Binary

Chapter Five: Warrior

Prognis pushed the door open to the study, where Ognus was sitting.

"You were supposed to knock and use the callsign," sighed Ognus.

"Oh! Sorry," said Prognis, shutting the door again.

"It's always darkest just before the dawn?"

"Well now I already know it's you," grumbled the elderly Mechian, "you may as well come in. I take it you weren't able to retrieve the message from the Librarian?"

Prognis opened her mouth and then shut it quickly.

"No," she said, "he uh... wasn't willing to trust me."

Ognus shook his head. He was much smaller than her, only about four feet tall, with a very pronounced hunch. Prognis understood that he was something like her commanding officer and that her job was essentially to stick her neck out for him.

"You really should have the callsigns memorized by now," said the old mech, rising from his chair with a loud creaking, which came partially from the old wooden chair and partially from his unoiled joints.

"I'm working on it, I just wasn't expecting there to be so many of them," Prognis said, "do I really have to memorize all of them?"

"Yes," said Ognus, "I'm starting to worry that you don't have a mind for spy-craft, and I'm becoming quite certain that Lydon exaggerated certain details about your discretion."

"Maybe he could help memorize some more," said Prognis, "where is he?"

"I sent him away on a private errand," snapped the old mech, "You two constantly giggling doesn't sound much to me as practice. I'll help you memorize your callsigns and codes for the next few weeks."

"Oh," Prognis sulked.

"Come on," said Ognus, pulling on his cloak, "I'll go too this time and smooth things over with him, but seriously this is the last time."

The three of them had been traveling for about a week now, stopping in various small towns in Southern Animas, which shared a border with Starlust. Ognus was a storyteller, traveling from inn to inn, entertaining audiences of drunken farmers and miners and traders. Prognis and Lydon were his pack mule and apprentice. Prognis pulled his hand cart around since the little old man was simply too small to do it himself.

To all the world, they seemed to be a poor traveling entertainer and his burly granddaughter and charming grandson, but Prognis knew what the Light was paying them, and she had listened with enthusiasm as it was explained to her that she was receiving a salary, deposited into an account under a false name to a bank owned by the Light.

Her only concern, which had arisen in the last few days, was that she was underqualified for her new job. She forgot callsigns, misinterpreted codes, she had a hard time identifying fellow Light members. There was so much damn subtlety, and that had never been her strong point. She stayed up to memorize codes and when she met with their contacts, she was careful to memorize their faces and names as best they could. She was determined not to go back to a lumber yard. But try as she did, she couldn't seem to get a handle on it. Of course the flirting with Lydon wasn't helping, but it wasn't like she wasn't actually trying.

They trudged down the street to the library of the small forest town and made their way to the back door. Ognus paused slightly and they realized the door was ajar. It had been forced open. He pushed the door open slightly. Prognis realized something was wrong.

She heard the thumping of someone running and shouted as the window behind them and the door in front of them burst open. A pair of common-class Mechians surrounded them. The one behind Prognis was carrying a metal war hammer that still had fresh black blood on it, and the one in front of Ognus had an arm that ended in a pointed piston, and he drew it back to strike at the old Mechian.

Prognis moved like lightning, pivoting out of the way from the hammer, and using her momentum to throw a kick over Ognus and knocking the piston's point away from the old man. It fired and smashed into the ground next to him. To Prognis' surprise, the little old man curled into a protective sphere with a loud snap.

She kicked him away like a soccer ball. The piston-weilding mech tried to follow him, but she caught him in the chest with a right hook. The hammer behind her slammed into her from the side and knocked her against the wall of the library. She has felt the impact jostle her glass core, but more importantly, she saw the piston coming up at her lower abdomen. She grabbed the piston-forearm of the mech with one hand and knocked him in the chin with an uppercut with the other. She was dimly aware of the hammer mech pulling back for another swing.

The piston mech, in a daze from Prognis's fist, couldn't fight back as Prognis grabbed his collarbone struts. She pulled him against her, and the piston fired again, right into the gut of the hammer mech where Prognis had pointed it.

Prognis used the piston mech to shield herself from the blow, but with the shock of the piston firing into his gut, the hammer mech's attack had lost its intensity, his fury being replaced with surprise. Black blood flowed down the length of the piston, and the hammer mech went limp.

Prognis shoved the piston mech back and off of her. He yanked his piston free from his companion, he cocked it back again, but in that short motion, Prognis was on top of him. She threw her shoulders forward, locking her sprocketted biceps in place, and unloaded on him.

Alternating right-left punches from her cast-iron knuckles rained down on him, bashing him to pieces. She felt the glass of his core shattering, then being pulverized. He didn't even have a chance to point his piston arm at her.

He collapsed in a heap of twisted metal, the glass inside of him crunching as it hit the dirt, and a black pool immediately started forming underneath him. Prognis dropped her fists, hot steam pulsing heavily from her vented cheeks as she gasped for air. She stared at the dead mech until a snapping noise broke her out of her daze. It was Ognus uncurling from his little ball across the street.

"What was that? What happened?" said Prognis, looking up and down the street to see if there were any onlookers. The alleyway was partially hidden by the angle of the houses, and the library was far enough out of town that not many people were around. Even so, Prognis could hear footsteps running off into the distance. She started to follow them.

"No! Leave it!" snapped Ognus, "if we give chase, we'll just be giving ourselves away, we need to get out of here!"

"What happened!?" demanded Prognis, "all this because I forgot a password?"

"No you stupid girl, it's them," said Ognus, rushing forward into the smashed back door of the library, "the Hatred!"

Prognis frowned, but Ongus quickly went through their pockets, threw his hood up, and was already scuttling away. She pulled up her own hood and hurried after him.

"The who?"

Ognus glanced back at her.

"Dear girl, didn't Lydon tell you the Light's primary goal was to fight the enemies of Charollette?"

"Yes," said Prognis, "he didn't really go into detail about that..."

"Well, the Hatred are the enemies of Charollette. Our war with them dates back to the Apocalypse."

"Should we try to do something about this? Hide the bodies to something?"

"No," said Ognus, "the local soldiers will be here any second to investigate the disturbance, we can't risk being involved further. We need to tell the others as quickly as possible."

"Lydon told me this was going to be a more laid-back job," muttered Prognis, "he said there hadn't been any violence in like ten years..."

"This war has been going on since the world ended," muttered Ognus, looking up and down the street before hurrying towards the outskirts of town, "ten years with no fighting just means they were planning something... And I fear we're about to find out what it is..."

Prognis glanced over her shoulder to make sure they weren't being followed and pulled her hood further down over her face.