I think I read this teenage book around 2010/12, and I don't have a huge amount to go on.
The main bad guys, the Phalanx (might be spelled slightly differently) are trying to get the main macguffins, some sort of gyroscope contraptions that possibly generate power. I seem to remember small sections, such as the phalanx having a huge, three armed one in their base, that generated their power. Possibly a ship's captain having one on his desk, and it burnt a hole in his ceiling, but those are more vague.
The book had small sections of "facts" about the phalanx and blueprints of the gyroscope things. I seem to remember that one page had a black and white illustration of some sort of tractor/bulldozer knocking over a load of trees. The main characters were possibly two teenagers: a guy and a girl. I seem to remember that it was maybe an inch, inch and a half thick, and it may have had a red cover with a dragon on it.
I was always slightly confused by it not explaining things, so it might have been the second book in a trilogy, but I don't think I ever checked that, so I could be wrong.