1. Just another day in Cerelon

22/06/152 CF
 
The morning light streamed dully through the thin curtain in Nox’s bedroom. She lay on her cot for a moment listening to the sounds of the house. The house was silent. No wind whistled through the loose boards or made the bones of the old shack creak. No food sizzled on the hotplate. The back door did not slam open and closed with a thoughtless movement. What’s more, there were no heavy footsteps of her Father anywhere. In fact, Nox was sure she could hear the soft snoring of her Father from the bedroom opposite hers. As silently as she could, she slipped her bare feet out of bed and, being careful to miss the loose floorboard, walked across the room.
 
She was alone. She’d woken before her father, and if she was lucky, she’d be out and in Cerelon before he even knew. Quickly, again going around the betrayer floorboard, she grabbed her clothes and shoes and stuffed them into her sachet before sneaking back to her door. Lifting the door, so the hinges wouldn't squeal, she sidled through into the hallway, tip-toeing towards the kitchen. A piece of cured meat, a stale end of bread and a curling piece of cheese were all that was left from the dinner the night before. Grabbing all three and a stoneware bottle of beer she’d hidden from her father, she stuffed these also into her bag and snuck silently out into the morning.
 
It was early. Long shadows clawed at the dew-heavy grass in their yard. Trying not to shiver, she pulled her clothes and shoes out of her bag she put them on over her nightgown. Once decently, if not respectfully dressed, she started the trip down the hill towards the Caravanserai.
 
Even here, it was too early for anything interesting. Sometime in the night, the Ghan caravan had made it to town and was parked in their usual spot close to The Wheels Rest. Smoke lazily trickled from the chimney stack on the first covered platform as Oslo Ghan stepped out and stretched in the weak sunlight. A loud bark of laughter and rough voices caused Nox to turn and see a group of miners heading to the quarry for the day shift. She’d seen the three men around. Noisy fellows made noisier by the third newcomer, Marius. She ducked behind the Ghan’s caravan as the men passed once more, talking about the evils of the boars-something. The men may think pigs were evil, but her grumbling stomach told her the hunk of sausage in her bag would be delicious.
 
“Hey, girl! What are you doing there?” said a young man’s voice, and she turned to see Ralin Ghan and his mother close behind. They’d followed Oslo out of their caravan and had spotted her crouched up against their aneen, a common beast of burden.
Nox leapt up and walked away, not daring to look back or make eye contact.
“Hey, I said what were you doing?” The voice followed.
“Let her be, Ralin. She’s that one Jaden talks about,” Said his mother, Ekarin.
 
With her heart racing, Nox found an empty market stall and sat cross-legged in the dirt. Bringing her satchel in front of her as a makeshift table, she now took out the food she’d found and broke her fast. By the time she finished, stall owners were starting to set up for the day. It was time to move on again.
 
Nox wandered around between the two gates of Cerelon. The southern one protected the Buckles District from the dangers of the outside world, and the northern protected the Highside Redoubt from the Buckles. This was her world, the only one she’d known. By the time she’d walked from the top gate to the bottom gate twice, Jaden had finally left her house just outside the north gate and opened up the Wheel's Rest carriage works. Ostensibly there to service the wagons that travelled the wild spaces between points of civilization like Cerelon, the Wheel's Rest was the bower of bits and bobs that Jaden Ventrisen had made for herself over thirty years of living. Once a travelling trader herself, Jaden was still considered a foreigner by most of the town. Like the Ghans, she was something that had to be tolerated if not actually accepted. To Nox, Jaden and the Wheel's Rest had been there forever and was as familiar as everything else in Celeron.
 
Nox waited for Jaden to unlock the store door and walked in before following her inside and taking a seat on an old rickety stool.
“Good morning, Nox. Up early I see,” Said Jaden, starting a fire in the old potbelly stove of the workshop and putting on a pot of coffee. She didn’t turn to face Nox knowing the shy girl was likely to slink away if she felt uncomfortable.
An image of the Ghan’s caravan entered Jaden’s mind and she nodded.
“Yes, they came in last night. Old Oslo is complaining about some of the floating platforms steering to the left. I’ll be busy with that today if you want to help.”
There was a feeling of ambivalence to the suggestion followed by query and an image of a pile of junk Jaden had yet to sort through.
“Go right ahead, gods know I won’t get to it today.” She said and put the box of broken cyphers and old-world junk on the bench. One by one Nox pulled the items out with the reverence she seemed to think they deserved as relics of the ancient past. Two piles slowly grew in front of Nox, one of the things that Jaden knew would be rubbish and would recycle for parts, the others...well, they were much like Nox herself, bright sparks hidden in amongst the detritus.
 
The two spent the day like this. Oslo Ghan came to the store and Jaden found the problem with the caravan’s brake system grabbing on the left. Nox finished sorting the cyphers for iotum before sweeping up the store and making lunch. Together they sat and ate in seeming silence, all the while they kept up a steady stream of thought between the two of them.
 
Late in what had been an ordinary day, Oslo was back to pick up his wagons and chat with Jaden. An explosion from over the north wall rattled the windows and disturbed the quiet peace of the workshop.
“What was that? Something over in Highside Redoubt?” Oslo said, filling the air with his own noise.
“What are those priests up to?” Jaden scowled and Nox got off her stool and hid behind the counter, “Good idea, you go downstairs. Oslo, let Ralin and Erkain know there’s a strong room here, Nox can show the way. I’m going to see what those stuck up fools have got themselves into this time.”
Jaden follow Oslo out the door of the workshop as Nox pulled a lantern off a hook and moved towards the basement door. As soon as Jaden was out of sight, Nox dropped the lantern at the top of the stairs and scuttled after her into the street. If something interesting was happening in town, she wanted to be there to see it.
 
 
Over at the Crawl on Home, the only pub in town, Marius Serik, Yitti Riksho and Orv Telcot were plotting revolution over their cups. As leading figures of the Driftmen’s guild, they took the safety and welfare of all miners very seriously. They also took overthrowing the old order for a new fairer system of government very seriously. One with them preferably on top.
 
Marius was as usual expounding on the plight of the worker under the uncaring bourgeois management as he spotted one of three servitor robots returning to their table with more drinks. Lucky he did as the servitor seemed to stumble then swing his serving tray straight for Marius’ head. He dived over the table trying to drag Orv down with him. But, Orv’s being a seriously large and heavy specimen didn’t budge and his face was imprinted into the servitors metal tray, knocking him out cold. From below table height, Marius looked around the bar and saw that all the servitors were attacking the patrons of the bar. Grabbing Yitti by the arm, and giving him the semiconscious Orv, Marius spoke to the barroom in general.
“The time has come, brothers! The start of the revolution is upon us. Rise up and strike down the oppressors!” And with his last word, he grabbed a chair and swung it at the head of a servitor. It would be the clang heard across Celeron as at the same time, an explosion rocked the inn. The servitor’s head swivelled locking on its new target, Marius Serik.
 
Jaden was walking towards the north gates with Oslo when their attentions were drawn to the Crawl on Home.
“Ralin was heading there,” Oslo said, as he and Jaden veered course and entered the door of the pub. Three servitors were fighting the six or so patrons, bludgeoning them with metal fists and serving trays. Jaden watched the servitors move. They were the usual High Redoubt mechanisms. They always made their robots too top-heavy, never stopping to consider all that weight on the weak knee and ankle joints of the legs. So much for all their exclusionist rubbish.
 
“Strike the knees!” She informed the room before grabbing a pool cue from the now-abandoned table and sweeping it at the back of the knees of the nearest servitor. For the north, beyond the gates, an ominous pounding started.
 
 
Nox scuttled behind the Wheel's Rest and through town stopping beside the door to the pub to see the excitement. Servitors fighting people! It was unheard of! Suddenly, the heavy wood and steel doors of Highside Redoubt buckled out, one falling completely off its hinges. Standing where the doors had held back both Nox’s father and Jaden for so long, a large butler servitor followed by three other domestic robots. Running ahead of them, Temila Ekens ran for her life. Temila lived in the Buckles but often delivered medicial remedies to the stores and citizens of Highside. Now, the butler servitor spotted the movement and gave chase, heading straight past the pub.
 
Crouching low and waiting her moment, Nox reached out as Temilla ran blindly past. Using her own momentum, she dragged Temilla around the corner of the pub. The group of servitors spotted Nox and was about to give chase when something blotted out the sun. Looming over the two girls, the creature was bigger even than the servitors. It wore thick chains, as wide as Nox’s arms, strapped across her torso. Three pairs of eyes locked on the robot threat, ignoring the girls. Nox gave one look at the being and ran, dragging Temilla along after her. Behind them, as they scampered around a building and out of sight, Nox could hear the heavy slap of flesh against steel.

 
Inside the pub, Marius took a moment to investigate the first of the fallen servitors. Outwardly they looked normal. But, that all three went berserk at the same time as an explosion from Highside? He could find nothing wrong with its control systems. Marius could only think they must be being overridden by remote control, but that was unthinkable! Something must be controlling them and he was sure that control was up past the gates.
Turning to place a hand on Yitti's shoulder he said,"My friend, this isn't the work of our oppressors. There's a time for The Cause, but now is not that time. Now is the time to defend our town."
 
 
The crunching metal against outside the pub drew Jaden’s attention as she saw the creature called Fureva grab two of the smaller servitors in her massively muscled arms and smash them together. They collapsed in a pile of broken parts at the feet of the formidable being. As Jaden watched, she saw Nox and another girl from Highside running away and cursed under her breath. As the two remaining servitors were wrestled to the ground by the bar patrons, outside Fureva squared up to the larger butler servitor. The clash of flesh against metal was deafening as Fureva planted her massive tree trunk legs and pushed. At the same time, the butler servitor’s tracks dug into the ground, churning up a dush cloud. Like two great wrestlers, the giant woman and the servitor strained against each other until something had to give. Servos ground to a halt, gearing jammed and snapped, hinges twisted, and the whole arm assembly of the butler servitor pulled out of its socket. Now with a weapon, Fureva raised the arm above her head and beat the butler with it until the robot stopped moving.
 
Jaden watched on in awe as her fingers fished into her pockets for random pieces of wire and broken cyphers. Servitors don’t attack their owners, and they don’t do it all at once without some sort of signal. Her two clever hands found the parts they needed and put together a simple radio wave receiver. As she applied the last wire, the device whined into life. Turning towards the Northern gates, the device sparked, spluttered, then exploded in her hands. Whatever the signal was, it was coming from Highside.
 
“Get Orv somewhere safe and then rally the troops to storm the Northern gate,” Marius said to Yitti as he helped him carry Orv out the pub door.
“Go to the Wheel’s Rest. There’s an underground shelter,” Jaden called out as the three men passed her. Marius nodded his head and sent his fellow Driftmen ahead.
Screams from Highside Redoubt accompanied the groan and rattle of heavy machinery as a massive servitor slowly ground into view at the broken gates. It was the nightsoil servitor. A truck-sized robot usually only out at night and never lumbering menacingly through the Northern gates straight towards the three defenders.
 
Running through the village, Nox tried to work out where she and Temilla should go to be safe. At first, she headed towards the barracks, where the militia kept their weapons and practised for potential attacks. Besides Jaden’s basement, it was the safest spot in town. Then she remembered there were several servitor sparring robots used to train the volunteers. So she headed towards the market and the dense cluster of canvas tents. Even here, the loading and carrying servitors were attacking the stallholders. Nox dragged Temilla under a canvas wall discovering a long wagon attached to two Mothekko, lizard-like creatures of burden. Scrambling on all fours, the two girls hid under the wagon in silence as screams, and heavy pounding feet filled the air around them.
 
Putting one finger to her lips in the sign for silence, Nox pointed between hers and Temilla.
We heard the explosion! What happened? Nox asked directly to Temilla’s mind. Temilla, who had experienced this before, took a deep breath and focused her thoughts.
I don’t know! All the robots just went crazy all at once!
 
A scream from the other side of the tent alerted the two girls to danger nearby. Suddenly a body fell through the canvas tent wall onto the wagon.
RUN! Nox projected, once more grabbing Temilla’s hand and dragging her through to the other side of the wagon. Immediately after, another servitor on tracks rolled up onto the wagon, squashing it flat. As they ran, Nox took a moment to look behind. A few remaining pots of preserve lay in the dust beside their stall. With a small push from her mind, the pot flew up into the air and smashed metres away in the opposite direction. With no more thought for what was behind, the two girls ran blindly back into the heart of town.
 
Fureva-Yung slung the broken servitor arm onto her shoulder and started jogging up to the North gate, Jaden and Marius close behind. Marius, in particular, wanted in on whatever was happening in Highside Redoubt and quickened his pace as he reached the gate. Using a low street sweeper servitor as a step, he jumped up even further, stepping from robot shoulder to head to upraised arm. Fureva stood in front of the broken gates and grabbed a small servitor and swung it in front of the truck. The Nightsoil truck stopped its lumbering progress and turned its attention to her.
 
Out of nowhere, Fureva heard a voice of encouragement in her mind, That was amazing! Do that again! Shaking her head, she did just that before the truck servitor picked her up with a claw-like hand and dumped her into the back of the truck.
 
Running once more past Jaden workshop, Nox told Temilla to hide there in the underground bunker before heading back North to the gate. As scary as things were, she wanted to see how the creature Fureva and people like Marius and Jaden dealt with the crisis. Crouched down beside a building flanking the North gates, Nox saw the marvellous Marius leap from robot to robot before disappearing behind the gate. She witnessed Fureva smash the truck with another servitor and sent her a silent messages of encouragement before the giant woman was picked up by the truck servitor and dumped in the back. Moments later, she heard a cry of anguish as Marius, held up by a leg, was also carried to the back of the truck and dropped. All that was left was Jaden, Oslo and a few other villages coming to the defence of The Buckles against an army of metal servitors.
 
Closing her eyes and opening her mind, Nox scanned the area in front of her, in particular the truck-like servitor that seemed to have eaten two of the town’s defenders. She realised that the truck servitor was very strong and well built, able to take a lot of damage, but it was very slow. She could see, a spark of energy in the darkness, the mind of the servitor.
 
Jaden. The monster keeps its brain under the front cab, She sent to Jaden, who was looking at the truck and then up to the wall surrounding the gateway.
Nox, Came Jaden’s reply, Can you send a message to the big woman in the back of the truck?
 
Fureva had been in bad places before. As things went, dumped into the foul sludge of the nightsoil truck did not make it to the top five. The stink was terrible, but it just stank. She moved to a corner, trying to keep out of reach of the grabbing claw. As she did, a cry alerted her, and she looked up in time to see another person drop in from above. Holding her arms out, she caught the falling Marius and put him down gently on his feet.
 
“Uh, thanks!” He replied, grateful for not splashing into the sewage, “Now what?”
 
Big lady, Came the voice again into Fureva’s mind, Jaden [image of the woman from the street] says can you throw out one end of your chain [an image of the chains that crossed her chest]. She has an idea.
Fureva shrugged a loop of chain over her head and gave one end to Marius.
“Uh? You have somethin-?” Marius started taking the offered chain before Fureva picked him up and threw him out of the truck. Marius, too surprised to react, landed heavily with a thud in front of the group of defenders.
 
 
The Ghans, Yitti Rikso and two other men were working away at the truck tracks as Jaden looked up at the giant robot, looking for its weaknesses. Just like the servitors in the pub, this truck was top-heavy and, once knocked on its side, could not easily right itself again. Looking up at the stonework around the broken North gate, she wondered what she could do with a few strong hands and a pulley. Hadn’t she seen a chain and pulley on that giant woman, Fureva?
Jaden, The monster keeps its brain under the front cab, She heard Nox say in her mind.
 
Nox, Came Jaden’s reply, Can you send a message to the big woman in the back of the truck?
 
The chain with the attached Marius was thrown out of the truck, and Jaden organised the villagers to wrap it around the stonework to get ready to pull. Inside the truck, Fureva wrapped the chain around her muscular arms and braced her strong legs against the truck wall. Marius shakily got to his feet and was about to help on the rope when he was once more picked up by the truck and dumped in the back. With Fureva busy, he splashed down into the sewage at her feet.
 
With a call from Jaden, the defenders of Cerelon all pulled. The truck tipped, lifting off one track, leaning over. The villagers strained, Fureva holding the chain steady inside started walking up the wall, pushing the truck more and more towards its tipping point. All at once, the truck fell to one side, blocking the gateway and spilling watery sewage everywhere. Fureva, already walking up the wall, stepped out of the back of the truck. Marius, shaken and disorientated, sloshed out with the sewage.
 
The gateway was blocked, the defenders had won a battle, but the war for Celeron belonged to the servitors' and their controllers. Dozens now pushed at the fallen truck and the masonry of the wall. It was only a matter of time before they broke through. In the caravanserai, the servitors patrolled. Broken carts and empty stalls their domain. The mines and the Crawls passage were too dangerous with the industrial servitors who worked those underground passages. Even Temilla and Orv stumbled back to the gate, informing the group that there were servitors digging through underground.
 
“Jaden, we’re getting out of here,” Oslo Ghan said quietly to Jaden as Fureva helped Marius out of the muck, “I suggest you do the same.”
“I think you’re right. Nox! Grab some clothes and food. We’re leaving.”
I don’t know where Dad is, Nox sent back, joining her from behind the building.
“He’ll be fine. He’s tough.”
 
Out of several hundred souls that made up Cerelon, only twelve now stood together in front of the North gates and wondered what to do next. Carefully heading back to homes and through the market, they collected what they could from the wreckage of Celeron. Out of the detritus, Nox sorted through broken bits and pieces the group found. Seven cyphers were gathered and shared amongst those willing to carry them. Marius sought out and found a first aid kit, placing it safely with what else he could find. Two broken servitors were scavenged by Jaden and collectively the group found four days of food. Loading up the Ghan’s caravan, the refugees of Celeron left it to the rampaging servitors and head south out of the gates. Marius held back as if waiting for a chance that never seemed to come.
 
"Couldn't we just wait a while, see if things calm down a bit. Maybe we go through Crawls Passages?" Marius suggested looking back to town. An ominous grumble from the gate to the passages answered his question.
 
“We can’t take Crawls Passages with the servitors out to get us. My suggestion, we try the Endoval Forest and see what’s beyond it.” Ghan replied, and Jaden nodded her agreement. Fureva shook her head.
Have you been through the forest before? Nox asked the giant woman who looked down on the tiny girl through her three sets of eyes and nodded.
I’m looking for a flower, Nox replied, stepping back from glare of the huge woman and projecting an image of an embroidered white flower.
Fureva shrugged her shoulders.
 
Marius, his friend and the few quarrymen they’d gathered finally agreed to set out for the Grey Tower, a dark blot on the skyline ahead.
 
 
To be continued...