It was midday by the time I managed to salvage the last of the metal I required to fix the Engine, plus the other two train cars. I had completely cleared out the warehouse I had been frequenting, and had been moving to areas that other Conductors had already abandoned in their haste to leave. Whistles had been sounding all morning, indicating more and more Conductors were leaving off to parts unknown.

  “Alright, this is the last repair I need to do,” I said to myself as I watched the repair cooldown timer hit zero. As I gave the Engine the last five tons, I was rewarded with another blinding white flash as well as a new blue box.

  I couldn’t help but let out a whoop of excitement with my arms raised in the air. No longer did my Engine look like a rusted out hunk of junk. Now it looked like an aged hunk of powerful steel. One weird thing I noticed was that I could now see all the wheels underneath, whereas the wreck had thick armor covering them. The armored walkway along the side was also missing the panels I had seen earlier, but the handrails were pristine. The top was also flattened, with no turret-protrusion to be seen at all. Likewise, all of the covered side-platforms were significantly less armored now, the columns being trusses instead of thick armor, and no weapon wreckage anymore to boot.

  I hurried up the stairs I had descended hours ago and opened the door to my cabin. Inside, I found a small cot, some empty lockers, and no rust to speak of. The air smelled faintly metallic, and the floor was the same as it was in the caboose, only fully intact with no missing patches. The stairs had tarnished, but definitely gold, filigree built into the risers, along with a celtic-knotwork-esque design running up the sides.

  I walked up the stairs, wondering why the railings were made of wood. Expensive wood, if I had to guess, just by the feel. The entire cabin exuded the air of a well-loved antique, no, that was not quite right. It gave the air of a beloved great grandparent’s home while one was still a kid, and your great grandma had just finished baking your favorite cookies.

  As I stepped onto the upper platform, I noticed that the entire top had been changed. Only one chair, this one being on the left-side of the area, remained. Gone were the remains of the computer screens as well, replaced with more gauges and levers. In the exact center of the wall was a new door, which I took the opportunity to open up. It led to a small chamber with a few steps going down to another door, making me wonder why this required an airlock, whereas the bottom door did not.

  The room was ultimately a five by five by six chamber, with a locker on the right. Within it, I recognized a suit you would only ever find in facilities dealing with radioactive material, which unsettled me. Analyzing it did nothing but confirm my worries.

  “What. The. Fuck.” I stated slowly. “My Engine is NUCLEAR POWERED!?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  =====================================================================

  The sun was high in the sky when I finally calmed down from the newest revelation of my new home. The sounds of other Engines leaving had started growing sporadic, leaving not a whole lot of Engines left. Sally still had not left, surprisingly enough, though I noticed she had found a few extra flat cars in the hours since I’d last seen her.

  I exited the rear door of my cabin, spotted a new ladder leading to the top of my Engine right next to me, and climbed it. Once on the very top, I took a seat on a convenient metal protrusion, and looked around. Off in the distance, I could spot more Engines of the Steam variety, and the unmistakable frames of Diesel engines, both streamline and standard freight types.

  I was startled off of my seat, and felt myself falling backwards. Too late, I realized I was falling head-first to the ground. The last thing I heard was a crunch, then everything went black.

  Ow, my head, was my very next thought as I felt an intense amount of pain. Not crippling, more like a very bad toothache. I opened my eyes and realized I was back in my cabin. What the fuck?

  “I-wha-yes?” I stammered. I died? And I’m alive?

  “IT’S HOW BIG?” I shouted in alarm. “That’s... that’s... ow, brain hurts. Must stop thinking.” The blue box continued after a pregnant pause, as if determining whether or not I was done interrupting it.

  At this point, I was starting to get annoyed with the large blue boxes floating up in my vision. “Yeah yeah yeah, is there any way you can just... beam this information into my brain or something?” I asked the air. “These blue boxes are getting annoying with how many I’ve seen so far.”

  “Hmmph!” I heard to my left as a golden glow suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. “Forcing me to come out of the office to help you, do you have any idea how rare this is?”

  My jaw had firmly lodged itself on the floor. Sitting on the ledge was a buxom blond beauty of a literal angel wearing a voluminous white robe. The little golden halo hovering over her head just made me wonder just what the hell I had gotten myself into.

  “Right, well, as I was saying,” she began with a pout, opening up a small blue book and looking down at it. “All Conductors are brought here by the Gods in order to help the people of this world. The strongest Conductors are eventually given the ability to travel to different worlds with their Engines, but you won’t have to worry about that for a long, long time if I had to guess. Now that the basic primer is done,” she closed her small book she had in one hand with a snap and adjusted her golden glasses to get a better look at me, I idly noted that they were connected to a loose thin golden chain that went around the back of her head. “Let’s get to the levelup system, shall we?”

  “Uh, ye-yeah, yeah,” I stuttered, beginning to wonder if I was having a fever dream. I rubbed my eyes, but the angel remained.

  “The main way you Conductors gain Experience is through fulfilling transportation quests, repair quests, or in the olden days when there were Titan Engines still running around, combat using your train. As you level up, you get a little better in all your stats, which you’ll have access to once you reach level five and can then start distributing stat points as you please. Don’t ask me why, it’s one of those Godly Mandates they set down after the twelfth Cycle.” She shrugged as she hopped down to stand in front of me, I noted that she stood head and shoulders above my own height. I tried very hard to not notice how jiggly she was, and judging by the smirk on her face, I failed. “When it comes to Experience, you can spend it on either yourself, or on unlocking upgrades to your Engine and cars. It’s only when you have to repair one of them from a Wrecked state that it costs EXP to bring it back to a usable condition. Your Engine may be up to two levels higher than yourself, but your cars must be at or below your Level.”

  “And what if it’s an armed car?” I asked. “And how long is it between Cycles?”

  “Well, Conductors haven’t had access to armed cars in many many Cycles, which are generally every hundred years. Combat cars, as they’re known, are like your Engine, but they can only be up to one Level above your own. Why do you ask?” She raised an eyebrow as she looked down her nose at me.

  “Because I found one in the warehouse, and technically my caboose is one?” I replied, sheepishly.

  “What.”