The stone wall rose up, and cut past him on either side as he blasted through the tight opening body rigid like an arrow. The cool darkness of the building's interior was blasted back by warm rays of sunlight, which warmed his back as wind whipped past his clothing.

Below him there was nothing but mist and the plunging sides of the pillars cutting down into nothing.

His momentum carried him only so far before he began to plunge downward, though his freefall was cut short as he re-engaged the jetpack cutting upwards in a backwards spiral that sent him looping over the top of the city spires. Off in the distance he could see more than a dozen pairs of dogfighting individual no more than black dots on the horizon.

He cut left quickly and rose up to take the high position wind whipping past his face and roaring inside his ears. His maneuver caught two of their attackers by surprise shooting the out of the sky as he descended from above. He caught another one as it was reaching out for one of the marines, grabbing it by the wing and spinning it around to color with another of it's companions.

Tangled around each other they fell like a stone into the mist below."

Ramirez cut down on his left, and another marine on his right, and together they flew in a tight triangular formation. It reminded him a lot of his training drills at the flight academy, though unfortunately for him, while the marines could operate a jetpack, they weren't trained in aviation, and so couldn't follow his more complex maneuver.

And together, they still flanked a couple of warring Krree taking them out before they could overpower their voiced counterparts.

He spotted T'lau by way of her colorful clothing, which practically glowed like a beacon against the grey blue sky, and what he saw didn't look good. Two Kree soldiers harried her from behind flicking at her with their razor wire, attempting to cut off a wing as she churned and dived frantically trying to avoid severe bodily injury.

It was clear she was going to lose.

Commander Vir, pushed the engine on his jetpack rocking forward and away fro his formation of marines. The two Kree had hardly any time to turn towards him as they heard the roaring of his engine. He caught them both around the middle, the edge of their razor wire scraping off the edge of the Iron-eye suit.

He only just had time to pull up as they careened towards an outer line of trees that had been set up along the side of the city. The little blue spheres that hung from the canopy exploded on contact drenching him in blue juice that stung slightly upon contact with his skin.

The impact slowed the enough that, when he cut the engine, hitting the ground was only mostly painful. Though he was bruised, he had managed to slip one of the Kree under him, using its feathery body to break his fall.

He heard something crunch and the kree lay still.

The other Kree, not as dazed or injured from the fall pounced on his back, and the two of them went rolling across the floor as the Kree attempted to slip the razor wire around his throat like a garotte. He ducked his head as the wire sliced across his cheek, drawing blood. The blue tree juice oozed into the wound and he roared with agony as it felt like his face was on fire.

WIth a jolt of energy and adrenaline, he flipped around in place and grabbed the kree around the middle again. The creature kicked and bucked against him, but he held tight. It was all he could do to keep holding on as the creature was surprisingly wriggly. If it had not been for that, he might have been able to overpower the creature, but as it was he kept losing his grip taking all his energy just to keep the creature in place.

His frustration mounted as the kree nearly slipped away.

And with his anger came the whirring of the machine.

The iron eye suit whirred to life with a hungry hiss, and the hydraulics that augmented his body's power began to slowly compress. He felt his muscles contract like a constricting python around the creature as it struggled. HE was squeezing so tight, that his muscles shook, and when he could do no more, that is when the machine too over.

The whirring grew louder and louder. His arms and legs clamped down like a steel vice.

The kree screamed, then choked off as it's air was cut short.

And then a horrendous symphony of crunching noises, and a final snap as the creature's spine broke in two and it went still.

The iron eye suit disengaged and his ucles failed causing him to flop backwards onto the floor, hands out to either side next to the two kree corpses.

Overhead, engines roared as the two marine shuttles descended from orbit.

The battle had lasted less than seven minutes, and the marine's time from orbit to landing was faster than most ambulance response times back on earth. One shuttle landed not so far away, while another circled around back of the palace.

From this distance, he could see groups of marines spilling out the back jetpacks already engaged.

Below the shuttle two twinned guns fired intermittently towards the Kree.

The marines on foot fanned out in a quick semi-circle ordering each other by their hand signals before fanning into two fire teams, which cut to explore the city.

Their response was fast, and he was soon to see why.

Sunny was the last to appear from the shuttle. In her two lower hands she held held a spear, maybe three to four feet long tipped with the deadly black head, and in her upper arms she carried the marine standard issue automatic carbine with red dot site, which she used to great effectiveness on a passing Kree.

Her aim was uncanny for someone who hadn't been using human weapons for very long.

He could hear her ordering the marines about over the comms, her voice sharp and clipped, her orders precise and irrefutable. The marines did as they were told washing over the city and taking out all targets with great efficiency.

Not to be left out, a number of Drev had been dropped on the other side of the city, and were cleaning up the remnants of their attackers on that side with great glee. Ironically, their response time had been faster than that of th Kree defence team in itself, who finally dared to show up in their colorful armor and belatedly wielding their weaponry.

The marines cut across the open space in those first few moments two taking covering positions as a third knelt next to him on the marble, "Commander secured!" He announced over his radio.

The little red cross on his sleeve denied him as a field medic.

It was a relatively good sign considering that krill had forced all military medical personally through a rigorous training course that made them some of the top field medics/ and occasionally field surgeons/ in the galaxy.

The man grabbed his wrist to check a pulse as he looked over the cut on his face.

"Are you injured, commander." He asked even as he was busy looking him over.

"No, no just winded, I think I'll be alright."

He finished his examination and called out for another group of men who cut across the space from the shuttle and knelt to cover the commander as the others moved off.

"What happened?" One of them asked relaying the information to sunny in quick-time as the commander gave it.

"The colorful kree are friendlies called the voiced. The ones without funny robes are the voiceless. They attacked us as I was speaking with their leader. She should be somewhere around here. We don't really know more than that?"

"And their leader had nothing to do with this?"

"Not as far as I know." He said slowly crawling to his feet, muscles aching from the iron eye intervention.

The ache brought back a sudden stabbing memory of pain and agony, but he shoved it back down engaging his comms, "Sunny report!" he ordered.

"Three dead, two wounded. The dead are the voiced and the two wounded are our marines. One of them is minor, the other is serious calling for medivac now. We have the voiced leader secured and one captured one of the voiceless for questioning."

As soon asher comm line went dead, another one popped up.

"Commander this is harbinger, we are receiving some unusual radar readings. Can see nothing yet but whatever it is it is big and it's coming in fast."

Shit, he thought hauling himself up to his final standing position, "Call in immediate GA backup from Irus. Get Capain Koslov and Captain Ho on the line as fast as you can and order them in for a short warp be ready to cover them as they come in. Order all units to battle stations immediately."

Just then, Commander Vir turned to see Sunny escorting T'lau over the open floor. She was limping pretty badly to go along with her already uneven gate on the ground. Her feathers were ruffled, her robes torn and she looked ore than halfway to panic.

"Commander, commander you must understand. We did not orchestrate this attack. We had no idea they were here, and they have never been so bold as to attack the city before."

He held up a hand, "I understand, do the voiced have space ships."

"What?"

"Answer the question."

"No... well not really. They have small ships, no more than cruisers, and none of those have functioning weaponry as far as we are aware."
"Has your species made any deals with any other entities?"

"I... well not the voiced but....oh..."

"You want to tell me what that is all about?'

She turned to look at him, her large-dark eyes very wide, "The Burg."

"THE WHAT!"

"The burg." she was close to full panic now, "THey are the first species that we met, some of the voicless insisted on trading with them though we refused. We did not think an alliance would have stretch any further than that."

He cursed turning away from her and ordering over the line to the harbinger, "Be advised possible burg short cruisers incoming. Alert the GA and the UNSC tell them that we may be under attack. I repeat we may be under attack by burg short cruisers allied with a terroristic Kree faction."

He shouldered his weapon and ordered the marines on him joining to meet up with Sunny as the other marines retreated back toward the shuttles from cleaning up the rest of the burg attack.

"You alright." Sunny asked, ordering a contingent of arines onto the first shuttle which was quickly pulled into orbit medivacing the marine who had broken a leg and an arm during he fight.

"As good as can be expected." he turned to look at the Kree T'lau, "If i find out you were in on this...."He let his threat hang in the air as he and sunny retreated back onto the shuttle after the marines. He could see the shamed look on her aes as the shuttle door closed before turning towards the front of the shuttle allowing command to the second pilot as he opened the comms to speak with sunny and the rest of the command team.

"All diplomatic missions are suspended until further notice."

"Commander GA ships are arriving. They brought a Celzex imperial frigate."

He felt himself relax a little, "Thank Lord Celex." He muttered under his breath

"See if we can't get a Rundi ship to cover for the Celzex. They are the best firepower, but I know their shields have been known to short out. Take a position behind and below the Celzex and afford them cover fire if you have to. When Captain Kozlov and Ho get here order them to cover the rear high and low. Prep evac shuttles, we should be there in ten."

He let the com go dead listening to the chatter over the line and popping in to give orders on occasion.

Across the shuttle from him, Sunny rocked slightly in her seat as the ship rattled upwards through the atmosphere.

He kept one ear open to the comms, though he was compelled to speak knowing that this might be his last chance.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the iron eye suit, or the jetpacks."

He had to raise his voice to be heard over the roaring of the engines.

Her eyes were cold, and she didn't say anything, "Look, I knew you wouldn't trust my judgement, and I get that but sometimes I know what I am doing."

Sunny's eyes blaed, "It's not your judgement I dont trust, Adam."

"Than what is it?"

"I hate the fact that you don't trust me, that you feel like you have to hide this sort of thing."

He frowned, "The last time I used a jetpack you nearly grounded me for a month."

"Thats because you weren't being careful, you weren't thinking things through, but this time you are and you did. I need you to trust me to know how to behave when the situation calls for it."

He went silent in his seat, "Alright... I was wrong and I'm sorry, but I need you to trust me to know what I can and can't handle. I know it may be hard and I havent always proven that, but I can't command my ship if I'm being second guessed."

"Fine."

"Fine."

They were silent for a moment as he listened to the chatter over the comms.

"Sunny."

"Yes?"

"Thanks for showing up."

"I wouldn't dream of doing otherwise."