Chapter 183: Chapter 176: The wooden prototype
Two days after the twenty-cylinder meeting,
A full-length layout had been marked across the floor in white chalk. Engineers had dragged narrow rail sections into place, carpenters had built rough wooden blocks to represent each car, and Ironbreaker’s dwarves had placed iron weights on them because, in his words, "a light model is how fools lie to themselves."
Lucas had objected to turning a restricted military workshop into a children’s play floor.
Then Gandalf placed the first weight marker beside the artillery section.
Lucas stopped objecting.
Weight had a cruel talent for making arguments mature.
Lucien arrived shortly after sunrise with Malen at his side. The hall was already alive with movement. Workers rolled scaled car frames along the temporary rails. Engineers measured coupling distances. Dwarven fitters tested gap spacing between cars. Maerath stood near the wind-defense mockup, looking far too pleased with a half-circle of copper wire and chalk runes.
That was worrying.
Lucas was already there, which was worse.
He held a slate in one hand and looked as if the train had personally insulted him during breakfast.
Lucien stopped at the edge of the marked platform.
"Progress?"
Lucas pointed at the chalk line stretching almost the entire length of the hall.
"That depends on whether we define progress as solving a problem or discovering it has seventeen relatives."
Ironbreaker grunted from near the artillery block.
"Seventeen armored relatives."
"Yes," Lucas said. "A wealthy family of disasters."
Gandalf stepped forward before the conversation could collapse into professional despair.
"We have the first complete arrangement."
Lucien looked across the layout.
At the front sat the largest wooden block, armored with temporary plates nailed across its sides. A chalk label marked it as the forward locomotive. Behind it came two shorter car frames with rotating dummy gun mounts. Then a wider car marked with blue chalk runes for wind-defense. After that, two covered ammunition cars stood before the central artillery section.
Four long open-deck platforms formed the heart of the train.
Each carried a wooden mockup of a heavy gun.
Beyond them came two more ammunition cars, another wind-defense car, two rear anti-air cars, a repair car, and finally the second armored locomotive.
Seventeen units.
A fortress stretched across rails.
Lucien walked toward the front engine.
Gandalf followed him.
"The forward locomotive remains the lead traction unit. It pulls, scouts the line, carries forward armor, and handles command visibility during advance. Its weapon mount will carry one rapid-fire cannon between twenty and thirty millimeters, supported by machine guns on the forward and side arcs."
Malen studied the mockup.
"Boarding defense?"
"Yes," Lucien said. "The engine is too important to leave blind at close range."
Ironbreaker tapped the side plate with a hammer.
"Armor around the crew compartment must be thick enough to survive light artillery fragments and monster impact. Not heavy enough to make the engine repent existing."
Lucas looked down at the weight marker.
"It already seems spiritually burdened."
Gandalf moved to the next two cars.
"Anti-air cars one and two."
The mockups had twin and quad gun arrangements sketched in chalk. The mounts could rotate on reinforced rings, though the wooden versions squealed badly when moved. One apprentice tried turning the first mount too fast, and the entire dummy frame rocked sideways.
Ironbreaker stared at him.
The apprentice immediately slowed down.
Gandalf continued, "These protect the forward half from flying beasts, wyverns, aerial demons, and eventually any enemy unlucky enough to approach."
Maerath tilted his head.
"Eventually?"
Lucien glanced at him.
"Skyforge exists for a reason."
Lucas sighed.
"I miss when the sky was only weather."
"No one misses that," Maerath said.
"I do. Weather does not submit proposals."
The first wind-defense car came next.
Its mockup looked less aggressive than the anti-air platforms, which somehow made Lucas distrust it more. A low armored body supported a raised circular frame where rune arrays would later be mounted. Copper lines had been tied along the model to represent mana channels, and pale blue chalk covered the floor beneath it.
Maerath stood beside the car like a proud parent of a questionable child.
"This one is beautiful."
Lucas immediately said, "Remove whatever makes him say that."
Maerath placed a hand over his heart.
"Administrator, your fear of elegance wounds me."
"I am not afraid of elegance. I am afraid of what you call elegance."
Lucien studied the wind car.
"Function."
Maerath’s expression sharpened, turning serious quickly enough to remind everyone why he was useful.
"Layered wind barriers, short-duration pressure curtains, smoke clearing around artillery crews, dispersal against light projectiles, and disruption against diving attackers. It will not stop a dragon strike, before Aurethar appears later and says something insufferable."
Gandalf nodded.
"It also stabilizes air around the heavy guns during firing, especially when the train moves at speed or enters crosswind."
Malen looked toward the artillery block.
"Can it shield the ammunition cars?"
"Partially," Maerath said. "Enough to help. Not enough to become overconfident, which I understand is a rare illness among military men."
Malen gave him a calm look.
Maerath smiled politely and stopped speaking.
The first two ammunition cars sat behind the wind-defense unit. Their wooden shells had sloped sides and thick hatches marked in chalk. Someone had written GOT AMMO? across one side in large letters.
Lucas stared at it.
"No."
Ironbreaker did not look sorry.
"It improves morale."
"It insults spelling, dignity, and operational secrecy."
"It says what is inside."
"That is the problem."
Lucien looked at the words for a moment.
"Keep it for the model. Remove it from the actual train."
Ironbreaker looked disappointed.
Lucas looked relieved.
One of the dwarves muttered, "Cowardice against good labeling."
The ammunition cars were placed close enough to feed the artillery block, but not directly inside it. Lucien ran one hand along the wooden shell.
"Two forward ammunition cars. Two rear. Split storage reduces the risk of losing the entire supply from one hit."
Gandalf added, "Internal hoists will move shells toward the gun platforms. Armored shutters between cars. Firebreak compartments. Water and sand suppression. Rune dampening if Maerath can make it dull."
Maerath looked offended.
"I can make things dull."
Lucas stared at him.
"Name one."
Maerath opened his mouth, paused, then looked away.
"Exactly," Lucas said.
They reached the heart of the train.
Four open-deck artillery cars stood in sequence, each with a heavy wooden barrel aimed slightly upward. The mockups were crude, but the scale was enough to silence the hall. The barrels represented two hundred and ten millimeters of pure violence, mounted on rotating reinforced platforms with stabilizer legs marked on both sides.
Someone had written QUITE HOT on the front armor shield of the each gun platform.
Lucas closed his eyes.
"I hate this yard."
Ironbreaker folded his arms.
"Accurate warning."
"That is not the point."
"The gun will be hot."
"Still not the point."
Lucien let the words remain on the mockup.
For now.
Gandalf pointed to the first artillery car.
"Open deck for recoil clearance, loading access, ventilation, and crew movement. Armored side shields protect the crew from fragments and small arms. Stabilizers deploy outward before firing. Without them, recoil will punish the rails, the car frame, and everyone foolish enough to stand nearby."
One engineer pushed down on a lever attached to the model. Two wooden stabilizer arms swung out from the sides and locked into place.
Malen stepped closer.
"Can they deploy while moving?"
"No," Gandalf said. "Not safely. The artillery cars fire heavy guns from braced positions. Smaller weapons can fire while moving. The two hundred and ten millimeter guns need the train stopped or crawling under strict control."
Lucien nodded.
"Then doctrine matters. This platform is not meant to charge into every fight. It moves, positions, braces, fires, relocates."
Ironbreaker tapped the second artillery mockup.
"Like a siege battery with legs."
"Rails," Lucas corrected.
"Steel legs."
Lucas gave up.
The next two ammunition cars mirrored the forward pair. Their placement made the artillery block feel surrounded by supply rather than dependent on one direction. If the front half took damage, the rear ammunition cars could continue feeding the guns. If the rear was threatened, the front cars remained available.
After them stood the second wind-defense car.
"Rear protection," Maerath said, now circling the model. "Smoke clearing, pressure disruption, and defensive barrier support for the rear half. If the train retreats under attack, this car becomes more important."
Malen looked at the rear engine.
"Retreat is the point of the second locomotive."
"Among other things," Lucien said.
The last two anti-air cars sat near the rear engine. Their placement had been deliberate. Flying enemies would not politely attack only the front. A long train had blind spots, and the rear engine was too vital to leave defended by hope.
Gandalf moved one of the rear AA mounts through its firing arc.
"With two forward and two rear anti-air cars, we create overlapping protection zones. Not perfect, but enough to make diving attacks expensive."
Lucas wrote something down.
Lucien glanced at him.
"What?"
"Make diving attacks expensive. I may use that in the military funding justification."
Maerath brightened.
"I can help write it."
"No."
The repair car stood before the rear locomotive.
It looked modest compared to artillery and anti-air platforms, but Lucien spent longer there than most expected. The car held tool racks, spare parts, lifting arms, a small field forge, replacement couplings, seal kits, rail repair equipment, and enough workshop space for emergency maintenance.
Ironbreaker approved of it more than any weapon car.
"Good repair cars win wars."
Lucas stared at him.
"That sounded almost tender."
"Tools deserve affection. People less often."
The rear locomotive completed the formation.
Its mockup matched the front engine but reversed in command orientation. Armored shell. Machine guns. A rapid-fire cannon. Reinforced crew compartment. Compressor chamber marked in red chalk. Strong rear couplings designed to push or pull depending on the situation.
Lucien placed his hand on the rear engine mockup.
"This is what makes the platform viable."
Gandalf nodded.
"Without it, the train becomes too slow and too vulnerable after braking. With it, the front and rear engines share the burden."
Malen spoke quietly.
"If the front is destroyed?"
"The rear pulls the train out," Lucien said.
"If the rear is destroyed?"
"The front still moves, but the train loses redundancy."
Lucas added, "And I lose several years from my life."
Ironbreaker looked at him.
"You were going to spend them complaining."
"Yes. I value my hobbies after all."
Gandalf drew two lines between the engines on the floor.
"Synchronization is the harder problem. The front and rear crews must coordinate traction, braking, surge use, and emergency movement. If one engine pulls while the other pushes too late, the couplings suffer. If both surge badly, the middle cars take strain."
Lucien looked toward the compressor sketch on the nearby board.
"That is why the mana compressor stays controlled. Surge power only when ordered. Starting, climbing, recovery, emergency acceleration."
Maerath added, "And no continuous compression unless someone wants the engine to have a brief spiritual experience."
Lucas looked up sharply.
"Do not phrase failures religiously."
"Would bureaucratic tragedy be better?"
"No."
The review continued into afternoon.
They tested spacing by rolling the wooden cars along the temporary rails. The model train creaked through the hall, awkward but readable. The anti-air cars cleared the wind-defense mockups. The ammunition cars sat close enough to support the guns. The artillery stabilizers needed more side clearance than expected. The repair car needed wider doors. The rear engine coupling had to be reinforced again after Ironbreaker declared the first design "heroically stupid."
By sunset, the full platform had changed twice.
It was still recognizable.
Better, even.
The train had gained breathing space between artillery cars, armored firebreaks around ammunition storage, protected walkways between selected cars, and signal lines running above the couplings. Gandalf marked emergency separation points. Malen insisted on crew evacuation routes. Lucas forced them to add maintenance access before anyone could hide a terrible design behind the word "military necessity."
When the final chalk line dried, everyone stood around the full layout.
Lucien looked from the forward engine to the rear locomotive.
"Name."
Lucas stiffened.
"Must we?"
"If we do not, someone else will."
Ironbreaker looked at the artillery section.
"Railbreaker."
Gandalf shook his head.
"Too narrow."
Maerath said, "Sky-Sundering Continental Harmonious Ironstorm."
Lucas stared at him.
"You are banned from naming furniture."
Malen studied the long formation.
"Fortress train."
Lucien looked at the full platform.
"No."
The hall waited.
"Iron Bastion"
Everyone silently agreed at this.
"Prepare an operational train as soon as possible and start the development of anti air guns and the artillery"
Lucien started leaving the workshop after confirming the prototype
"What caliber"
"For?"Lucien asked
"The anti air guns"
"Go with 20mm guns and each car must have two of them one twin linked and one quad linked"
