Adam grunted as he was thrown to the ground a burst of white particles erupting into the air with the weight of his body. He groaned in pain which was cut off as a foot rammed hard into his ribs. He choked off and curled into a ball on the ground in an attempt to cover his internal organs.

Despite the pain in his body, his mind felt numb.

"Take them away!" The big purple scarab shouted, slamming her spear against the stone.

The marines cursed and spit as they were dragged away, Maverick even managing to bite one of her attackers before being clocked about the head. Adam watched in horror as her knees locked up and she sagged, unconscious in the Drev's arms.

How could this have happened?

He struggled to his knees forcing himself not to look at the SPY and the traitor standing to his right, "Where are you taking them?" He spat, only to be kicked over again, by one of the Scarabs' powerful kicks. He gasped for air, fighting past his stunned diaphragm.

She leaned down, "You do not ask the questions here human."

A hand rested on his arm, and he looked up to see Sunny crouched over him, her wide golden eyes brimming with.... What.... Sorrow? Fear?

He jerked away from her, the bitterness rising to his lips as his voice cracked, "How could you?"

She flinched as if she had been hit across the face, "I."

"Spy!" He hissed, his voice cracking. He had meant the word to be more jarring, but he just couldn't. It was his own fault he was in this predicament, he had trusted her, despite all she was, he had trusted her and now he was reaping the rewards of his own naivete. He lowered his head. He should have learned from the Tesraki, he should have known that no good would come from her, but still he had given her the benefit of the doubt.

And because of that, everyone he cared about was going to.... To what.....

He lifted his head, that was part of this he didn't understand.

Where were they taking his friends? Why didn't they just kill them on the spot?

He understood well enough why he had been left alive: for more revenge, of course.

If what he understood was correct, the Purple one was Sunny's mother which meant he had killed her husband or something, and now they were looking for revenge. That he understood, but the rest of it hardly made sense.

Adam was hauled to his feet from behind and urged to keep walking, turning his head to try to catch sight of his men, but they were already gone.

The sun was beginning to sink towards the horizon, and shadows were growing long over the land before them.

The moss was strange and spongy below his feet, where once it had crunched, dead and decaying under a layer of ash.

Everything from this angle appeared strange. Much of the bright season he had witnessed from above in his jet looking down, so the rolling lay of the land was hardly familiar. From above it had been nothing more than a mottled patchwork of bright and inviting colors.

A hand dug into the skin of his arm, "Keep moving."

They were just cresting a low rise when the little village came into view before him.

It wasn't that large, maybe two hundred dwellings all together, situated around a large central cathedral constructed of black obsidian impossibly thin spires rising to pierce the fading blue of the sky above.

His mouth dropped open in partial awe less to the fact that he hadn't seen building so grand, but more to how much it stuck out in contrast to the simple primitive stone dwellings that hunched low about it's base, the thatched roofs and squat appearance giving the sensation of many devout monks bowed in prayer.

They did not go unnoticed as they approached the village. In fact many of its inhabitants were standing in wait at the very edge of the village border, huddled together in clumps, many of them wearing armor and brandishing weapons.

Even the children, he noticed, carried crude metal spears in their upper hands, their small, bird-like heads bent low and glowering at him as he passed by.

The Drev at the front, Sunny's mother paused, and then turned, motioning Sunny forward, "Come daughter come and stand with me. Now that you have earned your place, the right is yours."

Adam glanced over to look at Sunny, whose head was turned away.

Was that shame he sensed?

"Come, Girl!" That time it was not a request, it was an order, and Sunny slowly moved forward to stand with her mother, her head still bowed, "Raise your chin, Child! You should be celebrating your triumph, not wallowing in self pity."

Sunny lifted her head, and Adam frowned slightly.

For a mother she wasn't much for maternal feelings.

A small pathway led down a narrow incline, and Adam turned his head to the side to observe the trees and their strangely coiled branches, striped like something out of a Dr. Seuss Book.

Oh the places you'll go and the things you will see.

Evidently, his step lagged and he was jolted forward into a faster pace. The sun was even lower towards the horizon now, and the sky overhead was awash with fiery orange.

Little blue orbs began winking into existence at the corners of the little dwellings, and bright blue highlighting them in strange ribbons of blue on one side and tongues of orange flame on the other.

They reached the edge of the village, and the group of Drev shifted hostilely, their eyes laid on him. Even the children hissed and rumbled in anger as he passed, falling into step behind them like some macabre parade as they headed towards the dark spires cut into the sky before them.

Less of a parade and more of a funeral procession.

More and more Drev joined them as they continued their walk, slowly making their way over the well-trodden path carpeted with multicolored moss snaking their way through the city.

Blue lights bobbed through the buildings as other Drev flocked to join them from the other side.

The light of the dying sun fell against his eyes, and he averted his face, watching as a creeping line of shadow advanced towards them over the ground.

Sunny's mother pulled to a stop at the base of the Cathedral turning and walking to where he sagged against one of the guards, grabbing him about the arm and hauling him forward with a violent jerk that sent him stumbling and limping with her.

The cruel points of her hands dug sharply into the muscle of his arm and he hissed in pain.

The ground about them was quiet as he was thrown to the steps of the massive façade, ramming his knee into one sharp stone step.

He cried out in pain, causing the general to laugh.

She lifted her head, opening her mouth to speak when a figure pushed up through the crowd, his Green carapace glittering in the overhead light of the dying sun. He raced up the step stopping next to her, "General Kazna."

She turned her glittering golden eyes upon him, so much like her daughter, and he flinched back hands raised over his head, "Sorry General, I bring news from the Tesraki."

General Kazna lowered her head, giving the younger Drev permission to continue.

He bowed one knee resting on the stone, "The ship has been pulled from orbit your glory, and the humans are being offloaded as we speak."

Adam felt his heart grow cold and still in his chest.

He glanced over at Sunny, and, to his surprise, she looked almost as shocked as he felt.

She seemed to hesitate for a long moment before approaching up the steps towards her mother.

"Thank you Hazad, you may go." General Kazna said, turning to her daughter.

"Mother, what is going on?" She whispered, "I thought that-"

"Shhh, daughter, all will be explained in due time."

Adam frowned. This was strange, why wouldn't Sunny know about what was going on?

Sunny paused and stepped back and General Kazna raised her hands into the air spear shining in the light of the fading sun, "My brother and sisters!" She announced, her voice booming across the open clearing, powerful enough to rattle the stone beneath him.

The Drev before her grew silent.

He could still see the anger on their faces even from here. Their hatred made him shiver as they stared.

"Today is an auspicious day for our clan."

There was a rumbling through the crowd, "Many lunar markers have passed since the war, since the GA and the human scum used heretical technology to beat us down and make us prisoners on our own planet, while they mine our sacred lands."

There was murmuring rose and fell, "Many markers has it been since our battle partners, children, and elders have fallen on the battlefield."

Another round of muttering.

"I like many of you understand the great burden and pain that this has caused, for my own battle partner Lanus – spirits bring honor to his soul – fell." He turned to look at Sunny, who was staring down at her feet, "But today I announce.... I announce a great victory for the Drev clans, a beginning to our return to glory."

Her voice grew in power, "A beginning to our revenge, against those who brought us so low!"

Adam cried out in pain as the general grabbed him by the back of the neck and hoisted him into the air like a mother lion does her cubs, the bony ends of her fingers digging into the soft spaces just below his ear. He gasped in agony crying out from deep in his chest against the pain.

"Behold, a representation of our victory." He moaned again in pain as she spun him about so all the waiting clan could get a good look, "Behold the very creature, that so many cycles ago killed my brave Lanus in heretical combat." She shook him hard and he mewled in pain, "Look at him! Is this the creature you were afraid of! Is this the creature that we feared."

With one hand she tossed him towards the ground, and he hit the stone steps hard, bouncing once, then twice, his knee cracking painfully on the stone before he fell into the moss amidst a cloud of white pollen.

"Look at it!" She shouted, "Without it's augmentation it is NOTHING!"

His vision of his human eye shivered on the edges from the pain, but he remained conscious, sprawled at her feet, "Today marks the beginning of our revenge!" her voice had gone cold now, "The GA thinks the war has ended, they think they have won, but even now my armies are amassing." She motioned a hand towards Sunny, who still refused to look at her, "Thanks to Chalan— my only remaining blood – we now have the forces and the resources to make our enemies quail before us like a frightened Kit.'

She pointed her spear at Adam's back, "And tonight, Tonight at sunset, we will make an example, and offer up a sacrifice to the spirits in honor of our upcoming triumph."

Adam felt himself hauled back to his feet, held there by two bulky Drev as he was dragged back up the stairs, following General Kazna and Sunny into the waiting darkness.

***

Dr. Krill hugged the corner of the concrete structure. Just on the other side he could hear the calls of the Tesraki and the Drev as the humans were offloaded.

His journey here had been harrowing for sure, but it was necessary.

If there was some way to figure out what was going on with these humans, and maybe get word back to the GA or the UNSC, he would be more than pleased to do it. He was the only one left, and if they had managed to take an entire ship out of orbit, then it would make sense that they had managed to capture the Captain as well.

Krill was the only one who could help now.

And so far things were not looking good.

He moved away from the sounds, down the other side of the building. He wasn't going to be able to slip in unnoticed with that many eyes on him, so he was going to have to find another way in.

Unfortunately for him, there didn't seem to be any other options. Overhead the sky was growing dark. The clouds above had turned a mottled purple against the whitening sky, like burst capillaries below human skin.

Delicate streaks of orange rimmed the horizon, creating the color of Iodine on that same skin.

He was almost out of options when something occurred to him.

Up.

No one would ever think of something coming from above. He had proven that time and time again over the last hour that this was the case, so why shouldn't it be now.

His reasoning proved to be true, and after a quick inflation brought him to the top of the building he found a rather cramped ventilation pipe down to the interior. A sort of musty smoke was billowing out of it, a rather dark grey against the sky, but a single breath of it told him that it was mostly high in carbon, probably not good for humans, but just fine for a plant based lifeform.

It didn't occur to him how stupidly dangerous this was until he was halfway down the tube. He could feel the edges of his helium sack scraping along the inside of the pipe. It was too narrow for him to get stuck, but he certainly worried about tearing something.

And not to mention that he was actually blocking the pipe, and a gathering of black mist was beginning to build up below him.

If someone noticed the backup, he would be in serious trouble.

With that realization in mind, he redoubled his efforts, squeezing even lower into the darkness feeling the hot air prickle against his skin.

He hoped he wasn't going to find a fire at the base of this.

Unfortunately for him, he did, in fact, find a fire,, though the good news was it was well below his position.

Silver chunks of metal were being dumped into a large vat, and the acrid smoke was rising from there. Molten metal rumbled like lava as it churned and bubbled.

Krill quickly moved to the side glancing around at anyone who could have spotted him.

Luckily this part of the factory seemed to be deserted, and the machines that fed the metal into the vat were almost completely automated.

He floated from his spot in the ceiling and towards the floor. The layout before him was significantly bigger than the building he remembered entering, which suggested to him that most of the facility was actually underground.

It seemed strange.

Strange and almost familiar.

Trying to shake that out of his head, he moved forward through the darkness until he came to a hallway. The sound of warmachines masked any sound that he could have made, and so he wasn't too worried as he moved into the next hallway.

He was alone for many minutes, trying to estimate the distance inside based on what he had seen outside and the relative position to where the humans were being taken.

At some point he made it to a set of steps, and decided down was as good as up.

Whatever was going on it wasn't something someone would want an outsider to notice, so the further down things went, the more likely it was to be hidden.

He headed to the very bottom floor first.

It only took him one look to determine that the bottom floor was mostly just generator rooms, and so he went back up one more flight, and into a long dark hallway. This was when things began to change, and he could feel the floor beneath him as it shifted to a different texture.

Clear polished concrete ran the length of the floor, and, on all sides, doors led into unknown rooms.

Krill didn't bother to test any of them, afraid of what he might find on the other side.

He made it down the hall and was almost to its end when the sudden change in lighting alerted him to the large windows on either side of the corridor. He stopped just outside their shadow and quickly peered around the corner, and down.

Down into a large white room.

And when he said large, he meant massive. The room was larger than the factory above it, its floor bleached in white and its ceiling line with bright industrial lights radiating pure white energy.

And lining that room.

Lining that room was thousands of containment units.

Delicate blue shielding shimmered at the barriers between the human subjects on the inside, and nonhuman scientists on the outside.

Staring into the containment units, Krill realized.

He knew where the missing 41 had gone.