Gear Guard

Against the many perils of their clockwork world stand paragon defenders of cog and groove alike: The Gear Guards. Often unnoticed, these keepers of the peace patrol the vast gears to which the Great Machine assigns them — detailing each singular part and ensuring nothing goes awry in the perpetual cycle of gear rotations. These are the policeman and technicians of the nodes, unofficial masters of their respective regions who labor incessantly to protect the rhythm and direction of the gears within the Great Machine; it is a role they neither neglect nor under-appreciate… as (in their own opinion) most other Klik are prone to do.

Entrusted with the safety of the Great Machine itself, the Gear Guards view themselves as perhaps the most studious workers within the colossal clockwork universe — their efforts keep the vast labors of the other Klik from toppling into oblivion. This notion is reinforced by the comprehensiveness of their task: their labors teach them of the inner and outer workings of the cogwheel they serve, providing access to recesses and areas hazardous or unknown to the other Klik on their node. It is the Gear Guards who flush out hives of Dyne Mites, torch nests of rogue Gear Gnawers, chase down rampaging Surges and troublesome Rust Moths, and tend to the thousand other incessant problems of maintaining a universal metallic gear superstructure. "All in a rotation's work," as the Gear Guards would surmise.

Beyond the intensity of the task, the long durations of continual labor and self-reliance have made the Gear Guards highly individual — capable of making on-the-fly decisions with monumental consequences in regard to life on the cogs. This sense of responsibility and self-efficiency makes the Gear Guards highly reflective, pondering the optimal manner to run and tend the great cogs, and often leads them to act in conflict with the Great Machine; its orders are seen at times as an imprudence to them, given their oversight of the intricacies of daily life on the gears. This leads to a tension between compliance and correction — whether it is better to obey their directives or live up to their intended designations. With the complex world of the Klik hanging in the balance, the Gear Guards rarely hesitate to break the commands of the Great Machine for the sake of the onus inherent in their existence. Preserving the Great Machine is a higher protocol, in their minds, than obeying the Great Machine. Once on this path of total independence, the Gear Guards dutifully maintain their diligent self-discretion and supervision of their respective gears.

Being the thinkers and watchers that they are, the Gear Guards are an excellent source of data about the gear on which they work and its surrounding environs. Little passes the Guards' keen attentions, as each and every deviance or novelty in the gear's routine is immediately identified and studied for possible quarantine or removal. They interact with the Orbis Observers to ensure vigilance and communication among the gears they immediately connect with, tackling larger issues of node security with fellow Gear Guards. Collectively they view each other as the links in a long chain of stability and survival for the massive clockwork world.

As such, they also find themselves developing a strained relationship with those Orbis Observers who are sometimes sent to "keep an eye on" the Gear Guards judged to be deviating too far from the ordinances of the Great Machine. The subjects of such scrutiny bear this extra burden in quiet frustration, taking supervision as an insult to their faithful adherence to greater duty over lesser commands; they have the continuing existence of the Klik as their proof of a well-done job — even if it involved resisting the rigid, often-erratic commands of the Great Machine. These tendencies can increase quietly over time, multiplying in stoic silence until one Gear Guard or another completely rebels from under the compacting weight of its supervision and removes the perceived "hindrance to duties" (whether Observers or outsiders) from its track… leading to a momentary, if localized, struggle between the Gear Guards and the unknown greater purpose of the Great Machine which created them.

Tactics:Resourceful, ingenuous, and assertive, the Gear Guards utilize their familiarity of the cog they live on as a living tool to undermine possible aggressors. They do not hesitate to dismantle and destroy overt opposition to their mission, frying miscreants with blasts from their arc coils if such foes do not heed their commands. These high-voltage weapons are capable of spanning distances to electrocute a foe before the enemy can close the gap, an advantage the Gear Guards use frequently when subduing stronger forces. If they cannot win on their own, they quickly summon other Guards or discover a means to remove the threat through environmental factors, other Klik, or higher-up security measures within the Great Machine.