Well, I've said it before that I'm continually amazing myself but this time I mean it. I mean seriously, who'd have thought that this story I started is almost at the fifty chapter mark? If I didn't already have something planned for Chapter 50 (and the next ten or so chapters after that) I'd have put a little filler in there for a laugh... then again, I usually dislike putting fillers in my stories because I feel they detract from the events already in motion... not all do but for some reason, like lemons, I can't write proper fillers to save my life...
Anyway, enough with the small talk, let's get on with the story...
Dang it... here comes the rain again...
Chapter 49: Vasili's Express
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Day 90
15 Floodrain, 1933
0539 hours
Record of Master Sergeant Vasili Alexandr
Federal 8th Volunteer Corps/ Federal 11th Army
Well, it's happened. The enemy is officially tired of our resistance and has decided to put an end to us. According to Mishka who just got back (barely) from an unauthorized scouting mission, we have roughly three tank divisions heading our way. All mediums.
The best defence we've got? A few broken down bazookas, some captured explosives, a few landmines (anti-personel, we're lucky but not that lucky), and a few barrels of tank fuel which is useless because we don't have a tank.
Radio's recieving intermitant bursts of traffic. Sounds like gibberish to me, using words like 'Leviathan'. Sounds like a ship name but without a suffix I have no idea if it's one of our's or one of their's.
In light of the (new) Commander's death and my group's 'heroics' during the fighting yesterday, the Alenkov has seen fit to promote me to Master Sergeant and allocate to me an entire platoon to lead; despite the fact that we lost the position and had to fall back to an old train station. He's also given us a real bitch of a mission.
We're to leave the city, steal what we believe to be a troop/transport train, and drive it back through the Rotarian forces, through the ruined city, and back here to the station.
Simple, right?
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The rain had picked up since they left the train station. Vasili's rain slicker (which was in fact an old station manager's rain slicker) did next to nothing to keep the rain out. The old rubber in the material was dry and cracked and allowed the cold rain access to his clothes. He'd been out in the rain before on the farm when helping animals with stalled births or other accidents but this was the first time he'd even been soaked all the way down from head to toe.
His shirt was damp and clingy, his boots squelched when he walked, his socks were soaked through, as were his trousers, and even his smallclothes. Still, he didn't complain as he and his platoon marched on through the muck and mud that lined the old railway. The men and women behind him didn't gripe, perhaps seeing their leader withstand the cold rain and not make a peep of discomfort was what kept them silent. Or perhaps they just didn't want to risk that the heavy rainfall wouldn't mask voices as it so easily did their bodies.
They were officially behind enemy lines, in pursuit of a train someone had seen in the distance using a pair of damaged binoculars that had evidentally been stopped due to the incliment weather. The scout had guessed the length at ten, maybe fifteen cars. Too long for a troop train and too short for a civilian freight and passenger consist. That left one possibility.
A supply train.
Supply trains traveled the rails more often than troop trains and were often loaded from floorboards to rafters with food, medicine, weapons, ammo, not to mention other equipment. Most of them didn't care if it was all Rotarian stamped equipment. Just the chance of getting into a fresh change of clothes or perhaps a rain slicker that didn't leak and the chance at a warm meal that wasn't canned gave them the lift their sagging morale desperately needed.
Vasili looked to one of the men closest to him, a young man named Oskar who had worked on the railroad as a fireman for the old steam locomotives before he was drafted into the war. He had been a scarce two weeks from completing his engineer's exam and being granted a license to operate the large steam and electric engines that ran the Trans-Federal Railway or perhaps even a spot on the coveted new 'Federal-Royal Line' that was build to link Tellanos and Syllia together economically.
The young man, scarcely twenty-four years old, was his PAACO, Protect At All Cost Objective. No matter what happened, should they come under fire or the Abyss itself rise up and make war on the world, he was to protect Oskar with his life if they were to secure that train and drive it safely back to the station. Vasili pulled up a waterlogged map of the area and gazed at the circle and estimated how far they had walked in the rain and motioned for Oskar to come over.
"How far do you think we are from the train?" Oskar gazed at the map and did some quick numbers before answering.
"If the train is still stopped at Kovalanko Bridge, we should be another ten minutes from it. Even if they decide to start it up and leave, they'd need at least thirty-five minutes with all the proper checks and precautions. Then there's waiting for steam to build up, securing the cargo, boarding of guards, mounting of guns. In short, starting a train this size isn't a fast action. That's why most smaller railways are switching to electric or crystal-drive engines. If the larger railways are able to get six trains running in three hours and still turn a profit, what about the smaller railways able to get two or three trains running in less than twenty?" Vasili nodded that he understood but in truth he didn't. He was not a railroad man, he was a farmer. In peacetime he sold cows, chickens, eggs, milk, and other products in the winter and sold parts of his harvest and hay for neighboring farms in the summer.
Still, ten minutes to get to the train and thirty-five minutes to get it started? Forty-five minutes in total? That was forty minutes more than he felt was safe. He started going over how to ask Oskar if there was any possible way to speed things up when Oskar, apparently thinking the same thing, spoke first.
"While steam is building we can go over the primary safety checks, these are things that cannot be ignored. These include safe pressure buildup, checking tanks to make sure there are no blockages or leaks, making sure we have dry wood and coal, ensuring that the brakes work properly, and ensuring that all cars are connected safely and securely. The last checks can be delayed since we're going such a short distance." Vasili nodded and then gazed back.
"All in all, how much time do we need to buy you?"
"Ten, maybe fifteen minutes. I know that's more time than we'd feel safe with but there's only so many things we can ignore before we start courting disaster. The last thing I want is another Kresta Raketnyy Incident." Vasili grimaced, remembering the accident when he'd heard of it.
The Kresta Raketnyy, or Kresta Rocket, had been the largest express in the Federation, constantly running back and forth, east to west and back again and was considered the rival to the Syllian 'Leviathan' Express. It's reign lasted ten years before an engineer, in an effort to keep his timetables accurate, neglected several checks and halfway through the return trip, the Kresta Raketnyy Homeward Express, a consist of four locomotives, sixteen passenger cars, and fourteen cargo cars derailed halfway across the Kalyek Iron Bridge and plummeted into the Vishagov Ravine. Only seven people who leapt from the last passenger car as it went over the side survived while over six hundred passengers and rail crew perished as the train exploded upon hitting the bottom.
It was the worst disaster in Tellanian history and gave way to stricter regulations that any train crewman abandoning safety checks for the sake of coming in on time would be terminated on the spot and blacklisted against all other companies that had anything to do with the railway.
It was incentive enough that since the incident, trains may have run late but they always followed proper safety checks and passed all inspections. For Oskar to do something that he had been told since day one of his instruction to NEVER ignore was unnerving to the man. Still, this was war, the station was less than ten miles away over a straight, level track and grade. No one would report him to the National Railway Inspection Committee at this point in time.
As the group advanced further along, the rain was joined by mist and fog that reduced any sort of visibility to nothing. Vasili could only just see the ground before him. He gazed around and saw a few of his troops and went close and whispered for them to hold fast, pass it along, and keep their heads down. He himself continued forward for a bit until he heard the sound of gravel under his boots. He knew he was somewhere near the rail lines but he didn't know , he heard something fall and a loud klang that got his attention and he heard a groan and then some laughter.
"Jorgen, sir! Don't try to do anything in this weather. The train isn't going anywhere." The reply was curt.
"Well it's not so much the train I'm worried about as the cargo in case you have forgotten what kind of train you are guarding Sergeant Major."
From the condescending tone, it stood fair to reason that this Jorgen was an officer and one of the ones in charge of the train. Vasili suddenly was aware of another fact. Jorgen's voice came from his right and the other voice from his left. Vasili took three steps forward and walked straight into the wooden door of a boxcar. Stunned but nevertheless delighted at the find, he quickly worked his way around the car, groping along the way until he found the ladder the allowed for climbing up onto the roof of the car. He was still invisible in the mist but he then had an idea. He coughed, cleared his throat and then, in a loud voice shouted.
"Enemies from the north! Tellanian troops incoming!" To punctuate this, he fired his rifle and gave a cry akin to a man getting hit.
To his delight, the response was immediate. Rotarian soldiers were jumping around firing rounds this way and that trying to find 'north'. Whether by luck or chance, several of the Rotarians, in blind panic, started shooting at where their own fellows were likely to be, their cries of being shot emboldened the shooters and they kept up the fire. Then another voice from the fog.
"Get the train ready for departure NOW! Guards to the car tops!" This time the voice came from right below him. Hoping he didn't break something doing this reckless stunt, Vasili leapt from the top of the car and, to his relief, landed on top of the officer, Jorgen, knocking him out. At that moment, some of his soldiers came up and he pointed to the officer.
"Bind him and throw him in one of the cars. Where's Oskar?"
At the mention of his name, Oskar came forward, panting and saluted.
"Let's get you to the engine and prepare to depart. Where's Mikail? He was supposed to be alongside us." One of the soldiers slumped and gazed at him.
"He tried to rise and cause another panic but was caught by a stray round. He's dead." Vasili cursed but then motioned Oskar forward.
Walking alongside him, Vasili and the three soldiers reached what appeared to be the locomotive and tried to climb up. Apparently the engineer was already there.
"Hans? Hans is that you? All checks are complete?" Oskar answered in the affermative. but then there was a shout.
"Kalvin! There's a weak chain between the sixth and seventh cars! We need to strengthen the connection!" At that outburst, the engineer turned, spotted Oskar stepping on board and shouted, at the same time firing a pistol that struck the young female soldier who had been with them in the neck.
"Alarm! Tellanians are trying to take the train!" Instantly, Oskar drove a knife in between the engineers ribs one, twice, three times, and his next cry died on his lips as air seeped out of his punctured lungs. Still, the alarm had been raised. Bullets could be heard hitting the steel cab of the train as Vasili pulled Oskar down and motioned for him to start the train moving and then yells out.
"Third Platoon! Get on the train, we're moving out!" The two soldiers with him were armed with an Sh-29 SMG and LMG22. They set their weapons on the tender of the train and started firing where they assumed the Rotarian soldiers were. Vasili looked over to Oskar and watched him work.
The first thing he did was release the brake lever. Then, he opened the vents to let some fresh air into the furnace. Next up, he opened up the water flow to the boiler andopened the steam pipes and checked his gauges. Once that was good and all the gauges lined up properly, he grabbed a lever by his side and slowly pushed forward on it.
The sound of metal on metal is one that grates on a man's nerves. Even the most experienced railroad men hate the sound of the metal wheels grinding on the metal rails trying to start the train moving. Oskar went over to a smaller lever and pulled it and almost immediately, the grinding lessened and Vasili felt the train start forward. After a minute, he released the smaller lever and went back to the throttle, easing it forward a little bit more.
Much to Vasili's relief, the fog was clearing, he was able to see further and now had enough cover to set his rifle up on the metal bannister of the cab and aim down the scope at the incoming enemies. He heard as the train started to slide into an easy rhythm. Then, without warning, Oskar tapped his shoulder. The noise of the steam forcing the young man to shout.
"We forgot to switch tracks! If we don't change the tracks now we'll be heading for Rotiart! We need to realign the tracks from Track Fifteen to Track Twenty!" Vasili tapped the submachinegunner and told him the problem and he leapt down and ran for the switch track. While he ran, Vasili and the gunner covered him as the Rotarians were now turning around and sending rounds their way, deciding to shoot the engineer and stop the train rather than risk losing it.
The soldier made it to the switch and lifted the lever, twisted it, and then let it drop. He gazed at the points and nodded as they were now aligned with the track they wanted to take. As he turned to return to the cab, the machinegunner next to Vasili cursed as the weapon jammed. Vasili was in the middle of a reload and saw a soldier lift his head up from the cover behind an overturned coal hopper and aim at the soldier who had switched the track. Vasili hurried with the clip and shouted a warning.
Too late.
The rifleman fired just as Vasili got the fresh clip loaded he then aimed and fired, killing the enemy riflemen and then looked out to see if the soldier had been hit. He watched as the train rolled by the soldier's motionless corpse. Single round through the heart. Quick compared to some of the ways Vasili had seen men die. He did a check and made sure that the soldier's body was clear of the train before ducking back inside. He felt the locomotive lurch left and begin a slow laborous turn down the correct track.
As the engine cleared the turn and the first car started the turn, Vasili heard cheering and looked back to see his men on the roofs of the cars, cheering wildly. He grimaced.
"Knock that off! It's too early to be celebrating like a bunch of-"
"VASILI!"
Vasili felt himself being pushed just as a shot rang out. Vasili drew his sidearm and aimed instinctively where the shot had came from and shot the fireman who had been running alongside trying to catch up with his engine. A thump made him turn and saw as the gunner fell to the floor of the cab. Vasili went forward, grabbed his coat and ripped it open, revealing a red stain quickly spreading over the white shirt underneath. The soldier gave a tired smile and sighed.
"It had to be one of us Sergeant. I would have rather it been me than you. I just... I would have liked to have seen... how my country would have looked... once the war was over... and we had recovered..."
The hurried pistol shot from the fireman had nicked the aeorta, the main blood vessel for the entire body. Vasili consoled himself that with such a wound there was nothing anyone could have done but the words were hollow. He'd lost four of his soldiers, soldiers who had volunteered to be under his command. Mikail, one of his originals, and now three more he hadn't had the chance of learning their names.
"I hope this train is worth it..." Oskar gazed at Vasili and nodded.
"They believed it was Master Sergeant." Vasili sighed and nodded and then sat back as the train picked up speed and headed down the track to the station.
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The trip thankfully was uneventful as Vasili came to with the sound of Oskar applying the locomotive's brakes and pulling the throttle back to a 'stop' position. On the platform, several soldier, including Alenkov and Mishka were cheering wildly. Vasili smiled as he thought of how they must be feeling now.
(We did it. We somehow pulled a miracle out of thin air and gave the enemy one hell of a black eye in one go. We took a heavily defended supply train right out from under their noses...)
Vasili rose and stepped to and wearily consented to people shaking his hand and clapping him on the back. Seeing Alenkov, Vasili nodded.
"Lieutenant, we have returned with the train. The operation was a success, but we sustained four casualties." Alenkov nodded and shook his hand.
"That's better than we'd hoped. I honestly thought it was a suicide mission and that I was sending my best NCO and some of my best soldiers to get butchered. I'm glad you made it back. Now then, let's crack this train open and get a look at those supplies." The men cheered at that until one of the men came up, a stern expression on his face.
"Sir. The first six cars are supply cars but... the others..." The soldier motioned for them to follow him and he led them to the car immediately after the sixth car and opened the door. Instead of supplies, clean clothes, and fresh food, they were greeted with the faces and hopeful gazes of almost sixty soldiers dressed in threadbare Tellanian uniforms. Upon seeing Vasili, one of the men rose and saluted.
"Major Sergei Rasvitan, aide to the late Lieutenant-General Josef Reznov. These men here are what remains of the Federal Tenth and Eleventh Armies."
Moments later, the Rotarian soldier Vasili had knocked unconscious was brought up bound with rope and a gag stuffed in his mouth along with a few others captured close to the rear of the train. Judging from the dark looks of the prisoners, the officer had been on a particularly bad side with them. Vasili glanced at his shoulders and saw his rank and smiled involuntarily.
Vasili had captured a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Rotarian Army.
As the soldiers cheered at being freed from their boxcar prisons, the supply clerks came forward and opened up the supply cars and started trundling away the supplies to inventory. It would not mean much with this many more mouths to feed but, in a situation like this, Vasili was glad to have more soldiers he knew were on his side for a change.
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Whew! Man my hands hurt. Hold on a second... cracks knuckles
There! Now I'm loosened up a bit. So, you all liked this chapter? It's all coming together isn't it. Two more chapters until Syllian reinforcements arrive. Can Vasili and his group hold out until then? Just keep on reading and find out!
Next Chapter: Between Hammer and Anvil Part 1