The battle for Delus 88 raged on, and Ealrith served the front line. Wings spread, he soared above the green, little more than the settlements worth and toward ash and stone. A wave of smoke struck him, glazing over his sensors for a moment until his servos burned the soot away.

The gray cement was marred, and GRR629 was on the case.

In fact, it was its one thousandth, two hundred and thirty ninth day on the job. Gears whirling, it connected the nozzle in its arm to the full paint compartment. Its mission was simple: return the wall to uniformity.