The forges of Yekaterinburg roared day and night.
In response to looming threats both internal and external, Mikhail had issued an Imperial Decree: total military-industrial mobilization.
[Policy Activated: War Economy] [Industrial Output: +45%]
Every citizen aged sixteen to fifty was required to serve the war effort—on the front lines, in the factories, or within logistical support networks.
The Leviathan was only the first of many.
By May, three new armored trains—Behemoth, Goliath, and Fenrir—rolled off production lines.
[Unit Deployed: Armored Trains Squadron – Iron Spear]
But it wasn't enough.
The Ottoman-sponsored uprisings in the Volga flared higher. British agents incited tribal groups in Central Asia. And secret shipments of rifles and artillery crossed frozen borders at night.
Mikhail needed to move faster than traditional supply lines allowed.
Thus, he called upon the mind of Engineer Volkov, whose radical proposal stunned the Imperial Council:
"A modular supply system—mobile depots that travel with the army, built into steam-powered caravans."
The concept was wild. Unproven.
Mikhail approved it without hesitation.
[Innovation Unlocked: Mobile Logistics Units]
Factories shifted again, constructing steam-wagons capable of carrying arms, food, and medical supplies into the harshest frontiers.
Meanwhile, Mikhail addressed the heart of his armies.
He commissioned the creation of the First Mechanized Infantry Divisions, soldiers trained alongside engineers, able to repair, maintain, and fight with the Empire's growing mechanical arsenal.
[Military Reform: Mechanized Infantry Doctrine]
The transformation of the Russian Army began.
Horse cavalry dwindled. Steel and steam replaced flesh and blood.
Propaganda posters flooded the cities:
"FORGE THE FUTURE! ENLIST IN THE GEAR LEGIONS!"
But not all cheered.
Traditionalists within the aristocracy grumbled about "unnatural warfare" and "machinations against God's order."
Whispers of dissent stirred even within the Holy Synod.
Mikhail, reading the political winds, understood: he needed a symbol.
A new national myth to bind the old faith with the new empire.
He summoned the finest playwrights, poets, and artists.
The Order was simple:
"Create the legend of the Iron Tsar."
If the heart of Russia feared change, then he would become the changeless heart himself.
As the armored trains steamed eastward and the mobile supply caravans spread across the empire, one thing became clear:
The world was entering a new age.
And Mikhail intended to stand astride it as its master.