The Machine God Series: An Endless Nightmare

Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

"So, did you get it all fixed up?" Krystal asked as her husband and daughter walked through the door.

Nehna was silent, walking quickly to her room, slamming her bedroom door closed behind her. Nehna sat on her bed, stomach growling. However, annoyance overshadowed any other feeling at the moment. She was still fuming over earlier. It had just overall been a bad day. First, her not so fun encounter with Yahnhinko, then a depressing funeral, and now her Stallion was out of commission for a while, bonus points for Yahnhinko being the one to fix it. It was times like now, when her emotions were overflowing to the point of threatening to break out that she wished her real friends were here. She could really use someone to talk to about everything right now.

"Ugh" Nehna sighed, flopping onto her back. "Why me?"

Krystal looked to Kento, who returned the confused look. What was up with her? Her mother wondered.

"Well, it turns out it was more than just the armor that needed repairing." Kento began. "I'm sure she is just disappointed that she can't go out for a run with us this weekend. She was really looking forward to that."

"Yea, she was. Maybe she can use the old retired pony that's sitting in the hangar." Krystal said, returning to her cooking. "What was the problem anyways?"

"Something went wrong with the Alpha pedal. The leg was as stiff as a stick. It just wouldn't budge."

Kento walked over to the couch sitting down slowly. His whole body was sore, and his mind hadn't had a moment's rest since last week. Things had been stressful all around, what with the sudden death of his nephew, the emergency meetings and training sessions. Trouble was definitely brewing. As of late, the war had been fairly quiet, both sides of the war playing the waiting game. What they were waiting for, Kento didn't know. But at the moment it was more like an old fashioned stare down, a game of intimidation. Of course there were always the little skirmishes between Specialty Teams of opposing sides playing sabotage and gathering intel. Though, the normal Special Operations team was made up of somewhere around ten Metchi units and soldiers, rarely any more. Too many units could put unnecessary risk on the more delicate missions. As for full on army against army, there hadn't been a single incident in over four months.

The most his team had to deal with recently was the growing number of mercenaries and crimes. The Specialty teams could care less for the petty crimes; that was the job of each city's police force to handle. It was up to Kento and his division to handle countrywide crimes, and to take down any who interfered with operations. One particular outlaw that had been wreaking havoc of late was the Bloody Baron. His latest killing had hit to close to home. Not only that, but he seemed to be hanging around too close to home too. What game is he playing at? Kento wondered. Sometimes he felt that his family was being targeted, the bastard was trying make him angry. It certainly wasn't out of the question, as he was known to like to play games.

"What 's on your mind?" Krystal was suddenly very close, her face right next to his, as her eyes searched his own.

"Nothing." Kento replied.

"Nothing, huh? Really dear, tell me what it is that's bothering you."

Kento breathed a heavy sigh. "I was just thinking about how small the Metchi Repair work force was. I've never seen it so small, or so busy. It seems there are hardly enough in the repair business anymore."

"War has called them all to service. Though, its hard to see why at the moment with hardly anything large scale going on."

"Indeed. Something's coming, I just know it. And I don't like it. "