The story opens to a mysterious observer watching the televised commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Locust War, led by Prime Minister Jinn. Jinn praises the bravery of the veteran gears present, but laments Marcus Fenix’s absence from the ceremony.
The viewer switches to another screen, watching foreigners JD, Del, Kait and Oscar Diaz. The four plan to invade a gear settlement, uninhabited and still under construction, in order to steal a manufacturer for their village. Protecting the settlement are automated robots known as Deebees. Fighting through the city, several coincidences on the part of the city’s machines help the team reach the city center, where they recover the manufacturer. However, they are confronted by Prime Minister Jinn, transmitting via Deebee, who angrily accuses them of taking his people. Before anything else can be said, the conversation is interrupted by a wagon destroying Jinn’s Deebee. The team escapes the settlement and returns to their village with the Fabricator, but is quickly attacked by more of Jinn’s robots. The Deebees are repelled, but Reyna, village leader and Kait’s mother, is furious with JD and Del for inciting Jinn. They try to explain what Jinn had said earlier, but to no avail.
At night, as JD and Del work to restore power, Kait notices strange creatures in the village. Chaos erupts when the creatures begin kidnapping the villagers. Reyna Barricades JD, Del and Kait on the inside, then engages a humanoid creature in hand-to-hand combat, managing to sever its hand. Oscar tries to help, but they are both incapacitated. When the three emerge, everyone in the village is gone. Del compares the creatures’ numbers to a swarm. After JD finds his severed hand and cuts a crystal, Del suggests taking him to a specialist: JD’s estranged father, Marcus Fenix.