So sad.  Lucas had offered a way to entertain the guests at this particular location - at great personal embarrassment to himself (for reasons that will eventually become clear) - and now, it would seem as though none of that would come to pass.  (Though, for Lucas at least, it would mean being spared from said great personal embarrassment.  So there was that; which was nice.)  But it wouldn't be as immediately apparent as to what was coming to Southwind Point to him - or to anyone in the town, really - as it would be to Michiru.<br/><br/>About said Kanissian steambot.  This model, dear reader, was the Dreadnought.  Biggest of all the brothers.  Of the various categories of Kanissian mechanacon, three were the usual sightings.  The Guardians - only slightly larger sized than a man in armor - were the Guardians.  Armed with flamethrowers (why something called a 'Guardian' needed to be equipped with said weapon was not clear) and jetpacks, they were the friendliest faces of mechanacon armed forces.  Unless you got in the way of those flamethrowers.  Then they were<em>not.</em><br/><br/>The second will be detailed later, but what is important here is the Dreadnought, the thing on its way towards Southwind Point.  Dreadnoughts were large, bigger than a small house, and utilized for intimidation, crowd control, and siege warfare.  Their size, power, and armor make them especially good at destroying large, stable structures - such as buildings or fortifications.  What was more, Dreadnoughts tended to operate with Kanissian infantry support, since they were...shall we say, rather lacking in the cognitive function.<br/><br/>Outside, and walking amongst the buildings of Southwind Point, Lucas also noted the clouds of sand rising into the air, something that hadn't been there before.  And while he could not see yet what was the source...<br/><br/>...he was already curious, and moving to see what the source was.  He heard no sandstorm wind, after all.  Climbing to the top of a nearby building, he spotted the Kanissian Dreadnought.  "Well, crap," Lucas sighed.  If it wasn't enough to have not one but<em>ten</em>active sets of pursuers after your ass, there were the standard threats of the world of Ghostfield.  This far out, anything Kanissian had to be part of the KEC - the guys whose job it was to patrol 'the furthermost outer reaches of our great Empire.'<br/><br/>Even though the Empire was a good continent away, or should be.  Standard practice was that wherever there was a Dreadnought, you either had a handful of Guardians, or more commonly a set of KEC faceless goons lead by a sergeant or some other barely-faced NPC.  Right, well, time to get down from here.  Now, the problem was, getting up was easy, but for Lucas, the reverse was a bit more difficult.  So you might imagine...<br/><br/>"Whoaaaaaaaaaa~"<br/><br/>SPLAT.  Except not splat.  More like...sploof?  Because whatever it was Lucas had landed on, it was not hard, but not sand-soft, either...it was...oh.  A person.