Prologue, Part 1
Prologue, Part 2:
March 26th, 2023, The Track, 9:30 AM
Kasiya gripped the wheel loosely, glad that the power steering on the HD-GV Carry All was incredibly light, that they’d modified the air suspension for the reduced gravity, and that for as large as the vehicle was, it remained surprisingly agile for its size. He turned into the parking lot, watching for people and vehicles as he maneuvered the heavy truck into several parking spaces along with the trailer. Just a few moments behind, Takaraya followed him in with the HD-GV Home-Unit and the other trailer, parking up next to his truck.
The sound of eight doors opening and closing in rapid succession announced that the full crew was there, trying to figure out the right combination of people in each vehicle.
Kaylie watched as Val’s crew carefully used the crane to lift one of Val’s custom trailers into the air, then set it down neatly next to the car it’d be attached to soon enough. “Is it bad that I want one?” Kaylie asked.
“The living trailer or the crane?” Kayden asked.
“The crane,” Kaylie admitted.
Kivenaal chuckled. “I know a guy who legitimately sells used military equipment. You want one that badly, let me know, I’ll get in touch with him and let him know I have a friend who wants a truck with a crane on the back.”
Kasiya looked over at the military vehicles and shook his head with a light chuckle. “From owning a former military truck myself, you probably don’t want one. Guaranteed, it’s noisy, rides rough, requires spare parts you can’t find anywhere, and won’t easily fit in a parking spot,” he said.
Deciding they’d stood back and watched long enough, they made a casual approach, or at least, as casual as a loosely-organized band of friends could manage to make without stepping on each other’s feet.
“Morning, Val,” Jayde said with a smile.
It was agreed upon that only one vehicle combination was to be unloaded for training purposes for multiple reasons, but mostly to save time and fuel. The others remained on site and available if need be.
As Regina and a trailer were now aligned next to each other, the crane operator folded the boom again, soon after clearing the area to park the truck next to the other ones that were present.
“Good morning,” Valentin responded as he turned to face the approaching team.
“‘Mornin’,” Norse added as he walked towards them, fist ahead for a round of fist-bumping.
By this time, Constantin joined: “Unloading of training supplies has been completed. You can start whenever you’re ready.”
He then turned away from Valentin and towards the general direction of the recruits.
“Rally up! Steam vehicle training will begin shortly!” he shouted across the parking lot, with mixed reactions from the recruits. Those that were not assigned to drive made no effort in being quick, while the others could at least have earned a participation trophy for their sense of urgency.
Eventually, all five recruits formed a ‘line’ in front of Valentin, which more closely resembled a sine wave.
“Thank you. First off, i shall assume that those holding an appropriate license know how to handle a ball-hitch trailer to EEA specifications. Second, i shall assume that the radiomen are able to operate equipment used within the CB radio ecosystem.” Valentin started, in hopes that any uncertainties the recruits or Constantin might have are brought up now and not later.
As Norse approached for a fist-bump, Kasiya tried his best to replicate it from what little he’d seen of its use in movies and videos, while at least trying to keep in mind his strength compared to that of the humans.
Takaraya followed up with a surprisingly-gentle fist-bump, though he still noticed the initial flinch and understood that Kasiya had probably overdone things a bit. The others followed suit, with Jayde being slightly awkward in meeting Norse’s right hand with his own dominant left, and Kivenaal adding to the confusion by offering both right hands, getting two fist-bumps from Norse in the moment.
Kayden smirked as he got the last bump in, then said, “If I’d seen you approaching with this plan ahead of time, I’d have warned you that Kasiya’s never actually done a fist bump before. I think you’ll probably be fine, but your hand’s probably going to be sore for a while.”
As the recruits “lined up,” Takaraya sighed. Even the vaguely-disorganized group that was Shift Happens had a neater line-up without being ordered to, and that was just for a casual fist-bump.
Norse had to swap hands after Kasiya’s turn, courtesy of the wrist not taking too kindly to his momentum.
He continued with his left hand for the others while shaking the pain off of the right one, leaving some very noticeable remnants in terms of pain.
“Hoped you slept well. I didn’t. First time heading for a true vacation and such… Obviously, Val has started ‘training’ the others on his contraption, so he is busy at the moment…” Norse stammered semi-coherently, looking over at a much more focused Valentin as he explained how his steam car differed from petrol ones.
“Regarding the vehicle, it largely works as you would expect. The important things to keep in mind are as follows: The clutch pedal is NOT a clutch pedal. Instead, it operates a retarder built into the gearbox to allow braking without overheating the wheel brakes. This is a compromise made to allow remote control of it when on rails.
The car as a whole weighs about 2.5 metric tons or thereabouts. The suspension and brakes have been strengthened to accommodate, but be aware that it will be lethargic in changing direction. Speaking of which, it has a tendency to oversteer, which should be mitigated with a trailer attached. Acceleration will be equally lethargic, courtesy of a not-perfectly-optimized throttle control system. Once it goes, expect it to behave like an electric vehicle,” Valentin explained, trying to deliver all the critical information in a brisk, yet structured manner.
“To get you accustomed to operating these cars, you will be able to drive them for 30 minutes each, excluding the preparations for setting off and parking. Uhm… you too, Sir, If you want.” Valentin continued, looking at Constantin for the last half-sentence.
“Alright: Patel, you go first. Jacknabbit second and Dupont third. I will try and squeeze my way in and go from there.” Constantin then instructed, prompting intense excitement from Rohan and hearty laughing from the other two valid recruit drivers at how Constantin might look within the car.
“Sorry about that, Njordal,” Kasiya said, seeing Norse trying to shake off the pain from his slightly over-done fist bump.
Kaylie chuckled as Norse mentioned he’d hoped the crew had slept well, but that he hadn’t. “Most of us did. Couple of these guys keep long hours, though, and I’m never too sure how much sleep Kivenaal actually gets,” Kaylie admitted.
“I’m just glad I don’t have to fold myself into that car,” Kayden said. “We had to make a gentleman’s agreement for future challenges that basically comes down to “No more midsize cars or smaller.” Of course, the Midnight Skyscraper over there pretty much needs a truck, and I don’t mean one of the little ones.”
Rukari then mentioned, “We are here so Kasiya can get more practice with big truck and trailer on road-that-loops.”
“That, and I’m tempted,” Takaraya said, “to make him learn to haul both trailers behind it.”
“There’s no point to that,” Kasiya replied.
“If the RV breaks down and you have to tow it, you’ll need to couple the trailers together so you have air brakes. Hauling the RV behind, yes, I’ll have to steer and stop, but it’s safer if you have the two trailers in that moment. Plus, in that situation,” Takaraya said, “you would be towing the equivalent of three trailers. Be glad we don’t have a third to burden you with.”
“You’re the first one in hundreds of people to get my name right. Also, this is why we are gonna be on rails. If one car dies, there’s three others to keep the train going. At least that’s what Val told me…” Norse replied, having little idea on the technical reasoning beyond redundancy.
Valentin meanwhile got to work with Rohan, taking a seat in the ‘trainer car’. This also was a convenient way of field-testing the remote control systems in case any of the drivers did something really stupid.
Once inside, Valentin went “hands off” for the most part, as the vast majority of things within were close enough to stock to where it was thought to be intuitive.
Lo and behold, Rohan had no issues getting Regina up and running, electing to get some help from William in reversing up to the trailer hitch one pressure was built. Coupled up and lights plugged in, Regina went out on track, leaving the other four soldiers, Constantin and Norse on the parking lot.
About 40 minutes later, the first drive was concluded with no issues, returning Regina to a ‘cold and dark’, albeit preheated state with the trailer uncoupled.
This process was repeated for the other two drivers, with Jacques having noticeable problems reversing up to the trailer due to poor visibility. Still, no damage was done and the recruits were at least not completely unfamiliar with the steamers once the time would come.
Now it was Constantin’s turn, which was foiled by his inability to fit into the car, accompanied with ridicule by the recruits.
“I still have Robert, but while legroom is not an issue there, the bucket seat is not sized to a broad-shouldered person…” Valentin admitted as Constantin finaggled his way out.
“We have enough people to crew the vehicles to capacity.” Constantin countered, rightfully so.
For the most part, the Shift Happens crew just watched the antics of the soldiers learning to drive the steam car, up until Constantin had issues fitting into the driver’s seat of Regina. Kaylie smirked, then admitted to the group, “Yep, figured that would happen. This big guy,” she added, slugging Kayden in the arm right-handed and making her brother grunt slightly, wince, and rub his shoulder as a result of the unexpected attack, “means we have to modify seat rails every time we want him to drive.”
Kasiya gave a grimace as he realized that it was now his turn on track. Takaraya chuckled, then walked over to the RV and set the trailer down, driving the large vehicle out of the way. “Well, Kasiya, couple up to it,” Takaraya called out, watching as Kasiya climbed up into the driver’s seat of the Carry-All. He pulled forward, lined up the trailer with the other unit, then backed up carefully until he was sure he was in the right spot to hitch up. Putting the parking brake on, he stepped out of the cab, staring at the fact that he had the ball perfectly centered under the hitch, then flipped open the toolbox, grabbed the air hose and electrical cable, connected both air and power, then set the trailer onto the hitch and locked it in.
Kasiya then settled back into the cab, cut the wheel hard to the left to get turned around, and brought his box-snake onto the track carefully, very aware of how little room for error he had with the last trailer. On the track, he keyed the radio and mentioned, for the whole pit lane to hear, “Just for the record, hauling doubles like this sucks.”
“You’ll do fine,” Takaraya said in response, chuckling as Kasiya slowly started following the circuit.
Kasiya grimaced intensely as he took the first turn and realized he wasn’t taking it anywhere near wide enough as he dipped the rear trailer’s inside set of wheels well over the curb. While he was making some improvements by the end of his first lap, it was clear that he had a little way to go before he could handle doubles neatly on a winding road course. “Well, I know what I’m spending the rest of my day doing. Turning laps until I manage to keep off of the curbs,” Kasiya grumbled over the radio.
“Just go for a few more laps until you get it right, Kasiya,” Takaraya said.
Jayde grabbed the radio handle a moment later, adding, “We know you can do it, so show us that you can.”
Kasiya sighed, approaching the first turn again and remembering to go a little wider than he’d done previously. This time around, instead of plowing over the curb with the wheels, he heard the awful sound of heavy-duty tires growling over the rumble strip at the apex of the turn. Thankfully, he managed to keep all of the tires on the track, even if it wasn’t what he considered to be a good lap, and as he rolled over the starting line again, he mentioned, “I do that on an actual road, I’m going to curb-rash the run-flats. I don’t-”
“It is possible, Kasiya,” Jayde said. “One more round, you can do it.”
Kasiya sighed, but obliged with one final lap, this time keeping the trailers in line for the whole lap. As he pulled off the track and into the pit lane, Takaraya then asked, “Think you can reverse those into your spot?”
“Fuck no,” Kasiya replied. “I know how to reverse one trailer. Two is asking for trouble.”
Jayde grabbed the radio from Takaraya, then said, “Would you at least give it a try?”
Kasiya sighed, muttered to himself, “Heroes and fools look the same, but one succeeds where the other fails,” then dropped the automatic into reverse. The quiet reverse beeper informed everyone around of what was happening as Kasiya checked his mirrors and rear-view camera, using the combination of information to carefully reverse the double trailers into the spot he’d driven out of. While they were certainly not perfectly straight, he did have them sitting with tires on the white lines in the lot. He set the parking brake, put the transmission in park, then shut off the engine.
As he climbed out of the cab, Kasiya found himself caught up in a strong hug from his father, who then said, “I knew you could do it.”
Jayde admitted, “A lot of shipping companies have to back doubles, Kasiya, so I knew it was possible.”
“I doubt I could do it without the technological aid of this truck, though,” Kasiya admitted. “I could see where the rear of the trailer was pointing in the rear-view camera.”
While Kasiya was out on the track getting himself familiar with a massive 22-wheel rig, his crew got to work putting the substantially smaller car and trailer back where they took it from. By the time he returned, the parking lot was devoid of a steam car and it’s trailer in the middle of it.
This allowed everyone present to watch Kasiya slot the truck neatly into the parking spot, garnering various forms of compliments as a result.
“Looks like everyone is familiar with their equipment, then.” Valentin said, walking over to the lodging trailer meant for himself and Norse. Once there, he climbed up onto the flatbed it was loaded upon and opened every single door the trailer had, digging into the various boxes and compartments thereafter.
“We certainly need more power tools. I’m not changing 64 wheels a day alone,” Valentin protested from behind the trailer, "Apart from that, non-perishables and fuel, i think we’re all set. Let me check the other trailer, though.
He then hopped over to the trailer which contained the fuel and water tanks with remarkable gracefulness, checking it’s contents for anything missing as well.
“Yeah, power tools, batteries, chargers, non-perishables in case the locals don’t have any and lots of fuel for the first night,” Valentin confirmed as he returned to the group.
Kaylie nodded, watching as Kasiya disconnected the second trailer from his truck, then replied to Val, “We also need to gather supplies as well. Plywood for targets, canned goods, wouldn’t hurt to have some portable light sources, get some extra toilet paper, that sort of thing.”
“Definitely need to pick up some canteens for everyone. Or supplies to convert something into a canteen,” Kivenaal said.
“Already have one, so that makes your task easier,” Jayde mentioned.
“Spare covers for the beds would be nice,” Takaraya added.
“We need charcoal for grill,” Rukari said, before adding as well, “Also need baking supplies.”
Takaraya glanced at Rukari, then asked, “We don’t have an oven, so how are you planning to bake?”
“Have short barrel with lid in truck. Put barrel on grill, light fire, is like oven,” Rukari replied.
“We have a stovetop and that is about it for cooking…” Valentin admitted before turning to face Constantin.
“I would start with grocery runs and then get more power tools. Fuel tends to be cheaper in the evening,” Valentin requested, prompting the associated staff to take initiative in preparing the four relevant trucks with the intent of leaving the guest trailers at the track.
“You have the trucks at your disposal. I’ll stay here and keep tabs on the dunce-club over there.” Constantin remarked, motioning to the recruits who looked like they were tring to summon something by dancing in circles.
“You sure got the pinnacle of the Swedish Army at your service…” Norse commented, also watching the dance unfold.
“Except the iceberg is upside-down…” Constantin added as the four trucks pulled up near the group.
Due to one truck only seating two, Valentin and Norse were forced to split and climb aboard two separate ones. Nevertheless, they left the premises shortly after, headed to Walmart.
Likewise, Kaylie, Jayde, Rukari, and Kasiya boarded the Carry-All, pulling out of the parking area first, with Kivenaal, Malavera, Kayden, and Takaraya onboard the Home-Unit, having connected up the second trailer back to the vehicle it was supposed to be hauled by, following about three minutes behind.
Pahrump, Nevada, Walmart Supercenter, 2:00 PM
The growling rumble of 32 cylinders announced the arrival of both HD-GV units in the parking lot. Deciding not to be assholes, the two huge rigs and their trailers were parked as far from the doors as they could manage, and the decision was made for Kaylie, Jayde, Rukari, and Kayden to go in for most of the shopping, leaving most of the tall crew outside.
Kasiya and Takaraya configured their refrigerated trailers to actually be refrigerated and not just “somewhat cool” while the group of four wandered into the store, grabbing four different shopping carts.
Inside the store, Kaylie gave her shopping team their orders.
“Okay, Rukari, you’re going to get charcoal, canteens, battery powered lanterns, batteries for those lanterns, and toilet paper. Jayde, you’re in charge of canned food. Focus on things that don’t require perishables to make a meal. Kayden, hit the bedding aisles, get two sets of sheets, blankets, pillows, and bed-covers for four queen-size beds. They’ll be too wide for the Home-Unit’s bunks, but you can wrap a cover around yourself like a sleeping bag if it’s cold. I’ll get the non-perishable parts of the baking supplies, matches, lighters, some extra pots and pans, and a bottle of dish detergent,” Kaylie said. “Don’t worry about the budget, use the company credit card, it’ll cover it.”
After the orders were given, all four shoppers split and headed to gather their supplies, creating some mild chaos on occasion.
Valentin and Norse also headed inside, somehow missing the two HD-GVs parked on the other end of the lot.
Within, if more or less unfolded like any other grocery run, albeit of larger scale.
With fairly little structure, the pairing just went up and down the aisles loading up everything that they knew needed or otherwise seemed useful, given that an empty bed freed up lots of volume within the trailer.
Eventually, they dragged their two carts full of supplies to the cash registers, coincidentally ending up right behind the half of Shift Happens that also was in there.
“Oh would you look at that! Long time no see, right?” Norse said jokingly, “Also getting some groceries?”
“Yeah, we had some things we had to pick up,” Kaylie said, loading up the belt with pots, pans, fire-starting supplies, flour, sugar, yeast, and dish detergent. “Jayde, Rukari, and Kayden are in other lines trying to speed up our shopping trip,” she added. “Sorry that we’re slowing the pace of your shopping run in the process.”
“Beats being stuck behind a granny fishing change out of her wallet for 15 minutes, haha.” Norse chuckled as Valentin reached halfway down the length of the belt to procure a divider, after which he loads up the remainder of it with his supplies.
“We still need to get power tools to speed up the transition process. But we do have all day to do that since the contract for power generation formally starts tomorrow afternoon or so. That is when we need to be at the starting area in case anyone arrives a day early and draws power,” Valentin explained as he stacked an assortment of “add water and boil” meals onto the belt.
Kaylie chuckled, then said, “Usually, it’s either the granny fishing change, or the Karen demanding a manager, or the lady with a three-ring-binder full of coupons that she insists on using. At least with us, our expensive trip is, well, paid for very easily.” As the last item was scanned and the total was displayed, Kaylie swiped the TST expense-account card and keyed in her number, put the card away in her wallet, and then started putting bags back into the cart. She looked over to the other lanes, watching as Kayden soon joined her with a cart piled with bed supplies, followed by Rukari and his cart of camping supplies, and then Jayde taking the longest with a cart practically packed with canned food.
“Jayde, did you have to buy out half the supply of canned goods?” Kaylie asked.
“You do realize how much Kasiya eats, right?” Jayde quipped back. “He demolished four cans of chili in one sitting, remember? So I gathered up supplies with that in mind.”
“Good point. I guess I did say to focus on things that wouldn’t require perishable items to make the meal, and… If we’re eating from a supply of cans, we have to keep in mind just how much everyone does eat,” Kaylie replied.
“There is a reason why we went this route regarding food. You apparently were first to get to the canned ones,” Norse commented half-jokingly.
“That. But it also takes up less weight and volume within our storage solutions. Yes, neither is at a premium, but any reserves allow us to source whatever useful things en route,” Valentin added, being distracted by the cashier naming the total, which was paid in cash due to a distinct lack of locally accepted payment methods.
“See you around then. At latest, tomorrow, around noon at the start line,” he said once the shopping load was back in the cart, heading outside to store the haul where it belongs.
Kaylie nodded, then said, “Noon, at the starting area, no problem. I’ll pass that on to the others.” She then led her parade of carts out to the two HD-GV units and started loading up the trailer behind Takaraya’s Home-Unit with their groceries, planning on sorting it all out later.
flair! 
- Wuhan-born Jiang is a lead medical engineer working in a major medical equipment company in Beijing, and the 36-year old is known for his temperous and aggressive style and his successful career in amateur racing and videos as well. (You might know him from 
- Rumored to be the apparent heir of the Hanseung chaebol, the 55-year old, Harvard-graduated Seoulite is the second son of the well known industrialist Park Jae Sim. A cold, calculated person, his tactics and brillance made him a calm driver on the road, having good reputation in the amateur racing scene.
- Currently a 22-year old university student living in Tokyo aspiring to be a manga artist, Ayumi was born in the suburbs in Osaka, and her happy-going, fun-loving attiude and loves to crack jokes. Somehow she’s a pretty good driver too, with her artsy driving style leading her on amateur races.
