A Letter to the Metal Men

The dull metal and endless views outside the windows of Laika Station had become commonplace to the hundreds of men and women who served on board. Yet one of them had found the station a cage more than a home or a workplace. 
Lyzander-G276 had been relegated to Laika Station for the last four months as part of his psychological leave. The daily therapy sessions had been helpful to him at the start, but their tone began to change as they went on. Questions which once served to explore the reasons for his reaction to bombing Sangheili civilians had become more interrogative, questioning his allegiance to the UNSC and his relations to the Kaidon and clan he fought alongside. 
As therapy turned into an interrogation, and a place of healing turned into a cage, Lyzander came to understand that he could never stay under ONI after this. He wished for simpler times with Kalis and the rest of Gamma Company. And now, 4 months after he had bombed a keep full of civilians, 2 months after he had begun to alter his answers to get back into the field as soon as possible, and 1 month after he resolved to return to the simplicity of serving under the Navy, he now sat in his room with a blank page in front of him. 
The page bore into him as his eyes searched his past, taking him back to the spaceport, as the security trooper hoisted him into the evacuation shuttle. He was frozen, unmoving, the shock of the events around him leaving him catatonic. But as he kept searching, he found the moment his suspension was broken, as several towering metal figures crashed into the ground between the evacuees and the Covenant horde. 
As he thought, he felt, and for the briefest of moments, he was back in his body, feeling the reassurance and wonder as those metal men put themselves between the civilians and the Covenant, a wall between life and death…..Protectors. In his reverie, he began to write a letter to the metal men who saved him, who inspired him to become who he was, and an apology to them for failing the ideals they instilled in them. 
As he finished writing, he paused, unsure of how to finish. But after some consideration, he decided to be honest…
“I know I failed to live up to what you stood for, but I am still trying, and I will keep trying…..”