"There are only two seconds in Eternity"
***
[Unitopia, Southern Archipelago]
Just a few moments prior...
The footsteps of the approaching soldiers were faint for now, but they were getting louder with every passing moment. The arcane script flashing on his HUD still read those same 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 Frame."
Another cascade of code flashing in that ominous, blood-red script until whatever unholy changes they enforced were complete. A new timer 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.
"Prime 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 time, 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 moment to fall into that strange sensation once more, of being one with his Frame. The ticking countdown a constant reminder that he was on borrowed time, 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 metres. Maybe less.
There was silence. Then, that cold emotionless voice spoke.
"Launch the stun-net"
At the same moment, his Heart now connected to his Frame 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, mending what it could and patching up the rest.
Systems came back online by the tens, almost seeming more powerful than before.
How in the many worlds...?
But Bane barely had time 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 time, 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 something more appeared in the depths of her eyes.
And Bane grinned.
"You're safe here kid. These little things barely tickle."
His voice was metallic 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 moments, 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 timer on his HUD still counting down, inevitably, yet it was still to come.
"I was certainly close", he acknowledged. With each tick of the timer, each beat of his powerful Heart, his Frame only grew stronger. A different kind of strength than he had felt countless times 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 seemed to hover motionless in mid air, the soldiers similarly unmoving in the middle of their retreat.
In this frozen world, the only movement 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 momentum of his unstoppable charge.
Her body, like a marionnette with is strings cut, slammed into the wall of the crater and slid down in an unmoving heap.
In her place he came 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 seemed 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!
TIME TO IMPACT: T-0.2 HEARTBEATS!
In a timeframe barely more than a few moments, 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 became 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 helmet like foil.
An almost demonic voice spoke from within the settling cloud of dust, garbled from a damaged speaker.
"Burn the Heart. Fuel the Frame."
"In the name of Mercy, Compassion and Honour."