Devil's Basement: Colony Ragnarok

Tunnels

An armoured train sped through the tunnel. It was small as armoured trains go, with only enough space in the engine cab for a few people; it pulled only one car, which carried the rest of the people and equipment. Its windshield was thick enough to resist most light arms fire and was protected from railguns and shrapnel by armoured plates divided by slits just big enough to see through. The driver sat ensconced in a chair behind the windshield; another zene sat next to him, manning the cannon mounted on the front of the engine. Immortal and Travertine sat on a short bench behind them. They were approaching what appeared to be a barricade consisting of a ring of sandbags in the centre of the tunnel with steel cables strung taut across the tracks on both sides—a tactic developed during the war to prevent trains from passing.

"Who would be manning a barricade out here?" Asked Travertine incredulously;

"Those are humans." Said the driver, "And they're not wearing Unionist uniforms. They don't look inclined to stand down."

"I'd better have a chat with them." Immortal got up and climbed the ladder at the back of the cab which led up to a railgun turret. A pair of armoured plates protected the gunner from enemy fire coming from in front, but otherwise the turret was open. The train slowed to a stop in front of the cables.

"Good morning!" called one of the men at the barricade,

"Enough small talk,"Responded Immortal, "who are you and why have you set up a barricade here?"

"That's classified information."

"Classified by whom?"

"By the powers that be, of course."

Immortal's head straightened in anger; "What are you playing at?!" He demanded, "Who do you work for?"

Meanwhile, inside, the driver jerked upright in his seat, flipped the train into reverse and shoved the speed control stick all the way forward. Everyone was thrown forward by the sudden motion;

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" Immortal shouted down the hatch. Travertine spotted the human sneaking up to the train with a satchel charge just after the driver did.

"He was buying time for his buddy to blow a hole in our train!" The surgeon told the one-eyed commander. As he spoke, a hail of bullets from a railgun slammed into the train.

"Gunner! Return fire! Driver, we're far enough away, bring us to a stop." A shell from the cannon exploded just in front of the barricade, but the railgun kept firing.Immortal opened up with his own railgun. Bullets whizzed past or ricocheted off his armoured plates, but he ignored them. Having found his ranging, the gunner fired another shell which landed inside the barricade, sending sandbags and body parts flying and silencing the railgun. Smoke and dust from torn sandbags made visibility almost zero.

"Gunner, cease firing. Driver,advance slowly." The train advanced until it reached the steel cables and stopped. The area was strewn with sandbags, mangled bodies, and pieces of bodies as the dust settled.

On orders from Immortal, the three men in the supply car (who had been wondering what all the stopping and starting and shooting was about) hopped out and searched the wreckage.

"If there were any survivors,they must have gone into the warrens through that door up on the pedway." One of the men told Immortal as he came back to the train. "More importantly, we found out who they were working for." He held up a black patch with a red spider on it.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a rail tunnel not too far away, Kyanite and Comrade Sergeant were eavesdropping on the Red Wolves' telephone line connecting their outpost with... somewhere: