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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 ◾ Part 6 ◾ Part 7

The Citadel

Part 1 ◾ Part 2 ◾ Part 3

Clockwork City

The City of brass and steam, of steel and glass. A City governed by the nobles of the Uppercity and the Guildmasters of the Undercity. The Undercity is becoming a battleground as Guildmasters send their best fighters to destabilize one another.

Something stirs in the Underdeep. Before we get there, we need a hero that must go to investigate the damage.

Steam Brutes Part 8

The Underdeep was no place for simple folk who could not fight nor fend for themselves. Calvius checked the pistons on the legs of his suit before shutting the armored plates. He stood back and did a last inspection of all the hatches and compartments and then got the stepladder out and placed it before the suit.

"Brightfall protects." He whispered to himself, rubbing his red sideburns and taking out a pipe from his waistcoat. While lighting it up he admired the mechanical glory of his work.

Calvius Prime the Third was the Armorsmith and Chief Engineer of the Brightfall mines. The mines ran on the western outskirts of the Under City. Of course this means that the mines ran through the Underdeep, something else that Clavius was an expert in.

"Chief Clavius." A voice spoke behind him.

He turned slowly and took a deliberate drag from his pipe as he did so. He stared up at the young man that had entered his workship. "Careful now." He drawled slowly. "Health and Safety ain't my strongest point when it comes to... hehe... tall people."

The man looked nervously around him. "What do you mean?"

"Just mind your head and arms... and legs. My workshop. I built things to suit myself not others. It's safe enough for me, just don't swing your arms." Clavius grinned. They boy was double his length but he was sure he could take him on in a scrap even without his suit. "I take it that you have news from Lord Brightfall?"

The young man nodded. "Yes Chief. More pipelines destroyed in Deep 6. They say there were..."

"Claw marks and teethmarks in the piping. " Calvius interrupted him. "Yeah, yeah. So I heard."

"That's not all Chief." The man said.

"Spit it out then. I ain't got all day." Clavius turned his back on the young man and ascended the stepladder on twisted legs, he climbed into the chest of his suit and popped his head up into the shielded helm.

"They... they say there was blood around the pipes, some s-s-s-s-scraps of uniform." The young man stammered.

Calvius gunned the engine and it roared to life. With a whine of motors, the clack of rotary pistons and the squeal of belt drives running into motion for the first time, the chest hatch closed up and Calvius lumbered forward and stood before the man, this time looking down at him. "Ours?"

The man nodded.

"Tell Lord Brightfall that I will be in Deep 6." Clavius said simply. "Either the pipe will be fixed or I will find the thing that killed our men. With any luck, I might get both done."

An hour later he had descended to Deep 5. The elevator shafts that ran this deep into the Underdeep did not go as single shafts, the weight of long lengths of suspension cable too much for any motor that could be employed.

Deposits of iron and brass ore was often found in the Underdeep. Often enough, excavations would unearth old wrought metal, older than the rest of the Under City. Sometimes it was just an old machine, squashed and broken that they could melt down for scrap. Other times it was like they had dug into a part of the ancient city that had fallen in and collapsed under the weight of the city above.

Sometimes there were more valuable things to find than scrap metals.

The pistons and gears whined as Clavius strode forward in his steam-powered suit. There were a couple of miners at the lift station. A sort of ramshakle market had sprung up at every lift station. A place where miners could buy food, drink and often company. Brightfall might control the mine, but denizens of the Under City flocked to mining operations. Smithies and workshops that were not part of his Guild were set up here. Guildless, though they had sometimes ratted out a Wrayburn or a Featherstone operative, seeking to steal riches from the Brightfall mines.

Sometimes they sent in Clavius to deal with these insurgents as well.

He strode through the market, paying no mind to the people who lined the stores. He knew most of them. Some would stay, others would drift and move.

There were unlikable trash mixed in with the miners. Mostly people kept a distance from one another. Miners hated pickpockets.

He was just outside the market in the rubble strewn tunnels leading to the lift to Deep 6. This part had been mined bare and there were criss-crossing tunnels all over the place. He heard voices.

"Isn't that the dwarf clanker?" He heard someone say somewhere behind him. Clavius's ears perked up, though he did not slow his advance.

"Shuddup fool. Just remember to get the legs. He ain't so tough if we can knock it down. Real good money on this one, but they said he is dangerous."

Clavius Prime grinned behind his helmet. Another Bounty Hunter group. Great for a warmup.

"Yeah. Yeah. I have knocked down plenty of clankers. Let's go."

The Underdeep was no place for simple folk. You needed to be sharp. One thing that Clavius Prime prided himself in was his ability to hear. In the deep depths, the sounds the mine and underground structures made told him a lot about the surrounding substrate.

It also enabled him to avoid trouble. Or at least see it coming.

The rush of footsteps behind him was not getting right in range. He had adjusted the periscope mirrors in his helmet display to give him a good view of the area behind him.

Any one of them would had turned that boy in his workshop into a paste. Mean and merciless. They would give a poor stunted dwarf in a mecha-suit no mercy should they get hold of him.

He grinned. He would not give them any mercy either.

Only two had spoken, but five of them were coming. The one must have been the 2nd in charge who boasted he could deal with Clavius as the man rushed forward, a massive pipe wrench pulled back to swing at the back of Calvius's suit's legs.

He was about in range when Calvius lifted one leg up beding himself and struck the key in his control panel. The foot's pistons all fired simultaneously and the massive metal boot struck the man in the face, shattering bone and sending the pipe wrench flying into one of the other men who had a webbed cable net in his hands.

Clavius put the foot down and spun around. "Alright you pieces of sump-slime!" He yelled and grabbed another man in a powerful gauntlet. He simply closed the fist all the way and the fingers tore through cheap metal armour, ribcage and organs with equal ease.

Clavius roared with laughter. "Time to increase my bounty!"

Something struck him on his helmet and exploded in a spray of orange pigment. A Smoke bomb huh? Clever

There would be two more that were on their feet. Another cable net came out of the cloud that obscured his sight and wrapped around his left arm.

Their tactic would have been great if he had not killed two of them and taken another down already. Two nets, smoke bomb and wrench. That means the fifth is the leader and he would have the real stopping power.

He saw the flicker of electrical current arching through the air a moment before he began twisting his mech around. The lance pierced the smoke where the leader must have thought the mecha-suit was.

Calvius yanked on the cable net and pulled the bearer through the smoke and into the electro-lance. Electricity crackled along the weapon and the man began screaming, albeit for only a second as the electricity arched through the man and seared his flesh.

The electrical currents passed harmlessly over his armor. He had learned it the hard way to insulate the Mech's feet and the chassis. He was glad he never went for cables but opted instead for capillary tubing and gears for his controls.

He strode out of the cloud of organge pigment and removed his own pipe wrench from the compartment on his leg.

"Oh shi..." The leader of the Bounty Hunters exploded in a shower of guts and blood.

Clavius grunted and began cleaning the tool on the rags of clothing of the bodies around him. There was a whimpering to his left. He regarded the man for a while.

The pipe wrench that had mean to catch his Mecha-suit in the legs had been flung into this man and broken both arms. The man probably had a couple broken ribs as well.

"Right, you slimeball. What's the bounty at now?"

The man stared up at him in amazement. "What?"

"How much do they pay to take me down?"

"I... uh.... I guess its three thousand credits." The man stared at his arms dumbly.

Clavin reached out and picked up the heavy wrench holding the man down and inspected it. He repressed trying to spit, his head was in his helmet after all. "Featherstone." He grumbled. "Ugly piece of work. All its good for is hitting things. I guess I will keep it if I need something crude to smash someone with. Will keep mine clean and neat."

He patted his own tool that was back in its holster.

The man stared up at him with wide eyes, too frightened to move.

"Well. It's your lucky day." Clavius laughed. "Didn't you hear that I leave the last man standing alive? That's you! Run along! Tell those Featherstone bastards they can move the bounty up a bit more again."

He laughed again and turned his back on the man. He advanced towards the next lift station.

Third attempt in a week. They really must hate me.

The Dustoff

A dwarf in a steam-powered mecha-suit? I guess we have another Steam Brute in the mix!

What will he find in the Underdark of Deep 6?

Until next time, cheers!

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