Snippet #372704

The sun shined down upon the lazy city of Meta Guard. A young boy named Kirill, a Frame pilot at seventeen, was just sitting around the slack place. Poverty was to be sighted almost everywhere and the smell of booze was easy to sniff out. In the desert area of the city, the only liveliness in view was children playing in the school yard of the elementary school. Poor kids could laugh and have fun, but as they would grow older, school would be taken from them.

It was known that the other factions wanted Meta Guard. The defensive capabilities of its natural barrier, a canyon about a mile outwards from the city in all directions, except to the North, was unmatched in the world of Senricol. The Arcblades had their forest and the Gencores had their mountain, oh and the Freedom Lancers had a hilly area, but none of that compared. Aside of the known possibilities of an attack, the mayor knew of an attack to come in about one week. Instead of warning the people of Meta Guard, he simply put out a fake reward for helping out the city. For them to reach Meta Guard in time, each faction would have had to advance forwards right after the notice was sent. Den was the only close by place, about a day away by car.

Kirill, being one of the three only Frame pilots in the small army of Meta Guard, was practicing close combat fighting in his Frame. A large steel beam was set up in the junkyard, near the north end of the city. With a quick jab forwards, the mech's right arm moved forwards. His leg kicked forwards and the Frame positioned itself to put force into the jab. The sword in the right hand of the Frame nicked the beam and cut half of it to the point it started to band backwards until the top half of the beam fell to the ground.

"Hey Kirill!" spoke a young girl about one forth the size of the Frame. Her name was Nina and she was a childhood friend of Kirill.

The back of the Frame popped loose and opened. Kirill jumped down to greet his friend. "Hey Nina, whats up?" asked Kirill. Normally he was shy, but once he was used to someone, he became very friendly.

"The mayor said he had something important to tell you," replied Nina.

"What? Did he say what it was about?" questioned Kirill in a more serious tone.

"No, but he looked worried," said Nina with a look of worry.

Kirill headed towards the city hall building at once to find out what was wrong. After entering the tall building, a lady on the phone quickly pointed to the elevator. On his way up, Kirill was studying the buttons. Such a primitive layout compared to a Frame, was the thought flowing through his head. As the doors opened, on the seventh floor, the mayor waved down Kirill. Entering his office, Kirill took a seat in front of a desk. Aside from the poverty in the city, many places, like restaurants, businesses, car dealerships, Frame mechanics, existed, just a small number of them.

Inside one of the only buildings in Meta Guard with air conditioning, Kirill was being told of the oncoming attack.

"Gencore and Freedom Lancer, are headed here to take us over, if either one does, we will be forced to live like them. I am sure no one out there wants to be forced to worship something they do not believe in or forced into a military life bent on 'Freedom'. I haven't told the military yet, but I needed to let someone know, so I got my daughter to tell you to come here," explained the mayor.

" I don't get it, why me?" asked Kirill anxiously.

"You are apart of our military and a family friend. I should also tell you that I sent word to Den, hopefully Frames of mercenaries show up to help. Only a few is all we need, because I figure each faction underestimates us. So they might send maybe, five or so Frames and a few light armor tanks to fight us. I trust that you and the other pilots can handle it with the Freedom Lancers, but the Gencores will rip us apart out there. They have much more fire power than us," continued the mayor.

"What about the Arcblades?" wondered Kirill.

"Nothing was said, but they have not made any action in about a month, so it is possible they could also be there. Do remember though they may be out to take us over, the three other factions are enemies and will also be fighting each other," finished the mayor.

Kirill stood up from the chair and left. He headed home, to a shack that was run down. The roof was made out of cheap steel and the walls were made from bits of iron, welded together. Inside was a normal looking bed that was given to him by Nina, an old night stand and a picture of himself standing next to Nina, with two other friends in the picture. One had their arm around Kirill and the other was leaning on his shoulder. They all looked around the age of eight in the picture. Smiling at the picture, Kirill lied down and fell asleep. The next day arrived quickly.

Nina jumped onto Kirill to wake him up.

"Hey get up! Some mercenaries are in town and the Frames they brought are amazing!" shouted Nina in sheer amazement.

"Ok, ok, just get off me," laughed Kirill.

In the market district, near the northern entrance, was about six mercenaries from Den. The Frames beat out any of the ones in Meta Guard and this attracted Kirill's view. It was like a circus, all the city was cheering at the sight of the great mechs and the cool looking people who operated them.