Skyguard: High Command
Skyguard: a captain wronged
High Command’s control-room equipment had already become a target. A shadowed intruder took an electrical unit, leaving sparking wires behind. Elsewhere, the Hero faced Stratos again and admitted a grave mistake: believing he would betray king and country, then having him confined among the pirates. Meeting Exos had finally exposed the error.
Stratos answered with bitter humor about his handsome, rotten brother. What Exos had taken from him and their family would be repaid. Yet he could understand how the Hero had been deceived: scars and honor separated him from his lookalike. The Hero renewed the commitment to find Exos and bring him down, then prepared to explain the truth about the captain’s favorite recruit.
Skyguard: a familiar recruit
The Dreamweaver had stopped hiding her own appearance from a startled recruit. She said she had been waiting for the attack to begin and that everything was in place, then ordered the recruit to keep silent; she would tell Stratos and the Hero herself. Stratos recognized the woman who had forced him into his nightmares. The Hero defended her as an ally, saying that Exos had enslaved and grievously harmed her and that she wanted freedom as much as Stratos wanted revenge.
To make herself more familiar, the Dreamweaver resumed Invidia’s appearance. She said the disguise would help keep all three of them safer. Exos’s corruption and depravity gave her every reason to seek his downfall, and she offered all her power against him and the pirates. Stratos accepted the unexpected ally, welcoming his recruit aboard for a second time.
Skyguard: orders to remain
Invidia brought worse news from High Command: pirate ships had docked, normal ship-to-ship communications were down, and Stratos had been ordered to stay behind. His connection to Exos left his loyalties under suspicion. The Hero would lead the counterattack. Stratos rejected the restriction and declared that he would hunt his brother himself; the Phereless would leave anyone who objected in its wake.
Invidia sent the Hero to General Zephis for the High Command rescue while she attended to Stratos’s safety and their plans for Exos. The children remained elsewhere under pirate control. J’Gar told them that their grandmother was busy and would come for them later if they behaved. Her promised visit depended on their good behavior, while the adults pursued the next stage of the conflict.
Skyguard: bridging the damaged approach
Tropos insisted that he remained loyal to the Skyguard, but his need to help Stratos made every delay painful. Pirate bombs had torn gaps in the route to the Control Room. He asked the Hero to gather boards and nails, repair the crossings, and deal with ten pirates blocking the way. In a more guarded exchange, he also hinted at the secret weapon stored at the base, then asked the Hero not to reveal knowledge he was not supposed to possess.
Reaching the Control Room required its door-code sequence. Tropos sent the Hero searching rooms and pirates for the missing code, worried that more time spent there meant more time with his brother alone. His relief at the Hero’s quick work came with an admission that he should not doubt so much, though the recent betrayals had given him ample reason for mistrust.
Skyguard: the missing module and powerpack
General Zephis treated the Hero as a civilian who could still be useful. A thief had stolen Communication Module 4dX, preventing the base from calling reinforcements. The assignment was to recover it from the pirates and bring back any useful electrical components as well. Even when praising the work, the general remained preoccupied with a missing powerpack. The Hero then had to return the module to its place for rewiring and set up satellites along the path to restore base-to-ship communication.
The general also supplied a code for a locked storage room, warning the Hero not to touch the thing inside while searching for a small, round component. Eventually he admitted what that component was for: a new battle mechsuit whose powercell had been stolen. The next assignment sent the Hero back to the pirate base for the powerpack and ten pirate trophies. Recovering it would make the high-tech weapon operational.
Skyguard: a weapon turned against its owners
The general’s monitor still failed to show an activated M3ch4-d34th. He ordered the Hero to help inspect the base, even threatening demotion to private while overlooking that the Hero was a civilian. In the project storage area, Major Arshbuten objected to an outsider being admitted and warned that appearances could be deceptive. Asked about the powerpack, the major revealed that he had it.
The general began another criticism of civilian competence, but Arshbuten turned the M3ch4-d34th against the Hero. Defeating the betrayer and securing the stolen weapon became the immediate task. The Hero’s interrupted warning gave way to the rueful thought that leaving with Stratos might have been the wiser choice.
Skyguard: leaving High Command
The aftermath left the secret weapon functional but dented, communications restored, and reinforcements arriving. The Hero recommended stronger security screening. The general’s later welcome conceded that at least one civilian had proved capable, promised an overhaul of background checks, and even offered the Hero a turn in the mech. The machine had been secured, though the larger crisis was still moving elsewhere.
The Hero meant to leave High Command and find Stratos, whose ship and raging temper were already carrying him toward his brother. The general tried to order the Hero to stay and assist. Aboard his ship, Stratos renewed his vow to find Exos and take his life. Protecting High Command had not quieted the family feud.
Skyguard: the illusionist’s other business
The Dreamweaver had business with Exos as well. She told him that he would not remember her visit and would not recognize the visitor who came next. Above all, he would trust that person completely. Her instructions sought to turn the paranoia that had shaped his dealings into an opening for someone else.
Exos protested that everyone was trying to kill him. The Dreamweaver cut through the objection with an insistence on complete trust. His answer became a broken repetition of the command: trust the visitor completely. She left the next encounter prepared by words Exos was meant to obey.