The barque coursed upon colours within the night’s fog, sailing high above in the air. Frail rains had persisted of the dusk since hours prior, further along from an obscured sunset, and by drafts, so rushed to accompany all those onboard by a cold drizzle, striking flesh for the sudden little motions they made with every shiver; their heads perked higher; unto each gale of a gentle caress on their skin — their clothes, weapons, too, were wet, more their very ship. They were taken to brisk route as it drifted across steady winds — what gusts swelled over, whither a strobe remained twirling; thunders and strikes now chimed for the coils of the moon aloft; that a strange cold pity might be taken in descent to the displays, might ravage through by a downpour, and with no regard for iridescence shall a sail unfurl beside so dear a flash. Only a figure is imposed: What lights flickering beyond in the smoke-depths shone whetted by wireframes and wires, enswathed through those cradles, statures withal, to no cessation of echoes in concordance with a resonating hum — declining now to the statues in black and the city silhouettes; of long waving cloths tied to buildings; of streams melting in tallies fluorescent falling thence below the fog. All glared within the scatter of haze. The ship dropped, levelled out, and pressed onwards. One of the crew supposed there to advance a hazard, notwithstanding the drift of his vessel and nothing to mind for either its drag or propulsion, so stood upon a handrail and clutched close a suspended rope to peer downwards. Each monolith and vague dissembling of activity within the settlement below seemed to afford him a quarrel in part, for as he looked back to his shipmates, he was poised in a curious dispute to beckon them as well and look down alongside: two men glanced at him, with quick jerks of their head and arms gestured to come hither that he ought to turn away from such a precarious space; though two others smiled, settled the weapons they carried and sounded out, running over with a grand lucid cry of their very own make to hoist themselves perched atop the railing. They began searching the landscape below; for what object, they knew not. Within each tower the crew passed, they could see shadows crossing here and there in an inexplicable blinking rancor. “Off to the left, do you see now, they’re scurrying off for some event. I’m assuring you, lad: they’re of the same mindset as we are, they’re preparing to watch the comet! We’ll have company yet,” an onlooker said, and brandishing his fingers across the night horizon, pointed to a nearby skyscraper pane bereft of glass and covered entirely by wide woven cloth. Some of these bands were pulled hence by another shadow, this time a woman. She fumbled as it were with the structure, standing as high as she was able, that it seemed she might fasten some tangled cloth or another and set firm its attachment, yet almost floundered for the hassle of her reach — with heft, she broke off, eased herself, finally looked up at the barque and paused as the ten-masted ship sailed past. Not one person spoke — the vessel creaked along its route. A crewman instead stood higher upon the wooden railings, gestured with his left arm to the wide of the ship and his partners, took his right hand and threw his cap to her. It tumbled by in the winds. The woman looked on without a single stir — none the men could perceive — then stifling away her gaze, she resumed whatever task she had been appointed, only now with slower initial movement, fussing more and more with the cloth wall until each mark of force punctuated for her greater speeds in urgency. Wherever the cloth had been pulled or pushed, burnt-pink light from within leaked down into the greater mist and trickled forth of radiance amidst the other fogs of colour. Some of this same light splashed up at her and stained her clothes.
“Come on, dance around!” somebody yelled.
With a final rush, the woman retreated back inside.
“Lovely figure she had,” a crewman called out along the starboard, and some others sounded in agreement. — “She’s hardly anything, mate, you should see what else we’ve got on offer,” someone else replied laughing, and he was jollied with more cheers. — “Oi, you’re onto it, what the hell have this lot been up to since our time?” “Bless it all, they look like they belong off to the countryside or something other—” “Gah, but the shits haven’t done their hair nor dress properly!” “How on earth did any of you catch proper sight of her from way off?” “Aye, don’t pipe up too much there, the little madam’s prone to jealousy of women so fine, I reckon!”
“Oh, you delirious brigands — ‘scape of stars and beauty on board, and you’ve still the nerve to coax your minds elsewhere!” this madam scoffed from the aft, and her light giggle following was carried off across to the deck by the careening brace of her lilt. The girl clamped down her hands onto the wood. She was of lithe, youthful build, but flourished yet in visage by means of a lovely carried frame; was clothed in nothing more than a simple white sundress, this draped across by the mass and coils of her wavy black hair. She leapt over and floated by some otherworldly means towards the crew, with garments caressed and clung about as she drifted to the floor; a leg was outstretched in form, her elbows bent close as her hands reached out to empty spaces, for the other leg had been folded tight underneath — and she looked down, smiling, with an affectation that presumed her beheld, even more to engrave within the minds of her onlookers that image posed. A lingering moment contoured her statuesque; she hovered to tap the deck therewith with the point of her toes, and finally landed on a single leg. If she felt any misgivings of envy, it could not be truly apprehended by the men. “Eyes to the eager, my dear boys. The comet’s to arrive, surely — listen to the captain up there when it’s time.” She walked over by the hull and stood on the railings, as some of the others had. Looking upon the bright panels attached to the buildings, the falls of light and swaths of colour flowing from inside what obscured rooms they drifted by, she began to murmur to herself. Somebody called her to jump back down on deck, but she did not move off, instead chose to carefully balance atop towards the direction of the taffrails. She muttered and laughed out loud in intervals. The crew left her to her own course.
“We’re soon to hit the edge of fog, men. Come on,” another man said as he slung over his rifle. Nearing the edge of the ship, he grasped a rope and steadied himself as they sailed further into the mist. It was indeed lifting, for the lights now gleamed brighter with each flash. Droplets in the air were now illuminated in every distinction and whirled through the turbulence. Some men reached their hands out to wave these through, catching themselves wet in the flares of the city — charmed to reason these tiny shimmers as lanterns, though enclasped of cold, nonetheless twinkling high above across luminous trails. They circled and spiralled and roiled in the dark, drifting past with soaring vigour to surround hence upon the ship, by their multitudes dispersed forthwith. The barque wrought firm its venture. A fair handful of those onboard remained unspeaking. All the while had the city persisted of glares yonder in a cascade as the rain subsided with every quiet moment by breath; chance that one of theirs had raised himself on ropes and pointed to nearby falls of neon: To consider a bestowal in these matters might a salient be observed, blinking and flickering on and on, extending, as it would, and with abounding mirth a man would duly laugh out, a crewmate of his now joining in — splintered soever an additional voice would accost this thereafter for a calumny or so by his regard — rung loud, all the same towards a harmony, no matter how terribly each shall be qualified as they would march higher up together into the twinklings of a night. Sights shifted to blotch hues dripped of one image atop another, this image hence atop another sight anew, withering all, smaller, smaller still, where recursions must be so bound and cycles of these lambent impart again of colours. Thus the men watched as they sailed inside, taken ahold and sequestered to the disarray of all crosswired, to fractals and to static noise, by nebulas withal of intercessions, never once having ceased; that a group would talk amongst themselves where they had encountered flickering lights, that an entreaty shall be seized and their observance culled in kind: they would relinquish touch, relinquish thought, hereby trailed along with a lumbering heft of void astride the forefront and a siren to the conjecture. No longer would this newfound squadron of three remain per the invective, rejecting simplicity by cuts across the flesh of a pale presented hand; with contempt would man volunteer, break upon a charm, beguiling all to wield these abominations. In establishment would a storm follow a herald that each is supplanted; now besteaded; of some veritable phantoms assumed if the accruement was so clasped into form, to accompany one’s writhing with a smother: impute again, thrice of a choke by concomitance. These were temptations in flesh, rotted metal, now struck out in turn for a man: perhaps as a cascade to signal a jaunt past the fields and the sluicegates; another to brutalize a ghost in all her sweet and all her vengeance; and another just now, aground this instant, a massive, blinding red screen to inflict pain during his courtship; hither to distinguish shall remit naught; a contrast against his contemporaries as well his forerunners; and however loving of them as he might be, a man would range mind past this group upon artifice. Formed peradventure of a rampage, of a censure, to oppugn, nonetheless may he still be annexed and bloodied and spurned by those precedents and those unrecorded from hereon. The red light battered down unto those onboard. It pulsed and flowed with its bloom in torrents down its building’s windows. As they sailed beside this immense panel, they came across by the starboard a thick, entangled mass of wires, strung about with torn cloths. The ends of these uncountable wires seemed to run off high above to nearby pillars. All gleamed wet. Through an opening proffered by the angles of these entwined, they were navigated past. As they sailed by adjacent, a heavy metal creaking could at once be heard from its center, soughing louder than even their own barque in the quiet of the night. Someone amongst the crew began to hum and turned himself to face it.
And bring what headlong shewed Re-string the dreadsong bow A pledge on row, a ten ton ringing And he went singing, and went on singing She met with him and brooked his in-king And they went singing, and went on singing
“What tune is that, good man?” “A song once linked to me.”
“Look there, someone’s hanging on the wire!” one of the other men cried out. A number of them rushed across, but they could not see anything.
“Come now, you’ve had much to drink.”
“No, damn it— I saw her, she was struggling against it, she was choking! Just now, I swear on it!”
“You’re remarkable, how could you lose your head at a time like this?”
“Nerves assailed you, then?”
“You’re bastards, she was there just now, shouting at us for help...” “Was that where those sounds were coming from...?” somebody asked aloud. There suddenly came a shriek from the deck itself, and many of them turned in surprise. It was the girl in white who stood transfixed, staring where the first man had pointed. Her eyes were wide. She was trembling, and looked grieved. A crewmate called out to her. When she did not respond, another man referred to her again, “Young miss, are you alright? What’s happened?” She peered around with confusion to the men nearby, swaying in stance by the aimless carriage of her arms. Her lips were parted, and upon a prod of a flicker had suddenly curled by some odd countenance of speech, but she closed them shut, did not respond, failed to say anything at all and simply smiled in a wild manner before she spun to brisk step and ran away. The members of the crew did not follow her. “Well, she seemed terribly frightened. Did you see anything out there?” a nearby bowman asked another, who shrugged in turn.
“For my case, she’s never really been one to speak her mind.”
“What are you on, are we talking about the same girl? If there’s anything to concern ourselves for, it’s that she didn’t speak at all just now.”
“Hey, what’s she doing on this ship for?” someone else asked as he attended his rifle. “Terrible place for a little girl to be brought.” He lifted his gun and gave a small flourish.
“Something to do with the ship, mate. She called herself its ‘benefactress’ once, but she had sort of a laugh when she told us. I think she’s making a curiosity of things — she’ll probably leave for one of the cabins before we begin the raid. Terrible premonition to have when we know she’s out there in the crossfire. Makes everything fucking worse.”
“Oi, did you just call her a child? I thought she was simply stunted. She’s been too much of a help anyway to leave her off — one of our men here was just speaking earlier that he’s never once been hit when she’s been around. She even tends to the wounded when they’re brought below — we always need any sort of help to come our way, is that not true?”
“Oh, come off— The girl’s nothing more than a charm. Much like she’s one of those singers they’d bring before us — like what used to happen to me and my old company, you see, seldom when we used to go off-duty. But that girl, when she tends to us— Nah, I was treated by her once. She was shoddy! Terrible! Fucked up too much whenever she saw the state of me.”
“Well— Come now, if you’re on about that, then it’s always a fun time when she joins in the singing. But I agree; she should’ve been done away with before we even embarked. Can’t bear the sight of her on the ship, honestly, she makes me ill a bit.”
“Clumsy dancer as well.”
“You’re both bastards. I feel at ease whenever I see her roaming about.”
“I don’t. She’ll die out here sooner or later, do you know?”
“Nonsense. Say nothing of that.”
As the girl ran on towards the farther ends of the deck, nothing further was said. The crewmen each turned away from the hanging coiled mass. In this manner, they sailed on to their destination, coming nearer and nearer to a statue in the distance. The city streets were at this time observable by the barque, far below as they still remained. White casts of light were scattered across their vast, winding grey surface, spanned over at parts with thin metal cables. Hardly any person could be seen walking; naught more to foist interest but the arrays and structures and churnings of colour hauled upon the streets they sailed high on over. They soon approached the statue: raised tall as a colossal metal figure of a woman with blindfolded eyes, dressed with great fluttering raiment of cloth. She knelt in supplication. Her mouth was open agape and expelled surging liquid, bright beams that switched in colour, and the wild meltings that issued forth changed hues at such a ferocious rate in frequency that some of the men took their hand aloft and turned away their eyes, though others remained watching. This same fluorescence traced the curvature of her body, etched in lines, though all was obscured by the drapes of her cloth. The girl in white strolled across the deck, caught sight of her, and scurried to the railings with a sound of glee, throwing herself at the hull with such momentum that some men clamoured of having tossed herself overboard by accident — but she only laughed and yelled out, “Oh, she’s gorgeous, she truly is! What sensuous lines to have when grown...” Kicking her feet backwards and forwards, she remained in this state for the duration of their passing. A lapse coursed by — the statue moved, staggered forward, and bent her head in a bow, with a horrible wrenching scrape cracking deep throughout the city. In a likewise lurch, she lifted her praying hands higher. The falls of liquid ran and flashed even more rapidly.
“That’s especially ominous for us,” one of the crew called out smiling at the sculpture, and with great force, he threw a used pipe in her direction, “that we should be so graciously sanctified on such a night!”
“I’m thankful of these signs,” a companion of his said.
“Of importuning another to pray for us at all?” he sounded off and kept face towards the city.
“Not a soul is forced at hand to wish for our well-being. You even saw for yourself, did you not? That she had already been kneeling of her own virtue? Can we not be graced with sanctity on such a mission?”
“That thinking is too naive, too aggrandizing. She’s fearful, she’s fearful; if not apprehensive. What sanctity of men lies in victory, nothing more.”
“You detest all portent of faith? You’d reject a blessing?”
“I dare say so. We haven’t all the equipment we need.”
“Why have you come, then, if it’s so awful to you?”
“It’s not awful, I suppose not as much as I could possibly fathom — I simply thought it would be enjoyable to join. I’ve watched stars on many an expedition, brother. I’ve witnessed comets enough, but to sail in the sky only for a siege like this? It’s an excitable prospect for any man! But you speak of faith: should you not already be convinced that the comet will arrive and we shall manage to watch it, after all? What use is faith when you’ve supposed it to be fact? The information we’ve received — it’s been verified by those of this era, no?”
“Yes, yes, but they’re the same racket who believe this won’t work,” spoke another. “But I can’t trust them, of course. They ask what the hell we’re able to do with our arms, but give no foresight to the nature of our arrival,” he told them, drumming on his shield. “They’ve forsaken themselves.”
“And even then, we’re still here—” with a loud kick and a short grunt, a rifleman close by pushed himself seated higher against the hull. “I don’t give a damn about a comet, you know? The sight of this city faltering, if just for a moment... Well, it’s brilliant. But those lights— The lights have started to flood it all senseless. That’s a damn shit factor, I thought there wasn’t to be a single source of light once we’ve shut off the grid.”
“Well, brother, if it’s conflict you desire, some of you lot have the means to bring these buildings to ruin. Oughtn’t that take away those falling streams? Would be good to start a separate movement in the dead of the city after we’re finished and the comet passes over, eh? You should know the layout of a place like this.”
The man addressed fell silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed. “Ah, it might be good, yeah.” His crewman smiled, and shook his head.
“What do you find so humorous?” their companion asked again.
“I thought that regardless of whether it would turn off these flooding lights, we should have simply planned a proper operation on this entire place and besieged this whole city, rather than this roundabout method of turning off its power.”
“I don’t understand you,” said another voice from even farther down the deck. “This city is perfectly still, with not a single intimation to full havoc. Can you find any trouble here to be blood-filled? I simply can’t, yet here you are, wishing for its complete destruction.”
“I don’t have any wish to bomb it, if that’s what you mean. I don’t even wish to kill — why I’ve a rifle, I haven’t the slightest. But I do say the township needs a switch in priority. Look at everything we’re sailing by: even with all this around us, there’s not a single soul about. They’re off in the buildings, with their lights and all. Why do you lot suppose that is? Who do you believe visits these damned sculptures; has that woman ever been taken in memoriam?” he reached his arm out towards the direction from which they had passed. “There is no one for them, their daises are completely empty! It’s all lacking — we haven’t even the slightest idea of who made them, or what their purpose could be. And that’s nothing for the rest of these constructions; some of these pillars, did you know, nobody here can explain where they head off to! They’re endless. It’s all a heap of messes and each one of them is incomprehensible. Lend a mind, if you would: I knew a woman that traipsed off one night, after a bout of those heavy passions, who, after assuring us of a grand idea that had befallen her, all but disappeared. When we searched for her afterwards, what we found in her image and wake was a huge mannequin of sorts, contorted and— And... In any case, we draped her in cloth, and tied more around whatever limbs we could reach. By nightfall, these cloths were already glowing. Glowing; leaking, too! The state of it — if that’s the truth of what she wanted, of everything the people who live here want, then I say be rid of the damn entirety!” He ended with heavy breaths.
No one in the squad answered the man, instead preceding every turn, every trifling shift with glances towards the others; where one professed movement to respond, yet kept still and silent; that another tapped a finger ceaselessly upon his musket as he stared down onto the wooden deck; the rifleman stifled his observance and gazed at the night sky — unto this passing spoke the one with the shield: “Sorry lot, aren’t you? Here you have methods with which to assemble a city to your own designs, one on top of another, from now until centuries have gone by, and you want to waste all away?”
“And what designs could those possibly be?” asked the smoker who had thrown the pipe. “You’re met with distortion here and there!” He swung his arm out wide towards the city. “Did you not observe these things when we were out to reconnoitre?”
“They’re of brilliant stature, don’t diminish those things,” admonished the companion with whom he had discussed first. “Everything else, however, we might do away with. The cloth, for instance...”
“And that’s just it: a cloth here would blind a building, a wire here might entangle with another wire, a trickle here may be traded for a flooding,” the smoker said. “They’ve the capability themselves to do away with this city entirely, if they so wished. Then what would their legacy amount to ‘centuries from now’, as you’ve put it?” he asked, turning to the shieldman. “The woman, that giant one we just sailed by — why, I’d fancy my own self to have robbed her dress away and had her spewing off something else entirely. Hah! Did those coloured lines etched on her body not tempt you all the same way it did me?” with bitterness, he laughed.
“And that’s another example,” continued the rifleman, “where something terrible may be exposed to fruition. I even... Ah, to fucking hell with it: I even thought the same when I came across that mannequin — she was naked, she was leaking — it was enticing to take her ahold and tear apart. What manner of city would this be to humour each of our demands?”
“What did you lot say about legacy?” came a new voice from the group farther down. “We’re to bear witness to a grand comet, to proclaim it over this stronghold; the rejection of this entire city is an accompaniment. Is that not worthy enough for valiance, that institution of legacy?”
“A comet is a fleeting thing.”
The man replied back, “Well, so is the status of the city. Tell me, when last was it that it proved a beautiful endeavour to acknowledge a township, with all of one’s own heart and pride? For my account, it was during a horrible war, when the state of its existence stood upon a precipice. I believed in its protection then, when terror beseeched solidarity in kind. If this conceit with the comet brings that about, then we ought to fight!”
“You’re a brilliant hypocrite!” said the man who proclaimed his faith to the smoker. “To sublimate the breadth and depth of war unto a terribly limited scope such as a town. Is that it, then: the beginning and end of its virtue, of its value? That war simply destroys towns — that simplicity will not suffice! The lesser should not corrupt the greater. The loftiest of souls are carried off to resplendence by their incorruptibility, for they engender the most potent of ideals, doing away with the unnecessaries. And what unnecessaries do I speak of? Here are we presented that cloth and flooding! It’s a good thing that those cloths you tied around the mannequin,” he gestured to the rifleman, “leaked by her own hand, not yours. These men and women shall encounter promontories, to take ahold such wisdom and embolden themselves with these, never straying, never in distraction of contempt and conceit. So follows the higher good — so follows this city! You see now the deliberants, those providing our world with wisdom accrued and proliferated. Should a man not effect these upon his soul? These sculptures share grief to those who watch, those who truly watch. I even saw the hanged woman by that work of wires we passed by earlier, but I would not have even cut her down from entanglement, neither still to cut away the wires themselves, dangerous as some perceived them to be — they’re a cry for aid amidst the turmoil, and we ought to attend to this plea.” Many men shouted their agreement, among them the shieldman.
“You sully yourself to uphold a single person with such incredible regard. Tell me: all these men you speak of who endear the lofty with inspiration, are they not held with equal importance? Great strifes are taken upon waves of beleaguered, and a war is not won by the admission of a solitary blade. We take the stride of whatever duty is proffered to us, whatever shall be coiled about our form. We take upon the bayonet with our hearts, and cut down the bulwarks before us. Even in the purview of conflict, there is shared among parties that solidarity of an inevitable clashing — and there can you find anathema to your higher good! There exists no good in whole. All love is tempered by sorrow; all men are courted to sin. Where dowries in belief are concerned, man creates demons in kind, the gallantries! If they’re to be created in the slightest, then we would find soul in vindicating them as a glorious evil, a beautiful evil, one for killing and ravishing! I’d fight for all in this strife! That is our legacy!” even more men sounded their proclamations in turn as this soldier finished off.
The smoker and rifleman did not support either one of them.
“What’s this now, gentlemen, have we a soiree of battle here?” traipsed along the girl in white, angling herself forward with her hands clasped behind as she glanced up in curiosity. A large gathering had now formed around the two squads. She tilted her head. “We’re on the cusp of raiding the plant, we can’t falter now.”
“No, young miss, it’s more that we’ve arrived at an agreement,” spoke a soldier to her right, hoisting up a gunner’s stand. “The men are mustered. They’re passionate folk, they are,” here he scoffed and glanced at the youthful girl before him, pausing in turn before he inclined his head with a subtle lurch. “We’re as ready for battle as ever now.” By the men’s notice, she stared back, and with a ready impulse seemed eager to have given them a jest in response, yet faltered to some inward conceit, dulled the perk of her shoulders as she remained quiet with a blink, by another thence stilled, to cast her eyes down, bowing slightly before she presented the soldiers with a soft little smile. “Well, if that be the case...” she trailed off, skipping up to the stern. “Gentlemen, warriors: if you’d please gather about, as such a crux we find ourselves in,” and taking the captain by the hand, she hurriedly pushed him to the railings above in front of the ship’s helm, giddy and giggling as she did so. In a quick motion, the captain took off his cap, so brushed his hair disheveled, taking this same hand to wear upon his eyes and face as he breathed in deep. He stood with his eyes cast down, resting with his elbow atop the knuckle of his folded arm. In this position was he kept for a moment, grazing his uniform with a finger and lightly swaying with imperceptible nods. His poise was then raised high.
“Gather about, gather about, men. As the situation stands, we’ve received word that the plant remains operational in full. Its staff will not follow in suit with the rest of the city,” as he said these words, the soldiers were thrown into a distinct murmur, all at once silenced when he raised his voice and continued. “The movements are to follow along this same route, but we’ll divide in two: One group will disembark for a direct engagement instead, hard and fast, following our plans in backup. The second will remain onboard — we’ll pursue the matter as it develops when providing our ground forces with support. We’ll be assailed upon first notice, but as engineering would have it, the refits we’ve been working on since departure have been tested to withstand for a time any sort of bombardment they’ll send upon us. Now for the landing...” and thus he described new embellishments to their plans; where such and such platoon ought to be situated for best cover while the barque would strafe along high above; where this particular company should converge with another in the establishment of an outer perimeter; where hypothetical, roughshod supply lines might be placed on the plant complex; when the barque would shell away the roofs of the control room, if not the generators — with each addition to mind, any semblance of doubt that had been weathered by the men was steadily dashed away. They held their weapons close and steadied aloft the grace of their forms, straining their fingers and hands, braced themselves attentive as they contemplated the very steps they would take to wield the might of an operation, those of every ten, and by every tenth weapon thus harkened out alike, of every hundred, every thousand, thousand more whither for limbs and breaths and warm clasped fingers, echoes abound by stamping boots. No longer those belonging to a simple raid, there were prospects now of a greater kind: How often had the apparatus been let forth upon one’s own account, the mechanisms to be upheld in testament against all winding, to be proclaimed a measure of virtue and of value? By a series curiosity of engagements are men unto a statute, freed thence to do more soever they may be inclined that each matter is avowed, effecting circumstance, and no concern is sanctioned. Every stride to emblazon adorns a blessing, thither to brace alongside one whom another shall never know, but by an ornament, a record’s own solitariness, that fields remain trampled on and on of its conflux in metalworks with dignities, infrastructures — what concern may be found to collapse upon a backdrop, a grand backdrop, here against such an image? This revelation had settled upon them as soon as they had been gathered, and with an ever-increasing fervour were they thus reckless to begin; when the captain was soon to end, they serried themselves before him, standing firm upon the deck. “We are the coveters,” he called out, “of a new divergence, men. The people are soon to watch the skies tonight, and the city will shine ever brighter on the arrival of the comet. The nucleus of this enterprise lies directly with your own arms, and we shall carry this onwards, onwards! Cherish that heart, that descent of luster! Cherish that drumfire, and may it ring out true in our wake! Cherish that man beside you, that timeless blood, from now until forevermore! To the crew!” “To the crew!” they yelled out in unison, laughing and celebrating, waving high the weapons and kit they each carried. A fair amount of these were fired into the air, but the shouts of the crowd overpowered them in whole; there was made a cacophony, reverberating throughout the city sector they sailed over. Someone towards the flank had managed to unfurl a terrific banner, and was now billowing it over their heads. A chant had proceeded amongst the men, transitioning from simple concerted oration to a ditty, flowing and latching upon them each. Chortles and bellyroars filled the night — a circle was formed while the soldiers tapped on the deck, on their tools, shields and spears, axes and swords, rifles and ordnance; even striking these together however they pleased; the percussion laced past, and they stomped round inside the merriment. A man had his head jostled in the meantime, and he shoved the perpetrator back before taking his feet and beating on another — spinning around, this latter was caught in place by the shield he carried, incredulous, but when he took upon his assailant with a glare, the first man shouted aloud in succession, wrenching the shield away before he placed himself on top to slide down the deck. He was full of mirth as he glided on the drenched wood. The shieldman watched in confusion, took to notice a trail of other crewmen hounding thus when he sledded over, and he, too, gave chase, laughing all the while. Two soldiers had locked arms inside the band of singsongers, prancing circles to the beat, frequently exchanging direction to the clockwise opposite. In their other arms they wielded guns; they were of the many men who were shooting away bullets. “Hey, hey, hey, hey—!” the crowd yelled as they broke off apart into a series of leg dances, movements that were altogether chaotic and unreserved. “We’ll be off, boys — shout, then!” “Here we are, a tune!” “Let me lead now; here it is, if I remember that Marion right:
On my mind, You're always on my mind I think of you (hey, hey!), That's all I do (hey, hey!) Happiness Will come along, I guess But I'm not sure of you, I must confess I'd love to Love you, my baby (hey!) But I'm afraid of you I'm for you, Adore you, baby (hey!) But I'm afraid of you.”
“Nah, fuck that madness, mate. I’m flattered you’re telling me this, but you’re nothing like the women in this city!” and others hollered out in joy, having jested along. The captain smiled at the sight before him, but with an abrupt start, cast off his gaze and walked away from the wheel to the sides of the hull. The girl in white sat upon the aftcastle overlooking the deck, and she laughed along with them, clapping in sync. At times, she failed to control her humour and broke off in fits. More and more men now swung forth a plethora of other banners, tapestries, flags and posters and glass. Some had women plastered lasciviously in front, some with girls demure in shyness; some had murals of dedication, paintings or drawings of various sorts: bright or dim or at ease to sight; others even had text, large and small, even distorted and misaligned; others were waving aloft pictures, videos of various people: These hauled with neither hesitation nor well cognizance, for a handful of our crewmen even foisted up strangers to the eventide, would not affirm understanding of any one character, and believed only in the charm of all hearts, all flesh, all breath. Unknowns were afforded in visual by the men to impetuous glance, plundered thus through expedience, lifted high and suborned amidst the other displays, however that dearth of substance was not at all to be acknowledged and the defraudment utterly venial — a dancing soldier unto familiarity presumed of their own taking or making, of queries, vexes, trajectories in between, nonetheless an proclamation by such gladness. They fluttered these to and fro; the ship gleamed bright with colour. It was a freight bulk of joy, and off into its immediate range approached the cooling towers of that ever-standing power plant, the largest construction they had encountered that night; yet its stature only proved to embolden even more their spirits, for once it was beheld, the men began to cry out. “There it is, lads!” “Why, is that what it looks like?” “It’s a battleground befitting, look at how expansive—...” “Pick us up before the comet flies over, we’ll be damned if we miss it after all this.” “Take my gun, you’ll need it more than that rotten spear.” “Aye, shiplads, be careful out here, try not to die.” “You’re the lot heading down. As it goes, we’ll pull you up in the end, and then—” “Agh, they’ve started, they’ve started!” was called as the first volleys of ordnance fell fore and starboard upon the ship, exploding first upon its hull. They divided themselves hastily into two groups as outlined, and as they exclaimed surprise, had salutary departure, spoke hushed in solidarity of caution and fear, the ground deployment dropped from port into the air, pulled their parachutes in accordance, and upon landing, stared up at the moored barque to gesture ultimately with a volley of their own, shooting into the empty of the night. Anchors were tossed down against erratic winds. Multiple of these were latched to adjacent buildings, and the sight was thus exceeded of a shadowed behemoth steadied by chains upon chains of heavy iron, receiving blasts of artillery and storms of bullets without regard as the men onboard returned fire however they were able. Rifles were aimed as cannons were ignited; mortars, javelins, grenades and arrows arced down — someone had fashioned for use a large hose of sorts they had linked to boiling water and oil, therewith blasted in high pressure to the plant’s staff below. “Gather round, gents! Gas, gas, coming by!” The men were supplied with chemical ordnance by caseloads. These they loaded and fired as ballistics, each one exploding haphazardly, some whilst airborne, most upon the ground; committed of no short number, where had the munitions and mortars been steadily backlogged in operation, many of the soldiers took them with their very own hands and hurled them down by the thricefold. Heavy smoke now billowed in the air — the burning chemical scents strangled as one, causing a fair contingent of the men onboard to lose focus and stumble over, only to rouse themselves back following a primed ignition, a grenade pin, by soaring bolts, heat from nearby flames, spearthrows and cries and gunshots. The enemy’s bombardments persisted: artillery was launched higher and in greater count alongside their own munitions. On the ship’s side, allotments for bombs and incendiaries continued to be loaded, over and over, but as it withstood an onslaught of new enemy volleys, the rigging and sails above ignited throughout, burned by roaring flames. Hoses of water were thus pointed upwards, yet the very structures were breaking apart between the vessel’s bracing of steel, where even the wood began to crack, and those fending away the conflagrations were unable to lend sufficient aid. Mechanics assigned for repair chose to lift themselves by means of a rising platform — whenever enemy bombs hurtled past, they crouched down and cradled themselves, though many were hit on the procession upwards. Others on the deck were unsuccessful to escape a wounding, but however perilous the calamity that befell them each, however scurrilous what fortune was so displayed in those hours, the men carried on, unperturbed, dragging the wounded away below to the middle decks, calling for medical help. An anchor of theirs was wrenched away on the ground: They threw another back down. Canisters of gas were being fired by the power plant in return: These were kicked and hoisted away — thus for a time did the barque amass the perils of its siege. The ground division had meanwhile separated its companies between those toiling for supply lines and entrenchments from those serving as the vanguard, routing their way past deployed security with whatever means they had. Those with shields had positioned their ranks in a semicircle and advanced as a mobile barricade, behind which were placed soldiers who had better experience wielding guns, bows and other ranged kit. The formation charged onwards with minimal harassment, for their enemies had fallen confounded, struck thence with fear upon first perceiving this strange conglomerate of men. A fierce cry was sounded off from the crew’s front lines and they moved together as a single unit; shot upon shot blasted from within, enemy forces were cut down in close-quarters, many others provided suppressing fire for any foes that had tried to flank. Those installing fortifications even farther behind this mass picked off any stragglers that had been missed, and the veritable crescent of space they had founded with this strategy served well for battlements to be constructed, in spite of the haste with which the men functioned. Whenever one of theirs had become a casualty, he was brought to the safest areas in the middle of the crescent to be attended by medics; if ordnance was tossed their way, it was simply tossed back — in worse cases, a shield was brought over about, while other equipment or even another crewmate would throw himself upon this shield to mitigate the explosion; should chemicals have been launched over via canisters, even more men saw fit to strive headlong into their removal, that many were burned, that many breathed them in or exposed their faces and eyes to severe wounds: thus perished a large percentage of our crew. A contingent of enemy mortars was then aimed towards this entire division, no longer fixed upon the barque, began firing at the mass and the fortifications behind. The shieldbearers bore themselves tall, and in the protection of their comrades, they were killed. The trenches dug were upended over and over, the steel palisades were toppled over at the base; the wounded sent for treatment were wrought to bloody flesh alongside their medics; the atmosphere choked with gas, smoke and fire. Some division mortars had now been set against those of the plant, but they remained outnumbered; the exchange of shells slowed the advance, and in certain areas, threatened many a platoon to retreat — perhaps affecting a complete collapse of formation— Suddenly, with grand flares, the mortars of the plant were destroyed, in the due grace of the barque’s artillery above: someone had managed to wire communication to the ship, so outlined various coordinates of enemy outposts for the aerial crew to target as well as they were able. The men gave a wild cheer. “Bless their hearts, the flying bastards can be angels yet!” Thus did they overrun these points; the crescent vanguard enveloped even more ground, making well enough progress for some to affix timed bombs to the complex walls, detonate these, and enter the buildings of the power plant. The barque drifted farther down at such a distance that snipers onboard could disable enemy detachements with more ease, and even other gunmen could shoot down with proper accuracy. They soon believed the enemy routed, but in the deep of the night sky could be seen a myriad of flashing lights approaching the ship closer and closer: drones had been deployed against the crew, each one carrying a bomb. Calls and warnings were cried out across the ship, but they did not, everyone knew, have a suitable response to counteract the deployment — their proposals to be outfitted accordingly had been rejected before setting off. “Fucking hell, lads, here it begins!” someone shouted, laughing as he did so. “Courtesy of the fields, gents, come on!” “Send over what we’ve got!” and with a rallying cry, everyone turned to the arrays of drones, pouring forth any and all ammunition they could spare to destroy them. Many plummeted down in sparks, many were destroyed by flames; but as this exchange transpired, large silhouettes tracked the sky from farther out the horizon towards the ship, descried of their engagement by tally upon tally upon additional tally, come forth — “They’ve sent for their army!” — a fleet of aircraft, of jets and fighters travelled behind the drones, flying higher, upon greater altitude than even the barque; hundreds had joined the mission. The scatter of lights from the city faltered by these shadows as alarms from nearby blocks rang out. A few guns were directed to the new fleet. Within seconds of this exploit, some of the intact drones hovered over the deck, their bombs released, thither exploding and bursting the ship, tearing apart the men. A fair amount caught on the sails and masts, blasted them apart therewith and caused masses of rigging to fall on those who had suffered the explosions below on deck: shrapnel, wooden beams, heated slabs of metal, cinders and cinders and cinders more rended the crew asunder from on high. The alarms had become an unceasing pain in their ears. Bombardments upon the ship had begun anew from the complex, with more chemicals utilized in this burgeoning volley. The crew was assailed on surrounding fronts: a medic would be dragging two men by his sides, only for the one on his right to succumb to terrible chemical burns, and for the one on his left to be crushed under falling debris — he would despair, steady himself in manic desperation, and head on to others wounded, suffocating in gas all the while; a bomb landed near the stairs leading down below to the first gun deck, and one soldier, in the midst of the ensuing havoc, had noticed this by sheer chance, deposed all thought for survival and threw his body on top of the bomb with all his might; a man was seen clutching the ship’s wheel with horrible strain, notwithstanding his mangled leg, preventing the ship from listing entirely and yielding to a spiral downwards; the engineers toiled and toiled to keep the masts aloft with their sails — one would be shredded apart by ruptured metal, another would take upon his tools and continue the former’s work, before he, too, was disposed of with molten chemicals, crackling away from a munition that had landed nearby. Despite this, the men endured: the ship remained afloat, the crew having hastened themselves to the reconstruction of its frame; the wounded, however severely they were crippled, were taken by the droves underneath by a substantial portion of those who were able to stand. The mounted guns remained active, shooting apart the drone fleet in a frenzy. The larger enemy craft still pursued from a distance. “We can’t help you lads down there for now — we’ll get by this; possibly land somewhere near you lot. Just move on!’ someone passed down orders to the ground troops, who themselves had encountered the ground auxiliaries respective of the power plant’s army. The fortifications outside had been well secured and defended — the crescent formation made its way with increasing haste towards the individual points of the plant’s operations, namely the generators and the control rooms, for they had not the numbers to divide themselves to sectors further than these, forging on while the supply chain was linked and lengthened continuously behind its trail. The front line itself was no longer tightly packed in this movement. One half made passage to the generators, a quarter was sent to the control rooms, and the final quarter remained to support the bulwark chain, which ranged through towards the outside perimeters. The first group delved deeper and deeper to sectors of the plant’s inner complex that had by now been lost of electricity, meeting little resistance, routing off entirely the scores of power plant staff that had also taken up arms; this latter force had broken off astray in a distinct tumult, scurrying about as they retreated, and the crewmen took upon a newly enlivened ferocity to strike down their targets; yet there had been taken separate a perturbation so willed en route to the generators, hence halted some of the men. “Come back! Come back, reform the lines!” they yelled out for the ones who had gone ahead. The soldiers turned about in confusion as they arranged themselves, remarking and shouting back out, by this restraint so hindered in a sudden discomfiture; the other men pointed out to the farther side of the sector, the entire division transferred their regard, and all fell silent. They could see figures, black masses cutting through the dimness of the complex, as if an inundation had razed itself across that space, clutched it thence and swallowed it away entirely — volumes thus unravelled unto the superfluous, having been anointed to neither court nor reason in dredging form: These were the deployments sent by the larger army. Massive metal behemoths were standing there, towering high. Automata they seemed: some had formed themselves with humanoid ambiguity, though faceless in part; some took the form of beasts from myth and beasts no crewman could name; some had replaced appendages with mechanical apparatus, of new invention, of demolished visage; some fluctuated and shifted ceaselessly in the black. They were unmoving, watching the men silently— Took off in pursuit and closed the distance to the line for slaughter — they had armaments of their own, laced and pulsing with vibrant, glowing liquid — something set off a pinpoint bombardment upon the smaller crescent, killing many. The men charged on, deploying mortars and grenades to begin their assault, while a fractional contingent of theirs dispersed elsewhere. As they met in battle, the behemoths resisted the company’s barrage with complete disregard — formed upon blades and lances in the roughshod sutures of their countenance to cut apart the vanguard. Soldiers were seized in their embrace, condemned of them, held high above in a constriction of limbs and enswathed, were crushed, asphyxiated with cloth woven from elsewhere inside their structures. A four-legged behemoth trampled forth, unto the crevasse, thus by a leviathan’s sinew erupted from thence its core to flood the complex with shimmering red gas and torrents of incendiaries; this deluge made contact with the men, wherefore flesh liquefied and contorted and mangled as bleeding molten steel. A two-headed giantess fractured astride, her fingers perhaps from below, hands raised suppliant as she recoiled and issued spouts of rotten glass sculptures downward through every orifice but her very mouth, for it had already been welded shut. Their dragons and chimeras wielded two claymores each; their own men launched of ashen tears an inferno. Here strove the dancing marionette, flailing mad, and the marchers clambered over one another with a heft down into the abyss. A stomach now bloomed into spearheads; a plesiosaur revenant borne hence to magma; a swell of redemption taken ahold by the crescent and its foes alike. Automata would fall apart, break away, succumb frail of surreptitious punctured wounds by beatings in conceit, and there laid anew frivolous across a heap of metal. Come hither; the scoundrel who plunged his heart to the tapestry, that she-doll, and coiled himself therewith — transpose now the burning edifice to that curse so dearly loved, reaffirm the indices to kindle a burning separate: so crooned the partitions, so crooned each sorrow, so blissful may man be excommunicated crooning unto windings, windings, windings that desolation may be touched: the ranks were routed and the ground crew completely broken. The enemy forces moved farther down the supply lines. On the aerial front, the men watched on high as a host of limbs descended from the crowding army fleet; its winged extremities sprawled hanging of vast bells, of mechanisms that clanged together in concordance with the piercing alarms; twisted its upper half around, on and on, swung luminous its wings and threw onto the barque sparking materiel — a call for phosphorus was yelled out — but these writhed apart and sprouted, spread tendrils and blossomed across the deck as they landed, ravenous for the men onboard. Some aimed and struck at these creatures to no result, and were consumed in their wake. The mass of wings rang through the night upon the barque’s standing rig and sails, crashed thence — the ship plunged down scourged in a grandiosity of flames, coursed ash upon colours within smoke. Men threw themselves on top of others wounded to secure them steadfast within the lower chambers. “Stay the course! Blast apart the generators— Whatever you lot can do—!” Shouts and cries resonated throughout the ship as it collapsed onto the complex.
The girl in white woke to the cries of her companions. She leaned herself aloft upon the shaky flagging brace of her arms, and saw that many of them were aflame, and many burned by chemicals. Bodies had fallen impaled on wood and metal; when she looked nearer, her body wretched in horror, for some were alive. More of her crew were splayed across the wreckage. A few reached aimlessly to the air, gasped out whimpering, and perished. Others were recoiling, moaning in terrible pain, and grieved with heavy, choking sobs. No one but her could stand, and as she knelt up amidst the ruins of the ship, she stared around in a daze of horror, unsure of where to move or where to administer her focus. She realized forthwith she had been crying for some time prior, even before she fainted; that a throbbing pain had embedded itself from the lacerations on her skin; every tearing of flesh and every mangled corpse she could now perceive strewn before her thus stabbed and scraped her own bleeding wounds of even greater pain; all sense to her reason blared together with the sounds of those still dying, and she could not think, could not bear to do so; a terrible ache surmounted her recollection of what had transpired — as she stumbled her way to the closest outstretched hand in the wreckage, she saw it tremble and seize, faltering thus. She turned to look for others, began to weep, yet could no longer see any movement. Their voices had ceased — she was unable to restrain the sudden lurch of her chest, now holding herself close by the shudder of her arms, and she began to sob, louder and louder, perceiving naught but her tears, that she would thus surrender breath and heart to no understanding of her very actions; impelled but to crawl away, clambering, and she stumbled over her own limbs to the nearest stable ground. The barque had crashed onto the side of one tower and broken through at an angle, and she drifted down to the complex proper — every heft brought forth throbbing agony, sharp pains throughout every one of her tremblings and twistings of sinew, and every stagger upon breath seemed only to cripple her body further; she was exhausted as she pressed on, shaking without control. Staff of the power plant rushed her by; the solemn fleet of enemy craft soared high above while the alarms continued to sound off in parallel; the dissonance of the night coalesced, and though a sudden panic seized her briefly when the staff’s first few men and women passed, she no longer had caution to subdue it with the prudence to hide and wait, choosing instead to limp forward in her fatigue. She came across many of the enemy’s forces shot and cut down by the crewmen: they were writhing as well and desperate with fright. These she beheld with a strange sort of melancholy, imagining their anguish as a natural consequence of the procession in whole, and ultimately gave them no more consideration than this. Her thoughts hazed on over. Had the comet passed during the fight, or afterwards, when they had already collapsed? She recalled the other men who had chosen to enter the plant, but how far had they traversed? As she reached the trenches the ground division had dug, she saw numerous limbs, torsos, heads wrought in piles of blood by the stink and decay of carrion; she stifled then a piercing gasp, convulsed in place, and weeping once more, hurried off to the generators or control rooms — whichever might have been closer. The stench ached. The faces of the men stared blankly, contorted and gnarled with gaping wounds — whenever she turned, saw each corpse had defrauded countenance to utter estrangement; though she searched still for any survivor within each trench, each deformed heap and crater and toppled ruin, she could not remain looking for long. There were pieces of men lying there, eyes half-closed on heads torn apart and submerged in the dirt, a skull here open and leaking, offal and legs thrown to the waysides, dregs staring up at her. She walked on, and perceived she had been wandering astray; there remained nothing for her to indulge but an insistence to remain upright and breathing, wiping her face, thinking, observing dead corpses, thinking more, believing a bloody mass to have been a friend, a burned leg to be naught more than a heap of flesh now, or warped bodies to be repulsive and repulsive alone, for they could not have belonged to the men she spoke with hours ago; thus stared and stared wherever she could force herself in her tears, to remain doing so without abeyance — such had she been granted. She assumed someone had yelled out on those grounds, one of her own, but she dared not even turn and glance at first, reasoning thence yet faltered to look immediately for its source. No one came up to her, and her pain struck deeper. The girl kept to her route, moving as well as she was able. She came across the control rooms, but upon descrying the area, was soon perturbed: she overheard conversations that whatever before her was, indeed, the proper location of the rooms, that it was still extant and somehow continued its facilitation of the plant, but in its place was a cavernous and impossibly long tunnel suspended in mid-air, fully dark within excepting the occasional wet pulses of colour that adorned its entire space. When she walked around, its angle of perspective took upon its own measure and its parallax was disarrayed, that once she was viewing it by the perpendicular, she saw nothing of the tunnel but a single vertical line of vibrant scarlet. Whispers came forth near the entrance. She flinched back, chanced instead to peer farther down yet turned away in despair, for there were no other bodies to be found in the tunnel, and upon dread, fell to hazard an even worse wretchedness as she left it alone. The more she delved farther inside, the ranks of men and women that were running opposite her route grew fewer in number, increasing sequences of complex lights had lost function, and all the greater had signs of battle ravaged through what was left of the plant. The girl entered a sector routing to the generators; the corridors leading on were flowing with dark stinking liquid. She encountered the first entranceway; the chasm and plague of death smothered her even more potently; she retched and heaved, but had naught left to vomit. The girl held a hand to her face and peered through her fingers as she walked inside. No area of ground was unmarked with the aftermath of battle: corpses had been thrown in uncountable spaces. Some were hanging from high above. Chokes of dead waste lay stagnant across the compound. She waded deeper through flesh and gristle — cried out with grief upon each trembling step. Her dress was stained more and more with blood and fat and infesting scum, tangled hairs, torn skin, and to this rot did she denounce it all; everything felt vile, a singularity of vile; she was unable to bear it any longer, turning manic, forcing off from an impeded sprint to run even farther down the complex. Her breaths turned shallow — dregs clung to her burning skin — she collapsed and drew her knees close as she sat against a wall, staring wildly in her fever, bore down upon an emptiness only she could perceive presented there before her in the dark; unknowing of where she was and unable to discern any of her own intentions in venturing hither. The girl cried even louder, and as she did so, the wall behind her began to shift and prod itself to her side — she repressed her weeping, and looking up in distress, she beheld the eyeless head of a behemoth regarding her thence. “Phantom are you; the ransack?” it asked, sonorous. The girl was silent for a long while. She had turned feeble, with naught to cognizance nor reference. With immense, pained struggle, she replied in turn, “In—... Oh, how piteous it is— In abetment alone, I was theirs. But should you slaughter me as well, I would administer thus whatever civil, for yours is the requisition now. How I loved them so, and how they loved me.” “Exhibit with immediacy that obeisance — the forth-wrought while digressional, per contra, this while pernicious, per thricefold contra; admit however the gate of ‘and’. Corruption thereby of preeminence imminent: this is developed insofar per all mindscapes; point: to the compartmentalized. The savior remaining thus all our plague.” “You speak with nothing but cruelty, behemoth. You could never understand, you could never...” the girl trailed off. She stared away in despondence, smiling hysteric with a half-grimace and lifeless eyes. Her thoughts dwindled. She clawed at her own skin and bled; desired nothing more than to keep herself there in pain that some great calamity would pronounce itself in the festering allure, yet could not comprehend such a wish, would assume naught else but the sensation of ruin— An explosion was heard from farther past the sector she was in. A group of lights near the entrance of the complex flickered vigorously and shut off. The behemoth lurched steadfast, turning back motionless into a sentinel; its lights blinked with erratic frequencies. The girl in white ceased all reasoning and perked herself up with a gasp, ensured herself if she truly heard an explosion and held herself to listen, whimpering out loud to coax it once more — and for the swell of a moment, she grew spiteful, dug her nails deeper into her skin and the wounds she had inflicted, abraded her legs from the vile filth that remained on her body, scraping faster, scraping with desperate harm, of a violence now to perhaps scream in the direction the blast had echoed — though without an answer defined, she gave out a hoarse laugh or two with immediacy, even more to her surprise — stood and bolted off to the direction of the sound, past the end of the sector, hurrying up a flight of enormously wide stairs. The lights in this area, too, were blinking in rapid sequence, and soon faltered. The stairs led out to the second floor, high aboveground enough for the girl to observe the city — the closest blocks were flashing on and off with great tumult, and as she ran, she slowly came to understand what was taking place, allowing herself to pace even quicker, giggling more and more in tears. Another explosion was heard; she laughed even louder: the detonations were evidently timed, but she knew not by who, and thought only of the prospect that one man of her beloved crew had survived, and they would soon watch the comet. The girl flew down the complex towards the generators, crossing over the prismatic strobing of the city lights within each vast sector: A wisp she seemed, grasping her sundress by her sides and running with greater bounds. She saw more behemoths lining the sides of this particular location, but cared no longer — her little feet resounded past in echoes upon every one of her strides. Glimmers of firelight shone past the corner of this sector’s end, and when she had turned, she noticed immediately that two generators were aflame, blasted apart into a gaping wreath of steel. As these burned, vast counts of the same machinery were illuminated, numbers lining to no end the fires could reveal and depths light could not reach; many other rows had been suspended above, attached to chains that ranged higher and higher within the dark. A rain of sparks and embers fluttered about in this endless space, soaring upwards and dancing in the fray. She could see no one else by the burning mass, but caught sight of a broken window leading out to the roofs. Her body clamoured to rush on over with tormented breath, of perplexities to the surge of her legs, of happiness and disquiet to the clutch of her palm upon her winded chest, with great culminating grief, and as she reached the opening, she perceived a man who truly had survived, staring down at the city: He was stained in multiple areas with blood, clutching tightly a wound by his elbow, yet would not falter the trailings of his composure unto the sights before him. The soldier spun around with violence as the girl approached, having braced himself in alarm, but as he focused upon her, stood transfixed once more and watched dumbly. Neither one moved for a good amount of time. At once, the girl gave a yelp of jubilation and threw herself into his arms — though she had intended to cry upon his shoulder, he was doubtless wounded as well in these upper areas: he also gave a yelp, pushed her away with sheepish vexation, and winced with agony. She apologized profusely.
The city lights were flashing with intermittent lulls. Individual rooms in faraway buildings blinked fiercely before they each died out, one by one plunging into complete darkness. Then followed the lights of the city infrastructure, then those of the cloths and flooding. One block was sent away to the night, this progressing farther and farther into the city center, ending finally upon its outskirts by descent of all monoliths to a complete blackout before them. “Oh, there it is, there it is! You’ve done it — the crew — oh, it’s no longer for naught, this rottenness!” she said aloud to her companion as she faced his way, but he did not share completely in her enthusiasm. “We still need to catch the comet, young miss. Do you know if it passed on over already?” he turned to her with a brisk movement and stared at her eyes. There remained in his cast a fervour she could not bear to reciprocate or exchange with, so threw down her gaze, but no matter her efforts to look aside, his words struck heavily upon her heart. “I’ve been inside the building for quite some time — I couldn’t... I wasn’t able to—” and ceasing here with a tremble, the crewman steadied himself, turning back towards the city. The girl gasped in distress and told him all in a quick manner: that she did not know if it had already passed, but with her entirety, believed it was yet to arrive. “This— This plant must be in a total and complete disruption, I’ll say!” she smiled as brightly as she could. “Oh, how you’ve done it. I was about to give up, I truly was, but then! To great fortune—” “Have you come across any others? Is anyone else safe?” he asked abruptly, approaching her; the girl’s previous disturbance was immediately dredged to the forefront. Her body quivered, her breaths turned shallow, suffered to keep herself astride by the wasting of what strength had remained; that she ought to panic, and cry out, reach for him and beseech that they, together, shall weep, in despair and terror she could not withstand for any longer than by the losses of a quiet night. She took upon her sorrow and surrendered him the answer, visible as it was through her eyes, to which he did nothing but turn away. Neither said anything more. And so they waited, on top of those very roofs, watching the dark. The stars soon glimmered above, twinkling once again alongside the moon. Winds drifted by softly. All atrocity of smoke, fire, gas: all was blowing away; they could not even perceive the conflagration behind them, and their minds were occupied with thoughts of the comet. Minutes went by, a quarter-hour elapsed. Both were unable to tell how long they had stayed — the constellations had already shifted and the moon had persisted its course; reserved the sky remained. The crew’s two survivors watched and watched, having now sat while the girl tore at her dress — the bloodied areas upon its lower half had started to radiate in a red glow — and with the cleanest parts she could find, beckoned the man to present his arm. She tied the shredded length about as a makeshift sling. Even during this process, the comet did not arrive. Hours, hours it must have doubtless been — the generators still burned, and the lights were all still shut off, but the comet failed to appear. The man held this arrangement to its utmost, refusing to walk away and staring in a curious ardency, for they had truly accomplished the mission, wrought with misery as he knew it always had been, but when he attended to the sky, there was a hollow within the myriad of inclinations he gave to the ship, the crew, and the girl — to all except for the very comet he was looking for. He watched the stars, perhaps closer to the moon, perhaps even to the far horizon behind the city line, but by his side, he could hear the girl quietly sobbing. He lamented as well, in a manner unbetraying of the disposition he assumed; they both mourned as they could, and as he took a deep breath, he spoke out to her, resolute, “It’s sure to come. We were sure of it, I remember. We all knew...” and when he glanced off to where the girl sat, she pushed herself up, with effort propped her legs underneath, one after another as she stood; in this action keeping care not to move so quickly nor to refrain from watching the sky — but she faced the man with an abrupt heft and a whimper, wiping away her tears upon heavy shudders. She stepped towards him, reached out a hand, and gave a trembling smile. The man frowned, wrenched his gaze down to the city away from the girl, but as he did so, was soon shaking. For every impulse was he compelled hence to ease its hold upon his movements, shifted aside his feet, pressed his hand onto the roof, with a touch and a caress at first, firmer then as the seconds moved on past, and only until the very final moments kept to his gaze. The soldier slowly took his stand, and coming close, he grasped hold of the girl, entwining his fingers with hers. With gentleness, she leapt off and drifted higher — her dress was veiled close in a spectral pale. He rose along with her up into the night, shooting across in their departure.
