A minute later, I found myself outside, patting the angel on the back as she hyperventilated after seeing the outside of my Engine. She kept mumbling, but I could not understand a word she said. In the meantime, Sally had wandered over, and was currently giving me a curious glance. I shrugged at her once I noticed her presence.
“Who’s your friend?” Sally asked as she neared.
“Not entirely sure, she hasn’t really introduced herself yet,” I replied. “She appeared after I said the blue box spam was getting annoying. I think she’s in charge of them or something?”
“I’m one of the System Assistants,” the angel stated as she finally got a hold of her breathing. “The Gods have an entire division of we angels just to oversee it to help the mortals as they familiarize themselves with the System. After a mortal reaches level ten, we hand them off to the System proper, which is fairly automated, barring special circumstances.”
“So, wh-” Sally began.
“Two hundred and fifty Cycles ago, there was a war on an unprecedented scale,” the angel floated up and sat down on the edge of the flat car. “There used to be hundreds of these Engines, and most were wiped out. The Gods did not stop the distribution of these during that war, unintentionally lengthening it as nations scrambled to have as many under their aegis as possible. After the war, the Gods made sure that it would not happen again, so how did this one come to be?”
“To be fair, it was a near-total wreck,” I piped up.
“A wreck,” the angel looked apoplectic, eye twitching in consternation.
“Yep, even got a quest first-thing after I got out to repair it.”
“The Gods must be insane,” the angel pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “What’s the name of the engine?”
“Uh... one moment,” I said as I brought up the Engine’s screen, eyes passing over a new addition to the screen. “It’s K-A-XU 0625, though there’s a box above that says Hidden?”
“No, no, that’s the model number,” the angel waved a hand. “You should see something above that part of the screen now.”
Wrecking Machine
Titan Engine K-A-XU-0625 (Mythic)
Fuel: 100%
Level: 1
Coolant: 100% (Water)
Integrity: 100%
Train Cars: 3/10
“Wrecking Machine? Funny sounding name for an Engine,” I said aloud. I looked up and saw that the angel’s pale face had gone whiter than fresh fallen snow.
“W-W-Wrecking M-Machine?” The angel’s eye twitched, and she looked like she was about to have a full-blown panic attack. “The Engine that gained infamy for annihilating city after city and dozens of other Engines? The Engine that defied the God’s orders and sent countless angels to the Underworld in the ensuing battles? The Engine that in its death, created a gigantic crater you can still see from orbit?!”
“Uh, you know better than I?” I felt that shrugging was becoming a habit. “As far as I know, it’s just a big hunk of metal. Nuclear powered metal, to be fa-”
“IT’S NUCLEAR POWERED?!” Both of the women shouted in unison. The angel hugged herself and started rocking back and forth from her seat above us.
“I uh... didn’t confirm that beyond finding this,” I quickly switched into the hazmat suit, and immediately felt a twinge of claustrophobia. “But seeing as where I found it was leading right into the engine compartment, it’s a safe assumption.”
“Man, I think I’m jealous,” Sally huffed. “Here I am with a great ol’ steamer that’s going to eat roughly ten tons of coal per day. You aren’t gonna need to worry about fuel!”
“I guess?” I replied as I put the hazmat suit back into my inventory. “Biggest replenishable thing I’m going to have to worry about is coolant, I think?”
“The Engine that forced the Gods to make their own God Engines to combat it?” The angel continued rocking back and forth, eyes blank as she continued muttering. I shrugged at her and looked at Sally.
“So, leaving anytime soon?” I asked.
“Ach, aye,” she nodded. “I’ve got my resources full, and I’ve got all five of my cars ready to go.” She pointed a thumb back at her train, her two additional cars being another box car and a low-walled gondola that had a crane with a bucket attachment on one end and a conveyor that could move to either side on the other end. “What about you?”
“Well, I’ve got another seven cars worth of pulling power,” her eyes shot skywards as I said that. “A reward from fixing up all my cars before the Engine. Wasn’t announced to me as a quest either, so I think hidden quests are a thing to keep an eye on. In the meantime, I was supposed to get some more info out of her but I think I’m going to go check out the locked room in the warehouse and pick out some cars from there.”
I looked up at the Angel. “Hey, before we got to the whole history lesson on my Engine, were you going to explain what Traits were?”
“J-just mentally click on the Traits t-tab, and it will bring up your c-current Traits. You gain more over time, depending on which actions you undertake as an inhabitant of Gaia.” The angel seemed to get more ahold of herself as her explanation continued. “To my knowledge, you should start with just the one Trait that all Conductors share.”
Well boy howdy are you in for another heart attack, I thought to myself as I brought up the menu.
Traits:
Binding of the Soul Engine I (Common, Conductor only)
As long as your Engine is fueled, and not in a Wrecked state, each time you die you will respawn an hour later inside your Engine’s Personal cabin. During this time, your Engine is vulnerable, and if it is rendered inoperable, or your Engine is captured by hostile forces, your death will become permanent.
+25 Vitality
+∞ lives, given above conditions.
You can thank the Gods for the fact that you will reawaken fully clothed, they added that at the start of the Second Cycle.
Titan Technomat (Rare, Titan Conductor only)
The Gods have chosen you to bring forth a new era. Whenever you find a Titan; Engine, Car, or Personal Equipment, you will know instinctively how to operate it. The crafting of Titan Equipment and Cars is open to you, and your requirements to repair them are halved.
+50 Intelligence
+25 Strength
+1 to Level Cap for Titan Armored Cars
Benefits take place after viewing this Trait for the first time.
You will have One Year from the viewing of this Trait before more the Gods and the Hells unleash more Titans, like yourself, while the Ancients awaken from their millennia-long slumber.
“So... don’t panic,” I held up my hands in a conciliatory motion towards the angel. “But I’ve got a second trait. And it’s a bit of a doozy.”
“Explain,” she demanded. I filled my audience in on the second trait, and the angel fainted, falling towards us. I moved to catch her, thinking she was not heavy.
I was wrong, so very, very wrong. I was knocked down to the ground with a thump, and I was seeing stars in my vision as my head impacted the gravel. It took me a moment to recover, after which I attempted to move the angel off of me.
“How heavy is she?” I grunted out as I tried, and failed, to move her.
“You okay?” Sally crouched down as she asked.
“Oh, yeah, just peachy,” I grunted out with false mirth. “Only feels like I’ve got an elephant sitting on me, no big deal.”
I struggled for another moment. “Could I get a little help, please?”
Sally giggled at my predicament, but helped move the angel off of me. I gingerly stood up with a groan, feeling like one of the worst hangovers coupled with joint pain of someone three times my age.
The angel was out cold, so with Sally’s help, we leaned her against the nearby shed’s wall. I stretched my back after we had her situated, and felt a very satisfying pop from the very bottom all the way to the very top of my spine. Why does that always feel so good? I thought to myself.
“So, what are you going to do now?” Sally asked me.
“Well, it’s either wait for her to wake back up, or go investigate the warehouse,” I replied, jerking a thumb over my shoulder back at said building.
“Isn’t that place cleared out by now? I’ve seen you and quite a few others going in and out of there.”
“Huh, never saw anyone else other than you and myself,” I shrugged with a hmm. “There’s one room that I can virtually guarantee hasn’t been fully looted yet. I’ve got my eyes on a few cars within it.”
“There’s cars in there?” Her eyes were twinkling like only a die-hard loot goblin could ever hope to emulate. I nodded, then she grabbed my hand and started running to the warehouse. Her grip was iron, so I had no choice but to follow.
“Slo-Slow down!” I panted after we reached the empty doorframe. I put my hands on my knees, gulping down air. Never. Letting myself. Get out of shape. Again... I thought, inhaling like I had just surfaced after spending several minutes underwater. Sally tried to say something, but I held up a hand with the pointer finger aimed straight up. I swore I could taste copper at the back of my mouth, but it faded over a few minutes.
“Hokay,” I huffed. “Right, follow me.”
In no time at all, I was back in front of the locked door to the central area of the warehouse. The lock fell to the ground as it had earlier, though this time it embedded itself latch-first into the ground. Aside from being able to pull my key back out of it, it was stuck in the floor.
I took two steps in, and flipped the switch once more, still amazed at the size of the room we found ourselves looking into. I felt like a kid in a candy store, Sally definitely looked the part as her eyes widened in delight.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“I’ve got dibs on those three,” I pointed at the cars I had spotted earlier. “Uh, feel free to take any others ya like?”
She replied in a language I had no idea on, though the gist of it sounded happy, then she ran off to take a look at some of the cars nearby. I wandered over to the armored cars and used Analyze on them.
Armored Titan Barracks/Armory
Armory Storage: 0%
Level: 2
Quarters: 0/600
Integrity: 110%
The Morgue Storage: 1/100
Armored Titan Artillery Car
Ammunition: 50%
Level: 4
Crew: 0/60
Integrity: 140%
Turrets: 3/3 Artillery, 0/8 Anti-Personnel
Armored Titan Forge/Factory
Storage: 0%
Level: 3
Crew: 0/150
Integrity: 120%
Upgrades: 3/15
It took me several moments to get my jaw off of the floor. I ran up to the closest of the trio, being the Barracks car, and climbed the stairs between it and the artillery car. I tried opening the door, but received a System box telling me that I could not enter an unclaimed car, and asked me whether or not I wished to claim it. The sound barrier could have been broken with the speed at which I hit [YES].
I turned around, walked over a flexible walkway that went right over the couplers, and did the same to the artillery car. As soon as I could open the door, I rushed through it, noting that the inside was painted white in the hallway I was jogging through. Once I reached the other end, I also claimed the factory car after stepping onto it. I put my hands on my knees and caught my breath, and as I turned around to lean against the wall, I fell to my rear.
The two cars I had just claimed were missing, as if they had never been there before. I looked around, thinking my mind was playing tricks on me. I heard a noise to my left, so I crawled over and looked down.
“The look on your face,” Sally exclaimed, doubled over as she belted out in laughter. “Dinnae worry, your cars will be somewhere between the caboose and the Engine.”
“What?”
“Claiming cars,” she finally straightened up. “Ya forgot to ask the angel about what happens here when ya gain cars, didn’t ya?”
I dumbly nodded in response, getting a few more chuckles out of my acquaintance.
“When ya claim a car, as long as we’re here in this tutorial area, it’ll teleport to your train and fit right in,” she explained. “Apparently after we leave here, we gotta do it the old fashioned way. I’ve already found a few better cars that I’ve switched out for the ones I started with, likewise ya can’t do that as easily once we’re in the world proper, accordin’ to the system boxes that explained it to me.”
“Thanks,” I meekly nodded. “So as soon as I step off of this...”
“It’ll disappear from here, and appear on your train.”
I nodded and stood up. “Well, wanna come see the inside of this thing?” Her response was to rapidly ascend the stairs, so while she did that I went and opened the door to the inside. Within lay many machines you would typically see in a machine shop; lathes, hoists, end mills, grinders, worktables with vices, a tool crib that was currently empty, though I thought I spied a few small boxes on some of the shelves behind the counter. In the way back, roughly the last quarter of the car was filled with machines that I was fairly certain were the ‘forge’ part of the car, along with welding equipment, as well as a clearly marked storage bay for materials between the two areas. Everything appeared as if it had moved straight from a WW2-era factory and straight to here.
The floors were clean, though I did spy dried pools of coolant around several of the machines. I looked around, and spied several staircases heading to another floor roughly fifteen feet above us. As I approached the nearest one, I also noticed evenly spaced horizontal slabs of metal that were attached to a sliding mechanism. Most were about a foot wide and four inches tall, though roughly every ten feet there was a much larger, square-ish panel. Those ones included a deployable stand reminiscent of a machinegun’s tripod.
The stairs were utilitarian and each step was made of a honeycomb-esque pattern with small teeth on the step itself that provided excellent traction. There was a platform halfway up the stairs that also had two of the movable covers. At the very top I opened the door and found myself in a combination office space and conveyor assembly line. The lighting in here was great, though I was partially wondering where the power was coming from for it.
I walked through the desks, finding two of which had schematics still on them. I quietly rolled them up and put them in my inventory to take a look at later, and looked over when Sally called me over.
“So, is it just me or do these parts make a gun?” Sally pointed to a collection of parts on both the thin conveyor belts, and the workbenches on the opposite side.
“Yep,” I replied, walking over to a section of liftable conveyors and passing through them. As I approached, the System helpfully informed me that I was looking at all the parts for an assault cannon. Almost in a trance, I put the weapon together and was rewarded with something that looked like an AK-47, a Lahti L-39, and an RPG all had a drunken one-night-stand in a Palmetto Armory warehouse.
Man-Portable Panzerkannon Mk XVI: 20mm (Extremely Rare Titan Weapon)
Ammunition: 20/20 (APHE)
Upgrades: 0
“What. The. Fuck.” I gazed down at the weapon on the bench before me. It stood four feet long from the front of the barrel to the rear of the weapon, and was roughly eight by eight inches for half of that, the rest being the much smaller barrel in comparison. A trigger sat with a wooden pistol grip near the front of the boxy frame, along with a fairly basic flip-out sight. Behind the pistol grip was a thick cushion that clearly wrapped over one’s shoulder, again wood was used here along the side that would be near one’s head. On the opposite side, a large detachable box sat, this one filled with the shells for the gun.
“What. Th-”
“Earth t’ Thomas,” Sally waved her hand in front of my face. “You doing alright?”
“I’m not sure,” I slowly said. “I think that second trait of mine kinda took over, because I’ve never seen a weapon like this outside of video games.”
“Huh, good trait I guess,” she shrugged and started walking around. “Oh hey, there’s a lift here, looks like it goes up to the third floor, and down to the lower one!”
I put the weapon in my inventory, noting it took up a good twenty percent encumbrance, and walked over to where Sally was pushing a button to call the lift. It came down from above, and once we were situated within it, returned to the third floor. I’m not sure what I expected, but conveyors, large hoppers with built-in industrial-grade shredders, and a few CRANES weren’t it.
On either side of us was the cabin of a small crane, their booms stretching halfway along the car’s length, and it appeared as if they were extendable as well. The roof could clearly retract back on either side, leaving a good ten foot strip of extra-reinforced metal running along the length of the car’s roof. I made a note to investigate this later as I pushed the button to go down to the first floor.
As we descended, I noticed that the ceilings of both the first and second floors were heavily reinforced, almost excessively so. The lift ended its travel with a light thump, right next to the tool crib. We exited the lift, and we moved over to the forge section of the car.
I looked up after we passed the storage area, and noticed several funnels that led from the third floor down to either side, leading to another set of shredders, which then led to smelting furnaces. From those large devices, channels led to several molds, many of which were simply ingots. There were, however, areas allowing the molten metal to cool down into large flat panels that then could be moved onto rollers that would then smooth the new panels out into more even, as well as lines that could make thinner plates. Another area looked like it could definitely make pipes and rods of metals of various sizes.
Everything was cold, but looked ready to go when the time comes.
“Well, this... does seem like it’ll be incredibly useful,” I said to nobody in particular as I started walking to the nearest exit.
“Yeah, say, think you can refine a buncha scrap?” Sally asked as she followed me.
“Probably?” I replied as I opened the door and started walking down the stairs. As soon as our feet touched the ground, the car disappeared with a fwoop of displaced air.
“Only one way to find out, I’ll meet ya at your train in a bit?” I nodded in response, looking further into the area to spot any cars I might want.
As Sally left, I walked up to another car, this one being a normal boxcar identical to the one I already had on my train. Normal for Engine sized trains, at least. Like my other cars, this one was a hundred feet long, fifty wide and fifty tall. Six gigantic doors were evenly spaced on either side, indicating that there were two total floors available. An external stairwell ran up either end leading to each of the two floors, plus a ladder at the top that went to the roof. It was unarmored, but I claimed it anyway.
“Alright, that makes seven out of ten,” I mumbled to myself as the boxcar disappeared. Revealed on the other side was an incredible sight.
Before me lay a crane built into its own dedicated car. Its base was fifty feet long, but the boom arm went double that. A trio of massive hooks hung from it, each definitely capable of hoisting several tons of material at a time, and the farthest hook had a claw/scoop attachment, clearly for grabbing materials from areas to bring up to a train. In addition, it had massive outriggers ready to deploy to help stabilize the crane when in use. If I’m not mistaken, this one’s known as a “wrecker” type of crane, meant for pulling derailed cars and engines out of places they shouldn’t be. Nothin’ says it HAS to stay just for that use though... I’mma yoink it.
And yoink I did. Surprisingly, I received a notification that the crane required a flatbed car and if I would like to tie the one I had and the crane together. I pressed [YES], and received another notification that the joining was successful and that the two only counted as one car.
I walked around the area, spying a giant ornate passenger car. I thought about it, but ultimately passed it up, thinking of the ‘theme’ I had basically started going with. I spent a good hour just looking through the room, and ultimately decided on a gondola car similar to what Sally had chosen--though this one had higher walls and lacked the built-in crane--another armored barracks car that was just that and held twice as many people as the one I’d already claimed, and finally a new flat car. There were other wrecker-crane cars that I was tempted on, but I passed on those.
As I exited the room to go back to my Engine and take a good look at all the new cars I had acquired, I quite literally ran face-to-chest with a new person!
“Oh, excuse me sir,” the being rumbled. I looked up at the being’s large dark green face, and realized I was staring at an Orc. Aside from wearing a Conductor’s uniform, he looked like he’d come straight out of that old Warcraft movie.
“No harm done,” I replied, rubbing the back of my neck. “Lotta free cars in there if ya haven’t found any yet.”
“Ooh, excellent!” The orc exclaimed, then a look of realization dawned upon his face. “My name is Gurk Longtusk, might I know who I am speaking with?”
“Thomas Smith,” I replied, holding out a hand. Gurk shook it, I was half expecting to feel bones creaking, but I was pleasantly wrong. “Which Engine’s yours?”
“I’ve got a big ol’ steamer a ways that way,” he gestured to what I was charitably calling East, whereas Sally’s Engine was to my train’s West. “I was wondering who owned the big armored one I saw on my way, but judging by the fact that I saw cars appearing on it and now that you’re walking out of this room, I assume I’ve met him.”
“Yup. Just a fair warning, in a year’s time there’s going to be more of those showing up,” I said with a sigh. “Something to do with a war between the Heavens and the Hells, and if I read it right, ones that weren’t killed off two thousand or so years ago?”
“Hah! I’m sure we’ll all do fine,” Gurk laughed as he patted me on the shoulder. “Say, did you happen to find any passenger cars in there?”
“Yeah, there’s a dozen or so, with a few variants mixed in. Oh, there’s also a few more wrecker-crane cars if you want to grab one. It combined with my starter flatcar, while still only taking one car slot.”
“I’ll keep it in mind my new friend,” the orc grinned, the tusks on his lower jaw prominently on display. One had several gold and silver piercings, the other had a steel cap riveted to it. “Oh, before we depart, would you like to ‘friend’ eachother with the System?”
“There’s a ‘friend’ system?” I blurted out without thinking. “Ah, sure! How do we do that?”
Gurk showed me how to open up the Friends sub-menu, and then sent a request my way.
Gurk Longtusk would like to become Friends. As System-recognized Friends, you will both be able to know the whereabouts of each other while on the same continent. While on the same continent, you will also be able to use this part of the System to send messages to one another. Given time, you may upgrade this bond to Ally, where each Ally may come to the aid of any other Ally given a 1 Hour channel time.
Accept
Decline
I chuckled, and hit Accept. The look of joy on his face was infectious. With that, we high-fived and went our separate ways.
As I exited the building, I got a levelup notification, marking myself hitting Level 3. I was granted access to the purchasing of skills, as well as an errored-out access to the Friends List, which granted me some bonus xp!
Name: Thomas Smith
Level: 3
Class: Titan Conductor
EXP: 5/30
Health: 100%
Skills: 1
Mana: 100%
Skill Points: 5/Level
Stamina: 100%
Traits: 2
Resources: 2T(Metal)+. 10T(W)+, 10T(C), 200G(Wa), 1T(Cargo Crates)+
Huh, my class changed a bit. Wait, when did I get cargo crates? I gently put the palm of my hand to my forehead with a loud smack. Time to go check things out.