Commander Vir stood at the helm of his ship hands clasped gently behind his back single eye staring outwards and into the blackness of space cold and focused.

Well, perhaps not completely black. The Deep Space Galactic Penal Detention Center sat at the forefront of his vision. So deep in the vastness of space near nothing and no one, it was difficult to fathom the absolute isolation in which these prisoners existed. In all the galaxy it was most known for its miles and miles of maximum security isolation cells housing the GA's most dangerous criminals, and only recently, for the housing of its most dangerous human prisoners.

Of course, General GA policy, supported by the UNSC, prohibited the use of solitary confinement on human subjects due to the severe and negative psychological effects it was proven to cause. And as a Rundi run prison, the rules and regulations were sure to be followed to the letter. However, even the UNSC and by extension the GA had to admit that there were a few human subjects too dangerous to subject even to other prisoners.

A soft set of footsteps cut into his thought process, and a looming figure paused at his back.

He knew her without even having to look, and A dulled smile tugged at one corner of his mouth, and, as if in response he was rewarded with a soft hum.

"This is hardly the place for humor." He commented wryly turning to face her. Sunny stood a few feet to his back half in and half out of shadow, her blue carapace gently kissed by the incoming ambient light form the view outside, "Something on your mind?" He wondered

She shook her head and shrugged large golden eyes tilting to watch him more intently, "I was just thinking how far you've come."

A raised eyebrow, "And what is that supposed to mean?" He wondered.

She stepped out of her pool of shadow and came to lean on the back of the captains chair staring out into the darkness. He couldn't help but notice just how much her body language seemed to scream HUMAN these days, "Once upon a time you looked uncomfortable in that uniform, you weren't sure you were ready to be commander. And now look at you."
He allowed the smile to tug, again, wryly at the corners of his mouth as he walked to stand next to her, "Perhaps I'm just very good at faking." His expression grew serious then, "Now my station means taking care of this Issue." He nodded towards the unlit prison station.

Sunny thundered low in her throat causing his ribs and chest to rattle with the power, "How did he manage to do it?"

The commander shook his head slowly, "Honestly.... I have no idea."

"Want me to get the marines ready?"

"You read my mind. Tell the boys and girls to suit up for a full tactical breach, two teams inside with us, and two teams on the outside just in case. Get Cannon to take care of them. I want Krill and Conn with us on the entry."

Another low hum, "Yes, sir."

"What?"

"Nothing, I like it when you get all authoritative on me." She teased heading towards the door.

"Ah can it you big beetle." He muttered softly, the same smile still playing over his face as she left.

***

"Approaching target 5 knots 45 degrees on entry, over." Adam flew primarily by the ambient light of the universe tracking the other ships on his radar as they moved around to their positions. Sunny sat in the back with the marines watching as her human companions readied themselves for the boarding. Sunny wasn't human, and so had never experienced the sensation that humans called 'intuition', but even she wasn't clueless enough to miss that they were walking into a very serious situation.

The days following the capture of the infected starborn and the experimental human soldier had been characterized by a series of horrible realizations stacked one on top of the other. The starborn and the human experiment were connected somehow experimentally tampered with in such a way that gave the human near supernatural powers, and the ability to receive telepathic communication with the starborn receiving a horrible and crazed state of mind and a deteriorating body.

She glanced to the side where Conn hovered towards the back of the troop transport exchanging insults with one of the marines.

Their investigation, and scattered memories gleaned from the humans broken mind, hinted at a possible connection between the human, the starborn, the cult, the protests, and the Tesraki earthquake. Their first assumption had brought them to a forgotten source of information: A Gib scientist who had been jailed towards the beginning of the Commander's career for experimentation on humans, which generally lead to their eventual and horrible death at the hands of the scientist.

They had originally planned on interviewing the scientist for his opinions on the kind of person that would attempt such a thing, but when they attempted to contact the prison, usually self sustaining, and without the requirements of food shipment or even equipment, they found that no one was responding. Further investigation showed that all the radio channels had been blocked.

Even worse was the knowledge that the prison was one of the most advanced ever built with the guards safety in mind. How a prisoner had managed to break through without alerting any number of warning systems was more than a mystery. When they checked fingerprint and facial recognition of the human against the prison databases, they found what they were looking for.

The situation really couldn't have been worse. Someone was back at experimenting on humans, and even starborn, most everyone's money was on the original Gib scientist, and if that was the case, he was locked in with a large supply of human prisoners to experiment on freely and without repercussion. Who knew how long he had been at it, and what he could have accomplished in that time frame.

"Approaching the docking bay, prepare to board." Adam said from the pilot's seat voice metallic and distorted lightly over the intercom. To her right, Krill slid his arms through the small black backpack, while one of his neighboring marines double checked the small motor in the back for its functioning. When Krill had joined them on previous outings he had admitted to being the slowest member of the party on his legs, and especially when he was inflated, so to combat these issues, the engineering team had designed the small motor to propel him through the air when his helium sack was inflated. Of course one of the marines was still in charge of lugging a medical kit, but it was better than their earlier system.

Sunny listened to the rattle of the shuttle as it came to a light landing inside the docking bay. Vrul shielding technology allowed for a ship's easy entry from the outside while also keeping the air pressure inside the ship. As the engines powered down, the marines, and sunny quickly flooded out onto the deck leveling their weapons towards the dark corners of the room. The second shuttle followed close after making landing on the distant side of the docking bay.

Sunny turned in a sharp slow circle her eyes scanning for waiting threats, which she expected to appear from the shadowy corners of the room at any moment. Due to the close-quarters nature of their mission, they had been forced to leave the mounted machine gun behind, and she had traded the bulk of the machine gun for the light maneuverability her mother's old war staff. Of course the decorative head at the end of the shaft could be used for slicing someone to ribbons in a pinch, but the real power came from the energy coils stacked one atop the other inside the interior of the staff, the discharge of which could be absolutely devastating at middling distances.

The Drev had historically fought most of their wars in hand to hand combat, close quarters being the more HONORABLE way of fighting, but that hadn't stopped them from developing greater weapons technology in their free time.

She finished her threat assessment of the room, and found nothing. But that in itself was a problem seeing as the docking bay should have been alive with engineers and employees, yet there was no one here, but the deep darkness of the waiting prison.

The clatter of boots followed her silent inspection, as Adam came marching down the ramp wearing matching gear to the marines and carrying a matching weapon. Sunny was aware that Adam had originally trained as a fighter pilot, and had never been meant for ground combat, but the Drev war had changed most of that, and in the past few years he had taken it upon himself to have an at least more-than-passable ability in the field.

Even so, he kept at the back of the group allowing the more experienced marines, spearheaded by her, to lead them deeper into the dark. On the other side of the room, the second team of marines were doing the same.

Outside the circling shuttles were checking in.

Krill stuck to the back of the group next to the captain, Conn and the marine's medic surprisingly silent despite the small motor which propelled him along.

They made it at first to two matching doors on either end of the long docking bay. The second team gave a thumbs up and each team stacked up on the doorway, while the lead marine stepped into place to input the provided security codes. They readied themselves for anything that was to come behind those doors, but found nothing but a long dark hallway stretching off into infinity in either direction.

Two marines cut into the hallway glancing in either direction and clearing the space before ordering the others to follow. A designated two man team hung back to keep an eye on the docking bay as the rest of the group moved further into the ship. As the layout would have it, the hallway they were currently in would eventually take a ninety degree turn to the left or to the right, then again before meeting right back up with each other at the prisoner intake station.

What they were currently seeing was simply the product of administrative offices and storage rooms.

The two teams of marines kept in close contact with each other as they moved down either hallway cutting around corners and clearing wrooms with the silent efficiency only humans were known to exhibit. Sunny did her best to emulate those same practices staying cautious as they moved forward into the blackness.

The life support was still on of course, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to breathe so easily. However, both the main lights and the backup lights had been mysterious shut off leaving them with only the beams of their rail-mounted flashlights to illuminate the way.

They took the next corner quietly alerted to the far end of the hall by the lights of the other marines. Nothing stood between them and their companions, so they kept their weapons low.

Sunny fell towards the back of the group, allowing the other marines to take point. If she was human, she was sure she would feel some uneasiness about their open back, so she kept an eye on the receding blackness behind them.

The two groups met in the middle just outside the open intake lobby. A single door to one side lead into, what appeared to be an observation room for the intake. Sunny stepped forward volunteering to go first as one of the marines opened the door for her. She swept in quickly and silently greeted by a cramped room, with a cramped desk and cramped chairs surrounded on all sides by cameras and other monitoring machines.

And nearly lit the entire place on fire when she saw the figure hunched in a corner.

She leveled her weapon ready to cut through the thing with a bast of searing energy, but stopped immediately as her light cut over the figure.... A rundi corpse lifeless and staring, surrounded by a pool of discolored, dried brown bile.

She finished clearing the room before calling Krill in. He turned off his backpack and stepped inside walking over to examine the body. At the door Conn floated like a ghost head tilted as if he were listening.

One look by Adam, and the starborn shook its head.

The marines had now moved their way onto the intake floor weapons held at the low ready. Adam followed them slowly glancing around at the open stalls and discarded equipment which blocked their path. Krill stood, finishing his examination.

And they were suddenly blinded by a searing white light. In the other room he could hear the humans cursing and calling to each other as they staggered to stay in place and adjust to the light. Sunny lifted her weapon ready to step through the door but was blocked by Conn in the last moments.

There was a metallic hiss, and the intake's open end slammed shut. Sunny shoved Conn out of the way and ran to the closed doors slamming up against them as if she could break through, but to no avail. She ran back into the observation room where Krill was watching hands pressed up against the glass.

She slammed her staff against the viewing window, but despite her power it rebounded back towards her head.

The humans had backed themselves into a double wide circle. Those on the front knelt on the ground with those on the inner ring of the circle standing behind them and aiming over their heads. Adam stood behind one of the marines facing the direction they had originally been going.

The intercom buzzed loudly, and all weapons snapped to apprehend the sound.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up." The marines looked at each other in confusion and shock while sunny frantically began pressing buttons and pulling on levers and slamming her staff against the glass.

"I was saying to myself, you know humans always show up to save the day. Probably the souls of theirs.... Isn't that right, Deus."

Adam slowly panned his weapon from one side to the other eyes narrowed in concentration, "So it is you, the Gib Scientist. The one who went mad experimenting on humans?"

There was a scoff over the intercom, "Not mad. I was right, and people couldn't accept that now could they." There was a long pause, "Commander Adam Vir..... I WAS hoping that they would send you. Saw it in your eyes last time we met. Something special behind there, something powerful."

The man made no reaction to that statement other than to continue panning his weapon slowly, "Any other day I would be flattered, but today I am going to have to ask you to turn yourself in."

The Gib let of a rather choked laugh somewhere between a squeaking and a trilling, "Now that wouldn't be prudent commander, besides, if I did that, than what would be the point of gassing you. See it would be silly, you would all be sleeping, and I would be standing around waiting."

"GET DOWN!" Sunny commanded stepping away from the glass and aiming down the shaft of her weapon.

In the other room, The humans had scattered like leaves on a high wind pulling anything they could find over their noses and mouths scrambling to cover the intake vents with whatever they could find.

"I have been studying you humans for a very long time. I know all your weaknesses, I know all of your little quirks, so I think to myself, why bother fighting a human when you can knock them out remotely with chemical incapacitating agents."

A burst of energy roced Sunny backwards shooting across the small space before crashing into the glass. The entire room shook, but the energy dissipated as if it had crashed into solid steel.

The humans were frantically calling information to each other faces covered. But sunny noticed how their movement grew lethargic, their bodies sagged.

At the other door Conn was waving to get her attention, but she ignored him as the voice came back over the com, "Do you like it, it's a little fentanyl derivation of mine that I cooked up. Of course, I wasn't the first to think of it, I think it was originally the Russians, a human chemical derived for human incapacitant. But you know that's how you should deal with humans because the only ones that can truly handle humans are other humans."

Inside the rooms the marines were fighting to stay upright, but it was no use; the first to go down was one of the shorter female marines. She staggered once, and then spilled onto the floor her weapon clattering loudly against the tiles. Adam leaped forward to check on her kneeling next to her body.

She was followed closely by two more marines who hit the floor with a dull thud. The others leaned heavily against the walls before sliding slowly to the floor.

"Of course, the last time this was use 15% of the people it was used on died. I really hope this batch gives me a higher survival percentage, but I can only hope."

"Why ... are you doing this." Adam whispered head bobbing as he fought against the chemical.

"ADAM." Sunny screamed

He didn't hear her as the voice above his head continued speaking, "Personally, I just want to continue my studies, but in order to pull this off I needed help, and their plans are a little more wide reaching. Conquering and destruction, you know that sort of thing. Of course, I don't much care for it, but if all goes well, I get an endless supply of test subjects and they get dominion over the known galaxy. Oh, and don't worry about your friends, the two in the docking bay were subdued without issue, and the two troop transports have been taken command of by my starborn friends."

So that's why Conn had been trying to get her attention.

Inside the room, Adam's mouth opened to speak, but at the last moment his eyes rolled back in his head and he sagged downwards slumping over the body of the original fallen marine.

"ADAM!"