The Gaslight Invasion Prologue

(original drafted and backed in 2018 from EDL backed in 2017)

~ takes place at the same time as the rough storybook ~

"There is nothing we can do to time which time did not see coming."

~ Prospero ~

Somewhere outside my own home town in the middle of Minnesota, population 632 after us (they changed the sign when we got there).  

A thick dust cloud over a rusted Chevy Fleetline, tall grass growing through its shell, then sweeps to a tall grain field before the harvest.

Through the cloud, a barely visible army charges against a few.  About to be stampeded, an airship taking fire sweeps through dragging rope, as many grabbing as can before it disappears in a swirling cloud.

The nose of a heavy cruiser emerges from the dust clouds followed by stout walkers dragging chains.

...

In the quiet night the farmer wakes to the battle's last echo, banging out the front door to the porch, shining a light.  He spots a new wall of large stones cemented.

Shining up and down the wall, he catches sight of tall wheat disturbed by motion, what would be by many disappearing into the field, then hears a deep 'Whump' sound. 

He shines light to the sound, nothing seen but twisting grains in dervish breezes cycloning to the source, converging then gone.
________________

Three nocturnes play on scratched records at different speeds to keep the same tempo.  A man turns to a long basement corridor from where the sound echoes, nodding the coffee holding guards to stay behind, waving them off with a dull brass hand.

The visitor's shoe echoes between clanks of his metal leg down the empty halls, even tempo in steps. Sounding as a machine press, hydraulics keeping a vertical step at the ankle.  They stare after his walk with a note of fear.

________

____

~ An unknown woman turns running through the woods, leaping off path to duck the Greek soldiers pursuing.

Nyx walks down the street shouting to no one while occasional people stare, just after leaving the temple in the beginning of 'The Rough Storybook'.

Nyx - "They came to us just to live ! Some were lost.  Some were abused.  Some needed the most basic medical care that no one thought they were good enough for.  So we helped them.  And so they came to punish us.  So we punished them and that's when they say it all started."

She glares into the eyes of a woman passing as she stares.

~ Greek soldiers pursue, taking a wrong turn to a clearing, looking about.

Nyx narrating - "And then they watched us disappear.  That's when they say it ended."  She slaps the cup out of a frightened hand she passes glaring.
____

A guard splashes hot coffee on his hand while the rest sip and laugh.  He takes a drink standing brushing off his pants. 
____

Getting angrier as she walks, Nyx pushes a man into a pile of trash.  The street view of confusion around her fading to the woods

Nyx - Yelling at the stranger, "So when they tell you our stories just remember who's telling it.  And always remember.  A story's got to have a beginning.  And an end."

~ The pursuers fall by arrows from the darkness, lost into the tall grass.

Nyx - "And we accept neither !"  A hard kick across his jaw.

A pause at the window of the military surplus, boots in the window.  She breaks the display window glass while passers-by stare.
____

Flashes of arms and screams reach angrily for the man as he walks, then nothing.

~ The last sights seen by a fallen Greek in the forest opening.

The sounds of the nocturnes, a woman dreams a field, dancing with dragonflies to the nocturnes in the sun. Peace. Noisy machinery to rhythm, cutting through, then a man's voice as the Greek soldier's eyes fade.

Man's voice - "Nocturne."

She crouches low in the tall grass, stalking the sound as the nocturnes grow discordant and into odd tempo rhythms.

Man's voice - "Time to wake up."
________________

A woman walks down the overly ornate renaissance hall, top hat with goggles reflecting the palace gaudiness. Two guards at the end door smile and open it, bowing. Closing the door behind her, they glance to one another with a grin.

Inside across the room, the lady stands staring out the window, appearing particularly pale, but healthy.

Elizabeth - A smiling mouth, "Timepiece ... you're in the wrong place and time again."  The woman's arms slide around her waist.  Goremouse runs up Timepiece's arm, "But don't worry ..."  A quiet giggle, "We have a plan."

She turns fast to her with a laugh.
________

The dusty tube appearing too old to have been made by us with it's unique technology.  The woman inside, the tube slides open. 

Nocturne wakes screaming into an attack against the restraints, then gets a cigarette in her mouth, eye twitching as it's lit.  She watches him unlock her feet, then hands while she inhales.  He stands to face her and gets a face full of smoke.

Pragmatism - "Thank you."

She smiles briefly, then examines, down to his leg with confusion, then back up.

Nocturne - "How ?"

Pragmatism - "Something worse."

An anger crosses Nocturne' eyes, then a smile.

Pragmatism - "Thought so.  I got you some nice clothes and poisoned those idiot guards.  They'll be fine."  He looks at her confused look staring back, "Because I know you care so much.  Now let's get some coffee and out of this shit hole."

He turns to walk and she turns him back to kiss then leans her forehead on his.

Nocturne - Takes a drag, "How did you find me ?"

Pragmatism - Taking the cigarette, inhaling, "I found you."

They leave in the asylum administrator's convertible, he sees the normal road, while she sees as it was in the Profane Tales, battle strewn through the oblivious populous. Ahead a beast rises to breath in.

Nocturne - "Turn left.  Take the alley around."

Pragmatism - Wheel turning, "What's there ?"

She watches an airship soar over fighting, flanked by angels disembarking to flight.

Nocturne - "... something's different now.  This is new."

Pragmatism - Looks her over, "How long were you in there ?"

She reaches into her bag and pulls out her Game-Brick, then looks at the passing cars, eyes focusing on their dashboards, and then the terrain past.

Nocturne - "I don't know."

________

Voiced over while Doe walks through a graveyard with a shovel.

"Dear Mister Doe ~

"Timepiece sends her regards, and you may consider me this operation's benefactor.  Try to have fun in the apocalypse.  They do come and go, you know, I do.  Here's what you'll need.

"Elizabeth."

Doe holds the note with a cracked and blurred Polaroid of Elizabeth in a corset and bloomers, being carried by a proud looking Timepiece.  He stands over the pried coffin of 'The Witness' (from 'A Keeper's Tale').

Eyes closed and motionless, holding tight a modern yet aged manila envelope.  He opens and slides out a folder and doc, 'Majestic Eyes Only'.

~ opening credits ~

('Days of Wild' by Prince and the NPG)

 

 (a four minute cut, ending intact)

 

They drive through the city, she directs according to what she sees and he doesn't, he turns following directions, seeing a beautiful day.  In her view they drive casually through a war between heaven and hell, Sanctuary's forces reinforcing heaven, taking lead in the air.

On the ground, Bosch beasts stomp to attack, scurry to retreat while she directs their avoidance through the opening credits, film's name yet unlisted (it's at the end).  Driving past the suburbs now, into the dusk and farmland, four legged giants cross the road ahead, battle gathers behind.
 

7:35 ~ She looks down his leg, then up.  To his eyes as he raises a brow, her cconcerned grimace ... he looks confused gets it as they look each other til the crescendo at 8:10 ~

~ ! production house credit ! ~

 

(car bumping on the side of the road, profane wars raging behind)

 

 

They drive smoking in the early morning, the battles fade with the city far behind, farmland distant ahead, ending the credits.

~ one

Asshole passenger on an airplane - Suspicious indignation, "So what exactly do you do ... ?"

Doe - "Save the world so assholes like you can piss me off another day on the way to doing it all over again."  He turns from him to out the window and drinks down the tiny bottle of gin, curls for sleep.

 

...

 

Asshole - "Fuck you."  Turns away with his tiny ass bottle.

 

~ Nocturne watches the plane fly over toward the distant city.

 ('Of Light and Darkness' (opening game theme)

 

Leaving the car in an abandoned lot, past a half fallen chain link fence, weeds and tall grass, a forgotten outpost that could once have been converted from a school before abandonment.  It's 'a facility'.  If you know you know.

Soldiers refitting it from lost generations, pulling old wire for new, replacing the antennae at the corner while more pass through in a jog.  A drill to keep them distracted from the details, seen as they look around curiously, the last few lagging watching their arrival.

In the distance the profane wars still, an airship ports in to attack a large four legged, more following to circle while on the ground only the above seen of a distant battle.  

Fire from the ground and bullets from the sky, an airship destroyed, swatted falling by the four-legged, the rest answer more furiously for its face.

Nocturne - "The reason we're here ?"

Pragmatism - "Inter.  Dimensional.  Aliens.  Of course."

Nocturne - "Nice !  So Why am I here."

Pragmatism - "Apparently a couple of them are 'tough guys' !"

Soldiers and suits set up basic comm gear and clear debris for landing zones while she's distracted by the falling airship, firing all the way down before the explosion, she smiles.

Nocturne - "Tough enough for you to get my marker from the creeper-spooks." She looks him over appreciating, "That must have taken some time and some talking."

Pragmatism - "And an entirely questionable profession.  But these particular inter-dimensional aliens do happen to be significant shit talkers.  You'll see.  We've got one inside !"  Walking backward with a smile and a hydraulic hop, "Come see !  He's a turncoat !"

Nocturne - "Set up."

Pragmatism - Laughing, "Oh yes.   But also an intergalactic, inter-dimensional, treaty, when we win.  He's the king's son."

Nocturne - "Fuck it."

Pragmatism - "Fuck it indeed.  Area clear ?"

Nocturne - Looking around, eyeing a distant beast heading to a further distant battle, "Mostly.   Good for at least an hour or three."

...

Pragmatism - "I am very glad I do not see those things."

Nocturne - "Me too ... hey does this make you my 'handler' now ?"  They entering the facility giggling past the guards' suspicious looks.
________

Doe - Sitting in a dark theater, movie playing, "That's fucked up."

Shady general - "What do you mean ?"

Doe - Looks at him like he's stupid, "Hang on."  He stands and the movie pauses, the lights come on as he squeezes by to the aisle.

Elizabeth attacks from behind the general, injecting him in the back of the neck with a heavy syringe. He swats the back of his neck, turning sharply as she drops an envelope in his lap from the other side.

The lights go out and the movie resumes.

Doe - A shadow over the screen, working a stuck fly and squeezing past again, "Oh good.  Didn't miss a thing."
________
____

The alien ~

Tall grey, a combination of emaciated bulk of musculature, thinly armored over in a way to assume the celebration of his form among his people. Draped fabrics from the aged metal pieces, flags torn from conquered worlds, ragged and singed.

The bones (probably) of his upper arms are separated, skin separated through leaving a long hole with decorative rings hanging and tied up the lengths.

Wide eyes as a classic 'alien' dark but with a recognizable look set in deep sockets.  High cheeked and stretched flesh over an elongated head. He stares out the window in the otherwise darkened room, watching the distant Profane Wars, unseen to the others but Nocturne.
____
________

Pragmatism - "And what will you do ?"

The room is otherwise darkened, save the window's light.  The dusty chalkboards show the abandonment of a classroom, a six minute wall clock stuck on history.

Makeshift tables pushed together to seat the assets represented, dark suits and variable security, the alien watches the distant profane battles casually from the broad but shaded, with a general's eye.

Thesis - Smiles, "I will watch."  He watches an airship circle a greater, then a soldier from our world and dimension replacing a field comm array, suited for an impromptu FOB.  "And you will break him."

Nocturne - "For you.  Why ?"

Thesis - "Because he comes either way.  And so you will break him.  And I will finish him.   Treaty."

Pragmatism - "What does he want ?  Why is he coming."

Thesis - Turning back to the window, "To dine.  To take.  To break.   To claim.  And in the end to leave a mine worthy for the minerals at your planet's core.  This is what you fight.  Is it clear ?"

Nocturne - "Let the bitches rain."

Thesis - Smiles, "Indeed.  Treaty.  You see your people are feared, in all the realms.  Did you know ?  Your barbarous ways exceed even our own and we are celebrated for it.  All across forever they fear your destiny most of all and this is a thing my father cannot tolerate.   And now the one power alone which he respects as higher than his own ... has left you."

Pragmatism - "Who ?"

Thesis - "Your very own maker, has abandoned you."

... silent room ...

Nocturne - Breaks out in giggles, "So your father's Christian ?"

Thesis turns to her.

Nocturne - "Jewish ?"

He turns his head a bit examining her, leaning over the table.

Nocturne - "... Buddhist ... ?"

Thesis - "Do they know ?"  He smiles leaning into her eyes, mocking, "They don't know, do they ?  Do you ?"  He smiles a short laugh and stands.

Nocturne - "That I'm Buddhist ?  No one knows that.  It's my secret identity."

Pragmatism - "It is an odd answer.  Honestly.   In ... this particular dimension."

Nocturne - Giggle-snorts, "Plane of existence."

Thesis - Returning to the window, profane wars in view, "I am not surprised.  But I am only still able to explain so much of this blindness you have in the time we have before my father arrives.  I would prefer to discuss your survival, and seed."

('sweeping civilization scene', voiced over by Thesis)

"On my world there is nothing left.  Neither food nor nutrient to grow it.  There has not been for millennia.  When once there was, we ... 'flourished'.  We grew and we prospered.  We 'evolved'.  'Progressed'.  And then we Expanded.  We Ate."  Turns back to them with a smile, "We were like you."

"And like you wherein we laid our seed, we too there did the same.  And so it is all gone.  You will see, in your own tomorrow.  You can see it in your world today."
__

Nocturne - "Can we blow up the gate from the other side ?"

Thesis - Thesis stares a moment, annoyed, "There would be no time.  It is generated from our planetary ring, and you have no fleet."

('sweeping civilization scene', voiced over by Thesis)

"For uncountable aeons by your calculations, we have been this way.  Our universe is dead now.  Nowhere do the crops take.  Neither seed no sample has lasted our evolution, nor can it."

"You will see."

"Our streets are cannibalized in every sense. There is neither march nor unity of our people, but to eat. And when we do this, he simply announces it, and he opens the gate.  He has just announced this place, and the gathering numbers span worlds."
__

Nocturne - "Can we plug the gate ?   Like with a mountain ?"

Thesis - "It is not a precise gating system.  It regularly appears in a mountain.  We keep a cannon near the fore mount in case of it."

... pause of alien annoyed ...

...

('sweeping civilization scene', voiced over by Thesis)

"When they march you must understand that you are food.  He will breed you.  Inefficiently.  In the vat of our farms until your pool simply runs dry.  Why ?  Because he cannot afford efficiency to feed his people, today."
__

Nocturne - "What about a nuke ?"

...

Thesis - "The gate's own disturbance would detonate ..."

Nocturne - "What about a lot of nukes ?"

Thesis - "Countless ! Aeons!  Before your EXISTENCE !"

Nocturne - "Just running down the basics, man.  I get that you need us to 'whup yer daddy's ass' for you, so maybe just skip ahead to all that food you're also about to ask us for, which I'm assuming isn't us."

Thesis - "Indeed we ..."

Nocturne - "Or our animals !"

Thesis - Stares at her, then looks around the room, "Does this ... speak for you all ?"

They all look around at each other, slow nods of shared concern ...

Pragmatism - "Yeah these are great questions actually.  Saved a lot of time in committees.  So what exactly, do you want."

Thesis looks at Pragmatism, then around the room as they stare waiting.

Pragmatism - "After we ... 'whup yer daddy's ass' for for you, I mean."

...

Thesis - "Seed.  And the right to mine your asteroid belt.   Discretely."

Pragmatism - "Our asteroids ?"

Thesis - "Yes."  With a wide smile, "They were once like you.  You will see.  We require their minerals to renutriate our soil."

Nocturne - "That couldn't be enough for all those worlds ... you're ..."

Thesis - "Cutting them off."

Nocturne - "You're abandoning them to die."

Thesis - "No.  To war among each other in a universe of hatred which I cannot allow to overflow into yours.  Or there will be no seed, as it is there."

Nocturne - "And you ?"

Thesis - Looks back at her smiling, "When their chaos has run its course and depleted them, I will conquer them again.  As my father did before me, and his before him."  He turns back to the window.  "It is our way."

Nocturne - "And to feed them ?"

Thesis - "Their blood is to nourish their own soils now.  So all I need from you is seed and mineral.  Defeating my father is a gift which leaves you with the reputation most feared among all the realms'.   Left as most sacred preserve, for seed alone, quietly.  Treaty."

... silent room ...

Nocturne - "Eggs.  Benedict.  Arnold."
________

Annoying passenger on an airplane - Breaking into a laugh, "Whatever.  So how long do we have before this ... 'Armageddon cometh' ?"

Doe - Looking at his watch, taps it and listens for the click, "Should be starting right about ..."

~ The plane's lights flicker then out.

Doe - "Now."
____

Nyx - The sound of Samal's sternum cracking in the dark ('The Rough Storybook'), "Wanna watch ?" 

 ('Lost at Birth' (power version) by Public Enemy)

The massive portal opens, the cruiser's nose exiting slowly, missiles downward at 45 degrees.  Next to it an airship explodes burning into the air, the cruiser's short guns turning to it.

____

Inside the sparking airship control, Timepiece stomps the panel while others put out fire in the smoke, gearing up and strapping in for impact.
____

~ Doe checks his watch at the airport, takes a deep breath and starts pushing the coffin's dolly toward security.

With the sparks inside the airship, they flash between various conditions, some with augmented limbs and plates, flashing to normalcy, then gone, those near mourning, then back all throughout.
____

~ Alarms sound in the meeting room as Thesis turns his head back grinning, wall siren flashing, all rising to task.
____

Taking heavy fire, the airship descends in flame.
____

~ Doe glances at the security ahead as one turns to raise a brow, then to gesture to the next. Across the greeting area a sudden commotion distracts them.

A man with a brass plate over half his head and one telescoping eye tackles a priest.

~ The security rises to deal while one pushes past Doe through the detector, setting it off.   Turning to see, then back to the commotion, the checker passes him impatiently then closes the gate.
____

The half faced crewman flickers between full and augmented in the sparks with a grin, lighting a cigar before the crash.
____

~ Doe walks toward as security crosses his path dragging the crewman.  Laughing he gives Doe a thumbs up and an eye flash.

Two female steam-clowns are seen approaching a cab driver leaning on the car outside the broad windows, one holding a boom-box, the other a sign.

~ A security tries to pull of the crewman's eyepiece and falls to the ground twitching with electricity, crewman laughing. He spits on the rolling guard and gets punched by another.
____

The crashed airship's side door kicks open in smoke, the two steam-clown crew behind the door.
____

~ The cabbie (from 'Three Days') looks up from his paper, seeing the steam clowns, one holding a boom-box, the other a sign.

Sign - 'We're Miming Documentarians !' (hearts and flowers)

~ They put the sign upright through a slot in the boombox, one takes off her hat for donations.  She looks at the cabbie, smiles, and throws some coins and cash in to start it off.

The other pulls a .35 mm camera and they start to dance, inviting the cabbie who laughs and joins in.  They pirouette each other then one him while the other grabs his keys in a hip-check then tossed and caught by Doe.   He opens the trunk.
____

They exit the craft, followed by a steady flow of uniquely armored crew, all turning directly to removing the heavy plates from the airship's hull.
____

The crew starts running with the plates, some taking hits and tumbling, getting back up and continuing the run.

~ The cabbie does another spin and stops, seeing the cab is gone.  He turns back and the steam-clowns are gone too, a lipstick kiss on his cheek after the turn.

They begin mounting the plates into the settings in the new stone wall, cruiser continuing it's slow exit in the distance.

~ Doe careens down the back road off the airstrip, coffin banging around out of the trunk.

(when the main rap starts)

Beneath the cruiser's 45 degree circumferential barrage, a protected army exits, their path cleared of rubble by the cruiser's barrage.

Wide walking machines open fire on the wall, dragging long chains to pave and stomp a smooth road, while from between the chains beneath the mammoth like walkers, guns point out and join their fire.

~ Crew continues to pour from the wreckage, the winds pick up swirling around them.

Past the first wave of walkers, a mix of army well geared and civilian aliens walking in starvation with their more makeshift weapons, occasionally one eats another too close, joined by a fast hoard before carrying on, chewing limb and bone.

~ More crew pours, disassembling the ship to it's core, storms growing in the distance.
____

Three police cars edge over the hill behind the stolen cab, an explosion between them sends the front flipped forward, the others to each side, the airship crew passing through on their motorcycles.

~ Timepiece drops the RPG and pulls ahead to look at Doe, sticks her tongue out while the rest move to flank, the man from the airport trailing handcuffs from a wrist and an arm from the handcuffs.

Military choppers fly over ignoring them, pragmatism inside with the future dirge crew.  In the distance the explosions rage amid brewing tornadoes, helicopters, bikers and cab riding to, profane wars raging with it all unseen but reflecting it.

~ two

Persephone - "He's right."

Hades - "They are hated."

Persephone - "Feared."

Hades - "Barbarous ..."

Persephone - "Destroying each other and all else beyond."

Hades - "With neither clue nor care how many do watch."

Persephone - "Or whom !."

Hades - "So why do you care ?"

Nyx - "They're warriors."

Hades - "Humans ... "  A laugh, "Murderers with reasons."

Persephone - "And without.  I'm sorry Nyx.  We cannot help you."

Nyx - "In their hearts.  Warriors.  They do not know this and so they do not learn honor.  We need men to teach boys.  We need Gargareans."

________

A news crew in the farmer's yard outside the battle, the gathering wind jostling.

News Human - "We're here with ... 'Farmer Bob ...' "

Farmer Bob - "Farmer Bob."

News Human - "Farmer Bob ... and he claims that a giant ... 'space ... ship' ... has invaded his land !"

Farmer Bob - "Yeah."  He gestures behind to the cruiser in its near distant assault, "That one right there.  And well.  We've had squatters here before and, you know, I've got a lot of land.  If they're cool, we're cool, know what I mean ?  But that ..."

He looks over his shoulder at Empirical's cruiser and it's bombardment.

Farmer Bob - "That looks like an inter-di-mentional 'space ship', blowing the shit out of my land, to me.  That's the sort of thing you got to talk to me about first.  I think I just won that case."  He looks at the camera, thumb gesturing to the invasion, "You gettin' this shit ?"

The camera swings to the invasion, the news human swings it back by the lens.

News Human - "It would appear so ... so what plans ?"

Farmer Bob - "Well.  I called my friends on this telephone my daughter bought me to call her with ... and I called her too.  So they're on their way.   And they're all calling their friends, and so on ... and so on ... 'cause these motherfuckers right here ... ?"

He looks off to the distance as a tree's destroyed,

Farmer Bob - "You see that ?  I grew up swingin' on that damn tree.  They're gonna have to pay for that.  You know what I'm sayin' ?"

News Human - Stares a moment, "No ... so what plans ?"

Farmer Bob - Looks back with discerning annoyance, "You're from the city, aren't you ?"

~ Duct tape pulled across the screen in an 'X' ~

Nocturne is duct taped with a big 'X' to the front of the lead helicopter with two pistols draw, on top of the nose-mount gatling.  The soldiers load up grenade satchels and duffels with launchers while Pragmatism checks Nocturne's tape.

Pragmatism - To all after the tape is secured, over the sound of the starting chopper engine, "Okay !  This is point A to B and she will shoot down the ordinance, or I would not be on board, with you !"

A few in the back turn to watch as a heavy iron dome with a top-mount steam mechanism is loaded beneath a Chinook.

Pragmatism - Lighting a cigarette, "That's shit-hook's got, 'the lady bomb' !  We'll see why that's what it is but apparently, ... it can breach that hull !"

Timepiece glares back a moment from watching the loading op.

Pragmatism - "And once inside, you know what to do !"  He kicks open a crate filled with blunts and drink, everything else.  Then to Nocturne, putting the cigarette in her mouth as she draws it in, "And I'll see you on the other side of the run."

A smokey kiss as he lowers her goggles.

Pragmatism - Walking through the gathering after filling a pocket with a random handful, to the back of the helicopter, "Now load up !   And load up." 

~ 25,000 years ago ~

Empirical and 'The Architect' look over the battle cruiser's designs.  It looks pretty much like that big dumb asteroid people keep saying is a UFO.

Empirical - Suspiciously, "I prefer rockets to cutting lasers, you know.   Bombs and missiles."  He raises his fist.  "They strike the fear."

Architect - "Indeed they do.  We've redesigned the base structure for all your personal comforts."

Empirical - "Oh !"

A child Thesis plays with the model, crashing it.

('Prophets of Rage' - Power Version by Public Enemy)

Nocturne plugs a cord from her goggles to her Game-Brick in the side mount on her leg, loads her guns and activates the goggles.

~ Goggle view ~

Level Begin

As the helicopters rise over the field, a transparent Tetris game, bricks falling overlay her view controlled by her eye twitches left and right and eye-rolling.  She's an expert in eye-rolling ( ... ).

They fly over as she shoots the ordinance attacking, from her occasional Tetris goggle view to the side gunners clearing the ground below, while Timepiece's crew defend their wall.

Goggle view, Tetris row clears (music crescendo) ! Score !

As the crew approaches one another, minor disruptions occur, storm and whirlwind combine to greater as they're thrust against the invaders.

A tornado drops it's cone behind the gate, gliding through and dissipating with a sideways swipe at the army, knocking walkers aside in it's last gust.

Goggle view, ! Score !

The wind disruptions have little effect on the heavy walker approach but visibility becomes low, with their own fresh turned dirt forced into the slits and eyes, while ground troops are swept into the dust and flung against them.

~ Goggle view to the now aggressive focus on the helicopters' approach, heavy ordinance shot down gracefully

(the blocks are moving pretty fast now ...)

! Score ! (end of level, next level begin)

Shocks cross the instruments aboard the walkers from lightning in the storm, but are effected only by their metallic parts.  The raw mechanisms that drive them appear to have no electronic components at all.

The armored drivers endure the electrification with annoyance, blinded by sand and bodies splattered.

Goggle view final approach

(! Blocks ! Super ! Fast !)

 

...

 

~ ! SCORE ! ~

End of the level (and song), the landing. 

The helicopters land and unload, soldiers check gear and each others.

The Lady-Bomb swings six legs from under it's dome, before the soldiers drop it from the Chinook underside.  It begins tapping the hull for weakness, walking here and there around them. 

The intelligent drone seeks along an impact crater in the surface.  A thick nearly pliable shale, but brittle like a stone Damascus.  Small cracks and imprecations to ply, but met with more thin layers beneath.

Pragmatism - Looking away from it's search and leaning his forehead on hers, she takes his cigarette and inhales, "Okay.  You're going to live."

Nocturne - With a small adrenaline bounce, "Yeah.  I'm gonna live."  She turns to the gearing soldiers, "But they ..."

Pragmatism - He turns her head back gently with his hand and takes the cigarette, inhaling, "They know what they're doing.  They volunteered and I did not lie to them."  He takes the cigarette in his hand to kiss her, while the soldiers look away uncomfortable, then leans his head on hers again.

Pragmatism - He puts a fresh cigarette over her ear, and his Zippo in her pocket, "Live.", and turns away fast.

Nocturne - "But ..."

________

Young Thesis - "But it rolls really easily so won't the entire mortal crew fall on their heads and die when it crashes ?"  He rolls the model. "ahhh ..."

They pause and look at him confused ...

Architect - Turning back to Empirical, "Well as you can see we use these cranes to stack the vehicles ..."

Empirical - "Ahh ... yes."

________

Nyx - "Your death is a prison, and you keep them here.  Your own keeper of fire and your poet's muse !  The keeper of our world and the pusher of stones, you keep them all !  All for your precious Zeus."  She spits, "Patricide, son of matricide."  She draws, "I'm here for the Gargareans.  I'm here for all the honored dead.  Or we start proving paradoxes."

Persephone draws her sword and places it ready in her lap.

Hades - "Amazon Nyx, do you not consider your meaning, if even you do not bluff the gods ?"

Persephone - "Your people give us honor. But you ..."

Hades - "You come like a beggar then thief."

Persephone - "Murderer."

Nyx - "Gorgon Baccante.  Do we fight or do I pass ?"

Persephone's eyes widen.

Hades - "And why ... would a true Baccante ... kill for these killers, then come begging life from death ?"

Nyx - "Because you're right.  They will always be warriors.  They need teachers.  Gargareans.  Amazons.  We need the Honorable Dead !"

Persephone - Staring, "... and here too you are right.  Everyone is right.  And everyone is so very wrong.   And so there must be blood."

Hades - "May we all die together, but still.  We cannot let you pass."

Persephone - Turning to her husband, as he stares at Nyx, "The dead are dead."  They lean back in their thrones staring, weapons in their laps, while Nyx's path lay between them.

Nyx - Drawing blade and leaping to the cavern between their thrones, "And there will still be death when you're Gone !"

________ 

The Lady-Bomb fires shotguns from leg tips bouncing it.  It pops the one time gun parts and begins drilling from the legs into the minute cracks in the shell-like surface, then cups.

Nocturne notices the round eyes forming as they slowly loop in their settings toward her, staring intently until a deep explosion beneath it bounces it again, releasing black smoke from underneath.

Pragmatism - To the soldiers, "All right !   You know !  Find the soft targets !  Hit them harder."

~ The Lady-Bomb settles again, looking puff faced and staring again at Nocturne, disturbing her a bit.  It repeats the blast.

Pragmatism - "Take that control room and smash it to hell !  And when this ship goes down !  And it will go down !  Duck and cover like your grandpa did.   I've got one more gig down there !  And I will see you after the run."

~ Blunts, bottles and cigars, a little this and that, a fast party on the hull, the field below in chaos, arriving choppers, jets streaking over, news helicopter ...

A last explosion beneath the Lady-Bomb, with no bounce. It's eye's still staring at Nocturne relax a bit as a smile appears in it's mechanisms and the feet unscrew. A last foot is stuck and yanked on, then the drill popped off.

Pragmatism - Walks to the edge, checking his chute as he looks over his shoulder whispering to Nocturne, "I'll find you."   He pulls pistols and jumps with a soar from his leg, the Lady-Bomb flopping off the edge after.

~ on the river Styx ~

Charon - Pushing the boat with his pole, "And ... did you kill him ?"

Nyx lowers her head.
____

They spin from their thrones, blades twirling with their robes.

Nyx is faster, but they work as one when Persephone slips the blade from Hades' belt to a glancing blow along Nyx's side and kicks the back of her knees, kneeling her as she spins off while Hades puts blade to her throat.

Persephone - Nyx's blood dripping from the blade, "It's poisoned, Nyx.  We are death."

Hades - "Did you think you were going anywhere when this is done ?!"  Looking at her angrily, "So answer me this, that I may hear it before and after you die ..."

His eyes go wide and he falls from the end of his sword in Persephone's hand.

Persephone - She yanks it out unceremoniously and lets him fall, watching with contempt.  "Poisoned with your blood.  Did you know ?"
____

Charon - Near the shore, "Then we are free."

He puts his hand on her shoulder.  The boat hits land as he looks around with a small laugh before stepping off the boat and disappearing, clothing and pole falling to the ground, the river flows it's water out until dry.

In the riverbed the dead who fell from the boat begin to rise looking at her.

('Satisfaction' by PJ Harvey and Bjork)

 

The news-human babbles while the camera drifts to the battle. Tanks and helicopters arriving, trucks unloading, forward ops being staged behind the wall. 

 

A news helicopter swings overhead.

~ On a television in an old apartment (Rhea's) the traffic reporter shouts his depiction of the scene before an on coming missile blanks the screen.

One by one the soldiers drop in the hole, time slowed on entry (all scenes inside are slowed, outside normal, all silent except the song).  Pulling weapons, they start their attack.

Two flame throwers step forward to clear their path, slow blooming flame.

A four foot wide railing over a massive deployment deck, filled, gun turrets seated from placements across the high deck over deployment doors.  100 yards to the control room ahead, rail lined with thin ladder-stairs from the deployment deck.

~ Outside, the gathering forces begin their attack, the last soldier entering the cruiser.  Tanks turn their cannons, mobile missile units calibrate and launch, spotters laser-light the active cannons.

~ Random targets destroyed on the ground as cannons respond.

Inside RPGs hit the rows of cannon while grenades are tossed in loads over the rail from their satchel, the explosions begin.

From the deployment deck, Empirical spots the charging team above.

~ Outside the ground force grows, soldiers reinforcing the forward ops and setting up comm as Pragmatism approaches.

A slow bullet passes through an invader's skull (2:30 ~ 'When I'm riding 'round the world'), exploding though down the path to the command center, grenades timing off along the path, cannon mounts exploding.

~ Outside the cannons blow, while inside the bullet seems to follow in slow, passing through the reaching hands climbing up from the ladders.  Blowing cannons in line on the song's up-chords, bullet view on the down.
 

From the command center door, the Architect swats the bullet down (3:03 'No No, No ... "and charges.  Nocturne throws down her guns and charges, knocking him back into control, against the main panel (in the extreme slow motion's unheard battle cries, they're actually screaming (at 'Hey Hey. Hey' ~

 

(Architect - "GO To Your ROOM !!!")

 

(Nocturne - "I HATE You DADDY !!!")

 

(not necessarily canon, that's just what they said for some reason)

 

~ Outside the cruiser begins a turning descent in a grinding dive.

The invaders do a slow bullet dance while Nocturne pounds the Architect. Others hold the door with failing ammo, Empirical seen behind the clogging at the door.

~ The cruiser strikes with a twist ...

Inside the army is airborne among the invasion walkers and exploding debris while the decks spin around them ...

~ Thesis smiles from the hill ...

The cruiser cracks in half with a skidding roll, it's brittle nature finally cracking it in half.  The dust and debris filling the screen ~

! INTERMISSION !

 

 

(six minutes ~ as dust slowly settles in front of (on) a crappy duct taped green screen in a studio with the dated six minute wall clock)

~ three

After the intermission, dust settled, green screen, occasional film crew passing with movie snacks, fading in with the sound ~

Doe rolls out the coffin on a dolly in front of the screen. He props it up, leans on it and lights a blunt with a Zippo.

Off camera - "Hey put that out !"

Doe - "Hey Fuck you !"

He unfastens the straps and walks off annoyed, checks his watch and flips the blunt behind him at the coffin.  The Witness explodes from it as the green screen clicks to the active battlefield. 

"!!! YOU WERE THERE !!!"

('Bring the Noise' live by Public Enemy with Anthrax)

 

The forward ops launches their distracting volley while the witness charges into the line.  Some see and fire twitching him a bit before he takes the first one, illness immediately setting.  

~ Elizabeth and the general fuck mad, while outside the office the soldier load for battle.

The storms raise in the distance as the sky grows darker over head from the space-time distortions, electromagnetism apparent in the air.

~ She rides him hard, holding his head to her chest while watching the soldiers depart through the window.  She turns attention back to him with a smile as the jets launch

The witness' effect is exponential, tearing through their ranks as the dead start climbing the walker chains dragging and into the control, chaos along the front halting the rest.

~ While they do well, helicopters depart loaded, the long rows heading for the road.

Ops continues their bombardment with ammo running low, destruction to the front line walkers, a wall of wreckage, terror screams over it.

~ in a good looking club ~

Elizabeth - "I think I may actually be enjoying myself."

General - Smiles understanding, "Why do you think that is ?"

...

Elizabeth - Smiles, "Because you're that smart, that good, still good looking and I just can't seem to see past your power."

General - "Because of what we can do ?"

Elizabeth - "Because of what we just did."

He smiles, they toast.

Elizabeth - Looks around, nothing but strangers, and back with a smile.  "What time is it ?"

________

Young Thesis with Empirical and the Architect ~

Empirical - "But these deployment planks ... why do they slope inward at the bottom? It looks to waste disembarkation space."

Architect - Smiles, "Ah yes ! That is so that the ship's massive weight may gouge the planet's surface," shaking his fist, "scarring it as you deploy."

Empirical - Smiles "Ahhh ... yes.   Of course.  I like that."

Thesis - "But why does it scar the surface ?"

They look at him as though he were insane.

Empirical - "To pave the edges of the road the missiles make."

A raised brow back to the returning look from the Architect.

...

Thesis - "Ah.  Yes.  Of course."

He meanders and leaves the room, returning to replace the model back on the table and leaving again while they stare in confusion.

Empirical - After Thesis leaves, "... it's his mother."

Architect - "Ah ... yes.   I understand.  It's ... my own daughter ... she's become ..."  He turns his head away, "she's become a superhero ..."

Empirical - Stares gravely, putting his hand on his shoulder, "I am so sorry."

The Architect nods, head down.
________

The planks fly open on the upside down craft spilling dead and wreckage across the site.  Empirical pulls himself from the pile in the distance while the witness charges, followed by ever more like him, taken from both sides.

Empirical watches in brief horror, then starts down the heap in resolution to deal with it personally until Nocturne's hand grabs his ankle from the wrecked carnage, dragging him scraping back into the heap, reaching last with his hand before dragged under.

________

Nyx now wearing Charon's cloak for the cold and carrying his pole as an afterthought heads downward into the deep caverns. She hears a beast among the distant clamor of the dead and smiles, the black unicorn exits the shadows, his burning eyes now embers.

Nyx - "Oh Surly ..."  She puts her forehead on his beneath the horn as he lowers it, "How did you end up here ?"

He snorts.
________

Inside the inverted cruiser, an area walled by wreckage and dead.

Empirical - Circling and scenting her as food, "What are you ?"

Nocturne - Circling in turn, "No idea."

They hear a roar, followed by clanging in the echoing chamber.

Nocturne - Smiling, "He's an army."
________

As Nyx walks deeper next to the unicorn, droves come walking the opposite way.  Old friends pause and wave, disappearing, visions passing, yet an occasional solid walker bumping through in the crowd.

Eurydice pushes hard to escape in the throng.

Nyx - "Oops."

Surly grunts a laugh.
________

Empirical looks to a louder sound approaching then back to Nocturne, finding her gone.  Looking back to the sound, he sees the witness staring, with distant movement crawling behind.

Witness - "Already dead."
________

Nyx and Surly approach a man covered in rough furs, a dark rough bag at his side. He blows into a bundle of reeds, tightly bound, wisps of smoke exiting the bundle.

Nyx - "Prometheus ... why are you still here ?  You're free."

Prometheus - Handing her the bundle, "No.  This.".

Nyx takes it cautiously, looking up as he removes and hands her the bag.

Prometheus - Looking from her to the bag and back, he shakes it once. "You take it.  I will be free."

Nyx - "... no.  It's not for me."  She reaches the bundle back to him.

Prometheus - "You take it !"  He breathes hard into the bundle, dousing her her face in smoke, she falls back.
____

Nyx watches again as the last Gargareans meet the Greek soldiers, she watches as the Amazons escape with her cloaked, running in the woods, Greeks falling to Gargarean arrows.

The Greeks burn the woods with catapulted fire, rolling through in destruction. The Amazons escape, the Gargareans cover them and do not.
________

The witness stares cautiously at Empirical, sniffing him.  A clanging sound turns Empirical's head where the witness observed, then back.

Architect - Hissing a shriek, "Already Dead !"

A hoard pours at Empirical's back, pulling him down and trying to tear to no effect.  Confusion turns to rage as Empirical starts breaking and throwing them, pieces crawling back as the junk walls pry with his own dead crew.
________

Nyx wakes lying down to Surly's now burning eyes, Prometheus gone, the bag at her side.  She checks it, the bundle still burns.  She looks up and closes her eyes with gritted teeth, licks them in annoyance and gets up moving.

Passing through more of the dead fleeing the other way, another man standing, painting an intricate work on the far wall, a woman laying propped by the elbow watching.

Nyx - Smiling then looking around in the darkness, "Epimetheus ! You're free !"   

He paints on without notice.

Pandora - Smiles wicked back at her, "Not by me."  She gets up to approach, "But I've got what you came for, 'Gorgon'."

Nyx - A step back into readiness, "I came for the Gargareans."

Pandora - Stepping close, with cruelty.  "That's right.  You came for fucking Hope !"  She palm strike's Nyx's sternum hard, throwing her back as all fades away to an empty room, leaving only the painting.  

Rising Nyx examines the completed work, a depiction of Milton's rings but the style Buddhist in wide descending bordering rectangles down to the core, the tortures depicted and for what crimes shown.
________

They fall from the ceiling and crawl from walls, grab at his feet atop the piles. Nocturne charges through and hits his head with a solid pipe knocking him to his knees, the dead pulling and piling.

He throws them off in a rage, breaking the last spine over his knee as he's hit across the face with the pipe.  He twists down again as they pull ... he roars his rage as they pull him under again.
________

Nyx and the unicorn walk across a broad cavern to a giant of a man sitting on stone, seething eyes staring back in examination before a shirt smile and lust in the eyes.

Nyx - Looking up at him with a smile, "Menoetius.  You're the next ingredient."
________

Another hit hard across Empirical's face as he pulls himself half from the pile. He twists from the impact to see Architect throw his hands around his throat, struggling to push him down into a now writhing mass of broken dead.

Another hit across the head.  And another.  And another while the Architect chokes, grinding his teeth.
________________

Pragmatism stands in the open command center on the hill watching the shortly slowed onslaught.  He lowers the binoculars.  Back up, checking the trench digging, then the oncoming storms drawn to them from all sides.

As the jets arrive for an immediate preliminary sweep over the battlefield, they observe the crashed battle cruiser creates a wall, extended by the wreckage of the walkers, a tangle of their jam past it.

Pragmatism watches the line walls with Timepiece, the few stragglers over picked off.  He calls on the comm.  "Eastern line, I got no eyes.  You hold ?"

Comm back - Zombies gunned down in a short row, "Picking them off as we go ... we just got reinforced.  But they seem almost ... content where they are."

The helicopters arrive at the front near Pragmatism, the General exiting and walking directly to.

General - "I understand this is your shit show ?"

Pragmatism - Turns and looks over the insignias, then back across the field with the binoculars.  "Yours now."

The Airship crew are grouped together, seven of each, one each painting skulls on the faces of all the like others.  Storms gather around, tornadoes approach from the distance as soldiers group nearby.

General - "What are they doing ?"

Timepiece - "They already died.   Right here.  At least they should have and they know that."

Some pray together, some mourn and drink, some salute as the skulls separate from the rest and walk toward the field.
____

At the forward ops.

Pragmatism - "So now, to protect the time-line, they have to die."

...

General - "And if they fail ?"

____

Orpheus and Eurydice hold hands in the sunset before the distant city, their new world.  Now cleared the airships patrol, horizon lit with the city's glow.
____

Nocturne - Her voice in the writhing darkness, moans from the hoard burying Empirical, "It's a sickness I've got."

Her heel presses his forehead back down into the pile.

Nocturne - "Down the hole, little Alice, down the hole ... I've got to know."

He struggles free in renewed rage, sitting upright as Architect thrusts his hand into Empirical's mouth, grabbing the back of the head with the other to force it down, leaning him back into the pile almost gently.

Architect - "... sleep now."

Nocturne - Echoing unseen, "I have to know who's stronger."

Nocturne - Standing a distance behind the Architect, a hoard pulling at her into the walls without resistance, "I've got to know."

She's pulled in as he's forced back down choking by the Architect.
____

Followed by the unicorn, Nyx reaches a hilltop, a dark version of the battlefield. She sees a man looking over holding a bow.

Nyx - Calls to him in the wind, "Gargarean !"

He turns back to look at her, "Who says that word ?!"

Nyx - "We need you."

Gargarean - "All you'd ever need say."  He turns to the cliff, "Gargareans !  We Ride."

Thousands cheer from over the cliffs, and mounting horses, turning for path.  Menoetius roars to the cave's high with them, absorbing into the stone and walls becoming the Earth's quake again.  

The caves shake hard as the wall begins to crack before the riders.
________________

Beef (from the airport) drops a mechanism in front of Timepiece at the command center.  She's looking down the hill with her scope, ranging the individual battles, taking a snipe to give random home advantages.

Beef - "Engine core.  Dug it out.  Are you sure this reality can take it ?  It's a bigger boom.  Might tear."

Timepiece - "If it can't, they sure as hell aren't surviving the next book.  So a bigger boom it shall be.  The storms will centralize it."

Beef - "Hnnn ..."

Timepiece - "And if we fail now, then we fix that ship and steal steal the same singularity core from the same place we stole if from this time tomorrow.  When security's distracted.  And then it's our turn to make that run.  Mine too."

General - "How many times have you people done this ?"

Timepiece - Crew approaching, "No one even knows any more.  No one remembers anything else.  This is my first time.  The youngest retrieve.  This battle ... it's what they do.  What we do.  As many times as it takes and each time we learn a better way to do it.   Victory is inevitable."  She looks at pragmatism, "Under these conditions."

Doe walks up and puts his envelope on the table and lights a cigarette, Pragmatism's eyes following the lighter.  Doe takes a drag and hands the cigarette to Pragmatism.  Wind around them rises, scattering the papers in a whirlwind.

Pragmatism - Inhales deeply and throws it down, stamping it with his foot's hydraulics, "Guess that makes it my time."

~ four

The remaining crew of the airship watch with the lady-bomb as their many counterparts disassemble the walls, invaders engaged with the witness' hoard.

The soldiers under the General reinforce the ops base, check mobile launchers and begin their deployments.  Thesis walks behind the General.

General - Turning to him with a look over, "Heard about you.  The turncoat prince."  He turns back to the field with the binoculars, "Soon to be king."

Thesis stands next to him, looking over the field.

General - "And our treaty ?"

Thesis looks at him staring until the general looks back, inhales the scent through his nose and grins, the general furrows his brow.

Thesis - "Secured."  His grin widens. "Should we prevail."

General - "We prevail ... you're not the one out there fighting. You've done nothing here. You've watched others do it all for you."  He puts up binoculars over the field.

Thesis - Standing next to the commanding General, as they look over the field together, "Indeed."

~ Persephone leaves Hades dying in his chair, heels clicking from The Rough Storybook.  Elizabeth smiles watching the general sign the bill, the tip well bowed for.  The general turns to her and smiles back.
________

Standing in a plain amid the tall grass and dragonflies nocturnes playing ~

Empirical - "What is this ?"

Nocturne - Spinning and dancing, "We're dying."

Empirical - "Death is a decision."

Nocturne - "Looks like you've made it."

He reaches for her as she spins past, hand passing through.

Empirical - "So it's done then ..." He looks to the distance and breathes the air, "... at last."  A smile watching a wave-flock of distant starlings.

Nocturne spins into a crouch as the starlings wisp away gone in a mirrored motion.  She smiles.

Nocturne - "So easy.  That's why you fail."

~ A grenade blows the dead from Empirical, tossing him across the wrecked chamber.  He rises watching Nocturne finish the last of the heads in the room.

Nocturne - Turning her head back smiling as she tears the spine from a surviving commander, "It's because you're weak inside."

Empirical - Turns to the Architect' throat already in his grip, cracks it and tears the head off, then walks for Nocturne.  "Did you even know !?"
________

The new soldiers fill the field, all looking to have the slightest grey hue.  Watches stop, phones burst as they approach nearing the core, they drop all electrical in a pile.   Hum-Vs sweep around them keeping distance from the displacement, top guns readied while the choppers fly over, side-mounts jacked.

Timepiece - "This is it.  Our last run."

General - "How do you know ?"

Doe - Looking over his shoulder, "Because I'm not standing behind myself tapping my watch."

Timepiece - "Either this is it or none of it happened.  Nothing at all."

('Live 4 Love' by Prince and the NPG)

 

Timepiece and pragmatism each take a handle on the engine core while in the field they paint faces and armors, gusts and whirlwinds all around in growing storm, dark clouds gathering over, wind pulling them more than pushing them over.

____

Horses' feet charge the cavernous incline, the walls falling around.
____

Each of the forty pulls a cord hard wired through to their own grafted brass.  One by one they attach to the core, Timepiece fixing the wire-box to the engine mount.  The storms start hitting hard, the tornadoes nearly there, the ground begins to quake.
____

Falling rubble knocked aside by the unicorn's horn in front, Nyx at front with the pole as a joust, a gathering dust from the destruction all around as the underworld collapses.
____

The gathering falling in to the evacuating walls, soldiers diving for their trenches. while the soldiers and vehicles prepare for the run around the crew. From the quieter ends of the field, zombies pause in their meal, looking up at them.

The gate ahead has an army lined endlessly past, down a wide promenade for battle, gun towers looming over, walkers reinforcing as far back as seen. More cruisers lower from their sky, the gate's generating beam pounding down from their moon above.

Chewing the random limbs as they walk, they shyly work their way toward the crew, with an almost cultish love in their eyes.

Timepiece flips the switch, a wave of realities washes through, dotting the all around, different versions, some in the same place, some in others, the ground all around showing the same fluctuations.

The start the run for the gate, the ground cracks.

Through waves of smoke and debris, the Gargareans weave through the walkers and march, a gust clearing the debris, leaving them gone. They work their way through, Nyx planting the pole as a vault to the top of a walker, other climbing their chains.

The storms above drop funnel, hitting the ground nearby, riders mixing through the clouds and taking advantage while the zombies follow their lead.

The choppers cover their path with heavy bombardment before taken by storm, then chutes skidded wind torn to the ground. Standard soldiers pull back to the hill, away from the increasingly focused destruction.

In the dusty night the horses easily sidestep the bright gunfire's continuous sprays, on and out through the clouds with the winds while Nyx tears a driver from a walker and throws him beneath the step of another being overtaken by Gargareans.

She drops a grenade in the hole and jumps to Surly's back, continuing the run.

The crew starts getting hit by heavy fire, losing one then another while the hum-Vs sweep a path ahead between them and the gate.

The spinning storms gust over, zombies swirling in the tornado, joyfully flying ecclesiastically, arms reaching high.

The crew hits the gate with the core.

The pulse overloads the gate beam generating it on the other side, a wave following up to it's moon.  With harmonic feedback it comes slamming back down causing a wave across both fields in total circumferential destruction, precisely up to the wall.

In the dust, the gate still shimmers.
____________

Nocturne - Drops her arms in the middle of the fight, tears stream, "... no ..."

Empirical pauses and looks at her, then draws back his fist with gritted teeth and rage.
____

Nocturne crashes through the wreckage and into the field, followed by Empirical.  He roars to the field as he kicks her over, the sound throwing back all around him, on all sides.

Empirical - Kicking her over and roaring to the human army, "! Hated ! Feared and despised, they sent me !   The galaxies, the realms of peace, they sent me here to resolve you."

His remaining army surrounds behind him, chewing on the limbs of the fallen.  As Nocturne starts to rise he kicks her hard over again.

Empirical - "Your champion !  Broken !  Your ways !  Damned !  Your Reign of Terror !"  He swings his foot again, "Is ! OVER !"

Nocturne - Lying on her face stretching an arm up, "! WAIT !"

She rolls over painfully, pulls the cigarette and lights it.  She watches the flame and smoke make a strange twist with a breeze.

Nocturne - Exhales, "No it's not."

('Super Stupid' by Funkadelic)

 

Song intro ~ the hill filling with headlights, engines rumbling in the dusk.

She stares at the night sky as he stares blindly to the hill, confusion turning again to rage. She swallows a flashing red chip, pulls out a flask and drinks, choking a bit.

Nocturne - "You know what ?  I think you're right.  But I just don't care."  She throws the lighter in a high arc over the gate, into the field directly behind it as his eyes follow.  They don't give a fuck about me either."   She hangs out her arms, "! Fire !"

The General looks at Doe.

Doe - "She can take it." (song main)

Launchers across the field unload, tanks roll down the hill and cannon the ground troops while the missiles lock on the the chip. She stands with the sky filling with rockets behind her and walks for him as they begin to strike.

She grabs the back of his head and starts hitting the missiles with it, she grabs his leg and bats them, she takes a few per pleasure while the bombardment is ceaseless around them.
____

The trucks pour down the hill, some rodded, some with giant tires, some just shit loaded with shooters in the back, many have plows mounted, battering the army, their walkers slowed by rubble on their side and heavy fire from ours.
____

Tossed across the field Nocturne refuses to let go of Empirical while missiles continue to strike.
____

A man with the name 'Trucker Bob' painted below his side window of his semi talks on his CB - "All right boys, you know what to do !"

A woman gets on the channel, "Fuck you !"

They all jerk their steering to the side and forward while the trailers all start a sideways slide in the wet grass into a fast wall toward the remaining walkers. Fertilizer, gasoline, etcetera kind of cargoes.

Trucker Bob - The CB filling with cheers and cursing, "! Everybody Bail !"

Female voice - "Go to hell !"

Doors fly open and drivers lean out with wide eyes, nervous laughing at the approaching line of walkers and their own skidding wall. They leap off running as fast as they can

The trucks hit the walkers, a line of explosions across the front.
____

Threshers chase invaders in their headlights through the field, Farmer Bob marches, flipping his spin-loaders, "I told you to get the Hell off my Propertay !"
____

Launch codes are transmitted to ships off port, jets launch from the deck, those close unloading, some into the gate and others into the fight.
____

The hills fill with locals then further from. Campers set up barbecues, boards with nails sold for three dollars at a stand, with barbed wire for ten, etcetera.

Burgers are flipped and cheers for the fireworks come from the cheering lawn-chair section, wearing sunglasses for the flashes of fire.
____

As the music fades the sound does too while Nocturne continues to pound her fury against Empirical, hitting hard and fast. Roaring and throwing him against the hull of his cruiser, continuing blindly.

She throws Empirical to the ground and elbow drops him again, continuing to beat him as Empirical begins to fade reaching blankly up.

Others around call to her beyond his hearing (no sound at all but the hits and his pain) as she continues.

Thesis walks up, heel crushing the pebbles and dirt loudly he stands over them and puts out his forefinger, stopping Nocturne's fist in a shimmering wave, the sound of a gong underwater.

Nocturne looks up and the field is empty of all but they three, dragonflies swarming and dancing around wheat blowing in a calm breeze, undisturbed, never a battle.

Thesis - Circling around staring at Nocturne as Empirical reaches for him, "And do you wish to rule ... my world ?"  He stares in solemn challenge.

Nocturne stares back breathing hard.   Thesis continues eye contact while he stomps Empirical's head, crushing it.  The ground cracks as the world returns to battlefield and his own cheering people.

...

Thesis - Still watching Nocturne, "! We return !"

He continues staring at her while his people exit to the gate behind him, followed by shipments of seed guided by the special soldiers.  When they return, only then does he break eye contact, and turns.

The gate closes after him, showing nearly no destruction on the other side, peaceful in the silence of all the world's eyes and commanders, it's people.

Nocturne looks around at the people, the destruction and death, and sees Doe in the crowd.  She pulls a string from her mouth, gagging as it regurgitates the attached flashing chip and throws it down, the stares again to Doe.

Doe - His lighter closes, exhaled smoke in a twist, whispering, "I'll find you."

She looks at him, camera's flash, crowds approach, she glances between, then back to where Doe was, now gone.

She tears off the last of her armor, walking away toward the peaceful plains, through where Thesis had walked.  Some move to catch up and the disturbed wheat shows she's gone.

Helicopter searchlights find nothing but breeze.

The view sweeps in front of the massive field of living, dead, clockworks, soldiers and just people, then behind them to show their size and the untouched wheat before them, armies from around the world just now arriving.

~ ! The End ! ~

 

The Epilogues

~ first after credit ~

All quieting down the quarantine distant from the farmhouse as the battle remnants roll away.  Farmer Bob turns to Timepiece and the lady-bomb as they stare at her wrecked airship, the core torn out.

Farmer Bob - "She really was one hell of a hell of a Buick."

Timepiece - "Yeah ..."

Farmer Bob - Putting his arm around her shoulder, "Proud of you."

Timepiece - "Thanks dad."

('Sayonara' by Wanko Ni Mero Mero)

 

 

(a crayon stick figure cartoon of Nyx riding Surly back to Sanctuary, Goremouse hanging from his tail, continuing credits)

Pragmatism named as 'The Knight in Shiny Legparts'

Thesis is 'Eggs Benedict Arnold or EBA'

The Architect is 'Used Spaceship Salesman'

EBA's dad is 'EBA's dad or EBZ' and the rest as seen.

(the cartoon ends as they ride past Leviathan with a band-aid, Miranda diving over, swooping bird, Kurukulla spinning shooting fireworks into the air on the beach, past the carnival and through the gate before it slams shut behind)

~ after the last credits ~

Nocturne's tube is rolled down the asylum hall, all signs being before the story, guards drinking their coffee.

Inside, her closed eyes.
____

(this scene relates to 'The Profane Tales')  Mariposa Liddell walks down the empty asylum halls the way they came, up the stairs to the office. She opens the door and sits.
____

The guards pause in their sips at a clanking sound in the distance approaching, look at each other and continue.
____

Mariposa - Sitting on the wrong side of the desk, "And so clearly it is a hideous thing of nature, on any occasion, to infer that a rabbit may squat and squirt ... an egg."

Germain - Leans forward from the other side of the desk, "We are absolutely agreed.  This is repugnant behavior regardless which ever could be claimed first ... to be. How may I help you."
____

The guards open the cell, holding the door for those with the trolley.
____

Mariposa - "I need to get away."

Germain - Looks at her considering, "Indeed you do."  He taps his fingers in thought then glances to the ornate pen on the desk, then back again. Smiles, "Have you ever considered writing it down ?"
____

The cell slams to the approaching clamp sound, nervous guards.
____

Mariposa looks up smiling.

~ The Gaslight Invasion Principle by Mariposa Liddell, non esq. ~