The leaden gray firmament hung low.
Pressing heavily on the edge of the Ice Sea that had just undergone the baptism of Purgatory.
The wind churned the acrid reek of gunpowder, the thick stench of blood, and the foul, rotten odor unique to Life Ghosts.
It wailed through the unfinished steel skeletons of the City of Dawn.
Beams of searchlights pierced the thickening dusk, bleaching this ravaged battlefield into a ghastly white.
Dark red, filthy purple, inky green...
Blood of every color and shattered tissue had seeped deep into every inch of frozen earth.
Congealing in the cold into a slick, viscous shell of ice.
Within this hellish tableau, human shapes loomed and moved.
No one spoke.
There were only harsh, heavy breaths, muffled sobs, and the screech of metal dragging and grinding over ice.
And the heavy footfalls of stretchers rushing past.
"Easy... watch his arm..."
"Over here! There's still breath here! Medical Team! Move!!!"
"Clear out! Clear out! Stretcher lane!"
