The Mystan elder was a tall man, with long greying hair, dressed in furs decorated with copper rings. He sat on a fine wooden chair as he addressed the Clockwork Man who stood some distance in front of him, listening intently. Even though he was permitted due to his relatively friendly status with the people, the guards in the room still trained their weapons in the automaton’s direction; he was not insulted by their caution.

“The problem is with the project, we don’t understand exactly what we’re dealing with. This settlement is tiny, our prosperous brothers and sisters in the cities… they have forgotten the old ways and become dependent, it is sad that such happened, but it is the way of the Old Machine.” 

“It is true that adopting the city dwellers methods would make your lives considerably easier though, no?” The Clockwork Man asked curiously, though his dry voice did little to convey his enthusiasm for knowledge. If truth be told, the Clockwork Man had yet to learn anything of the city save for what he had picked up from other scrap Mystans, having spent all his time thus-far on the planet in the great Scrap Plains. 

“Of course, but the principle, I coul-“ the Elder halted mid-speech, as a sound like breaking earth invaded the building, followed by the high-pressure bolts from plasma rifles. “Blast.” The Mystan leader cursed, standing up immediately and drawing his hands high. From either side of him sleeping sentinels awoke, fast flying and deadly spectre drones from the most recent machine war. They sped off immediately, heading towards the Reactor building.

“This is not the first time our generators have failed, the Broken Ones pose no realistic threat when they charge our walls, but it is an irritating waste of energy and recourses to deal with them… that’s why the Warding Machine is so useful, solar powered like it is.” The Elder seemed relatively unperturbed by the situation at least in terms of the Broken Ones which were now reaching the walls and being systematically destroyed. Thankfully, the larger and more powerful Machines were also intelligent enough not to waste themselves against equally powerful foes. “However, the cause for the generator failing once again is worrying, last time it was simple Mystan error, but we fixed that particular bug…”

“Could it be sabotage?” The Clockwork Man enquired. He worried for the children he had saved, but realised almost every member of the camp were competent Technomages. Every household contained a defence bot which was more than capable of dealing with the average Broken One. 

“Unlikely, but we’ll know for sure when my Spectres survey the reactor room. They’re entering now.” The Elder stared into the distance as if far away, looking through the ‘eyes’ of his machines.

“Damn. The Guards are dead.” He swore at length in Mystan, which the Clockwork Man was only just getting the hang of. Most of the time they spoke English… now he considered that it was strange, but worth thinking about later.

“Sabotage then, I’ll go look, it won’t help me any if someone destroys the camp before the project is completed.” The Clockwork Man turned on his heel, looking particularly out of place in Victorian attire as he strode into the relative darkness. Out there, it was useful to have gigantic lenses for eyes, because there was no telling what he could run into, and being able to see in near complete darkness was a major advantage.

He reached the reactor room after a few moments, and really wished he had the ability to use Mystan technology. It was irritating being surrounded by such powerful weapons, and not having the genetic code to fire the bloody things. Still, he had his pistol, and being made of Elmorium was also a fair advantage. Feeling confident, he walked purposely into the building and made his way towards the main reactor room, where the crystals which powered the Warding Shield could be found.