"Three down, the biggest to go! Let's take that lift up to the main battery!" Gracie said as she pointed to a nearby gear-shaped platform with a grate-covered pillar spiraling up its center.

As the rest of us boarded the lift, Gracie pulled the nearby lever with her spanner, and soon, we were slowly ascending up the pillar, each of us armed with a musket from a fallen Clockwork.

As we reached the top of the lift's shaft, the opening in the platform's fence faced a ramp leading down to a floor full of patrolling Clockworks, and if they didn't noticed us before, they sure did now as we cocked the hammers back on our flintlock muskets and picked out our targets.

The leader of the Clockworks, a battle angel, aimed her pistol at us along with the Clockwork musketeers as the marines stood at the base of the ramp. "Entry is forbidden! Incapacitate the intruders!"

"Ready for more, I see! Shall we dance?" El Toro cried down to the Clockworks, and on a silent count of three, we opened fire. The marines that began charging up the ramp now crashed into their comrades behind them, stunned by our bursts of electricity, and the Clockwork musketeers on the ground weren't much better.

As they fired their shots, the three most agile of us swashbucklers, Rena, El Toro, and Monkey King, leapt onto the beams above the remaining Clockworks' heads and swooped down on them like angry birds, taking all of the survivors out.

"Alright, let's get upstairs and take a look at the main guns!" Gracie said, dropping her ammunition-less gun, and we followed her as she raced up the stairwell on the other side of the room, where Bishop and the remains of the station's Clockwork garrison were waiting for us.

"I can only assume, pirates, that you have come to sabotage this station's artillery." Bishop said, gesturing with his gear-tipped staff to the gun of the main battery behind him, and without waiting for an answer, he continued. "If I may speak frankly, what a puny plan."

All I wanted was to shut him up, but thanks to the music box-wearing marines to his sides, my powers were useless, even with the machines set at a low hum. Bonnie couldn't get a good shot at him either, so all we could do was let Bishop continue.

"This station is the pinnacle of Armada artistry and engineering - your attempts to sabotage it are doomed to failure." Bishop said, gesturing again to a particularly large and impressive screw spiraling in the center of the station that I assumed aimed the main gun turret. "Beachhead is indestructible."

"Rooke was so looking forward to destroying you in revenge for Deacon. A pity I shall deny him his opportunity by finishing you - NOW!" Bishop said, and as Bonnie and Emmett prepared to fire, the marines guarding Bishop heaved on levers to the sides of their music boxes, creating powerful blasts of wind that threw all of us off our feet.

Bonnie was the first to recover, and she managed to blast the two marines in the head while sitting on her bum, but I still couldn't use my powers yet, as a low hum could still be heard pulsating from the thick base of Bishop's staff.

"Cover me while I go after Bishop!" I shouted to the others, who nodded as I barreled past several Clockworks and into the forest of steel.

I wasn't a fighter anymore, but a cyclone of steel as I parried and slashed at the faceless Clockworks all around me, and before I knew it, I was breathing hard and surrounded by destroyed Clockworks in front of a bemused Bishop. "You are indeed as unpredictable as Deacon thought. Another time, Ghost of the Skies."

For such a skinny-looking Clockwork, Bishop sure was fast, or at least quick enough to avoid my tired slashes, and Ratbeard stamped his peg leg on the floor. "Confound it, Bird Brain's flown the coop! Still, he's left us his toys to play with!"

Gracie snorted in derision as she looked all around her with a biased eye. "Let's take a look at the 'pinnacle of Armada artistry.' Indestructible, he says - we'll see about that!"

XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX

"I'm afraid Bishop may be right. Look - that's chromium steel! All the gelignite we brought wouldn't be enough." Gracie said after her inspection a few minutes later. "I don't think we can destroy-"

Gracie then took several quick glances at all the pipes all around us, and then snapped her fingers. "Wait a moment. The hydraulics! They're using volatile fluid, but there's no pressure compensator!"

"What the devil does all that mean?" Bonnie asked, confused, and Rena answered for Gracie. "I believe she means that we can make the main gun useless by evaporating the liquid in the hydraulics used to turn and aim it."

Gracie nodded. "Finally, someone outside the College who gets engineering! We need to take the lift - all the way down."

XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX

Rena whistled as she led us from the lift into the engineering section of the station. "Amazing! Who knew there were ever so many gears?"

Gracie was too busy gazing down at the catwalks to listen, and she pointed at a series of mechanisms that looked like vials filled with glowing liquid in the holes of giant gears. "I'm right - we can do this! Listen, the Clockworks are using hydraulics - hot liquid under high pressure - to turn and aim the big gun."

Gracie then pointed to another mechanism that was much larger than the others, and set in the middle of the shaft we were in. "That big piston there regulates the entire system. If we lower it into the main boiler down there, the pressure will build. If we jam it in there so it can't be raised, the pressure will build until the whole works burst!"

"If we trip those actuator switches there on the catwalks and then break the mechanisms, we'll jam the piston down. Let's go!" Gracie said, and I saw El Toro turn to ask Ratbeard a question. "Did you follow any of that?"

"What's a piston?" Ratbeard asked, and Bonnie did me a favor by slapping the backs of both their heads like schoolchildren. "Oh, knock it off, already! If we flip the switches, the gun will blow up. Get it? Now go, ye big oafs!"

When we caught up with Gracie, she was already tripping the first switch. As she slammed her spanner into the glass vial, it broke and the piston dropped with a storm of electrical power, the force making the whole shaft tremble. "Whoa! This plan o' yers, missy -are ye sure it'll work?"

"It'll work! Just keep moving!" Gracie told Ratbeard, and we moved onto the second switch on the catwalk below.

"Throw the switch!" Gracie called to Ratbeard, the closest one to the switch, and he called back. "Throwing third switch!"

"Second switch!" Gracie corrected, and Ratbeard called back again. "Whatever!"

Ratbeard tripped the switch and broke the vial with his cutlass, and as we ran down to the third catwalk, El Toro asked me a question. "When we throw all the switches and the station explodes, we will no longer be inside it, yes? I hope not..."

"Me too..." I answered as we reached the third switch, and then Gracie called to El Toro beside me. "Throw the third switch!"

"Not... the third switch?" El Toro asked, and Gracie shouted again in frustration. "Throw it, I say!"

"Here it goes!" El Toro called, and after tripping the switch and breaking the vial in the handle, Gracie nodded and gestured for us to move it. "One switch left!"

When we got to the fourth switch, a surprise guest was waiting for us: Bishop, and with a couple more guards, too. "I have analyzed your attack, and I must say... I'm impressed. You and your crew are far more technically capable than you look, but I cannot allow you to succeed! This station will prevail, and my genius shall endure! Guards! Destroy them!"

Ha ha ha, no thank you, Bishop. Before the Clockworks could engage us in close quarters combat, I ran over to the switch to trip it, and as the glass vial went sideways, I slashed it in half and spilled the sizzling hot liquid all over the deck.

An alarm rang out as all of the lights turned red, and as everyone looked around in confusion, I saw Bishop slowly inching away towards a nearby hatch. "Unthinkable! The station is lost! Evacuate!"

"Farewell, mechanical man - we will meet again." Monkey King said darkly as the Clockworks moved stiffly to escape, and Ratbeard asked, "Wait, will we have time to get out before the place explodes?"

"Probably!" Gracie answered, and El Toro asked again, somewhat hysterically as he ran. "Probably?"

"You're going to have to trust me! Besides - the mission is all that matters!" Gracie said, and Bonnie led the way back up the catwalks. "It's working! Now let's get out of here! To the elevator!"

As Old Scratch slipped onto the elevator platform, he said to me, "You have sounded a great horn, Captain my Captain, an' now these walls gonna tumble down!"

"What do you mean 'Horn'? Are you trying to be funny?" El Toro asked. Apparently, El Toro had never heard Friar Cluck preach about Jericho, but before I could say anything, I heard Gracie speak as she jumped off the platform and onto the central core's deck. "Hurry! Let's get out of here before she blows!"

We needed no further encouragement as we raced back to the Aquila to escape the explosion.

XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX

A few hours later inside the wardroom of the Admiralty building, I, as well as Rena and Gracie, stood in front of the three admirals as we gave our reports on our mission, unsuccessful in getting ourselves killed on our suicide mission.

"Well done, captains - and Miss Conrad! The Clockworks are reeling now - you've lit the beacon that will light our way to victory!" Admiral Doggett said in a pleased tone as Lord Nelson spoke up. "Survived your first suicide mission, eh? I assure you, there is nothing finer. Why, I remember my first suicide mission-"

Gracie interrupted Lord Nelson politely by clearing her throat, and she gestured towards me. "Begging your pardons, sirs, we've intercepted some enemy intelligence that you need to hear."

"Quick, Matt - tell them everything that Bishop told Kane." Rena said, and I nodded as I stepped forward. "Very well then..."

XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX OXOXO XOXOX

"Incredible!" Admiral Doggett said as I finished my report. "This intelligence you've found is staggering - if this Bishop fiend is right, we're on the very edge of defeat!"

"The Isle of Fetch is already in trouble - the endgame may have begun!" Lord Nelson exclaimed. "So, Rooke means to flank us via MooShu, eh? He's clever, I'll give him that."

"Gentlemen, I'll take the Victory and deal with Rooke's little maneuver personally. If you will excuse me..."

"We'll go and help!" Rena spoke up, but Admiral Kearns had other ideas. "Oh no, you don't! You've proven yourself quite handy - I've better use for you. As Nelson hinted, we've lost contact with the Isle of Fetch. Our finest troops are holding the line on Fetch - Kurghas, colonial auxiliaries out of Rajah. The finest troops in the Empire."

I nodded, having met the fierce Tigers of Rajah on one of my earlier voyages aboard the Providence, and Admiral Kearns continued. "Last we'd heard from them, they were complaining about their rations. We upgraded their provisions, and haven't had a word from the devils since. If the Kurghas falter, the Armada will win a foothold in Fetch. If that happens, all of Marleybone is doomed."

"We need to find out exactly what's going on. Go there and get this sorted out - Her Majesty's forces are depending upon you!" Admiral Kearns said, and with that, the three of us, as well as Lord Nelson, left the building.

"So you're coming with us, then?" I asked Gracie, and she nodded. "In my briefing, they said that I'd also have to act as a government minder for the pirate captains taking me to the station until they die or receive their commissions."

"Well, we'll be glad to have you aboard the Santo Oro." Rena said, glancing meaningfully at me, and I shrugged. There was only so much the Santo Oro's carpenter could do by himself without a mate or two, so he'd be grateful for the extra help.

"You guys go on ahead and prepare the ships - I want to visit the men injured during the capture of the fortress." I said as we reached a crossroads, and the two nodded as we went our separate ways: them to the docks, and I to Queen's Hospital.

The eternal night of Marleybone was warm today (tonight?), and I was happy for the excuse to remove my coat and drape it over my forearm as I walked. As I turned around the corner to Queen's hospital, I dropped my coat onto the sidewalk at what I saw.

A young redcoat not a whole lot older than I was with a bloody arm and leg lay moaning for his mother and sweetheart and anyone that could give him comfort as he was carried on a stretcher. I then saw the poor soldier moan quietly to one of the nurses carrying him, who simply nodded as he drew a pistol from his belt. I watched in horror as the barrel was pointed down at the redcoat's head, and then the nurse pulled the trigger. BAM!

Turning around to head nowhere, I didn't even bother picking up my coat from the street as I walked away, supporting myself with one forearm on the wall next to me, feeling delirious as the tears began to flow freely down my face. "Oh God... I wish I had not done it..."