Chapter 3

Galactor had held up its end of the bargain. Kito had been released from Komora Ridge two days later, and he had received high-level training on mecha construction and repair.

After a couple of years, Kito had felt that he had given Galactor enough service, and had asked to leave. He had been told, in no uncertain terms, that it was not possible. He had signed up for a lifetime. Even more, if he ever had children, they, too, would work for Galactor.

That alone kept Kito from looking at women. He didn't want to get some girl pregnant, and bring a baby into the world, only to serve Galactor. At eighteen years old, he now knew what he hadn't at thirteen: Galactor was a self-serving, vicious organization, headed by a purple-masked psychopath. Kito was pretty sure that 'Leader X' was just a figment of Katse's imagination. No one had ever seen the being known as X, and lived to tell about it, other than Galactor's leader. It was a way for Katse to motivate, or terrorize, his minions.

Even worse, Kito had become resigned to this life. He had not even lived two decades, but he accepted that the rest of his life would be spent under Galactor's thumb.

Hence, his motto: do your job, don't make a fuss.

Kito could see that others felt the same way. At least half of the Galactor rank and file were not there by choice, but by threat. And yet, they were all resigned to being there. They had all accepted their fate. Everyone knew what happened to people who tried to leave Galactor.

"We've been ordered to attach our mecha component to the main body!" called Sergeant Kyle, returning from his audience with Lord Katse. "Steungart! Bring in the transport!"

Steungart ran off to fetch the giant motorized platform, which would be used to transfer their project to the main hangar. Kito examined their finished component. It was a large hand; specifically, a right hand, somewhat pudgy in design, belonging to some unknown creature.

Kito had never understood Lord Katse's pre-occupation with building mecha that looked like creatures, but he had long since given up trying to comprehend the Galactor Overlord's decisions. He just did as he was told, and tried his best to keep his nose clean.

None of the men knew the ultimate design, or purpose, of the mecha under construction. It was always that way. Galactor held information close to the vest, disseminating it only on a need-to-know basis. And a simple mechanic did not need to know where his work was eventually going to end up.

But they were about to find out.

With excruciating slowness, the hand was lowered to the platform, and the men then carefully anchored it to the vehicle. When your life was the cost of making a mistake, it paid to take every precaution.

Once they had finished, the men all got onto the platform as well, and a signal was sent to Steungart, who slowly drove the vehicle toward the main hangar.

Whatever kind of creature this hand belonged to, Kito could easily guess at its purpose. Lately, every mecha Lord Katse had designed was intended to defeat the Science Ninja Team. Kito had never seen them up close, because he was usually assigned to the Ghost Island Mecha Factory. Once the mecha left, invariably Kito never saw them again. They were always destroyed.

Kito was curious about this Science Ninja Team. He admired the five individuals who stood up to Galactor, and reportedly made Lord Katse tremble in his blood-red boots.

And yet, it seemed that the Science Ninja Team was no closer to defeating Galactor, than Galactor was to defeating them. While they continued to destroy Lord Katse's mecha, they were unable to prevent Galactor's progress toward its ultimate goal of world domination. The ISO was apparently unaware of how much progress Lord Katse was truly making on this front, as most of his efforts were secretive. The mecha attacks served mostly as distractions, and it was obvious to Kito that they were not seriously expected to succeed. For every mecha that was constructed, and destroyed, Galactor managed to secure at least double the amount of its construction materials in new resources, usually taken from undiscovered deposits, from right under the UN's nose.

Kito understood the value of these resources. There was only so much metal, so much gold, so much uranium, on the planet. The organization that had the most resources would eventually be the victor. This was why Lord Katse was trying so hard to undermine the Mantle Project. If the ISO discovered such a powerful, renewable energy source, there would be no stopping them, and Galactor's power would dwindle to nothing.

When it came right down to it, Galactor was no different from those playground gangs at the orphanage: trying to bully, threaten, and coerce everyone into doing what they wanted. They violated innocent, defenseless people, much the way that those boys had violated Jun, on that terrible day.

Kito forced his mind away from these depressing thoughts. The mecha was nearly complete, and once it left the base, he would be allowed a couple of days to himself, to relax. He could finally get some more work in on the new motorcycle he was designing. The mecha he usually built had inspired him, and he was creating a special, retractable cover over it, to convert it to what amounted to a sleek, slim sportscar. He had left it alone for far too long, but, of course, his work for Galactor always took precedence.

Distracted by these thoughts, Kito gasped when he looked up, upon entering the main mecha hangar. The hand apparently belonged to some kind of giant gorilla. Sure enough, they were directed to a position directly under the gorilla's right arm, and hoisting equipment was provided for their use.

Kito's unit attached the hand to the hoists, then carefully raised it up and into position. Kito climbed up the scaffolding around the mecha, then began assisting his team in securing the hand onto the arm. He had to hand it to Lord Katse and his blueprints: the hand fit perfectly, even though this unit had never consulted with the unit constructing the arm.

Once the outer edge of the hand was attached, Kito flipped open an access panel and crawled inside, connecting the hand's wires, gears, and other mechanical components to the main body of the mecha. While he was in there, he remembered to wire the secondary couplings into the energy banks, as Lord Katse had ordered.

No matter how much Kito despised this existence, he didn't want to end up like Branson.

Once Kito had finished, he climbed back down the scaffolding, coming face to face with Sergeant Kyle.

"All finished, Sergeant." Kito reported.

"Did you remember to wire those couplings, Abbott?" Kyle asked him.

"Yes, Sir!" Kito saluted.

"Good." Kyle replied. "Get back in line, Abbott."

Kito was surprised. Shouldn't Kyle be dismissing them, now?

But apparently not.

"I have good news, men." Sergeant Kyle announced to his unit. "We have been ordered to assist in the operation of this mecha."

The men looked at each other in confusion. What did that mean? They were a construction unit. None of them had actually ever operated a mecha before.

"Lord Katse wants us stationed onboard, to perform field repairs, in case the mecha is damaged, while on assignment." Kyle explained.

Kito understood. Lord Katse didn't want this mecha destroyed by the Science Ninja Team. If they damaged it, Kito's team would be assigned to repair it as quickly as possible, so that an effective defense could be mounted.

Of course, the speed at which such repairs would have to be performed, was near impossible to achieve. Kito didn't want to think of how many things could go wrong, when trying to repair a mecha that was under bombardment by Bird Missiles.

But that was what he was apparently being assigned to do.