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"...it doesn't matter if you grease the couplings first, Gank. If you don't run the engine for at least a minute or two, you're going to cause the transmission to give out on you."

"Look Kru," answered Gank, his focus narrowed in on a loose bolt fitting. The towering superheavy tank--its body covered in heavy plate armor and a multitude of barrels--loomed over its yukanian caretaker, who was hunched swarming over its robust chassis correcting extensive damage that the vehicle had sustained during a heated fight between the warriors of a far-off bunker to the west. 

"I'm just doing what Yunu wants me to do," Gank finally answered. "Kaiden and her damn God Machines have been hounding the hell out of everyone that won't lick their paws. The bosses say that we're gearing up for a Tank Rush on Kaiden's compound. Unrelated, but the SoH gave them a nasty knot in their tail when they tried their 'imperialism' shtick on them. Can you believe Kaiden though? Fancies herself a queen she does. Who does she think she is anyway?"

Kru didn't have an answer for that. She used to be a member of Kaiden's outfit about six years ago, though her ambitious dreams of conquering Yuku-Yaren for herself seemed too 'dangerous' for Kru's own personal health. Enslaving all of those people and introducing those that didn't fancy her little tyrannical rule to the business end of a lancer--while an efficient way of tying up loose ends and keeping would-be 'rebels' in check--didn't sit so well with her. Kru was a yul of action, though even she had her limits on what she would do to survive on Yuku-Yaren. The empress barely seemed yukanian anymore; not even children were safe, it seemed. 

The Sons of Anarchy, while they didn't have any serviceable military space or aircraft of their own, [i]did[/i] have access to a rather potent array of BP-grade weapons. Particle cannons, mostly, with a few battle platform FELs and fusion missile batteries thrown in for shits and giggles. Lots of soldiers armed with lancers and autoguns, with a few armored personnel carriers, ETC artillery and some civilian flatbeds hooked up with Old World mass drivers. With their range and firepower being well beyond that of the Gun Runners' own vessels meant that they could drive off dozens of Raider-Scourge gunships with relative ease, with Kaiden having lost two Scourges in the past three months alone. Usually, no one in Yuku-Yaren wanted to risk their most prized possessions; most people just wanted to look tough and scare people into giving up their water, food or ammunition, but once little collectives rose up with their fangs out, then you really saw the overall 'theme' behind these little collectives. 

It was all sad, really---though Kru had to admit that it was rather amazing to watch a horde of starved villagers armed with particle rifles, pipes and knives take down a single heavy tank with three volleys of massed fire and a lot of grit. Too bad they didn't lay their arms when given the chance. That had been a waste of good canister rounds. 

Kru silently watched Gank, with the help of six other mechanics and a power loader, fit a hefty autocannon to the side interior of the armored vehicle. 

"Tank Rush is to keep Kaiden from expanding into our zone," Gank grunted. "If she manages to set up outposts, she'll have enough excuses and enough resources to conduct bombing runs on our bunkers. These fortresses are thick, but even the best walls and armor don't last forever."