Cale Dawkins watched the horizon through his looking glass as he chewed on a piece of tough jerky. He savored the flavor because it was the last of their meat. If this job didn’t pan out, it was back to hard tack until they made a profit. Hopefully, his employers' information on this train was accurate.
He thought he saw something and adjusted his view back toward the valley entrance. From this distance, it wasn’t clear if he was just imagining things. He cursed the poor quality of the device and pulled it from his eye to try and wipe the lens clean. As if that would somehow improve the clarity.
After ‘cleaning’ it, he put it back to his eye and focused on the valley once more. Or slightly above it. There! Was that smoke? He kept his eye on that spot for a few minutes and sure enough, he started to see a line of grey smoke. Their target had arrived.
He smiled before collapsing the looking glass and sticking it back into its case. Despite its poor craftsmanship, it was still better than relying on just his eyes. He rose from his seat and started thumping the rest of his posse with his boot. “Wake your asses up, train's coming!”
It didn’t take much more than that to get his people into action. Really, he only needed to get Donny the pilot up, but the rest of the lazy lumps didn’t deserve to sit around while Donny worked his magic.
The new kid crawled around, twisting knobs and pulling levers. Soon a low hiss could be heard as steam started to build pressure in the walker.
Cale would be the first to admit he didn’t understand the workings of these automata. He couldn’t read or write either, but he made do. With most things in life, the specifics weren’t important, he left that to the experts. In this case, those were the artificers who designed and built the contraptions.
The only thing he cared about was if the walker was useful to him. And the walker was extremely useful. Faster than a horse, and with a much longer range to boot. He fell in love with the contraption the first time he laid eyes on it. Cale liked to be a bit of a showman and no other outlaws were running around using automata to rob folks.
The only concern was keeping the walker in running order and piloting it. That was what Donny was for though.
The kid was a gift from above. Literally a gift from his employer to make this job happen.
That was fine with him, the kid and the rest of his crew got along well. When this whole operation was done, he was hoping to sweet talk the lad into sticking around. Keeping the automaton was already part of the deal but it wouldn’t be much use without the kid. He had tried to watch the kid work, but it was just too many things to keep straight in his head. And nobody else on his crew seemed all that interested.
Soon a low hiss started and Donny hurried over and shut a valve. “Steam is building, we should be good to go shortly.”
Cale smiled and patted the lad on the back. “Efficient as always, Donny.” The boy straightened and smiled at the praise.
After ushering the lad back to his work, he turned to the rest of his men. Soon the platform started to rise in the air, swaying slightly. Most were busy tying ropes to metal posts to keep from falling off. After the first mishap, where one of his men fell overboard, nobody else wanted to experience a twenty-foot fall and a cracked skull. The walker tended to sway quite a bit as it moved. Cale had not been born in Fareen, he had come over on a boat like many people. And riding the walker was similar to that.
Most of his men called the automaton the chicken based on the twin legs that held it aloft, but he made sure they didn’t say this where Donny could overhear. The kid was pretty protective of the machine.
Speaking of securing himself, Cale gave the kid one more appreciative pat before moving to the seat next to the pilot seat. They would have added seats for everyone but there simply wasn’t room. The rest of his gang just sat along the edge of the wooden platform with their feet dangling over the side. The back half was dominated by a rope net that hung loosely. Soon, if fate was willing, that netting would be full of loot.
The platform began to rise higher and higher and Donny strapped himself into the pilot chair with a pair of artificer goggles he had purchased with their last take. It made the kid look silly but to each his own.
The boy squeezed the brake lever and threw it forward. With a loud clank, the walker began to stomp forward as it slowly gained speed.
It didn’t feel very fast, but the one time they had a shootout with some lawmen on horseback, it quickly left them in the dust. You would think a twenty-foot automaton would be difficult to hide but that was surprisingly untrue. The whole contraption folded down to where it sat only a few feet or so off the ground. Easily able to hide in places where horses couldn’t get to and anyone on foot would be unable to keep pace.
Cale smiled and pointed the kid in the direction he wished to go. They had plenty of time to find a nice ambush spot before the train arrived.
Puffs of white smoke poked over the next hill, easily visible to the naked eye. It had taken them hardly any time to find a little hill near the track that gave a perfect view.
The train was almost where he needed it to be. They were situated in a rather hilly area covered in trees. The tree cover would help hide them from the train crew until it was too late. The train would also be forced to slow as it made its way out of the valley. Trying to board a train going full tilt was not a fun time. He should know.
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“Alright, charge your rifles.”
The men nodded and made their way over to the charging chamber on the walker. It stored the compressed air generated by the automaton’s steam boiler. He could hear hisses of escaped air as the men connected the thick hoses to the charge tanks on their guns. It would have been ideal to fill up sooner, but keeping the tanks pressurized for too long tended to wear them down faster. And any repairs cut into their take.
“Make sure your gauges are reading full, I don’t want anyone running out halfway if we get into a fight.” He directed these words at a scrawny man on his crew.
The man grimaced. “That was one time, boss.”
The other men chuckled.
“Yeah, one time too many. That was one less gun we had to escape that dustup. Or should I go visit Emanuel’s grave and let him know you’re sorry?” The group muttered but went quiet as they double-checked their tanks.
He nodded and filled his tank as well, double-checking it. Once he was done, all they needed to do was wait. His sharpshooters already had their rifles trained on the tracks in the distance. It wouldn’t be long now. Plumes of smoke were getting closer as the train worked to crest the previous rise. Soon it would come streaming down into their valley until it slowed and began the laborious climb back out. That’s when they would strike.
A train engine was a tough nut to crack. Thick steel made it impervious to anything he could throw at it. But it did have weak points and his men would be aiming for those.
Soon the train came into view, a large cloud of steam and smoke bellowing from the smoke stack. This wasn’t one of those little rinky dink trains that tooled back and forth between settlements. This was one of those big-city cargo jobs.
He had already been told what to expect so nobody on his crew was surprised by the sight.
They watched as the long train pulled itself over the hill like a dying man looking for water. Soon enough the train crested the rise and started to speed up. Once the locomotive got to the valley floor it easily crossed the distance with little effort, the massive wheels chugging along as it pulled a full twelve cars behind it. The first few were flat cargo cars draped in canvas to protect what was beneath them. There might be some smaller items they could take from the flat cars but the last few were where the money was. Carriages and the luggage car.
According to his contact, this train was bound for Ember Creek. Cale had never been that far west, but he had heard of the town. It wasn’t the type of place you went to for a visit. That meant everyone on board this train had their entire lives with them. And that meant valuables.
He could feel his men’s anticipation as the train started to slow on the upward slope. But they knew when to hit it. Soon he heard the distinctive puff as the two sharpshooters fired. By now the train was close enough to muffle the sounds of their rifles. They could see them as well if they bothered looking. But it was also too late.
It took a dozen shots, but soon his men hit their marks. He watched as a steam line was ruptured along the side of the train, followed by another. Two more quickly followed this. If the train had been struggling before, now it was gasping for breath. It wouldn’t have been enough to stop the train on a flat surface, but in this hilly region, it was just enough. The wheels along this side slowly stopped spinning and instead of climbing, the train struggled not to slide back into the valley.
The only thing that gave it any forward momentum was the cars behind it. There were loud clangs as those rear cars pushed against the cars in front of them, but they weren’t enough to push the train over this hill. As the train lost momentum, it slowly started slipping backward. They were close enough that he could see the two conductors panicking inside as they frantically worked at the controls. He wondered if they even figured out what was happening.
Even if they did, it was too little, too late. Cale smiled. “Alright boys, let's do this.”
Donny closed off a vent and the steam that had been prevented from building pressure rushed through the pipes and the walker rose above the thick brush. The conductors seeing what was about to unfold, jumped and ran. One of his men was lining up a shot, but Cale stopped him. “Don’t waste your charge.”
The man grumbled but lowered the rifle.
The walker quickly covered the open expanse to the train. A few of the passengers had gotten off at this point. They soon spotted his group and like the train crew, they too tried to flee.
This time he didn’t stay his men’s lust for blood. “Pick off anyone that looks rich, leave the workers.”
The screams of fleeing people were drowned out by the whistling hiss of escaping steam from the large train engine. This made it easy to pick off people without them realizing they were being targeted.
Soon the area around the train was quiet and half a dozen bodies lay on the ground. He pointed to two of his men. “Andrew, Clyde, you two go check the bodies. The rest of us will secure the rest of the passengers. Oh, and make sure to check them for a badge.” He had been warned a Peacekeeper might be aboard the train.
The two men nodded as they slid down the ropes that had once secured them to the walker.
The rest of his crew wasn’t far behind. Before dropping himself, Cale looked at Donny. “Keep it in motion until I give the signal.”
The boy nodded enthusiastically.
Cale smiled. If they hadn’t managed to tag the lawman, keeping the contraption moving would make the walker and Donny a hard target. With that, he slid down the rope.
He landed with a little puff of dust and quickly brought his rifle back up. There was a total of two carriages and one baggage cart, so his men split up to cover the exits to both cars.
People were looking out the windows with terror on their faces. Cale gave them a genial smile as he headed toward the front of the first car. He always liked to start at the front.
As he climbed aboard one of his men stepped aside to let him enter.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention.” As if they were looking anywhere else, he chuckled internally. “We are here to rob you. But if you don’t resist or cause trouble, all you will be losing is a few items.”
“And if we do?” One older man asked from the back.
There was always one. Cale tapped on the glass window. “Take a look outside. You see those people lying in the dirt?” The puffed-up older man deflated. That was enough of an answer it seemed.
“My associate behind me will be coming by with a bag. Put any jewelry or valuables inside this bag. Another associate will be coming by after him. If he finds you were holding out on us.” He tapped on the window again. Then he started forward.
“Oh, one last thing. There is a lawman aboard, could someone kindly point them out to me so we can have a little chat?”
The people looked confused by this claim. Hmm, maybe his information hadn’t been accurate. As he took another step forward, there was a deafening boom, and everyone, including his men, froze.
Cale saw one of the men sent to guard the rear of the last carriage topple from the steps, blood blooming across his chest. That was concerning, but more so was the sound. “Leave the bag. With me, now!” He yelled at his men as they rushed through the car, shoving people aside.
If that sound was what he thought it was, they could be up shit creek without a paddle. But with enough bodies, maybe they could still salvage this mess.
As they entered the final passenger carriage, another boom rang out followed by the sound of shattering glass. Another of his men outside pitched forward into the dirt.