Dark Mysteries from Dark Skies (Krelian, Xeero) 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
 
The chime rang, its natural bells sounding two 
different tones. 
 
Krelian glanced up from his computer and checked 
the monitor beside his desk.  He saw the thin, 
scrawny figure of Hiefall, the scientist assigned 
to the task of investigating 'Dark Angel'.  "Come 
in," Krelian announced. 
 
The doors slid open sliently and the man walked 
with a deliberate motion.  Although the scientist 
was a typical scrawny, nerdy type of man, he held 
his head with high deliberation and strode with a 
strong sense of confidence.  "Mister Krelian," he 
stated, "I have information for you regarding the 
gear." 
 
Krelian turned his chair back to Heifall and 
folded his hands on the table.  "Yes.  Continue." 
 
"The first thing is that the gear's sensor array 
is highly advanced.  The sensor array is put 
together in such a way that it allows for 
extremely fast scans and can gather a large amount 
of information.  This is due more to the 
high-quality image-signal processing chip built 
within the gear's sensors.  They estimate that 
detailed scans can be made in only one second. 
 
"The gear's armour is also very light and durable 
and is made of a combination of titanium and 
ceramics.  Although we haven't done tests on its 
armour value (since no one wanted to shoot at it 
with bullets), the composition surpasses anything 
that Solaris has in terms of the weight/strength 
ratio.  This, combined with a powerful engine 
system, makes the gear very fast and 
maneuverable."  The man stopped and cupped his 
hands in front of him. 
 
Krelian nodded.  "That's it, so far?" 
 
"That's it, so far, sir.  The gear though, on our 
initial evaluation, is extremely powerful.  It 
might be equivalent in power to an omnigear.  It 
is so technologically advanced that it can easily 
take out a squadron of ten standard Solaris gears 
in the hands of a skilled pilot.  In other words, 
this is quite a find, sir." 
 
Krelian let out a breath.  "I would like to see," 
he stated, the word 'omnigear' catching his mind. 
 
"Certainly, sir." 
 
~~ 
 
When the pair walked into the investigations lab, 
all the scientists stood upright upon Krelian's 
arrival.  The Minister waved his hand casually, 
dismissing their antics, and they relaxed, moving 
back to their work. 
 
"Have we found anything else, Simard?" asked 
Heifall in his authoritative voice. 
 
Simard glanced up from his datapad, which he was 
staring at while walking toward the engineers 
working on the gear's joints.  "Of course, sir. 
However, this machine will certainly take a long 
time to examine thoroughly.  So far it's resisted 
our efforts to remove the armoured plates to 
investigate the internal structure." 
 
"Have we infiltrated the cockpit yet?" 
 
"No sir, the cockpit is firmly locked by some 
security systems.  The system appears to be a 
simple palm scan and should be unlocked in time, 
but it may take a day or two.  We are being 
cautious because if the cockpit is locked, there 
may be other security measures as well." 
 
Heifall turned to Krelian.  "As you've heard, the 
cockpit cannot be investigateed yet.  But we plan 
to open it up soon.  Anyway, the initial 
diagnostic scan shows us little."  He stepped up 
to the side of the gear with his datapad, showing 
Krelian the readout of the full-body scan.  "The 
armour is absorbant, which means that the gear has 
stealth properties and evades ordinary radar. 
There are also very advanced mufflers on the 
thrusters which help reduce emissions, making it a 
very quiet gear.  The thrusters on its back seem 
to be muffled more than the set on its feet, 
though we have yet to test this in the acoustics 
room." 
 
"Have you found anything about the gear's power 
core or computer systems?" Krelian asked.  
 
Heifall shook his head.  "No sir.  As you've 
heard, the gear's been resisting attempts to 
investigate beneath the armour plates.  The armour 
is bolted onto the internal structure using some 
sort of interlocking mechanism.  One of our 
engineers suspects that it is released from inside 
the cockpit, such as how you would open the hood 
of your car from the front seat." 
 
"Weapons?" 
 
At ths point, Heifall scratched his head and 
adjusted his glasses, pushing them onto his nose. 
"It's interesting because the gear does not boast 
any magnificent weapons at this moment.  From our 
initial scans, the gear seems to be extremely 
fast, has very accurate scanners, and uses stealth 
technology.  However, it is larger than a standard 
reconaissance gear.  The weapons are dual 30mm 
Gatling Guns on the right arm.  However, 
additional weapons can be pod-mounted and the 
original designers of the machine would have had 
the option to swap these weapons with different 
ones, not to mention adding more guns on its 
unused left arm.  Although a 30mm gatling gun is 
nothing to sneeze at, it pales in comparison to 
other weapons we have today." 
 
Krelian made a bit of a face and then placed a 
hand on his chin, recluding in thought.  "All 
right.  Heifall, continue your work.  Please 
contact me if you find anything unusual or 
interesting.  If not, then send me a report at the 
end of each day.  I am especially interested to 
know if you can get into the engine core and 
computer systems." 
 
"Right, Minister," the scientist said. 
 
"I will be in my office."  Krelian scanned the 
gear over a last time and then turned away. 
Perhaps he shouldn't have been so rash to dispose 
of the nuisance that was in his labs, associating 
himself with Ayame.  He had acted somewhat rash 
and was unable to ask the young 
man... Xeero?... about this interesting hotbed of 
technology that they had uncovered. 
 
Hikaru had also vouched for Xeero, saying that his 
influence was quite good for Ayame, and that it 
was quite upsetting to her that he had departed. 
The old war veteran, though, had a bit of a bias 
whenever it came to his adopted child ayame. 
Krelian would have to investigate the security 
scans on Hikaru to find out what sort of extra 
information he knew, but withheld. 
 
That was another day, though.  Right now, he had 
to finish trying to devise an experiment that 
would test the composition of flesh such that he 
could decide what sort of mutations would result 
after the Gaetia Key was turned. 
 
-- 
 
Krelian 
 
Please contact me if you have any questions or comments.