the OXline
“Wind against the goggles. Cool night air against her cheeks. She roars on into the night, hissing and clanking and smoking. She heads toward the glow of the big city, with sparks trailing behind her like dying moths.” — Shawn P. McCarthy
The Oxline is the unrelenting spread of progress and capitalism across the wastes, creeping across the wasteland like a spider’s web. A network of refurbished rail lines, new construction, and business dealings with the powerful and elite of a number of notable settlements, the Oxline brings trade and connection to those that can afford it’s services.
The new Railroad Conglomerate (or RRC) is the result of a forced buyout and merger of the Railroad Commission (a Pureblood land holdings company that rose to claim the land’s natural resources after the Hiway War) and the Conglomerate (an academic Digitarian technocracy) orchestrated by The Chairman. The RRC has become the seat of geographic, technological, and financial power in the San Saba Territories and leverages that power to fulfill their objectives. Although The Chair is the legal and contracted owner of the new RRC, the day to day operations are left to its C.E.O. Felicity Redfield and C.O.O. Dr. Stewart. The RRC is headquartered in Waking, but has their eyes set on expansion.
The influence of the RRC continues to grow as their network of Oxlines spread across the waste. As “safer” travel options connect the settlements together, the world seems to grow closer every day under the ceaseless logistics of expansion. With each rail tie and spike placed, the RRC brings new resources and connections into the sleepy town of Bravado Station and beyond.
From the Spoiled Coast of Gatorland, to the oily reaches of the Clutch, up to the shining city of light and sound, Essex, across the sands of the Dune Sea and to the ancient city of Barogue, and stretching across the blasted lands of Paradiso and the Broken Coast to Hell Dorado itself, the wastes are closer than they have ever been. The network of Oxline rails is the legacy of the genius of Felicity Redfield, CEO of the Railroad Conglomerate and her many investors within the San Saba Territories.
The jewel of the Railroad Conglomerate is the OX itself. While the RRC has a number of other locomotives they have built and maintained over the last 5 years, none approach the speed, majesty, and technological prowess of the Ox. Original built by the genius inventor Samuel Sung, the Ox incorporates a massive jet engine into its frame, hooked to a powerful Oxblood boiler and reinforced with a frame of the oldcestor alloy metal drawn from below the ground in tiny Bravado.
The history of the Ox is as venerable as its many journeys across the wastes. It has weathered terrorist attacks in the Clutch, survived the collapse of the Devil’s Gorge bridge, ran through hordes of zed and raiders alike, used to run over an ARCHON and send it screaming back into the Abyss. The wheels of progress churn ever forward for the Ox, and the motto of the RRC has always proved true: