Puzzle: "Death from Above" (Halloweek #2)

Quoth the raven, "BOOM HEADSHOT CYKA BLYAT"

Halloweek continues apace with today’s grid, titled “Death from Above.” It’s a bit wacky, not so much in terms of the theme itself (which is about a devastating future interspecies conflict) but in terms of the puzzle grid. See, most crosswords have “rotational” symmetry, where if you rotate the grid 180 degrees the black squares will be in the same spaces. This grid, however, is symmetrical along the diagonal. Very uncommon (unless your name is Brooke Husic) and very striking, IMO. Anyway, you can solve it online here; of course, .PDF and .PUZ versions are also available.

Imagine a line stretching from the “12” square to the “59” square; that’s the axis of symmetry here.

I was slightly leery about moving my puzzle posting from Blogspot to Substack, which makes the warm reception from people well outside the “crossworld” all the more touching. Thank you all for solving; I’ll see you all tomorrow. :’)