Oakland Intermodal Railyard
Port of Oakland, Oakland, California “The shattered Peninsula”
Unified States of America
August 20th, 2298
6:30am (PDT)

Six months have passed since the “4-8-8-4”'s return to Earth. It was an odd feeling, being back home and having not missed out on anything at all, considering that their time in Equestria was longer by an additional two months. From the time the crew of "4-8-8-4" were pulled from their Reality, they would suddenly reappear back in the same spot, and at the same time as they went through the wormhole; whilst unknowingly at the same time, their future selves would exit through the same wormhole.

It was all thanks to Princess Twilight that the crew were even back on Earth in the first place. With the aid of Princess Luna, and Knight Paladin Victoria’s successful capture of the Space-Time Anomaly responsible for the war train’s displacement to Equestria, they created a special device that would allow the safe travel between the two dimensions; the Space-Time Projector. Mounted on the heavy ram-like plow, and disguised as the leading headlamp, the device projects an artificial wormhole in front of the Big Boy locomotive when entering the Space-Time Continuum.

What had transpired since the “4-8-8-4”s return was that the bulk of the Unified States Forces and Allied units from the European Federation were scattered by the tactical nuclear strikes launched by the Tri-Communist invaders during the Battle of Vegas. General Evelyn Degrant and the senior command staff overseeing the coordination of the friendly forces were killed in the nuclear strike on Nellis AFB. Ryan’s war train was the next best thing the U.S.F had to regain command and control of all surviving units, and rally them to continue the fight, despite the continuous nuclear bombardment that lasted for several more days. The Commies dumped enough nuclear ordnance onto the southern half of Nevada to render it uninhabitable for up to another century once again, just like their predecessors, the Futas, had done 269 years earlier. Anyone that was unlucky enough to be outside of the “4-8-8-4”, a tank, or any other vehicle that offered protection against the fatal levels of radiation would slowly die under the worst circumstances imaginable.

Operation Black Friday ended in a disastrous defeat for the Allied forces, and Ryan had his train withdraw to Kingman, Arizona for decontamination and repairs. Once the necessary repairs were done, the “4-8-8-4” was reassigned to the 1st Railfleet, led by Railway Admiral Andrew Callaghan, to hold the small border-town of Topock, and the vital bridges crossing the Colorado River into Communist-occupied California. A three month battle of attrition would take place alongside the Communist siege on a key town to the Northwest called Needles. Holding these two locations would allow the Unified States to establish a bridgehead into California, and pave the way for the long-awaited push towards San Diego, then up north towards Los Angeles, and eventually meet up with the friendly forces pushing to San Francisco from the East.

“4-8-8-4” led the push for San Francisco alongside Rail Squadron Forty-One Forty-One, and the Third Army, dubbed the “Battered Bastards of Bastogne”, or the Triple B Company. The 101st Emerald Angels Squadron were the first to be air-dropped into Sacramento with the 82nd and 517th Airborne Divisions to clear out the entrenched Communist Garrison, and disable fortifications that were singled out as the biggest threats against their fellow ground forces, allowing “4-8-8-4”, “4-1-4-1”, and the Triple B Company to steamroll through the city.

After the Liberation of Sacramento, Captain Ryan carried out a spearhead operation deep into central California, leaving a trail of destruction to the enemy and oppressed citizens in tears of joy seeing their fellow Americans having finally returned to restore Freedom and Democracy back to their home stomping grounds. From the town of Davis, to Fairfield, along Interstate 80, to the port city of Benicia, across the Carquinez Strait into Martinez, and west to Crockett, the Americans and their allies marched relentlessly on. With one final push, the Commies were rooted out of Richmond, and were being completely encircled within Oakland. It was a massacre from there on out, and the “4-8-8-4” set up shop in the massive rail-freight terminal within the Port of Oakland to provide heavy artillery support and precision missile strikes while the air and ground forces cleared out the survivors. From every block, to every house, building, floor, room, attic, basement, crawlspace, to every last nook and cranny, no rock was left unturned for the tainted signs of Communism to hide under. The Hour of Reckoning was upon the Commies, just as it was for the Futa Empire, the One Race Empire (ORE), and the Matriarchal World Empire (MWE) before them.

This ended up being pretty horrible though. In the words of Captain Ryan, “When the Communists finally broke, they made one final act of defiance to take as many of us down to Hell with them as possible. We responded in kind, and showed no mercy; we took no prisoners either. We wanted them all to pay for the precious blood of the Free and Innocent that they had spilled into the streets, rivers and plains. Some of the Reds took their chances with escaping across the San Francisco Bay, and into the shelter of the namesake city that still remains a heavily irradiated hulk of itself. The City, the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge were destroyed in the First Atomic War, and this prevented the survivors from getting much further, and they then locked themselves within the old coastal batteries that once protected the Former United States from invasion. We filled those old fortifications and bunkers with flammable liquids and set them alight to burn for days, while some of the more high-valued sites, including the old Fort Point beneath the southern pylon of the long-destroyed Golden Gate Bridge, had Hydrogen Cyanide pumped into the ventilation ducts, drowning those unfortunate to be exposed to the chemical agent.”

However, as bad as this was, it was soon to get even worse, as the Commies had a few more really nasty tricks up their sleeves. As the Allies were mopping up the last of the invaders in the general area, things took a turn for the worst down south when the Commies in San Diego detonated a five megaton nuclear mine, killing themselves, and most of the Allied forces pushing through the city. Railway Admiral Callaghan, and most of the U.S.R.W.C chain of command were among those killed in the blast. In this one event, almost the entire command structure had been toppled, and with the majority of the rail forces in California having no one to guide them through this campaign, a new temporary Commander in Chief needed to be drafted by the Department of Defense as soon as possible in order to keep the war-trains rolling until a permanent Commander in Chief could be chosen. The next senior officer in line to take command was one that nobody could hand such a responsibility to, but desperate times call for desperate measures in this unforgiving world. The next senior-most officer to be handpicked by the President had only been in charge of the U.S.R.W.C’s most powerful war-train for a little more than a year, and now at the age of 18 1/2 years old, this young man of many talents, none other than Captain Ryan Homer of the “4-8-8-4”, was now in charge of the entire U.S.R.W.C. for the time being.

If there was one thing to say with unbiased honesty about what the American troops saw when they set foot into the Greater San Francisco Bay Area for the first time in nearly thirteen years was beyond a depressing sight. There were no oppressed citizens to welcome them with open arms, or tears of joy to befall; only the rotten remains of mass graves, and the lost souls of the living dead greeted them. Large portions of the city remained highly radioactive, but none worse than downtown San Francisco, which was little more than a crater full of twisted metal, shattered concrete, broken glass, heaps of barely identifiable junk, and contaminated rubble and soil. It was saddening beyond belief, but even this unspeakable tragedy paled in comparison to what had happened here long ago, almost 200 years ago to be exact.

On the day that the bombs fell, at exactly Midnight, on February 4th, 2098, the city of San Francisco was struck by a special type of thermonuclear warhead developed by the Russians, known as the R-50M5, or code-named formerly by NATO as the SS-31 “Lucifer”. The Lucifer contains a thermonuclear warhead of varying sizes encased within a titanium-lined Orbital Kinetic Ballistic Missile (OKBM) that were secretly deployed in unknown numbers on various disguised orbital satellites at the height of the Sino-Russian Confrontation of 2086-2098.

Stepping away from traditional nuclear missiles, the Lucifer is designed to explode underneath its targeted area, compared to the traditional surface saturation with a ground or atmospheric detonation. When deployed from low orbit, the kinetic rod accelerates to extreme velocities towards the Earth’s surface, and penetrates as far as 600 feet down before detonating its payload. While San Francisco would be the only documented American city targeted with this weapon (thank God), conflicting reports recovered from abandoned STRATCOM sites revealed that Boston was also hit by an OKBM in 2285, following the destruction of the subterranean Timekeepers Facility following the "Reunification of the States", which added to the already severe overall damage, and significant loss of life within the Boston Metro Precinct, including Knight Paladin Victoria's husband Julius. Unconfirmed reports indicate that additional OKBMs were also to be launched against other major cities, military bases, and other vital locations in the United States, but the array of orbiting Russian satellites above the continental USA at the time (which had been hijacked by the Chinese, who were losing the Sino-Russian Confrontation, and decided to level San Francisco as a test of the OKBM's power) were intercepted and destroyed by the combined efforts of the Strategic Defense Initiative, and the US Space Force within minutes after San Fran was hit. (The Russians warned the US, and the rest of the world that China had hijacked their OKBM array, and they were trying to wrest back control of the OKBM array, as well as launching nukes at China. The US and other nations also launched their nukes at China, but before China went dark for the last time, almost the entirety of the UK and Ireland were both sunk into the sea by OKBM strikes, and the cities of Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, and St. Petersburg were also targeted, but not struck, as Russia shut down the array, but China did launch their entire nuclear arsenal at the rest of the world, as well as causing one final OKBM strike on the South Pacific, that triggered a tsunami that sunk the majority of Southeast Asia into the Pacific. The Atomic War of 2098 had begun)

The underground detonation of the San Francisco OKBM, measuring 200 megatons, also sparked a deadly chain reaction within the San Andreas Fault-line, triggering one of the most destructive earthquakes in the dying moments of recorded history. Measuring a 12.5 on the Richter Scale, all of central California was ripped apart by the main tremor that rattled cities as far inland as Salt Lake City, and was even felt in far-away cities like Omaha. Cities to the south of San Fran, including Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and Malibu were doomed. Both San Francisco, and the City of Angels were completely leveled, and large swaths of land were uprooted and buckled from the destabilized tectonic plates, creating sharp mountains, steep cliffs measuring thousands of meters high, to colossal mesas, inland seas, and even canyons reaching as deep as the bottom of the Earth’s crust! Along the coastline, a massive chunk of the state from Salinas to Venturas collapsed into the Pacific Ocean, unleashing a series of monster tidal waves that would cause natural devastation to the Pacific islands unfazed by the ongoing nuclear exchange at the time.

The death toll would reach nearly 45 million out of 56.2 million Californians who would perish in the following wave of nuclear missiles to hit the state. Those who were fortunate enough to survive such a horrific ordeal made a mass exodus from the shattered region, and California would be abandoned entirely. 104 years after the war, the first Exiled Californians would return to resettle their native land, but the geographic layout of the region had changed so significantly over the last century that most of the affected region was virtually unrecognizable, and had to be fully remapped. Many parts of the area are still unstable to this day, and prove difficult to navigate, especially with nearly all of the major infrastructure in central California destroyed, and with no means of rebuilding them on top of the unstable grounds. What little parts of the shattered region that could be settled safely required whole new towns, floating-cities, roads, railways, pipelines, and lots of new bridges to be built from scratch to connect the newly formed island chains that were once part of the original landmass.

After the invasion by Communist forces in 2286, the first wave of the occupation forces were shocked to see what had become of the region, which would prove extremely difficult for the invaders to establish an entrenched beachhead to funnel in more troops and supplies. Their commanders were equally frustrated with what they saw, and the nightmares that would be envisioned with handling logistics in such conditions forced them to divert their forces towards the northern and southern parts of the state that were still mostly intact. The nightmarish terrain that they found in most of California should have been taken as an ominous omen that bad things would happen to those who tried to crush what was left of the former United States, and bring them to heel, but unfortunately for the Communists in the long-run, this omen would go unheeded.

Now that the “Shattered Regions” of California were back under Unified States control following the recent push, the bulk of their forces were heavily depleted in terms of manpower, equipment and organisation. They would need some time to recover before they linked up with the northern force pushing towards the coast of upstate Oregon. But for today, Ryan gave his crew a full day’s leave to catch up on some well deserved rest for the first time since the Siege of Topock over two months ago. While others were resting, or enjoying their shore leave, Ryan stood alone on the irradiated shoreline of the former San Francisco Bay, which was now littered with rusted, battered hulks of once mighty ships as far as the eye could see. A heavy fog blanketed the crater that was once the hill that downtown San Fran sat on top of. What remained of the world-famous Golden Gate Bridge was now merely the lower halves of the northern and southern pylons, and a small segment of the road deck upon them. Ryan then crouched down, and with his hands, gently placed a small wooden boat that was handcrafted by Knight Paladin Victoria with a ceremonial candle fitted on top of it into the water. Then, reaching into one of many pockets in his armored trench coat, Ryan pulled out an electric lighter to light the weathered wick, and once it was burning, and with a gentle push, the wooden boat slowly drifted out into the bay as it rolled over the growing swells, and eventually disappeared into the fog. Ryan stood up again in silence, and with a somber bow of his head, remained motionless for another minute to pay his final respects to the fallen.

“We had our small share of losses as well,'' Ryan thought to himself. “Michelle lost a few of her veteran Battle-Angels, Fred and Steve were nearly ripped apart by Shredder Drones as they fought to protect the 4014 from being reduced to scrap, along with half of the embarked Railway Marines being killed. Our losses were felt far and wide among the many other battalions that fought alongside us to the end. They shall not grow old, as we are left to grow old, age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn…At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them...”

“Lest we forget…” Michelle’s voice whispered behind the young officer.

Ryan took a final glance at his new USRWC officer’s cap, which resembled that of a vintage 1950’s style conductor's cap with a large badge on the front sporting a frontal profile of a generic steam locomotive with two ceremonial rifles criss-crossing the background before looking at Michelle. He then placed the cap back on top of his head before facing the Battle-Angel who joined his side, and gently pulled him into a tight embrace.

“So… So many losses.” Ryan choked on his words quietly as tears slowly fell down his cheeks. “None of us could have predicted what we would face down here. Even after we held Topock, Andrew Callaghan was so confident that we broke the Commies’s backs for good. We were never truly prepared for what those fuckers had in store for us, and they made us fight to the last man and bullet to get to this point, and I fear that it’s only going to get worse from here. Once we start pushing for Seattle, the Commies are going to be even more erratic and suicidal, and they are going to make us pay dearly for every last inch of soil they have their bloody Red hands on!”

Ryan then clenched his fists as he hugged Michelle. “I’ve just about had enough of this fucking war! How many more people have to die, how many more nukes need to be thrown so that the leaders of our cruel and abused world finally get the memo?! This was never about the last pockets of resources we have left! This war, for what it really is, was just about settling the score that the world leaders of the past set to bring our world to ruins! How could we not have known that President Sampson was the long-descended bastard-child of the same leader of this country that sat back and watched it burn to atomic cinders?! This is no ‘Resource War’ or ‘Iron Wars’ that we were led to believe. From what Serina has uncovered about this whole shitshow, it turns out that we have been fighting the same bloody war that our Ancestors fought since the day the first nukes fell in 2098! I mean what the fuck is this bullshit?! What was the point of letting this happen in the first place?! And it gets worse!” Ryan continued. “From the bits and pieces that Serina was able to put together of the world that existed before the Atomic War, this has been going on for so much longer than we previously realized! The Atomic War was only the 7th global conflict the old United States and her allies fought against an evil empire! The 7th!!! There were 6 other world wars before it, and 4 of them were fought almost back to back over a very short span of time, spanning the end of the 2010’s, the entirety of the 2020’s, and the early 2030’s! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT BULLSHIT?!?! WHY THE FUCK ARE WE ALL STILL HERE?!?! JUST TO FUCKING SUFFER IN A NEVER-ENDING WAR AGAINST SOME OTHER WANNABE WORLD-DOMINATING EMPIRE?!?! WHEN WILL THIS FUCKING NIGHTMARE END?!?!” Ryan then began to sob uncontrollably.

Michelle held her little brother to her chest as she patiently listened to his depression-fueled rant. It broke her heart to see Ryan pushed beyond limits; even more so because she couldn’t help but feel helpless to do anything other than give him the love and support he desperately needed to stay positive. The war was really starting to take its toll on their relationship, but no matter the ups and downs that they experienced, the two never dared to take their stress or frustration out on each other. They had always been there for each other since the day they came to a once divided Unified States as refugees who both lost their families to the ongoing war prior to the Tri-Communist invasion, and they intended to continue to be there for each other until the end of the line. They shared a Little Brother-Big Sister bond that would never be broken.

“I don’t know, Ry.” She whispered quietly. “But I can tell you with our fair amount of certainty that our ancestors, those who defended the old United States, and the countries who stood with her in those wars against those evil empires must have felt the exact same way that you do now. Surely they must have been asking themselves if it was all worth it, since the end of every single one of those wars seemed to only kickstart the rise of another would-be world empire, but they kept on fighting, kept on keeping America safe, and kept on proving to be more than a match for any and all enemies of the Free World. And if they could do it then, then by God we’ll keep doing it now!”

Ryan didn’t say anything, but Michelle felt him nod, meaning that he felt the same way that she did. The war against the Commies would continue, but they would see it through to the end no matter what the cost.

While all of this was pretty grim and disheartening, there was a faint silver-lining. Fred and Steve were not dead, though they were gravely injured. They had been attacked by those drones while protecting 4014, and while their injuries were fairly serious, not to mention the fact that some of the drones had been using bioweapons when they attacked, under the constant care of Dr. Kirov, and the “4-8-8-4”’s medical staff, it appeared that both men were going to make a full recovery. In the meantime, while they were still recovering, Serina would be the one controlling 4014, as following the attack on Fred and Steve, it was too dangerous to have the engine’s cab be manned going forward, at least for the foreseeable future. In light of these recent losses, which were the solemn reason for Ryan to be outside of his personal railcar for a period of time, the recently-promoted temporary Railway Admiral stood facing the coming radiation storm looming over the San Francisco Bay to pay his final respects to the fallen that had so valiantly served under his command.

At this moment, Ryan turned his head away from Michelle, and looked up at the darkening sky. While he couldn’t be sure, due to the clouds of the incoming radiation storm, he thought that he could see a few faint stars glowing. Even though he wasn’t sure that they were stars, Ryan still smiled a bit. “It’s nice to know that despite all of this war raging around us, the stars still keep shining at night, Mickey. I wish that things could be different though.” He paused, remembering “4-8-8-4”’s time in Equestria. “I wish that we could find peace here on Earth like what we gave to the Ponies of Equestria when we defeated the Griffon Khans and their allies. The war might be a ways from ending here in North America, but I know that we’ll see the end of it soon enough. And then maybe, just maybe, we can move on to new and better things.”

Michelle agreed with him. “Yeah, maybe we can, Ry. Though once the Commies are out of the States for good, we may still have our birthright countries to go back to...”

“I forgot about that…” Ryan remembered. “After all, we came here as refugees, and are not integrated citizens of the U.S., despite our impressive military careers."

"Not integrated citizens of the US yet." Michelle corrected. "Remember what President Clark did for us, and all of the other foreign military personnel?"

Ryan's face brightened. Back during his tenure as President, President Sampson's predecessor, President Maxwell Clark, had signed an Executive Order that granted US Citizenship to all foreign soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and other military personnel who had fought in the Iron Wars on US Soil. President Clark had been out of office for a while now, but as far as they knew, President Sampson had kept President Clark's Executive Order in place.

"Yes, of course I do. God bless President Clark, and all he did for us, and everyone else who came to the US to fight the Commies, or were already here when they invaded. It's such a shame that he only served one term as President, and was unable to run again due to his health. He left, and then that..." Here Ryan lowered his voice "...Bastard, Thomas Sampson slithered into the White House. At least he only has a few more years as President, and then he's gone. But, at least he kept Clark's E.O. in place."

"Yes. But, even when we get our US Citizenship at the end of the war, we still have to fulfill our 'promise' that we made to each other when we arrived in Los Angeles when we were kids."

Ryan smiled. "Oh, I still remember that. We vowed that as soon as we were old enough, we'd return to Australia, and New Zealand, and liberate them from the Commie scum, singlehandedly if we had to!"

"Oh, how young and naive we were back then." Michelle laughed. But yet, we still need to go back, but at least we won't be going back alone."

"Yeah. Once we're granted US Citizenship for our valiant efforts when the war ends, and the USRWC has been disbanded, and our Railfleet is decommissioned, we’ll find transport to the nearest coastal city, and then depart from America, bound for our birthright countries. I’ve been in touch with a few civvie mates who own the S.S. Old Survivor, and they’re gonna let us, and many other Australia, and New Zealander soldiers, sailors, marines, and homeward-bound civilians use it as an ark for us to sail across the Pacific, and back to first New Zealand, and then Australia, before finally freeing our people from socialist tyranny once and for all! If Australia and New Zealand aren't liberated before the war ends here, or we get blown out of the water by a Russian nuclear torpedo of course...”

Michelle had no words to express her feelings about what Ryan just said, other than to give him another tight hug, followed by a sisterly kiss on the forehead. “Then what the hell are we waiting for? Let’s get this damn war finished here so that we can go home and show the damn Commies what's what”

“It’ll happen when the time is right, my Emerald Angel, I promise!” Ryan swore to the super-soldier with a criss-cross gesture over his chest, and a gentle kiss on her left cheek.

The two of them then began to slowly walk back towards “4-8-8-4”, as the radiation storm was starting to get a little bit too close for comfort, completely unaware that the “new and better things” that Ryan was hoping for were heading “4-8-8-4”’s way a bit sooner than what he was expecting.

Santa Rosa Aerodrome
Santa Rosa, California "The Shattered Peninsula"
10:30am (PDT)

It wasn’t long after Ryan finally convinced himself to get some much-needed shut-eye after the rough start he had that morning that he tried to sleep, only for Paladin Victoria to wake him up with urgent orders to relocate the “4-8-8-4” to Santa Rosa for a priority cargo pickup to transport for the upcoming battle for Seattle. The Train had to backtrack to Suisun City Junction south of Fairfield, then west to Rafael Village, and then finally north to their destination. Due to the fractured nature of the terrain, Serina had to take the only route suited for the war train, as the inner district of the city had collapsed into a deep canyon where the old line used to pass through the middle of town. Most of the ruined buildings have long since been cleared, and a large aerodrome was built for use as a landing zone for some of the few remaining nuclear-powered airships that are still operational in North America. (This aerodrome was built to replace the former Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport, which was tragically one of the many casualties of the Atomic War). One famous example is the former USAF Legion that is now in possession of the West Coast Brotherhood. The Zeppelin Rigid Aircraft Carrier (ZRCV), loomed ominously above the cratered city, casting a massive shadow of its profile over the ground, to which some of the four thousand troops based there were more than happy to take advantage of to escape from the merciless heatwave.

The “4-8-8-4” huffed and puffed slowly into a makeshift depot that was hastily set up alongside the Aerodrome; the sounds of the excess steam pressure being released through the large driving pistons was eclipsed by the high-pitched whirls of the powerful twin contra-rotating steam turbines driven by the locomotive’s fusion reactor. The mighty Big Boy Locomotive crawled to a halt, and powered down to an idling state at the end of her siding. The train’s company of 25 crewmembers immediately disembarked to run technical and external checkups along the train’s entire consist, while simultaneously taking on waiting supplies and fresh new personnel for the embarked Railway Marines, and Michelle’s Battle Angel squadron.

Ryan stepped out from his personal railcar, and started making his way towards the Areodrome’s field headquarters tent that was set up on the opposite side of town. It was quite a walk to get there, but he would be in good company along the way, flanked by two of the finest soldiers to faithfully serve under his command. Wing Commander Michelle of the 101st Emerald Angels stood to his left, sporting a new nanosuit that significantly improved upon her performance in combat, and was armed with the latest nanomaterials that allowed her to forge even more powerful and deadlier versions of her nano weapons. To the right of Ryan was Knight Paladin Victoria; a long time Veteran, Brotherhood of Steel Knight Paladin, exile from the former Southern American Kaisereich Faction (in fact, Victoria hated her past with this Neo-Nazi faction so much that she recently dyed her hair black, and let it grow a little bit longer than its previous pixie-cut), and the war train’s leading Space-Time Anomaly expert. Like Michelle, Victoria was also suited up in her personal X-05 powered armor suit that she had scratch built herself, recycling most of her old X-02 suit after it had broken down after many months of fighting in Equestria, and the exhaustion of spare parts to maintain it. It was emotionally conflicting for Victoria to sacrifice her old suit, as it was given to her by her late husband Julius, who was killed attacking the Timekeepers Facility underneath Boston when it was targeted by a 25 megaton variant of a Lucifer-Class OKBM Satellite on the eve of the Tri-Communist invasion of the US Mainland almost 13 years ago in 2285. Ryan could tell from a brief glance that underneath her jet-black streamlined helmet that Vic was struggling to come to terms with moving on from her troubled times since losing her husband. The severe anxiety that had been building up inside her mind from not having any contact with her children in years didn’t help either. Victoria, like everyone else onboard the “4-8-8-4” had changed in one way or another since leaving Equestria 6 months ago.

The war was really starting to take a heavy toll on Humanity in terms of resource depletion, and the exhaustion of war support from the people that worked day and night to fabricate the tools that they needed to win. Unfortunately, it was hard to say the same for the Communists, who had half the world's population for their manpower reserves, and greater access to the world's few remaining resources, as they still held their core territories in the greater Eurasian sphere, as well as having Eastern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the entire African Continent still under their iron grasp. To make matters worse, Central and South America had suffered a powder keg implosion of the region's political stability, which had been building up unchecked for some time. The former nations of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile had declared their allegiance to the Tri-Communist Alliance, and had gone to war with Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia, who in turn joined the United Earth Federation established by the Unified States, with the sole goal of uniting the Free World against the tyranny of the Communist threat. Mexico had also converted to Communism, and just hours ago launched a surprise invasion into the southern Unified States, further dividing their already strained manpower to deal with the Mexican incursion. With things the way that they currently were, it was nothing short of a Divine Miracle that the Free World was not only holding its own against the Tri-Communist Alliance and their allies, but also slowly rolling back their advances in some places. How much longer things would go on at their current pace was unclear, but one thing was certain; if the Commies wanted to bring the whole world under their domination, then they would have to pry the rest of it from the cold, dead hands of the United Earth Federation, who would not be going quietly into the night. They would fight tooth and nail to the last man to defend the Free World from the Commies, and they let those bastards know that loud and clear at every opportunity!

After ten minutes of continuous walking, the group of three eventually reached the command post set up next to a retractable gangway leading up into the Legion’s forward ventral hangar bays. Two guards stationed outside the command post were kitted out in Rook-Class powered armored suits, and armed with portable Gauss cannons greeted them with a salute.

“The Elder is waiting for you inside, Railway Admiral.” One of the guards holding the rank of Knight-Sergeant addressed Ryan.

“Thank you, Knight-Sergeant. As you were, Gentlemen.” Ryan returned the gesture as he and the accompanying two ladies followed him inside.

For a military tent that was supposed to be big enough to accommodate an entire field command unit, the presence of a dozen men and women in power armor suits of various sizes tends to make the inside feel rather cramped. Ryan and Michelle had no trouble navigating in between the hulking tanks on legs, whereas Victoria had to exercise caution to avoid constantly bumping into her comrades. Towards the middle of the tent, Ryan saw the Elder, or the head leadership of the West Coast Brotherhood Chapter at his post, talking to a few squires who had returned from a patrol. Some of them sported minor wounds from a recent engagement with Communist forces outside of the Aerodrome’s perimeter.

“-Good work as always, Boys and Girls. You will all turn out to be great Knights in my Chapter, even you, Squire Maximus. You show true potential as a strong leader of your squad.” The middle-aged man known as Elder Antanase spoke to the young children before him.

“Thank you, Elder Knight. I hope that me, and my brothers and sisters will continue to exceed your expectations with every victory awarded to our Chapter!” The 14 year old boy named Maximus replied to his master with renowned determination.

The Elder smiled. “I know that you will, Squire Maximus. All of you have done a great job in fulfilling your tasks for today. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must turn to an equally important matter at hand.” Antanase then turned towards the patiently waiting trio of “4-8-8-4”'s officers.

“Yes, My Lord.” Maximus, along with his team of equally aged boys and girls then crouched to one knee, and respectfully bowed their heads to their leadership before hurriedly leaving the tent, and making their way back to the Legion.

Once they were gone, the Elder turned to Ryan. “Admiral Ryan, it is an honor to finally meet one of the Railway Warfare Corps’s finest commanders. I wish to express my deepest sympathies for the loss of Railway Admiral Andrew Callaghan and his railfleet who fought gallantry to liberate San Diego from the Red Scum.” Antanase greeted the young Acting-Admiral with open arms.

“I can say the same for one of the most respected Elders of the Brotherhood Council. Good to see you again, Antanase. Your wishes are greatly appreciated on behalf of the branch as we mourn for our fallen.”

Antanase nodded, but then frowned. “These are dark times for all of us. May Andrew, and the brave men and women under his command, forever patrol the railways of the Heavens beyond our realm.”

“Until the end of time… So, how can I be of assistance, Elder?” Ryan asked as he took a vacant seat alongside Antanase.

“Nothing out of the ordinary where the U.S.R.W.C is concerned.” Antanase started while he poured a cup of coffee for him and the Acting-Railway Admiral. “My Chapter was originally tasked with transporting a Tier-One Priority asset to the staging grounds for the upcoming battle for Seattle. Originally, we were tasked with transporting Liberty Prime, but the battle robot was redeployed to counter the Mexican incursions in the southern states. However, the President has authorized the deployment of the Victory-Class battle robots, Prime’s successors, to fill in the gap in our robotic-based firepower.”

“The Victories?!” Ryan exclaimed suddenly. “I thought that none of the prototypes survived the Atomic War back in 2098!”

“That’s what the Secretary of Defense wants you to believe, just as much as he pretends that the atrocities of the Gen. 2 Angels Program never happened.” Antanase added, receiving a harsh scoff from the Emerald Angel for the second remark.

“Yeah. Makes you wonder what other bat-shittery is being cooked up behind closed doors within the D.O.D, not to mention what else from the past that they’re trying to cover up and keep hidden! Getting back on track though, what kind of help do you need with getting these new bots to Seattle?”

The Elder looked at his datapad. “We currently have two Victories embarked onboard the Legion; Soarin' Eagle, and Lady Liberty. Soarin' and my airship suffered damage during the Battle of Santa Rosa, and we won’t be able to safely transport the bots to Washington State in time for the scheduled assault on Seattle. This is why I am reaching out to you, Admiral, to assist us in transporting Lady Liberty upstate for us. She is the latest and most advanced unit in the class, and the ‘Lady’ herself is crucial to delivering the final punch we need to ending the war on our home turf!”

“So, to put it simply, you want us to run an overnight express postal service on your behalf to deliver one of the most lethal weapon platforms in our arsenal to Seattle, all while fully knowing that the rail routes in northern California, Oregon, and Washington State haven’t been fully secured for the R.W.C to start operations in?” Victoria deadpanned with mild concern.

“Quite so, Paladin. It is imperative that we get at least one of our bots there as soon as possible.” Antanase looked at Victoria with a blank expression.

“Even though it’s not safe yet for our war-trains to commence operations upstate?! I still need a goddamn good reason to risk running this hellish gauntlet from here, up into northern California, all through Oregon, and most of the way through Washington State, all the while potentially diving headfirst into the jaws of the Bear just to deliver this damn thing on time, Elder!” Ryan stared down the Elder in the eyes with a look of severe unease on his face.

Some of Antanase’s bodyguards shifted uncomfortably at the change in Ryan’s attitude. One of them wanted to kindly remind him to be a bit more respectful to their leader, but the presence of the Emerald Angel dissuaded him from speaking up.

“Have you ever heard of the Pre-War experiment called 'Project Hawking', Admiral?” Antanase asked the young Acting-Admiral, keeping his calm and level-headed posture.

Ryan shook his head. “Um, no I don’t know anything about it. Why?”

“Before the bombs fell 200 years ago, there was a large, subterranean quantum research facility built in northern Seattle with the sole purpose of developing a fully functional teleportation grid to allow instantaneous travel from one point to another over any distance. It was an attempt at a scientific wonder that was supposed to bring Mankind closer together in dire times.”

“Or a reckless pursuit of technological prestige, considering how far ahead they were in understanding Quantum Physics at the time.” Victoria said dejectedly.

“Perhaps…” Antanase mused. He then continued. “Four months ago, a scout legion that I sent out to assist in the reconnaissance of occupied territory located the facility that contained the Hawking Gates, which many of us thought were lost to time.”

“And I can only make a wild goose-guess that the Commies caught wind of these ‘Gates’ as well?” Ryan asked, already knowing the answer he would get.

Antanese put a hand over his face. “Yes, it was an unfortunate case of coincidence that a Tri-Communist Armored Brigade came upon the site, and my knights were forced to run before they were spotted.”

“Fucking Hell! Then what became of this facility then? I assume that you called in an airstrike to blow it sky-high before those fuckers manage to get their hands on those gates, right?” Michelle asked sternly.

“I’m afraid not, Miss McKensey. By the time that we could mount a raid to sabotage the facility, the place had already been mostly ransacked. To make matters worse, the Communists did find, and take, both Hawking Gate prototypes.”

“Fuck me to death backwards kangaroo-style, this can’t be happening…” Ryan swore under his breath. Out loud, he said only, “I think it’s already safe to say what the Commies intend to do with these devices, and I can tell you right now that it ain’t to wish us a Happy Birthday!”

“You’re right, Admiral, it’s not. Unless of course the Communist version of wishing us a Happy Birthday means hurting us even further, and if that is indeed the case, then what plans they have conceived have already been put to action. One of the gates has been set up in the Port of Seattle, on Harbor Island.” Antanase replied, confirming Ryan’s concerns.

“And the other gate?” Victoria asked.

“It was put on a heavy VTOL transport bound for Tomsk, Russia, in Siberia.”

“They’re gonna try to use the gates to teleport reinforcements over from their home grounds now that we’ve regained naval superiority of the West Coast!” Michelle exclaimed.

“You’re probably more than right, Michelle. That would be the only way that they can get reinforcements to North America with our blockade in place, assuming of course that they can get the devices working at all.” Ryan added.

“I can confirm that the gates are fully functional, and that the Communists have been testing them for the last few days to make sure that it would be safe for them to start sending men and equipment over, which is why time is of the essence, Admiral! It is imperative to destroy that gate before they can use it!”

“Even if they were to use it, what available manpower do they have left to justify a counter offensive here?” Ryan asked.

“I received a tip-off from a resistance cell in the occupied City of Tomsk that the Queen Commissar of the Reformed Soviet Republic is sending the Generalissimus and his Combined Tri-Communist Legion through the Gate she now possesses.”

The mention of the Generalissimus made Ryan’s heart skip a beat with dread. The Communists only had one person who held a rank of that nature, and his name was Alexander Kostya, better known to the world as “Alexander the Conqueror”. This man led one of the most powerful armies that the post nuclear-world had ever seen, consisting of over twenty million of the finest men, women, animals, and biological horrors ever to serve their representing Unions of the Tri-Communist Alliance; the Reformed Soviet Republic (RSR), the Greater Chinese Union (GCU), and the Democratic Korean-Pacific Co-Prosperity Sphere (DKPCPS). Alexander was able to single-handedly unite all the remaining states and territories that were free from the Tri-Communist Alliance within all of Eurasia through swift brute force. What made him even more dangerous though was his unrivaled ability to coordinate such vast numbers of troops, and utilize some of the most cunning tactics that have left some of Europe’s best commanders shell-shocked. This man was able to conquer the entire African continent in less than a month, and his vast army has only suffered an insignificant number of casualties that would not put a dent in the overall abundance of available manpower under Kostya’s command. In addition to this, Alexander also had one of the most complex command structures made up of a hierarchy of Marshals and high ranking officers to lead his army. To put it simply, Generalissimus Alexander Kostya was viewed by many to be the most dangerous man on Earth, and to cross him, even with an entire army at your disposal, would be a death sentence.

“Son of a bitch! The ‘Boss-Bear’ himself is sharpening his paw-claws for a renewed offensive on our home grounds! If Kostya manages to bring his army through the Hawkings Gates….it would mean the end of the war for us; we don’t have the manpower to contain twenty million souls! North America will fall in weeks if we don’t do this now!" Victoria addressed Ryan with fire in her voice.

Ryan weighed his options, already limited by the overall severity of the situation, and the aftermath of the recent push into California that had left the R.W.C at one-third of its overall strength since the initial invasion over twelve years ago. The liberation of the former Sunshine State saw the heaviest casualties inflicted on the independent military branch over the last few weeks with 20 war-trains, and 103 logistics trains being destroyed in combat. A majority of the losses inflicted were from the almost total loss of Rail Admiral Andrew Callaghan’s Railfleet, which was wiped out by the San Diego nuclear mine trap that the Commies set prior to abandoning the city. To make matters worse was the fact that Andrew had reorganized the railfleet so that he had all but two of the “Big Boy Railway Battleships” under his command to make the most of the R.W.C’s heavy firepower, and all but 4014 (“4-8-8-4”) and 4023 (“4-8-8-3”), were lost with all hands. Thankfully, the other 2 Big Boy Railway Battleships, “4-8-8-1”, and “4-8-8-2” pulled by Big Boys 4017 and 4018, were not present in Andrew’s Railfleet, and had instead been loaned to Canada to fight the Commies there, though because of how things were going in the war, they both had to remain where they were, and could not be transferred to Ryan’s future Railfleet.

Ryan’s 4014 (“4-8-8-4”), was now the only remaining railway battleship left in the Unified States, as 4023 recently had its consist replaced with a new set of cars to resemble a land-based aircraft carrier to supplement the R.W.C’s UAV arsenal. Losing the “4-8-8-4” would render the Railway Warfare Corps effectively neutralized as a fighting force, and President Sampson would not hesitate to have it disbanded on the spot, and strip Ryan of his title. But while the trains kept rolling, and Ryan didn’t drop the ball, the "Engine of Destruction" would continue to keep morale high, and the fear of God in the hearts of their enemies. Even when faced with a situation as grim as this, Ryan, backed by his battle-hardened crew, has never hesitated to go to extreme lengths to get the job done. Confronting Alexander’s army would be the toughest battle that the “4-8-8-4” will face yet, and one that could turn the tide of the war in the favor for the remnants of the Free World for good.

Ryan sighed heavily, and chose to accept Antanase’s near suicide mission. “Alright, Elder. As Acting-Railway Admiral, and Acting-Supreme Commander of the Unified States Railway Warfare Corps, I ‘happily’ accept your request for assistance in dire times.”

Antanase clapped his hands together with renewed joy. “Splendid! I truly appreciate your help with this, Admiral. There may still be hope for the future of our people; you will not regret this. Come, I will introduce you to Lady Liberty herself.”

The Elder and his bodyguards then led the trio out of the hastily erected tent, and towards the underbelly of the massive zeppelin, whose airframe spanned just over 1,200 feet in length.

At the center of the open field, still tethered to lift cables stemming from the underbelly of the mothership, stood before them a metal giant. At a height of nearly fifty five feet, Lady Liberty towered above the ruins of Santa Rosa like a beacon of hope and unity, lighting up the darkness that had consumed the world in atomic fire and ash. The large robot was initially built as a tool of propaganda to boost morale and motivate the civilian populace to continue supporting the war effort in any way possible, however, the aftermath of the near disastrous defeat inflicted upon the Allied forces following the Black Friday Battle of Las Vegas saw the robot reverted back to its combat form, and redeployed into military service. Like the other Victory-Class battle bots, Lady and Soarin inherited the core strengths of their famous predecessor, Liberty Prime, while also incorporating drastic design changes, and improvements learnt from the operations of their predecessor with the Brotherhood of Steel. The Victory’s sported a more rigid bipedal chassis built using the latest composite materials for maximum protection of the bots’s internal systems. Their arms and limbs are connected using Gyromagnetic actuators, allowing for better flexibility, and faster movement. This design change would permit the Victory’s to almost break into a small jog to quickly get in and out of extremely hostile environments and “hot combat” situations, unlike Liberty Prime, who is still constricted to a slow walking pace.

The weapon systems were completely overhauled and expanded upon with new, more advanced systems, sapient artificial intelligence computers were installed, and a larger arsenal of various weapon types were developed to give the robots greater battlefield versatility to combat both ground and aerial threats. These ranged from large-caliber naval Gauss artillery cannons, to Air Defense Anti Tank missile batteries or ADATS. Lady Liberty’s weapon loadout is primarily “Combined Arms” focused, utilizing a balanced array of weapons and defense countermeasures to combat anything the Tri-Communist forces have at their disposal.

Its primary weapons consist of a powerful Tesla Cannon mounted in bot’s right hand, using the Statue of Liberty’s original torch as a base to mount the 5 million volt electric gun. The left arm houses an underslung, twin-barreled laser autocannon for precise suppressive fire upon enemy infantry units with a limited firing arc. The bot’s anti-vehicle capability is somewhat limited with a single ADATS missile battery mounted on the left shoulder that can hold up to eight missiles, and a conventional 20mm autocannon. A large, armored backpack is also installed on the back of the bot that houses a small arsenal of MK.60 bunker-buster nuclear bombs with enough power to level a whole city block! The Victory-Class bots inherited the same delivery system used on Liberty Prime, which was to simply throw the nukes indiscriminately at their foes.

What made Lady Liberty the most intriguing, and a popular battle-bot of the class is how she was built, and the materials that were gathered for its construction at the Pentagon’s subterranean assembly plant. 90% of the metal used in the construction of the giant death robot was recovered from the fallen Statue of Liberty that once greeted fledgling migrants from far away lands into New York City. The copper and steel had been recycled, and reforged into heavy multi-layer materials encased in Art Deco-style armor plating recovered from skyscrapers that once dominated New York’s skyline since the 1930’s. Streamlined chrome plating, and stainless steel decorate the exterior of the towering war machine with the symbols of Patriotism, such as shield-like pads mounted on the shoulders, and knee guards with the Stars and Stripes painted on each shield. A large Chromium hardened chest piece shaped like the Bald Eagle that once soared in the skies over North America covers the robot’s vital components. A large helmet covers the head of Lady Liberty that contains the main power cell, and the central mainframe to house the robot’s artificial intelligence core. Its design clearly resembled the head of the Statue of Liberty, but the faceplate was absent; a large transparent ballistic glass panel instead covered the front of the head.

A set of lights flickered to life around the rim of the heavy bulletproof glass, concealing the faceless head in a glossy shade of fluorescent blue. A set of 3D projectors followed suit in activation, and within a heart-stopping moment of awe, the unmistakable face of Emma Lazarus flickered into existence. Darker shades of blue flesh out the Human-like details of her face as her mild eyelids lifted open under immediate direct control of the AI host. Like a new colossus breaking free from the chains of time and decay, her arms slowly found their freedom of motion as the now-awakened titan rose her right arm high into the darkened sky and the torch flickered and sparked with electric fire. Like a beacon of hope to the people whose minds and souls have lost their way in the grim darkness of reality.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” The mild static voice of a middle aged Jewish-American woman thundered with silent lips across the American Wasteland. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Upon concluding the quotation of the famed speech, Lady Liberty fired her Tesla weapon directly into the Legion’s airframe! Luckily the Airship’s lightning rod grid absorbed the massive electrical discharge, and safely transferred the energy up towards a set of lightning pylons erected atop of the airship, where it was then released safely into the sky. Thousands of bolts of lightning danced across the clouded, toxic sky with near deafening cracks of thunder that boomed for miles around the site. This shocking display (pun intended!), lasted for a whole minute until Lady Liberty powered down her Tesla Cannon. Those who were unfortunate to be within close proximity of Lady Liberty’s electric extravaganza almost had their eardrums implode from the outburst of noise she made! Some of Antanase’s senior Paladins expressed severe verbal bemusement of the robot’s uncontrolled weapons demonstration, though the young Acting-Railway Admiral however, had quite the opposite reaction to it’s introduction.

“Well, goodnight Irene! For a bot, that’s one hell ova way of making a first impression on the field! This is one impressive piece of military hardware you have here, Elder.” Ryan broke a satisfied complement to both Lady Liberty and Antanase as he gently pulled Michelle’s hands off of his ears.

The virtual face of Lady Liberty flashed a gentle smile at the Acting-Admiral’s words. “Your kind words are always appreciated, Admiral. It’s an honor to meet you, alongside the famed Knight Paladin and the Emerald Angel who accompany you.”

“The same can be said to you too, M’lady.” Ryan tipped his Outback-style hat with mutual respect. “Your artificial intelligence capacity is quite impressive for a sapient weapons platform such as yourself. You wouldn’t happen to be an Isekai-Class A.I, would you?”

“Doctor Hirohito prefers to call us ‘Second Chance-Type A.I’s’, considering that we were once Human beings like you, who chose to cheat death for a second chance at living out our lives in the form of a sentient computer program. Just like the A.I assigned to your train.”

Ryan was surprised. “You know about Serina?”

“Is it her that is assigned to the ‘4-8-8-4’? I’ve always wondered what happened to her since I last saw her in Hirohito’s lab.”

“I thought I heard a familiar voice over the net.” Serina’s voice chimed into the conversation over an encrypted comms channel.

“Serina? Is that really you? It is good to hear from you again, old friend.” Lady Liberty called out to her A.I friend over the net.

Ryan then pulled up the right sleeve of his trench coat, and revealed his Citizen Aviator Smartwatch to the elements. The circular screen lit up upon exposure to the sun as Serina’s virtual avatar materialized on top of the holo-projector built into the watch’s outermost rim. The towering robot slowly brought herself down to one knee as she tried to bring her face as close to the Acting-Railway Admiral as her robotic body physically could.

“It is good to see you too, Lauren. I can’t say the same for the others, but I am glad that you are back out here again after so many years locked up in that lab.” The middle-aged A.I smiled up at her long-term friend.

“Words cannot fathom the emotions I had when Doctor Hirohito told me that I was being deployed into the Victory class program!” Lady Liberty’s A.I named Lauren exclaimed with poorly hidden excitement. “It was like becoming a free person for the first time since I offered my mind and soul to be pulled from my old body almost…...six years ago I believe?”

“Just over a year before I was submitted into the program, after my death on the “4-8-8-4” during the battle of Kansas City. I did everything I could to help hold Union Station, but it just wasn’t enough.” Serina reflected on her past life prior to that event.

“A lot has changed since then, Old Friend. Here I am commanding one of the most advanced robots in the Unified States arsenal, and now you’re finally back on the war-train that you once called home. Or you could say ‘became one with it’?” Lauren reflected on her perspective of the past several months.

“It certainly has, Lauren. I came back to the same war train I died serving on for six months, and I am already its Commanding Officer! Succeeding the Acting-Admiral anyway.” Serina sarcastically shrugged.

“Whoa! The USRWC allowed you to become a C.O. of a war train?! That’s amazing, Serina, congrats on the promotion!”

Serina’s smile faded. “Yes, but I wouldn’t be in such a position like this if our past situation in the big push hadn’t forced Acting-Admiral Ryan to take desperate measures with how severe the losses that we took to retake San Fran were. And my 'promotion' is only temporary, as Ryan is only Acting-Railway Admiral until a new, permanent one is chosen.”

“I had to make some tough choices back there…..choices that saw many fellow soldiers needlessly lose their lives, and some very questionable choices that are gonna land me in a heap of trouble with the SoD. I had to make the toughest choices I could to protect the train and my crew, some that I hope will never have to be repeated again with Serina as the newly-acquainted Commanding Officer, and now having unchained control of the train when I'm not available to command it.” Ryan spoke up with heavy regret weighing down his words.

“No leader is perfect, Sir.” Serina turned to her superior. “You’ve come a long way since you took the reins after Captain Hood’s untimely passing. Despite how young you were back then, you were the one to step up and take the lead when we had the bulk of the Commies pouring through the breach in the Midwest Defense Line. If you recall correctly, a certain 14 year old boy, a cyborg German Shepherd, a derailed war train, its small crew, and a single Missouri National Guard division held the line against overwhelming enemy forces for five days! I remember being a part of that battle that will go down in history as ‘The Five Days of Fate’. We bloody pulled a Stalingrad/Midway combo on those bastards; we made them pay for every man, woman, beast/animal, and freak-show that stepped over that defensive line! Captain John Hood would be proud of what you did in his place.”

“He would most certainly be proud…” Ryan smiled depressingly. “I have definitely not forgotten those days, how quickly everything went to shit the moment we lost Hood a few years later, and nearly lost the 4014 when that Mobile Derailer ambushed us as we were pulling out of Kansas City, bound for Jefferson City. Captain John set the bar as a battlefield commander so high that our old officers couldn’t muster the confidence to step in his shoes when he was killed in the line of duty. Everything that could have been made to go wrong did go wrong, and we paid the price of holding that line to give everyone a chance to withdraw. The old train was completely fucked, and most of the crew were dead or dying, but me, and Captain Hood, along with the old engineers, Jack and Jane, as well as a wounded Fred Hollows, Dr. Oleg Kirov, and one other wounded surviving crewman, Head Chef Angus MacTavish, managed to free the locomotive, and a single boxcar from its old consist while Rex kept watch for us, and we were all able to leave the city before we were surrounded. Jack and Jane then drove the engine onward as a diversion, while Hood helped myself, Rex, and the other 3 wounded survivors get to safety, planning to rendezvous with 4014 later on.”

“Jack and Jane, I remember those two from when we first deployed. I have been meaning to ask you, whatever happened to them?” Serina asked, referring to the first engineer and firewoman to man the locomotive in the aftermath of the Commie invasion.

“When I saw the 4014 pull away that night after Hood and I got off at a crossroads outside of Kansas City, and commandeered an abandoned Army truck to drive back towards friendly lines with Rex and the 3 wounded crewmen in the back to get medical help for them, I didn’t think that it would be the last time I would ever see Jack and Jane alive. When the relieving forces broke through the Tri-Communist encirclement, a unit of a Mechanized Infantry division found the locomotive idling in the siding twenty clicks out of town where we were supposed to rendezvous with it, but the boxcar that it was pulling was completely riddled with bullet-holes, and both Jack and Jane’s bodies were found next to the engine filled with lead, but also surrounded by bullet casings, and at least 25 dead Commies. I can only make an assumption that they were jumped by Commie Paratroopers as they pulled into that siding, but yet they still went down swinging."

“Bloody savages! May their souls rest for all eternity, and I hope that they endured a quicker death than I did...” Serina pressed her left hand in between the breasts of her avatar as her preserved Human subconscious replayed the frightening experience of being fatally shot in the heart inside of Kansas City’s Union Station, before being crushed by falling debris from the ceiling in her computerized mind.

Despite being reborn as an A.I, Serina can still feel the emotions she once naturally felt in her previous life. The cold, agonizing feeling she felt in her chest as she slowly bled out at the end of that battle would come back to haunt her constantly since her rebirth. Pain was one such emotion that she wished she could leave behind with her old body.

Ryan sighed. "And as sad as this was, it could have been worse. Originally, Jack and Jane were going to take Captain John, myself, Fred, Dr. Kirov, Head Chef MacTavish, and Rex with them, but for some reason, Captain John refused to allow it, saying that it was too dangerous, and we all couldn't die at once. He then opted to take me, and the 3 wounded crewmen with him instead, while 4014 drove off as a diversion, which was the plan we went with, planning to rendezvous with 4014 at that siding like I said before, and because of Hood's actions, he saved himself, me, Dr. Kirov, Fred, Rex, and Head Chef MacTavish. To this day, I still don't know if Hood had some kind of gut-feeling that night to split us up, or if he did this out of necessity so that at least some of those who survived the original train's demise would have a chance of living to die another day. He never spoke of it again, and took the secret to his grave.”

Michelle saw the emotional distress building up between the A.I and her younger brother, and she hastily huddled up beside Ryan, and affectionately rubbed his left shoulder to break him free from the grappling chains of his PTSD.

The young Acting-Admiral was quick to recompose himself, and got straight back on topic. “Sorry, got sidetracked with a sudden blast from the past. Getting back on track, no pun intended, your journey with us may be a brisk one, Lauren. But we still welcome you aboard the ‘4-8-8-4’. We’ll make sure we get you to Seattle safe and sound!”

“Indeed, our time together will be brief, but I am looking forward to fighting alongside you in the coming battle. I know I will be in good hands under your guidance.” The A.I piloting Lady Liberty smiled at the Admiral’s kind words.

“Good to hear! now, onto our first obstacle. How am I gonna fit a fifty five foot tall giant death robot onto my train?” Ryan turned to Antanase for further clarification.

“Thankfully, my BoS Chapter, and the R.W.C have been working on modifying a special Schnabel transport car for the military’s heaviest, and most mission-critical assets in the war effort. Let us return to your train, Admiral. The 844 should be arriving shortly with the Schnabel car, and those new rail cars you requested last month.” Antanase gestured to the group to follow him back to the railyards.

“I shall join you once my Gyromagnetic actuators have been checked over.” Lady Liberty stood back up to her full height, and with gentle, yet thunderous footsteps, she slowly made her way over to a hastily built gantry for her final post-maintenance inspection.

The others nodded, and began to walk with Antanese back towards the yard where “4-8-8-4” was still sitting.

As they were walking, Ryan turned to check in with Victoria, who had been very quiet since meeting the Elder. “You okay, Vic?”

“Huh?” Victoria’s head mildly shook under her helmet looking at the young Admiral who had caught her zoning off towards a tent occupied by a few young adults kitted out in engineering gear. “Oh, sorry, Admiral. I just......had some reservations about doing this favor for Antanase.”

Ryan paused to look around to see if there were any members of the Elder’s chapter who were within casual talking distance of the pair. Once he was satisfied that there was no one else within earshot, he turned back to Victoria. “I’m all ears, what’s on your mind?”

Victoria also double-checked to see if anyone was close by to eavesdrop on the pair. Even with no one in the immediate vicinity, Vic still wasn’t fully comfortable with voicing her doubts out in the open.

“Never mind. I’ll talk about it when we’re back on the train, and a ways out of town.”

The rear protective panels of her Power Armour suit then opened up like a blossoming flower, allowing the sole occupant immediate freedom from the protection it offers, in exchange for self solitary that even battle-hardened regular grunts would find discomforting. Victoria then fully stepped out of her suit, and into the daylight for the first time since the “4-8-8-4” left Equestria. Having to get reacquainted with the hostile conditions back on Earth wasn’t as easy as she experienced it the first time. Her pixie haircut had grown out of its style in the months since they returned, with enough length in the back to tie up into a small, black ponytail. Her time in the other world had significantly changed her overall attitude towards herself and her close colleagues, becoming more extroverted with the world she once despised. Her face showed emotional signs of heightened anxiety, but quickly settled for a more calm composure.

“I’ll meet you back at 4014. There’s some young blood that I recognize, and I wish to quickly say hello to them before we set off.”

Ryan smiled. “No worries, take your time! 844 should still be a few minutes away anyways, and who knows how long it will be until Lady is ready for transportation.”

“Thank you, Admiral, I’ll be right back.”

Victoria then closed up her suit with her own specialized smartwatch, and walked towards the tent where a group of young engineers were gathered. Ryan remained where he stood, and observed the Knight Paladin with a curious mindset as Vic got closer, her posture slowly shifting from one of high formality, to a more relaxed tone shared commonly with mothers. For the first time ever, Ryan would get to see a side of Victoria that nobody has ever seen since she left the Silver Legion after her husband’s death. Victoria then stepped into the tent, and placed a hand on one of the older-looking males in the group, who became slightly startled by the Knight Paladin. The person in question, along with two younger members of the group of eight showed immediate emotional shock at her presence, and as quickly as the shock came, it was overwhelmed with affectionate joy as the three pulled Victoria into a group hug. Ryan couldn’t help but smile at the sight he was witnessing. It took a moment longer for him to realize that the three rookies were her next of kin; her 3 children that she hasn’t seen for nearly twelve years since the Tri-Communist invasion of North America.

The eldest of the three siblings that Vic tapped on the shoulder was 24 year old Alexander, a Lancer-Captain who specializes in robotic warfare, and was assigned by Antanase as the head caretaker of Lady Liberty. The middle child of the three was 20 year old Caesar, a newly appointed Techno-Scribe whose focus of work is to keep a full operational record of the Victory’s, and ongoing studies of their performance, A.I evolution, battlefield experience, Maintenance, and repairs. Lastly, the runt of the three siblings is Victoria’s only daughter, 18 year old Athena. A young girl with a promising career in retracing her mother’s footsteps along the path of becoming a Knight Paladin.

The unexpected reunion was short but a significant step in the right direction for Victoria in her never ending journey to find her inner peace and reconciliation with her troubled past. Ryan took this moment to make his exit from the scene and with a brisk pace, made his way back towards his war train, allowing Victoria to take this very moment to be a mother once again, something that she hadn’t been able to do in years. All 4 of them knew that their reunion wouldn’t last long, as Victoria would soon have to be back on “4-8-8-4” when she began her journey towards Seattle, but they were certainly going to make their time together count.

Author's Note

And, that was Chapter 1.

Yes, I KNOW that this chapter was extremely dark, depressing, and put our heroes in a seemingly impossible situation, but yet, I'm pretty sure that they'll find their way out of it somehow. After all, there wouldn't really be a story if they didn't, now would there? How do they do it though? Well, you'll just have to keep reading to find out!

Again, I can't take too much credit for this Chapter, as most of it was written by Iowa, but yet, I did do all of the editing, and I was able to add a little bit to the story, but most of the credit still belongs to him. However, for those of you who are fans of my work, as well as the Battleship Express, don't fret. Chapter 3 will have sections that are distinctly my work, and if my current calculations are correct, one scene will finally pick up a few seconds after "Tracks Backwards" left off, and will finally show what made Daryl and Fred (Iron Glory's engineer and fireman) stare in shock the way that they did. Was it "4-8-8-4"? Well, you'll just have to wait and see. This story will start getting VERY interesting, especially once the 2 war-trains and their crews meet face to face for the first time, so stay tuned!

In the meantime though, as always, comments, feedback, questions, as well as spreading the word about this EPIC crossover story are always appreciated, and Iowa and I will see you all again in Chapter 2!

ScarFox out for now!

Until next time fellow sailors,
I'll see you on the naval battlefield!

-Iowa.