Deuce of Gears

The **Deuce of Gears** is a jeng-zai card from the Gears suite. It is infamous for having been used as the personal emblem of General Shuos Jedao.

## Description

The Deuce of Gears is the second card in the Gears suite. It symbolizes a "cog in the machine," an insignificant pawn of powers beyond one's control. Reversed, it connotes devious plans and the breaking of barriers of possibility.

The card traditionally features two interlocked toothed gears, one larger and one smaller.

Like the rest of the Gears suite, the Deuce was originally associated with the Nirai and is depicted in their colors, silver on black. It was not considered particularly unlucky until its use as Jedao's personal emblem irrevocably associated it with the brilliant career that ended in his treasonous massacre at Hellspin Fortress.

## History

General Shuos Jedao chose the Deuce of Gears as his personal emblem due to its symbolism of a "cog in the machine," a show of submission to Kel Command as a Shuos high officer seconded to the Kel. His emblem displayed the Deuce in Shuos colors, gold on a field of red, with a lightning-crack through the leftward larger gear.

Jedao's successful career irrevocably associated the Deuce with his legacy. After the Hellspin Fortress massacre, jeng-zai card designers tied themselves in knots trying to design versions of the Deuce that did not evoke his emblem.

During the Siege of the Fortress of Scattered Needles, Jedao and Brevet General Kel Cheris used the null emblem as their banner instead of the Deuce. They subsequently used the Deuce as a firing pattern in their assault on the Fortress's shields, a move Commander Kel Nerevor felt was "practically bannering the Deuce."

After Jedao took over General Kel Khiruev's Swanknot swarm, the swarm bannered the Deuce instead of Khiruev's Swanknot. Jedao subsequently used the Deuce to head propaganda broadcasts. As the swarm pursued an invading Hafn swarm, a system with a moon-city and orbital station broadcast the Deuce to deter the Hafn from attacking them by evoking association with Jedao, despite the danger of being scoured by the hexarchate afterwards.

Resurrected nine years later, Jedao remembered the Deuce only as a Nirai-associated jeng-zai card. Hexarch Nirai Kujen explained its history as his emblem and advised him to resume using the gold-on-red version. Jedao did, but ordered the emblem displayed upside down to confuse his enemies when his command moth bannered before battle.

Jedao later removed the Deuce of Gears from the jeng-zai deck given to him by Commander Kel Talaw, rendering the deck unfit for divination or fair gameplay.

## Trivia

* The Deuce was engraved on the grip of Jedao's favored personal firearm, the Patterner 52. It was also engraved in a bronze bowl used for a place setting in the black cradle facility and displayed on the door to Jedao's quarters on the *Revenant*.
* Jedao knew a number of card tricks based around the Deuce of Gears. He taught some to High General Kel Anien and used to show them to Kujen.
* After the destruction of her swarm, Cheris scratched the Deuce of Gears into the deck of the cindermoth *Unspoken Law*, splitting the symbol with the characters for *1,082,771*, the sum of the casualties in the swarm and on Hellspin Fortress.
* Vahenz afrir dai Noum doubted that any Kel could be coerced to serve under the Deuce due to its connection to Jedao. However, General Khiruev's Swanknot Swarm subsequently did serve under the Deuce, as their antipathy for it could not overcome formation instinct.

## References

1. ↑ Jeng-zai: Gears
2. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 10
3. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 7
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
6. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 23
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 18
8. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 7
9. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 10
10. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
11. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 17
12. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 7
13. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 13
14. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 37
15. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 21
16. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 6
17. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 9
18. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 20
19. ↑ Revenant Gun, Chapter 7
20. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 23
21. ↑ Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 9