Sigma/Star

Chapter 103: Reunion

Across the frozen battlefield of the north, the Jahari began a slow retreat. At first, it was barely noticeable. They ceased to pour out of the earth, they stopped advancing towards the human forces. Then, they began to step back towards the holes, disengaging from skirmishes to return to the earth from whence they came. The Bahari pulled back, and the massive Mahari sluggishly began to change directions. It was a mass exodus, a command from the greater mind that the Jahari must leave the area at once.

Brigadier General Cross Marian hardly noticed the sudden shift in movements from the enemy forces. He was too preoccupied with the scene that had unfolded in front of him, and he only finally recognized what was happening as reports came in from nearly every screen in his cockpit. "Continue the retreat," Marian ordered, suddenly taking charge. "Do not follow the Jahari and do not engage with them. Collect the wounded and begin reclamation of the fallen."

Victory cheers began to spread through the army, rippling between Goliaths and down to the soldiers at their feet. It was contagious jubilation, spreading across the warzone and touching every single warrior. Marian leaned back in his chair, well aware of the threat that Syn still posed. He didn't want to send his men to their deaths trying to stop the android, and he knew he wouldn't have enough strength left to fend off Syn like last time. These machines grew more powerful the longer they were awakened, and Marian had only beaten Syn when he had first been activated, leaving much doubt in the general's mind. Sigma seemed to be in a temporarily terrible state of mind as well, struggling to stand as the effects of the broadcast device wore off.

"This was interesting, general." Syn finally spoke, slowly and carefully as he picked the right words to describe the situation. He slowly rose up in the air until he could hover in front of the Archangel's head and stare into its cameras. "This world is fascinating, the things we can do in it, the death we can achieve. I think, in the future, things will be much more fun if you're alive. I need you to keep me entertained when those playthings come back. Then you can bring all your toys back and we can all have a laugh together."

"You sicken me," Marian snorted. He had put in a request to comb through all databases within the Enian Federation in order to discover more about Syn from before he had been converted into an Enigma Soldier, in order to better understand his motives and behaviours. But what they had found out about Lance Kreidler had been more disturbing than what he had done as Syn. It was nothing but insanity, no logic or patterns, and it would never had stopped had the police not gotten as involved as they had. The amount of resources that had been pulled in order to stop Kreidler's killing sprees was record breaking, and it had quickly become obvious as to why he had been a prime candidate for the Enigma Project. Everything Lance Kreidler stood for, every action he took, went against every Marian had ever believed in or fought for. His stomach flipped just looking at the grimace on the cyborg's face, no different from the one he had had as a man.

"Well what if you sicken me?" Syn laughed, clutching his sides as though they could hurt. "Have you ever thought that to the twisted, evil people you see in the world, you are the real disgusting existence? Which one is right? Why do you get to be the correct mentality here hmm? You think that popular opinion is the right opinion but I think I am just having fun. My life is far more free than anything you could ever imagine. I do what I want, I enjoy what I do, and I live without boundaries. I do anything, I go anywhere. What do you do with your day? Are you not bound to all your rules and laws and thoughts and beliefs? Must you pray every morning, do you have to follow a dogma? Am I the evil mind, or is it all of you? From both perspectives, we are all wrong at the same time."

"I don't have to agree with the babbling mouth of a madman."

"Then I do not have to play with the boring mouth of a sane one. We will have to play again sometime, when things get interesting again." Before another word could be spoken, Syn took off into the air, a streak of white light fading behind him. Sigma had recovered enough to watch the android ascend, well aware that it would be a futile chase given his current condition.