The Khan Express

[Aurangzeb Khan]

Islus >> Kingsgate >> Demonsfall >> Diarsanta >> Avakair

[Aurangzeb Khan]

The Khan stepped out of his Rolls Royce Phantom onto the car park of Islus Station. His retinue was lined up, having awaited his arrival, and briskly snapped to attention and raised their right hands with fists clenched in the new salute. "Elwynn Prevails!" They barked as one. The Khan smiled and returned their salute in silence.

"Shall we then?" Ardashir asked rhetorically before walking on past his retainers, advisors and bodyguards, who all neatly fell in behind him, save for two ex-fedayeen who walked five paces ahead of him, pistols drawn. A wise precaution, too many of his ancestors over the centuries had lost their lives to the knives of the Elfinshi 'Blood Brotherhoods', roughly translated, that even to this day were sworn to vengeance against the seed of the very first Ardashir, the original Baron.

As they walked on towards the entrance to the station the Khan noted with a sense of satisfaction the bustle and energy of the place. Islus was a vertiable hive of warlike activity - munitions and stores delivered by train from Ardashirshahr were being loaded onto trucks, ready to be driven on to their depots.



An OAH Infantry Fighting Vehicle, everybody called it a tank though, was parked on top of the large roundabout which dominated the entrance to the car park and the station - a simple and effective means of controlling access. The Khan did not recognise the unit insignia painted on beside the Zjandarian flag and the white orchid symbol of the Elwynnbrigaden - so it was probably from one of the newly raised Gordâns, training on the job and untested in battle. The Khan for a moment had to stiffle a feeling of pessimism. It passed. A quick victory will instill confidence. Shirekeep perhaps was a little too quick. In any event it had been a Kildaran victory.

The Khan's attention was drawn back towards the station. A crowd of people was emerging. Gawping peasants, fresh from the countryside, were stumbling out of the station and being harranged all the time by NCOs from the Elwynnbrigaden. These 'volunteered' Elws, from the lowest social strata, would form the next batch of Rustayisarbazi. A weeks basic training, the Khan reflected, and they will be so terrified of their officers that no force in the world will be able to resist them. Of course a certain number of them would be lost to their sheer inexperience but the mobilisation was at last beginning to gather pace.

The Khan's bodyguards cleared a path through the rabble - assisted by the Elwynnbrigaden press-gangers who, seeing who was approaching began to flail their whips upon the luckless voluntary conscripts. The Khan cast a look in the direction of the huddled and scourged mass, looking for signs of hatred and rebelliousness amongst the Elws - there were none, only looks of fear pain and bewilderment. Contented, the Khan walked on into the station. This was a new station which, like its counterparts in Ardashirshahr and Eliria, was grandly designed to accomodate the high-speed trains that the then Duke Andelarion had purchased at great expense to united his Duchy - a scheme somewhat undermined when the Goldshire portion of Elwynn fell into the clutches of the Duke of Brokshire, that is to say the Kaiser... as far as anyone could tell.

The Khan's ally the Count of Eliria, Aradas Andelarion no less, would be travelling in luxuary and style in a specially chartered highspeed train. The Khan on the other hand would be travelling in this an old armoured train that could almosted have dated back to the times of strife with the Elfinshi. Setting out at the same time as the Count of Eliria, 1800hrs, the Khan would be lucky to arrive in time for the day after next. His train was neither so fast nor the route so direct as his noble cousin in the north. Perhaps it was as well if Aradas was to meet Baron Wintersong first - of the two he was perhaps the more likely to build a rappore with the Baron. The Khan however would be in his element if events turned for the ill.

The armour plated door to the Khan's command car was opened with great effort by the crew of the train and Ardashir stepped onboard. It was quite well appointed with a divan, two leather recliner seats and a stove where the chai was already brewing up. With a great clang the steel door closed behind the Khan and an adjutant busied himself operating the great mechanism which sealed it tight. The Khan was effectively sealed inside the car for the journey.

Onboard was the Khan's personal advisor the Zurvanite cleric Moqtada al-Osmani who also happened to be his cousin. Over a cup of chai they began their journey as the giant armoured train pulled out of the station, its first destination Kingsgate, by discussing a few of the finer points of the most recent history published on their mutual ancestor the Sarhang Ataxerxes. There was it seemed something of a controversy concerning whether or not Ataxerxes had ever constructed a pyramid from the skulls of decapitated Mondesian prisoners - they both agreed that it was most likely propaganda put about by ancient and unreliable Tymarian chroniclers of the period - very unreliable.

It should be noted as we depart this scene however that the train itself was in addition to being quite well armoured, equiped with a quad-barrelled anti-aircraft machine gun and a 45mm cannon, both mounted in the rear compartment which house fifty guards, forresters and Elwynnbrigaden, who were accompanying the Khan on his journey, along with myriad advisors and flunkies who were enjoying a very uncomfortable journey. Moqtada and Ardashir in their sealed compartment were also joined by a further five ex-fedayeen bodyguards. Pledged to die in the service of the Khan they were utterly bored by the conversation about historical atrocities, contemporary ones were much more to their taste, and sat down to a game of chess in an adjacent map and communications room.