"There are only two seconds in Eternity"
***
[Unitopia, Southern Archipelago]
Just a few monts prior...
The footsteps of the approaching soldiers were faint for now, but they were getting louder with every passing mont. The arcane script flashing on his HUD still read those sa words, emanating a feeling of restlessness as though urging action:
AWAITING ORDERS
A grin plastered on his rugged face, Bane whispered out loud.
"Burn the Heart. Fuel the Fra."
Another cascade of code flashing in that ominous, blood-red script until whatever unholy changes they enforced were complete. A new tir flashed in the corner of his vision, a number counting down in the thousands.
Seconds? No.
Heartbeats.
The chatter of the approaching soldiers interrupted his train of thought.
"Pri the stun-net, Three"
Stun-net? For the girl, no doubt. Then -
"Get the drill out. Start with the chest-plate, it's got the highest alloy density. Then move to the visor. If we have ti, we can salvage what rest we can. Is that clear?"
""Yes sir"", a chorused reply sounded out.
We'll see who's salvaging what.
Bane took a mont to fall into that strange sensation once more, of being one with his Fra. The ticking countdown a constant reminder that he was on borrowed ti, loaned against his very Heart itself.
What he felt was not promising. Critical systems like hydraulics and electronics had all received unrecoverable damage. His armour's integrity was low, almost seeming a soft tap away from shattering completely.
It's not looking good, but it'll have to be enough.
He spared a glance at the small girl.
It will be enough.
Soon after, that emotionless voice sounded out once more, those light footsteps stopping abruptly.
Five tres. Maybe less.
There was silence. Then, that cold emotionless voice spoke.
"Launch the stun-net"
At the sa mont, his Heart now connected to his Fra via the newly-attached tether, beat powerfully as a molten energy flowed out into the broken channels of his armour.
Gritting his teeth to resist the burning pain, Bane focused his will on the running numbers on the HUD.
The molten energy spread through his suit, bolstered by each successive beat. It filtered through cracks into wires and tubes, nding what it could and patching up the rest.
Systems ca back online by the tens, almost seeming more powerful than before.
How in the many worlds...?
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But Bane barely had ti to focus on this miraculous process.
In the space of a single, powerful Heart beat, he launched to his feet. That molten energy like pure adrenaline injected directly into his bloodstream, propelling him to the heights of awareness almost instantly.
His eyes scanned the crater, outlining the small soldiers, nigh-motionless to the sheer acuity of his vision.
Three here. One on the lip crater.
The trajectory of the stun-net, barely launched by the one just outside the crater, appeared to his eyes highlighted as clear as day.
Not the priority.
Instead, he focused back on the soldiers, their stumbling appearances comical as they realised what was before them. Credit to them, however, their reaction was fast. By human standards.
Just not fast enough.
The spray of bullets ricocheted harmlessly off his impenetrable armour as he crouched his titanic form around that of the tiny girl, like that of a bear holding a mouse in its arms.
For the first ti, surrounding by thunderous explosions echoing loudly in that dark crater, the dim red glow of Bane's eyes softly illuminating the small girl, a hint of sothing more appeared in the depths of her eyes.
And Bane grinned.
"You're safe here kid. These little things barely tickle."
His voice was tallic and hard, worn-down and rugged like a mountain. But it was firm and when it spoke, it spoke with an unperishable will that its proclamation was truth.
Safety was a concept long since burned from the girl's mind, drowned out in a hail of onslaught, yet here, perhaps, she could not help but think that it may yet hold true.
And, after barely a few seconds, the over-heating Gauss-rifles of the soldiers finally sputtered to a stop. The thunderous sounds of their shots replaced once again by silence.
"Stay still for just a few more monts, okay?", Bane asked softly. The girl nodded, so barely that it was almost imperceptible.
And so Bane stood from his crouched position and turned around, fixing the fury of his gaze on the soldiers. They had launched themselves backwards, almost to the edge of the crater, holding their overheating rifles in trembling hands. One of them raised their barrel in a false bravado, screaming in poorly disguised fear.
"You should be dead!"
Thinking of his state just minutes ago, Bane could not help the chuckle from coming out. The tir on his HUD still counting down, inevitably, yet it was still to co.
"I was certainly close", he acknowledged. With each tick of the tir, each beat of his powerful Heart, his Fra only grew stronger. A different kind of strength than he had felt countless tis before.
A strength born from within. Power gained through sacrifice, held together and given direction by his oath. And when he spoke again, it was in the steely voice of a revenant, bound to fulfil his pact paid with his own blood.
"But I am not dead yet."
Before even the echo of that final syllable had faded, Bane moved like lightning given form. Faster than he had ever moved before, the world before his eyes froze once again. Dust particles seed to hover motionless in mid air, the soldiers similarly unmoving in the middle of their retreat.
In this frozen world, the only movent was him.
In a single leap, he covered the distance of the crater, seeing the reflection of his approaching form in the visors of those soldiers like that of a devil from hell.
Lowering a shoulder, he collided with the middle one, crushing her figure like an insect against a window. Her state-of-the-art light armour plates folded like wet paper under the montum of his unstoppable charge.
Her body, like a marionnette with is strings cut, slamd into the wall of the crater and slid down in an unmoving heap.
In her place he ca to a sudden stop, the laws of inertia exerting no sway over him. A gale of wind followed in his wake like a hurricane, as though the world itself lagged behind his sheer speed.
He turned his head slowly, looking down at the soldiers now either side of him. They seed to stagger a bit, as though their eyes refused to comprehend what just happened.
Unfortunately for them, Bane was not so kind as to wait.
A gauntleted fist shot out, grasping one of them by their visored face. He scrambled frantically, clawing away but Bane's grip was iron. The other stumbled backwards, fiddling with his Gauss-rifle before cursing and throwing it aside.
He fumbled for his pistol at his side but it was too late.
Just as Bane was about to clench his fist, a warning flashed on his own display in dripping, crimson letters.
OVERWATCH DETECTED!
TI TO IMPACT: T-0.2 HEARTBEATS!
In a tifra barely more than a few monts, he shifted his gaze to the sky where the hidden drone launched its payload, no doubt upon recognition of the death of its commander. But it was already too late.
Accompanied by a shrieking whistle, it accelerated through the air, colliding with Bane in an explosion of heat and light. A dense cloud of smoke and dust kicked up, obscuring the vision of all those around. For a few seconds, there was a tentative silence.
Then gradually, two glowing red eyes beca visible, staring down at the remaining soldiers in wrath. A sickening crunch sounded out as a single, gauntleted hand closed into a fist, crushing the black plasteel helt like foil.
An almost demonic voice spoke from within the settling cloud of dust, garbled from a damaged speaker.
"Burn the Heart. Fuel the Fra."
"In the na of rcy, Compassion and Honour."
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