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.

Ochenkov barely managed to sprint the remaining distance, often tripping up and tumbling as his tired feet let him down again and again. But he held tight to the information he was holding as he rolled through snow until he finally burst out at the entrance to the town.

It was a quaint village built out of lumber and mixing with more modern metals. Some of the buildings had steel fronts to them or trimmings at least. It seemed that each time a building started to fall apart it would be fixed with more modern materials, but until then it would remain constructed of its original parts, regardless of the inefficiency. There were many small towns like this all over the Enian Federation which slipped through the cracks of modernization and lived simple existences.

Much of the town was occupied by hunters in order to survive and it was on full display. Instead of stores, it was hunting lodges and clubs, and they each put out their finest pelts and meats for sale. Others were peddling different fruits and nuts and vegetables that had been collected from nearby, while still more were vendors of herbs and spices. The place filled Ochenkov with a sense of his own home, and he eagerly sucked in the feeling with a deep breath.

As he sauntered in, eyes began to follow him and people started coming out into the quiet streets, murmuring amongst themselves and sending waves of whispers through the growing crowd as Ochenkov passed. It was a well designed town though; it had been split into two major roads that intersected in the middle in a flawless cross and at the heart was a church of Enia.

This wasn't surprising to Ochenkov at all. Many of the smaller towns within the Enian Federation were run by their church, rather than by government officials. The priests and ministers served double duty as mayor and parliament, for who better to look after a village than the purest people in it?

It was there that Ochenkov would find safety and solace, where he would be greeted with the mercy and hospitality of those who followed the religion of Saint Ishiyama and Saint Enia. The tribesman had a smile on his face. He liked this town very much. It was almost like his own home. And he continued to smile as the first rock hit him on the head. His vision started to blur and darken as a rush of people started to crowd around him and overtake him...

* * * * *

Christian stood on the charred earth at the edge of an enormous hole in the ground. Cold northern winds blew ashes through the air and they danced around the Martyr General as he stood. One of his subordinates slinked over and hastily threw a fur coat around Christian's shoulders before backing away.

Just a few days ago, this was a laboratory. This was a functioning facility where many breakthroughs had been born. It had been the place where Christian had first laid out his plans and thought about what he would need to do to achieve his goals. It was where Sigma had been born, and Syn, and where Alpha had died, the last Enigma Soldier remaining to be birthed and brought to life.

It hurt Christian to think of it all but his face remained resolute. Those around him saw nothing but his cold hard eyes set within his handsome visage. He could only hope that when Sigma had come here, as had been reported, he hadn't downloaded anything before making this grand exit. At best, Sigma had come in a rage and destroyed everything he could. At worst, he was more cunning than that and had taken information to use against Christian.

"Sir, Ochenkov has not been found in the area, but the external security cameras picked up someone coming through here before-" Christian held up a hand to silence the messenger. So, Ochenkov had been through here. Had he gone in and out before Sigma had arrived or did he completely pass by without even noticing? A tribal warrior like him? No, he would have found this place.

"What was the time of the explosion?" Christian's words were more frostbitten than his soldier's noses.

"It was at roughly fourteen hundred hours sir, four days ago."

"And when was Ochenkov caught on tape?"

"Around noon sir, the same day."

Now things became interesting. Ochenkov had come by just before Sigma. But had he stayed around long enough to be part of that blast or was the rat of the snow still wriggling around these parts? And now there was a new fear: how much did Ochenkov learn before things had gone to hell?

"Mobilize a squad of six men. If Ochenkov came by here, he did it heading south, not north to his people as we once thought. He is heading towards civilization. I want this unit to track him and bring him back to me, by heading south to the next town."

"And what will you be doing sir?"

"Me?" A sinister smile slowly crept onto Christian's face. "Why, the Kaiser and I have a date with the Jahari."

A/N: General Marian is finally entering the fray? But can his legendary machine stand up to the power of Sigma and Syn? And what of Ochenkov in the mountains? Or the Jahari? And how will Porter and the CRU handle all of this?!?!

Check out the new author's blog at goliathgarage.blogspot.ca or look for Goliath Garage on tumblr!