October 2162 of the Ninth Covenant Era, the third year of the Season of Sinking Fog.
The train crossed the plains beneath a dusky gray sky and reached Bering City, not far from the City of Star-Gazing. The group then unloaded three War Rhino-class war machines, started them up, and headed for their destination.
The War Rhino-class was a large war machine rated at the upper end of the Sixth Order. Developed jointly by the Sun Furnace and the Orichalcum School, it stood roughly twelve meters tall and twenty meters long. Its critical internal structures and outer armor were made of refined orichalcum, giving it formidable protection. Most monsters of the same order could not damage its armor.
Inside, it carried a Moltenfire-17 power core that could load three Sixth Order Fire Seeds as fuel at once. It could fight at full power for an hour, or run for two months under normal driving conditions. Its weapons included one Crystal-Splitting Cannon, two Heatwave Flame-Line Cannons, and eight Storm-Type Steam Cannons. Two Behemoth-Class Steam Engines drove it at speeds of up to eighty kilometers per hour.
Beyond its standard configuration, its back armor could be removed to mount additional medium-power equipment for communications, antiaircraft defense, reconnaissance,
and long-range sniping.
During the campaign in the Western Mountains ten years earlier, a War Rhino-class war machine had faced a Sixth Order Ogre warlord alone and won with ease. Its Crystal Cannon reduced the warlord to ash before he could even approach. Then its eight steam cannons swept the battlefield, blasting the many Orc warriors who came near into pieces.
That was the only time a Sixth Order war machine had been deployed in the Western Mountains campaign. Afterward, the rugged mountain roads made it too difficult for large war machines to advance, so