In each Gear were Skan's friends, Nisemeisho, Teron, and Thom. Neisemsisho's Gear, like most peoples, was a lot like him. Named FT Nise, it was taller than most Gears, equipped with a clawed hand and a large naginata, a spear with a two foot, slashing head. Or in this case, a more proportianate twenty foot head. Nisemeisho used these weapons in real life.
Thom's Gear was bright blue, it was named Aesir. One hand was a drill, that could easily tear through anoher Gear's frame. Or, by using a special attack (and some fuel), it could destroy a Gear's protective armor! Capping Thom's drill arm was a shield, purely for protective covering. Thom's other arm was a huge spear, with elctricity sizzling down it, like the poison Thom used on his spear.
Teron, on the other hand, had a Gear that did not use his own weapons. Teron used guns, and even a small cannon. But his Gear, it used an energy scythe. Most Gears used compressed energy to make bullets for guns, or beam swords, but oddly, Teron's Gear used it for a scythe.
Skan lifted Sentry's arms straight out, so the whips trailed straight on the ground. He did this in real life, just before a battle. "You guys ready?"
Nisemeisho twirled the naginata and held it point down to the ground, the long shaft against his back. "Let's do it!"
Teron spun his scythe over his head. As he did so, he turned it on, and green energy lit the night sky.
Skan grinned. "Man, I REALLY gotta find a way to build one of these!"
"You know as well as I do," said Thom, "that the materials and knowledge of building Gears are long lost! They can be repaired, even take apart and put together, they just can't be made!" Thom said this a little harshly, as Skan had tried, unsuccesfully, several times before.
The change in Skan was lighting quick. One moment he was grinning, the next, he wore a scowl. He scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, well, I think we should be going, now." Nisemeisho and Teron were wisely silent throughout the trip.
***
After a few minutes of flying, they came to their destination. It was a digging site that Rudvich took away from the Guild a while back. It was near the Guild, so very well secured. There were four Gears here, a few tanks, and a load of foot soldiers.
"I got the western one!" said Skan, and steered Sentry over to the western post, where a Gear was stationed. The Gear was equipped with a beam sword in one hand and a throwing buckler in the other. Like Sentry, it was all terrain. It reacted slowly at first, it wasn't to used to attacks, so it's thrown shield was quickly dodged. It came back to him like a boomerang.
As he caught it, Skan took that moment of being off gaurd toi attack. He barrelled into the Gear with his shoulder, and brought up his arm as the opponent stumbled back, scoring with his whip. Skan turned a knob to heat up his whips, to level 68 out of 100, then attacked again. This time, the whips, being heated, left marks of melted metal on the Gears frame. The enemy quickly caught himself, and hurled the buckler again. This time with greater accuracy, slamming into Sentry's head. Skan cursed as his left sensor went into a darker hue. If it was busted...
The opponent stabbed at Skan with the beam sword, but Skan flipped the rocket pak on for a moment to gain enough speed to sidestep the thrust. Then he brought up a whip that wrapped around the hilt of the beam sword. With a jerk, the sword went flying. With only his buckler, the enemy Gear was no longer a serious threat.
Skan checked his fuel. It was high enough to perform a deathblow. So Skan attacked twice with each whip, whirled around to hit powerfully again, and turned on the rocket pak for a second to gain a few hundred feet higher than the enemy Gear, then fell towards it. His outsretched foot caught the enemy in the chest, both knocking down the Gear and breaking his own fall. The small rivulets of electricity running through the Gear told Skan that the Gear was no longer operational.
Skan turned Sentry around, stepping on a gaurd in the meantime. He ignored it. Teron, being a much better Gear pilot, had already taken care of his Gear, and all but one tank. Skan took care of it easily: he picked it up, threwit on the ground and stepped on it. Thom and Nisemeisho finished off their Gears, leaving seven gaurds, on foot. It was hard to attack such small moving targets, even with CC, plus it wasn't as 'honorable', as Nisemeisho put it, or as 'fun' as Teron put it.
So Skan lept out of Sentry, facing off with an armed gaurd. Nisemeisho was facing three, and Teron and Thom teamed up to fight the last two.
Skan rolled to the side as bulletshit where he stood an instant before. He pulled his whips free of their loops, and in a flash of crimson (the whips were red), the gaurd dropped his gun. Skan shifted, reached in his jacket for his gythka, and the metal boomerang was flung. It's razorsharp edge could sever a limb, but it only nicked a vein on the gaurd's neck, and swung back to Skan's outstreyched hand. Then he whirled around and a whip caught the gaurd in the head with a powerful backhand. The gaurd went sprawling, unconsious, and Skan shook. He almost killed him...
I'd better bind that wound. Skan thought. Nisemeisho, being a very competant fighter, had taken care of his opponents and was eyeing the way Skan put a bandage around his enemies neck. But he knew about Skan's qualms with killing, so said nothing.
"It's ours," said Thom,from behind, startling Skan. He was wiping blood off his spear. Skan shuddered. That spear was poisoned.
"Well," Skan said, standing up. "We'd better set up gaurds, on all four corners. Set them in the same areas where the Gears we fought were. Did you guys disalbe any Gear beyond repair? Good, then send a group of Engineers and Gear Mechanics to fix these Gears. Put them in paddock L. If any tanks are still operational, send Zanial and a handful of diesel mechanics, too. For any tanks utterly destroyed, I want a dissassembly unit to take them apart and bring the parts back to the Guild. Put them in the spare parts room. In their approppraite sections."
Thom, the Co-Leader of the Engineers Guild, was used to taking orders like this. He called up the Guild on his rather large and bulky cell phone, or so Skan though, it was smaller than most, and began handing out orders to the night shift. "Skan," he said, "Zanial isn't in the night shift, so I sent Geodar Leara, who is also a diesel mechanic." Skan nodded, and Thom went back to giving orders.
Teron walked up, he had been exploring. "Skan! Skan, I found the base, for this digging site. Follow me, it was unattended." Skan followed Teron, and Nisemeisho stayed back with Thom.
Teron grinned and pulled out a Pepsi. "They had a fridge, too. Only one Pepsi, and I got the last one!!" Teron opened the can and took a deep drink. Skan eyed the can suspiciously.
"It could be old," Skan said, "and bad."
"I checked the expirition date," replied Teron.
"Could be poisoned."
"Good call, Skan. Poison a drink, somehow with ho holes being in it, and place it in a fridge, on the offchance that tonight, someone would conquer this site tonight and drink it." Teron sniped.
Skan paused, then chuckled. "OK, Checkmate." Teron agreed by finishing off the rest of his Pepsi and crushing the can.
"Here we are."
Skan opened the door ahead of Teron and walked inside the small base builsing. It was square, and the size of Skan's room. The roof was flat, and a duller and uglier shade of yellow than the rest of the house, if that was possible. Inside was adorned with a desk in the center, a TV in a pedestal, and a swivel chair that was next to refriderator. Skan opened the top drawer of the desk. In the top was a half eaten candy bar and a remot control for the TV. The bottom drawer had a thin, dust old book and a thicker worn out book with a leather cover. Skan blew on the think book, clearing away some dust. It was titled 'The Physics of Gear Mechanics'. Skan opened it up and read a section.
"The Minovsky-Ionesco reactor uses a "clean" fusion reaction that emits no neutrons:
2He3+1H2->2He4+p(energy releasewd: 18.35MeV)
The reaction uses a rare isotope of helium known as helium-3, which fuses with deuterium atoms to form normal helium."
Skan closed the book and put it in his coat. It would come in handy later, maybe. He brushed off the cover of the other book and the title read, "The Zodiac Brave Story, Water". Skan opened it up, and caught his breath. It was a map, and two signs were on it. The Zodiac sign for Aquarius, three horizontal, parallel wavy lines, and the Zodiac sign for Pisces, a 'stick figure fish', nothing more than a horizontal oval with two lines out of the left to make a 'tail'. It was a childs' drawing, but Skan knew what it meant. Pisces. But the drawing of Pisces wasn'nt important, it was the same everywhere. It was the realization that this was a map of the Zodiac Stones!!
The Zodiac Stones are a set of 13 stones that contain evil monsters called Lucavi, all whom consider themselves 'the Devil'. They tempt people to allow the Lucavi access into their bodies and souls, and actually come out of the stone, in their own hideous and powerful demon bodies. But only if the holder of the Zodiac (or Holy Stone, as they think of themselves) was the same Zodiac sign as the stone. Long ago, a group of heroes led by Ramza Beoulve, and including Mustadio Bunanza, Skan's all-time hero, the model for the Guild, destoyed most of the Lucavi in the stones. They were all elite soldiers, and therefore killed even their leader, Ajora. But a handful of Lucavi still exist, including Aquarius and Pisces.
Skan tucked the book into his jacket, making sure Teron didn't see it. He didn't like keeping secrets from his friends, but he didn't think it was safe to let too many people in on the secret of the Zodiac Stones. Lucavi might break lose and start a war again!!
Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Skan thought to himself drily.