"Any movement?"

"No, except for those drones anyway, those suckers have been flying around for the last few days, almost nonstop.'

"Well that's the first thing we're going to have to deal with then."

"Yeah, I was thinking we have our pilots feign an air strike, head in from the left and right and draw away their drones, then get in behind them with another group to cover our advance. I want to start up with trucks going straight down the middle, but send the real attack team in from the side. We have enough of those hand-held energy shields we could probably break through their line on the inside, toss a bunch of grenades to clear them out, and then use the light machine guns to mow down the rest. There are so many of them jammed in there that it shouldn't be a problem, be like shooting at the broad side of a barn."

"What did the commander say he wanted?"

"He wanted the Delta units light machine guns, or paired with someone with a light machine gun. The delta units will carry the gunner to the barrier and then set them up with a perimeter once inside."

"How the hell do we plan on destroying their ship, a little C4 isn't going to matter."

"Yes, but a little C4 in their open engine compartment might."

"That would kill everyone inside."

"Which is why we will pull out before that happens. The explosion of their energy core will be contained inside their shields protecting the rest of us from what is going on inside.

"That.... Sounds good enough, I guess."

Sunny listened only halfheartedly as the two officers planned their attack. Of course the Commander had given his orders, though at the moment he wasn't capable of thinking past more than a few sentences. Though the nerve block was designed to stop pain, the Steel eye suit was apparently capable of partially overriding the block and sending nerve signals into the brain.

He couldn't move, but was also in pain, though only marginally in comparison to what he could be under at that moment. She glanced over her shoulder towards the tent which had been erected for his privacy, and found that a lot of other people were staring too. Operation steel eye had been a largely publicized moved by the UNSC during the Drev war, a lot of people had heard about it though no one had actually seen one of the suits in combat, accept for a very special few, and even then they had only been witness to a few moments before the suits vanished into the ash.

The steel eye soldiers were to fast and too strong for your average soldier, and so generally tended to leave them in the dust.

Everyone was curious.

And now, it was almost time.

The delta units, other Drev, were gathering at the edge of the camp. They had come from all across the galaxy to participate in battle, and Sunny was glad to have them. They were a strange bunch in comparison to those in her childhood, carrying weapons and equipment that would have been considered heretical during the more traditional days.

It wasn't every day you would have seen a Nine foot tall Drev carrying a belt fed light machine gun , but these were new times.

"We ready?"

She nodded her head, "Send of the pilots to draw away their fire..... I will get the commander."

They nodded calling in on their radios for the jets to begin their flight, and Sunny turned walking towards the small tent her footsteps growing heavier with each moment she approached."

She pushed aside the tent flap with one of her upper arms stepping into the dark interior of the tent. Light from above was filtered somewhat through the green canvas, and paired with the somewhat hot, humid nature of the little enclosure, it almost felt tropical.

Commander Vir lay on his back on a cot in the center of the room, his eyes closed, his face screwed up into an expression of immense pain and anguish.

It made her sick to see.

His body trembled lightly against the pain despite the spinal block.

She walked over kneeling next to him, taking one of his cold clammy hands in hers.

His skin was cold, though the metal of the steel-eye exo suit was warm with humidity.

"Adam..... It's almost time."

His eyes opened after a moment. The mechanical eye adjusted almost immediately,followed more slowly by his real eye which glistened with an unshed layer of water.

His lips trembled.

She squeezed his hand tight.

The tent flap opened behind her, and she turned around to find the ex admiral standing over them. He paused hesitantly as if not entirely sure he should be here, though when no one said anything he stepped forward, "I understand that I can't make you stop but..... At least save yourself some pain."

He offered something out to them, and sunny looked down to find a small black box proffered in his palm.

She recognized it almost immediately.

The box meant to be plugged into the drug port

"No-"

"I know you said no drugs, but commander.... I at least take it with you. Just in case." There was a long silence, but Adam didn't protest and Sunny grudgingly let the man through to clip the box to the waist belt where it would easily be in reach.

The door opened again, and one of the officers stepped inside.

"It's time, Commander."

Adam didn't acknowledge verbally, but turned his eyes to look up at Sunny.

She hated this.

She hated this more than anything she had ever done, but she reached out and disengaged the nerve block.

The response was almost immediate. Adam gasped in pain curled over teeth gritted and groaned hissing and whimpering through his teeth in agony. The cries that broke through his lips were like that of a wounded animal.

Sunny found herself panicking unsure of what to do.

Everyone around the tent was quiet, and even the voices outside the tent had gone still.

Eventually the cries died away, and he sat up body shaking.

They watched in silence as he threw one leg off the cot and then the other, standing slowly.

The machine hissed and chatted with his movements, ready for battle.

He took one step, and then another, and then another forcing his back straight forcing his body to relax as he threw open the tent flap and walked into daylight, his movements accompanied by the hydraulic hiss and click of a machine.

The entire camp turned to look eyes wide as it fell on him inside his armor, a dark god preparing to lay waste on their enemy. Rays of light bounded across the metal skeleton rolling in waves up and down lengths of parasitic metal.

His mechanical green eye opened opened wide against the sun, black aperture clicking open.

Everyone stared silently.

He held out his hands to either side, and the ex admiral hurried forward, placing the rest of the attachments onto the limbs,, blades for close quarters combat, a helmet to protect his head, and a few more pieces to protect his torso leaving him mostly covered.

The longer he stood still, the more his legs shook.

"LET'S MOVE!" he barked, voice raspy and ragged from screaming.

Sunny took up her spear.

She turned to look at him, seeing as a memory coalesced from the back of her mind resolving itself into a dark shape of power and anger emerging from the ash painted orange with the blood of a dying Drev Clan.

***

He hurt so much.

The pain was debilitating, maddening. The kind of pain that is visceral within the stomach, where all you can do is lay down and rock back and forth because the more still you are the more the pain consumes you.

He had to move, had to keep going, or risk the pain catching up with him, and consuming him from the inside working out.

As his legs thundered over the ground he wished for nothing more than to lay down and die. To fall into the sweet grip of blackness and be silenced from the pain. As if that weren't enough, memories filled his head coming unbidden to the front of his mind, memories of battles, memories of brutal executions by his own hand, memories of the rocks painted orange, memories of crawling through inches of ash face first as his body began to shut down. And when that wasn't enough it came with mocking laughter, agner, hopelessness.

And a horrible sense of loneliness he once though he had forgotten, but now remembered.

Tears streamed openly and quietly down his face as he ran, there was no point in hiding them.

He wasn't strong enough to keep them at bay either.

Overhead jets roared and drones hissed in that way they had.

He could hear the sound of missiles, gunshots.

His feet pounded against the dirt rattling him to his core as the Drev clans followed after him, their spears held at the ready, their weapons polished to a shine.

On their backs, the human gunners waited.

And next to him, she ran, the cool electric blue of her armor the only soothing thing in a landscape of pain and misery.

The only thing, accept for that box on his belt

NO! He couldn't think of that.

A set of armored trucks rolled past in the distance, drawing fire from the open amber dome as the burg swarmed outwards to respond.

Machine guns rattled, and burg bodies jerked falling to the ground. An energy weapons caught one of the trucks disrupting the engine and sending it into a jackknifing somersault through the air.

He was one fire.

They continued to run, and with the thumb of one hand he engaged the delicate purple energy shield just as they were approaching the outer rim.

He was running through a fog of horrendous pain, but the power through his limbs spurred him on.

He broke into the first line of burg warriors sweeping them into the air with a bat of his energy shield. Bones and carapace shattered and cracked with the power of the blow. The mechanical suit screeched in glee.

Guns rattled behind him.

He dropped the shield for a moment bringing up his own weapon to fire into the churning mass. There was really no point in aiming. It would be impossible not to hit something.

The shield went up again, absorbing and pulsing as an energy bolt surged through it.

He crashed through another line, mechanical assistance whirring, pushing his body past the limits of his humanity, turning him into something more, something greater.

Bodies flew.

He was a machine.

A god.

A burg roared up at him from nowhere its pincers out, ready to dig into his flesh.

But like a spitting cobra, he reacted on the instant sending the creature hissing back screaming and clutching at its face as the human saliva burned it horrifically.

More screaming.

At the head of a pack of Drev they sunk into the burg line annihilating everything that came into their path.

Blue blood coated the ground, mingling with red and orange.

He practically broke through the line himself slaying the Burg who was attempting to close the breach.

The gunners leaped form the back of their Drev companions, posting up on the doors and fiering inward the continued report of their weapons no more than continuous background thunder.

He fell back so as not to get in their way.

His vision was graying around the edges leaning toward black as the roaring pain ripped through his body.

His head was light and he felt as if he was about to tip over.

How long had he been fighting?

It felt like it had only been seconds, though his implant was telling hi they had been at it for almost an hour now.

His stomach churned, and he fell to his hands and knees vomiting violently, mouth filling with bile.

He continued to wretch, though there was nothing left in his stomach.

Something grabbed him by the shoulder, and he was hauled to his feet, just as the inner line broke and the gunners were stepping inwards.

THe trucks had stopped behind them and jets roared overhead.

He turned to his companion only to find sunny standing with him, her spear coated in blue sludge, her already blue carapace tinted with the enemy's blood.

She urged him onward and he followed, and together they broke through the forward line and out into the amber light of the Burg dome.

The interior of the space echoed with a deafening sound. Gunfire was absolutely deafening.

The burg shouted and cried out in panic as they were systematically gunned down. Their small group of Drev and Gunmen advanced into the space covered by other soldiers pouring into the gap.

A burg ran at hi, and for a moment they were overwhelmed with bodies.

Energy fire rattled against his shield which only glowed brighter. Sunny held at his back with another energy shield, and together they plowed through the line.

He watched her spear two burg with one thrust, one through the neck and the other through the mouth before withdrawing her weapon and brutally smashing another set to the ground.

He ground his heel into the head of another burg as another bout of gunfire tore up the crowd just to his right.

A human body lay on the ground just to the right.

A marine with their eyes glazed over in death.

He thought he was going to be sick.

The fire in his bones was building. His body was screaming with an absolute horrendous and madding pain, the blackness at the edge of his vision was encroaching inward. The roaring in his ears was absolutely deafening.

In his pain, one of the burg caught onto his upper arm, and bit down hard.

He screamed, grabbed the creature with both hands.

And ripped it apart.

The moment was so explosive that bits of the creature were hurled many feet to the side, all the soldiers that saw it backed away in fear and terror screaming.

But for hi, it was the last straw, his vision went white, he felt himself drop to his knees as pain thundered through him. He was going to pass out.

He couldn't do it, he couldn't move.

All around him, the Drev soldiers were filling his place in the line swarming around to cover him as he trembled and moaned at the center of the battle.

He couldn't move.

Tears rolled down his face and into the dust.

He didn't even have the energy to heave..... He just, couldn't, move.

It was as if his body was filled with fire reaching upwards threatening to engulf him.

And then a cold hand one his face. It wasn't much, but it was enough to stave off the fire and bring his vision back from the brink of collapse, his heart hammered weakly in his chest as his eyes lifted upwards.

Green met gold.

The world around him went dull and dim muffled accept for a bubble five feet by five feet.

Sunny knelt in front of him, her gold eyes calm and cool against the raging of battle, familiar and safe. Two of her hands rested on either of his arms, one hand rested on his shoulder and the other hand was cool on his cheek.

She forced him to keep eye contact with her as the blackness receded from his vision.

"I can't do it sunny." He whispered, "I ca-" His voice choked off

His body quaked with horrific pain.

She leaned forward a little until he felt like he would fall into deep pools of gold, soothing and warm.

"It will be over soon."

Her voice came to him, though very far away.

She leaned in resting her forehead against his four hands gripping him even as one of his hands held onto her arm.

"It will all be over soon, you just have to fight with me one, last time."

If it had been simply her words and his will, he would have been able to get up. He would have hauled himself to his feet, and he did, a little.

But his body failed him.

He sunk back to the ground in a well of mental misery as bad as the pain of his flesh.

He wanted to get up so bad.

But he wasn't special, he wasn't a hero, and simple words weren't going to be enough to get him to his feet, no matter how badly he wanted it. This wasn't a moment of cinema, but this was reality, a true story of the failing of the human body and the human mind.

He couldn't not make himself get up.

But he knew something that could.

The battle roared around him as he reached downwards and plucked the little black box from his belt. He saw sunny reaching out a hand to stop him, but she was too late as he slammed the little box home.

It clicked, and after only a few seconds of agony, his body was flooded with relief and a high so intense that the pain didn't matter anyway.

He roared to his feet.

The world around him was a cloud of white and distant noise, but he was untouchable.

No pain could stop him now.

No exhaustion even hinted at bringing itself forward, and together he and Sunny broke a line through the burg ranks.

Their artillery was useless in this space for fear of killing their own. Their ships weapons were likewise but only worse, leaving the burg with their simple weapons packed together at close quarters with a raging machine and the drev, Ares and the Spartans, as they came to lay waste. They were destroying angels, and the burg were mandated by god to perish here.

Neither he nor sunny were the ones to finally place the charges in the burg engine.

They were too busy holding off wave after wave.

He had to be screamed at on multiple occasions to fall back.

There were at times where he thought they were dead, though internally he didn't really care, but somehow they always managed to break through partially because of their weapons and partially because the burg morale had been shattered. They were being physically ripped apart, pulled in half, and many of their comrades lay writhing on the ground hands clutching at their faces slowly being dissolved by human venom.

He tripped over a body and had to be dragged through the open port, the last one out as the shield was locked shut.

And one of the marines detonated the button.

The explosion on the interior of the shield would have leveled the city if not contained as the burg ship's engine combusted with a wave powerful enough to atomize everything inside.. The first wave turned everything within the dome to dust and fused everything after that into glass. The shield itself was the most powerful piece of equipment the burg had ever made, and if they had just managed to close it off, the humans would never have gotten through.

And now it was their tomb.

Off to the side Adam was having trouble breathing. His chest hurt, and his body shivered with cold that shouldn't have been there.

People were trying to talk to him, but the glorious high from earlier was gone leaving him with chest pain, difficulty breathing, and the slow creeping of agony back into his limbs.

He was so cold.

The world around him grew white.

And he collapsed to the ground.

Finally allowed to sleep.