Sigma/Star

Chapter 77: Tendrils of Agony

Sigma let out a sigh and his mind began to hack into the Jabberwocky's control systems. Syn lazily shifted an eye downwards to watch the approaching general. As soon as he recognized her, his demeanour brightened a little. "Look Sigma, the playmates come to me now! They love me!"

"No more playing today Syn. We had our agreement, it's over now." As Irina finished her ascent, the movement systems in her Goliath locked, shut down by Sigma's remote access. Her battlesuit immediately sent out a distress signal to be retrieved, all outside of her control. "Go home Irina," Sigma commanded, attempting to soothe the anger of the general. A little portion of him felt pity for her, connecting with her terrible loss. The rest of Sigma was busy putting priorities first, with the number one being leaving as quickly as possible.

"You will not be leaving here alive you monster," Irina growled, her barbaric side taking over her mind. "I will kill you and eat your metal heart."

Syn did a little backflip at hearing this, a beaming smile plastered across his face. "I like this one Sigma, I like this one a lot. Turn her back on and let me toy with her for a little before we have to go."

The android shook his head for a response, folding his arms like a strict parent. He wasn't sure how it had come to this but he seemed to have some sort of minimal sway over Syn's actions at this moment. "Turn her back on?" Irina echoed. She tried to manipulate the controls on her machine, realizing only then that she had been shut down. "No..." she mumbled, her anger beginning to burn out and turn into sadness. The two mixed together into a crying rage in her cockpit. "No, no, no, no, no! No, turn it on! I must get my hands on his throat! I have to feel his body crushed between my fingers! No!"

"I'm leaving Syn, and so are you." Sigma turned his back on Irina, already detecting the approaching vessels meant to pick up both her and the rogue cyborgs. "Our time is running out here now that the Jahari are gone. I'm back to public enemy number one."

"You see what I'm talking about?" Syn began babbling again, floating alongside Sigma as the two drifted away from the enraged Irina. "You think and think and throw fun out the window. I could have my fingers in her cheeks right now, drawing little red lines on her body and feeling the warmth on my skin." Sigma paused for a bit as he heard the last part of the sentence, wondering if Syn actually felt anything or if it was all in the psycho's mind. "You could be there two, slicing her apart with that little laser of yours. It would be much neater and cleaner but the artistry, oh the artistry! It would be so wonderful the pain you could inflict with your weapons."

Sigma stopped and held his hand up to Syn's face, the palm glowing gently with a pulsing purple light. "Enough out of you, I have to get the hell out of here and you're done here too. For now you can run free but you can't go back there." Syn nodded, hanging his head as he sulked about the situation. With things finally silent, Sigma could hear the remains of the battlefield far beneath him, and the stirrings of the earth as the Jahari retreated underground. There was one noise in the middle though that did not belong, something beneath the dirt that was going the wrong way, approaching quickly, bursting up through the earth.

* * * * *

Ur'wrath smelled them. He could taste their metal bodies in the air that filtered down through the cracks above his head. The initiation force had been successful, drawing out the two android weapons like insects to light. Yes there had been horrific casualties but the victory that could be insured if Ur'wrath killed the two cyborgs was worth every fallen Jahari soldier. A million more lives could be tossed away if it meant winning was guaranteed. And they had far more than a million more lives at their disposal.

The Bahari passed through the earth as though it were water, his massive body hardly noticing the dirt he pushed aside. The sun hit his eyes, temporarily blinding him as he adjusted his vision from the dark light. His momentum carried him up into the air for a moment before he felt his feet touching the ground once again. His sight reset, letting him survey the mass destruction from the recent conflict. Ur'wrath held a moment of silent respect for his fallen comrades but the hive urged him forward, absorbing his emotions and spreading them to each other Jahari mind. They would all mourn together, taking out the burden of emotional weight and distributing it among the masses so that each carried a tiny piece of feeling with them.

Above in the air were the two androids. The hive recognized them, identified them for Ur'wrath, and advised him. While his consciousness may have been independent, he still listened to the whispers in his ears and followed them diligently. While he may have collected his own knowledge, the hive still knew much more than he ever would and so he always bowed in respect to it. In this case, he was being shown the enemies were indeed within his grasp. How he chose to deal with them, however, was entirely up to him, and for this he was eternally grateful to the hive's choosing of him.

Ur'wrath raised his hands up into the air and holes opened in the centres of his palms, revealing rows of teeth travelling down the interior of the arm. From the middle of the holes came a multitude of tendrils with tiny barbs at the ends. They writhed in the air, sprouting outwards and upwards until Ur'wrath directed them towards his targets. As if they had their own minds, the tentacles shot up towards the cyborgs, each one trying to move just slightly faster than the others, wrapping around one another and weaving in between themselves. They were hungry to taste the metallic flesh of Sigma and Syn.

A/N: Ur'wrath has finally found the Sigma to begin a unique conflict between monster and machine. Can Sigma escape in time from the Jahari and the Enian forces, or will he be brought back into submission?