Date: Year 931 — Month 2 — Day 16Location: Northern Reich – Outskirts of YocktownStatus: Military Offensive Preparation
The trains came heavy and without pause.
Steel locomotives armored in dark plates pulled into the Yocktown railyard one after another, their boilers hissing through the cold morning air. Steam rolled across the cobbled platform like fog, swallowing boots, crates, and steel. Sparks fell from undercarriages as the brakes shrieked in metal protest.
Each train carried weight enough for war. Flatbeds groaned beneath stacks of wooden crates marked with Reich stamps — belts of rifle ammunition, boxed mortar rounds, rolls of barbed wire, spools of radio cable, sacks of dried rations, and bundled replacement parts for the field. Some cars hauled mortars strapped to reinforced beams, while others bore dismantled repeaters and their tripod mounts still slick with preservative grease.
Medical cars arrived sealed and marked with red eagles. From their interiors came tightly lashed chests of battlefield supplies — chemical tinctures for shock, blood-clotting powders, cold-drawn nerve suppressants, cauterizing tools, surgical clamps, burn-salve tins, and linen dressings soaked in antiseptic oils. All packed to regulation. All methodically labeled.
Crates were stacked fast and high.
Beyond the rail yard, carts and steam-assisted transport rigs rolled east toward the staging grounds. Oxen teams pulled carriages of food, water, lumber, fuel, signal gear, and canvas. Flagged convoy banners flapped in the rising wind. Snowmelt ran down the rutted road edges, turning the soil black.
At the top of the ridge overlooking Yocktown, the army had formed.
Seventy thousand men.
Uniformed in feldgrau. Boots aligned. Rifles, knives, and pistols issued in standard kit. Greatcoats drawn tight against the cold. Rows upon rows of tents filled the shallow valley like gray stones scattered over white earth.
In the center, tall radio masts stood bolted into portable foundations. Antennas rose skyward, cables coiled across frozen dirt. Crates of spare components waited at their bases, guarded only by discipline and order. Beyond the radio lines, engineering detachments constructed modular platforms for mobile artillery — some half-buried in the slope, others still covered in canvas.
Between supply tents and motor garages, carriages of medical equipment were offloaded in silence. Everything was packed with precision. Nothing left loose.
Everything in its place.
To the north, the land sloped downward into dense forest.
At its edge, the earth changed — color, texture, weight. Not visibly, but in the way breath lingered differently. The trees beyond were old, dense, and unwelcoming.
The dwarves had once called it a failed claim. The elves had named it cursed ground. No records remained of what came before them.
Now it belonged to no one.
But the Reich had come to take it.
Trench markers were set behind the ridge. Supply caches marked with iron flags. Observation posts were under construction along the flanks. No gunfire had been exchanged. No orders shouted. But every movement carried the weight of anticipation.
Soon, the first steps would be taken.