Sigma Triad (first draft) Entry #1 (7/9/10)

Terios raced across the overgrown floor of Arbyrin Forest as fast as he could. Well, maybe not quite that fast, since as a Warrior from the Sigma family, he would quickly leave his companion behind if he ran at full speed. Terios appears to be a rather ordinary person; dark hair, light skin, neither very tall nor short, neither a youth nor yet in his prime, athletically built but not particularly muscular. His usual clothing is gray trousers and a white shirt with a black leather vest, a belt with a holstered projectile pistol and fully loaded replacement clips, and a short sword hanging from his back. He was already late for his noon appointment in the center of the forest, as the sun had just reached its height, and his companion, Pyrik, added to his frustration at with his constant questioning.


“Are you certain that this is not another trap?” Pyrik queried.

Terios took the risk of turning his head from the path to make eye contact with Pyrik. Pyrik is not a Sigma, but of the Maxentius family. However, he is Terios’s friend and comrade, and Terios considers him a brother in all but blood. He is young, not even in his twentieth year. He looks much like most members of the Maxentius family: pale skin, red hair, orange irises. He wears white trousers and a brown tunic, traditional Maxentius garb, to display that even though he travels with non-family, he has not forgotten who he is. He bears no weapons, for a Maxentius Warrior needs none. “The source seemed pretty trustworthy to me,” Terios replied to Pyrik’s query. “If you can’t trust your senses, what can you trust?”

“But you did a background check, right?”

He had not.

Terios did not want to seem incompetent in front of Pyrik (although he had shown incompetence to him multiple times in the past), so he dismissed this latest question with one of his own. “Where do you suppose Umbris got to?” he asked, referring to the third member of their team.

“I don’t know,” Pyrik replied, “but every second that he isn’t here is another second that he isn’t hurting me, so I’ll just enjoy it while I can.”

Just then, as if on cue, Terios seemed to feel a slight gust of wind, and he saw a suspiciously Pyrik-like blur flash past him, and a quick glance behind him confirmed what Terios already knew: Umbris had arrived.

Umbris Moonshadow is a person shrouded in mystery. Terios knew nothing about him, when they forged their alliance five years ago due to common goals, and while he had since learned much, the man is still largely an enigma to him. Umbris wears all black: a jumpsuit with black gloves and black boots. His skin is light but not pale, and his hair is black, but with curious white streaks running through it. Behind his back are two swords with magnificent black grips and scabbards and milky white blades. His age is near impossible to tell just by looking at him, but Umbris once told Terios that he was 90 years old, pretty young for a Moonshadow. “I came as soon as I got the message,” Umbris said as explanation for his sudden appearance. “Are you sure that this lead will not turn out like last time?”

Terios felt insulted. “You two are not going to let that go are you?”

“If I had my way, you would have been off the team after that. Temporarily, of course.”

“Hey, we got out of there alive didn’t we? Besides, lightning never strikes twice in the same place.”

“That analogy hardy fits the situation, as people and lightning bolts are very different things.”

Pyrik, whom they had since overshot, caught up at that point and interrupted, “That was the back of my head that you kicked, you know! By the way, I think we’re almost there.” Terios looked back where he was going, and saw that, just a few more yards ahead, the dim forest was giving way to the light of the noonday sun, they had reached the large clearing that marked the center of the Arbyrin Forest. When they emerged from the dense woods, Terios was surprised not to see the decrepit old man with whom he had arranged the meeting; instead, he saw, standing in the middle of the clearing, two platoons of the Utopian First Legion, complete with a Behemoth Close-Combat Automaton, and led by Legate Mekus.

It was Umbris who broke following the silence. “By the Nine Hells, Terios!”

“It’s not my fault!”

“Well, you led us here,” Pyrik pointed out, “so actually it is.”

Ignoring the argument that was building up between the rats in his trap, Mekus began to read the arrest warrant. Mekus is an automaton himself, as his flesh had been all but destroyed in the Revolution. He was, in fact, the first automaton, he had volunteered to donate his brain to the old resistance’s scientists for the experiment should he die and his body be recovered from the battlefield. Mekus is armored with silver-steel, is several times as strong as a normal person, can see and hear things that eyes and ears of mere flesh could not, and is equipped with all manner of weaponry, which is constantly upgraded as technology improves. But he is no longer a Warrior. Along with his flesh went the Power that belonged to his family. “The following is a warrant for the arrest of the mercenary group known as the Sigma Triad,” he read, “specifically, the persons Terios Sigma, Umbris Moonshadow, and Pyrik Maxentius. They have been found guilty of many crimes against the State of Utopia, the most serious of which will be listed here.”

At this point, Pyrik broke up the argument between Terios and Umbris by asking, “Um, shouldn’t we do something?”

“Personally,” responded Umbris, “I’d like to hear an updated list of our achievements.”

“Alright,” Terios deferred, “but be ready to act on my mark.”

“And how exactly will we act?” Pyrik asked.

“Whatever happens to suit you at the moment.”

“Rebelling against the State: penalty, death. Consorting with rebels and traitors: penalty, death. Smuggling technology outside the State: penalty, death. Assaulting and murdering soldiers and officers of the State: penalty, death. Damaging and destroying property of the State: penalty. . . . .”

As Mekus continued, Terios studied the enemy platoons, trying to determine what family they were from, for all Utopian platoons were made up of Warriors of the same family. The first platoon was fairly easy to identify: war paint on the face, lack of guns, and abundance of melee weapons gave away their identity as Colik family Warriors. The Colik family’s Power allows them to create force fields around themselves that protect against most attacks, so if they were to fire a gun while using their Power, it would backfire. Instead, they tend to charge forward, invulnerable to almost all damage, and take down their foes in close combat. They did have one weakness however, the force fields do not extend behind them, but because of that, their backs usually have projectile-proof armor and they do not let anyone behind them easily in a sword fight. Terios, however, was confident that he could defeat them. The other Platoon, however, was harder to identify. They all had full body power armor and projectile guns, but it is difficult to determine one’s family from so little marks. Terios would have to wait for one of them to use his Power to figure exactly who they were.

“Can we do something besides just standing here now?” Pyrik requested. “So far it’s just old stuff, he’s never gonna get to our more recent ‘achievements’ as you call them.”

“All right, fine,” Umbris conceded. “Awaiting your signal, Terios.”

Terios mentally steeled himself for battle, and then whispered almost inaudibly, “Now.”