Alex swiftly turned the armored train around and opened up the throttle as a large hill came into view with a pass splitting it in half. The train thundered up the road before he gently brought it to a halt at the crest of the pass.
"This seems like a good spot." Alex said as he climbed out of the cab.
Erwin sat in her tank as it idled quietly in a tree line as the others engaged Miho's team in the town below her.
"Ug! I still can't find anglerfish team!" She cried as she put down a set of binoculars.
"Dragon to hippo, Do you Copy?" she heard come over the radio.
"This is Hippo, go Ahead Dragon." Erwin replied over the set.
"I'm in position, give me a bearing on an enemy, over."
Erwin picked up her field glasses and looked over the town. Suddenly, she spotted the Leopon team's Tiger and relayed it's position, "Hippo to dragon, Enemy bearing E-124, N-103, over."
"Roger, Round inbound to E-124, N-103. estimated time one minute, over" came over the radio as Erwin sat in the commander's copula and watched the tiger in the town. Suddenly, the tiger exploded in a column of smoke and tipped over, followed by the pop of a white flag as the round hit the engine deck. Erwin sat back in her chair amazed at the power of the round.
"Dragon to hippo, over. Where did the round hit the tank? I'm too far to see." came through the radio as Erwin's team sat in their tank, shocked by the effectiveness of the round.
"Hippo to dragon, you hit their engine deck." Erwin said shakily over the radio.
"Darn! I was aiming for their tracks." Erwin heard, before wondering where he was.
"Hippo to dragon, what is your position?, Over"
"I'm in a pass between two hills at roughly, E-10, and N-2, Over." he replied as Erwin sank back in her chair with amazement. Alex was hitting a target from 4 kilometers away.
Miho sat in her tank thinking about where Erwin had put her forces, and the mysteriousness of the Leopon team's hit. All the while, Hanna browsed through channels, looking for the Anteater team's signal. Suddenly, Hanna heard through one of the channels the conversation between Erwin and Alex, She quickly relayed it to Miho.
"So, he is the key element for them...Mako, head for point E-20, and N-10. Hanna, switch the radio so we all can here it as it browses through stations." Miho ordered them as she opened the top of the tank.
Then, Miho heard Anteater team, "Miho! We can see dragon! He has a Paris g-!" as their radio died again.
Ten, minutes later, Miho's team arrived at their point in the middle of a small clearing at the bottom of two hills and opened up all hatches, searching for Alex. Suddenly, a thunderous boom echoed through the small valley.
"Did anyone see it?" She asked as she squinted along the trees.
"Nope" they all replied as they slowly moved through the forest.
Then, Miho realized something, 'Paris- that's a type of gun, Paris gun, and Dragon looked like a train...A Paris Rail Gun! Of course, why didn't I relies before! It's huge! Don't look down, Look up!'
Miho looked up to the tree tops and saw a large black muzzle of a massive gun sticking out of the tree top between two hills.
"Stop the tank!" She yelled as the Rail gun fired and the ground in front of them gave way to a massive crater.
Suddenly, they heard a hydraulic groaning sound and Miho saw the muzzle disappear from the tree tops. "After him!" she ordered and the tank raced off to the hills. The tank thundered out of the trees just in time to see the back off the train lumber over the hill.
Alex hammered down the throttle as the engine crested the hill. the reaction was instantaneous, the engine rocketed down the slope and barreled down an old trail in a clumping of trees. suddenly, the ground erupted next to the front wheel and Alex felt the engine shake as he tuned out into a large field before he heard the engine groan. Then, the side where the shell had hit burst into a cloud of steam as the engine slowly rolled to a stop.
"Shoot they damaged the throttle line!" Alex cursed as he jumped down to fix the broken part.
Suddenly he heard a tank burst through the trees and turned around to see Miho's tank stop at the other side of the field.
Miho looked at the crippled train with triumph. as she ordered, "Fire!"
Faster than the eye could blink, the gun erupted, followed by the tank rocking and the aria in front of them erupted in a cloud of smoke.
"Yes! we did it!" the other girls cried as another shell was loaded and Miho looked expectantly through the smoke for the flag of surrender. What she saw instead shocked her, Alex stood in front of the tank holding the shell in front of him with a pair of swords, he suddenly dropped the shell and raced into the engine.
Miho continued to stair in shock as the large gun rose out of the roof and pointed at them, the other girls suddenly stopped celebrating a Miho snapped out of her shock and ordered them to fire again.
Both guns roared in report and both tanks disappeared in the pyrotechnics display. As the smoke cleared, Alex stared out at Miho's tank and saw the white flag and whooped in happiness until he looked at the side of the engine and saw the large hole in the side and fluttering flag on top.
"Dam! you got me fair and square." he said as he hopped down off the engine and walked over to the tank and checked to see if the girls were all right.
"So you wan to take our stuff back?" Miho asked as the others loaded the tanks onto the flatbed cars behind the train as it sat on the rails that headed into the nearby port.
"Yeah, go back to the ship and rest I can take it from here," Alex replied to her as he climbed into the cab of the locomotive.
"Just be back by sundown!" Miho shouted as as Alex eased the throttle open and took off down the tracks.
An hour had passed since Alex had waved goodbye to Miho and he was making great time with his train, and was approaching an old iron trestle that crossed a fair sized canyon just outside the port.
'Hm, I should probably slow down,' he thought as he gently brought the train down from its past rate of speed.
As his train crawled across the bridge he suddenly heard an agonizing wail of twisting metal. glancing out the window he saw the end of the bridge tear from its resting spot and began falling downward.
'Shit!' he realized at the train sped down the ever increasing slope of the tracks.
Alex heard a loud crunch as the end of the bridge landed on a ledge that lined up to an old set of train tracks that ran into an abandoned mine.
The train raced down the steep slope and raced onto the tracks, entering the old mine where it continued to speed up. realizing that his speed was only increasing, Alex applied the emergency break and was rewarded with the sound of snapping metal.
'crap! No breaks!' he thought as the train smashed through an old set of boards across the tracks, throwing him into the throttle; simultaneously pushing it open to full and snapping both pins off.
He suddenly saw a sign ahead the read:
Warning!!
steep grade ahead!
270 degree grade
"Crap!" he replied as the engine raced downward and he felt the G-forces lift him off the floor before slamming him down again.
looking out the window of the engine he suddenly saw a mine cart racing on a parallel track with an old miner inside and heard from it, "Howdy partner! Right this way to Bufferville!"
As they passed a pool of lava that illuminated the interior of the cart he saw that the miner was actually long dead and just a skeleton.
"See yah! Little buckaroo! This is my stop!" he heard while thinking he had gone insane as he watched as the cart looped over his cab and disappeared down another tunnel.
Tuning back forward he saw a set of buffers and the end of the tunnel coming up fast and braced for death. Hearing a whistle he shut his eyes as the locomotive touched the wall.
...
...
...
Feeling no impact, he opened his eyes enough to see forest surrounding before he hard the groan of metal and was shoved over to the side as the engine tipped over on it's side before pain engulfed him and he fell into unconsciousness.