Cover source
Warning: Scenes of violence and mayhem are included in this story. Reader Discretion is advised!
Other Episodes in the Clockwork City
Steam Brutes
Part 1 ◾ Part 2 ◾ Part 3 ◾ Part 4 ◾ Part 5
Clockwork City
A Master Scholar is researching the reports of sightings of Beasts within the Undercity. Men, machines and monsters battle for supremacy on the oil slick and blood soaked streets.
Among hissing turbines and piping feeding the Upper City, battle and war is waged. Meanwhile, in the monolithic Citadel, the scribes make their records of data and histories. Many of their recordings are necessary and valuable to citizens of the City, some are unfathomable and strange.
Yet there is a pattern emerging and this Master Scholar seeks to find the reasons why.
The Citadel Part 1
The gargantuan structure was one of the few buildings in the City which was connected to the true surface of the world and yet it pierced the sky. The spires of the Noble Houses were higher, but they were built on top of the Under City they have forgotten about.
This fact was something that the Scholars did not remind the Nobles of, for their egos were soft and fragile. There was no need for the Noble Houses to feel threatened by The Citadel. This is what the Council decrees and what the Scholars obey. It was logical.
The Scholar Ripley stalked down the hallway.
It was unfathomable! Insane! And yet the instruments do not lie.
Massive bronzed door swung open and the Master Scholar walked in, barely noticing the gears and hiss of steam that moved the doors on cogged teeth. The doors closed behind.
Not the machinery nor the automation was fascinating. All of that had been researched and understood. There was intricate artwork worked into the bronze of the door, as well as the railings in the chamber beyond.
These too had been studied, documented, measured and cross referenced.
Every inch of this chamber had been studied by the Master Scholar as a field of interest but these details were now being ignored. The railings had been installed to prevent a drop off the walkway on either side, seventeen stories below.
The arched dome of the structure was seventeen stories above the walkway. The sheer magnificence of this room and its size was daunting at first. But study and knowledge grew both intimacy and complacency.
The Master Scholar felt both for all of it. Every detail was scrutinized, but not much of it was relevant. There were etchings all over the walls, the ceiling, the floors of the walkway.
Although everything was on record, the Master Scholar's step was light, carefully not to drag heavy boots across the surface of the walkway.
The chamber had not been constructed by anyone in the Clockwork City. As far back as the archives go... well that was a subject all on its own that was up for debate. The Citadel housed thousands of human beings who lived and worked and toiled within its walls.
Halls of paper and ink and oils were manned by countless Scribes, copying works of literature, non-fiction, technical drawings etc. The Scholars were the ones who studied all things. Although the Citadel provided education to the most learned of the City, those who wish ultimate knowledge join a brotherhood and say goodbye to their old lives.
Within these cold walls were kilometers of bookshelves stacked from floor to ceiling. The Master Scholar knew how infuriating it could be to look for a book, referenced by seven other tomes that the Scribes were simply unable to locate.
There were libraries of the last five hundred year's of history and progress, immaculately maintained and re-copied by the workshops. Another thousands years' knowledge can be found scattered in dozens of libraries all over the center of the structure. Deeper, lower still, below the surface level of the Upper City there were more workshops, stores and libraries whose Brotherhoods struggled to maintain.
There were even infestations of creatures down there that armed members of the Citadel needed to defeat. They came up like a rot from the Under City levels. By estimations the lowest parts of the Citadel were deeper than any part of the Under City. Here it was not safe to walk and sometimes not safe to breathe. There were Exploritor Scholars who head down into the depths with armed men to seek out lost libraries of tomes thousands of years old.
Some do not return. Brotherhoods of Scribes and Rogue Scholars were found stalking those hallways and Exploritors would need to fight against these and the creatures who nest there.
The Master Scholar shuddered and kept walking.
Despite the age of the tomes in the lost libraries of the underdeep, nothing had ever been uncovered to explain this chamber or its three copies that were in the heart of the Citadel. The oldest records ever found pointed at these structures being inside the Citadel more than two thousand years ago.
More research was required. The other parts of the Citadel seemed to have been built around these rooms, but this seemed impossible due to their height above the ground of the Upper City.
It was most intriguing.
This was, however, not the main cause of study at the moment. There had been an incident. Something new and exciting and frightening all at the same time. Within the center of the massive structure, joined by four walkways was a central platform. There were railings right around this platform and space to walk around the central structure.
The Central structure spanned from the ceiling to the floor, thus a total of 34 stories. A brass cylinder festooned with coils and wires and pipes. There were gears and bearings within this structure and yet the casings were unable to be dismounted by removing screws and the like. The casings were smooth as though they had been forged shut by a God's finger.
It was forbidden to damage any part of these chambers. The machines inside this cylinder had always been moving and nobody had been able to do any maintenance on its inner workings. After two thousand years or more, the machine had continued to hum and click and grind and move... all seemingly without purpose.
Until last week.
Suddenly there had been something new that had happened. The cylinder was wide enough that twenty men could link their arms around the shaft. At the platform, it was even wider and there was a wall of glass. As with the rest of the structure, there was no visible mounting points and it was forbidden to remove or damage the panel.
Incredibly, this massive glass ring, more than a story tall, was all one sheet of glass-like material.
It was sudden, but this sheet of glass had suddenly come to life. A grey haze had begun to glow and shine from the glass. Theories and rumors abound as to the purpose of this. This was the only one of the four structures where this had begun to happen. Only this one and the grey light had held as it was.
Was it a gas? Was there power there? Was it the doomsday? Would it explode? Is it making a signal? Is this all?
There were so many questions that were being asked. By the Master Scholar and others.
It took a few minutes to walk to where the grey light glass was, dozens of Scholars and Master Scholars had now made their permanent stations here. Desks and chairs had been moved in and placed on the central platform. Scribes had been moved from their Brotherhood to record what the Scholars recorded.
Usually Ripley had been alone here with the occasional Scholar passing by in homage and pilgrimage of one of the Citadel's wonders. Still the resident expert, there was a lot more resources to command since the incident.
Together, they had made record of the grey light. It was not all solid. Some sections moved and became brighter and darker. It undulated and there were records to determine if there was a pattern or signal. Yet no useful data had been measured this way.
"Master Scholar Ripley!" A young Scholar called to the right. "Look!"
Ripley hurried over, there were forms in the grey as indicated by the shivering Scholar. The shapes seemed to come together slowly.
"By the Great Cog!" Someone swore at the back.
The forms came together in the shapes of men. They seemed... to scale but they were massive. One of the men had a metal arm, its steam powered look made it easy to determine that he came from the City. Another massive man was removing projectiles from his chest and shoulder and he laughed as his wounds closed.
There was a third figure in what seemed to be in a street behind the glass. Yet Ripley somehow understood that this was not something inside this chamber, not behind the glass. This vision came from someplace else.
The larger man attacked the third figure and things became blurry again and just as soon as it had started, the visions faded. Grey formless shapes returned and drifted apart.
"What... was that?" Another person asked.
Ripley finally spoke. "It is a vision." Turning and looking at the fearful faces of the Scholars gathered around, some of the Scribes even seemed interested though one of them was just staring blankly and writing everything down on a parchment. A Brother Dictator no doubt.
"The question is my good Scholars." Ripley continued. "Is this vision of the present? The Past? Or even of the future?" There were gasps throughout the crowd. "Now get to work! We need to find out if what we just say just happened or has ever happened!"
The Dustoff
I'm sorry. Were you expecting Steam Brutes 6? Well, that is still going to happen. The Clockwork City is large and full of turmoil!
Until next time, cheers!
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