He Who Tames the Iron Horse

He Who Tames the Iron Horse is the sixth episode in Band of Thieves. It takes place in Nunavut Bay, Canada, and the main antagonist is Jean Bison. The Cooper Gang's main target is his Iron Horse trains.

Plot[]

The Setup[]

Following the latest Klaww Gang spice shipments, the gang makes their way to Nunavut Bay, Canada, the secret hub of Jean Bison's shipping empire. It is revealed that as a young man, Jean traveled to Canada to strike it rich during the Gold Rush from 1852. A reckless prospector, he took some chances and ended up buried alive in an avalanche.

The quick freeze miraculously kept Bison alive, and he thawed out for 120 years because of global warning. A product of Bison's time, he dreamed of taming the "Wild North" by damming every river and using an axe to chop down all the trees. Shipping spice for the Klaww Gang proves a lucrative way to bankroll Bison's one-man war against nature, and yet, Sly almost feels sorry for Bison. He's just a guy from the 1850s. He'd be a hero back in his day, but he's a villain in modern times. Sly said that either way, Bison had more than his fair share of the Clockwerk parts. Sly wonders what a low-tech guy like Bison does with robot parts. Sly doesn't want to know, but it'll be a matter of time before he finds out as always.

Cabin Crimes[]

Bentley tasks Sly with sneaking into Bison's cabin and raiding his files to find the locations of his Clockwerk parts. Sly launches himself off a wall hook to reach the cabin. Inside, he finds Bison having a phone conversation with Arpeggio. While taking photos of Bison's train routes and eavesdropping on the conversation, Sly learns that Bison has put three of his Clockwerk parts into the engines of three of his trains, which he calls his "Iron Horses". This improvement helps the trains to run endlessly. He has also hidden the blueprints to each Iron Horse in three different cabins.

Sly steals the first set of blueprints from the trophy bass above Bison's fireplace, and leaves to obtain the rest. After stealing the other two sets of Iron Horse blueprints, Sly climbs up to a satellite dish on top of a mountain. Armed with the blueprints, he is able to use the satellite dish to access the trains' GPS data, which Bentley now has on his computer. Bentley tells Sly to come back to the safehouse so he can give him and Murray the run-down.

A Friend in Need[]

Sly was contacted by a distraught Bentley, who informed him that Murray was captured by Carmelita while he was out looking for a snack. Sly was surprised that Carmelita had managed to follow them up north. However, since she was bound to check on Murray eventually, Sly reassured Bentley that he would find their friend if he could follow her without being seen. For fear of ending up alone again, Bentley warned him not to get busted too.

Sly tailed Carmelita across town until she led him to a strongbox Murray was locked away in. Carmelita approached Murray, who thanked her for the pack of jelly beans she gave him, also reminding her about her situation with INTERPOL. She explained that busting the Cooper Gang will prove her innocence and show everyone that Captain Neyla set her up. She then told Murray to hold tight while she went to go look for his friends.

As soon as Carmelita left, Sly approached Murray's cell. It was triple-padlocked, and Inspector Fox was holding all three keys. Murray also warned Sly that if he were to snatch a single key off of Carmelita, she would quickly take notice and chase after him. With Sly reminding him about his master skill at pickpocketing, he was positive he could pull it off. Once Sly stole the three keys, he returned to Murray and freed him. After thanking Sly for his rescue, Murray returned to the safe house, expecting to soon see Sly back there as well.

Spice in the Sky[]

The gang needs to find a way to board Jean Bison's Iron Horse trains, but the cabooses, which are the only points of entry, are all locked down. Bentley points out that the large balloons floating above Nunavut Bay are filled with denatured spice gas. He tasks Sly with collecting some of the gas with a special vacuum backpack. The accumulation of the gas will create a blast strong enough to blow the locks off the caboose hatches on each train. The spice gas is very unstable at lower altitudes, so Sly will need to land directly on each caboose in any order to avoid getting blown up himself.

Murray acquires an ice plane and uses it to lift Sly up to where the balloons are. Sly uses his paraglider to make his way from balloon to balloon. The spice gas is lighter than air, so whenever he pops a balloon to collect the gas, he will be kept aloft. When the gas tank is filled with spice gas, Sly paraglides down to the caboose of an Iron Horse and quickly sets the tank on the lock, and then jumps off the train just as it explodes. He returns to the ice plane and collects two more tanks of gas to use on the other two trains. With the locks on each caboose hatch gone, the Cooper Gang is now able to gain access to each train.

Ride the Iron Horse[]

Sly warns Bentley that the first Iron Horse train will be passing by him very soon and that he needs to jump onto the caboose and enter through the hatch. Bentley does so, then travels forward through the train, passing by lasers, traveling atop the train, and taking out guards along the way. Eventually, Bentley made it to the front, where he detached Clockwerk's left lung.

Aerial Assault[]

Bentley prepares his RC chopper for launch.

Bentley needed to hop aboard Iron Horse 2 and clear out the aerial defenses. Once onboard, he deployed his RC chopper so that he could destroy the defenses. With the new cannon he installed, he was able to destroy head-on enemy targets, while still being able to bomb targets below, such as guards and missile launchers.

With these fortifications wiped out, it was now safe for Sly to hop aboard the locomotive and steal the second Clockwerk lung.

Theft on the Rails[]

Sly hops onto the roof of Ponderosa Cabin and spots the train quickly making it's way through town. Bentley is not so sure he will be able to hop aboard in time, but for Sly, there is more than one way to get onto the caboose.

Sly jumps on top of the train and enters the caboose. He goes through a series of traps such as guards, flashlights and lasers. Meanwhile, Bison comes on the P.A system to warn his men about the theft of the other lung in the first train, and the consequences for failing to protect this one. Sly finally reaches Clockwerk's right lung and grabs it. Now all that's left is Clockwerk's stomach.

Bear Cub Kidnapping[]

The fenced-in handcar was the key to chasing down iron horse 3, but neither Murray's muscles or Bentley's bombs would have any impact on the strong metal. For this mission, they relied on the strength of a mother bear, whose strong paws would be enough to rip the fence apart.

Murray stands aside while the cubs fight.

In order to attract the bear, Murray captured two bear cubs, which Bentley located and described to be particularly antisocial. By trapping the two cubs inside the fence, they began fighting in a matter of seconds. The noise drew the mother bear to their position, and with a single swipe, the bear destroyed the fence, freeing her cubs and leading them back to their cave.

Operation: "Choo-Choo"[]

The Cooper Gang boarded the unlocked hand car and used it to catch up with Iron Horse No. 3. When they finally caught up, Sly headed in through the caboose and made his way through the interior, while Bentley and Murray stayed behind on the hand car.

After making his way past several of Jean Bison's guards, Sly reached the train car where Bison himself was. He was able to sneak by, but was then confronted by Neyla on her new aircraft. Neyla challenged Sly to fight her, but Sly instead contacted his "little friends", as Neyla put it, for backup.

Bentley launched his RC chopper and caught Neyla by surprise. They both exchanged gunfire until Bentley was able to severely damage Neyla's aircraft, upon which she retreated. With the path clear, Sly continued through the train. When he reached the engine, he found that the Clockwerk Stomach had been bolted into it. As Bentley prepared to drop a bomb down the smoke-stack to crack the engine block, he was interrupted by Neyla. In a final battle, Bentley destroyed Neyla's aircraft. As she flew out of control, Neyla proclaimed that no one would stop her. Bentley proceeded with the bombing and blasted the Stomach free. Then, Sly stole the stomach and escaped.

The Getaway[]

With the successful outcome of the heist, all 3 of Jean Bison's Clockwerk parts now belong to the Cooper Gang. In addition, they manage to put Jean's 3 Iron Horse trains out of commission and shut down spice distribution across North America. Needless to say, the Cooper gang is pleased with themselves.

Unfortunately, Carmelita has to evade the police again. Which was fun at first for Sly, but is starting to feel sorry for her. Sly wonders what if they replace Carmelita with somebody else. Sly doesn't want another police person chasing him, he states that Carmelita is the reason why the capers are so much fun. Sly realizes that he has to find a way to clear Carmelita's name sooner or later, besides turning himself in.

Map[]

The vault in this episode is opened with 1-2-9, and gives you the Music Box which causes guards to fall asleep for a short period of time.

Trophies[]

PS3/PS Vita[]

Image	Name	Requirement
	Rocking it Shell Style	Purchase the Hover Pack from ThiefNet.
	Jailed Cotton Candy	Pickpocket 3 keys from Carmelita in "A Friend in Need".
	Bear Hug	Cause a bear fight in "Bear Cub Kidnapping".
	Sneaky	Purchase the Silent Obliteration from ThiefNet.
	Upset Stomach	Shoot down Neyla to help out Sly.
	Tummy Trouble	Collect Clockwerk's stomach.

PS4/PS5[]

Image	Name	Requirement
	It's a Sleeper Hit	Open the vault in this episode.
	Heist on Rails	Complete all jobs in this episode.
	Fear "The Murray"	As Murray, defeat a bear without taking damage.
	No Resting until I Have Cooper!	As Sly, throw a Music Box at Carmelita.

Trivia[]

The end credits for the game ends with the theme music for this level.
Bentley has Iron Horse 2 and 3 mixed up in his slideshows because in the second slideshow, when he goes over the plan to rob Iron Horse 2, it is Iron Horse 3 that he is showing. In the final slideshow, when he goes over the heist, it is Iron Horse 2 that he is showing. Not to mention that the handcar is also on the same route as Iron Horse 2.
When Sly has to hop onto Iron Horse 2, the train moves in the opposite direction it normally moves in.
When watching the trains move through the main hub, you can see that there are no links between the train cars, making it look like they are moving on their own.
When not on a job, the trains can be interacted with. While in the hub, the trains aren't much larger in height and width than the Cooper Van, whereas when inside of them, they are much larger.
In the Getaway cutscene, Neyla's shorts have belt loops despite never being seen in-game or other cutscenes.