Time Remaining: 35 Days, 22 Hours. (Status: 200 Miles North-West of Sector 5. Crossing the Threshold.) Location: The Iron Gate (Outer Perimeter of Ferro).
The transition from the Wastes to the Empire wasn't a gradient. It was an amputation.
For the last ten hours, the Iron Horse had been fighting the world. It had clawed its way out of the salt flats, crunched over petrified jagged rock, and slid through dunes of loose grey ash. The suspension was groaning under the abuse, the axles screaming with every impact, and the cabin rattled like a tin can in a hurricane.
Then, Thump.
The noise stopped. The violent vibration in the chassis vanished instantly. The tires went from crunching gravel to a deep, smooth, hypnotic hum.
