Chapter Text
* * *
Silco’s office was dark, just as he liked it. Ever since Vander damaged his left eye and the river toxins ate into it, bright light had made it sting. But in the undercity, bright light was rare enough to be avoidable.
Silco’s office was also cluttered. To one side of his desk was an armoire, which contained changes of clothes to suit whatever impression he needed to make -as well as a mirror and his makeup kit. To the other side was a large gramophone with multiple speakers, along with a four-sided clock. In front of his desk, across the room, was a pink couch, a small coffee table, and seats across from it. Silco cared little for any of it.
No, what Silco cared most for was on the rafters above, lying back with her long, blue braids dangling in the air. The woman across from Silco, he cared less about, but he couldn’t deny that Sevika was important to his plans, important to Zaun, and . . . yes, important to him. There were few people he felt he could trust, and Sevika was one. He knew that her loyalties lay in the same place as his own.
Sevika and Jinx were Silco’s audience at the moment, his right and left hands.
And it as finally time to act -or rather, prepare to.
“Progress Day,” Silco growled, the hate heavy in his tone. “They celebrate the founding of Piltover, the beginning of their oppression of us, and call it progress.”
Jinx flipped herself on the rafters, her braids bouncing as she looked down, already enraptured by what he said.
“And this one . . . is a bicentennial,” Silco continued. “Celebrating two hundred years of exploitation. It is a day of arrogance, a tremendous festival fueled by the riches of our home that they forced us to tear free of it and give to them. They have grown fat and lazy on that wealth. They shall have their day . . . but the night will be ours. Come the evening of Progress Day, we will attack.”
There was a soft thump as Jinx dropped from the rafters to the top of his desk, her face stretched in a manic smile as her face glowed with happiness.
“It’s happening?” Jinx asked, beyond excited.
“It is,” Silco confirmed. “We will soon be going to war with Piltover, and winning our freedom.”
Jinx practically squealed with excitement and wrapped Silco in a big hug, which Silco returned with a chuckle of understanding amusement.
“I know, child,” Silco mused. “I am as excited as you are.”
“Cute,” Sevika commented dryly. “But why now? You’ve had the undercity united under you for years now, and we’ve got more than enough shimmer.”
“I was chiefly waiting for Singed to iron out the last few kinks in the chemtanks,” Silco replied, referring to the shimmer-fueled metal monstrosities with blades for arms. “But I have also waited to see if any weapons would come from hextech. They don’t seem to be making efforts in that direction, so they will have nothing to fight us with.”
Sevika nodded. “Then why not before Progress Day? Let’s not let ‘em have their day in the sun.”
“No, the night of Progress Day is perfect,” Silco said. “Sheriff Marcus will have every enforcer he can muster on shift during the day, to deal with the festival atmosphere and the crowds. The shifts will then stretch into the evening, as the topsiders get drunker and rowdier. By night time, the enforcers will be exhausted and turning in for a good night’s sleep. More than that, many of the city’s top officials will be drunk, including the majority of the Council . . . and the Sheriff, considering his usual habits and the bottle I’ve gifted him in my last bribe.”
“They’ll plan to just have to deal with partyin’ topsiders,” Sevika mused. “They’ll have topside kit -cloth uniforms, bolos, nightclubs. No armor, no guns.
“Indeed,” Silco acknowledged with a nod. “Sevika, our plan of attack is roughly unchanged, but I believe there are some specific opportunities to exploit.”
Sevika nodded. “Let’s see it.”
Silco shifted Jinx a little, which made her climb off of Silco’s lap and sit on his desk instead. It was slightly problematic, as Silco needed all the desk space he could get, but he could adjust.
From one of his desk drawers, Silco withdrew a large map of Piltover, and unfolded it to lay upon his desk, with part of it laying on Jinx, who looked down at it curiously.
“Piltover lays two primary obstacles in our way,” Silco began. “The first is that the bridges are a chokepoint -numbers mean little if we are funneled in like so. The second is that the enforcers have many more guns than we do. These two obstacles, combined, are what caused the Bridge Massacre to be so one-sided against us. However, that has changed.”
“We have shimmer now!” Jinx said eagerly.
“Indeed.” Silco nodded. “A shimmer monster will not be stopped by a mere bullet, or even a dozen. They are by no means bulletproof, but damaging their brain or spine is the only thing that will kill them with any reasonable speed, though of course destroying their arms or legs will inhibit them. The chemtanks, on the other hand, are more or less bulletproof -it will take cannonfire to bring them down.”
“Seven years ago, one shimmer monster tore through a half-dozen enforcers and the Sheriff,” Sevika agreed. “Grayson was a tough one, but she wasn’t tough enough. The monsters won’t be able to disappear between attacks this time, but we’ve got enough shimmer that if each monster just kills one enforcer, we’ll come out on top.”
“We will win even if it takes two shimmer monsters to kill each enforcer,” Silco replied. “Between the two main shimmer factories and our other production facilities, our stockpile is quite large -and we have the numbers. But that brings us to our second problem: the bridges -the chokepoints.”
Silco tapped the bridges on the map of Piltover and the undercity.
“That is the main method of transit between Piltover and the undercity, but not the only one,” Silco said. “In addition to the bridge, our original plan calls for four additional prongs of assault. The most unexpected one will come from the far side of Piltover.”
Silco moved his hand across the river, across Piltover itself, to the other end of the city.
“A lotta people’ll come from all over for Progress Day –‘specially a bicentennial,” Jinx mused. “Wouldn’t be weird to have a lotta people campin’ outside the city.”
“Indeed,” Silco agreed. “They will be delivered by sea, then told to wait for a signal. And the city will be busy enough that a good number of our people can be interspersed throughout Piltover, waiting for our signal to rise up.”
“So, that’s land,” Sevika acknowledged. “Sea . . . we and Piltover both have docks on the north an’ south sides. Theirs are mostly for tradin’, while ours are mostly for fishin’, but if we fill the boats we have with people and shimmer, then let ‘em loose on the Piltover docks . . . they won’t be expectin’ that.”
“I believe not.” Silco nodded. “As for air, we only have one airship at the moment, but with one, we can seize more and bring them back here to pick up more warriors.”
“A five-pronged surprise attack, combined with people on the inside,” Sevika mused. “It’ll be hell to organize, but topside won’t know what hit ‘em. Our targets?”
“That, in particular, is where the opportunities lie,” Silco replied. “The Medarda Gala is the highest-class social event of the evening, and in fact, the year. Every Councilor will be in attendance, so if we can seize it, most of the leadership will be taken. However, it is in the evening . . . before we want to attack.”
Sevika frowned.
“Isn’t there gonna be a big speech after?” Jinx asked.
“Indeed.” Silco nodded. “Once night falls, Heimerdinger will give the Progress Day speech in the Piltover Academy auditorium nearby. However, it will be much harder to secure. Directly after the speech comes the fireworks, which will continue for about an hour until the grand finale. After that, there will be mingling and politicking. Most of the Council should still be there.”
“That’s when we gotta strike, then,” Sevika said. “Right before the speech, when they’re all gathered together.”
“It lines up much better with our preferred time of assault, but will be harder to achieve,” Silco warned. “There is a much greater chance that important people will slip away.”
“Better to deal with that then try and attack earlier and ruin the surprise,” Sevika grunted. “We’ll have the most advantages at night. Gotta use ‘em.”
Silco nodded. “Very well.”
“What about other target, then?” Sevika asked. “Same as before? The armories, the precincts?”
Silco shook his head, then tapped a symbol on the map that represented the Hexgate.
“Piltover is a nexus of trade, and every other nation wants it to be stable and secure . . . and I’m sure Noxus, in particular, would like to secure it more permanently if they see an opportunity,” Silco said. “The Hexgate gives Piltover the ability to call for help and be reinforced far too quickly.”
“So we gotta destroy it.” Sevika nodded. “We have an airship . . . if we unload a buncha monsters right on top of it, we could bust it up from the inside.”
“If we task the airship to that, we wouldn’t be able to use it to seize more airships,” Silco warned. “But the Hexgate is near the northern docks.”
“Havin’ more airships doesn’t matter too much if we can hold the bridges -that’ll be our main way across,” Sevika replied. “Besides, the Hexgate’s defended well from the ground. Out on a spit of land like that, there’s only one way to attack it. Either we commit the airship there, or our chances of takin’ it out go way down.”
“But what if the advance stalls?” Silco asked. “Airships could deliver our troops behind the front lines and thus break any stalemates.”
“Thought the idea was to move too quick to get bogged down,” Sevika pointed out. “Capture or destroy the armories, take the leadership, end it before Piltover can put up a fight.”
Silco nodded. “You’re right, of course. I suppose we can strike towards the skydock later, if we need them.”
“The Hexgate’s a bigger problem,” Sevika agreed. “But we can take it down . . . ‘long as we know what to bust up.”
With that, she cast a look at Jinx. Jinx was staring off into the middle distance, though . . . before blinking, startling, and shaking her head.
“No, no, I can’t,” Jinx denied. “It’s gonna be blue and glowy . . .”
Silco nodded. “The warriors we send will be instructed to break as much as they can, then.”
“We need more than that,” Sevika growled.
“We will make do,” Silco countered.
“Just . . . break anythin’,” Jinx shared. “Anythin’ that’s blue and glowy. It’ll go boom . . . and there’s gotta be a lot in there -make the whole place go boom!”
“Then we will target the hexcrystals in particular,” Silco replied. “We already know how volatile they are -we simply won’t tell the warriors we send about it.”
Sevika narrowed her eyes at Jinx, then nodded. Silco took it as acquiescence enough to continue on.
“As for other highest priority targets . . . taking the First Precinct, the headquarters of the enforcers, would both disrupt their leadership and remove a portion of their military,” Silco shared. “And taking over the Piltover Academy, where hextech research is being done and the Council meets, is quite important as well.”
Sevika and Jinx both nodded.
“However, I didn’t know if it is instead wiser to entirely target the military first, and trade hope for a quick victory for perhaps more surety,” Silco replied. “The enforcer precincts and the armories are the only real military targets. The precincts are where many enforcers will rally and arm themselves, however, the precincts do not have firearms for all of them, nor do they have many rifles or heavier arms -so they will go to the armories soon after.”
“I’d like to see them go up against shimmer with only pistols,” Jinx said, a gleam in her eye as she spun one of her pistols.
“The armories are the bigger threats,” Sevika growled.
“There are six armories across Piltover,” Silco said, mostly to Jinx. “The largest of them is the Central Armory, deep in the heart of Piltover, near the First Precinct. The other five are the the Western, Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Mid-Southern Armories. They each have precincts quite near, but the precincts aren’t built with war in mind -they are defensible, but not fortresses.”
As Silco spoke, he marked the location of each precinct on the map.
“I think we need to knock ‘em out first,” Sevika decided. “Not give ‘em any chance to fight back. Goin’ straight for the Council might scare ‘em into backing down, but goin’ after the guns is a better bet. And if we can take their guns, maybe we can use ‘em.”
Silco started drawing lines across the map. The bridges were closest to the Mid-Southern Armory, while true Southern Armory was closest to Piltover’s southern docks. The Northern Armory was rather near Piltover’s northern docks, and the Eastern Armory was on the far side of Piltover -which put it near the land route in. The most difficult would be the Western Armory, as it wasn’t really near anything, so Silco drew an over-air route to it.
“We’re makin’ both the Hexgate and the Western Armory targets for the airship?” Sevika asked.
Silco nodded. “I don’t think we have a great many options on how to strike it quickly.”
Sevika shook her head. “It’s only one airship. One of those, with surprise, it could do. But both? No way.”
“Do you have other ideas?” Silco asked, frowning. “Neither the bridges nor the northern docks are too far . . . shimmer monsters could cross the distance quickly.”
“Why don’t we just take the ships here and attack?” Jinx asked, tracing her finger from the river to the Western Armory.
Sevika snorted. “’Cause it’s a cliff. Besides, no docks there other than the sky one.”
“We cannot offload an army anywhere without a dock,” Silco warned. “The ships would not be able to come entirely to shore, which means they would have to make many, many trips with rowboats. That would slow us down to the extreme, not to mention the difficulty of it if we are under fire while doing so. But the Western Armory can’t be assaulted from the sea regardless -as Sevika said, it’s built atop a high, sheer cliff.”
Jinx just nodded, though she’d reflexively glared at Sevika at first.
“I don’t like our chances with the Western Armory,” Sevika admitted. “It’s the biggest an’ best defended fortress in Piltover, an’ that it was built at the end of a spit of land means that it’s only really gonna be attacked from one direction -like the Hexgates. An’ it ain’t like it’s the center of the city, where people can walk by without lookin’ too suspicious -no, the Western Armory’s not gonna fall to a surprise attack from infiltrators.”
“It will be incredibly difficult to attack,” Silco mused. “In addition to constrained options of assaulting it, they’ll hold the high ground. But the airship our only tool to get there quickly -we’ll need it to both deal with the Hexgate and heavily damage the Western Armory.”
Sevika looked deep in thought for a moment, then cocked her head.
“How many cannons’ve we got?” Sevika asked.
“Five, of varying make and capabilities,” Silco replied. “They could bombard the Western Armory from our side of the river, but they’ll be firing upwards and at a steep incline -likely rather ineffective. They also don’t have the range to reach the Hexgate from our side of the river, even if we had the accuracy.”
“But what if they’re on the airship?” Sevika questioned. “And brought nice and close to the Hexgate?”
“Accuracy would not be a particularly difficult problem at such close range,” Silco mused. “I assume, then, that we would not be attacking the Hexgate tower with warriors?”
Sevika nodded. “Not if we can destroy it from a distance. Keep more of our troops alive.”
“But can the airship carry the cannons and enough warriors to take the Western Armory?” Silco asked.
“If they move fast,” Sevika replied. “Especially if we shell the armory, too.”
Silco nodded. “I’ll have the cannons moved and the crew start drilling.”
“That just leaves the Central Armory, near the First Precinct,” Sevika growled, staring at it for a bit.
Then Sevika sighed.
“There’s probably more gunpowder in that place than anywhere else in the city,” Sevika said, looking up at Jinx.
Jinx grinned.
“Can you do it?” Silco asked.
“You bet I can!” Jinx answered. “Those dumb Pilties’ll rest in pieces.”
“Not alone,” Silco said. “I’ll send two dozen experienced shimmer warriors with you.”
Jinx blinked, then shook her head.
“I can do it!” Jinx argued, taking Silco’s statement for lack of faith.
“I know you can,” Silco assured her. “I simply also want to strike at the First Precinct at the same time. You are enormously skilled, Jinx, but even you cannot be in two places at once.”
“I can if I wanna,” Jinx grumbled, slouching. “Just need bombs an’ a timer . . .”
Silco just took one of her hands in his own and squeezed gently.
Sevika rolled her eyes at the display, and looked back to the map.
“If we’re gonna use boats . . . we’d be fools to just try and beat our way across the bridges,” Sevika mused. “Even a half-dozen rowboats would be enough to cross the river, then come up from behind. Whatever guns we have, we could shoot ‘em up above as a distraction. Along with some shimmer monsters runnin’ across, that’ll get their attention.”
Silco nodded at the plan. “Zaun requires sacrifice.”
“Yeah . . . and I think I know some people’ll who’ll be eager for that,” Sevika said, moving her finger across the map to one of the fissures.
Silco furrowed his brow, then his expression cleared and he nodded.
“Perfect,” Silco acknowledged.
“What’s perfect?” Jinx asked.
“The tent city at the bottom of the fissure here, near the old water tower,” Silco shared, tapping on the map. “Full of the desperate, lost and damned. Many of them are shimmer addicts -they’ll do anything for another hit. Including charge into certain death . . . though the bridge isn’t exactly heavily guarded at the moment. Still, they are good for little else, so there’s no harm in expending some of them for this attack.”
“Not even good enough to work in a factory, but good enough to fight a war.” Sevika chuckled.
“Shimmer . . . it is simply that powerful,” Silco mused. “A knight of Demacia trains their whole life, and wears a fortune’s worth of armor, yet an enforcer armed with a gun and a few months of training should kill one easily. And even a weak and twisted addict can kill an enforcer, using only a vial of shimmer. To think that usually armies require training, conditioning, and discipline . . . but with a vial of shimmer and a direction to attack in, all of that is bypassed.”
“Makes a warrior out of anyone,” Sevka agreed. “I dunno logistics like you do, Silco, but it just seems unfair.”
“It is.” Silco agreed. “But Piltover has been unfair against us for long enough. It is time to turn the tables.”
“And if we need more meat for the grinder, we can get it here,” Sevika pointed out, sliding her finger across to Stillwater. “Might even be worth crackin’ open early.”
“It would certainly raise morale across the undercity to see it burn,” Silco mused. “And many of them would be more than willing to tear into Piltover.”
“It’s pretty far from the rest of Piltover,” Sevika mused. “And it and Piltover are on opposite sides of us. Don’t think we gotta worry about Stillwater attackin’ us, and there’s no way Piltover could support it easily, not with us between ‘em -and what we’re gonna hit ‘em with drawin’ topside’s attention.”
“Attacking Stillwater or leaving it alone for the moment both seem like viable options,” Silco said. “But I believe destroying it and freeing the occupants to add to the army would be best saved for after the initial assault -it is far less important than the armories and the main attacks into Piltover.”
Sevika nodded her acceptance of that.
“Now, we should start planning in more detail for Piltover’s reactions and how to best neutralize their capabilities . . .” Silco murmured. “Jinx, you may leave if you wish. We will need all the explosives we can for the war ahead, and there is no one better at making them than you.”
Jinx smiled at the compliment, and didn’t get annoyed at the dismissal. She wasn’t that good at planning with others, anyways.
So with that, she left, and Silco and Sevika plotted the downfall of Piltover . . . and the rise of Zaun.