Binary

Chapter Six: New Orders

There was a flower shop across the square, a small two-story structure, with a display and a lower front door for the common-class and pygmy-class mechs, but there was a wide display and shelves on the balcony that a titan-class Mechian wouldn't have to stoop to look at.

For about the fourth time she saw the curtain on one of the far windows open and a small, metal, face peeked out. Not at her though. They hadn't seen her yet. They were looking at a Mechian sitting cross-legged in the grass of a nearby park.

Horus had been sitting there all night by now, his massive titan-class body made the wide park look like a picnic blanket. He was an intimidating thing, a mountain of steel and iron. The people in the flower shop couldn't take their eyes off of him. They likely knew he was a member of the Light, and that something was up.

She bounced on her heels and exhaled through the exhaust ports on her cheeks. She saw a flash across the street as someone shone a hand mirror off of a candle at her. It was time to move.

She made her way across the square, and as she did, she saw several shadows moving through the alleyways. Everyone was getting into position. She paused for a second at the door and squared her shoulders. Letting her tunic fall in place, as well as the moving shadows around her.

Prognis threw back her hood and knocked. From the corner of her eye, she saw the shadows that had darted through the alleyway slink beneath the windows.

The door opened a crack, and she saw one yellow glass eye and a copper eyebrow peek out at her.

"We're closed-" the mech started to say, but Prognis kicked the door open before he could finish. There was a table where the people inside the house had been sitting. the two Mechs still at the table were only surprised for a second, then they jumped to their feet, right as the windows on either side of the door exploded. The shadows jumped out into the dim candlelight of the shop, revealing themselves to be a Lydon, and a pygmy-class Mechian, Nadine.

Lydon was armed with a cast-iron war pick, and he sank it into the doorman's chest before the Mechian could recover from Prognis' kick. Nadine fired a crossbow into the face of another of the Mechians, and the final one Prognis flew at, pummeling his chest and head with her fists.

"I thought the Hatred would be a little more cunning," said Prognis, after the three Mechs lay dead on the ground. Outside, they could hear Horus getting to his feet and making his way slowly to the flower shop.

"That's probably why the old man picked this spot," said Lydon, careful not to mention Ognus by name, "maybe he knew they had just gotten settled here and weren't expecting us.

"Hey! We're not done here yet!" snapped Nadine, pulling her crossbow back and reloading it from a bolt hidden in a compartment on her forearm, "our orders were to eliminate everyone in the flower shop, there's more upstairs."

She was pygmy-class, and at three feet tall she was even shorter than Ognus, but Prognis had learned not to underestimate her for that.

Prognis thundered up the stairs ahead of the other two, and into the open second floor. There were a couple of humans and a Mechian. They all spun around as Prognis rushed in. The Mechian in the back corner, looking out the window at Horus, had a long metal appendage, like a braid hanging from the back of her head, which swung freely as she turned in surprise at Prognis.

One of the humans ran for the balcony, but as Nadine ran out from behind Prognis she fired her crossbow into the back of his neck. The other human waved his hand and a shelf from the wall, covered in heavy ceramic pots and flowers, flew at Nadine. Prognis held her arms in front of her face and charged at the shelf, smashing it in half and shielding the smaller Mech.