West of Osiris
9:45 A.M.
After that, the railyard was taken with little difficulty. Redgrave and Gator reached the machine gun nest before another goblin could take the first one’s place. When the casualties had been tallied, Tantalus learned that thirteen men had been injured; two were injured so badly that they would have to sit out the rest of Operation Reunion. Valdore in Gator’s squad lost his right leg, and Sun from VK’s squad lost his left arm at the shoulder. Miraculously, nobody died. Tantalus thanked the universe for being merciful as Valdore and Sun began the slow process of walking back toward the company’s vehicles.
Grim had just injected Elias with a needle attached to a blood bag when the leader of Squad T9 approached Tantalus. He was a nervous-looking man who had a bandolier of small pouches strung over one shoulder. The man saluted and said, “C-captain, we’ve found…”
“Don’t salute me in the field,” Tantalus firmly chastised the man.
“Y-yes sir, I am so sorry sir,” the man recoiled at his own incompetence. It was only at this point that Tantalus recalled the man’s name. His username was ScottishDog, but everyone on the forums called him Scotch. He wasn’t exactly officer material, but he was a veteran of Ninth Oasis, though he never achieved a rank. “I’m h-here to tell you that we’ve found two trains, but the lead cars have been destroyed.”
Tantalus got to his feet. “Are you guys okay here?”
“Just peachy,” Elias said, his face pale from blood loss. At least his eye had grown back, so he no longer had to wear the eye patch.
“Take me to the train,” Tantalus stood up straight from the earthen rampart he was leaning against and began to follow Scotch.
When he saw one of the trains, Tantalus could immediately tell that repairs were impossible. Huge dents had been made in the engine, and the fragile machinery within had been torn out. The train’s walls had been bent, and wheels had been torn off their axles. It was as if the lead train car had been crushed by an impossibly strong creature. Tantalus figured that one of the Ogres must have destroyed the lead train car, though a part of him doubted that even they would be strong enough to destroy the train in such a way.
“You’re right, Scotch, these trains have been completely destroyed. Have you found any others?” Tantalus asked.
“No, sir,” Scotch said, clearly surprised that the Captain knew his name.
“Thanks,” Tantalus patted Scotch on the shoulder before turning toward the crowd of Revenants standing nearby and shouted. “I need to talk to Squad 20! Are they here!?”
A group of five soldiers about a hundred feet from Tantalus approached him. One of the five men had a conspicuous hump on his back where he was carrying a primitive cell phone device like a backpack. Squad 20 stopped next to Captain Tantalus and awaited his next command.
“I need to speak to General Dogwood,” Tantalus told Squad 20. “Do we have a signal here?”
“Yes, sir, I believe so,” the Revenant carrying the cell phone said. He removed his grey cloak and his backpack and placed both on the ground.
Tantalus stepped over to the large device and kneeled down. The device was held within a large black canvas case which had a number of zippers. Tantalus unzipped the top zipper and saw a metal box with a brick-sized handset attached to the side. The handset, the portion of the phone that actually resembled a phone, was connected to the metal electronics box with a long corkscrew cord. It was a far cry from the smartphones that Tantalus was used to, but it would serve his purposes.
A green light on the box told Tantalus that the cellular phone still had a signal. He had been told by General Dogwood that the phone would work if it was within five miles of a cell tower. Tantalus pulled the handset from its cradle, and he held it up to his ear. He punched in General Dogwood’s number and waited.
“This is the General,” the voice on the other side said. “Have you cleared out the railyard yet, Captain Tantalus?”
Tantalus would have to get the central command to adopt some kind of electronic security at some point. “Yes. We were ambushed, and two men are too injured to continue with the operation. In addition, all the trains we have found so far have been sabotaged.”
A grunt could be heard from the other end of the call. “Smart,” the General grunted. “They usually don’t get this smart until later in the Deluge.”
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“I don’t understand,” Tantalus said, furrowing his brow.
“It’s not important. There should be a locked door near Platform 3. Send some Greycloaks over there to break down the door. There’s an underground platform, and the staircase leading to the platform is behind that door. Let’s just hope the enemy didn’t find the hidden platform.”
“Yes, sir,” Tantalus said. “I didn't know the top brass had already started using that name."
The General chuckled. “That’s what everybody calls your soldiers. There’s Ashcroft’s Knights, Mander’s Templars, and Tantalus’s Greycloaks.”
“We’ll check the hidden platform, sir," Tantalus said.
Within fifteen minutes, the locked door by Platform 3 was open. In order to get to the door, they had to walk through an employees-only section of the station. The door was attached to an innocuous break room. It was so well-hidden that it took three squads ten minutes to find it. The door was shot open, and FullDan’s squad was sent in to clear it out. Tantalus would have sent in Squad One or Three, but both squads had injured members.
FullDan and most of Squad Five switched to their sidearms before they entered the staircase leading to the railyard’s basement. The staircase was incredibly cramped and dark, so any fighting would be at a range of no more than ten feet. Every man after the door-knocker in Squad Five carried flashlights in their off hand. The man in the front had both hands full with the shotgun.
Squad Five entered the basement. After a few minutes of silence, the all-clear signal echoed out into the break room where Tantalus and Redgrave were standing.
The uninjured members of Squads One and Three entered the staircase once the all-clear signal was sent. As soon as he exited the dark staircase, Tantalus found himself in a subway station. It was well-lit and about the size of three platforms of the train station above.
On the tracks in the center of the cavernous recess beneath the railyard was a huge undamaged train. The train must have had more than fifty cars. The whole train couldn’t fit on a single track, so it had to snake along several switchbacks. At a glance, it seemed as if there were three trains.
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11: 15 A.M.
About an hour later, Tantalus stood on the platform with General Dogwood, Colonel Feldrast, Captain Ashcroft, and Captain Mander. The five of them together were the most important officers of the Vanguard Unit that would be leading the assault. Alpha Company, Mike Company, Tango Company, and the Osirian 5th Infantry Brigade would serve as the spearhead of Operation Reunion.
A thousand NPC soldiers and most of Tango Company were in the process of boarding the train. All of the support soldiers of Tango Company who were rated at a yellow danger level were also boarding the train. Lieutenant Kuro was helping pack large crates of supplies on the train. More than a hundred Revenants and players were helping load the supply cars in the back.
All told, the train would hold about 1,200 soldiers. General Dogwood said that the train had the capacity to hold 2,000 soldiers between its 40 passenger cars, but he didn’t want to keep too much of the Vanguard Unit in one place.
“So, I take it the airport was a bust,” Tantalus whispered to Ashcroft.
“Yeah,” Ashcroft grunted, “they ambushed us with machine guns, but I was able to give enough of a warning that we only took minimal injuries.”
“I really gotta get someone with Future Sight on my team,” Tantalus muttered.
“Future Sight is a Rare ability, according to my Menu. Only a thousand people per server are eligible,” Ashcroft said, pride evident in his voice.
“Only 3% eligibility,” Tantalus said, “that is rare.” Tantalus decided to not mention that his special ability was Unique, and only 0.003% of people were eligible to take it. “I wonder if the System is showing favoritism.”
“Perhaps,” Ashcroft grinned wolfishly. “Not that I have a problem with it.”
The conversation between the two generals ended as a man with lapels designating him a major entered the subway station and walked up to the two high-ranking officers.
“The 5th Brigade is ready to deploy,” the major reported.
General Dogwood cleared his throat. Physically speaking, the General was an old man, though he retained his vigor despite his old age. He was a large man who stood well above six feet tall, and his shoulders were broad. His hair had turned entirely grey, though the military cap he always wore did a good job of concealing this fact. He carried a huge greatsword on his back, and Tantalus always wondered if the sword was merely ceremonial. It seemed unfeasible for an older man to use such a huge sword in combat. Other than the cap, old age, and greatsword, General Dogwood looked like any other NPC soldier. He wore the green tabard over chainmail that the NPC soldiers wore when they were expecting to see combat.
“Soldiers of Osiris, today is the day we begin Operation Reunion!” General Dogwood announced loud enough for everyone in the station to hear. “We’ll bring the fight to the Deluvians, and we will reach New Arcadia. Today, human and Revenant will together deliver unto the monstrous horde their first defeat. And then we will reconnect with Fulvang as well. And then we will clear all of Rubigo of their evil! And then we will sail to Merkopia and kill the God of Machines once more! Go out there and show your mettle for all of Ferrum to see!”
The soldiers within that subway system, both Revenant and NPC alike, raised their fists into the air and cheered out in righteous fury.