To say that the southbound train looked a bit strange was a touch of an understatement. rather than simply riding on the tracks, it had the tracks moving along with it to drop into place in gaps created by the recent conflict. Two engines mounted to the front kept it moving at substantially more speed than might have been expected from a train, and long chains extending from the engine we're reaching out, taking hold of broken rails, pushing them into place, clearing rubble where necessary, and otherwise looking as if some strange spider like monster were attached to the train making sure that it got where it needed to go.
When the train reached sections of track that were still intact, it was able to smoothly ride down the rails at well over 100 mph, primarily due to the very little weight carried on the vehicle.
In the villages and stations that the train passed, pale ones and machines At first simply watched the train approach and pass by, looking to make a good shot at those on board, unaware of the significance of what was coming. The train would make it over 100 miles before the machines would notice something was wrong; primarily simply by realizing that the moving chains and wires must indicate that the lord of iron was on board the train, which meant that whatever this train was doing, it must be important.
Ascension's infiltration of Allied Communication was almost 100%, And yet while it received Numerous messages regarding the train's movement, including the orders to place a high priority on it some iron, and bring in a squad of soldiers and heavy artillery to load aboard, it could not find anything regarding what was actually on the train.
This was a bit disturbing, as it had been able to accurately predict most of the Allied actions up until this point simply by listening in on their communications, and predicting their course as they went, allowing to set up just enough resistance to convince the human forces that it was genuinely trying to defend the country.
Whatever was on this train, it needed to be stopped. The only thing that made the machine hesitate was the timing of the events; the train had been launched and this emergency communication started almost immediately after the titan the South had begun mass murdering civilian population centers, something that, and all likelihood, United States forces would try to prevent as well.
Whatever was on that train might be an attempt by the US To intervene and stop the titan, something which ascension would prefer occurred as well.
Unfortunately there was number real chance of actually communicating with whoever was on the train, ascension would need to board it to find out what was going on. As such, it created a plan. Just in case whatever was aboard the train was pivotal for stopping the Titan, it needed to not destroy the train, but needed to throw so many machines at it, that the Lord of iron would not be able to stop them.
***
At first, the ride went fairly smoothly. While the tracks were destroyed in a few places, it was nothing that the Lord of Iron wasn't able to handle so quickly that the train didn't even need to stop. Having someone who can control massive lengths of train and rail at a whim simply by attaching to them, made repairing damaged railways almost instantaneous. The only stress during the initial hour of the drive was the close proximity of spike and the Lord of iron, as he was, for obvious reasons, not fond of the titan at all.
"You realize that I'm more important to this job than you are, right?" The Lord of Iron, tall, pale, covered in scars and currently shirtless aside from the mass of bandages wrapped around his torso, hands wrapped up in a pair of manacles; not to secure him, but rather to give him direct contact with the dozens of anchor chains that were he heaviest cargo the train carried. "Honestly, I'm not even sure what you're doing here. Why aren't you back at the front line, distracting the machines, while the important people get shit done?"
Spike leaned back against the wall of the train-cart, looking back further at the cart containing Diss and the few people from Wayson who'd made the trip; closer to the back of the train, to reduce the risk she would accidentally kill the train before they arrived. " Honestly, I'm here just in case you get out of line. This is the most important mission of this war, most likely of the decade, and we can't have some 2-bit has-been villain that's been beaten a dozen times screwing things up."
The Lord of iron stared at spike, initially appearing furious, as if as if any moment he might lash out. he then took a deep breath, relaxed and smiled at spike. "You're trying to get me to do something that will cost me the pardon, aren't you? the idea of me walking out as a free man, and becoming a millionaire using my powers legitimately, just pisses you right the hell off doesn't it? Maybe I'll join the DMA just to piss you off even more."
He leaned back, closing his eyes, sensing through the trains and the rails... crushing machines, smashing Pale Ones so hard that they literally splattered against nearby walls; occasionally reaching out to adjust the rails up ahead. " And if that wasn't enough, all the news programs are showing videos of me, the Lord of iron, as the hero of this war. And you know what? They're right. You might be a titan, but when it comes to a real war, and not just some street fight, I'm exactly what they need. I'm the one who's going to get this girl where she needs to go."
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
Spike simply glowered, continuing to keep an eye on the back of the train, as the Lord of iron kept them moving forward, defending the engine against scattered machines attempting to take it out, sensing what sort of threat was around him through the metal. Suddenly, the Lord of iron grimaced. Well, hell. Maybe he'd need Spike after all.
"Damnit. We've got a problem. Get up on the roof. Might need you after all."
When Spike climbed onto the roof of the train, he could see what had the Lord of Iron so worried. Machine drones. Regular machines. Pale Ones. there must have been thousands of them, one of the machine tanks on the tracks themselves, an unusually large one, even; bigger than an Abrams, this thing must be the size of a building. Hundreds of machines, possibly thousands of pale ones, all moving in towards the track the train was approaching.
The Iron Lord was probably fully capable of taking out all of the all of the targets, but not necessarily fast enough to keep the train intact, and that tank could likely blast right through the armor plates they'd welded to the train. The machine had been busily cutting power lines and breaking up rails in order to prevent the train from advancing too quickly, and more importantly, to prevent the Lord of Iron from simply lashing out from miles away. He slowed the train down, stopping roughly a half-mile away from the rapidly forming barricade.
Spike knocked on the roof, looked down inside, and smiled down at the Lord of iron. "I've got this. Just keep her safe while I clear a path."
***
The moment Ascension saw spike climbing on top of the train, it determined that it's earlier assessment was most likely correct. While impressive, Spike's powers were not well suited to dealing with armies of machine forces. On the other hand, he would probably be perfectly suited to taking out the rogue titan. Based on simple observation, the most likely case was that this mission was being kept quiet to avoid antagonizing Chinese forces, and spike was on his way to deal with the the growing threat to the South.
While spike went on the offensive, reducing his density in order to hurdle upwards into the air, before increasing it again to slam into the tank with enough force to crush the armored machine into a enormous scrap metal pancake, Ascension had already begun to focus more pale ones into the area, withdrawing the more capable, and difficult to produce, machines into buildings, sewers; any form of nearby cover.
Killing spike was not likely to happen, at this point the primary objective would be to attempt to kill the Lord of iron while he was escorting spike on his assassination mission; preferably after they'd gotten close enough to reduce the damage the Titan did to the country. Orders were passed along. The most likely rail route predicted to reach the Titan. Tanks capable of penetrating the armor plated to the train would be waiting for it; and the only mission of these machines waiting the train for the rest of its journey would be to pinpoint just where in the train the Lord of Iron was.
***
As Spike used masses of debris as projectiles, including the rough metal disc that had once been a tank, and brief drastic increases in mass to pull the army of pale ones in via briefly generated gravity surges, he crushed the enemy machines at a breakneck pace.
Some parts of the fight were equal parts horrifying and disgusting, due to the overwhelming number of both recently dead, and still living humans among the mass of attackers. Spike wasn't just covered in oil, bits of scrap metal, and mud, but also with the assorted blood and viscera of unfortunately dismembered people.
Spike had never really been called into a fight like this, normally speaking his job was to take out whatever the heaviest hitter was on the other side, while his support dealt with the lower end enemies. In this case, however, they couldn't carry many people or much equipment, other than just the armor plating on the train to make sure it's cargo reached the heart of Mexico; This was too high risk a mission; If the machine discovered what was going on, it would likely throw everything it had at the train.
Honestly, Spike was surprised that they had not met more resistance already. he seemed to have destroyed less of the machines than he had thought he'd seen when he left the train. He studied the area for a minute to make sure he hadn't missed something, then waved the Lord of iron forward so that he could re-board.
They were making great progress. If Apollo was right about how well the boost would work, this whole mess would be over in just a couple more hours.
***
The villainous forces had made excellent progress after the initial battles. As they continued moving south along the peninsula, with the Gulf of California passing them by on the left, the troops became more responsive, both the actual soldiers and the villains who had joined this team. He'd learned names and vehicles well enough to call out just who was under threat from a trap, who needed to change positions, And by staying in the center of the formation, he was able to keep them relatively safe during the drives from one town to another.
The troops were getting used to his constant calling out of a given call sign followed by a shouted direction, and now whenever they heard him shout out their name, they would start evasive maneuvers before really hearing what he was saying. In a few cases, they did exactly the wrong thing, and ended up wrecking their vehicle; so he started just calling out 'Stop' or 'Swerve left'; and letting even those not at risk dodge to reduce casualties
For the most part, however, things were going smoothly. The only real problem that eyeball had with the situation, was that they did not seem to be encountering nearly as many machines as he thought they should. The machine had started with a high end fabricator, looted an unknown but significant number of others as well as other manufacturing equipment, and been operating its own private minds for months. With each machine able in turn to work on making more machines, he would have expected millions of them at this point. With no real way for the Machines to defeat Tai, most of them should be up here, dealing with the ones they could fight... or perhaps just running and hiding.
As they reached the beach, where a few Navy vessels were waiting to carry them across the water back to the mainland, Eyeball looked down into the water; off to the right, the Pacific ocean. This place was beautiful. Maybe he should see if he could buy his own island out here, after this was over. If it ever was.