The title of a song AND album by Coheed and Cambria.
It's hours before the battle is about to begin. Jesse, in command of Mariah's rebels, is holding out on planet
Earth which was lost within the dust clouds caused by the systems Star of Sirius being deactivated. The planet was ravaged by a swarm of bio-enhanced dragonflies carrying poisonous serum. The Red Army has found the hideout however, and is on their way. We start off from the point of view from a young
boy, Jesse's "son", William. This
boy was created before Chase, yet he is the overlooked child. Jesse favors Chase. Through the wonders of bioengineering he's been gifted with special abilities that put him at a higher intelligence and athletic ability than that of normal men. Others have been created like him, but they were put into various other positions across the Keywork, though now at the dawn of
war most were brought to the home of the rebellion, Sector 12. The number of IRO-Bot children is seven. (This comes from the original lyrics, back when the song was called Upper Armories of the Third Deep. "Seven lonely children in the victims' shadow fall entirely grow hungry; victory was all they hoped for. We were one among the fence, one among the fence.") The rift in the sky is all that remains as a marker of the glorious beam of light, the energy that powered
Earth and kept it steady within the Keywork. Jesse's war against the Mages is failing, Jesse is failing, and he's failing at what his own
father, Dr. Leonard Hohenberger, had attempted to accomplish. The other IRO-Bot children are left preparing for the war they were made for, lost and confused at what they're creator pre-destined them to do. They mourn the dead of the others on the planet, they're young and innocent. The
boy, our hero and the oldest, wonders if they'll all be killed in this battle and lost in the secret that is
Earth. The children are called the pioneers. The
boy's name is William, and he's been put in charge of the other six. William is the other IRO-Bot seen with Chase in the first SSTB comic.
As the first strike of the Red Army falls like hellfire upon them, Jesse orders his men to get to their battle stations and jackhammers, mounted turrets to help defend. He sees the battle as pretty near hopeless. He knows it was all set in motion by what happened to his brother, Coheed, it's a sincere message from his heart (heart being the analogy for blood machine).
As the attack commences Jesse is sort of paralyzed by a fear inspired awe. He awakes from this trance and moves. He notices that the enemy is trying to keep how they're attacking hidden, and is curious about it. He tells his men not to fire at the enemy yet, they're too far away. But his men break his orders and fire anyway, some flee. William is there as well, and he's jealous of his
father's
love for Chase, the youngest one. As they're waiting he asks Jesse if he can be a hero, if he can be buried with honor like the others and not discarded. Jesse just tells him that whatever happens, he'll be better off and out of this hell soon (by dying). As Jesse turns back to his men after talking to his son, William is overcome with a kind of emotion. He would do anything for his
father, to have his
father be proud of him. He would kill babies to protect the other children as well. He just wants to hear his
father say that he loves him. The other children have certain roles. One's a pilot, another a navigator. One is Mariah's favorite child, and Chase is the vision that bears the gift. She's what Cambria was, the Knowledge, as William is to Coheed, the Beast.
It reaches 7:00 and everyone is still in wait wondering what will happen. They're a last plea, kind of a mourning that these things have come to pass. They were all united under
Heaven's Fence once, no more. There's a quiet before the storm and everyone lies in wait. Once the guitar picks up and the chorus begins again the battles started and Jesse's screaming out orders for everyone to get back into position.
