Chapter 1: Out of the Microwave, and into the Oven

Life can be Hell for anybody. World War 6 was just that Hell amplified for us. Watching our home state of Texas get enslaved by those Futa pricks. While they captured our land, they sure as hell didn't take or break our spirit of state patriotism. After all, it's VERY difficult to break the spirit of a true Texan! It takes a real group of patriots to revive the Texas Rangers, steal two trains, and then create a fearsome war-machine out of it all. Most people know all about the Battleship Express, the flagship of the Railway Warfare Division's fleet of war trains when it comes to railway warships, however, there are many more, and ours is one. Whilst the Battleship Express was busy fighting the Futas in the Midwest, Rocky Mountains, the Southwest, the Northwest, and other places, we of the Alamo City were kicking futa ass all around Mexico and Central America. However, that all changed one day on deployment in the jungles of Southern Mexico........

It was another sweltering day for the crew of Alamo City. The train was driving through the jungle to get to their destination at the Panama Canal. The train was to provide support for the liberation of the other side of the canal so that Allied Forces could break through into South America. Sitting in the train's main command center were two men. The first was Major Alexander, or "Major Blood" as some called him, was the commander of the troops, and overall operations on Alamo City. He wore a standard issue helmet and uniform with bullet protection gear on his chest, legs and arms.

"So how much longer till we arrive at the next rest stop Major?" Asked the second person. His body was covered in muscle and tan fur underneath a basic uniform like what the Major was wearing. However, his ears were cat-like, and he had a decently sized cat-like tail.

"Not much longer Ravage, I promise. Our next stop is Oaxaca, then Salina Cruz, and then we proceed from there into Central America", Major Blood replied. "You best get back to up to Lone Star Captain. You know this train can't go without its best driver. Plus, the last time we let Jenkins drive across the border........well, you know the fest of THAT story!"

Ravage winced. "Yes, we all remember. I mean how do you jump a train on straight, well maintained track?" Ravage asked, saluting the Major.

"Sadly, we'll never know." The Major replied as Ravage left for the front engine.

The thing that made Alamo City slightly unique was the fact that it used two engines instead of one. "Lone Star" was the nickname given to Texas and Pacific 610 when she joined the Railway Warfare Division, and "Nimitz", or ATSF 5017 pushed from behind in a Top and Tail Formation. Only a few other capital-trains, (aka the heaviest hitters in the RWD Fleet) even had 2 engines to move the train, the most famous of these, aside from Alamo City, was the Rail Dreadnought. She was the very first Rail Battleship ever made by the RWD, and was the direct predecessor of the Battleship Express. She was pulled by Santa Fe 5000, aka Madam Queen, as well as Union Pacific 9000. Madam Queen was in front, while 9000 was close to the middle of the train at times, though sometimes she double-headed with Madam Queen. However, 9000 was primarily used for extra traction, as well as being a main generator for the rest of the train, while Madam Queen did most of the pulling work. While this 2-engine design did work, it was seen as ineffective, largely due to the fact that it took twice the crews to maintain both engines, though on the plus side there were now 2 engines to do the work; if one failed, the train could still move thanks to the other one. Alamo City was the only capital-train in the RWD Fleet to use the Top and Tail Formation. (This design too was seen as ineffective, as it was hard to synchronize the engines. There was no real way to synchronize the controls of both engines, meaning that both of them operated independently, and if something went wrong with one engine, it could cause severe damage to the other engine, as well as the rest of the train).

As Ravage reached the front of the train, he saw Jenkins. Private Edward Jenkins was the secondary driver, but many wondered why he was there, since most saw him as klutzy.

"Oh Ravage! Glad you're back." Private Jenkins said while saluting.

"Thank you Jenkins. You can head back to the bunks for a nap. I'm driver through the night." Ravage replied, giving the lanky guy a pat on the shoulder. Jenkins then smiled and left. Ravage took to the controls and let Lone Star go at a nice 50mph as they rolled through the jungles of Southern Mexico. As the night wore on though, Ravage suddenly saw a flash of.........something. His eyes saw a small orb of light dance around 610 before suddenly darting into the jungle, and into the night.

"I think I need to get more sleep from now on." He said rubbing his eyes. "I think I'm seeing things now." He then tried to focus on his job again.

The next morning, the crew arrived in Oaxaca when all of a sudden........

BANG!
Boom!
Ratatatatatat!

The engines were slowed to a halt as a group of men in Mexican Army uniforms flagged them down. The whizzing and banging of bullets rang out from down the line. Ravage stayed at his post while his fireman Clemente got down. Sargent Clemente was an american born of Mexican immigrants, so he knew how to speak Spanish, and then translate what was said to the rest of the crew.

"Que Pasa?" Clemente said to the soldiers. The four soldiers looked very frightened.

"Soldados enemigos fuera de Oaxaca!" The first one replied.

"Gracias por la advertencia!" Clemente said running back into the cab.

"What is it?" Ravage asked.

"The enemy is outside Oaxaca right now! We need to get there to help repel the attack!" Clemente said. Ravage then grabbed his radio, and clicked it on.

"Major, we've got hostiles at the city of Oaxaca!" Ravage said into the radio.

"Roger that, proceed forward. All hands, battle stations now!" Major Blood ordered before clicking off the radio. A siren then wailed from the cars as soldiers scrambled to their positions. The train slowly came into view of the city, and then the guns were readied to open fire on the outskirts.

Major Alexander was busy giving orders to the soldiers on board Alamo City. All guns were ready to fire when a radio message came through.

"Hello? Is this Alamo City do you read?" A voice said with the booming sounds of shells on the other end of the radio.

"This is Major Alexander of Alamo City. Who is this?" He replied.

"This is General Espada of the Mexican Army. We are pinned down in the city! The Futas have fortified the ruins of Monte Alban, and are shelling us!"

Major Alexander turned pale. "We'll begin firing General Espada, Alamo City out!" The Major then turned the intercom on. " Attention all gunners! The enemy is firing from Monte Alban! Time to show 'em what we do best!" He said before turning it off and reclining in the chair. "Damn Futas never make it easy on us do they?" He said to no one in particular. "While they expend most of their resources trying to take down the Battleship Express and Battalion 4009, the rest goes towards stopping the rest of the RWD Trains, and the rest of the US and Allied Armed Forces, including us. When will they ever give up?!"

At this same time, Alamo City came to life with her large guns. Her large 20 inch, and 14 inch guns shelled Monet Alban with everything that they had, whilst her smaller 8 inch guns shelled other batteries closer to the Mexican trenches. As this was happening, the Alamo City deployed its ground troops. The Texas Ranger Legion poured out form the train, and got into positions to assist their allies. These troops were the equivalent of US Marines, or the troops who made up the Railway Battalions for the RWD, and like the men on Alamo City, they too were all proud Texan natives.

After a few minutes of constant bombardment from Alamo City, some enemy soldiers broke and fled, but many held strong in their positions despite the hellfire raining down around them. It took several hours but the enemy had been pushed back to sandbag defenses on the ruins of Monte Alban. The Futas were hurting, but the fight was not over yet.

Meanwhile, inside the ruins of Monte Alban, Captain Esmeralda of the Futa Empire was in her command tent while shells rained down further away.
"Give me a status report!" She yelled at her assistant Laura.

Laura looked at the data that she had. "Our soldiers have taken heavy casualties, and are fighting in Monte Alban. They will run out of ammo in four more hours." Laura replied.

Esmeralda slammed her fist into her map table. "Fucking Dammit! If that fucking train hadn't shown up, we would've had the town by now!" She growled, putting a hand to her face, and rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Your orders Captain?" Laura asked. The captain just stood there for a moment, not moving.

"We've got no choice. Tell our troops to make a fighting retreat. Our orders were that in the event of failure, we were to retreat towards the Carla Line in New Hermland or Guatemala as those damn Americans say."

"As you command Captain!" Laura replied as she wrote the command, which was to be then taken by courier to the front line.

As Laura wrote out the order for a courier, Esmeralda looked back at her maps, particularly a picture of Alamo City. "I swear I'll kill that train! Laura, send orders to our Sappers to hide for now, and then ambush the train at night! That Battleship Express-wannabe will NOT ruin our control anymore!" Esmeralda then grabbed all of the maps and plans before leaving the tent for her staff car.

"I'll get right on it Captain!"

The first message was then given to a courier, and then the second message was relayed to the Sappers, and after Laura grabbed other things that Esmeralda missed, the two of them left.

As the staff car drove away, Esmeralda dreaded giving her report of the battle to her superiors, which would ultimately make its way to General Stacy Rikker, and possibly her mother Demetria, the Empress of the Futa Empire. Stacy would no doubt be VERY upset about the loss. Her own troops were slugging it out with the Battleship Express in the Rocky Mountains, and were losing. If news of this loss reached her, who knows what she would do. Esmeralda tried not to think about it as her staff car kept rolling.

Five minutes later, her command tent took a direct hit from a 20 inch shell, and was destroyed.

The fight for the Mexicans, and the soldiers of Alamo City lasted another two hours before the Futas fully retreated. The two engines then let out their whistles as a sign of victory. the Mexican soldiers cheered out in joy, and were hugging their allies. That night, the city of Oaxaca was filled with music, dancing, and drinking on both sides, though a skeleton crew consisting of the highest officers stayed on Alamo City in the event of counter attack. While others were out having fun, Jenkins and Ravage sat in the dining car having some simple M.R.Es.

"Hey Jenkins?" Ravage asked, fiddling with his food.

Jenkins looked up. "Yeah?"

"You see any strange things last night?"

Jenkins thought for a second. "Well, before I went to bed, I did see a flash, but I thought that it was some idiot who turned on the anti air search light on accident."

"I saw it too. There was just this glowing orb dancing around the train before disappearing into the jungle." Ravage said.

"Sounds like the legend of Luz Mala Clemente told on Halloween night."

"What legend is that?" Ravage asked curiously.

Jenkins sighed. "It's a legend about a ball of light that floats along the ground until it comes across what its looking for. It then shines above potential artifacts, graves, and other things, but if anything touches the light, or the ground below they suddenly die from a toxic gas. It's probably just wartime hallucinations though."

"Yeah probably just nerves." Ravage said. Then a sound reached his ears, and he grabbed his gun.

"What is i-

"Shush!" Ravage shushed him as he continued moving towards the front of the engine. His cat-like hearing picked up what sounded like whispers coming from up ahead close to the front of the train.

"Alright, just place the explosives, and let's get the hell outta here." A voice said.

"I don't think we should be underestimating these boys," Another said. "Remember what General Stacy said about that time she had her sleeper agent Sally Face try and blow up the Battleship Express? Sure, he damaged the train, and knocked it out of action for 4 months in 2028, but that was NOT the end of the Battleship Express. It came back, was better than ever, and not only that, Face was found out, hunted down, and killed less than 2 weeks ago in the Battle of Boise in Idaho. General Stacy never got over that one."

"Shut the fuck up Jayne! Just do the job, and then we can leave!" A third voice growled.

Ravage then got within range, and saw a trio of sappers preparing to blow the train!

"Oh no you all don't!" The thought angrily. "You ain't gonna pull a 'Sally Face' on us!" He then slammed a fist on the emergency button, and then the train's sirens wailed.

The trio were frightened, and one of them ducked while the others drew their weapons. Ravage then fired his pistol at their guns, and they broke apart. Furious, the two futas jumped up and engaged in fist to fist with Ravage. Ravage dodged a blow, and kicked one of them back into the metal wall of the engine, and she screamed in pain and anger.

The second one hit him in the gut, but he grabbed her fist with his hand, and used his bulk to spin her body off the train, and onto the ground outside of it. He then grabbed his pistol, and shot the crippled Futa in the heart. He then spun around fast, and shot the second one in the head. Ravage then got off the train and looked for the third Futa, but he couldn't see her anywhere. "Probably got away", he thought. He then got back on the train as the soldiers returned.

"Who sounded the alarm?" Major Blood asked sternly.

"Sir, the train was attacked by a trio of Futa sappers. Two dead, one missing." Ravage said saluting the Major.

Major Alexander was impressed. "Good work Captain. Now lets get out of.........here?" The soldiers all then looked up to see a bright orb above the tallest point of Monet Alban. The orb spun and spun as it came towards the railway battleship. It swirled above them, and then the orb flashed as a light glowed on the ground 50 feet away from the train. Curious, the Major and a few others went to investigate the spot where the light had glowed on the ground. One soldier dug through the sand, and to his surprise, he found a tablet. Unfortunately though, it was damaged, and whatever was on it was unreadable at the current moment.

"What is this?" One man asked, reaching for the tablet.

"No!" The Major called out, but the man touched it. The glow from the orb swirled in fury around the area. It sped up faster and faster as the dust was kicked up and blinded the Texan soldiers. Then, with one final bright flash, the entire train, its soldiers and all its equipment vanished in the night. Little did they know this was going to take them from one hot hell filled with war to something just as bad elsewhere........

Author's Note

I'd like to thank Scarfox9700 for supporting this story and for helpin with the creation of it
Also Ravage's basic appearance but with more score. I do not own this image so I say good job to its creator and for creating such amazing art