"The city is completely risen Sir!"
"Yes, I believe I can see that for myself." Captain Hiro commented dryly in response to his first officer's observation.
"Form battle line and signal all commanders to commence firing upon the city when they see us start the engagement. There will be no retreat!"
The signal man saluted and I watched from my vantage point at the back of the bridge as the fleet, small as it was, flared out to the sides of the capital ship. The fleet was eighteen ships strong. Three cruisers, eight destroyers, and some smaller class vessels.
All the ships showed their age despite the painstaking detail that had been spent on them in order to keep them in good working order well beyond the expiration dates of their counterparts on the surface of the above world. Would this little outdated fleet from a bygone war be enough to take out a city unlike any other that had risen from the waves and even now seemed to be coming alive before us?
Our chances didn't look good and I deepened into the fervency of my prayer for our success the closer we got to the alien looking environment ahead of us. This city, though beautiful to behold, had a feel to it that stirred against my soul and all I could sense was that things were getting darker.
I switched tactics in that I prayed for the souls of the sailors sailing head on into a confrontation with evil more so than I had been previously praying for the success of our battle plan. I prayed like I never had before.
Strangely I wasn't worried about my own role in all of this. I knew where I was going if I died and that knowledge gave me peace, but these sailors…….They didn't know my God and the knowledge of that caused my soul to cry out in mourning for those who would be lost before they had the chance to experience redeeming life through my Savior and an eternity spent with Him.
To make matters worse I had the awful feeling that none of us were going to make it. The feeling of darkness all around was too great to believe that survival was even possible.
*****
Captain Hiro glanced away from the female civilian. She was doing what he'd asked her to and he could literally feel the success of her efforts in the air around him. The contrast of holy righteousness versus darkness incarnate was exposed for any who had an eye to see. If he survived this day he would speak to her about her faith in the God that she served so wholeheartedly.