Chapter 679: Clockwork Scheme

A/n: Don’t rent an apartment they said, get your own apartment they said. Well… guess who wasted an entire week pumping money into a blackhole of an apartment.

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The Clockwork City, also known as Sotha Sil, much like its sister cities of Vivec (City of Vivec) and Almalexia (Mournhold), is but a mere shadow of its former self.

200 years ago, the God-Kings of Morrowind, the Tribunal of Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Vivec lost their Divinity which they maintained through a yearly pilgrimage to the Heart of Lorkhan, deep in the Red Mountain. While they drew Divine power from the Heart and achieved the status of Living Divines (or Demigods) for thousands of years, they were outdone by an old enemy from an age forgotten, Dagoth Ur.

Just like them, Dagoth Ur drew power from the Heart, ambushed them on their yearly pilgrimage, and would have annihilated the three of them if not for the cunning of Sotha Sil. Eventually, the three Living Divines lost their power gradually and were immensely weakened compared to their former selves, while they still held very considerable power as mortals.

The incident with Dagoth Ur was resolved by the Nerevarine, who liberated the Heart of Lorkhan from the Red Mountain and by that, he defeated Dagoth Ur and ended the Rule of the Tribunal. Driven mad by the loss of Divinity, Almalexia sought to destroy every Divine presence in Morrowind and to install herself as the One True Goddess. She attacked the weakened Sotha Sil and killed him in Clockwork City, then she used his machines to wreak havoc in Mournhold, before accusing him of treachery and sending the Nerevarine on a false trail to get rid of him as well.

Her plan eventually failed and she was slain by the recreation of her husband, the Nerevarine, whom she betrayed and killed long ago. But in the end, all of that brought ruin to the once beautiful and glamorous Clockwork City.

Nowadays, Clockwork City as a realm has remained barren and drained for around 200 years while completely isolated from the outside world since the Divinity of Sotha Sil, which powered the city, is no longer there.

This place has taken the theme of “Steampunk” to a completely new meaning as everything in this city was made of metal, powered by steam pipes, and requires coal and oil.

The main city isn’t called Clockwork City since it is the name of the entire realm but its functional name is the Brass Fortress, a metropolitan area that holds tall spires, towers, domes, walls, and roads that were all made of metal with the color of Brass.

There were even brass highways connecting the city to other outside facilities and holding together a monorail network. Factories and refineries dotted the wilderness outside the Brass Fortress to form a great display of industrial prowess.

As for vegetation and actual wilderness, the badlands outside were known as the Radius, a mix of brass deserts, swamplands, and forests most of which have died after the death of Sotha Sil due to the lack of vitality in this isolated world. Even if it is a digital world, it needs energy to stay alive.

Aside from the Brass Fortress and the Radius, the only remaining location was the core of this world which remains a mystery and certainly can only be accessed from the Brass Fortress that Jon can’t enter right now because of the defense mechanisms that are solely set up to get in his way. On one hand, it may sound like trouble for him but on the other hand, he can already see his way around it.

Jon’s eyes were fixated on Goldbrand for some time, the sword that was dangling from Glymet’s side. Even as a Dragonborn, he felt threatened by that sword, the sword that was made to protect the Dragons, a sword that can be made into the greatest weapon against dragons.

“… Jon… Jon…”

While he was focused on his own thoughts, Laaneth started calling for him.

“Huh?” Jon turned to her, a bit dazed.

“Don’t huh me! I was telling you about my plan.” She said.

“Nah! I was just thinking about what you told me regarding Winterhold and the Eye of Magnus.” Jon replied.

“We talked about that a few hours ago.” Laaneth said with narrowed eyes, “Were you even listening to what I said to begin with?”

“The plan, yes.” Jon said and looked at the map Laaneth was drawing with ink, “Whatever it is, it’s a bad plan.”

“Fine! Show me what you got then.” Laaneth retreated from the table inside the scrap cottage and started looking at Jon with sharp eyes as she didn’t like being ignored.

“Alright, everyone, a plan meeting.” Jon clapped his hands and called for the people around.

Glymet, who was maintaining his blade, joined them first, while Ram stopped tinkering with some machines and Kota got down off his guard tower, and the two of them came after Glymet.

“Gentlemen, lady, I hope you all took your time adjusting. Each of us has a problem on our hands and cooperation is a must. For that to happen, we should review our problems in proper order and set primary objectives to solve accordingly.” Jon said.

“But we’re only here to find Swims.” Glymet said.

“It’s alright, old man, everyone is out here for something. But as you find your friend, you need to get back to Tamriel. Those are two problems you have to solve with only Laaneth and you if you don’t wish to cooperate.” Jon explained.

“Fine. What do you want?” Glymet asked.

“I want Mecinar. He hurt one of my people and I swore to get him.” Jon said.

“And those two.” Laaneth asked, pointing at Kota and Ram.

“Kota wants revenge!” The midget Argonian Kota spoke his mind in his weird and funny accent, “Bad people ambushed and killed the Tarnished! They killed Kota’s father and kidnapped his sister.”

“A quest for vengeance!” Jon patted Kota on the back, “You may be the first Argonian I actually come to like.”

“Sigh!” Meanwhile, Ram shook his mechanical head.

“And you, what about you?” Glymet asked Ram.

With uncertainty, Ram looked among his odd companions that were forced upon him due to circumstances and couldn’t help but feel like… lost?

Was that the right term? He thought.

According to the man who booted him into this world, the Nord called Jon, it is nothing but ruin where they are now and their home realm, Tamriel continent, is far away from where this is. His people and his family shouldn’t be in this world they are in and since Jon stated that this is a world made by Sotha Sil, the only words Ram could actually remember, he realized that a long time has really passed.

As for his memories, Ram barely had any. He has a memory crystal in this robotic body of his. It is too ancient but somehow still readable. His ego exists within it and he can recall things well but it seems that something has blocked access to the rest of his memories.

Even the name he is going with now is a name given to him by Jon. Robotic Artillery Machine, he calls him, since he fixed his head on the body of a combat Factotum, a sort of irony from a man who is from the enemy camp to his family.

But according to Jon after he ran a test on Ram’s head, there is a missing piece in the head that may work as a signal receiver. Whatever signal it may receive, it may hold something vital for Ram. That’s what he wanted.

“Signal.” Ram replied at Glymet and pointed towards his head.

While his action seemed void of expressions on his metallic face, the fact that Ram wasn’t good with the language of those strange people made him uncomfortable beyond sense and awkward at the same time, so he didn’t try to do or say anymore.

“He is looking for some sort of Communication Chip that can be inserted into his head for him to bypass some restrictions on his current information access from his Memory Crystal and to complete his Ego Construct.” Jon explained in full academic detail.

“Alright.” Glymet nodded with patience, “Two of us want to save a friend, two of us want to kill the man who controls the city and have our friend, and one of us is looking for whatever that signal or chip is.” He then thought for a few seconds, “I see most of our goals aligning together.”

“We also won’t be able to escape this world with Mecinar doing what he’s doing and the way out is probably somewhere deep in the Brass Fortress.” Jon added.

“I am afraid I am tending to agree.” Laaneth said, “Most of the records mentioned that all those who arrive at Clockwork City first arrive at the Brass Fortress.”

“And those who leave?” Jon asked.

“You’d be surprised how many people never talk about leaving this realm.” Laaneth said.

“Alright.” Jon started tabbing with his fingers on the central table in between while thinking before sharing his thoughts, “I have put together a plan and was going to execute it with the help of Kota and Ram but now that you are here, things are looking better.”

“Fine, let’s hear it.” Laaneth said.

With her experiences with Jon, she is aware that Jon isn’t the strategic type and he leaves most of the planning to his wife, Alina, but in terms of guerilla tactics and stealth combat, Jon is a menace to contend with, a master of sabotage and destruction.

“Two hundred years after the death of Sotha Sil, Clockwork City started dying. However, it still functions thanks to what we think of as an emergency power supply. That thing is focused only in the region of the Brass Fortress.” Jon said and pointed at the map drawn by Laaneth but it was a small one she drew to fit on a notebook page and so he asked for help, “Ram, the map.”

Just like that, Ram took his mechanical head off his mechanical body and placed it on the table. From a crystal on his forehead, a bright light was cast on the opposite wall and displayed a map of the entire city.

“You had me draw a map for an hour and you have that?” Laaneth looked at Jon with unbelieving eyes.

“I had you do nothing, sweetheart.” Jon replied with a mocking expression, admitting on the spot that he left her to draw a map on purpose.

“So… that’s the Brass Fortress.” Jon pointed at the upper half of the map, “It is being powered by its own emergency generator while the rest of the realm has mostly died out. We are in the badlands of death so to speak. To enter that city, we must bypass its defenses, and to do so, we need to cut the power from the city or lower it by a little bit.”

“Isn’t it dangerous for the realm?” Laaneth asked, “If we hit the emergency generator, this whole reality may collapse. You must remember that this existence relies on that power for this climate to be livable.”

“Barely livable, I must correct you. The air and the water in this realm should have expired long ago. It seems that the ingenious apostles of the Clockwork City have found ways to produce air and water for themselves inside the Brass Fortress but out here, the pollution and the acid rain are simply disastrous.” Jon explained then put on his famous mischievous smile, “From that point where I will hit their city.”

Jon manipulated the map and focused on the area outside the Brass Fortress, the Radius.

“We are here in the southernmost part of the Radius, this used to be a camp for the nomadic Tarnished people and where I found Kota, his village in a way.” Jon said.

The others looked around the heap of scrap and could tell that there were more heaps of scrap here but it was hard to deduce if any sort of fighting had happened in the area since it is all just one big scrap yard.

“This place we are in was known as the Pavilion of Artifice, it used to be a crafting site and I managed to build some nice tools here.” Jon pointed at this rifle and eyepatch that were just for a cool post-apocalyptic steampunk theme, “As for now, this place is our hideout. I’ve set up a small formation to hide me here so that Mecinar can’t spy on me. If I ever leave or do anything around this realm, he will know it and he will ruin it for me since he knows his way better.”

“So you are going to rely on us.” Glymet asked.

“Bingo. Mecinar is afraid of me and I had Ram and Kota help me but now, things will get twice as fast.” Jon said, “There are a few locations we need to hit. The first is the Ventral Terminus to the far west, an old facility that seemed ruined for ages but it has a massive power supply input requirement. If you go there and direct that power to me here in the Pavilion, I’ll start working on some serious toys to charge at the city.”

“What is the second location?” Laaneth asked.

“To the east, there is a big ass facility called the Halls of Regulation. It is the other facility that requires large power input to function. It is actually for a good cause since that facility produces breathable air and drinkable water for the entire realm. A win-win for everyone since my water reserve is running low and I can really use a shower and a shave. My beard can grow a full inch every day.”

“And by powering those two facilities, we can lower the shield on the city.” Glymet asked.

“Lower it enough for an attack to threaten them and while doing so, Mecinar and his minions will come out and we’re gonna, BAM, hit them where it hurts.” Jon said while performing a swift right hook.

“No tactics, diversions, backup?” Laaneth asked.

“I don’t think we can face Mecinar’s force head-on since we are only five and I can barely leave this place unless there is a big distraction enough for Mecinar to focus on something else other than me.”

“And the risk of this plan?” Glymet asked.

“You go hard or you go home, except that you can’t go home, you get what I’m saying?” Jon said, “I trust in your skills so I know you guys won’t face much trouble if you take things with proper preparations.”

“Fine.” Glymet said, “It pains me that both father and son have no head for strategy.”

“Just because you know my ugly ass father doesn’t mean you get to compare us as you please!” Jon shouted at Glymet with irritation.

As Jon turned and walked away, Glymet looked at Laaneth.

“You don’t think he and his father can be mistaken for twins?” He asked.

“Don’t let them catch you saying that!” She replied with an obvious shudder.

Aside from the similarities between father and son, Glymet kept watching Jon just as carefully as Jon watched him earlier. If Jon the Elder and Jon the Younger (father and son) had so many similarities in appearance, Glymet managed to sense something that would set the two apart greatly.

Much like himself, Jon Dare has a sensation of Fate looming around him, in his actions, in his temperaments. He feels like a force of nature, free and driven, just like how Glymet was in the past.

Paragons, Heroes, Monsters, this is the same sensation of Fate which they read on one another.

Two Heroes in one action, while it sounds like nothing may stop them, it was also something morbid to one of them.

[A/n: Just a reminder, Glymet is the protagonist from The Elder Scrolls: Legends story mode, the Forgotten Hero. He is a human with an ambiguous race and his name is derived from the Norwegian word “Glemt” which means Forgotten… according to google translate…]

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