There was a little flicker in the air of the school hallway, just outside of Riya's room. Porter saw it from the corner of his eye and felt his body reacting. It was a strange feeling to not control his body, similar to when he had been fighting Ramirez, like an outsider looking in. He wasn't sure what he was in combat with this time though because there wasn't anything there, just that gleam. Yet he couldn't stop himself from stepping back and throwing out his arm.
Both he and Riya were shocked to find that Porter struck something. There was the sound of an object hitting the ground and the shimmering was back, a static flash in the shape of a human. It continued this time though, switching on and off between showing a humanoid shape and being invisible.
Baffled, Porter kicked his foot out towards the area and had it hit the mysterious thing as well and it produced an "Oomph" sound. The image stopped turning on and off and a human body was revealed lying on the ground in a white, skin-tight suit.
The person flipped up onto their feet and picked up a katana from the ground, holding it in front of them and ready to strike. "I don't know how you saw me." The voice from the assailant was deep and electronically distorted as it came out from behind a mask. "It does not matter though so long as the job is completed."
The katana lashed out and made an electric buzz as it passed by Porter's ear. He had rolled aside as the weapon had approached, not sure exactly how he had been able to predict and react to that attack so fast. The enemy seemed surprised as well, especially when Porter leaped up and threw his fist straight into their face. The enemy's head snapped back as Porter's knuckles cracked and bruised.
Riya, normally so shy and quiet, suddenly lashed out with her foot and met the back of the assassin's knee. The forces of the two strikes in opposite directions dropped the attacker immediately and they crumpled into a heap on the ground. Porter abruptly leaped onto him and started to pin the person down, knocking the katana aside and struggling to keep them from pushing something on their wrist.
The two continued their miniature battle until Riya dropped her History of Ishiyama textbook on the enemy's head and the impossibly thick book knocked them senseless. Porter rolled off breathlessly and lay on his back on the cold metal floor. He reached over and drew the mask off the assailant, revealing the mature face of a man in his mid-thirties, with handsome features in his jaw and nose and Porter saw Riya's cheeks go red a little at the sight.
"Who is this guy Riya?"
"I don't know, I've never seen him before." Riya shook her head in bewilderment. "But we should tie him up. I think I have something in my room we can use or at least can scrounge things together."
She looked over and saw Porter sleeping next to the man, a thin bit of drool already slipping out of his mouth. She sighed and looked down the hall, hoping that nobody would come down and see this as she began to drag both the bodies into her room, which took quite some time and effort for the thin girl.
* * * * *
Porter lazily opened his eyes on a soft bed, feeling his body relaxing so beautifully on the cushiony mattress. He sat up and rubbed his eyes before stretching, feeling good about starting a new day. And then he stayed there a bit in pause. This was not his bed. Or his room. Or a new day.
He saw Riya sitting in a corner watching him, with a middle-aged man next to her, equally staring at Porter. The two were each sipping from their own cups of tea and had seemed to stop in mid-conversation, like two elderly ladies who were being interrupted by an unexpected guest.
"You're awake," Riya said softly.
"Who's he?" Porter asked cautiously. He saw that one of the man's hands was chained to a support beam that stood in the middle of the room (as some of the residence rooms had these constructs taking up space in them) and his weapons were propped against the end of the bed and out of his reach. The students were possibly safe.
"Please, let me excuse myself from earlier." The man attempted to stand as best he could with his arrested situation and made a little bow. "I am Rick Deckard, Circuit Breaker." Porter's eyes went wide at hearing this. Circuit Breakers were a very legendary group of assassins and mercenaries who worked around the world. To have tea with one in your room was sheer madness! "I apologize for my actions in trying to..." Rick paused and searched for the right wording to finish but Porter beat him to it.
"To kill us."
"Well not entirely but yes. I am afraid I made a terrible mistake. I had no idea what a kind, sweet young lady this Riya is. Her compassion towards me has touched my heart. To show mercy to your killer..." He stopped again and wiped a little tear from his eye. "To show mercy why, it is such a noble and rare thing to do."
"Yes and often stupid," Porter snapped. "Riya what are you thinking? Leaving a guy like that in your room so casually!"
"Well, you always have to be respectful of those you welcome into your home Porter," Riya answered. "He is still a person."
"And I am forever in your debt, young lady. Your ways have shown me the error of my own. I wish to serve in whatever way possible for you." Rick gave another bow, this time to Riya.
Riya gave him a very warm smile back. "Thank you for that Rick. You're a very nice man. But I would like to know exactly why you were sent to do what you were doing."
"Well it's my job. I was hired by a company to bring you back to them, preferably alive but dead was acceptable, without anyone knowing." The Circuit Breaker surveyed the room in a bit of awe. He seemed to be so shocked by everything about Riya.
Riya's face grew dark at hearing the news. "A company you say? Which one exactly?"
"Well I'm not really supposed to divulge my employer's information..." Riya's shoulders and head drooped with disappointment and Rick stood up from his chair with an air of determination. "Bah, I cannot let such a kind girl down like this! It was a group called Omnicorp, a global megacorporation that supplies various products and weapons to the four countries."
"Yes I know who they are," Riya replied. They have a rival company, Bittel Inc. My father's company..."
Porter spit the tea back out he had just started drinking. "You're the daughter of Enver Bittel?! The rumours are true! Holy s-"
"Please Porter, keep quiet. I don't need everyone in the school finding this sort of stuff out. Let's just pretend that I'm the daughter of someone nobody knows."
Rick rubbed his chin in philosophical contemplation. "Then it makes sense for them to go after you like this, trying to kidnap you for ransom or kill you to hurt your father. But I'm afraid I have some bad news." The two teens stopped their discussion to stare at the Circuit Breaker. "While I am not going to do anything to you anymore, there is still a file for request submitted to the main Circuit Breaker headquarters and so long as it is not fulfilled they will keep sending more of us after you."
"That is an issue," Riya said quietly. "Is there any way to get rid of that file? Can you go and clear it?"
"Alas I do not have that kind of access to our systems," Rick answered.
"What if we go get rid of it?" Porter asked the question with a serious naive innocence and was met with complete prostration from Rick.
"Go in yourselves? Ha, impossible. First, I cannot reveal the location of the headquarters, even to one as sweet as Riya. Second, even if I did you would never survive, not even for a second. I am one of the lowest ranking soldiers and just taking down me required quite an effort from you two." Porter went to interject that it actually wasn't that hard to beat Rick but the man continued on. "But that does raise a different idea. It is possible for you to go to Omnicorp and take down the file from there by submitting a removal of the request. So long as it is sent from the same computer it should work."
"That would be like entering the hornet's nest." Riya frowned in frustration at being stuck and Rick tried to give her his most sympathetic look.
"What if we brought the others?" Porter perked up at his own idea. "We could get Ardwen to think out a strategy and Nami can run some analysis and Raul is a ninja so I'm sure he could help!"
"Why would they agree to help me?" Riya turned her head with a pout.
"Because..." Porter glanced towards Rick for some support but the man shrugged, not knowing any of these people intimately anyways. "Because we're all a squad now Riya. We have to work together to win our battles and if we lose you then we wouldn't be able to win anymore."
Riya's eyes softened at hearing this and a little light of hope returned to her face. "Oh Porter that's probably one of the sweetest things I've heard. Not the most but pretty high." Porter nearly fell off his seat hearing that second sentence.
"Yes and I can come with you as well!" Rick shouted with joy.
"Come on Riya, I'm sure they'll be overjoyed at a chance to help you!"
* * * * *
"So remind me again, why are we flying to Omnicorp?" Chase sat in the shuttle with his arms folded across his chest, his face in permanent displeasure.
"Yeah I'm kind of confused as to why we're doing this." Ardwen scratched his head and adjusted his glasses. "Especially when we had to be so sneaky about it in taking a ship out like this. You know we're not supposed to go down to Earth without special permission."
"Well this is important," Porter replied. "Riya is in danger so we need to save her."
"Yes but why are we coming along?" Chase snorted in derision.
"Chase how could you say that! Riya is one of the team now and not only do we have to stick together as a squad but we girls have to stick together as well!" Nami leaned over and gave Riya a giant hug that nearly crushed the thin girl, even though Nami was smaller than her.
"But we're not girls," Ardwen said in his continued confusion.
"Aren't you two boys supposed to be having some sort of contest for my affection? Why don't you get it by proving which one of you can be the hero and help save Riya?" Nami glanced over at Porter as she finished but he had drifted off to sleep and missed out on the potentially jealousy-inducing event.
"Of course I can save Riya!"
"Umm, sorry hothead but it takes brains to solve this problem."
"Yeah while you sit and think I'll go save the day!"
"Provided your head can fit through the door!" Before the two could start to kill each other Raul, who had been strategically seated between them, grabbed each one and held them back against the seat. Nami giggled a little at causing another fight as the shuttle continued to drift down through the clouds towards its destination.
The ship broke through into the lower atmosphere, descending into a torrent of rain from the clouds above. The sky around was dark and gloomy, punctured only by brief flashes of lightning that streaked past the windows. They were up in mountains right now and could see a shadow in their midst. There stood the Omnicorp building, an enormous steel mass that was partially a factory and yet also an office, rolled into one towering monolith that jutted out of the landscape in an effort to reach out into space.
The students brought the shuttle down slowly, with Rick controlling its every movement as he tried to be as stealthy as possible. They were landing a bit of a distance away from the place, though they knew they wouldn't be detected anyways. There were tons of other ships coming in and out of the area all the time. One more vessel slipping in there wouldn't change anything.
The group landed and huddled around in a circle of planning, each one staring at Ardwen. "Umm well, I mean if we're really going through with this, I guess we should split up into two teams then. One team will enter while the other remains in here as support." He looked around at the faces and pushed his glasses back up his nose. "I will stay back to oversee the group and provide strategic support. Nami can stay with me to give analysis. I suppose Riya will have to remain here as well for her own protection and to assist Nami and me. The rest of you are going to sneak in and have to work with us as we pull together some maps and plans. What's the objective again Porter?"
"We need to go to the main computer and send a request to repeal the file."
"Right, ok, sure, so you guys go...umm do that then I guess." Ardwen shrugged. It was the loosest strategy he had ever come up with.
"I believe I can be of some assistance in this matter then," Rick said.
"Yeah also, who is this guy?" Chase threw his thumb over his shoulder at Rick and raised an eyebrow.
"I am Rick Deckard, Circuit Breaker. I was originally tasked with the orders to capture Miss Bittel but her kindness showed me the error of my ways. I could not harm a lady such as her!" The group collectively rolled its eyes at him. "Now, I can go ahead and hook up my own equipment to the computer system in the building. From there I can download floor plans and give you access to the security cameras and some of the systems. I also brought these for us all." He held out a handful of sunglasses, each one having ear buds at their ends. "These will provide everyone with visual feedback and relays, as well as connect us on a communication network. I trust that those of you staying in the ship will have some computers on you?"
Nami and Ardwen simply nodded dumbly. Everyone took a pair of glasses and put them on, their vision suddenly coming to life with radar, signal strength, and information about everything they were looking at.
"Not so fast young students," a familiar voice declared. Everyone looked down towards the end of the ship where Mr. Shotuku stood triumphantly, with Gretta peering out from behind him.
Porter moaned and turned to Chase angrily. "I thought you checked the ship to make sure it was empty!?"
"I did! All there was was this big crate filled with slippers or something..." Chase trailed off as the group gave him a stare. "What?"
"Please Mr. Shotuku, we have to do this, for Riya," Porter pleaded. "Don't send us back to the academy!"
"Of course not! I cannot believe you would all go off on a little adventure like this and not bring your favourite teacher along to help you!" Everyone took their eyes off the elderly man and started looking around the ship innocently, mumbling things about how Shotuku was clearly their favourite and they had been forgetful.
"What about Gretta then?" Ardwen asked.
"I just came along to see what you guys were doing! I'm always missing out on everything it seems." Gretta gave them a little pouty face as her eyes filled with sadness.
"Very well, she can stay here with Nami and Riya," Ardwen continued. "Then it's settled. We'll all stay here while you three go into the base, working with Rick over there, and try to do that thing with the computer to save Riya."
"You couldn't have explained that better could you geek?" Chase muttered under his breath. A slipper zipped through the air and glanced off of Chase's jaw, ending any future fights. The side of the ship opened and the four stepped out, each looking over their shoulder at the group inside waving at them. It could be quite awhile before they got to see them again...
* * * * *
Ochenkov crept along the metal walls of the base. He had descended the ladder from the doorway in the snow, only to find a labyrinth underneath it all. Everywhere he went seemed to be filled with the same grey hallways, each one stretching on endlessly with a plethora of locked doors down its sides and hallways sprouting out in all different directions.
Every turn he took went nowhere. Each door he tried yielded nothing. He felt like it was a plummet into madness, that he was slowly getting locked away from nature and going deeper towards the heart of a mechanical monster. And every so often he would find more soldiers in the black outfits. He took special care to avoid them now though, not wishing to bring an entire base down on his head if he was discovered.
Even as such a large, burly man, he could find ways to hide. When it was warmer in the north there were some sparse forests and he had had to train himself at one point to hunt within them, to become a master at blending in with every little shadow that crawled along the ground. And now he too crawled.
He tried another door and found this one unlocked, to his relief. The door hissed open with a sound familiar to everyone living in this era. To think that when he had first heard the sound of a door opening he had been so terrified of it. Now it was natural to him. The wilderness was being tamed.
Inside was a security room with a small desk and numerous screens displaying feeds from various cameras around the base. On the desk there was a cup of coffee, half-drunk, meaning that someone was normally in this room and was momentarily out, probably to relieve themselves a bit. That gave Ochenkov an unknown amount of time. He couldn't waste any of it.
He frantically started scanning the desk for anything he could use, pushing aside different papers and bits of garbage until he uncovered something useful at last. It was a security card, used for unlocking doors throughout the facility. This would be key to leaving this place.
Next he took to the screens, trying to study them for a way out. He couldn't get anywhere though. Each hall looked like the last. Some of the rooms were intriguing though, filled with different things ranging from simple computers to full medical equipment, to unique weapon racks. He started looking through the papers again until he found what he needed: a floor plan.
It seemed this place had just the one level, but it was enormous. Ochenkov kept unfolding the map and finding bigger and bigger spaces. One hallway lead into an auditorium. Another held a hangar bay. He discerned where he was located and plotted the best route back to the exit. He didn't need to be here any longer. This place was creepy and swarming with hostile soldiers. Whenever he got to somebody he would have to tell them about this place as well, whatever it was.
As he went to leave, something on the screen caught his eye. One of the rooms was so bizarre looking he couldn't help but take note of it. He came up to the screen to get a closer look, trying to comprehend. It was dim, with lights placed around in certain areas, enough to highlight a tube or wire hanging down or a walkway running around the centre. There seemed to be something in the middle of it all, something he couldn't quite make out. But he wanted to know what it was. There was a sick curiosity in him that compelled him to find out more.
On the corner of the screen was the room number for identification and Ochenkov scanned the map for it. After some intense scrutiny he saw that the room was actually not too far from where he was, just a couple doors down. He glanced back up at the security videos and saw his hallway empty in that direction. Then he heard the hiss of the door opening...
* * * * *
Grimsley coughed. He sputtered. His lungs felt like they were filled with hot honey, a fluid stuck in there that he had to remove from his body immediately. It just had to come out.
That was also when he discovered he couldn't move his right arm. His left came up above him and he used it to beat his own chest in an effort to knock the honey out of his body but he couldn't seem to get it no matter how hard he tried. And still that arm wouldn't move.
His legs could though. He could feel them and they responded to his mental commands. They stretched, they wiggled, they went up and down. It was then that he realized his eyes were shut tight and the world was black. He needed to open them.
His vision was filled with the cockpit of his tank, of the Apocalypse. One of its few screens was cracked and was showing distorted images of what was outside. And what was outside looked like hell. The ship had collapsed around him in a twisted wreckage of metal and wires mixing in with bodies. Debris had fallen all around his vehicle, and on top of it.
He had to turn away from looking at it. Instead he looked towards his right arm, and found it pinned in a skewed manner between the seat and the controls to the right. It must have gotten stuck there during the impact and twisted around badly. He attempted to remove it but grimaced from the searing pain that shot through his body. Looks like it would stay there for a while yet.
He gunned the engine and it responded immediately. Grimsley gave out an enormous sigh of relief. At least he wasn't trapped inside a broken tank. He could still maneuver it. With one arm he did his best to steer the vehicle and pulled it out from the wreck. He didn't go very far before he came up against a wall of even more debris and he wondered if he would have to blast his way out.
Instead he turned the tank slowly and looked for some alternate means of escaping this deadly prison. There was a tunnel, the remnants of the hallway, which had only partially collapsed. It would be a scrape but he could get through. He pushed the engines and sent his own mass of metal into the ship's, ploughing aside the loose impediments as he drove down the hall.
As he went he watched and very nearly wept. The amount of destruction was unfathomable and it was on such a grand scale. No matter where he looked he found the dead or dying. Only sometimes would he find someone limping along the same path as him and he passed them in mutual silence, neither wishing to speak of what had happened.
And Grimsley thought of Gretta. And of Aunt Shauna. And of how close he had come to breaking his promise to them. And even Raven flashed through his head, but she was not in a rain of flowers. Instead she was standing amidst everything that surrounded him, looking sad and angry at him, as though this war was entirely his fault and his doing. Had he never gone off to the army, the shuttle would never have crashed. These people would all be alive again.
His heart grew darker as he continued to descend into these sombre thoughts. Darker and colder. Like a callus on the skin, the more of a beating it took the harder it scabbed over, until it was turning him into someone jaded. Uncaring. Indifferent. Angry.
War was harsh if this was the toll. To him, it had been heroes and games. Even the rescue of his friends had been a timely event. Nobody had been in any real danger at the time, or so he thought. But now he looked back at the corpses of Goliaths on the ground. Of the absolute destruction that Porter had delivered in his killing blow. For every hero on one side of this war, there was a dead person on the other.
The tank burst through the broken remains of a wall and pulled outside. The sudden burst of sunlight nearly blinded Grimsley as he viewed it through the screens, saved only by the cracked image. Behind him were the smouldering remains of the enormous ship he had travelled on. Now he was free. Free on the battlefield though.
Grimsley looked out across the plains before him. War was in front of him. The transport had crashed just outside the battle zone and he was looking right into its evil face. It was like nothing he had ever seen or imagined. The level of killing, of violence, was impossible to comprehend. Little soldiers running past massive battlesuits, most of them being crushed by them or hit by their missed shots as the Goliaths fought one another.
It was as though the rest of the battle didn't exist outside of those warmachines. Each one was fighting a different war against the opposition, and the soldiers beneath their feet were as nothing to them. Through a Goliath, a single person could kill hundreds of others in a one-sided slaughter. Grimsley's jaw clenched at the thought and he patted the tank.
He had the solution though, the common man's cure. For each man who had been killed in this crash he would bring about the death of an enemy Goliath. And he would not stop until each of their souls was vindicated and their memory salvaged. War had done this, had broken him down and shocked him in so many ways. War was changing him...
* * * * *
Ochenkov's breath stopped as the door moved. He rolled under the desk as best he could, murmuring a prayer in thanks to the large size of the thing. The soldier sauntered in casually, grabbing up his coffee and plopping down in the seat. Ochenkov's cold, hard eyes glinted out from underneath his hiding spot as he watched intently. How long did he have before the soldier looked this way? Or put his feet under the desk?
The tubes were being pulled out, along with a needle. This one would be tough. To take out this security guard without him hitting some sort of alert button would be nearly impossible. But it was possible. Just a tiny fraction of a chance, but still entirely possible. You just had to do it right.
Silently, Ochenkov wrapped the tubes loosely around the man's legs as he sat there. He was clearly absorbed in the screens above and in his own coffee, but Ochenkov made sure the tubes were soft against the clothing. Provided the soldier didn't suddenly glance down, Ochenkov would be fine. He tied up the tube and slowly drew it tighter until it bound the man's legs almost together. He then aimed the needle towards the enemy's knee and prepared to strike.
There was a shriek of pain and surprise from above and the soldier leaped up out of his seat, grabbing at his injured knee. His legs caught in the tubes though and he toppled backwards awkwardly. As soon as Ochenkov saw the fall begin he was out from under the desk, needle gripped tightly in hand. He jumped atop the man, pinning him down, and drove his weapon into the enemy's heart as hard as he could.
By his own strength, Ochenkov's blow cracked the soldier's ribs, letting the needle push even further into the heart. Ochenkov withdrew the needle as the man gasped and moaned in pain. He started to cough until blood was on his lips, coming up from his throat and his eyes rolled back in his head.
Ochenkov dragged the body under the desk and left it there, checking to see if his hallway was still empty. It was time to take a look into that bizarre room. He slid out through the door and pressed himself along the wall, counting the doors he passed as he flipped his head back and forth to look for any other guards.
Finally he arrived at the door he wanted and tapped the card against it. The door unlocked in a flash and was open. Ochenkov listened to it slide closed behind him. The bizarre lights he had seen before provided a little better lighting if you were actually in the room and Ochenkov made out a large shape in the centre. It seemed to be an enormous, round vat with a lid on top, sticking up out of the ground. He pressed up against the glass of it and tried to discern what was on it.
Suddenly a human face drifted by, wreathed in pain but frozen in position, eyes glazed over white. Ochenkov drew back at the scare and had to steady his nerves a bit before he could look again. The face was indeed human, and female, or at least somewhat female. Many portions of it had metallic, robotic parts in it which either showed on top or had a synthetic skin over it, which was starting to peel away. Ochenkov wasn't sure now if it was actually human at all, or a cyborg or android instead.
He moved away from the tube with a shudder and looked around the rest of the room. There was only one computer at the side, the monitor humming with life but showing a blank image. He approached and pushed some keys, hoping the unlocked computer would come out of standby mode.
Instead, the voice of a woman came out from it, electronic in nature but with some faint human qualities. "Please state the passcode." Ochenkov stared dumbly at the screen. A passcode? He didn't have one of those. There hadn't been anything on one in the other room. He was stuck it seemed. But his curiosity would not rest, especially not after seeing the person in the tube, and he glanced over his shoulder to see if it was still there. The face was gone now, having moved up a little and it was just the stomach there, looking somewhat human other than a couple metallic spots.
A weird image crossed through Ochenkov's mind and he thought back to the message Sigmeund had given him to deliver, a secret phrase he had never quite understood. "The sins of this war will ravage the landscape," he said.
The screen lit up with a massive "Welcome" message before moving on to various menus. There was a title at the top that Ochenkov read with growing confusion. The Syn Initiative it read. Syn? Or did they misspell sin? Or maybe it was short for something. Synthetic? Synthesis? There were too many options.
Ochenkov selected a field titled Filename: Syn but was prompted to input another password. When the previous phrase didn't work he had to give up and move down. This process continued until he reached one called Log: Allyson. It opened up to reveal three different audio files, each with a date and time attached to them. They were fairly recent files. He selected the first one and a male voice came out from the computer:
"We started her up again today. But it didn't go very far. The eyes flutter, they always do, and then the body goes into epileptic shock. It's depressing to see this happen so frequently, especially after the amount of work we have put into her. Allyson, or Alpha now as we have renamed her, was such a big project of mine. The others were monumental of course, but this one was always so much bigger. But of course there's an obvious reason for that. She was so close to my heart, to my soul. I am still so torn inside over what we have done to her, to that which I once called my own flesh and blood. Now I don't know what she is anymore or what to call her. Alpha doesn't seem right to me but she is no longer Allyson. Still, I want a breakthrough with her. If we don't get results soon, I fear we may pull the plug on her. They're too willing to quit up there, so ready to throw away each experiment and move on as though each one holds no meaning to us. So we're under pressure here. We have no choice. But all she does is flutter her eyelids. I fear that the next time the jolt might actually kill her and so I am becoming more reluctant to have these test runs. She needs more fixing in between or she will never be ready. And she certainly won't be able to go out and fight the Jahari like this. No, it looks like she is going nowhere for now, as much as I wish otherwise. It seems these days like Sigma was less of a scientific breakthrough and more of a miracle, sheer chance that happened when all the pieces fell in the right place. Can we ever reproduce it? Or will we just have to use him alone? Will that even be enough against something like the Jahari? Considering the plans that have been laid out for these things, we're going to need more than one success but I just can't see it happening, certainly not with Alpha here. But I have heard there is another, a different one, who is showing signs of progress. I think it is Syn but I'm not quite sure. I leave this place less and less these days as I grow increasingly worried over Allyson. Oh, there I go again, saying her name. I guess I can't get over it. It's so tough to let go of one so close to you, especially when they're...your own...I mean I don't want to go there anymore. What's done is done. This is how it must be in the end, for the future of the world and the betterment of humanity. The emperor guides my hand."
The track ended and the silence of the room bore down on Ochenkov's mind. This thing behind him...was it Allyson? The remains of an experiment gone wrong? But an experiment in what? That word within there, Jahari, it scared him again. For people to be speaking of them so lightly, to even mention fighting them! Hah! Impossible ideas. Fighting the mythological was insanity. But what about the other word in there, Sigma? Something about it seemed so familiar to him, yet he couldn't quite align it. All this information in his brain was skewing his thought patterns.
There was one phrase though, above all others, that stood out to Ochenkov and left him holding his forehead in thought. "The emperor guides my hand." What could that mean? Who could that be? There was no emperor, not in the Enian Federation, or Artisan or anywhere else. Nobody had the title of emperor. Perhaps a nickname for the Kaiser? Unlikely.
Ochenkov only knew one thing for certain out of this. Something about this place was very, very wrong and Ochenkov didn't like it. But he needed to know more! He selected the next audio track and closed his eyes to listen to the voice once again...
A/N: A sudden adventure into the Omnicorp has the squad back on Earth, but without Goliaths! And just what is going on in the secret base of the black-suited men?
Thanks to everyone for the support as Sigma/Star keeps going. I love writing this series more than ever these days, and it's all thanks to you.