The departure from Winterfell was not a stately, ceremonial affair. It was a frantic, industrial evacuation.
Robb Stark stood on the frozen platform watching the organized chaos. He was no longer leading a medieval army; he was mobilizing a modern supply chain.
Andar's rail lines, which had previously run only between Deepwood Keep and the castle, had been extended by emergency work crews south, following the old Kingsroad route. The Northmen had accomplished in days what would have taken years in the South: laying enough track to reach Moat Cailin, the gateway to the Riverlands.
The Royal Express was a terrifying beast.
It was not one engine, but two powerful locomotives coupled together. The engines, named The Fury of the North and The Iron Wolf, puffed plumes of black smoke that briefly blocked the midday sun.
"Are the cannons secure?" Robb shouted over the hiss of steam.
"Bolted tight!" Andar yelled back from atop a carriage. He wore his engineers goggles and leather coat. "The 40 millimeter Flak guns are mounted on armored flatbeds. The 75 millimeter field artillery is ready to unhitch and deploy. Everything is balanced!"
The train was a military column on wheels. Behind the engines were five long, low flatbeds carrying the heavy guns, surrounded by stacks of anti air ammunition. Then came three boxcars filled with the Iron Wolves the riflemen. The final two cars were passenger coaches for the commanders and the remaining members of House Stark.
Sansa and Bran, assisted by Tyrion Lannister, were already aboard.
"The Unsullied have cleared the courtyard," Jon Snow reported, carrying two rucksacks. "Grey Worm took the direct road. He is moving at a jog. They will gain a day on us."
"They will gain a day, but we will catch them on the third," Andar said, climbing down. "Their feet are their fastest transport. Our rails are ours."
He looked at Robb. "We need to get to Kings Landing before Daenerys. If she takes the city, she gains legitimacy. If we beat her there, we control the political fallout."
Robb nodded, his face resolute. "Then we race."
The train lunged forward with a violent jerk, the two engines straining against their immense load. Wheels screeched against the temporary track. Then, momentum took over.
Inside the cramped command coach, the floor vibrated with the roar of the engines.
Robb, Jon, Andar, Tyrion, and Sansa gathered around a map spread across a folding table. The map was annotated by Andar with red pencil markings for the railway's projected path.
"The bottleneck is Moat Cailin," Andar explained, tapping the map. "We need to secure it for our line. Then it is clear sailing down to the Trident."
"And Daenerys?" Robb asked.
"She is distracted," Andar said. "My siren trick bought us hours, but the decoy dragon Cersei sent is real. She will fly out to protect Drogon. That means she is out of the fight for at least two days. We have a window."
"And if she beats us to the capital?" Sansa asked, her eyes sharp.
"Then Kings Landing becomes a barbecue," Tyrion muttered, taking a long drink from a flask. "She will not tolerate rebellion twice."
"We prevent that," Andar said, pushing the map away. "We destroy the Iron Throne itself. It is the symbol of absolute power. As long as it stands, people will fight to sit on it. We melt it down and replace it with something else."
"And what is that something else?" Jon Snow asked.
"A parliament," Sansa supplied, her voice firm. "A Great Council. A place where the Lords debate laws, not execute orders."
"A constitution," Andar added. "A set of rules for the machine of the state. Something that cannot be killed by one assassin or one mad Queen."
Robb remained silent for a long moment, watching the trees of the Wolfswood blur past the window. He was carrying the weight of the old world and the hope of the new.
"First, we deal with Cersei," Robb decided. "She is the immediate enemy. Andar, where do you need to place the guns?"
"The guns are not for the walls, Your Grace," Andar said. "The walls are easy. The guns are for the sky. We are taking the first air defense system in history to Kings Landing."
The railway line ran out a mile north of the massive, ruined fortress of Moat Cailin.
The Moat, a vast swampy bog riddled with towers, was the only viable path between the North and the Riverlands. If it was held, the South was closed.
The train slammed on its brakes, the flatbeds rattling violently.
"Offload!" Andar commanded.
The Iron Wolves poured out of the boxcars, instantly forming a perimeter. The work crews grabbed shovels and began the rapid construction of a temporary railhead.
"The Moat is quiet," Jory reported, jogging back. "No banners. No troops. Cersei left it undefended."
"That is wrong," Andar said, checking his rifle. "Tywin Lannister always held the Moat. Cersei is not that stupid."
Tyrion, squinting at the ruined towers, suddenly pointed.
"Not undefended, Engineer. Look at the mud."
He pointed to a faint series of indentations in the muck surrounding the path the cleardeep tracks of heavy siege equipment.
"She moved her pieces," Tyrion said grimly. "She knows you need the road for your big guns. She did not leave a garrison here because she has set a trap further South where the terrain is better for her own artillery."
"Then we will not take the road," Andar decided. He looked at the vast, muddy, unyielding swamp surrounding the fortress.
"We need a road," Robb insisted. "We cannot drag the Flak guns through that mud. We will sink."
"Not a road," Andar said, pulling a new set of blueprints from his coat. "We need a bridge."
"A bridge over that? It would take months!" Robb protested.
"Not a masonry bridge," Andar said. "A platoon bridge."
He pointed to the flatbeds that had carried the riflemen.
"We use the remaining train cars. We strip the wheels, lash them together, and cover them with timber. It will be crude, but it will support the weight of the guns."
"That is insane," Tyrion said, admiringly. "You are going to dismantle the train to cross a swamp?"
"We are gaining speed and trading our transport for a tactical advantage," Andar said. "We cross the swamp, bypass Cersei's roadblock, and leave the Unsullied far behind."
He looked at the weary Northmen.
"We start work now. We have two days before Daenerys is out of her distraction. We build that bridge and put the Industrial North across the Neck."
[Quest Update: The Race for the Ruin]
[Obstacle: Moat Cailin Swamp]
[Solution: Improvised Pontoon Bridge (Requires 48 Hours)]
[Rival Status: Daenerys is distracted by decoy dragon hunt.]
....
Author Note
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