The boy’s voice crackled down the line. “Loading Bay and the nethers are overrun. They’re at the second bulkhead. We don’t have long!”
A shower of sparks burst from Misaki’s instrumentation panel. “Left shoulder is moments from breach. If they get in on the spaulder level, the brothers below will be cut off!”
Kin cursed, pressed the intercom again. “All right, we can’t wait any longer. Shut down the cooling system and get the hells out of there, Shinji!”
“If Earthcrusher blows now, it’ll take out the army around us! Everyone will die!”
“I can control the temperature manually from the bridge. I’ll shut down nonessentials, keep the ’Crusher running hot, but not enough to ignite the chi until the army is clear.”
“But that means—”
“Maker’s breath, Shinji, just do as I say!”
A hollow boom. A burst of static.
“… Acknowledged. Izanagi watch over—”
Kin snapped the channel shut, opened all-deck communications. His voice crackled over the PA, bouncing through the behemoth’s greasy innards as it shuddered beneath another violent impact. Roars and blood-soaked screams.
“All hands, all hands! Coolant system is offline! Evacuate Earthcrusher, now! Repeat, all hands, evacuate!”
Kin flipped a trigger on the console, and a stream of green flares exploded from the goliath’s belly, raining bright into the sky and drifting down over the howling sea of bone and teeth and flesh below. He tore the ’Crusher’s arm free, swept away a few dozen monstrosities with a wave of the shrieking sawblades.
Misaki watched him from her console, expression soft with concern.
“We will stay with you, Kin-san.”
The brothers around him murmured assent.
“No, you won’t.” A boom, a pained wince. “Get down to the spaulder exit now. I’ll clear you a path with what’s left of the anti-air.”
“But we—”
“Misaki, you have a daughter. You owe it to her to make it back alive.”
The woman walked to the pilot’s rig, clutched his hand. The silver arms unfolded about her like a flower coming into bloom, glinting with the light of exploding sky-ships. “Kin-san, we will fight beside you until the end. Alone is no place to die.”
He gifted her a grim smile.
“No one who is loved dies alone.”
He nodded to the elevator.
“Go. Live well. Tell Yukiko…”
His words faded as the Earthcrusher was rocked by another blow. The viewing portals splintered, a gleaming chunk of glass falling away, letting in a cold wind laden with the stench of death, bitter chill, the hollow, soulless un-rhythm of that awful song.
“What?” Misaki clutched his arm. “Tell her what?”
He smiled, shook his head.
“She knows.”
The elevator doors hissed open, the endsong rising in pitch.
“Go. Before it’s too late.”
She watched him, torn with indecision, clouds over her eyes. But at last, she chose—chose as she must, for her daughter, for the promise she’d made to her beloved. Misaki ran to the elevator and stepped inside with the other brethren, lifting her hand in farewell.
“I will remember you, Kin.”
And spinning back to the horde, the rising tide of flesh and bone, the boy lifted the Earthcrusher’s arm, kicked the stirrups and turned once more to the fray.
*
The air swam with burning green, a cascading waterfall spilling from the Earthcrusher’s belly. Aleksandar caught sight of the flare-barrage, roaring over the song of carnage and chaos.
“The signal! Retreat! Back, in the name of the Goddess!”
The line shifted, the rearmost men turning and running, the front lines fighting a slow and bloody withdrawal. Arrows fell like black rain amongst the shambling deadthings, the screaming abominations. Men fell as they pulled away, more bushimen, samurai, hammermen. The few remaining Blood-blessed refused the call to retreat, charging farther into the melee, heedless of their wounds. Aleksandar saw one berserk beating a demon with his own severed arm, another torn asunder from the waist down, still crawling toward the enemy with a gurgling cry on his lips, glistening ropes of entrails dragged behind him.
He heard a dangerous groan from the Earthcrusher, a burst of flaming exhaust tearing the sky. The goliath was locked in battle with three towering abominations, the staccato beat of iron-thrower fire flaring at its collar, clearing its shoulders of the hellspawn encrusting it. As the burst faded, a swarm of Guildsmen spilled from a hatch, leaping into the air and fleeing back across the waste amidst bursts of blue-white flame. But the Earthcrusher still moved, still battled its monstrous opponents, another blast of fiery exhaust scorching the clouds.
Someone had stayed behind to pilot the giant through its final moments.
Someone who’d not see the morrow.
Lifting his lightning hammer in salute, Aleksandar called again for his men to fall back, and turned his thoughts to full retreat.
*
“Go back,” the voice echoed in the blackness. “Go back home, Ichigo…”
Yukiko grit her teeth, shook her head.