Hearthglen: Full Steam Ahead

A loud announcement from the speaker system suddenly disrupts the usual lunchtime chaos in the Beacon cafeteria. “Rez Redela, Dusk Kaede, Oro Etal and Braith Messier. You four are to report to the headmaster's office at once.” With a click from the speakers the announcement finishes. While the students are greeted by their headmaster, a larger man sorts through a stack of maps on Ozpin’s desk. The man nods a bit before making marks on a map and continuing his work.

“Well students.” Professor Ozpin started. “As you can see, we have a guest. Captain Wallenstein has been sent to us on behalf of the military and by request of the council. You are likely aware of the fact that the Hearthglen village construction is at a critical stage right now. The Vytal festival is meant to celebrate the peace and unity that came about after the conclusion of the great war and thus we prefer to keep the military out of it. However, connecting Hearthglen to the existing railway network has proven extraordinarily difficult, which is why Captain Wallenstein is here to oversee the usage of the military assets. I shall let him explain the rest.” With a sip on his signature coffee mug, the headmaster points his cane towards the man occupying most of his desk with maps.

The man stood and turned to face the students and was surprisingly tall. Standing at 6’6’’, he has to be in his late forties or early fifties. Most of his hair is grey, outside of a small streak that seems to have a silver shine to it. He is wearing a dark green Valesian military uniform with cross-axed symbol of the kingdom on his right shoulder. “So this is the team assigned to me I assume? Very well then. Professor Ozpin explained most of the circumstances already, so that means we can focus on the mission at hand.” Captain Wallenstein grabs a remote from the desk and pushes a button. The office darkens and images project onto a whiteboard that is parked in a corner of a room.

“Our mission is to protect and aid the civilian construction team assigned to the operation. We’ll be spending a day or two outside of Vale’s borders for this.” A picture of a heavily armored black painted train with four cars appears on the whiteboard. “This is an armored train, equipped with multiple turrets.” A red dot draws attention to two guns mounted on the first cart “The first car will host the civilian construction crew and work as shelter should we get attacked by Grimm. The other three cars contain the supplies and tracks needed for this operation.” He then drew a red line through the entire trains bottom. “The train is hollow in those areas, which allows us to lay the tracks without much effort by feeding the pre-made tracks through the system. All that is left to do for the construction crew once the track is laid out is to weld the pieces to the existing network.”

With a click the picture shifted to a map of railroad tracks in the area around the village of Hearthglen. Most of the tracks were constructed ages ago, with only a gap of about 15 miles between Vale’s railroad network and the new Hearthglen connection point. “It isn’t much, but a lot of the region has been reclaimed by nature following the fall of the village, so we expect a lot of Grimm infestations and the need for minor repairs.” With a click of a button, the light in the room slowly returns and the map on the whiteboard fades.

“Students, do you have any questions?”