The human's cheers faded off into the distance as their slow jog was soon outstripped by the captain's much longer stride, and their lights were slowly lost in the distance.

Krill was tugged along after and forward and into darkness.

Overhead, the cloud cover had dissipated washing the shy with an array of stars that stretched from one infinity to the other unmarred by light pollution.

The human had opted out of the flashlight, saying that infrared vision from his mechanical eye augmented by his natural night vision would be more than enough. Krill on the other hand could see nothing, nothing except the stars above. Otherwise, it was as if he was being tugged through a pool of blackness. It was a surreal feeling, and he couldn't fathom how the human was able to see where he was going, much less navigate the uneven ground with such poor depth perception afforded by infrared and the darkness surrounding it.

But then again humans were born from predators, creatures that probably hunted under the cover of night.

His footsteps were sure and even below them demonstrating, though Krill could not see, the mastery at which the human navigated through the dark landscape.

Feet thudded on the ground, a driving rhythm that lulled Krill into a half trance, broken only on occasion by the sudden break as the human skirted around a particularly tall bush or rock.

At first, Krill was skeptical about his running abilities, but as the minutes wore on, the human did not stop.

In the quiet, lulled by nothing but the human's powerful breathing, Krill couldn't help but marvel.

Here was a creature crippled twice over and yet, instead of seeing him as a weakness, the others had taken it at a strength. With a replacement leg, he could feel no pain, and with a replacement eye, he could see in the dark. It was almost as if his injury had afforded him upgrades rather than the status as a cripple.

If the Captain had been Vrul, they would have terminated him and simply started over again with someone new.

They kept moving, at what krill would have considered an astonishing pace. Not as fast as a Rundi, but surely for longer than a Rundi could ever have run.

He couldn't have counted the minutes, just like he couldn't have counted the stars overhead; the pounding of feet below him became a strange background to the night melding in and out of the darkness becoming a part of the abyss in which he floated.

He could no longer feel his limbs.

The human's lungs became his lungs, and he could feel the great rushing gusts of air expanding inside the chest cavity, pushing out on the ribs, and then contracting down again. He could feel the blood pulsing through the heart issuing warmth and vibrancy out from the chest and into the limbs, till even the tips of the fingers were warm. The powerful pump and bellows continued their work pounding away through the darkness and the night.

All other functions had stopped.

The digestive system lay dormant as hormones flooded the body keeping it working like a machine through the night.

They had been traveling for some time now. Krill could no longer distinguish the beating of feet, from the pumping of lungs, from the throbbing of the heart that is until the beat was broken. There was a dull thud and he was suddenly jerked forward.

Overhead the sky tumbled and roiled.

The human cried out in pain, and the footsteps stopped.

"Is everything alright." Krill demanded turning on his thermal vision for long enough to see that the human was on his knees.

"Ouch, ouch.... Yeah... I'm ok." The human clambered to his feet limping on one leg and hissing through his teeth, "Just caught the toe of my prosthetic is all." He groaned a bit in agony and then began to run again.

"Captain, we should stop and-"

The human cut him off, "I'm alright, just... need.... A second."

Krill listened with great concern as the human's feet broke over the ground with a faltering limp, one foot taking significantly more weight than the other, but after a few minutes the limp faded, and the rhythmic beat of feet against ash and plant matter resumed.

"How far have we gone?"

The human looked down at his implant, "Four miles."

"What!"

He had assumed it was way longer than that. They were definitely going to burn up and die.

As the night grew on, the stars above their heads rotated. The human did not stop more than a couple more missed steps, not even to take a drink, which he took in sips as he slowed to a light jog.

As the canteens were emptied, they were discarded over open ground.

Eventually, the human tossed his shirt by the wayside leaving only a canteen for either hip and Krill tugged along behind.

Over the long minutes, and what must have been hours, the human's breathing grew slowly more labored. Though he could not see it, he could sense the slow slump in his shoulders and the drag of his feet. His shoulder swayed more as if he was trying to throw more momentum into his run desperately trying to keep up the pace with which he had originally begun.

Krill had not believed the humans when they first discussed their ability to run, but now, he found himself proved false. This creature, this human had not abated in his run for hours, climbing up inclines, and down the other side, swerving through plant matter, all while keeping his feet.

Looking at the human more medically, through the scope of science rather than the scope of his own opinion, he could see why this worked so well.

It all began with the feet, the short toes, and the way the foot arched, creating a simple lever or spring that, when running, shot force up through the powerful muscles of the leg, beginning with the calf: a muscle that was powerful enough to keep the human upright during his endeavor, despite having a center of balance that should have caused him to fall over on standing.

Bundles of tendons acted with the feet giving an elastic spring to the step.

Bone glided easily over bone kept at a distance by the intermediate liquid in between.

Hips rotated back and forth within their sockets.

And all of that force, the horrific and bone breaking force propelled up into his legs by the fundamental laws of physics, spread out across great swaths of muscle and into some of the largest muscles in the body, keeping him upright.

Beyond that, the rotational ability of the trunk, and the swing of the arms and shoulders added momentum and balance to the step, while the head was held in place by a complex set of muscles.

He wasn't entirely sure how the human could see with all that bouncing, but he was sure humans probably had something to deal with that.

However, something else was beginning to catch his attention.

That being the heat, the slow rise in temperature, which was beginning to lighten the sky.

Ahead of him, the human panted, and Krill became aware of his shadowy silhouette in the darkness.

He was beginning to see.

With horror he turned his head towards the horizon, watching as the sky began to lighten to an inky blue.

The human groaned.

That even, graceful, and powerful step from earlier had faltered leaving the human panting, hunched and stilted.

Captain Vir staggered a bit turning his head to the side making a sound that Krill had never heard before. It was deep and throaty, risen from the contraction of the stomach and the belly.

"Are you ok?" Krill called out, worried

The human didn't answer, though his little episodes were becoming more and more frequent.

To their side, the sky was beginning to lighten toward a blue, and Krill could now make out the shapes of the landscape around them, and the perspiration that rolled of the human's bare back.

He was not looking good.

He was hunched, his feet shuffled, and he looked ready to collapse.

"Captain, it's getting kind of hot." Krill urged, not entirely sure if would be wise to tell the human how close to death they surely were.

He didn't expect anything to come from it, but surprisingly, the human responded. His spine straightened, his footsteps grew more even, and his breathing grew deeper.

Krill glanced to their side as the clock grew ever closer to sunrise.

The distant horizon glowed orange, and a certain smoky haze picked up around them.

The human coughed.

Smoke.

"Captain...."

The man's footsteps grew quicker as he thundered over the ground. His breathing was coming in gasps now.

He was beginning to think they would never make it, assumed the human would collapse before they got there.

But then he saw it, the distant heat, guarded entrance, which, by some miracle, loomed before them.

The human raced forward practically slamming against the hot metal as he scrambled to bring up his arm.

He was gasping and coughing his hands shaking. The door beeped, and Krill felt an immense well of relief as they raced inside. Starting up again after coming to a stop looked excruciating, and in the full light overhead, Krill could see the human clearly, absolutely drenched in sweat, chest heaving, skin tinted a horrible blotchy red.

His face was the worst, bright pink.

A bead of sweat dripped from his chin.

The skin around his thighs was bright red, and blood trickled down his legs from where the skin had been rubbed raw.

There were similar marks on his upper rib cage where his arms, or even the shirt might have rubbed.

For a moment, Krill almost assumed their ordeal was over, only to realize that this was the incorrect docking bay.

The human seemed to have realized that too, and with a burst of energy Krill didn't think anyone could have possessed, he screamed through his clenched teeth and charged towards the door. When his hands fumbled, the human forced it open and Krill heard the screech of metal.

It scared him horribly, but he was only able to think about it for a moment as he was nearly brained on a protruding pipe.

The human thundered down the narrow corridor half hunched over as he ran.

Rooms and side alleys passed them by.

Up ahead voices could be heard.

When the first bodies appeared in the hallway they screamed and dove to the side in surprise and shock as the red-faced bleeding human roared down the corridor.

"MOVE!"

They scattered like birds, or they were bowled over.

One Tesraki was slammed violently into the wall as the human pushed him to the side, his massive hand absolutely clobbering the unsuspecting creature.

A couple of Rundi screamed and dove away as the human, who was now a biohazard to the Rundi.

They were in the market room now, and the human seemed not to care about the alleys or narrow pathways.

He launched himself forward, throwing himself over stalls, and charging through tarps. Entire alleys were pulled down in his wake. Blue orbs shattered against the ground and the sickly yellow overhead lights bled downwards onto his horrific monstrous form.

There was screaming and yelling and absolute carnage.

A tall cloaked figure pulled to the side barely avoiding getting bowled over.

A flash of blue, and then the cloaked figure was gone receding into the distance behind them

Glass shattered.

The human's leg gouged against a piece of protruding metal, but he didn't seem to notice.

His hands flailed before him, batting aside creatures and objects alike.

Krill chanced a glance behind them catching sight of the clocked figure standing in their wake.

Stalls were toppled to the side tarps lay draped over the street, glass littered the ground.

Echoes chased them as the tunnel closed in, and the figure was gone.

They raced down the hall flashing past familiar landmarks, until the human smashed through another door and out onto the docking field. The Rundi from earlier tried to stop him, but the human simply ran him over, racing towards his ship and throwing open the door. Krill let go as the human thundered towards the front of the cockpit and turned over the engine without so much as strapping himself in.

Krill was thrown backward against the far wall as they accelerated forward, and then upward.

They blasted out the top of the tunnel and into bluing sky above.

Smoke filled the air, and the horizon glowed a fiery orange.

Out the window, Krill could see an encroaching line of flame just peeking over the distant horizon, but he was slammed back again, and had to take evasive maneuvers not to get his head cracked.

The ship shot forward, and it wasn't more than a few minutes before the ship began to descend.

It landed quickly, and when the door opened they were blasted with a wave of air so hot, Krill could feel his skin crackle.

A troop of disheveled humans stumbled inside covered in sweat, choking past gas masks and trying to hold each other up.

Their clothing was stained with smoke and sweat.

"Everyone in?"

The door shut behind them, "Yes! Go!"

The Captain did as told turning the ship and booking it in the opposite direction.

"Holy shit."

A wall of fire, roared towards them.

"We aren't going to make it!"

"Hold on to something!" The captain bellowed, and then they were vertical.

The Marines all screamed in unison as they shot upwards, grabbing onto the seats as their legs were thrown back. Krill slammed against the far wall, again. He screamed too, trying not to see their eminent doom.

The firewall was almost forty feet high licking and twisting upwards from the ground as a howling vortex. The interior of the shuttle began to heat as the wall drew closer. The marines screamed, and Kirll scream. The shuttle went vertical, cut in a tight loop, and then plunged downward cutting perfectly through the docking bay opening. They roared down the narrow tube, a column of fire roaring behind them.

Their screaming grew louder as a wave of fire followed after them and the floor careened up to meet them.

Captain Vir roared with feral savagery at the last moment and pulled up.

They shot out from the vertical tube, thrown horizontal over the floor bouncing and shedding sparks as they went. Captain Vir gave the engine one last burst of energy backwards before cutting it entirely.

The shuttle bounced once skidded shedding sparks, and then came to a steaming creaking halt marines and aliens alike sitting white knuckled in their seats. Dr Krill half passed out from fear and G forces.

Captain Vir sat back in his seat as the engine crackled and popped cooling down.

Krill watched his core temperature drop.

The marines slapped him on the back sending him floating across the shuttle, "I can't.... believe it.... I can't effing believe it you absolute madman, you complete bastard."

The human sort of half smiled shivering past his clenched teeth.

"Hey doc, get your ass over here and help him." And Krill did, though stiffly in pain absolutely everywhere.

Despite that, he was still alive, the human was still alive.

And there had been no casualties.

The human had run 26 miles in a race against the sun and won.

The human body was absolutely amazing.