The factory floor was terribly crowded, yet still he felt completely alone. Moving to a new town was a mistake, since the conditions where no better than at the old place. Resignated, he looked around aimlessly, allowing himself to breathe a moment. Then his eyes caught the peculiar markings on another worker's hammer. Red band, gold Band, a broken black band - this guy was in the movement! Suddenly, he did not feel as alone anymore.
The Hammerband's Code is a secret cipher used by the
Steelbrethren on the
Black-capped Hammers everybody carries around, to signal their allegiance to the movement. Secrecy is crucial for the safety of the movement's members and the factory's security has become aware of the existence of a code. As a result, there are at least four regional variants currently active.
The code takes advantage of the fact, that workers have several bands of multiple colors on their traditional
Black-capped Hammer, to denote achievements and former workplaces as a form of reference. It is not unusual for a worker to have four or five bands or mor on their hafts and they are a rare form of individuality in the factories.
If you want to signal you are a member of the
Steelbrethren, the three last bands closest to the head are key. they will always consist of two colored bands and a somehow marked third band. The color would change per month and the exact execution of the marking has varied multiple times before.
Currently, the colors will alternate between red, tin, and copper for each month, while the marking is a broken black band as the third. The color of the second band is not set but must never be the same as the other two. A previous cipher only consisting of a single band at a certain place was uncovered by a government agency. It led to multiple confrontations and arrests before the Steelbrethren were able to switch up the cipher. So far, switching up the marking seems to suffice, as agents have not caught on to the monthly color scheme yet.
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