us about before the crash.

  Emric finished dressing, tossing his infirmary gown on his bed, “we have to go,” he directed toward me.

  I gritted my teeth against the pain that was shooting up my back as I struggled against taking off my own gown from under my clothes.

  “Do you need help?" My grandmother flinched with me as the compression top started tightening around my body.

  “I got it. Emric,” I glanced at my second in command, “get ahold of colonel Kendrick and find out what’s going on.”

  Emric nodded, leaving the room with a snide look to Caleum.

  “Miss. Shaye?” The physician looked at me with a raised brow.

  Looking down at myself, I growled, letting my internal fire burn the gown to ash. “You were saying?”

  An amused smirk appeared on his handsome face, “Miss. Shaye, I don't think that its wise for you to leave the infirmary right now.”

  I brushed a few ashes away from my shoulder and got up from the bed, “thank you, but I don't have time to worry about what may or may not be going on with my health.” Grabbing my warrior tags from the side drawer in the wall, I glanced at the physician with a raised brow, challenging him to go against me.

  “Am I free to go?"

  Caleum clenched his jaw, as if he didn't like the fact that I was challenging his authority. As I kept staring at him, I had to admit that if I were looking for a partner to enter into a proposal arrangement with, he would be my first choice.

  My grandmother cleared her throat, standing up from her chair, “I'll wait for you outside.”

  Caleum and I didn’t look at her as we continued to stare at each other. I was not going to back down to the physician; I didn't want to have pull rank on him, but I would. Time wouldn't allow me or any other military official to be held hostage by the infirmary and the good-looking physician.

  “Miss. Shaye, I cannot clear you to go to the battlefield until after you've been observed.”

  I stepped toe to toe with Caleum, looking into his dark orange eyes, “physician Caleum, I have a crash site to investigate as well as find out who from the blue sun society decided to cross over the rings of divide.” I stepped closer to him and narrowed my eyes as I looked up at him. “Are you really going to get in the way of that?”

  Again, he clenched his jaw, sizing me up. We really would make a good arrangement, but now wasn't the time to focus on such things. Padrieg society was depending on me and my unit to find out the real reason why the blue sun society decided to cross a line that couldn't be uncrossed.

  “Are you pulling rank on me, Miss. Shaye?”

  “Do I have to in order to leave?”

  He smirked, looking away from me for a second before finally taking in a deep breath and stepping aside.

  “You’re free to go, against my better judgement, but,” he grabbed my arm gently and looked at me, “if you start feeling anything other than normal you need to come back. Deal?”

  I smiled, slipping my arm from his grasp, “I understand. Thanks,” quickly, I walked out of the infirmary and found Emric waiting for me in the waiting base.

  “Let’s handle this,” I tightened my time piece as we walked to the debriefing base that our colonel was sure to be at. Hopefully, with the person or persons that caused me to wreck yet another aircraft.

  Chapter 2 Pink Eyed Demon

  Emric opened the door to the debriefing base and allowed me to go in first. To my right was the demolished Citlail; the scoop hood was crumpled to the shattered windshield while the top of the aircraft was dented into the cabin. Staring at the craft, I felt a surge of anger roar through my veins.

  “Blue sun idiots,” I grumbled, forcing my legs to move forward to the common briefing room.

  “Well, on the bright side, at least their craft didn't fare any better.” Emric nodded to an all-black craft that was smaller than the Citlail.

  Like our craft, the Parlan craft was demolished beyond repair. I guess that was the bright side, but it didn't make me feel any better that I was on base and not out on the battlefield.

  “Shaye, Freyer,” Colonel Kendrick was a serious man by nature and never showed any emotions.

  Kendrick was one of the few men in the purple sun society that had golden blond hair and bright tangerine eyes; which were smoldering with irritation as he welcomed us into the debriefing room and stepped aside to reveal the people responsible for the večeri damage.

  A man that was shorter than Emric sat nervously on a hard-cushioned chair, twisting his hands. He had coral pink eyes that shifted uneasily from me to Emric to Kendrick and back. Unlike people in Padrieg this man's hair was a dark shade of brown, nearly black. In truth, he appeared to be gentle and someone that didn't like confrontation. However. The man sitting beside him was the complete opposite.

  His almond shaped rose-pink eyes had beautiful dark purple flecks encased in black rings while his olive skin reminded me of fresh morning dew. Judging from his long legs, he stood over six-foot eight and his coal black hair was styled away from his face; he was gorgeous. I’d be a liar if I said otherwise.

  “This is Somsang Keon and Eikko Kangho,” Colonel Kendrick looked at the two men, “gentlemen, this is Captain Ostana Shaye and First Lieutenant Emric Freyer.”

  I didn't move or make an attempt to try and be respectful to the two men. No matter how attractive Eikko was, these two ruined my backup aircraft and that meant that I had to stay off the battlefield for at least two more tjedna. My nerves were shot through the roof from being stuck on the base and not breathing in fresh air.

  “Ostana,” Eikko said my name slowly as if he were trying to see how it would sound coming from his mouth.

  Narrowing my eyes,
I sized him up, “why did you cross the border rings?”

  Somsang jumped to attention, causing all of us to look at the jumpy man, “Eikko was offered an entertainment contract through…through,” he stumbled over his words, grabbing for his handheld.

  Emric sighed, crossing his huge arms over his muscled chest, “that doesn’t explain why you were coming through a war-zone and through an active military base.”

  “Actually,” Eikko sat up from his chair and smirked at my second in command, “we weren’t intentionally flying through the war-zone. It was a slip of the gear.”

  “A slip of the gear that caused you two crash into our Citlail,” I stabbed my finger at the two men.