Binary

Chapter Six: New Orders

Lydon ran into the room and swung his pick at the mage, but the small fleshy man jumped back and the pick sank into the wooden floor. The human raised his arms again, but before he could summon a spell, Prognis vaulted over the table and punched him in the face. She felt his bones crunch and he slid across the floor all the way to the wall.

The Mechian with the braid was the last one left. Nadine fired another crossbow bolt at her, but the braided mech kicked the table over to shield herself.

As Nadine reloaded her crossbow, the Mechian woman tried to rush towards the windows, but Prognis blocked her escape. She ran towards the balcony, but Lyndon stepped in front of the door and swung his pick at her. She dodged out of the way.

Before Prognis could do anything, the woman's forearms split open, revealing steel teeth. Like a pair of giant pinchers, they grabbed Lyndon's arms, and her metal braid flipped forward like a stinger. He screamed in surprise as the stinger darted forward, again and again, smashing his face and piercing his cerebral core. She dropped him, dead on the floor, and ran out to the balcony.

"NO!!" Screamed Prognis as Lydon hit the floorboards. She stared at him.

The scorpion woman had been hoping to escape off the balcony, but Horus was already out there.

The giant metal man swung his massive hand at the scorpion woman, but she ducked under his grasp. She turned to rush back inside and almost ran into Prognis, who hit her twice in the mouth before the pinchers could seize her arms. Prognis saw the braid rise again. As it darted towards her face, she jerked her head to the side, evading the stinger.

When it passed, Prognis chomped down on it, as hard as she could, with her teeth. She swung her leg out behind her opponent's feet. She brought it back hard, kicking out the scorpion mech's knee, and flipping her over. The scorpion woman crashed down across her shoulders on the floor. She was momentarily stunned and loosened her grip on Prognis's arms. Prognis jerked her hands free, grabbed the woman's legs, and stomped down on the woman's head, delivering a killing blow.

She stood over her opponent for a minute, watching her to make sure she was actually dead.

"Lydon!" moaned Nadine, and Horus leaned on the balcony to try and peer inside the shop. Nadine was cradling his head and shaking him.

Prognis rushed over and stared down at Lydon's limp form. He had tried to pull his face guard down to protect himself, but Prognis could see the broken glass where the scorpion woman had crushed the cerebral core's housing, where his organic brain was encased. The tissue underneath the metal and glass was already turning black from oxidization.

"We have to go," said Horus from the balcony.

Nadine nodded slowly and stood up. Prognis looked at her helplessly.

"I'm sorry Prognis," said Nadine, "Ognus told me that you two had a history together."

"Yeah," said Prognis numbly as she stood up.

***

They split up to be harder to find and made their way separately to the other side of town. The public streets of Lake's Edge were huge, wide enough to accommodate even the largest titan-class Mechians. Its alleys were narrow though, some only large enough for a pygmy-class Mechian to squeeze through. The sky was clear, and the glow of the planet's rings was all the light that the city streets got. It was all Prognis needed as she pulled her thick fur cloak around herself and thought about Lydon.

Everything had changed so quickly, after being attacked by those assassins who got the Librarian, Ognus had arranged an emergency meeting with several other people. Prognis had to stand out in the street while they talked, but Ognus had let her know that the attacks were widespread. In the weeks that followed, he had gotten a handful of new underlings. People like Nadine, who remembered the callsigns and who moved a hell of a lot quieter than Prognis. She had noticed though that Nadine, for all her stealth didn't seem as able to throw her weight around.