Sigma/Star

Chapter 33: Village of Intrigue!

The sky above Narrius flashed with streaks of purple and brilliant blinding shots of white as Syn and Sigma clashed in the air. The androids twisted acrobatically as they blasted each other with highly concentrated pulses of energy. General Marian watched it all from the bridge of his ship in disgust. Beneath the battling cyborgs, the rest of the field had become a graveyard for Goliaths; scraps of torn metal were strewn and arranged into a modern art display, while panicked pilots ran amongst them.

There had to be a solution to these two though. Marian was not about to lose everything he had ever built because a couple of overpowered machines were going on a rampage. He checked over the situation with his generals. He had four at command, two of which were still within the gates of Narrius, waiting. The other two were attempting to maintain order within the army as Sigma and Syn's battle erupted overhead.

It looked as though there was just one answer to all of this: Marian would have to come down. It had been many years since Marian's Goliath touched down on the field of battle but if it had to be done it would be.

Marian sent out the order for his Goliath to be prepared for war, much to the shock of the architect who received the command. Marian's battlesuit was legendary, even to the lowliest of citizens in the Enian Federation, and everyone knew that if his machine ever strode out to combat, then the battle would be ending soon.

The general had a fear though. Not of the two cyborgs flitting through the air. No, he was afraid of dragging out the enemy commander from his slumber, and Marian didn't want to know which one of the Artisan heroes was behind this particular army. If he brought out the Titanforge or Gigalith...well, things would end up quite rough for everyone involved and Marian wasn't sure he could guarantee the city would remain untouched.

He thought about all of this as an elevator descended into the special hangar where only his Goliath lay. The doors slid open to reveal the bastion of a church, lit only by the many hundreds of candles that were kept burning day and night. Different men in white robes drifted between pews, attending to the incandescent lights, cleaning, reading, or purifying.

There was no place on the ship holier than Marian's sacred hangar. Ancient chandeliers hung from the ceiling, with wooden marks of Ishiyama dangling down. Along the walls were bookshelves that nearly rose to the ceiling, with ladders on wheels getting the priests up and down. At the front of it all was an altar to address a gathering and behind that lay Marian's war machine, sitting in silence for so long now, waiting for the call of its master.

And the call had arrived. It was time for Marian to show himself in the theatre of war once again. It was time for the Archangel to rise...

* * * * *

Ochenkov stumbled through the drifts of snow, hardly able to keep himself upright anymore. He had been wandering for days since the accident at the lab, clutching the discs to his chest and pressing forward with the relentless drive to see justice done. He had to find somebody, somewhere, who he could take these to. Someone who would believe in him, someone who didn't trust a person like Christian from the start.

The battle with that robot, Sigma, had scared Ochenkov. Very few things could be listed by the tribesman as having terrified him in his life, but that was one of them. Such destructive force in something no bigger than Ochenkov. It was unnatural. Everything in that place had been and he wanted nothing to do with it. But if that was the future of the Enian Federation...well Ochenkov wondered if even the gods could protect them from that.

The general stepped out from the loose pine forest he had been traversing and fell to his knees in exhaustion. Up ahead of him he could make out a small town, with thin curls of smoke rising from the chimney stacks and inviting all who passed to come join the cozy lifestyle. He had found refuge at last.