Chapter 1: Victory in California

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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 Notes:

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.

Chapter 2: Bureaucratic Scapegoating, & Dysfunctional Wormholes

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Santa Rosa Aerodome
Santa Rosa, California "The Shattered Peninsula"
Unified States of America
August 20th, 2298
12:00pm (PDT)

In the time it took for Ryan to return to the “4-8-8-4”, the sun had reached its peak in the sky, signalling that the time of day was noon, with the shadow of the Legion mirrored with the host airship. Suddenly, a deep, howling whistle split the air throughout the Aerodrome as the former Union Pacific Locomotive 844 pulled into the makeshift railyard with its haul of additional railcars that will be expanding the 4014's vast consist.

Much like the 4 Big Boys, “4-8-8-1” (4017), “4-8-8-2” (4018), “4-8-8-3” (4023), and “4-8-8-4” (4014), UP 844 has been fully rebuilt and converted into an Atomic Locomotive with her old firebox and boiler being gutted for the same fusion reactor that was used on 4014. Though with it being smaller than the Big Boy, it only has space to fit one contra-rotating steam turbine to power its single set of eight driving wheels. Just like 4014 though, 844 was upscaled with stronger materials to support the additional weight of its new boiler and turbine, while also being lengthened from the original 114ft 25/8”, to her new overall length of 149ft 25/8”. The atomic boiler sits upon a monstrously enlarged chassis that replicates the original "4-8-4" wheel configuration with four 48" leading wheels, eight 80" driving wheels and four 54" trailing wheels. The wheel arrangements on the tender have also been enlarged to match the trailing wheels, just like how 4014 was upgraded and upscaled prior to the Black Friday Offensive.

The weaponry mounted on the 844 is relatively light compared to the 4014 in terms of self defense. With little to no space on the front cowling to mount a heavy-caliber weapons platform, a set of smoke grenade launchers were fitted on the front platform instead, with additional units installed along the sides of the boiler and the tender. Two single 8" casemate Gauss cannons are fitted to the sides of the locomotive forward of the fusion reactor, and serve as the main offensive weapons of the 844. The most striking and oddest feature of the engine is the large rotating quantum radar dome (or rotodome), fitted on top of the tender, and spanning thirty feet in diameter. The former UP 844 was selected to become the Railway Warfare Corp’s first Electronic Warfare Asset (EWA), or as designated, the Railway Early Warning and Control (REWAC) Locomotive with a strong focus on the local “Over the Horizon” early warning systems, electronic warfare, and quantum cyber-warfare countermeasures.

The tender itself had been fully rebuilt on the inside with the old oil bunker stripped out and replaced with a state of the art electronic warfare suite to operate the 844’s full capabilities in all theaters of future warfare, and the old water bunker was converted to store the same special Super Coolant Liquid (SCL) used on the 4014 to keep the core reactor temperatures in check. Lastly, the old backhead controls to operate the locomotive were stripped out and replaced with the same modern operating computers that are present on the 4014, with the latest edition being an AI relay pedestal to allow Serina to access the 844’s mainframe and permit social interaction with the crew in the physical form of her avatar.

Making up the consist behind the locomotive are a set of various cars that will be added to expand the war train’s already formidable consist. An additional 250,000 gallon tank car loaded with reactor coolant would be coupled up behind the existing tank car behind the 4014’s tender for improved longevity. Behind the tank car were two streamlined aluminum baggage cars that had been converted to carry munitions and supplies, and will be connected to the existing three baggage cars on the “4-8-8-4”s train. The next car in Ryan's old Observation Car that served as his living quarters prior to being given the Skytop Lounge Car as a gift from President Sampson just before the disastrous Battle of Vegas. The Observation Car had been rebuilt, and repurposed to become the personal car of Victoria to relocate her living space to, as well as containing a workshop, and power armor repair gantry from the robotics repair car. The last car is the one that will be serving as the heavy lifter for the transportation of Lady Liberty; the Schnabel Car WECX-801, on lease to the U.S.R.W.C from Westinghouse Nuclear, the sister-company of General Atomics.

This specialized railroad freight car is a behemoth compared to every other common freight car in North America, and is designed to carry heavy and oversized loads in such a way that the load takes up most of the car’s length. Lady Liberty will be suspended between the two ends of the cars by lifting arms connected to an assembly of span bolsters that distribute the weight of the load, and the lifting arm over its 36 axles (18 for each half). The R.W.C have made special modifications to the railcar to make loading, transfer and unloading a breeze with the addition of a pair of prototype gravity well generators to lift Lady Liberty in between the two halves of the car by projecting an artificial gravity field around the giant robot. Once loaded, the overall length of the Schnabel car would peak at a maximum of 286ft. The old wheels on the Schnabel were replaced with the special ‘Maglev’ wheels already installed on the 4014, 844 and all the other railcars where the wheel flanges are made of super conductive magnets to help keep the train glued to the tracks, and preventing derailment at higher-than-safe speeds.

Ryan had caught up with the others by the time the 844 came to a gentle stop alongside the 4014, the high pitch whine of the steam turbine was reduced to a low hum as it was set to an idling state. Up in the cab, a middle-aged man could be seen climbing down a ladder to the ground, and a middle-aged woman emerged from the Electronic Warfare Suite in the tender and followed him down.

“Hey there!” Ryan called out to the new arrivals.

“Hello there! You must be the new Acting-CiC.” The middle-aged man called back to Ryan.

“I am. Ryan Homer’s the name.”

“Mark. Mark Atkins,” 844’s driver briefly saluted the young Acting-Railway Admiral before extending a handshake. “And this is my wife, Lamona.”

“Hello, Admiral.” Lamona stepped in to greet Ryan.

“A pleasure to meet you both.” Ryan said as he shook Lamona’s hand, “Did Jefferson brief you on our upcoming mission?”

“Dave wasn't very clear on what we’re doing here. He just told us to bring these cars down here and speak to you.” Mark replied.

Ryan tapped his watch three times to summon his A.I companion. “Not a problem. Serina will bring you two up to speed, while the crew gets these cars positioned to hook up to the “4-8-8-4”’s consist. You’ll be double-heading with 4014 when we depart, so if we do come under direct attack, Serina can extend the particle shield bubble to cover the 844.”

Mark gave a thumbs up in acknowledgment. “Cool. We’ll start rearranging the consist to take in the new cars. It should only take about two hours to get it all done.”

Ryan nodded. “No rush, Mark.”

Mark nodded, and then he and Lamoa went to talk to Serina to get up to speed on everything.

Once Mark and Lamoa were talking to Serina, Ryan turned to see Michelle approaching him with their trusted canine companion, the battle-hardened and heavily cyber-enhanced German Shepard, Rex, at her side. Rex had been resting in the Acting-Railway Admiral’s personal car at the very back end of the train when the Emerald Angel called for him.

“G’day, Rex!” Ryan crouched down to pet the dry, ruffled fur of the middle-aged dog, who returned the greeting with a happy yawn, having just woken from his four hour slumber.

Michelle then glanced over towards the 844 as Lamona and Mark re-embarked. “When did they pull in?”

“Just over a minute ago,” Ryan replied. “We’ll need to rearrange the consist to put these new railcars into their appropriate spots within the consist.”

“Two hours tops to get it all hooked up they said?”

“No more, no less I reckon. Probably another hour or two after to prep Lady Liberty when Victoria’s kids are done patching her up.”

The super soldier shot a bewildered look at the young officer’s direction. “Wait. Victoria has kids?! Since when and how long?!”

“Longer than the two of us have been on this shithole of a planet.” Ryan stood to his feet after giving Rex a much deserved scratching under his chin.

Wow, must have been a long overdue reunion for them, huh?”

“Way too long, judging by Vicky’s physical expression when she literally jumped out of her power armor and almost resisted the urge to run into the tent and give them a motherly bear hug!” Ryan almost chuckled.

“Naw, she must’ve missed them so much if it has been a long time since she last saw them.” Michelle chuckled, trying to picture Victoria running to her kids, and hugging them.

“A very long time, yes. Vicky hasn’t seen her kids since Boston was wiped out by a Lucifer satellite 12 years ago in 2286. This war has pulled countless families apart, and displaced just as many in the name of Liberty or Socialism.”

“War is hell, but it’s a hellish reality that makes up a big part of Human Nature, and our ever-evolving self-hatred with ourselves.”

“One that will haunt us for many generations to come, just as it’s been haunting our ancestors since the past World Wars. The Atomic War was supposed to serve as a grim reminder of what happens when we take our pursuit of greed, profiteering, and exploitation of our non-renewable resources in the name of monopolization too far. We, among the past generations before us, are left scrambling over the little scraps that the big dogs have deliberately left in the ground with everyone to fight over, while they so happily count their multi-dollar bills and endless rain of gold coins from the safety and comfort of their mega-billion dollar corporate towers in the old mega-cities.”

“Just like how it was with the previous World Wars, and that....um.....'Second Cold War’, I think it was called? Or something like that.” Michelle finished. “Our ancestors risked life and limb every single day to keep those previous would-be world-dominating empires from achieving their goals, while behind the scenes, a select few on both sides of the wars made their fortunes from making and selling weapons. It’s absolutely shameful.”

Ryan nodded. “I couldn’t agree more, Big Sis.” He said slowly.

They continued to talk about this for a while longer.

As the next four hours came and went, the “4-8-8-4” had her consist rearranged, and Lady Liberty was loaded into the Schnabel car using a set of gravity well emitters. Lady Liberty’s A.I, Lauren, was transferred into the war train’s mainframe with Serina for safe travels to Seattle. Once the package was ready to be sealed up for transport, Victoria had made her way back to the yard with her three children, and a pack of four Cyber-Deathclaws in tow.

Much like their organic contemporaries, these particular Deathclaws are the pinnacle of their man-made evolution since their induction at the end of the Atomic War as the ultimate weaponized Apex Predator. Their brains were harvested from their original bodies at a juvenile age, and placed into large cybernetic exoskeleton mechs that replicated what their original bodies would have been if they had matured into full adult alphas. A small fusion reactor powers their exoskeleton, which is covered in 1.5 meters (4ft, 9in) of Ceramic Rolled Homogeneous Depleted Uranium Armor, and at full height stands at a head-spinning 20ft 8in! Outside of being virtually a walking tank, the Cyber Deathclaws also have their own personal arsenals of Human-pulverizing weaponry.

On top of retaining their raw melee strength in the form of soul-tearing titanium claws in their monster-sized hands and feet, they also have their mouths lined with varying rows of man-mincing chainsaws for teeth, and crude jagged spikes running down their backs to the tip of their tails. These walking tanks are more than capable of tearing their way into lightly armored vehicles and structures to seek their prey with the assistance of X-ray and thermal vision in their eye-shaped sensors, allowing them an undisturbed 360-degree field of view. Nobody is safe from these genetically engineered man-made horrors of the wasteland. Since these Cyber-Deathclaws were domesticated, and their intelligence was greatly heightened to near self-sentience, they have also gained the ability to use ranged weaponry such as the M2 Browning .50 Cal heavy machine gun mounted in the tip of their tails, and even a set of vertical missile tubes in their backs, which holds hundreds of pencil-sized anti-personnel missiles. There have even been conflicting reports regarding several Cyber-Deathclaws manning heavy turrets, and even assisting artillery crews with loading and positioning their howitzers!

Despite the crude development of these tamed apex-predators, their creation is a far cry of the wrongful acts of inhumanity compared to the volumes of horrors that countless millions of people under the boots of the TCA were subjected to. Whether you were worked to death in one of their “re-education camps'', or executed for not being a good little sheep in their flawed collective society, the dead don’t stay forever dead when TCA scientists revive you into a Feral Ghoul, or lock your brain inside one of their war machines, and send you off to endure a thousand deaths before they finally let you die in peace. Even women and children who are residents of foreign nations under Communist occupation are more likely to endure similar fates when they disappear, and become indoctrinated to the Communists's maniacal cause. Some reports even indicate that captured women were given experimental drugs to allow them to have up to 8 babies during each pregnancy, all of which were then raised from birth to be indoctrinated by the TCA. For every year that passed since the world slipped into eternal darkness under the umbrella of radiation in 2098, the more cruel and horrifying Reality becomes for those who are trying to make the best of the situation before them.

With things like the Geneva convention, and the Laws of War now a long-forgotten memory, the next generation of conflicts to scar the Earth are now decided by those who are most willing to sacrifice their Humanity, and get their hands covered in the most blood. The only true winners of the post-nuclear age are the people controlling the strings from the very top of the world where it remains untouched by the devastation of the conflict, as well as those behind the Military Industrial Complex supplying all of the weapons. While they indulge themselves in boundless luxuries and guaranteed safety several miles below the inhospitable surface of Greenland, the rest of the world fights over the remaining resources in a seemingly endless conflict that continues to further degrade the Earth’s environment to the point where it's now under threat of permanent self-destruction. Heck, even Ryan’s views on the ongoing conflict changed completely since returning from Equestria. The US President’s handling of the occupation of the Unified States has been nothing short of disastrous from the get-go. Time and time again over the last six years, President Thomas Sampson had shown himself to be completely careless, wholly uncaring, totally incompetent, and holding little regard for taking swift action to expel the TCA invaders from the US Mainland, unlike his predecessor, US President Blake Raymond. With growing distrust rising from the US Citizens who entrusted him to getting the job done, and with the damning, and rightfully justified accusations of conspiring with the opposition through divisive policies and pro-socialist grandstanding in his campaigns, not to mention his hand in allowing the horric Gen 2 Emerald Angel Program to go forwards, many were glad that his term in office was coming to an end now that he had been voted out of power. It didn’t take as much effort as Serina theorized it would for her the hack into the White House’s mainframe to reveal President Sampson’s sinister intentions that he had in the works as far back as his starting days in politics.

Ryan holds no form of political influence to confidently bring Sampson’s treachery to light without support from those already established in Capitol Hill, but for now he has to focus on his job as a military commander, and finish what his predecessors, Captain Hood, and Rail-Admiral Callaghan already started. A quick glance at his watch told him that he needed to get the train rolling within the next ten minutes if they were to get to Seattle in time to stop the Hawking Gates from being activated.

“Well, time to get moving I suppose.” He then tapped his watch twice to summon Serina. “Serina, initiate pre-departure recall protocols for all disembarked personnel to return to the train in ten mikes.”

“Aye, Acting-Admiral, recalling the troops.” Serina acknowledged, the 4014 letting out a long, howling blast of its whistle to signal all disembarked personnel to return to the war train.

The Cyber-Deathclaws then leapt onto the Schnabel car, and with a few taps on the holo-display console, the giant robot and its four man-eating guards were concealed in a large sarcophagus fabricated by billions of nano-machines. Once Ryan had re-boarded the train with Rex and Michelle in tow, Antanase stopped by to give his farewell as Victoria returned with her sons and daughter. They were needed to keep working on Lady Liberty’s core systems, and monitor Lauren in transit; this wasn’t a reassignment to the “4-8-8-4”s crew for the sake of a family reunion. Once they reached Seattle, Victoria’s next of kin would be parting ways once again as the only form of family she has left outside of the war-train charge headfirst into battle with Lady Liberty in what was being anticipated as the key battle that would decide the outcome of the war front in North America.

“I wish you all the best of luck with this mission, and godspeed, Acting-Rail Admiral.”

Ryan saluted. “Thank you, Elder. We shall do our best to complete this mission, and get Lady Liberty to Seattle on time. You can depend on us!”

“Until we meet again, Acting-Rail Admiral.”

“Until we meet again.” Ryan echoed as he stepped back into his private car at the back of “4-8-8-4”’s consist.

Then, with a two-tone blast of the whistle and the spin up whine of her steam turbines, the U.S.R.W.C’s flagship war-train, with 844 joining her, set off on the long, perilous journey through the contested territories of the Pacific Northwest to the final damned foothold the TCA had left in the former Mainland USA.

Biggs Junction
22 kms East of the The Dalles Checkpoint
Oregon Republic, Unified States
August 25th, 2298
11:45am (PDT)

The last few days spent in transit to Seattle had been mainly uneventful in regards to ground action. The journey through the rest of the Shattered Peninsula had been brief, though everyone on “4-8-8-4” was on edge as they passed into the Oregon Republic, which had only recently been snatched back from the Communists.

Oregon was liberated through a massive Resistance uprising shortly after Victory in California Day (VC-Day). While preparations for the crossing over the San Andreas Fortifications Line into California were being made, an Underground Railroad Faction aligned with the Unified States smuggled weapons, supplies, and Allied soldiers to the Resistance groups in occupied Oregon. Then, once the San Andreas Fortification Line was breached, the signal was given to start a full-scale uprising. This uprising caught the TCA completely by surprise, and threw them into total disarray all over the state. Eventually, with the Allied and Resistance forces gaining ground fast, and the TCA being unable to adequately suppress them due to their supply lines being cut off, not to mention California falling into the hands of the Allies, the divided Communist forces were forced to cut their losses, and while a few were captured, the rest abandoned Oregon to the oncoming coalition forces for the safety of Communist-occupied Washington State. With their state liberated, the occupants of Oregon set up the Oregon Republic, and continued to help the Allies with the war against the Communists. However, even with Oregon officially liberated, some TCA forces still remained at large in the state, determined to do whatever was necessary to take back Oregon for themselves. It was because of these remaining Communist forces still being on the loose that had the crew of “4-8-8-4” on edge as they passed through Oregon, but so far, none had been spotted.

In fact, the only thing worth highlighting was the fact that the war-train was almost derailed from a Blowout Anomaly (better known as an “Emission”), in Tygh Valley two days prior. It was truly an unusual, yet completely terrifying encounter of its kind. In all of Ryan’s years as an experienced Anomaly Hunter, this was his first (and dared he hoped last), time seeing an Emission in person. Surviving that night left him, and most of the crew, severely shaken from the near-death experience, with the remaining minority being left completely traumatized. Michelle was one of the worst ones affected by it. Even within the safety of her battle suit, the overwhelming fear of Ryan being microwaved alive by the tsunami of a radiation emission scared her so much that she used her nanites to encase the two of them in a shield-bubble, and never dared to let go of her Little Brother until several minutes after Serina had given the All-Clear signal that the danger had passed. The emission waves were so powerful that had the “4-8-8-4” not been equipped with the magnetic flanges on all its wheels, the whole train would have been torn from the tracks. Unfortunately, there were fatalities from this event. An accommodation car was breached, killing all occupants instantly due to not having ballistic glass installed on all the windows. Luckily, the rest of the train remained intact, and was able to continue on once the emission dissipated.

The war-train arrived in the nearest settlement 30 kilometres away, only to find that all the inhabitants were atomized by the emission wave. As predicted, they had no warning, as it was impossible to track these killer anomalies before the event horizon ruptured, and unleashed its untamed power upon anyone and anything unfortunate enough to be exposed to it. It was there at that lifeless village that the crew waited for a supply train to arrive to deliver relief troops and supplies to repair the breached railcar, and they only had a few hours to get back up to speed in order to make up for lost time. First enduring a terrible war, then being displaced to an alternate dimension, and now that Mother Nature seemingly had him set in her crosshairs, Ryan just couldn’t catch a breather without something going up Shit Creek. Unfortunately for Ryan though, the day was not going to get any better. In fact, it was about to get a hell of a lot worse.

Ryan was monitoring the Train’s progress along a set of hastily assembled tracks on top of the still-abandoned Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway that ran parallel alongside the Columbia River that still acted as a natural border between the Oregon Republic and Washington State, and it was during this moment when Serina got The Call.

“Ryan, we’re receiving an incoming call from D.C. It’s the President.”

“Patch him through, Serina.” Ryan replied unfazed as he maintained his composure thanks to the fact that his super soldier girlfriend has been stuck to his side ever since that night the Emission struck.

The holo-display table rotated out the tactical map, and in its place projected the communications display as the link was secured at the same time. A holographic projection of a set of static lines appeared hovering centerline above the projection display. The President then greeted the Acting-Admiral with his vibrant New-Yorker accent.

“Acting-Admiral Homer! Long time no see! How goes things on the Western Front?”

“Mr. President, a 'pleasure' as always.” Ryan returned the greeting, while rolling his eyes. “We’re slowly but surely making our way to Seattle. We had a bit of a setback in Tygh Valley after getting caught in an 'Emission' with some casualties and minor environmental damage-”

“So I heard.” Thomas Sampson interrupted, not wanting to drag the call out for too long. “Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to take this call, and need to quickly inquire to you about something that has gotten the attention of the Administration recently.”

"Bastard Asshole“ Ryan thought, upset about the President interrupting him. Out loud though, he said, "Well, luckily for you, Sir, I have time on my side. What does the Admin want?”

“Good, I wanted to talk to you about what happened after the collapse of the Black Friday Offensive last year, from your perspective.”

Michelle and Serina broke their trances with mild panic rapidly taking over their rational thinking for assuming the worst. Ryan brought an index finger to his lips to keep the girls quiet.

“There’s not much to go over other than what I’ve already disclosed in my after-action report the day after. We rallied what little troops that survived, and set up an evacuation checkpoint at Primm to allow most of the survivors to escape into Arizona.”

“I remember reading all that, but what you forgot to mention was the Space-Time Anomaly that somehow managed to send you and your train into another dimension.”

“.....Fuck.” Ryan mentally cursed as Michelle suddenly released her grip from him to vent her disbelief of the revelation.

Serina’s avatar stood quietly with her face buried in her hands. She had forgotten to purge the train’s black boxes of all visual and audio data of their time in Equestria! Now their secret was no more, and Equestria was now in severe danger of being exposed to the world.

“How many people know about this, Mr. President?” Ryan asked, more than a hint of fear in his voice.

“Just the Administration, or at least that was true up until a few days ago.” Sampson sighed regrettably.

Ryan turned pale, and was shaking bad enough that Michelle had to help hold him steady. “What happened?”

“TCA Netrunners breached our database around the same time you got caught in the Blowout Anomaly. They got away with a fair bit of secured information regarding force deployments, weapons research, and most unfortunately, the entirety of the R.W.C’s recovered black box data. The black box data regarding your detour to this ‘Equestria’ was among the stolen data.”

Ryan could do nothing but go ragdoll-limp in Michelle’s arms while he recomposed himself following this revelation. Once he was able to stand again, Ryan bit his tongue, and let out a furious sigh.

“It couldn’t have happened at a worse time. God knows what they intend to do with the data, though it’s not like they can get to Equestria anyways.” Ryan muttered, a mixture of fear and anger in his voice.

“That would be the case if they didn’t possess some stolen teleportation devices. We just received word from our spies in the RSR that the one they took back to Russia has gone active as we speak.”

“What, already?! We’re still more than a day’s travel to Seattle! I don’t think we’re gonna make it in time to start the offensive!”

“We have no other options, Acting-Admiral. Congress won’t let me nuke the city to cut our projected losses and destroy the Hawking Gate in Seattle unless it has been activated, which as of right now, it has not.”

Ryan was surprised. “Wait, the Seattle gate isn’t online yet?”

“Not yet. We assume that the Communists are testing the device first before they commit troops. We don’t know what condition the gates are currently in, though I assume that after sitting in an abandoned research facility for 200 years, they probably saw better days.”

Ryan allowed himself to relax a bit, but was still deeply concerned. “I just hope that they haven’t somehow managed to decrypt our Space-Time coordinates to find the other world we visited. The natives living there WILL NOT stand even a snowball's chance in Hell against an all-out invasion by the Commies."

"The Equestrians weren't even able to fend off the invasion from the Griffon Khans without our help, and those bastards's armies were barely a fraction of the size, and had barely a fraction of the firepower that the Communists do.” Michelle murmured. "They would be doomed if the Commies ever came knocking."

Ryan and Serina nodded in quiet agreement with what Michelle murmured.

“The Hawking Gates were never designed for inter-dimensional travel, Acting-Admiral." Sampson replied to Ryan, not hearing what Michelle murmured, "Let’s hope for your sake it stays that way.”

“I really hope so, Mr. President. Otherwise they're gonna have to fight tooth and nail for the Space-Time Projector."

“You... have a device that is capable of inter-dimensional travel?”

"Yes Sir, and if anyone other than Victoria lays their hands on it, the 4014 will go nuclear. We can’t afford to let it fall into the wrong hands.”

“That’s quite the drastic measure, Acting-Admiral.”

“No disrespect, Mr. President, but I made a promise to the Equestrian leadership that I don’t entrust the existence of the S.T.P and its secrets to anyone outside of the train.”

“And I fully respect your decision, Acting-Admiral. You are a man of honor, Ryan, and I hope your parents are-”

The connection between "4-8-8-4" and the White House was suddenly disrupted as a TCA cyber-attack overwhelmed and disabled the train’s quantum communications, along with the 844’s electronic warfare capabilities.

“Serina, what’s happening?!” Ryan turned to his A.I subordinate.

“TCA Netrunners have breached our firewalls! They must have used the call as a backdoor to bypass them!”

“844 to 4014 Actual, we’ve lost all electronic warfare capabilities, and are unable to counterattack!” EWO Lamona said through Ryan’s headset.

“844, sever all connections to the outside, and reboot everything! Serina, lend assistance if you can!” Ryan replied with his leadership instincts kicked into overdrive and sounded all hands to action stations.

“Yes, Sir!” Lamona replied.

“On it, Ryan!” Serina added.

Michelle immediately took her post between the Acting-Admiral and the AI pedestal to oversee her squadron suit up.

“Serina, how the hell could you forget to wipe the black boxes before we left Equestria?!”

“I was so focused on monitoring the S.T.P, and making sure we weren’t gonna get zapped into oblivion when it kicked off that I guess I kinda forgot about it when we came back to Earth, and went straight back into the shitshow that was the aftermath of Black Friday.” Serina shrugged innocently.

“‘Kinda forgot?!’ Serina, you have AI levels of smarts, how could you forget about something as simple as that?!” Michelle pressed accusingly.

“Just because I was brought up to an artificial state of near immortality, it doesn’t mean I still can’t make mistakes like a normal Human being!” Serina retorted defensively. “Hell, I WAS Human before I died in battle! Plus, how many people are going to actually believe that we went to a land of Magical talking Ponies?! Most normal people would laugh at us, and even the Communists would say that it's nothing more than propaganda!"

"The Communists have ALL of the data on Equestria, PLUS the Hawking Gates, AND some of the best scientists in the world! You seriously don't think that they'd TRY to get to Equestria, a land still ravaged by the war against the Griffon Khans, ESPECIALLY once they realize that the Ponies can't defend their nation against the might of the TCA, you Stupid Machine?!"

“Lock it down, both of you!” Ryan interjected. “What’s done is done; we can’t change the past! Now if you don’t mind, how about settling the matter on that regimental rotorwing’s worth of Super-Hinds converging on our position?!” He then pointed at the blob of red circles on the 3D holo-radar display slowly moving towards the center of the projection. “The Commies still here in Oregon just made themselves known, and now we need to take them out!”

“Right!” Serina and Michelle sighed collectively.

“I’m taking flight, you’ve got the guns?” Michelle asked Serina as her nanosuit enveloped her body.

“Gladly.” Serina nodded confidently with data rings materializing out of thin air.

“Weapons free ladies, keep them off the locos.”

“Yes, Sir!” The Girls acknowledged.

Michelle then made a break for the right side access door of the railcar with a burst of her thrusters. Meanwhile, Serina took remote control of the war-train’s AA defense grid with an opening volley of the 4014’s surface-to-air laser-guided missile batteries, and a salvo of the 8in Gauss cannons at the heavy gunships. The Communist helicopters live up to the legacy of the original Hind as an upscaled and up-armored successor that takes the title; “Flying Tank”, and dialing it up to eleven with a fatal dose of Communist-fueled testosterone. The lead helo absorbs 6 of the 8 missiles launched at it before going down from losing its engines from shock overpressurization of the impact explosions on the armored airframe. Another two would be turned inside-out from direct hits of 8in slugs that were sent into the formation at twice the speed of sound. While this battle was happening, EWO Lamona was able to reboot most of the 844’s electronic warfare systems to assist in deploying countermeasures to deny the enemy from launching guided munitions at the train, and forcing them to use their unguided rocket pods and autocannons.

Many of the enemy’s rockets ended up going wide, saturating the immediate area around the train, with some being intercepted by the onboard close-in weapons systems (CIWS), the modular-active protection systems, or harmlessly striking the locomotive’s shields. The 30mm C-RAM on the 4014’s lead truck opened up with an air-shredding burst of Ion energy, making quick work of another two helos with focused fire at the cockpits. A third Super-Hind would lose its tail section, and spiral out of control to the ground, but having an armored chassis meant that the helicopter bounced off the ground, and then landed directly into the path of the 4014. This is where everything that could go horribly wrong did go horribly wrong. The resulting collision, and following explosion from the Super-Hind's remaining ordinance detonating had inflicted heavy damage to the front end of 4014, with the C-RAM destroyed, but salvageable once the locomotive’s nano-repair system kicked in to conduct emergency repairs. Unfortunately though, that would be the least of the crew’s worries, as the impact had nearly destroyed the S.T.P, rendering the Space-Time traveling device crippled, glitching, and barely functional.

“Serina, damage report!” Ryan spoke with sudden shock from feeling the collision from the back end of his train.

“Heavy damage to the front end, Acting-Admiral! We lost the C-RAM, and the S.T.P is critically damaged!” Serina replied as she analysed the locomotive with eagle eyes as she directed the trillions of nano-machines to the damaged front end to start repairs.

“Shit! Really? I thought the S.T.P would be well protected. Is it still functional?”

“Just barely. I don’t know if me or Victoria can fix it without going back to Equestria.”

While Ryan was still processing that, the already bad situation was about to get dialed up to 11.

“844 to 4014 actual, urgent!” Lamona’s voice echoed through the speakers in Ryan’s headset with developing worry.

“4014 actual to 844, is everything okay?”

“Negative! I’ve got a thermonuclear spike tracking us from orbit! It’s an OKBM satellite!”

“WHAT?!?!” Both Ryan and Serina recoiled with enveloping fear.

“Do I need to repeat myself?! Did I fucking stutter?! We’re about to get nuked from orbit!!!”

Ryan knew that there was only one course of action he could take to save “4-8-8-4”, and every man and woman onboard it. “Serina, spool up the S.T.P! Emergency jump to either Seattle, or Equestria!”

“Ryan, the nav computer for the S.T.P is gone. We’ll be going blind into the unknown with the Space-Time Continuum itself at the controls. Plus, the remote access module is out too; someone will have to activate it manually.”

“That’s a one way trip for whoever decides to ride it out on the front.”

“It won’t matter if they can’t access the core without some form of psionic ability.”

“Like Alice?”

Serina simply nodded grimly. The last time Ryan had to awaken Alice from her suspended animation, she nearly destroyed Equestria’s Dimensional Realm, killing Sombra in the process. Now though, she is the crew’s last hope to escape imminent nuclear annihilation.

Ryan sighed in defeat. “Unseal the hushed casket, Serina. Awaken Project Rubicon.”

“Ry, what are you doing?!” Michelle called out over the comms.

“Sis, get to the hospital car and take Alice to the S.T.P right now! We need her to operate it to escape the OKBM the Commies are about to drop on us!” Ryan replied.

“Ryan, you know what happened to her when she fought Sombra. She can’t control her powers! She nearly destroyed-”

“I’m aware of the risks, Mickey, but we’ve got no choice!"

"But she'll die! It's a suicide-mission!"

"MICHELLE, LISTEN TO ME!!!! We either wake Alice up, and get her to help us get to either Seattle, or Equestria, or we die! WE HAVE NO OTHER OPTIONS!!!!”

“OKBM launch detected! T-minus to impact, two minutes!” Lamona almost shouted through her headset.

“Michelle, the S.T.P has been critically damaged, and only she has the ability to directly control it! It’s now or never!” Serina pleaded with the Battle Angel.

“Okay, Serina. But you seriously owe her for her sacrifice.”

“We all will if we survive.”

Michelle didn’t waste a breath of air before making a direct beeline for the hospital car where her old friend was contained. Upon entering, she made her way upstairs to the ICU compartment where Dr. Oleg Kirov and his nurses were scrambling to release Alice from her containment pod. The pod’s hatch was already released, revealing the alien-humanoid that had been frozen in Time since the final battle within the Crystal Empire. Alice’s subconsciousness was contained within her otherworldly body, which had undergone significant changes since the initial transfer. Her new body had reshaped itself to become more Human-like, with the textures of the android’s skin resembling that of a late 1990’s female Anime character.

Once she was awake again, Alice’s eyes opened for the first time in months to see her best friend lifting her out of the pod. “Michelle, is that you?”

“It’s me, Alice. Sleep well?” Michelle almost beamed at hearing her best friend’s voice again.

“Better than I did the last time. What’s going on?”

“No time to explain. I need to get you to the locomotive, and link you to the S.T.P before we get nuked from orbit.”

“Wait, the what and the what?” Alice asked blankly, but Michelle spared no second to pause as she bridal-carried the Android towards the railcar’s access door.

The Battle Angel hastily brushed past the nurses on the way down, and immediately took flight for the front end of the train. A quick update from 844 informed her that the warhead had breached the stratosphere, and was now going supersonic towards their position with less than a minute to impact.

“Shit!” Michelle cursed to herself.

She then immediately opened up the throttle to full afterburner on her wing thrusters to get to the locomotive as fast as she could, which only took her less than fifteen seconds, though it was already down to the wire, and time was running out. Alice was quick to come to her senses, and used her profound psionic abilities to read through Michelle’s memories to get up to speed on what it was that she needed to do. It hurt her knowing that she would have to sacrifice herself to save the "4-8-8-4", and everyone on it, but she knew that it had to be done. Alice then reached for her head, and pulled out an alien-like Ethernet cable to plug herself into the S.T.P on the front of the locomotive. Thankfully all internal systems were still operational, and she could still activate the projector to open a portal.

“Serina, I’m inside, and have full control. What do I do next?” Alice speaks to the AI telepathically.

“Can you create a portal tether to a location close to Seattle or Equestria?” Serina replied through a small speaker embedded in the lead truck.

“Not without assistance from the S.T.P’s navigation computer, which is down. I can only get us to Equestria, and even then, without the nav-computer, we could end up landing anywhere in the Country.”

“That’ll have to do.” Ryan’s voice crackled through the speaker. “Mickey, take cover in the 4014’s cab. We don’t know if your suit can protect you from the space-time continuum.”

“What about Alice?” Michelle asked with hesitation to leaving her friend alone on the front of the locomotive. "I don't want to leave her alone out here!"

“I’ll be fine, Mickey. You won’t stand a chance being exposed to the continuum. Now go, we don’t have much time!” Alice assured Michelle.

“Good luck, Alice, and....g-goodbye. I'm so, so sorry it has to be like this.”

"It's not your fault, Michelle. I'm not mad at you, or anyone else on the train. I've made peace with what I must do."

Michelle nodded, before hugging Alice one last time, and then taking off for the safety of 4014's cab. Once she was in the cab, Michelle fully shut the doors, windows, and other panels, before bracing for whatever was to come.

“See you all on the other side!” Alice smiled as she activated the S.T.P. The wormhole projector barely flickered to life, and a tear in the fabric of Space and Time began to appear in front of the train.

“Ten seconds to impact! It’s now or never with whatever the hell you guys have planned!” Lamona almost broke into a panic-attack on the comms.

“All hands, brace for emergency jump to Equestria!” Ryan announced over the train’s PA System.

“Jumping in three….two….one….mark!” Alice counted backwards.

And with a single thought process, Alice channeled all of her full psionic strength, and all of her Life-Force into the damaged projector, and with a great implosion of fusion reactions, was able to open the portal to its full radius to allow the whole train to enter. Both locomotives went through just as the 50 megaton kinetic warhead impacted the Earth, and with blinding atomic fire and shattered grounds, the city of The Dalles, Oregon was instantly uprooted by the underground implosion, with all 15,159 inhabitants instantly vaporized. The following explosion completely enveloped Wasco County in a blinding light with the train several kilometers away from ground zero, but still dangerously close to the kill zone. The first shockwave ran parallel along the train’s consist, dealing minor damage to exposed equipment as the train rapidly tunneled deeper and deeper into the portal in a deadly race to beat the main blast cloud from reaching the event horizon. It was neck and neck between both sides when Ryan’s Skytop Lounge Car narrowly made it through just as the irradiated pyroclastic cloud struck the front end of the anomaly, causing it to instantly dissipate.

The crew of the “4-8-8-4” were once again returning to Equestria, but it won’t be the same Equestria that they first came to. Due to the damage that the S.T.P endured, a glitch occurred during the portal’s creation, causing a slight detour that would displace the crew to an alternate universe where the Past will meet the Future, or rather, where the Future will meet the Past.......

Author's Notes:

And, that was Chapter 2

I really hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, as this was the one that derailed the story for so long while Iowa and I struggled to finish it. Again, I can't take too much credit for this chapter, as it was largely Iowa's work, but at the same time, I did all of the proofreading, and I did add a few bits of my own here and there, such as explaining the liberation of Oregon. And since I've repeated this several times, some of you may be asking, when will I start writing parts that are wholly me? Well, that will happen in Chapter 3, including a scene that picks up mere microseconds after "Tracks Backwards" leaves off, finally explaining what Iron Glory's crew saw in the Desert Woods.

But now, aside from Oregon getting nuked, and over 15,000 people losing their lives, the crew of "4-8-8-4" and 844 were forced to temporarily abandon their mission to get to Seattle on time to go to Equestria to get their Space-Time Projector fixed by Princess Twilight, it seems that their machine malfunctioned, and sent them to the wrong Equestria. What Equestria were they sent to? How will they react when they arrive there? And how will the locals react to their presence? And what will happen when the Commies attempt to use the Hawking Gate to move General Alexander Kostya and his elite forces to North America? And what will the Commies do with the black box information about Equestria that they stole from "4-8-8-4"? Well, you know the drill, stay tuned, and Iowa and I will tell you

ScarFox out for now!

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

-Iowa.

Chapter 3: New Places, New Faces, New Discoveries

View Online

Somewhere in Equestria
Date: Uncertain
Time: Uncertain

With a blinding flash, and the ear-piercing crack of a shockwave, a tear in Space and Time ripped the fabric of Reality open between Equestria and Earth as the 4014 came roaring through as fast as the reactor could push her. A secondary shockwave shot out alongside the train from the OKBM detonation, uprooting trees next to the portal, and debarking many more for a few miles all around, sending the local wildlife scrambling for dear life. Unlike the main shockwave from the blast, which circumnavigated the globe (Earth) three times over, the small portion that got through the portal would soon be heard as far away as the western coastline of the Undiscovered West region, as well as the rest of the Equestrian continent, but with no damaging effects.

Michelle had the misfortune of riding out this rapid series of events within the 4014’s cab, and because of this, was thrown from one side of it to the other, but thankfully was unharmed. She was quick to jump back to her feet, but then she accidentally stumbled forward and just barely managed to catch herself on the Engineer’s console, just shy of smashing the vital computers that operated the engine’s fusion reactor, thanks to Serina for bringing the entire train to an emergency crash-stop without warning.

“F@#kin’ hell.” She muttered. “At least I’m ok, and didn’t smash anything vital.”

With a gentle push, Michelle then lifted herself off of the console, and with a single thought process, she summoned her nanites to reconstruct her helmet in order to gain remote access to open the roof access hatch of the 4014’s cab. A small jump was more than enough for her to pop halfway through the hatch, and catch onto the left side handrails on the cab’s roof to pull herself all the way out in one swift motion. Michelle kept low to the roof with the large steam cloud rolling just inches over her head before slowly climbing down the right side of the reactor’s sarcophagus, and then safely jetted off to the front end of the engine. It would not take her more than a few seconds to reach the front, and the nano-repair system that coated the engine’s exterior was already hard at work, slowly reversing the heavy damage inflicted to the front end of the engine. Unfortunately though, even with the nano-repair system, the S.T.P was completely engulfed in flames, and Alice lay motionless on the deck of the leading truck. Michelle quickly scanned her friend’s vitals whilst ejecting the hadron compressor that contained the anomaly that allowed the train to escape to this world.

“Serina, can you hear me? I need damage control drones to the front of the engine. The S.T.P is on fire! Over?” Michelle radioed the AI.

“As clear as day, Emerald One. Bumblebees are already en-route. Victoria will be making her way forward as well to recover the STP’s hadron compressor as soon as we can pull into the next siding on this line.”

“Ok, I’ll be waiting, Michelle out.”

The Emerald Angel then cut off her comms as she finished her diagnostic scan on Alice’s vitals. To her dismay, Alice's vital signs were negative. Her friend was gone, having given her life to ensure the survival of "4-8-8-4", 844, and their crews.

"I'm sorry, Alice." Michelle whispered, tears forming in her eyes. "I'm so....s-so sorry that you had to go out like this. I'll never forget you, or what you did for all of us here today. May we meet again in Heaven one day."

Michelle then gently placed her fingers over Alice's eyes, and gently closed them all the way. She then stood there silently looking at Alice's body, uncertain of what to do, but then the sudden and rapidly approaching sounds of drones caught the super-soldier's attention as a group of five insectoid-like machines appeared around her.

Living up to their name, the Bumblebees were a new addition to the war train’s autonomous division as a robust workforce in helping maintain and conduct emergency repairs and damage control while the train was in motion, thanks to the new assembly and workshop observation railcar that Victoria relocated to, and had since been put to good use since leaving Santa Rosa. Two of the drones that were outfitted for firefighting equipment buzzed towards the inflamed S.T.P. Using a combination of foam and carbon dioxide formulas, the small but strong fire that was slowly consuming the housing of the S.T.P was quickly extinguished in a matter of seconds before it caused too much irreparable damage. As soon as the fire was completely extinguished, the firefighting drones turned tail, and took off back to their standby stations to top up on their assigned fire extinguisher formulas. Then, once they were gone, the other three drones, two of which were outfitted for conducting emergency repairs while the train was in motion, cleaned off the foam covering the large headlamp that was used to house the projector, and proceeded to demount it from its foundation to take to the workshop car. The last one was a First Aid drone that was dispatched to render medical assistance to the Girls, but was shooed away with Michelle transferring her scans to the drone to confirm that Alice was now deceased, and she was ok.

Looking back forward of the train, Michelle could see that the tracks continued on endlessly, and though the trees did seem to thin out near where the tracks went up a small hill maybe 3 miles in front of “4-8-8-4”, there were no signs of Equine civilization to be seen.

“Blast. Where on Equus did we end up?” She asked no one in particular.

Michelle then summoned a small ball of the suit’s freely available nanites, and used them to assemble a micro unmanned aerial vehicle measuring at 10 x 2.5 centimeters that is comically small enough to fit into one hand, weighing just about 18 grams with the batteries included. With a gentle overhead throw, the drone started up via motion-activation, and took flight with Michelle wirelessly controlling it with a digital data-link. The drone accelerated to its top speed of 200 knots (370.4kph/230.1mph), and followed the tracks a good distance until Michelle spotted a vacant rail siding leading off the right side of the mainline inside of a large patch of forest near what seemed to be a desert. A quick scan of measurement showed that the siding was of suitable length to just fit the 4014 and its consist without blocking the mainline, and the surrounding trees would provide the perfect cover until they could figure out what to do next.

“Serina, Ryan, I spotted a siding that we can pull into about 20 clicks down the line. It's large enough to fit our train, and it's surrounded by a large patch of forest, which would provide us good cover while we figured out what to do next. Should I throw the switch?” Michelle radios the AI and Ryan.

“Good find, Michelle!” Ryan responded straight away. “Go throw the switch, and lead us in. We need to stop and collect ourselves from what has occurred, and plan our next steps from there.”

“Okay, taking flight.” Michelle then fired up her thrusters, and quickly took flight towards the siding to throw the switch.

The Emerald Angel was quick to cover the distance, but once Victoria had recovered the Hadron compressor, it would take at least another five minutes for the train to catch up before slowing down to pull into the siding. Another two minutes passed by, and the train eventually crawled to a stop with just ten feet on both ends of the siding to spare, and the whole train was now well-hidden among the trees. The 4014’s steam turbines idled down, and the crew quickly disembarked to start checking over everything on the train for signs of transdimensional and radiological damage. Ryan exited his observation car with a leap, and broke into a sprint for the locomotive with Rex in tow, while Victoria’s next of kin were already on the Schnabel Car checking over Lady Liberty.

Ryan eventually made it to the locomotive completely short of breath to find Michelle carrying Alice's body back towards the cab where a stretcher-rover was waiting. The rover is simply an automated tracked vehicle with a patient stretcher mounted on top of its flatbed, with four robotic arms programmed to provide first aid to said patient. Michelle gently lowered the body of the Alien android onto the stretcher, and the rover rumbled away with Alice back to the hospital car, where her body would be placed in cryogenic storage for the time being. The Emerald Angel and the Acting-Railway Admiral exchanged a brief hug in relief that they were okay.

“I’m so glad that you’re ok, Sis.” Ryan said as he hugged Michelle. When we went through the portal just as the OKBM hit, I thought that you were doomed.”

Michelle sighed. “Honestly, I was scared of that too, Little Brother, but thankfully, that didn’t happen. I’m ok, you’re ok, Rex is ok, the train is ok, most of our crew are ok, and we’re safely in Equestria, or somewhere near it. But.....eh......” She gestured to where the S.T.P used to be mounted, and the area around it, still blackened with fire. “The S.T.P is most definitely NOT ok!”

Ryan scratched his head. “Hopefully the damage isn’t too bad. Vic’s looking at it right now, and she’s the best that we’ve got, so I’m sure that we’ll be on our way back home in no time!”

However, a loud scream, followed by the sounds of Victoria yelling and cursing about how messed up the S.T.P was from the workshop railcar caused Ryan’s smile to quickly vanish.

“.....Or we could be stuck here for a while. But in all seriousness, where the heck did we end up? I know that we’re at least on Equus, and are at least near Equestria, but we need to find out where we are, what the date is, and what time it is, and soon!”

Michelle wholly agreed with her younger brother.

As time went on, the crew of the "4-8-8-4" continued with their checks of the entire train, plus 844, and made any necessary repairs, while the embarked robots worked hard to clean the train of any radioactive contaminants. During this whole process, Ryan was continuously moving up and down the length of the train, overseeing everything as best he could.

"Talk to me, Victoria. How badly is the S.T.P messed up?" He asked when he reached the workshop car that Victoria and her kids lived in, which used to belong to him, and Captain Hood before him before it was replaced by Ryan's current Skytop Lounge Car.

She gave him an exacerbated look. "To put it bluntly, this thing's absolutely f@#ked! The containment chamber for the Anomaly is safe, as is the Anomaly within, but everything else is ruined! We'll have to find Princess Twilight, and see if she can help us rebuild it, because we're not going anywhere until she can!"

Ryan sighed. "That's really bad. Well, you and your kids keep doing what you can with it, Vic, and as soon as the train's been cleared of any and all issues, and we actually know where on Equus we are, we can get moving on our way to Ponyville to find Princess Twilight, and have her take a look at it."

"Roger that, Captain." Victoria replied, sighing with frustration.

Ryan was about to move on to continue his rounds up and down the train, but then he began to stagger a bit. He managed to catch himself, but it was soon clear to him that the adrenaline from this harrowing ordeal was wearing off, and this, coupled with his own fatigue, and another incoming autistic burnout indicated that he needed to rest.

"Hey, are you alright, Ry?" Michelle asked, quickly running up to her little brother to make sure he was ok.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine, Mickey." He fibbed.

"Hmm, no, I don't think you are. You're burning out again, aren't you?" She asked, seeing right through her brother's little white lie.

"Ok, fine, I am. But I don't have time to worry about that now. We need to get the train cleared to depart again, get to Ponyville, and find Princess Twilight so that she can fix our S.T.P, so that we can go home."

"Ryan, you need to rest a bit. These burnouts of yours, while caused by your mild Autism, are no joke. You're going to hurt yourself."

"And you're not doing much better, are you, Mickey?" He asked suddenly, turning to her. "The adrenaline from our brush with death wore off a while ago, and you've just been wandering around aimlessly, half-asleep. Don't think I didn't see that."

"What.....ok, maybe that did happen. But still, you need to sleep Ryan. I can't sleep if I'm worrying about you."

"And I can't sleep until the work here is done. This would be so much easier if Fred and Steve were out of the infirmary, since they could oversee some of this, but Dr Kirov won't clear them for another day or two."

Ryan was so exhausted that it completely slipped his mind that Serina could oversee this task just fine while he rested, but then again, Michelle didn't think of it either, as she was also too tired. As the two of them continued to argue with the other about which one of them needed sleep more, and who should sleep first, Serina herself tried to interject, but neither of them were listening to her.

"Ugh, fine then. You two wanna argue like bratty kids who're still up long past their nap-time, I'll bring in someone who'll treat you like bratty kids who're still up long past their nap-time." Serina then quickly contacted Jeep, Ryan's Mister Handy butler and therapist, and quickly informed him of the situation.

"What?! They're both outside arguing like that, in full view of their own men, completely oblivious to it because of how tired they are, yet they refuse to sleep?! Right then! I'll take care of this in short order!"

Jeep then quickly left his charging dock inside of Ryan's Skytop Lounge Car, floated over to the car's door, opened it, and quickly made his way outside, where he floated over to where Ryan and Michelle were, followed closely by Rex, Ryan's faithful German Shepherd, as he wanted to know what was going on.

".......I'm telling you, Mickey, you need to sleep. I'll come join you when I'm done here."

"No, Ryan, I won't. Not until you come sleep too."

"I can't sleep until the work's done!"

"Well I won't sleep either then!"

"Yes, you both will be sleeping, and in short order!" A robotic voice to their right called out in a stereotypical British accent.

Both Ryan and Michelle turned to look, and to their surprise, they saw Jeep floating towards them, the annoyance quite clear in the Mister Handy's voice. They also saw Rex following close behind him.

"Huh? Jeep? What're you doing here?" Ryan asked in surprise.

"I came here because I was ordered to by Miss Serina. And I must say, I was VERY shocked and appalled when I heard what you two were doing. Arguing in full view of your crew?! Not resting when you're supposed to?! Behaving like bratty children?! I'm appalled with both of you! Is this how your adoptive-father raised you?"

Both Ryan and Michelle looked away in embarrassment. If their adoptive father, Texas native Buck Wesley, could see them now, he would be very disappointed in them.

"No, no it wasn't." Michelle replied sheepishly.

"He raised us a lot better than this." Ryan agreed, equally sheepish.

"Then I would highly suggest that the two of you get at least 2 hours of sleep, right now, as that's the time that Miss Serina assured me that it would take to get the train ready to move again."

Ryan's eyes widened a bit in realization. "Serina.......wait. Oh, of course! She can oversee the operation while I rest!"

"Yes, I most certainly can!" The AI piped up from Ryan's watch. "I was trying to remind you of this fact, but you were too busy arguing with Michelle to listen. Now both of you go and do what Jeep says, and get some sleep! I'll wake you up in about 2 hours or so when the work's all done."

Both Ryan and Michelle agreed, and they slowly made their way back to the Skytop Lounge Car, followed closely by Rex and Jeep. Ryan thanked Jeep for intervening on the little argument.

"That's why you're my therapist, in addition to my butler, Jeep; you're always so quick to get to the root of any problem I have."

"You're welcome, Sir. It's my duty as your butler and therapist to serve you after all."

The 4 of them then entered the Skytop Lounge Car, and while Jeep returned to his charging dock, Michelle went into her room to sleep, while Ryan and Rex went to his. Ryan then lay down on his bed, while Rex curled up on the rug next to his bed.

"Goodnight, Rex." Ryan murmured sleepily.

Rex yipped softly in response, and then both he and Ryan went to sleep.

About 2 hours later, just as she promised, Serina began to play alarm-clock sounds over the speakers in Ryan's observation car to wake both him and Michelle up.

"Urgh......has it been 2 hours already, Serina?" Ryan asked sleepily as he opened his eyes again. He definitely felt better than he had before, though he still didn't feel quite 100% yet.

"Yes, I'm afraid it has, Acting Rail-Admiral."

Ryan sighed. "Well, since we're in Equestria again, cut off from the Unified States, I don't see any harm in just being 'Captain Ryan' again." He said as he sat up, and swung his legs over the side of his bed.

"I don't see why not." Michelle called as she walked out of her room, the nanites beginning to form up into her Emerald Angel Battle-Armor again, though sans her helmet.

"Oh, it's nice to see that you've both been resting comfortably." Jeep called from the Skytop Lounge Car's kitchen. "I took the liberty of making you both protein shakes, as well as a quick snack to help you get back to feeling your best."

"Oh, thank you, Jeep." Ryan said as he walked over to the kitchen's counter, and sat down on one of the bar stools, while Rex sat nearby, chewing a bone that Ryan had given him. Michelle wasn't able to sit while wearing her armor, so she removed it so she could.

As they sat drinking their shakes, and eating the snack that Jeep had prepared for them, Ryan turned to Michelle. "So how'd you sleep, Sis?" He asked.

"I slept ok, but I had a really weird dream. What about you?"

Ryan gave her a surprised look. "The same, actually. I slept for the whole 2 hours, but I had a really weird dream too."

"What was it about?" Michelle asked as she sipped her shake.

Ryan paused for a moment. "It was really strange. I dreamed that I was alone, and walking through a forest. I was wearing my usual Railway Captain's attire, and carrying my trusty S&W Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver, but the sun didn't seem to be shining, although it was light in the forest, and while the wind was blowing a bit, there weren't any birds, or any animal noises to be heard at all. However, I then felt like I wasn't alone, and I looked around, but I soon heard the sounds of someone calling for help. They sounded close, and they sounded female, and I ran towards the sounds, and I came to a spot where the trees seemed to clear out, and that's where I saw her."

"Saw who?" Michelle asked, clearly intrigued.

"A girl. She was older than me, maybe in her early 20's, with blonde hair, and she was wearing blue clothes, but they were torn and ratty, and they, and her face and hands, were smeared with dirt, grime, and even blood. The girl looked like she'd been through hell, and she was crying out that she was lost, and I tried to call out to her, but no sounds came out. She then turned and saw me, and her face denoted surprise, and she opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, the dream ended, and I woke up. It was really bizarre, Mickey."

Michelle cocked her head. "Yeah, that was really bizarre, Ry. Do you have any idea who the girl was?"

Ryan shook his head. "No, but then again, I didn't see her as clearly as I would have liked, but that's a dream for you; you never know what you'll experience, or how you'll see things."

"Yeah, that's definitely true. And my dream was just as strange as yours was."

"What was it about, Sis?" Ryan asked.

"Well, I was walking through a grassy field. The sky was overcast, and foggy, and just like your dream, there were no animal noises, but there also wasn't a breeze either. I also wasn't wearing my armor, just my green jumpsuit I wear sometimes. Just as I reached the end of the field, I came to the foot of a grassy hill, with some rocks about halfway up. However, before I could really do anything else, I suddenly heard the sound of movement, and from over the top of the hill, a wolf appeared. It moved with an unnatural grace, and came to a stop about halfway down the hill, and stood looking at me. I saw that the wolf had jet-black fur, blue eyes, a scar over its left eye, various other scars on its body, and to my surprise, it had large black feathery wings on its back as well, like those of an eagle, and based on its size, I think the wolf was a male. He just stood there staring at me, his wings partially unfurled, as if he was contemplating using them. He seemed to be almost beckoning to me to come join him up on the hill, but just as I began to step forwards, the dream ended."

"Huh." Ryan said once Michelle had finished. "Somehow your dream didn't seem quite as weird as mine. It was still unusual though."

"I wonder if our dreams could mean anything. I mean, I'm not saying that they do, I'm just saying that I wonder if they could."

Ryan shrugged. "I have no idea, Mickey."

Just then though, Serina's avatar popped up on Ryan's watch. "Good news, Captain. The crew's just finished wrapping up their examinations of the entire train, as well as conducting all the necessary repairs, and decontamination of the 4014, 844, and the rest of the train as well."

"Oh, well that's great to hear, Serina."

"And that's not all, Sir. While you were asleep, I took the liberty of sending out a few of our Eyebots to see if we could get a fix on our location, as well as the date and time, and their mission was largely successful. We are indeed in Equestria, and we're about 75 miles Northeast from Las Pegasus, with the time being about 10:20am. However, the date remains unknown at this time."

Ryan nodded his head. "Well, that's a relief to know that we are indeed in Equestria, and to know that we're in the Western part of it. Now all we need to do is get moving on our way to Ponyville, and then find Princess Twilight to see if she can help Victoria rebuild the Space-Time Projector. How soon can we get underway, Serina?"

"Well, I was hoping that we'd be able to move now, but like how it was when we arrived in Equestria the first time (which was also in a forest, though that was the Everfree Forest), the 4014's atomic boiler has excess steam pressure that built up from our run here, and needs to be released first. That should only take another few minutes, coupled with another few minutes of final checks, and then we'll be good to go."

"Ok, good. Michelle and I'll be in the car's War-Room, meeting with Paladin Victoria, and the other officers on the train, so alert me when it's all done."

"Will do, Sir."

With a simple thought process, Serina then opened the "4-8-8-4"'s blowout valves, and the excess steam was released into the hundreds of tubes surrounding the reactor, and bypassed the two steam turbines that power the locomotive's two sets of eight driving wheels, eventually making an escape up and out of the twin smokestacks as a large steam cloud rose high above the small patch of woods they were in.

A few minutes later, while the steam was still venting, Ryan and Michelle were in the "4-8-8-4"'s War-Room, chatting with the other officers on the train, and informing them of the situation, and their upcoming trip to Ponyville, when all of a sudden, a blip appeared on the War-Room's digital map, indicating that the train's radar had picked up something, and it was heading their way.

Ryan then turned to the digital map, and saw that the blip seemed to be a train, as it was moving along the railway line, but what gave him pause was the fact that it was moving towards where the "4-8-8-4" was hiding, and at a fair rate of speed too. Knowing that they were off the mainline in a siding, and that it was probably an Equestrian train, Ryan told Serina to use a drone to check it out. He didn't think it was a cause for concern, that was until the AI came back a minute or so later with concerning news.

"Captain, I don't know what that train is, but it's definitely not Equestrian. All Equestrian trains are white, and this one isn't, though the engine is a 4-4-0 locomotive." Serina then pulled up a screen showing drone footage of the incoming train. Ryan and Michelle could see that it was a green 4-4-0 American-type locomotive, pulling a train of 14 cars behind it, but what made Ryan stare was the fact that this train looked to be sporting battle-damage, and it was also heavily armed, with guns being visible on various cars throughout the train, ranging from machine guns, to heavier autocannons, to artillery guns, including at least 2 large howitzers.

"That train's definitely not Equestrian. Any idea who's train that is, Serina?" Michelle asked, more than a bit concerned.

"Not yet, Wing-Commander. I'm running through our database of trains, but I don't recall ever seeing one like this before. It could be a Rouge-Train."

Ryan tensed up when Serina said that, as did the other officers who heard it. "Rouge-Train" was the designation given by the USRWC to armed and armored trains that were used by those loyal to neither the Unified States, or the Tri-Communist Alliance. These "Railway Bandits" as they were known were usually groups of raiders, marauders, deserters, criminals, and other such scum who took advantage of the chaos of the Iron Wars to plunder, rob, and terrorize those in the Wasteland of North America. Most of the Rouge-Trains had either been destroyed, or taken back from their evil crews by this point in the war, but some feared that at least a few of these trains were still out there, and if one of these trains had found its way to Equestria under the control of Railway Bandits? That could prove to be catastrophic to the Ponies, especially since they were still recovering from the war against the Griffon Khans.

After recovering from his moment of surprise, Ryan quickly ordered the crew of the "4-8-8-4" to their battle stations, just in case the train was hostile.

"If they really are Railway Bandits, we need to be ready to neutralize the threat quickly." Ryan told the crew over the intercom.

"Roger that, Sir!"

However, soon after this, the incoming train was a few miles away from the forest, when all of a sudden, its brakes began to come on, and the train was slowing down.

"Sir, the train's slowing down!" One of the officers in the train's CIC reported. "I think they may have spotted us."

"The steam!" Ryan and Serina cried at the same time.

"They must have seen the venting steam, and now they know that we're here!" Serina then quickly began to close the engine's valves to stop venting the steam, even though it was already too late.

However, for a long few minutes, the train just sat there. Ryan could now see the number "1" visible on the engine's front on the feed, as it sat only about 25 yards away from the entrance to the forest. Just then though, a male figure emerged from what would have been the engine cab's left side, dressed in what seemed to be dirty railway worker's garb of overalls, a gray shirt, gloves, boots, and an engineer's cap, but to Ryan's unease, the man was carrying what seemed to be a pistol in his right hand, and in his left hand he was carrying what seemed to be a radio, which he was talking into as he slowly began to approach the forest, having no doubt spotted the "4-8-8-4" within, as he was looking right at it while he walked towards it. However, just as the man passed the cowcatcher of his engine, coming to a sudden stop, as if he sensed danger. Ryan then gave orders to one of the embarked Railway Marines to shoot the man.

"DARYL!!!! THERE'S A GUNMAN UP ON THE CAB'S ROOF!!!!" Another man in the mysterious green engine's cab shouted, seemingly to the man who'd been approaching the train, warning him of danger, having somehow spotted the Railway Marine up on 4014's cab roof.

Just as the Railway Marine pulled his trigger, all hell broke loose.

"Oh.........."

"Man.........."

Daryl and Fred still couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"What the hell is that, Daryl?" Fred asked.

Daryl looked as closely as he could at the mysterious train. It was sitting in the siding in the Desert Woods, but due to it being partially hidden among the trees, and the trees blocking a lot of sunlight from getting in, he wasn't able to see it very well, but its shape seemed.....familiar.

"It's big whatever it is, but does it look familiar to you, Fred?"

Fred was maybe about to respond, but then he and Daryl received a radio call from the mail cars on Iron Glory's train, asking what the holdup was.

"We're not quite sure. There's a train up ahead of us on the siding inside the Desert Woods, but yet, there's no train that's supposed to be there right now. Stay alert back there, as this could be an attempt at one of those train robberies we were warned about." Fred warned.

"Yes, Sir."

Just then though, the wind blew through the trees, allowing in enough sunlight for Daryl and Fred to be able to properly see the train, even if only briefly, and what he saw astonished him. The engine was massive, black and gray, had a huge tender, as well as a 4-8-8-4 wheel configuration. He could also see that the engine was heavily armed with various guns.

"Is that.....the Battleship Express?" Daryl asked.

"It can't be, can it? I thought it was back in Ponyville at the Old Railyard. Plus, even if it was, how did they get ahead of us so fast? And better still, why?"

"I have no idea, Fred."

Daryl then got on the radio with the Equestrian Railway Dispatch, and asked them if there was any train known to be on the siding inside the Desert Woods. A minute or so later, he was informed that no, no such train was supposed to be there. After this, Daryl then contacted the Battleship Express. He was almost certain that the guys were just pulling a practical joke of some kind, but imagine his shock when Major Don answered the radio call, and confirmed that the train was indeed still in Ponyville, and he even did a live video call with them to prove that the Battleship Express was indeed still in the Old Railyard in Ponyville.

"So....what do we do, Sir?" Daryl asked once the video call ended, and they returned to talking on the radio, his face still pale.

"One of you needs to see who's train that is, and if it's crewed or not, while the other one covers him from the cab, and everyone else on the train stays alert for any other threats."

"Yes, Sir."

Daryl then said that he was going to go take a look, and he stepped down from Iron Glory's cab, holding his radio so he could keep Fred updated, as well as his pistol just in case he ran into any trouble. Meanwhile, Fred had his own radio on his shoulder, had Iron Glory's radio receiver in his lap to talk to Major Don if anything happened, and he was also holding a rifle so he could cover Daryl.

"See anything yet, Daryl?" Fred asked once Daryl was about to clear Iron Glory's cowcatcher.

"Yeah, that thing's definitely a Big Boy locomotive. I can't quite read its number-boards from here, as they're not lit up, and I can't see the side of the cab from this angle either, so I don't know which one it is. It's also heavily armed, but its armament differs from our 4009. Its guns are in what look like casemate turrets, it has some kind of phalanx cannon on the front, and....possibly more guns on the roof. I can't quite see. It also looks like it's pulling some kind of train, but I can't see from this distance."

"Do.....do you think this could be the long-lost Big Boy 4012?" Fred asked.

Daryl shrugged. "I dunno Fred. Maybe......." He stopped.

"What is it, Daryl?"

"I don't know for sure, but I could have sworn I just saw movement from somewhere behind the engine, up on the roofs of one of the cars. And I'm getting a really bad feeling that something's not right. I feel like we're being watched."

Fred was sweeping around with his rifle, trying to find any targets, and while he didn't see any at first, he too was getting bad vibes. Just then though, as he was sweeping his scope near the top of the mysterious engine, he caught sight of movement, just like what Daryl had seen. He looked closer, and to his horror, he saw a figure crawl up onto the engine's cab roof, move up into a kneeling position, and raise his rifle.

"Oh f@#k! DARYL!!!! THERE'S A GUNMAN UP ON THE CAB'S ROOF!!!!" He shouted, both over his radio, and to Daryl directly.

Daryl then turned just in time to see the danger, and thanks to him being a Human-Wolf hybrid, he had incredibly fast reflexes, and tried to get out of the way, but nevertheless, a bullet still hit him in his left side. He grunted in pain, staggering back a bit from the force of the impact, but the armor he was wearing underneath his overalls stopped the bullet, and Daryl immediately turned tail and ran for Iron Glory's cab, while Fred opened fire on the gunman, trying to keep Daryl covered until he could make it back to the cab. However, just as Daryl made a flying leap into the cab, one final bullet hit him in the lower left leg, and this one tore through his leg, exiting through the other side, and now Daryl was bleeding, but due to the adrenaline, he felt no pain from his leg wound.

"WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!" Fred yelled to him once he was inside, as he continued to shoot at the gunman.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Daryl then seized Iron Glory's controls, and with blasts of steam, the engine and its 14 car train quickly began to reverse away from the Desert Woods, still being fired upon.

"I didn't see any smoke or steam coming from that engine when I was approaching it, so it's not under steam." Daryl muttered, still sweating bullets.

"Save for that huge cloud of white smoke or steam we saw. Maybe they had to drop their fire, or something."

"Yeah, but whatever the case, without it being under steam, there's no way it could come after us anytime soon."

Both men then breathed a sigh of relief, but their relief didn't last long, as they suddenly heard a loud, unmistakable train whistle, and when they looked towards the Desert Woods as they continued to speed away from them, to their horror, they suddenly saw the massive engine come racing out of them, still blowing its whistle, and in the light of day, they saw it in its entirety, how heavily armed it was, and the fact that it was pulling a huge train behind it, with all of the cars being heavily armed. It looked just like the Battleship Express, but it was crystal clear now that this train wasn't it, and worst still, it was hostile, as it was trying to chase them down.

"HOW THE F@#K IS THAT THING MOVING?!?!?! IT'S NOT PUTTING OFF ANY SMOKE OR STEAM!!!"

"Maybe it's being pushed by another engine, or maybe it had a diesel conversion, or maybe it's electric, I don't know, Fred!" Daryl replied, equally panicked. "But in any case, we have to warn Major Don about this! He needs to know that the train is chasing us, and how heavily armed it is!"

Fred then seized the radio, while Daryl focused on driving Iron Glory and her train at high speed in reverse.

From the moment the Railway Marine opened fire on the unknown train's engineer, everyone on the "4-8-8-4" raced to their battle stations. They could hear the sounds of bullets hitting close by the train, as well as the train itself from the unknown person in the unknown train's cab shooting back at the Railway Marine, but because of the 4014's advanced armor, the bullets were doing little more than scratching the paint. Soon though, the unknown man who was approaching the train leapt back into the cab of the unknown engine, and the Railway Marine reported his hits.

"I hit him at least twice, Sir!" He called over his radio to Ryan once he was safely back inside the train. "Once in the side, and then one more time in the leg. My first shot must have hit him in whatever armor he was wearing underneath his overalls, as he staggered back, but I saw no blood. I saw blood from the second hit to his leg though, so I know it hit him."

Just then though, the unknown train began to race away from them in reverse, and multiple weapons stations radioed back to Ryan in the Command Suite, asking him for orders.

"We have to chase that train down! We CANNOT let it get anywhere near any city, town or other settlement in Equestria, especially since we know that it's hostile! Serina, get us moving, and chase it down now!"

"Right away, Sir!" Serina then activated the automated controls in 4014's cab, and with a loud whistle, the engine quickly began to move, and pulling the rest of the "4-8-8-4" behind it quickly began to chase after the unknown train.

To the surprise of those on "4-8-8-4", the unknown train was faster than they thought it was going to be, even in reverse, and it certainly wasn't taking being chased lightly. From other cars in the train, various guns were being fired at the "4-8-8-4", including the 2 large howitzers.

"Jeez. Their firepower may be old, but it still packs a punch!" A crewman yelled when a shell impact rattled the car he was in. "We may have more advanced weapons and armor than they do, but we still need to be careful, as even amateurs can get lucky!"

Ryan meanwhile was giving orders for the weapons officers on the "4-8-8-4" to try and target the unknown train's weapons, but to not directly destroy it.

"But, Sir, why can't we just target the train and destroy it?" One of them asked.

"Only because we need answers from that train, and its crew!" Ryan called back. "We need to capture them, and find out who they are, and where they came from. Yes, they're most likely Railway Bandits, but how did they get here to Equestria? We have to know!"

"Do.....do you think that this could have anything to do with the Communists having the Hawking Gates, and trying to test them?" Michelle asked in a worried tone.

Ryan turned to her with a worried expression. "I pray to God that you're wrong, Sis, but given the circumstances, we cannot rule that out as a possibility, since not only do the Communists have the Hawking Gates, which are nearly fully operational, but they also have the information about Equestria that was in "4-8-8-4"'s data-banks that they were able to obtain during that hacking breach back in Oregon. Maybe this was a trial-test, which if true, means that maybe those aren't Railway Bandits, but are in fact Communist soldiers."

Michelle was incredibly worried about this, but before she could, a shell from one of the unknown train's howitzers suddenly impacted with the roof of the Skytop Lounge Car, but thankfully didn't penetrate. However, the impact was enough to throw both Ryan and Michelle off of their feet, and scatter a few loose items. A strike from one of "4-8-8-4"'s guns neutralized the howitzer soon after. The 4014 also tried to ram the much smaller engine, trying to rip it off the rails, but to the amazement of Serina, and the other crewmen, the little 4-4-0 bravely held its own against an engine at least 4, if not 5 times its own size, and refused to be ripped off the rails.

"Serina, report on the unknown train!" Ryan called to the AI.

"That's just it, Captain, I got nothin'!"

"What, nothing?? What'dya mean you got nothing?!" He asked in disbelief.

"Just what I said, Sir, I've got nothing! That train doesn't match any known train in our database! However its paint scheme, numbering, and lettering all match those of a locomotive that disappeared during the Battle of Vegas in WW6, almost 269 years ago!!!"

Ryan was shocked. "Wait, they match those of a locomotive that vanished 269 years ago during the 6th World War?! Which locomotive is it?!"

"It's an American 4-4-0 locomotive known as 'Iron Glory'. It was a supply train attached to a behemoth of a war-train called the 'Battleship Express', which was the flagship of the US Army's 'Railway Warfare Division', the predecessor of the Unified States Railway Warfare Corps."

"And during the Battle of Vegas during WW6, the train just vanished?"

"That's correct, Captain. When the battle went nuclear, the engine and its train were never seen or heard from again, and were presumably destroyed, alongside the Battleship Express, which was also never seen again after that battle."

Ryan's mind was racing a mile a minute. He already knew that the chances of this engine being the original Iron Glory were slim, as it seemed impossible given the amount of time that had passed. He instead speculated that this engine was simply made up to look like the original Iron Glory, perhaps as a disguise.

"Well, whatever that train is, we have to stop it now! Put some more hot lead onto their weapons!" He ordered.

"Sir, yes Sir." Serina replied.

By this point, most of the various cars of the unknown train were smoking, if not burning, though the fires were always quickly extinguished, seemingly by someone, or several someones acting as damage-control. Most of its heavy guns seemed to have been destroyed, or rendered inoperative, but a few were still firing. The "4-8-8-4" also tried to land a number of hits on the engine's boiler, but despite being able to dent the boiler, their shells were having no effect on it, and due to the close range between the 2 trains, they couldn't use any bigger missiles or bigger shells, as those could destroy both the train, and the tracks beneath it, which would quickly render "4-8-8-4" derailed from not being able to stop in time. And due to the close range between the 2 trains, the C-RAM launcher on the front of the 4014 was unable to get a lock on the unknown train either. Just then though, the unknown train raced past a sign.

"Ponyville: 50 Miles".

Back on Iron Glory, it was near total pandemonium. The weapons on the train, including its 2 large howitzers, were seemingly having negligible, if any effect on the other train, but its weapons were having quite the effect on the much older, and weaker armored Iron Glory and its train. Multiple shells were hitting the cars, knocking out some of the guns, while other guns were damaged, and the crew in those cars were also being wounded. Luckily, the cars on the train that were carrying the mail were more heavily armored, but even that armor was being dented, if not punctured by the guns of the other train, forcing the mail clerks inside to not only be constantly dodging shrapnel, but also keeping the bags of mail inside the cars from catching fire, or being sucked out of the train. Others were also hard at work on keeping Iron Glory's other cars from catching on fire, though the smoke from them was helping mask the train ever so much.

Meanwhile, up in the cab, Daryl continued to drive, while Fred was firing an M2 Browning heavy machine gun at the front of the other locomotive, trying to puncture its boiler, or even the smokebox door, but even the heavy .50 caliber bullets were only putting minor dents in the locomotive.

"What the f@#k is that thing made of?! Vibranium?!" Fred cried. "I can't punch through it anywhere! Heck, even that C-RAM launcher, or whatever that is on the front seems to be immune! The only thing I did manage to destroy were the engine's number boards, so now we don't know what Big Boy locomotive it is!"

Daryl didn't answer, as he was currently on the radio with Major Don, informing him of the situation.

"We're freaking out beyond belief here, Major! That other train has weapons and armor unlike anything we've ever seen before! Even our heavy machine guns, artillery guns, and 2 howitzers can barely even dent it, while its guns are punching through our train!"

"Have they tried to contact you, or you them?" Major Don asked, still having a hard time believing what Daryl was telling him, despite him seeing evidence of it through a video screen at times.

"Negative, Major! Fred's tried, but we've received no response from them, and they haven't tried to contact us!"

Just then, Iron Glory began to shudder violently from another shell impact.

"OH F@#K!!! THEY'VE TAKEN OUT ONE OF OUR HOWITZERS!!!" Fred cried, looking back at the rear of the train as it went around a bend.

"We CANNOT survive hits like this much longer, Major! We need help out here now!"

"And where are you now?" Major Don asked.

"We're about 65 miles outside of Ponyville. And have all trains on our line been halted?"

"Yes, they have. I informed Equestrian Railway Dispatch of the situation, and they immediately halted all trains on your line, and cleared it all the way to Ponyville. Do you think you can make it another 65 miles?"

Before Daryl could answer though, the other train that was chasing them suddenly began to repeatedly ram Iron Glory's front, seemingly trying to rip the little 4-4-0 right off the rails. However, Iron Glory held her own, but the engine was being shaken quite violently. Eventually, a few shells from the train's remaining howitzer, and smaller artillery guns were able to get the train to back off just long enough for Iron Glory to pick up even more speed. They were racing backwards at nearly 80mph, with a train behind them, while being pursued by a much larger, much more heavily armed and armored train that was pulled by a Big Boy locomotive, but not a normal one.

"Augh! They just tried to ram us Major! I don't know if we can make it or not! Iron Glory's never taken a beating like this before! I don't know how much longer she can hold together!"

Just then, Fred looked down, and saw Daryl's left pant-leg was all bloody. "Oh shit! Daryl, your leg! You've been hit!"

"What?!" Daryl then looked down, and realized that his left leg had been hit, and upon further examination, realized that a bullet had gone through his leg. He was then able to use a mixture of medical pads, gauze and duct tape to stop the bleeding on his leg for the time being, before resuming his focus on getting Iron Glory back to Ponyville.

"Hmph. Must've happened when I made my leap into the cab just before we took off." He muttered.

Iron Glory's last remaining howitzer managed to score a hit on the last car of the unknown train, which did cause an explosion, but no one was able to tell if the shell had penetrated the car's roof before detonating or not. This was also the last shot fired by the train's last howitzer, as a few moments later, it too took a direct hit, disabling it. Iron Glory was now down to only a handful of machine guns, 2-3 light artillery guns, and a mortar launcher that was all but useless in this scenario.

"How're things doing back there?" Fred radioed back to the rest of the train. "Yes, I KNOW that the guns are largely useless now, but are all of you still alive? And more importantly, what about the mail?"

One of the postal workers answered him. "We're all still alive back here, Fred, but we've taken one hell of a beating. The Mail Cars have all been breached, and some of the mail has been damaged, including a number of crates and boxes with holes from bullets and shrapnel, but thankfully, no mail has been lost. But even once we make it back to Ponyville, this is gonna take us AGES to sort out!" Fred then heard the sounds of a fire extinguisher being used. "Agh, and I'm VERY thankful the fire extinguishers back here were given duplication spells by Twilight Sparkle so that they'll never run out of extinguishing agent!"

"I can agree with that." Fred replied.

Just then, more shells from the train that was chasing them struck Iron Glory's boiler, shaking the engine violently, though thankfully they were unable to penetrate it. However, by this point, they knew that they were only about 10 miles from Ponyville, and that help from the Battleship Express and her crew would be on top of them very soon.

A while before all of the action started, back in Ponyville, the day, August 12th, just looked like it was going to be a normal day for everyone and everypony. The Battleship Express was sitting in the Old Railyard, construction on what was going to be the Imperial War Museum was continuing at a good pace, Ponyville was quiet and peaceful as usual, and all seemed right with the world.

I was currently taking a break, and decided to finally get around to doing something that I should have done ages ago, but kept forgetting to because of how small of a task it was; finally fixing the lock on the door to my quarters on the Battleship Express. It had broken all the way back during the Battle of Phoenix, Arizona in WW6, and I'd never gotten around to fixing it, even while the Battleship Express was getting her overhaul done in Lund, Nevada just before the Battle of Vegas. I forgot about it during the Imperial War, even when Rainbow Dash snuck into my room on the day after the Battle of Ponyville, and after the Imperial War ended, I forgot about it completely, since I no longer lived on the Battleship Express. However, now that I was living on the Battleship Express again during the events of this new Timeline, today was the day it was finally going to get fixed.

I was back in the one of the BE's supply cars, talking with the quartermaster on duty, a man in his late 30's named Jerry Smith. He'd owned a hardware store before the World Wars, which made him a good fit for a quartermaster.

"Ah, Captain Leopard. It's nice to see you again, as it's been a while. What can I do for you?" He asked warmly

"Hey, Jerry, and it's nice to see you again too. And I need a new door lock for the door to my quarters. Same kind as before, a Type 2 turning-latch."

"Hmm, finally getting around to fixing it I see." He said, chuckling a bit as he looked through the various shelves behind him.

"Yeah, it's about time I finally did so." I agreed.

"Ah, here we are." He then picked one up and handed it to me.

I then filled out the paperwork for it. "Thanks, Jerry."

"Anytime, Captain."

I then returned to my room, and quickly set about fixing the lock. It didn't take very long, and once I was finished, and the door actually locked now for the first time in 2 years (or 6 years if you saw this as 2034 rather than 2030), I took the original lock, and placed it in a door in my desk as a memento. I then looked down at Aurora, who was sleeping on the rug next to my bed, smiled a bit, and then began to look at my PipBoy, completely unaware at the moment that in the Primary Command Center, Major Don was currently on the radio with Fred and Daryl, being briefed on the situation, and that in a very short span of time, my life, and the lives of everyone else on the BE were about to be changed forever once again.

As I was sitting on my bed while looking at Aurora, suddenly, from all across the train, alarms began to blare. I jumped a bit, startled by the sudden noise, which also woke up Aurora.

"Huh? What's going on, Master?" She asked, a bit worried.

"I don't know, Aurora. Maybe it's just a drill, or maybe someone set it off by accident while they were trying to fix something."

However, these notions were shattered a few moments later when I heard the sounds of running footsteps throughout the train, and Don's voice suddenly came over the intercom.

"Attention all hands on the BE! Attention all hands on the BE! This is Major Don! I just received word from Iron Glory and her crew that they're under attack, but by a force much deadlier than just simple train robbers!" He then went on to explain more from his conversation with Daryl and Fred, and how the unknown train was now chasing Iron Glory down the line, and had damaged its train and weapons quite badly.

I was stunned. Iron Glory was being attacked by another war-train, one that looked just like the Battleship Express, but had more advanced weapons? It didn't seem possible.

"But this unknown train is closing in on Ponyville fast while in hot pursuit of Iron Glory, and we have to block its path to prevent it from getting here! All hands, General Quarters! Get to your battle stations now! This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill!"

In a flash, I'd jumped up from my bed, grabbed my Pip-Boy, slapped it onto my left wrist, before putting on my gray helmet, and quickly grabbing all of my guns, from my trusty M1911 (supplementing my usual Glock 9mm, which was currently being repaired), my ChesterTon M4 rifle, my combat shotgun, my Bowie knife, and of course, my trusty fire-ax, which I attached to my back. I then grabbed my famous Kitsune mask, and slid it over my face once again. I'm now once again the Captain Leopard that the Futas, Zebras, and Caribou all feared, and now whoever this new enemy was, they were going to feel my wrath as well. At this same time, Aurora was quickly getting back into her battle armor, and checking all of her weapons systems with DELCI's help.

"All good Aurora?" I ask her.

"Yeah, all good! All weapons systems online!"

"Good! Then let's go!"

We both then raced out of my room to link up with the others on the train.

Outside of the BE, all construction work on the Imperial War Museum was brought to a screeching halt, and all workers were instructed to seek shelter immediately. All BE Crew and Battalion 4009 Soldiers outside of the train at the time were immediately recalled for active duty, while alarms in Ponyville itself were blaring, Ponies were running around in a panic, and Twilight, and the rest of the Mane 6 were trying to lead an orderly evacuation of the town with help from the Battalion 4009 Soldiers, and several detachments of the Equestrian Royal Guard, while other detachments of the Equestrian Army were quickly being deployed to set up a defensive perimeter around Ponyville itself, and put up various fortifications.

Meanwhile, over at Ryerson Air Force Base just outside of Ponyville, alarms were blaring there too. Pilots and aircrews were rushing out to their planes, helicopters, and other aircraft, while ground crews got the aircraft ready to take to the skies, and others were securing fuel, ammunition, and either bringing them out to the aircraft, or moving them to secure storage bunkers. At this same time, various Unicorns were also getting ready to put up a Magical dome-shield over the AFB to protect it from any attack as unfortunately, the base's experimental shield generator was not yet ready for deployment.

"GET THOSE PLANES AND CHOPPERS IN THE AIR NOW!!!!" Air Marshal Sky-Shield commanded. "WE HAVE TO GET OUR AIR SUPPORT UP IN THE SKY, AND READY TO DEFEND PONYVILLE, AND THE SURROUNDING AREA!!!!!"

"SIR, YES SIR!!!"

The first wave of interceptor planes and helicopters were taking off, followed closely a wave of fighters and ground attack aircraft, and then a wave of bombers took to the skies in case they were needed. Other planes were being prepped as well, while drones from the BE were sent out to follow the railroad tracks to see if they could spot Iron Glory, and the pursuing train.

Back on the BE itself, the alarms were still blaring, DELCI and the weapons crews were getting the trains weapons ready to go, while up in the cab, First Engineer Joe Dixon, First Fireman Frank Otis, First Brakeman Carl Vinson, and their 2 Engine Guardsmen were frantically trying to get the Big Boy ready to move from a cold-start. Coal was being shoved into the firebox, which had been rapidly lit, and was now being fueled by a special liquid used in emergency startup situations. It would burn extremely hot, and was used to start the fire, get it roaring, and burn hot enough to quickly start burning the coal around it, as well as turning the water into steam, while the fire itself was also being blown by huge blowers. As had been demonstrated in the past, the BE could go from standing cold to fully ready to move in less than 10 minutes in an emergency situation such as this, and that was proving true today.

"How's it looking up there, Joe?" Don asked him.

"We only need a few more minutes, Sir." Joe replied.

"Ok, but make it snappy. Time is of the essence!"

"Understood, Sir."

Don then began to check in with DELCI and Jim, as well as all of the train's weapons stations, and one by one, all of them sounded off that they were ready to go.

"Everything is all good, Boss!" DELCI informed him. "All stations report that all weapons are functional, and we're ready to kick some ass!"

"Roger that, DELCI!" Don called from the Primary Command Center (PCC).

Meanwhile in the Secondary Command Center (SCC), Aurora and I were there, as were Alex and Todd, while Fed and Andy were manning the two domed machine gun turrets on the roof of our car, both of which had just recently been fully refurbished, and returned to operational status.

"This brings back some serious Deja-Vu." Todd muttered.

"Yeah, this is just like the Battle of Vegas. The 3 of us, plus Aurora were here in the SCC, while Fred and Andy manned the guns, but they manned the guns on the car behind us, as the ones on our roof hadn't been rebuilt yet." Alex agreed.

"Let's just hope that there's no nuking involved this time." I muttered nervously. I was looking over at the console that I'd used to fire that nuclear shell in Vegas, which had been completely gutted following that incident on Don's orders, preventing it from being used again, as he didn't want anyone else firing nuclear ordnance on their own. This was why all nuking done during the Imperial War had been done from the PCC.

Alex and Todd both looked at me, and I could see in their eyes all of the memories of the Battle of Vegas, and its aftermath, which ended with the Mojave getting nuked, myself and Aurora getting thrown to the floor of the SCC, Todd hitting a wall and getting knocked out, and Alex slamming his head against the digital map as he fell, getting knocked out as well.

However, before we could say anything else, Don came over the intercom announcing that Iron Glory was less than 10 miles from Ponyville, and had been switched off onto another line, and would soon be in Ponyville via an alternate route, while the mainline was left open for us to intercept the unknown war-train. Moments later, once they had the go-ahead from Major Don, Joe blew the engine's whistle with its signature banshee-scream, and the BE quickly began to move out, followed closely by the ghostly Gun Truck, and the White Tiger tank, both of which were driving themselves, and quite eager to get a crack at a new enemy.

it only took us a few minutes to get outside of Ponyville, where we brought the BE to a halt on the mainline, maybe a mile outside of Ponyville, where the Battalion 4009 Soldiers, and some of the BE's Crew who would be fighting outside of the train quickly disembarked, and began to set up their own weapons and fortifications, as well as occupy various trenches and foxholes that had been dug near the tracks for defensive purposes. Ghost Truck and the White Tiger took up defensive positions, as did the various other armed and armored construction vehicles of Battalion 4009's Construction Brigade. Aurora and I, as well as Todd were in a foxhole on the train's left side, maybe 25 feet away from the engine. Todd was manning a machine gun, Aurora had her suit's sniper rifle ready, and I'd pulled out my M4 rifle, and was quickly sighting in its scope. All around us, everyone else was doing the same. The BE was ready for war, as were the Royal Guards, and other Equestrian soldiers tasked with defending Ponyville from whatever was coming, while the Elements of Harmony were getting everypony in Ponyville, as well as themselves to safety, and Twilight was informing Princess Celestia of the situation.

We then saw a badly damaged Iron Glory pass by, and heard it hit its brakes once it reached the other side of Ponyville.

"Well, at least they're all safe." Aurora said quietly.

I was just about to agree with her when the rails began to vibrate and hum, meaning that a train was approaching, and quickly. Then we all became aware of a loud chugging sound, and from around a bend in the distance, we all caught sight of the black silhouette of the unknown train as it came chugging closer, though it soon braked to a stop maybe a mile away from the Battleship Express, and its well-defended position. Then we all heard shouting, and what seemed to be soldiers and robots began to pour out of the other war-train, and take up defensive positions around it, just like what we had done, while drones were taking to the skies. It looked like a standoff was just beginning.

"Here we go." I muttered, looking through the scope of my rifle.

While the Battleship Express and her crew were getting ready to defend Ponyville, back out on the "4-8-8-4", Serina was making a very interesting report.

"The unknown train that we've been chasing has just been switched off the mainline that we're on, off onto a different line, Captain Ryan. We can still see it, but there's not much we can do about it, since we're getting danger-close to Ponyville itself. Though by the looks of things, that train isn't slowing down, so maybe it'll blow through Ponyville."

"Blast!" Ryan muttered. He and others on the "4-8-8-4" had been trying to raise anyone on the radio, either in Ponyville, or elsewhere to warn them of the incoming train, but strangely, they weren't getting any replies on the radio frequency that had been set aside for their use during and after the war against the Griffon Khans.

"Do you think they, or others could be jamming our signals?" Michelle asked.

Ryan shrugged. "it's possible, Mickey, however, our signals are getting through, but there's just no replies."

However, before Ryan could say anything else, the radars on the "4-8-8-4" started going crazy, and those in the CIC were reporting that the skies were full of all kinds of aircraft, ranging from drones, to interceptors, to fighters, bombers, helicopters, ground attack aircraft, and more.

"What?! How's that even possible?! Equestria doesn't have its own air force!" Ryan cried.

"I don't think that they're Equestrian, Sir." One of the radar techs reported. "Plus, these planes all seem to be a hodge-podge of planes from so many different eras. Heck, some of them even have propellers on them!"

While Ryan was trying to get more information about these aircraft, some of which were starting to circle overheard like vultures prior to being scattered by the "4-8-8-4" launching flares up at them, Michelle suddenly looked at a feed screen that was showing what was ahead of the 4014, and it gave her pause.

"Wait, what's that?" She asked.

"What's what?" Serina asked.

"That column of smoke that's coming up around that bend, near where Ponyville is." Michelle replied, pointing to it.

Serina then used a drone from the "4-8-8-4" to look around the bend, and what she saw made her (non-existent AI) heart stop. There, looming around the bend, maybe a mile outside of Ponyville, was another unknown train, but this one was much, much bigger than the first one. It seemed to be pulled by another Big Boy locomotive, and it was pulling cars of weapons behind it.

"Oh f@#k! Captain Ryan!" Serina called.

"What? What is it Serina?" Ryan asked.

"LOOK!!!" She cried, directing his and Michelle's attention, as well as the attention to the rest of the officers in the "4-8-8-4"'s War Room to the screen, and when they saw what Serina's drone footage was showing, all of their jaws were on the ground in shock.

"What.......what is that?!" Sergeant 1st Class David McKnight, the leader of the "4-8-8-4"'s Embarked Armored Cavalry asked.

"It.......it looks like another Big Boy war-train!" Victoria said with equal shock.

"But......but that can't be! We're onboard '4-8-8-4', while '4-8-8-1' and '4-8-8-2' are up in Canada, and '4-8-8-3' is still back in California, and she no longer has her original battleship war-train consist!" Ryan spluttered.

"Were any other Big Boy war trains like this built?" David asked.

"That's a negative!" Serina answered. "Out of the 7 known Big Boys, 4004 and 4005 are in storage, 4006 is a designated USRWC training engine, 4014 pulls the '4-8-8-4', while 4017 pulls '4-8-8-1', 4018 pulls '4-8-8-2', and 4023 pulls '4-8-8-3'. All of these engines are accounted for!"

"And what's the number of this locomotive?" Ryan asked.

".......4009!" Serina reported once she zoomed in enough to read the locomotive's number boards. "Which is impossible, as Big Boy 4009 was scrapped several centuries ago in the 1960's! However, there was one other Big Boy with that number; the Big Boy that pulled the Battleship Express, flagship of the Railway Warfare Division, but that train went missing all the way back in 2029 during the Battle of Vegas during the 6th World War."

"Is......is it possible that the Communists could have built their own Big Boy war-train?" Victoria asked with worry.

The others looked at her with equal worry.

"That's.......a fair question, Vic." Ryan pointed out. "In all honest truth, they could have. And with the Hawking Gates being in their possession, as well as knowledge of Equestria........" He trailed off, but everyone else knew what he was thinking.

Serina then reported that next to the train were various trenches, foxholes, artillery pieces, machine guns, mortar launchers, and other weapons, all manned by various soldiers wearing blue uniforms with gray armor pieces.

"I can't say for sure, but based on the fact that this train is located outside of Ponyville, and it, and the soldiers with it are pointing their weapons towards us, coupled with the fact that the citizens of Ponyville are fleeing their homes, I think it's safe to assume that this train was in the process of taking over Ponyville, and we interrupted them, but yet, I can't see any signs of smoke, fire, or any battle damage." Serina reported, some confusion in her voice.

Ryan shook his head. "In any case, we have to act fast. As soon as we round that bend, and have that other train in our sights, I want our Railway Marines, Embarked Armored Calvary, Battle Angels, and our military robots to disembark from the train, and create our own defensive fortifications. They know that we're coming, yet haven't shot first, which means that they may want to size us up first. Well, let's give them a good show and show them that the '4-8-8-4' is NOT to be toyed with!"

Everyone else agreed, and as soon as the "4-8-8-4" rounded the bend, Serina began to put the brakes on, and once the train stopped about a mile away from the unknown war-train, all of the fighting forces began to pour out, and set up their own defensive positions, but neither side opened fire, but were watching each other closely. The intense standoff had begun.

For a while, nothing seemed to happen. Both trains, their crews, and their embarked soldiers stood at the ready, weapons pointed at the enemy, while drones and aircraft flew overhead, but no one moved. By this point in time though, Aurora, Todd and I were no longer alone in our foxhole, as Briana decided to show up. The annoying Sphinx, currently the size of a house cat was perched on my shoulders, hanging on with her claws.

"So, what's the scoop, Master?" She asked.

I roll my eyes a bit. "We're currently in a standoff with a Battleship Express-lookalike, but it has much more advanced weaponry, as well as tougher armor. The engine's number cab sides say that it's Big Boy 4014, but that's impossible, as Big Boy 4014 is still in the hands of the Architects of the Past, being held in a secure bunker in Pennsylvania as of 2034, 4 years in the future from now."

Briana's eyes lit up. "Ooh, a mystery! How fun!"

"Yeah, 'fun'. At least Ponyville was evacuated in case this gets ugly, and Twilight was able to inform the Princesses of the situation in case a full-scale battle breaks out. And if one does, I'll get to try out the VATS targeting feature on my PipBoy." I muttered.

"Yeah, true that. Though why haven't they opened fire yet?"

Aurora shrugged (at least as much as a wolf can shrug). "I don't know, Todd. From what I can tell, they seemed to be just as confused about this situation as we are. I can see them all looking at us through my scope, but yet they're making no moves to fire on us."

"Yeah, which is good." He then paused. Though here's a thought. Do you think that that war-train had anything to do with that massive *boom* we heard a few hours ago?"

I thought for a second. "Hmm, that's a good question, Todd. Maybe it was."

Across the battlefield, the situation was the same. The crew of the "4-8-8-4" were indeed just as confused and surprised as we were that this standoff was continuing, rather than devolving into a full-scale battle, though they could tell just as much that the tensions were running high.

"This is just bizarre, Ryan. If they really were Railway Bandits, or Communist soldiers, why haven't they opened fire on us yet?" Michelle asked Ryan over her comms from her position outside the train.

Ryan could only shrug. "I have no idea, Mickey. Unless they're trying to find weaknesses in our defenses."

"They have an AI of their own, I can tell you that much, Captain." Serina reported.

"They have an AI?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. I tried to see if I could quietly slip into their systems, and for a brief moment I was in, but then something woke up, screamed and cursed and me, and then shoved me out. It's an older female AI, but definitely not one to be taken lightly."

Just then though, before Ryan could say anything else, the radio in the war room suddenly crackled to life.

"Attention unknown train, attention unknown train! This is Major Donald Curry of the Battleship Express, flagship war-train of the Railway Warfare Division of the United States Army. You're encroaching on the town of Ponyville. We have your train in our sights, and we demand your immediate surrender!"

Ryan and Serina looked at each other (well, at least as far as one can look at an AI's holographic avatar anyway). They knew right away that this transmission was coming from the unknown train, now identified as the "Battleship Express".

Ryan quickly grabbed the radio receiver. "This is Acting-Railway Admiral Ryan Homer of the '4-8-8-4', flagship war-train of the Unified States Railway Warfare Corps, and we demand YOUR immediate surrender! You're holding the town of Ponyville hostage, and we request that you leave immediately, or face dire consequences!"

There was silence for a few moments. "Ok, now I know that you're full of it, Buddy. First of all, it's the 'United States', not the 'Unified States'; any real American would know that. And secondly, there's no such thing as the 'Railway Warfare Corps'; it doesn't exist. Are you working with the Futa Empire?"

"There hasn't been a United States in almost 200 years." Ryan replied. "And no, we're not part of this 'Futa Empire' you speak of. However, we're well privy to your tricks, you Communist scum!"

"Communism is dead, 'Acting-Railway Admiral Ryan', if that even is your real name and rank. We should know, we helped kill it dead back in WW5."

"Oh no, it's alive and well, 'Major Donald Curry', if that's even YOUR real name and rank. And you would know, since you're working for them! Though what I want to know is, where'd you guys get your own Big Boy locomotive? Did you build it, or did you find Big Boy 4012?"

"........Did......did you just say Big Boy 4012?" Don asked, a bit shaken at suddenly hearing the name of the lost Big Boy, as was Jim next to him. This wasn't something that many Futas or their allies would be privy to.

"Yes, I said Big Boy 4012. And you didn't answer my questions, Major."

"No, ours isn't Big Boy 4012, just as yours isn't Big Boy 4014. Big Boy 4014 is currently sitting in a secured bunker in Pennsylvania, under the care of the Architects of the Past."

Now it was Ryan's turn to pause. "Wait. Did you say.......'the Architects of the Past'?" He asked, remembering what Victoria had told him about the history of the Brotherhood of Steel, and the organization that came before it.

"Yeah, you heard me correctly, Acting-Railway Admiral." Don replied.

While Don and Ryan continued to talk to each other over the radio, and growing more and more confused at what the other was saying, Serina was piloting a drone, hovering it in front of another drone, this one being piloted by DELCI. The 2 AI's were using their drones like bumper-cars, trying to knock the other out of the sky, but in one swift motion, the drones flew past each other, with Serina's drone ending up over the Battleship Express, and DELCI's drone ending up over the "4-8-8-4", and the 2 AI's making a discovery that would have a huge impact on the current situation.

"Wait, what?" Serina zoomed in her drone's camera feed, and to her surprise, on the shoulders of the soldiers manning the defenses next to the war-train, she saw unmistakable American flag patches, and further back from the lines, an American flag was flying alongside the Equestrian flag at the Ponyville train station. "They're......they're actually American?" She asked herself in surprise.

At this same time, DELCI was making her own discovery. Some of the soldiers she saw down below also had American flag patches on their uniforms, while others had patches from a few other nations on them, such as Australia and New Zealand, and the robots had American flags painted onto them. And then she saw a battle-worn American flag, a battle-worn Australian Flag, and a battle-worn New Zealand flag all hanging together on one of the cars of the other war-train. "Wait, they're American, Australian, and New Zealander?" She asked in surprise.

DELCI then went to report her findings to Don, while Serina did the same to Ryan.

"Wait, you saw American flag patches on their uniforms, and an American flag flying next to the Equestrian flag at the Ponyville Train Station?" Ryan asked.

"Affirmative, Sir. I could also see at least a few other American flags in and around Ponyville, and all of them flying alongside or near an Equestrian flag. If they were an invading force, they wouldn't be doing this, and nor would Ponyville not be showing any signs of battle-damage. Which is beyond strange, as it was still damaged from our war with the Griffon Khans, and being repaired, but Ponyville looks pristine now."

"That's.......that's really strange, Serina, especially the lack of any damage." Ryan replied. Serina had reported this earlier, but due to the tension of the situation at hand, Ryan hadn't thought through what Serina said about Ponyville not having any battle-damage from the war with the Griffon Khans until now. "But they really are American?"

"They seem to be, Sir. All of the audio I was picking up from the ground were of the crew speaking English, and with accents from various parts of America, and frequent use of American colloquialism."

At this same time, DELCI was reporting her findings to Don.

"So some of them had American flag patches on their uniforms, while others had patches from a few other European nations, and I saw flags from America, Australia, and New Zealand. Their entire unit seems to be composed of American, a few European, and Australian and New Zealand troops, almost like a coalition force."

Don then got on the radio, but at this same time, Ryan also got on the radio.

"Wait, you really are American??" Ryan asked.

"Wait, you're a coalition force led by American forces??" Don asked at the same time.

"Yes." Both men replied at the same time.

"How'd you know?" Ryan asked.

"Our AI told me. And how'd you know that we were American?"

"Our AI told me. And it would also seem that you're not here to conquer Equestria, and aren't holding Ponyville hostage, are you, Major?"

"No, we're not. We were only mobilized because you were chasing Iron Glory, and attacking them, and we were afraid you were here to conquer Equestria."

"Well, we're not. And wait, Iron Glory? Is that the green American 4-4-0 locomotive pulling a train we were chasing?"

"Yes, that was Iron Glory!" Don replied.

"I'm starting to get a feeling that this whole situation is a really big misunderstanding, and that neither side here is the bad guys, but they thought that the other side was bad, and acted out of a sense of protection, which was misplaced."

"I'm getting the same feeling, Acting-Railway Admiral. I'll stand my forces down if you'll stand yours down, and then we can talk face to face, and fully get up to speed with each other."

"I agree, Major. We're standing down."

"As are we."

Ryan then got on the comms, and radioed the entire crew of the "4-8-8-4", and those in defensive positions next to and above the train. "Everyone stand down, I repeat, stand down everyone! They're not the enemy, they're Americans!"

At this same time, Don was radioing everyone onboard the Battleship Express, and those in the trenches, foxholes, and other fortifications next to it. "Everyone Stand down, I repeat, everyone stand down! The other train is part of an allied coalition, and aren't the enemy!"

When we all heard that the other side was friendly, and not an enemy, everyone from both trains looked on in surprise and shock, but yet, we also felt relief. Up until just a few moments ago, we were all certain that blood on both sides was going to be spilled today, but now that everyone was standing down, that crisis seemed to be averted. We all lowered our weapons, though we remained where we were, as neither side was fully sure what to do.

However, the sounds of relieved sighs were was broken by the fluttering of wings, and then Don landed next to the front of the 4009, while a short time later, Ryan appeared at the front of the 4014.

He then looked down into the foxhole I was in at me. "Leopard, I'm going halfway to meet Acting-Railway Admiral Ryan Homer. If anyone tries anything to break the truce, shoot them."

"Eh, I really don't think that that's a good idea, Don." I say, still holding my rifle. "This could be a trap."

I was deeply concerned for Don's safety, since he was the BE's Commanding Officer, and Don seemed to sense this as well. He hesitated, as did Ryan, both of whom seemed to be thinking the same thing. Was it really wise for the commanding officers of both trains to meet halfway when they didn't fully know the true intentions of the other side? After talking it over for a few minutes via shouts, It was decided that I was going to go meet halfway, since I was the BE's 2nd Engineer, and her 3rd in command, and I was going to be meeting Knight Paladin Victoria. I was a bit surprised that I was meeting a leader of an embarked unit of soldiers, rather than one of the "4-8-8-4"'s officers, but I was informed that Victoria was acting as the train's Chief Engineer, as the regular engineers, Fred Hallows and Steven Maxwell were currently indisposed.

"Same thing that Don just said applies here." I tell Todd, Aurora, and by default, Don, and everyone else nearby. "If anyone over there tries to break the truce, and prematurely end my life-story, kindly Amazon Prime-deliver their ass straight to God!"

"You got it, Captain!" Todd said, chuckling a bit at my comment.

I then sighed a bit, said a silent prayer for protection, and then began to make the half-mile walk to the halfway point between our trains to meet Knight-Paladin Victoria, with Briana still riding on my shoulders.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, I reached the halfway point, as did Victoria, and we stopped a few feet away from each other, and just stared at each other. Or at least, Victoria stared at me a lot. I couldn't blame her too much though, as it wasn't every day one met a Human-Wolf super-soldier with wings, wearing a Kitsune mask, and the blue field uniform and gray armor of the Railway Warfare Division, who also has a winged cat-sized Sphinx riding on his shoulders. Though I did stare a bit at her black X-05 power armor, as I'd never seen anything like it before.

"Knight-Paladin Victoria?" I ask, finally breaking the silence.

"Yeah, that's me. And you must be Captain Leopard Campbell."

I nod. "Yeah, in the flesh. And on behalf of the rest of the crew of the Battleship Express, and Battalion 4009, I'd like to welcome you to Equestria, and I offer you my hand of friendship." I say, holding out my hand.

"Well, on behalf of the crew, and all others stationed onboard the '4-8-8-4', I accept your welcome, and your hand of friendship." She replied, the arm of her power armor opening up so that she could properly shake my hand. She had a very firm grip for a woman, which I noted, but didn't comment on.

"Though, if you don't mind my asking, Captain, what.......what exactly are you?"

I smirk a bit, though it's not visible beneath my mask. "To make a VERY long story short, I'm a Human-Wolf super-soldier, meaning that I'm roughly 50% Human, and 50% wolf."

Victoria shifted a bit. "I see." She replied.

"And are you really a part of the Brotherhood of Steel?" I asked her.

Now it was Victoria's turn to smirk a bit, though because of her power armor helmet, it wasn't visible either. "Yeah, I am, and a Knight-Paladin too."

"Wow, that's incredible." I say, feeling Briana shift a bit on my shoulders.

"I think that we, and the rest of our crews, have a lot to talk about."

"Oh, no disagreements there, Knight-Paladin." I replied.

Moments after this, the all-clear signal was given on both sides, and the crews of the 2 trains began to walk towards where Victoria and I were, eager to finally meet each other face to face.

Author's Notes:

And, that was Chapter 3. I'm so, SO sorry that this took so long to get out. I tried to work on it where I could, but I was frequently busy, plus, since this Chapter still had a lot of material in it that dated back from when "An Iowa-Class Battleship" was my co-author, I and my new co-author, "Terry the Human" had to spend many weeks going through all of the lore we had, plus re-reading what was available of "Rails of Destruction" on FIMFetch.net in order to put together a coherent Chapter. However in the end, I think it was worth it.

I really hope that you all enjoy this Chapter, as well as the Chapters that come after this for this story. Terry and I poured so much time and energy into reworking it from the ground up since Iowa's "departure" (ie, him abandoning me, and this project with literally zero warning), and it pains me to see that so far, this story hasn't been doing so well. Some of it may be due to this story having missed many previous deadlines for when it was supposed to come out, resulting in the hype-train dying a long time ago, some of it may be because you too were frustrated with Iowa for taking off, and some of it may be because he did a lot of the early writing, while I did a lot of the editing, but no more. The scene where Iron Glory's crew spoke for the first time in this story marked the end of Iowa's influence over this story, and from here on out, Terry and I are fully in control, and all of the writing will be done by us. I really hope that this story can be turned around to become successful, and those 15 Likes can further and further push back those 12 Dislikes.

So what do you all think is going to happen next? How will the crew of the Battleship Express react to meeting their counterparts on the "4-8-8-4"? How will Princess Celestia respond to the arrival of the "4-8-8-4"? What'll happen when the crew of the "4-8-8-4" realize that they're in the wrong Equestria, as the Ponies here are Anthros, rather than the "feral" Ponies they met before? And how will Twilight react to hearing about the S.T.P that her counterpart was able to create? Will she be able to help the crew of the "4-8-8-4" fix it? What are the Communists up to back on Earth? And where are the Futas during all this? Well, you know the drill, stay tuned and I'll tell you!

The Battleship Express Saga is far from over, and In the meantime though, as always, Comments, Questions, Feedback, as well as spreading the word about this story are always appreciated, and I'll see you all again in Chapter 4!

ScarFox out for now!

Tale of 2 Big Boys

by ScarFox9700

Prologue

Chapter 1: Victory in California

Chapter 2: Bureaucratic Scapegoating, & Dysfunctional Wormholes

Chapter 3: New Places, New Faces, New Discoveries