A group of eight Kislev gears descend from the sky, landing upon the armor ground of the floating city ship, Thames. The midday heat caused the air to ripple as the sun reflected off of the deck of the Thames. The lead gear, a tall black gear, released it’s two riders, a tall man and a short woman, on to the deck, as two more gears behind it lets out a winged woman and a one eyed man. The tall man turned to the others and told them to wait here as he and the short woman went to talk to the crew of the vessel. Leaving the others to their business he left the armor and headed towards the main area of this ship, his gear standing tall, like a black tower in the midday sun.

***
The tall man and the short woman entered the famous beer hall of the floating city ship, Thames. The woman uncurled a large sheet of paper and asked for the crew’s attention, but no one listened to her. The large man slammed his fist into the nearby table, bending it beyond use; this quickly drew them attention of the crew. The young woman started to read from the paper…

“To anyone who has information as to the current location of the rogue ethos group. We, representatives of government of Kislev, are offering a reward of ten thousand gold to the person who can supply us with the requested information. That is all.”

With that the woman rolled the paper back up and awaited the crew’s reaction and to see if any of them had the need information.

***
The pair reappeared on the armor ground an hour later, the tall man as always with out expression, and the woman with a happy look on her face. The man waved to the winged woman and the one eyed man to get their gears ready to leave the Thames.

***
The people of the armor ground watched as the eight gears lifted off and headed out towards the ethos island chains.

By CLISTE on Friday, August 17, 2001 - 10:06 am:

_LR Sensors detect a large convoy signature incoming_

> identify incoming convoy

_New data from Aphel Aura indicates eight Kislevi Military gears. Advise_

> move into forest cover

_Crawl Mechanism non-functional. Advise_

> ready Plan B. Stand by.

_Activating strike contingency. Standing by._