I turned around at the sound of the footsteps, half expecting trouble.
“Ah, hello there!” Came the voice of a redheaded woman approaching me with a wave of her hand. She was wearing your typical American workout gear, though she had a definite Gaelic accent. “Are you another Conductor?”
“I am, name’s Thomas,” I replied, sticking out a hand to shake.
“Sally,” she smiled as she shook my hand. “Where’d ya find the getup?”
“In some lockers in a shed near where my Engine is,” I hooked a thumb at the locker units behind me. “Was about to take a look through these ones to find anything more useful. The uniforms also have some beneficial effects, like this one I’m wearing. It adds a bonus to repairs and resource gathering.”
“And it just fit you?” Sally raised an eyebrow quizzically.
“It was loose at first, then it adjusted to fit just right,” I shrugged. “It’s magic, I don’t have the foggiest idea how it works yet. In the meantime, wanna look through the lockers with me?”
Sally nodded, and we both proceeded to look through the lockers. We found a half-dozen of the Engineer uniforms and another of the Formal uniforms, along with a bunch of various junk items that were set aside. We split them evenly between us, before I bid farewell so I could go repair my Engine.
“Oh, you’re the big hunk o’ junk next to me?” Sally piped up as I was approaching my Engine, startling me.
“Wh- Yeah, this one’s mine,” I replied with a frown. “Did you uh, have to follow me?”
“Well, we both need to repair our Engines, don’t we?” She shrugged. “And it’s not like I’m actually following you if I’m heading in the same direction.”
I opened my mouth to counter that, but then closed it when I couldn’t think of anything. I sighed exaggeratedly, and looked to the engine to my right. Like mine, it was absolutely huge, but unlike mine, it looked more like an old-time steam locomotive, akin to the Gresly P2-class locomotives I had seen in pictures my granddad proudly displayed in his home. This was all just judging by the large flat panels at the front and near the cabin giving it a more streamlined, hooded appearance. It looked far better than my own Engine in any case. It still looked rusty, but it still had some paint and no giant visible holes.
The only difference I could tell from the standard Gresley P2, aside from size, was that it had more wheels and a larger rear cabin. Whereas the original was a 2-8-2 configuration, the Engine before me was a 6-10-10-6, likely to compensate for the weight and length. The tender behind the Engine had walkways around the sides, and was half as long as the rest of the cars the train was equipped with. Its tender looked to be roughly fifty feet long, and I could see that coal was piled high in its hopper.
“Have you done any repairs to your Engine yet?” I asked.
“Nope, proud to say it’s at level one though, just needed some small repairs before it’ll allow me to operate it. I think I’ll call it Ghàidheal, bonus points if you can figure out what it means!” She giggled and started heading to her Engine. “Talk to ya later, Thomas!”
“Yeah, see you later,” I waved halfheartedly. In the distance, a steam whistle sounded out forlornly, and I heard the unmistakable sounds of the Engine on the opposite side of mine leaving. Guess some of us are faster than others, or they’re like Sally and started with a non-wreck? Eh, time to see how to fix this big ol’ hunk’a junk. Now, how do I do the repairs on this thing?
Welcome back, Conductor! To begin repairs upon your Engine, just hold your hand on the side of it and think [Repair].
Thank you again, mysterious blue box. I chuckled and did as instructed. Within moments, 9500 pounds of my gathered metal was gone, and not much changed. I frowned and used the Analyze skill on it again.
“It went from twelve to twenty-five percent.” I smacked my face and sighed. Well, at least I’ve got more metal to do more repairs. Let’s see how much further I can get with what I have left!
I was able to do another repair after another five minutes, leaving me with the knowledge that there was a cooldown between repairs, and that five tons of scrap equaled about twelve and a half percent of repair. I was left with a half-ton of metal after both repairs. Holes had disappeared, though I had the feeling that most of the repaired material was internal rather than external. With a shrug, I started walking back towards the warehouse, but I stopped when I reached the rear of my caboose.
Looking up, I noticed that it was different from your standard caboose. The front two-thirds of the car was shaped like a caboose, what with the boxy frame and the raised observation section on the top, but the rear third of the car was fitted with a large metallic box with sloped sides. On the top of which was what appeared to be a turret of sorts, but I could not identify what it was equipped with due to how damaged it was. I walked around so I was looking at it from the rear and noted that there were a total of two such protrusions evenly spaced along the back of the caboose. Curiosity piqued, I Analyzed it.
Armed Unarmored Caboose (Rare)
Ammunition: 1%
Level: 0 (Wreck)
Crew: 0/0
Integrity: 50%
Huh, an armed caboose? Think that’s the first I’ve ever heard of something like that. I mentally weighed the options of investigating the insides of the car, or continuing to gather resources. I looked around, noting several other Engines were in the process of leaving. Curiosity won out over gathering, and I soon found myself standing on a fairly hole-ridden deck ten feet above the ground.
Both turret’s hatches that led to the walkway I found myself on were blown open, exposing foot-thick walls of armor and a cavernous interior covered in the remnants of an explosion. The door leading into the main cabin of the caboose was missing, as was a large chunk of the wall next to it. Grand, it’s all wreckage. Wonder what it’ll look like once repaired?
I made my way to the wreck of a door that led into the caboose proper, and was greeted with a dingy room filled with dust, wrecked furniture, bullet ridden walls, and a surprisingly intact commode. The latter I identified immediately due to the half-intact bullet hole-ridden door that showed a pristine porcelain throne in a central room. This first area was huge, with a combined kitchen and dining area taking up most of the area. Two doors on either side of the bathroom led further in, both sealed shut. A ladder led upwards into a second floor above. The trend of holes in the floor continued into this room, and said ladder was also missing half of its rungs.
I brought up the screen to repair the caboose, and raised an eyebrow when it only required a ton of wood, and a half-ton of metal. That’s convenient. Might as well, looks like I’ve got no time limit on fixing the Engine, and it’s not like it’s going anywhere yet.
I regretted standing inside the caboose as it went through the magical repair process, as I was greeted with a blinding light that once dissipated, left me with an intact interior and myself blinking away the splotchy afterimages.
Congratulations! You have fully repaired your Level 0 Armed Caboose (Wreck) and now have the option to upgrade it to a Level 1 Armed Unarmored Caboose. Doing so will cost you five EXP points normally, but your first car repair is free! Would you like to upgrade now?
“Ye- yes. Please.” I mumbled, blinking my vision back. My efforts were stymied, however, as I was once again enveloped in a blinding light. Ah, FUCK! Why does it have to be blinding?
I stumbled backwards a few steps and promptly fell on my rear against the wall. It took me several more minutes before I could see again, and I was presented with a nice slightly run-down caboose interior.
I found myself sitting on a nice wooden floor, though it did still have some patches missing planks, exposing a metal subfloor. To my right was the kitchen, now sporting several wood burning stoves, a trio of metal sinks like what you would find in a commercial kitchen, and several wooden counters. There were many cabinets both above and below the counters, but many were missing doors. All of the cabinets, and the stoves, were empty, which I shrugged off, not expecting to get anything aside from a more intact caboose.
I rubbed my eyes as I stood up, and looked around again. The dining area was barren of furniture aside from a bolted-down picnic table. It was in dire need of refinishing, but other than that was in perfect condition. I retrieved the locker from my inventory and placed it along the wall near the table, and realized that I felt quite a bit lighter, like I had just put down a full rucksack after a training march. I took a look at my still-open Inventory screen, and noticed a little Encumbrance meter.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It currently sat at twelve percent without the locker. I put it back in and saw it shoot up to sixty percent. Feeling experimental, I set the locker against the wall again, and emptied it of the food cans I had put in it earlier. Once it was in my inventory, I noticed no change in the total encumbrance. This led me to two hypotheses; either storage containers had a fixed amount of encumbrance, or food items weighed nothing while in my inventory. The latter was quickly disproven as I removed the few stacked food cans, bringing me down to seven percent, so I was left with something to test in the future.
I walked over to one of the two restored doors leading further into the caboose and opened it. Within was revealed to be a tool room roughly ten feet long and twelve at its widest. Aside from a few lockers, pegboard along the walls, and a workbench, the room was barren.
Congratulations, Conductor! You have unlocked your first Workshop! With this Worktable, you have unlocked the Crafting menu in your Interface when nearby any friendly Workshop and gained an additional ten EXP! Congratulations on your levelup by the way. Once you’ve fixed up your Engine, you’ll be taught how that process works and what you’ve gained. For now, try giving Crafting a try!
A soft golden glow surrounded me as I heard a pleasant chime. I felt slightly stronger, but now filled with more questions. The first thing on my mind was that the System was definitely sentient, or whoever was writing my blue boxes was. The next thing was that I definitely had to try out this new avenue of the System that had been unlocked.
I walked up to the workbench, and found myself filled with a lack of surprise as another box opened up in front of my eyes, hovering over the tabletop. Heh, it’s like a touchscreen without the hardware! I chuckled as I waved my hands over the System box, seeing several different options I had available to me. The first thing that caught my eye was a leather toolbelt that cost ten leather scraps.
I selected it, and an image of the belt appeared before me. I noticed a downwards pointing triangle below the belt, so I put my hand on it. The belt flew upwards and another, slightly more improved belt, appeared.
“Neat,” I said as I scrolled further until I ran into a grayed-out belt that would not allow me to scroll further. I scrolled to the last un-grayed-out belt, which would cost me all of my current leather scraps, and looked like a combination of suspenders, a tool vest, and a belt with pouches.
Sturdy Conductor’s Tool Belt (Uncommon) | Requirements: Conductor, Level 2, 25 Leather Scrap (Any)
While worn: repairs cost 5% less, halves tool encumbrance by 50%. Grants the user four additional inventory slots for two large tools, as well as additional external tool storage for small to large tools. In addition, it provides fantastic back support!
The speed at which I selected that belt option was comparable to that of light. The speed at which my disappointment was spurred on was immeasurable, however, when I saw a five minute timer appear in the lower left corner of the workbench’s System box, along with an image of the belt. Not knowing much else to do, I started looking through the menus again and settled upon adding a basic crowbar and bolt cutters to the queue.
Instead of standing there menacingly as I flicked a glare at the queue timer, I walked through the other door to see the front half of the caboose. I was greeted with a storage area filled with empty crates. Along the ceiling were several mobile hand-operated winch systems, some dangling hooks attached to chains, one even had a crate suspended on it still!
On my right was a metal cage that led up to the second floor. It struck me as a cargo elevator shaft, minus the elevator platform. On either side of the shaft was a stairwell that led upwards to the next floor. The stairwells went halfway up before stopping at a landing and then turning ninety degrees to finish up on the other floor. I walked up the closest set and found myself standing in an office-slash-warehouse. Twelve rickety-looking desks were my clue as to this, as were more crates. Another door greeted me on the left.
Finding nothing immediately of interest, I opened the door and was greeted with another hallway with several doors along the interior side. As I walked through it, I opened the doors, finding several more bathrooms, as well as a large communal shower room. The final door on my left led to the observation room, with two short spiral staircases leading up to the open balconies near the windows.
I opened the door at the very end of the hallway, and was rewarded with the vision of a barracks room. Bunk bed frames galore decorated the room, with closed trunks at the foot of every single one of them. Unsurprisingly, every single one I checked was empty, and the frames were just that. There were no mattresses, nor blankets and pillows. Guess I’ve gotta either find them, or find a shitton of cloth to make ‘em. No freebies, I guess.
As I was walking back to the door, I got three rapid notifications in my lower right corner of my vision. Small boxes letting me know my items had finished their queues disappeared as fast as I read them. Feeling a bit of excitement, I exited the barracks and entered the observation room, looking for the ladder I had spotted earlier.
It was no longer damaged and headed all the way up to the upper balcony, though I did note it now had a layer of chipped black paint on the rungs, in addition to a light patina of rust. I tested a rung with a foot, finding it secure, so I headed down the ladder. I jumped off for the last few feet, coming down with a slight grunt. Definitely need to get back into shape, kinda starting to regret letting myself go these last six years now.
Within moments I was back at the workbench, finding all three of the items I had made lying on the work surface. I put the two tools in my inventory, finding that they did indeed take up two slots within it, and each gave me a five percent encumbrance penalty. Putting on the toolbelt immediately did as advertised, bringing both down to two and a half percent encumbrance and opening up four inventory slots to the left of the screen. I moved the two tools into them with a grin.
“Now, that’s all well and good,” I said to myself, “but what if I need them at-hand?”
I pulled the crowbar out and looked at the vest, finding a loop on my left to place it in. Said crowbar weighed a good few pounds in my hands, and had a nice hazard stripe paintjob along the handle. I placed it in said loop, and looked at my inventory slots. The crowbar did not appear there as a ghosted-out icon like I thought, which I was happy with. I did, however, notice a new icon on the bolt cutters. It was small, showing two looping arrows. A spark of inspiration hit me, and I mentally clicked the icon. At my side, the crowbar disappeared and in its place the bolt cutters appeared.
“Oh fuck the hell yes!” I thrust an am up in the air in victory. “Tool swapping is going to be so handy, though the ten percent savings on the repairs is what I was really going for.”
With a spring to my step, I exited the caboose and started walking back to the warehouse. I stopped as I exited the door to take a look at the two turrets on the rear. Both were now intact, and comically tiny compared to what their wrecked versions were. The rear of the metal block they sat upon was also wide open now, exposing that the walls were a quarter of an inch thick. If I had to compare the turrets to anything, I would say they were akin to those of the first turreted tank, with similar cannon sizes.
The way back to the warehouse was uninteresting, though I did check a shed I had bypassed the last time I had walked this way. Inside the only thing I found was a rusty sledgehammer, which quickly found itself added to my tool inventory. There was nothing wrong with it aside from the light rust along the head, thankfully.
Reaching the warehouse was likewise uninteresting, as was gathering scrap from more of the hoppers still within. However, while I was about to gain another ton of scrap metal from the middle of the building, I felt a tingling coming from the top of my chest. I finished sucking up the metal and looked down at my bandana. The fuck? What’s causing this?
I felt around with my left hand, eventually finding the source of the tingling. The key I had found earlier was very lightly vibrating and glowing. I looked around me as to what could be causing this reaction.
After gazing at the cleared area around me, my eyes settled upon the large padlock I had spied earlier. It was almost comically large for the man-sized door it was on, yet it too was glowing faintly. I looked around me, noting I was all alone, and walked up to the padlock while removing the key from around my neck.
Now that I looked at the key a little more closely, it appeared unlike many keys I had seen before. It had a total of five prongs, all arranged in a circular pattern. They were notched both on the inside and outside of the prongs.
Adamantium Key of the Titan Conductor: Soulbound, unlocks that which has been forgotten.
“That which has been forgotten?” I was both mightily intrigued and confused. “And soulbound, huh? Guess that means I’ll never lose this thing barring exceptional circumstances... Hope it’s not one use.”
I said the last sentence as I took the padlock in my hand and inserted the key with the other. It entered smoothly with a small click, a slight turn unlocked the padlock, and the padlock fell to the side with a heavy thunk. I bent down and retrieved my key, which had miraculously missed getting smashed into the floor.
The door opened with a squeak, allowing me to see... Absolute darkness. Whatever room I had opened had no light coming from the outside to illuminate my findings. Well, that’s not ominous at all. Well, nothing’s jumped out at me yet even though there’s been plenty of time for it... Nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say.
I opened the door as much as I could, letting some light in. With this small addition of light, a large electrical switch made itself visible. It was one of those big fancy knife-switch types, with a large rubber coated handle leading to two conductive arms. I stepped up to it and lifted it up into the ‘on’ position and was genuinely surprised when the area lit up like a Super Bowl Stadium.
Lights flashed on one by one, illuminating a cavernous train car storage lot, filled with various train cars of many different types. As the lights finished turning on, my eyes were drawn to a trio of joined together cars just sitting in the center. Each one looking fit for the front lines of World War Two, and in pristine condition. All three were painted a matte black and like the train cars outside, absolutely massive in size. I felt drawn to them, the center one especially due to the obvious cannon barrels on the three turrets along its length.
I shook my head and looked back at the door I had walked in through. Making a decision to revisit this room later, I turned the lights off, exited, and put the padlock back in place. The damn thing weighed nearly twenty pounds, and the shackle was an inch thick of a metal I did not recognize. I continued through to the other end of the warehouse, finally topping up all of my resources aside from the water, so I began heading back.
The way back to my Engine, I could not help but feel like I was being watched. The morning sun was still rising, and a fresh breeze had kicked up, yet both of these did nothing to dispel my unease. The feeling was still there after I dumped all of my metal into the repairs, netting me roughly fifty percent completeness.
“Just a few more trips and that’s done,” I sighed. I looked past the front to the distance, seeing nothing but empty wasteland leading into a series of tunnels in a distant mountainside. I could see the tail ends of a dozen Engines at various distances to said tunnels, with one disappearing in a flash as it fully entered one.
“Wonder why I can only do the repairs to the Engine when I’ve got increments of five tons of metal on hand?”
I received no blue box in response much to my irritation, seeing as it had been very helpful before.