Specter

Chapter 15 (Night 2): Wrong Side Of The Tracks

We last read Chapter 14, in which Specter began her assault on the Imperator's Armory supply train with the goal of somehow sending a message to Imperator Barrows's forces using it. After navigating her way through three boxcars' worth of obstacles and foes---with T.J. tracking the train and occasionally backing Specter up as well---she ultimately manages to save T.J. from being killed in a hectic barrage of gunfire and make her way to the fourth boxcar, her intended destination.

This time, with T.J. still following the train from the outside, Specter makes her move, swinging into the fourth boxcar to deliver her payload.....

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-Imperator's Armory Supply Train, Boxcar #4 (TARGET)-

Once Specter was on the roof of the fourth boxcar, she didn't immediately see any hostiles on the roof. So, wasting no further time, she hopped off the right side, clung onto the roof's edge with her hands, and swung into said boxcar through one of its windows, making her entrance amidst a small pile of disordered shards of glass.

The fourth boxcar held a series of crates containing weapons that would be utterly deadly in the right peoples' hands. Some contained bandoliers of currently-pinned grenades, others held improvised or homemade explosives, and even others had automatic rifles, handguns, and accessories such as bump stocks.

But none of those were what Specter was there for; she preferred knives, close combat, and martial arts, not long-range weapons or explosives.

A horizontal, rectangle-shaped case that was colored brown and riddled with dust caught her eye; it had a pair of white painted stripes in its center that went perpendicular to the actual length of the case, and two stars that were also painted in white were on either side of the stripes.

Making her way over to it, Specter unlocked both of the case's hinges and cracked it open slowly, so as to try and not get the attention of anyone who could possibly be hiding or guarding anything else nearby.

Inside it, she saw none other than an RPG, pre-loaded with its rocket ahead of time. It was nestled perfectly in a cushioned interior, with its shell, its two handles, and its high-intensity projectile still looking as good as new.....in sharp contrast with the box it was in, of course.

After initially gawking at it in awe for a while, she returned to her task. Taking the black device from the hidden pocket on her suit---the one with the flashing red core---she stashed it inside the RPG's case, and, to her relief, it was still able to close and seal completely despite the extra object.

She had done it; her objective had been cleared.

Now, all she had to do was escape safely.

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Outside, T.J. had recovered rather quickly from the instance of being constantly shot at by several armed soldiers, and was now continuing to cruise along right next to the speeding train in the sleek silver convertible. Additionally, he was now joined by a relative newcomer; the huge Bengal plushy that he had won from the Beheaded Bengal Saloon was now in the front passenger's seat next to him, where Specter had sat when the two of them were still on their way to the bridge at the beginning of the night.

"You doing okay over there?" T.J. called to the non-sentient plush toy, even though it couldn't respond. After giving it a few seconds—during which he imagined it saying a positive response—T.J. replied as well.