I had woken up, finally... I remember the chief having used me as a meat shield from the engine explosion.
Damn blast knocked me out good... The thing is most certainly seriously damaged now. I can only dream of getting back onto the rails...
But perhaps this is for the better. I can now redesign the locomotive, if the base isn't too badly damaged.
I could move the engine bay area to the back, freeing up the middle. I'll have a turret cannon system mounted there, maybe two. after the cannons I'll have a small ammo storage for the cannon. Finally a heavily armed control cab on the front... Then I should make a cart to the front that is similar to a cow-catcher, a plow... Yes... I'll do that soon.
Oh, turns out the chief wrote here as well... Won't bother me much, She looks nice... the fox-faunus is surprisingly a head taller than me as well. Never noticed before...
But time to forget about that. I... No... I just remembered. The three folk I sent here! I don't know where they are! I hope they aren't dead.
A knock is heard, Thomas looking up towards the origin. He himself is in a green and brown themed room. Green wallpapers with brown wood right at the bottom. Medical equipment is staggered about, but still orderly. A simple light fixture hangs from the ceiling.
The door, wooden and light brown, was the source of the knock. He speaks up, "Do you always knock when checking on patients?"
This surprises the person on the other side of the door. It was quickly opened and revealed a man with a stupidly bushy and large beard. "Aye, it'sa force o' 'abit..." He states. A moment of silence passed and then his eyes widen, " 'ang on! Ya're awake!"
"Right. And-." Thomas was about to ask him, but the bearded man interrupted him, "I needsta go n' get da chief! Be still lad, or ye'll probably pass out again!" and ran out the door, their footsteps heard quite loudly.
Thomas stares at the door in confusion, trying to figure out what happened... Ultimately, he shrugged it off. "Alright then..." He muttered. He then spotted the TV nearby.
"Oh, now that is nice." He muttered, trying to push himself up, "I have the option now. I can watch the news." but as soon as he puts his foot down, he screams out in pain. "HOLY SHEITE! THAT FEKKIN' HURTS!"
He flops back onto the bed, repeatedly cussing out with the same word "Fuck!" whilst clutching the bed with his arms.
After a while, the pain went away, and he let out a sigh. He sees the TV remote was next to him, deciding to pick it up and turn on the damn television.
He lays down, just as the TV turns on, and the news starts playing.
The news channel was something, to say the least. With first the logo coming up that has a western sort of vibe with it. The words on it being "Vale's Outer News Station - (An honest opinion, with more honest reporting.)"
A man with a weirdly shaped stovepipe hat sits down behind a desk, with paper on hand.
"Hello, good men. A lovely day or not so much, it doesn't matter in the long run. My name is Phillip Herd, and I will be giving you fine folks a few nuggets of news that we are willing to share, even news that the city folk would rather not cover." He says with a small smile.
"Now, here's the first tid bit of news this week." He drawls out, then grabbing the papers and checking the script. He places it back down soon after, "Oh, and a special hello to the towns of Nova Ferra, East Dunk and Hunterspasse. But especially to Nova Ferra."
"Now, one might be wondering," He tilts his head, "Why are you talking about those towns?" He tilts his head back in place, "Well, recently they were attacked. Latest one being Nova Ferra, which survived an onslaught of quite a large bandit attack." He explains. "Mind you, this happened a week ago. Our reporter got there a few days after."
"It was in the process of being raided by a well-known bandit group... Don't know how well though, considering they don't likely exist anymore. But apparently the leader, who looks like this:" A picture of a woman with scarlet hair appeared next to the man, "She was the one causing trouble with the outer towns."
Thomas dropped his remote when he saw the picture, "That... That's her! What the hell?! I was with a damn bandit!?" He states in disbelief, but decides to continue watching.
"Now, you folks certainly won't believe who yhe saviour is, considering you all have seen them on the..." The man paused, before showing discomfort, "other news network, the ones city folk usially listen to in blissful ignorance." then reverts back to normal, "A certain man who had-, I have to be honest here-, Quite a thrilling police chase. Especially near the end."
The picture of Thomas in his vehicle made of scrap is shown. Then disappears.
"Now, if I were a betting man, which I sometimes am, this man will give a good shake to everyone involved. A gut feeling of mine says so." The news man states, giving out a few chuckles.
"Anyway, the footage I am about to show-."
Thomas turned off the TV, just as the bearded man came back, the chief being right behind him.
"As ai sa'd, da man is up n' 'wake. 'is 'ight leg is utterly useless-, not ev'n aura can 'elp with dat. But 'e 's still 'live." The man was explaining to the fox faunus, "an' 'e ain' capable o' fightin' 'nymore."
"I see..." She mutters out, before looking at the short man, "Davis, if you would." She states, as if giving the short man a command. The man in turn nods, then leaves the room, closing the door behind him.
The fox faunus turned to look at Thomas, "So... You are awake..." She states the obvious. "I assume you are wondering why you are missing a leg?"
Thomas raises an eyebrow, before looking down at his legs. Then noticed why his leg hurt so much... "I'VE GOT A FECKIN' PEGLEG! Now ain't that a fancy thing!" He reacted, with a positive amount of emotion.
The fox-faunus takes a step back in surprise, before yelling "WHY ARE YOU HAPPY ABOUT THAT?!" Then she takes a deep breath, calming herself down.
"Why shouldn't I? I always wanted to have a peg leg." He responded with confusion, "Besides, I can still do stuff."
"Wha-?" She stops, lets out a sigh and commands him, "Why are you happy? You lost a leg." At which point Thomas' smile turned into a frown.
"I will be honest with you." He starts, "I am trying to cope with how much shit has happened to me for the last few days." The man stated, "I was backstabbed so many times now, that I am pissed off. Hell, I was backstabbed at least 3 times this week alone." He glares at her, "So i rather still cope with the shit that's happening, rather than finally deciding to kick the bucket with my non-existent leg and the severe pain I am feeling, have felt and will feel..."
Silence filled the room, as Thomas glares at the chief... But ultimately, the silence was broken by the woman, pinching the bridge of her nose and rubbing it with her fingers. "Sorry, I pushed it a bit too much." She appologizes, as a professional usually does.
Thomas waves it off, "Nah, don't worry 'bout it. I'm just fed up." He says, then lets the awlward silence resume.
After a while, he speaks up again, "I'm bored. I wanna do stuff." And pushes himself up, this time expecting the leg pain, or the pain of his stump being pressed against by the peg leg.
Gritting his teeth, he stands up, all the while the chief kept watching. She then quickly reacted by grabbing him, "You aren't going anywhere, you have to rest-."
"I have to fix up my damn train," Thomas interrupted, "My plans involve the damn train, so let go of me and let me go ahead design and build my freaking train." as he pulls himself out of her grasp and walks out. As he leaves, he barey hears her saying "Why are you so stubborn?", which made him smile...
Thomas leaves the hastily patched building, his backpack on him, going on for a walk. He thankfully had his PDA on hand as well, which he used to browse for fun. Some of the things he tried was from games he remembered from before everything turned to shit for him.
"Alright... what games?" He asks himself, looking through the search querry.
"Touhou?..." He pauses, then reasons, "Well, I can make those summoning request circle things, but I'd rather not want to potentially kill myself by accident from many ways than one."
"Team Fortress 2?... Possibly. Note that one... Penarium?... Making a sadistic circus for entertainment of sadistic individuals sounds fun, but I reckon that everyone else in the damn world would want it gone. But I should keep note of it, to possibly make a horrible distraction."
"What about... Windforge?... No, all the stuff there is useless. Unless I end up flying between islands floating in the sky." He pauses, then snaps his finger, "Wait! Steampunk Tower! The turrets are perfect for my own use! And if i manage to build that giant ass airship, I'd have immense defensive capability!"... "No, that'd work mainly against grimm. I doubt it'd work against proper thinking folk like the entire fuckin' military."
He hadn't paid much attention to his surroundings, until he heard an "Excuse me!" from his side, causing him to jump in fright and saw a man, who seemed to be in an early World War 1 French soldier uniform, their cap being blue instead of red. They also had an emblem of an envelope on their chest.
After getting of his shock, Thomas lets out a cough, "Yes?" He speaks up.
"Message to you, sir!" The mailman says, "From one of the council members of Vale." He states, giving Thomas the letter.
"Oh," Thomas mutters out, not knowing how to respond, "Thanks, I guess?" at first at least, because he then asked, "Wait, who are you and what are you part of?"
"I am but a simple mailman of this region, and us mailmen and -woman are part of the Transcontinental Mail Delivery service, or TCMD for short!" The man responds, "We deliver letters the quickest, with record braking speeds!"
Thomas nods, taking a look at the letter. He spots a date that it was written and was shocked to say the least, "4 hours ago?!" he mutters out with disbelief. His voice is gone from such a surprise.
"As I stated, we pride ourselves in speed!" The man said, snapping Thomas out of shock.
"Wait, you mean you ran from Vale, the city as in, to here? To Nova Ferra?" Thomas asks in disbelief.
The mailman looks pleasantly surprised, "Wow. Someone actually got it right first time. Usually people think we use some sort of new Atlas tech." He comments, "But yes, all of us from the TCMD are very capable runners. We are one of the backbones of logistics on the continent, so we must be quick."
"Okay..." Thomas drawls out, before asking "Do you... deliver newspapers?" remembering from games that newspapers can be really useful.
"Of course! We have a branch dedicated for collecting, subscribing and delivering newspapers." The mailman states, "Are you interested?"
"Yes, but I have no money to give, is there other ways to pay or no?" The moustachioed man asks, "Like, can I give something in return?"
"Certainly! Since we, the TCMD deal with between the main cities and the towns. Townfolk usually can't trade much money, so they tend to trade services and products instead for us. So we can take other items as well for payment." The mailman happily provided.
Thomas them searches through his backpack, finding some shotgun rounds, then giving it to the mailman, "These will do?"
The mailman takes them and critiques it with one eye open, looking closely at it, "12 cauge shotgun shell, custom payload." He states, turning the shell in his fingers, "from Vacuo Hunting Munitions. You can tell by the small star and hammer on the casing, the firearms company symbol."
"Uh... what's special about them?" Thomas asks, curious now on what they do.
"They mainly focus on rifles, pistols, shotguns, cannons and special high-power munition." Yhe mailman explains, "Their weapons are the only one that are made utterly robust, yet capable of withstanding the forces produced by the munitions. Other guns would quickly breakdown from use."
"Oh, good to know." Thomas comments, then proceeds to ask "Wait, what are the major gun manufacturers?"
The mailman looks at him in confusion, "you hit your head?" He asks, getting an annoyed look in response, which he shrugged it off, "But to answer your question... there is about 5? I think?... Hang on, I need to jog my memory a bit."
The mailman starts counting on his fingers, "Well, I already mentioned Vacuo Hunting Munitions. The Schnee Dust Company owns a weapons manufacturer called Schnee White Lights, for their over use of dust, it often makes their shots glow in the dark, even after impact. Good for recon and marking."
The mailman continues explaining, as Thomas takes notes on the matter...
There's also a collective term for certain weapons, mecha-shift weapons. They usually entail a weapon or inanimate object that can be used for battle or other, which also is just a gun. Their very versatile, but usually only after the user has been using it for several years... Only problem is that it's a down-right bitch to maintain, since all the parts are usually made by the creator.
There's also Atlas military's personal gun manufacturer, focused on mainly being heavy-duty, cheap and typically easy to maintain. Soldiers prefer 'em because they are easy to get, maintain and shoot with. Vacuo guns are too powerful for them. I think their manufacturer name was Atlas Military Munition Research, or A.M.M.R. Some nicknamed it as "hammer" because of the name.
Then there's the ultra cheap, scavenged guns that White Fang use. Often break on the spot after firing, but it's surprisingly scary still. Considering they managed to make an overheated gun barrel set bullets literally on fire.
Vale has it's own gun manufacturer as well, surprisingly enough. But that's because of home defense and it's more of a wing to another company, VSI, full name being Vale Ship Intel. They focus on transports, but do other stuff on the side. They produce high quality cannons, rockets and flamethrowers. Their vehicles are also quite durable.
Oh, right. Forgot some others. There's Mistral as well. They have a blackmarket for illegal weaponry. Heard some folks produce guns that are frowned upon. If you want to break a treaty or two, you go there.
"...And that's all the major ones." The mailman finishes, "Of course, there's really small ones who make guns, like Powder Keg Guns, which operate mainly on conventional ship and aircraft weaponry... And Dave's Rocketry. Yes, it apparently exists, it deals with ballistic missiles."
"I will be honest, you didn't need to dump so much info on me." Thomas finally speaks up. "Seriously, I just wanted to trade something in the end to get a freaking newspaper subscription." He pauses for a moment, then asks "Don't you have mail to deliver?"
The mailman's eyes widen, "Crap!" He yelled, then disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a shape of him in a cartoonish fashion.
Thomas stares at the dissipating cloud, before speaking to himself, "What fucked up world am I in?..."
Ultimately, he shakes off his confusion and walks away, towards what he presumed to be the railroad, aiming to end up in the workshop...
After walking for several hours, he finally managed to get to the makeshift workshop... Only for his hopes to be quickly dashed, seeing just what is available to offer. "It's just... scrap. No refined materials or pre-made high quality pieces... Just a bunch of scrap metal." He utters out, a bit peeved "Fine then. Time to use scan mode on the materials. and design my own."
He takes out his PDA and scans the materials available to him. Slowly it lists all the scrap metal off, from metal roof sheets to wasted car batteries.
Once done, he went to the vehicle designer. The only thing he's thankful for is the fact they gave him two train flatbeds. And some locomotive parts, which were meant for a steam engine. He went to work and began designing...
"First off, the base." Thomas states, searching through a pile of different locomotive parts. Bystanders who are working on rebuilding the town watch him sometimes, but the moustached man paid no attention.
After a while, he managed to gather up enough steel and iron to create a proper foundation for a steam engine. It mainly consists of home-made axles, corroded steel plates with holes and the floor is made from sheets of iron. The foundation spanning the length of about 20 meters.
"This will do." He states, nodding to himself. Unbeknownst to him though, there are a group of four huntsmen/huntresses watching him from a distance.
"And then the heart of a locomotive - the boiler." Thomas says, "That one was easy this time around," As he turns to look at a gobbled together boiler, being held together by clean steel plates he "borrowed" from a nearby area.
He built struts onto the chassis of the locomotive, something to hold the boiler still. Then ran to a nearby crane operator, who was helping with rebuilding a nearby tower. "Oi!" He yells, getting their attention, "Could you lift up the boiler there and place it onto the chassis?!" to which a thumbs up was given in return.
As soon as the crane operator was free, they used the crane to carefully lift the boiler, with Thomas being nearby and gesturing movements to the operator... After 5 minutes, the boiler was mounted onto the chassis, the crane operator going back to do their own thing.
"Now the boiler is mounted." Thomas states the obvious, "Now to search for pistons." and walks back to the junkpile.
Thomas holds a wrench in hand, the other holding onto a handle mounted to the boiler. he's tightening pipe joints that lead between the pistons and the boiler.
Said pistons are mounted to the sides, the piston rod hanging low for now, not being attached to a wheel...
He has a crane lift the frame and boiler, just enough that he could attach wheels he salvaged grom different old-school locomotives.
The design was made to be 4 - 6 - 2, 4 wheels at the front which are capable of rotating. 6 wheels in the middle, used to drive forward, it's where the pistons are attached. Finally, a pair of large wheels in the back.
As soon as the wheels were attached, where he then climbed underneath and mounted lever mechanisms. The lever handles are made to stick out of the floor, so the engine would have basic controls.
When finally done, the engine was lowered back onto the track, with Thomas nodding in satisfaction.
The moustached man was currently welding car roofs, creating a wall of aluminum and steel. Which then he lifted up into place, specifically the cab of the locomotive, where he made sure to add extra layers of armour as well, just in case.
He also had the crane operator help in moving the pieces into place, as to make it easier for himself.
Yet, Thomas now started to feel something... It's as if he was being watched...
A metal plate is placed onto the struts supporting the boiler. In fact, the boiler is now encased in a shell of rivetted plates and scrap, as makeshift armour for the vital parts of the steam engine. The armour is slanted as well, of course, and by quite a bit as well.
The front wasn't slanted though. In fact, the front had a half cylinder design, with the inner radius pointing outwards.
A smaller wagon was made to the front, a 2 - 4 wheeled wagon, to be precise. Small 2 wheels able to rotate, along with the back four being capable of rotating as well.
It had a connector at the back, and the locomotive had a connector at the front to compensate, and it allowed swivel movement, moving left-right, up-down, so that it could move still.
It was a box made from scrap metal, with the front was a wedge design, where the bottom stuck out more than the top. A small window at the front and sides, and a hatch at the top, along with a circular empty hole more towards the front.
Thomas is installing the custom firebox for the boiler, and also a chimney for smoke and excess steam to exit from.
Work began on the first proper train flatbed, where the Moustached man quickly had stolen walls from several cargo containers, having erected walls for the wagon. Then he had the walls armoured with plates. It's a colourful mess.
He made a pair of custom heavy doors from scrap, to both ends of the wagon. Finally, he had a curved roof installed, which was taken from a discontinued passenger wagon. The crane operator has helped lifting the roof onto the wagon.
Then came the quick indoor customizing. First was building a room for food storage, and doing the wiring for lights and sockets. The cables are attached to the surface, to make it easier to maintain.
"Right. this is where I will live." Thomas says to himself, as he was mounting a rain collector to the side. He also made a water sink for hand washing. The man set up the essentials, an old school stove in the corner with a chimney that leads outside the building.
Then another corner he made a desk, a bookcase to hold books in the future, a desk lamp. There he also added sockets to power things near and on his desk.
Managing to find an old bed, he had it placed in the new corner, next to the wall that separates the generator from the rest.
The second flatbed Thomas managed to find hull parts for a heavily armoured passenger wagon. There was an old company logo on it, "Iron Logistical Industries." He paused for a moment upon finally noticing it, "Need to ask about that company later." He comments, getting back to work.
He boards up the windows of the wagon with metal sheets. Afterwards, he made a basic workshop for his own needs. It has a workbench, storage room, basic machining equipment, a refinery and forge. But in the middle of the wagon, he made a room that was a cylinder in shape, a hole was also cut into the ceiling of the room.
He made a rotating joint, where he added a boiler onto.
Slowly, he made a machine gun cannon turret, which uses steam to reload and allows it to be automatic. It's good enough for him to use in either vehicular combat.
The main turret itself isn't armoured. There's a seat with few controls made from valves and levers. Even pedals. It has 4 side-mounted barrels made from sewage pipes, the diameter being 37mm.
Thomas builds a smaller version to the front wagon, where he previously cut a hole into the roof. This one was armoured and uses a single barrel instead of multiple, sacrificing fire rate for compactness.
He stares at the train as a whole. Thinking what to do, before suddenly snapping his fingers and going back to work, deciding to decorate it and make it slightly more menacing. He painted crude decals, and even made a skull shape made out of scrap metal.
Thomas steps back, admiring his work for a while. Eventually, he spoke up, "Now this is nice!" He stated.
But finally, he remembered something. He's original goal of heading westward and getting out of Vale's influence. So he got some firewood and water, setting up the engine. He wasted a whole day on bringing wood and water, until it was done.
He chucked a bit of firewood into the firebox, lighting it and slowly heating the boiler. The action took another 2 hours for him to do. When done, he brought a chair to the cab and started driving, slowly reversing out of the workshop.
He gave yelled to a nearby pedestrian, "Oi! Could ya check if the tracks in the junction is in the right direction?!"
The citizen nods and heads over to the switching lever. They soon yelled back "All good!"
Thomas nods and continues reversing, until he was just behind the junction now. There, he had the track changed and he carefully began driving down the railroad, towards the town west gate.
After a while, the train arrived, but the gate was closed. There are two guards standing either side of the tracks, and one of them spoke up. "Halt! You are not permitted-!" "Yeah, yeah, don't care. Open the gate or I'll plough it open for you!" Thomas interrupted.
The guard wasn't backing down, "The chief told us to-" "Ah, screw this." Thomas got tired of it and pulled some levers, causing the train to lurch backwards for a bit. After a good amount of distance, he changed gear back to forward direction, and with enough room now the engine picks up significant amount of speed.
The two guards look on in terror, as the engine decimates the gate and drives ahead, off into the distance...
Soon after, the chief came running out, "What was that..." She started, then saw the busted gate on the railroad, "That...?" She gasps out, losing all temper, which was replaced with disbelief instead. Her mind pieces things together, then she clutches her fists.
With an angry yell, she screamed into the sky, "THOOOOMAAAAAAS!" as birds fly off in the distance, and few people jump and hid from her.
One of her subordinates managed up the courage and asked, "Do you wish for me to call all towns in the county about the man running amok, mistress?" They ask, sounding more like a butler than a soldier.
She turned around and glared at the subordinate. After a brief silence, she menacingly walks over to them, her stature towering over the questioner. She places and holds her hands tightly on their shoulders, gritting out "Call every single town in Green County, I am not letting him get away with duking me and everyone here."
The subordinate nods, and was let go. The fox faunus turned back to look at the broken gate and uttered, "I will find you."
Thomas, in his new locomotive, was laughing his ass off. Finding it immensely funny... but also disheartening... He remembers what he did earlier that day, when scanning items that were available to use.
Thomas was holding the PDA, scanning each material piece by piece. Then suddenly, he got an idea, "What happens if I scan myself?" He questioned, and pointed the PDA at his arm.
It actually worked! It started giving info on the display... But something was off. Many things off, in fact.
NAME: XXXXX XXXXXX (Thomas)
AGE: 20-30
"It's the user!"
[EXTRA]
And when he checked extra, reading a bit, his blood ran cold. He could not believe it...
STATUS: Healthy; Cursed.
[Curse of Unbeknownst]
For trading your memories for this device to a god, you have been cursed to share your past knowledge to who you care about. Otherwise an untimely demise is more and more likely to happen for them. The more you recover your past, the worse it gets.
USER CAN'T REMOVE.
Kill count: 4
Thomas stares out the window, watching as trees fly-by. His thoughts plagued with worry... Ultimately, he takes out his journal and begins writing...
I don't know if it was the right decision... To just, up and leave so violently... But ultimately, I needed to leave in order to not cause anymore trouble to people.
When I found out that I was cursed that caused me to lose my memories, and made recovering them a hazard to me, my health and to others, I had to leave. I couldn't stay, for many reasons...
I don't know what the railroads ahead will truly bring, because the landscape, political and societal, even geological, change... What I do know? It's that a massive change will happen in the near future, hopefully not caused by me...
A/N: 'Ello, lads! I hope this one lives up to the bar.
Now, I've sent some PM's to the newest reviews I've gotten, and waited a week to have them arrive. One responded, saying it was okay.
Now, the reply to newmansland review (This is what I sent to 'em thru PM):
"I'm glad you find my writing fantastic! But you are right on the grammar part... I would've answered that English is my second language, which it is, but I bloody well had enough time to improve. So really, the answer is my own laziness or checking my grammer."
And that's it!... Now, I'm gonna be coming up with ideas on what to write. If you see a dwarf playing sea shanties in VRChat, that's me. most likely... Probably...