Chapter 1

Rommie was working on her older brother's jet-board. Again. She couldn't believe how many times he smashed it into something or worse, someone.

She loved mechanics and could fix about anything and create any gadget ever possible. Once her brother gave her chore of cleaning his board. She hated cleaning. As a matter of fact hated doing anything involved with housekeeping. She had programmed it so when he stepped on the jet-board it would start spinning.

He flew of and landed in stack paint-cans. They all burst on impact. Matt was really mad, since he had been wearing his favorite leather jacket, and chased her, but she was faster. She ran in her room and told the computer to go to defense mode. The door was rigged and when Matt opened the door the computer started shooting paint-balls at him until he ran back out.

Rommie sniggered at the thought of Matt trying to get the dried paint out of his hair. She heard footsteps and looked up. Her dirty blond hair swirled behind her, and her pale green eyes started to form tears from the bright sunlight, that streamed through the garage door.

She looked at the group, and saw her older brother Matt, with his friend Kyle...and a third guy. When she saw him she felt herself blush and looked back at the jet-board.

"Hey, sis," said Matt. "I'd like to introduce you to Kyle and Race Katarn."

She looked up again and studied Kyle. He was tall, some 5' 7". He had jet- black hair and dark amber eyes. Well built, as he didn't seem to have trouble carrying the enormous adamantine sword strapped to his back, a two- hander. She was surprised since they were very hard to wield. She could tell he was from the Frontier Unit.

They surveyed the enemy's movements and were the best of the best. They had recently been out surveying and had gotten leave. Kyle was a Major as his insignia pointed out. 'Just like bro,' she thought, 'another one of the crack-shots from the team, or should I say crackpots.'

She looked at her brother. He was also tall, about 5' 6". The well-built form suggested that her brother was jock, but she knew that underneath all the dirty-brown hair, rested a brain that could beat anyone in Jeopardy. His light blue eyes shone in the sun as his rifle swayed on his back. She remembered the day she built it form him from some excess Na'Quada she had. She had added some features to it, like infrared and automatic.

She had given it to him when he was promoted to Major. He had almost cried, and nearly crushed her ribs when he hugged her. She had also made him a Na'Quada staff. She knew her brother loved martial arts and made him the staff, but molded a basic pistol on the front, and short adamantine blade at the other end. The staff was retractable and could shrink to the size of a flashlight. She also made a second one for herself when the war broke out.

She looked at the last member of the group and felt herself blush again. He was average size about 5' 3", and was really cute. His dark blue hair, which was held back by a forehead protector with the insignia of the Sun Hounds, a group of elite soldiers, contrasted with his sharp green eyes, and as her eyes fell on his swords she noted that he had three. She had heard rumors of some guy using three swords in a rare style called santôryu (third sword held in mouth).

The curves in his three adamantine blades indicated that they were from some where in the Edo period. 'A ninja,' thought Rommie, seeing the pouch for shurikens on his right leg and several kunais in his belt, 'and a really handsome one at that.' She noticed a scar on the side of his face. It ran from the eye line down to the jaw. It was dark unlike normal scars, which usually were white. She noticed that he too was blushing lightly, she felt herself attracted to him. She realized she was staring and blushed.

Matt dragged her out of the past with a well-aimed pea. He had been saying something about her joining the forces as master-mechanic. She couldn't pay attention though. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Race.

"Anyways the Frontier Unit is going to go out to Chayne River and see what happened Yonder Point." Matt said, munching at his dinner.

"What," said Rommie in disbelief. "You know that every unit sent out there has never returned. You'll just get killed, like the rest of them."

Matt stared at Rommie. "Don't have enough faith in your older brother to believe that he can take on the forces of darkness by himself?" He smirked.

"No," she hesitated, "but I'll be worried."

Matt sighed. "You know I'll be all right. You'll be to busy thinking of ways to fight those bugs anyways. With mechanical skills like yours the R&D has been itching for the past two years to get their hands on you. Soon you'll be 21 and they have already filed a draft for you."

"What!" shrieked Rommie, "You're telling me that NOW! I could have been building stuff there this whole time if I had known that. You knew that I wanted to go there. You said that they thought I was too young, creep."

Matt smiled. "I just thought you might have wanted a bit more time to mature, so..."

"You creep." She cried in disbelief. "I could kick your butt from here to Idorm right now." He brought out a box and from the way he handled it she could tell it was heavy. "While I was out on a reconnaissance mission I found this. The R&D didn't want it so I thought I could give it to you." As he untied the string holding the box shut, a light gently glowed from the package. Rommie looked inside, and her eyes were bulging when she saw what was in there.

"A military stealth jet-board." She whispered with a disbelieving voice.

"It's broken but except for a few parts it's all there. You can use the old motorcycle we have, to fix it. I checked, it's all there. It also has a pack version installed and infrared goggles, with night-vision. Best of all, it's all yours."

She looked at Matt with wide eyes. "Mine?" Matt nodded. She threw herself on Matt, crying and hugged him. "Don't go, please, don't."

"I have too, but you'll soon be in Bravo Point, so we'll see a lot of each other. Come on sis, it'll be all right."

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There was a knock on the door. "Come in," said Kyle, looking up from his bag. Race opened the door and walked in.

"Kyle, I want to come with you," he said.

"Race, we talked about this. You're going with that convoy, no ifs ands or buts," replied Kyle.

"You know I'm an expert swordsmen. I'm better than most Sun Hounds and all Leaf Kites and-" He was cut off in mid-sentence.

"That is the reason you have been chosen to accompany the caravan. You know the bugs have been recently swarming over the border. You were stationed there to protect the supplies. Anyways Rommie Reforn's going to be there. I saw you blushing, bro. You like her." He laughed and fell on his bed. "You have no idea how it is out there. Going through that fog without a nav- system to guide you. Half the time I wonder if I'll make back home to see you and Mar-uh, yeah."

"Why did you stop there?" inquired Race. "Do you have a girl-friend I don't know about?"

"Well kind of. I was going to tell you. 'Cause...uh...well. I-was-going-to-ask- her-to-marry-me-when-I-got-back-her-name's-Marion." The last sentence came out in one breath.

"What!!" exclaimed Race. "Oh jeez bro. You should have told me earlier I could have made fun of you for so long. Wait, not Marion Cambaeros?"

"You know her?" said Kyle with an astonished face.

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The next morning four Draconians set out to change the future of their world. Matt and Kyle headed north with the rest of the Frontier Unit, while Race and Rommie headed south with the caravan.