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(Infrastructural Navy ironclad Ironsides, Coastal waters near the Southwestern Continent, Autumn 33 IA)
For twenty four days the fleet moved over the ocean and Lieutenant Stanislav Viktorovich of the Ironsides was for the most part, was not particularly fond with them. He was in charge of gunnery and there to do in regards of lobbing shells towards enemy ships. So they did a few drills and helped out with the heavy lifting on-board, deck swabbing and other chores. The seas were often rough, there was a few days of heavy rains and cold weather, which were then followed by days which got hotter and hotter as they got further south. By that point most of the crew had switched to wearing the warm weather uniforms or simply going without a shirt. The fact that the ship had been assigned to carry more supplies than it was generally intended to, taking up space which was already at a premium, did not help matters.
While it was not the biggest thing as far as effects on moral, the open seas got monotonous. The last foreign ship was sighted on the seventh day. Empty water in either direction with the only details being the other ships at sea, seabirds and the occasional bit of drifting flotsam. A couple of times some big oceanic creature went by which caused some talk but this did not happen nearly enough.
On the 23rd Day the Ironsides was assigned to the front of the Convoy, it was her turn in the rotation. Navigation was handled by Detail aboard the Hunter, who relayed information to the rest of the fleet via semaphore and radio. As he was making his rounds on the twenty forth overlooking the cannons he heard the cry from the Crow's Nest.
"LAND HO!"
There was soon was a cheer from the men and the signal was soon relayed to the rest of the fleet. Men clustered around the decks to try and see what was going on and NCOs put them back to work until people could see it come over the horizon. First a hazy and indistinct dull gray line, which gradually turned green. As they got close, the crew noticeably improved and he became a bit lax. He even called a up a few men up for a break and brought out some beer in celebration. Moods improved and people were doing just fine. It had not been a total surprise, they were informed on how long the journey should take and people knew how to count, but it was welcome never the less.
After a while routine came back, but people took a look at this land across the sea whenever they could. Stanislav was no exception. He read a bit about it in the packages that were provided early on and it fit the bill. It was mostly grasslands with patches of light forest here and there. Occasionally he saw herds of strange creatures going about the grasses or seals sunning themselves on a beech. He also saw a few standing stones and a couple of small villages with smoke coming up. They went down the coastline for about five hours before they dropped anchor at the mouth of a river.
(Colony-1, Discovery River, Autumn 33IA)
Corporal Vanef Hollgofson walked up the stairs on the newly completed wall and went on patrol as a wall sentry, grateful that his life was now that much easier than it was a few days ago. Coldlanders were used to hard work as a general rule and soldiers were definitely no exception. When there was no drilling or fighting to do the committee found some job for them to work at, building roads or Garrisons or whatever. But the new base required considerable effort. Every one of the new settlers had a job to do in setting up a new town, as well as the soldiers and even some of the sailors. Only the sick and medics, nurses and Detail were exempt. On a patch of Dry land they set up a camp, cleared out various bits of scrub in the way. Then timbers were felled, fields plowed, Crate shacks were put up as well as various log cabins, surrounded by a wall of logs with clay and grass stuck between them and rammed earth towers, including a few battlements for cannons in case of attack by sea.
They had arrived about a month ago and now the place was finally shaping up into something like a town. There were fields around the place were wheat was growing and, for reasons that he dimly understood relating to the world being a ball and sunlight coming in at angles, summer was coming here while the Coldlands were moving into winter. There were no children living here but given that there was a fair number of women brought along as well as a couple of teachers, Vanef figured that would change soon enough. Somewhat surprisingly, Discovery had arrived aboard a strange vaguely seed shaped flying device with fins like sails, meaning that two members of the Committee were overseeing this project.
There were some things to look out for. There were people here, bronze skinned and raven haired men and women who wore blankets as clothes armed with strange mounts, lances, bows, slings and something that he was not sure was a short long bladed spear or a long hilted short bladed sword. Fortunately, most of them were more interested in Trade and were keen on liquor and iron goods. There were also the beasts, most of which were strange things. Especially the Great Birds. Fortunately there was nothing that a few bullets would sort out, at least yet.
These would be more of a risk to him tomorrow. If the town itself was besieged, there were walls, automatics and cannons, both based in the settlement itself and on board the ships which floated out in the river. Now, the Committee had plans to send a team a bit more than a kilometer inland to set up one of the rigs they had brought across the sea tomorrow. Apparently for what they came all this distance to get in the first place.
(Grasslands, Discovery River Region, 3 kilometers southwest of Colony-1, Autumn 33IA)
It was something of a surprise to the Expedition's colonists and ship when Discovery descended and plugged into a body brought along in storage. The humans still treated him with the same respect, veneration and loyalty which was required of them, which was what mattered in the end. This project was of some importance and could use extra Administration, especially with Detail overseeing the health of the crew. Things had proceeded fairly smoothly so far, but there were still risks none the less.
After a month of preparing and setting up base they would begin Drilling operations. The whole reason for bringing this force more than 13,000 kilometers was the wealth that lay underneath the ground. It would be a small scale operation, more of a training exercise as an effort for extraction. Several Derricks were set up at a promising deposit inland deposit and began humming. But as expected they were not alone for long.
Their activities had been watched, the Recon Drones had made that clear and on the evening of the second day they were met by a party of natives that were dubbed "Blanket Men" by the settlers. A few tribes of them lived in the immediate area, farming potatoes and several local cultivars as well as raising herds of large semi aquatic rodents and lanky grazing quadrupedal mammals. Those that lived on the rivers were more sedentary while those that lived inland were more nomadic, driving their herds along and gathering. For mounts they did not have horses, but they did have large flightless birds which were a capable substitute. According to Detail, some of the Humans thought they were just big chickens, until a few people saw what one of them could do to a cow and rumor had gotten around. As for their weapons, they had simple bows with flint arrows, Napohjek spearswords and long spears. They wore little armor, at most simple curiasses of wood and conical helmets made of wood or metal strips fastened to a cloth lining and held in place by metal rings. There were a few warriors in this band, but also a tribal leader. They approached calmly and quietly, if this was an attack they would be blowing ceramic horns and screaming prayers of blood and destruction to their war god.
"Steady men" He commanded to the escort squad. He was sure that he could have this small group dispatched, but it was an embassy. Shooting them would likely cause more problems than it would solve. He had monitored the natives fairly closely and had managed to work together the basics of their language.
There had been some conflicts between the natives and the settlers. A couple raids were launched in the first two week by the nomadic Gosho Tribe which ended badly for them.The other tribes in the area, the Issan, Klebba and Shol were more cautious and receptive to these newcomers, especially since they killed a few Gosho warriors who had a tendency of through this area and demanding that they pay tribute to them in exchange for not sacking their villages. They sent scouts to scout things out, but did not fight. They also engaged in some trade, mostly selling fresh produce, meat and fish for strong drink and iron goods, particularly pots, knives, tools and armor. The river tribes could work iron, but they used primitive means to do so and had to either use charcoal or import coal from upriver, a fact which would need to be be investigated.
The leader, an elder the Klebba tribe asked what they were doing in this area of land, which this tribe had been using for grazing and hunting. He told them that they were digging wells for a black liquid that burned that was found underground. There was no purpose in lying to him about this. The natives knew of Petroleum, but they had no use for it. He asked about the machines as well as a few other things. Discovery got a few words wrong, but the Elder did not begrudge him much of it. In any case, he gave them a case containing a twenty four iron helmets and four steel breastplates. This was enough to please the locals and say that they did not see anything wrong with this endeavor. With that they went back to their efforts. A fence would be advisable never the less, as would clearing out a the grass around the area.
(Clinic, Colony-1, Winter 33IA)
A young woman walked through the door into Detail's clinic, her name was Darya Mildorfr and she was the fifth person to have an appointment that day. Among the various prefabricating buildings, thrown together structures, more effort was invested into getting this structure completed. Even the Petroleum storage containers were at this time of lower priority at this stage and had been used to carry other supplies en route. It was kept quite clean despite it's frequent visitors. Soft music was played.
"Committee member." She said respectfully.
"Darya, I hope you are getting along well." His tone was warm and inviting. "Would you take a seat?"
"Yes Sir." She then took to a chair.
"Please, call me Detail. Also extend your arm if you would be so good." She did just that, he quickly grabbed it near the wrist and took her pulse. "You are on the agricultural detail?"
"Yes, uhhh, Detail." She was nervous, but compared to some of the people that he had worked with even when sedated this was nothing.
"And how are things going with that."
"Some of the cabbages are not doing so well but otherwise things are not to bad. Even if it is bloody hot outside."
"Have you been wearing your hat?"
"Yes."
"That's good to hear." Small talk of this variety was useful for keeping track of things, what people were doing and made people more comfortable. They had been taken half way around the world to a strange land. This caused anxiety in a few individuals, though much more of a risk was disease. Even with a supply of potions to deal with infections it was still a considerable risk. Making sure that the population was and stayed in good health was of paramount importance. A few workers had come down with something already, but that could be dealt with. Keeping track of the health of people so that sicknesses could be identified they collapsed in the fields was far more of a priority. Besides, he considered every individual loss a failure on his part.
"All good, now lets check those eyes out."
(New Harbor, Borogskov, Spring 34IA)
It had been about seven months since the Fleet left, but work was kept up. A few workers were dismissed and new factories were not constantly being put up, but still there was a fair amount of activity going on. The amount of traffic coming in was still high, the shipyards were still working on more ships and the Navy was training and drilling new crews. Vorst Vorstovik took notice of these developments in Borogskov while he worked as a Stevedore on the docks. He was a bit unusual in that he was a native who was not a slave but he lived in the New City. He was too young to fight during the war and was dirt poor in any case. He heard enough of the Magpie nonsense that merchants, tradesmen and other nostalgic fools went on about, in his book honest work was honest work and bread was bread.
In late march the fleet returned and was soon the talk of the town. The passengers had been left behind in a strange land, but they were well and had set up a new town. A few specimens of exotic plant and animal life were also brought over. There were plenty of volunteers to help unload the ships, both out of curiosity and for the pay. Vorst was quite satisfied when he get the job. He had loaded the ships beforehand and one of the things that he remembered was a fair amount of supplies that would normally go into crates were put into barrels.
Unfortunately most of what was there was sealed away. There were a fair number of crates, broken up by a few cages containing odd creatures. There was also the barrels, large numbers of them and by the feel of them filled to the brim. He did his job well and moved them to the warehouses. One of his colleagues was not so cautious, causing one of the barrels to fall and break and covering Pier-5 in black foul smelling oily black liquid.
(Warehouse, Borogskov, Spring 34 IA)
A few live Capybaras were bought from the natives by the Infrastructural settlers, while a local herder was commissioned to show them how these creatures were to be kept. Of these fourteen of them, as well as five Llamas and a few other creatures (either smaller or stuffed), were loaded aboard a ship when the fleet returned to the Coldlands. There they would be displayed, shown about the Coldlands in a propaganda campaign and hopefully be bred commercially. The Capybaras themselves were not particularly happy with this turn of events.
One day in their nice pens the humans led them out and brought them aboard one of those big metal island things on the river and taken into a dark room with a bunch of boxes. While their was food, there was only a small trough of water with enough to drink but not enough to swim as well as strange noises and the floor moving back and forth sometimes. It also was a bit on the cool side at times. Once or twice a day their handlers would come by, bring in some more food and stuff to chew on, muck the place out, check up on them and then leave. Sometimes they grumbled. They got a bit irritable by the time they got to the Coldlands and were taken out and most of them were not cooperative once they had disembarked.
As a Capybara was led through the warehouse on a leash, this manifested in a refusal to be dragged around on a leash. As it did so, it noticed something in the background. It was a strange human (as far as it could tell or cared), tall and lanky in a cloak. The rest of the humans ignored it. The cloaked figured moved quietly, making an effort to avoid bumping into people and tucked itself in a nook between the crates and barrels and stood there, examining it. If the Capybara's mind was a bit more sophisticated it would have asked itself "what is he doing?" or "Why has no one besides me noticed him?" The reason being that spells of invisibility were typically psychic in nature, fooling the minds of those around them that there was only empty space where they stood. But while they were effective against humans, elves, dwarves, orcs and similar, they often were not finely tuned to other creatures such as rodents. Never the less, it had little interest in exposing the being at the moment and the Drow Spy quietly observed and wrote things down for his superiors. That message would soon be dispatched to his masters, much to their interest.
(War Council Room, Galthirith, Spring 34IA)
Among the greatest assets of the Dark Elves was their expertise in espionage. Each of the Nine Drow states had at it's disposal an elaborate network of spies assisted a number of local informants, connections with the criminal underworld and unwitting assistants. These had connections across the human kingdoms and kept them up to date on various political developments, military actions and similar. It also could be used to manipulate the human powers by providing valuable information to certain parties to make sure that their foes would end up fighting themselves, as a means to undermine the influence of the High Elves and as a commercial commodity.
The last of those had been a goal which had become a higher priority over the last millennium. For forty two centuries the Drow had viewed themselves as the Rightful Masters of all life and had fought to bind the world in chains to their will in numerous great wars, as well as a number of lesser ones. However, even if it took some time their efforts towards expansion and enslavement would be repulsed and they would be driven back to their domains. Fortunately, there were still those who would gladly sell their enemies or would be open to more profitable alternatives to the headsmen in dealing with criminals. With this, the Merchant Families of the Dark Elves, once minor players at best had risen in prominence and status, much to the subtle disdain to the older Warrior elites. Especially since some of this money was being invested in ambitious projects across the sea in the most successful example of Expansion the Dark Elves had accomplished to this date.
But regardless of the internal class conflicts of the Drow, one thing that all parties agreed on was the probing of the new state of Infrastructure. Not every Dark Elf State was involved in the Coldlands slave trade, but regardless there was a comparatively modest but noticeable increase in the price of unskilled slaves from 10 IA to the fall of the Black Ports. At the same time, it's technological progress was something which could not be overlooked, especially after the Rifle Wars. Some, like Galthirith probed for weak points, areas that could be of use for an invading army in a future punitive campaign. Others, especially Valnothron, sought to obtain their secrets. There were a few long term plans, even if they had given up on attempting to assassinate Committee members for the time being. A surprising number of their agents had been lost, but never the less they kept up their investigations. Among the things that they wondered about the most was the launch of a large scale fleet across the oceans. There was not much information on where they went and they did not follow their steel fleet. The hope was that it was lost in a storm, but it returned. Soon afterwards, the various agents managed to figure out where they had went.
In a council room of Galthirith a compiled report was examined by a number of prominent figures. Among them lady Talith ti'Noljas, the plants and animals they brought back, the Images displayed by recruiters looking for more settlers, the descriptions of the far away lands among sailors. She knew where the Coldlanders had decided to disgrace the sky with their soot spewing fleets and a wart of a colony even before getting to the conclusion of the note, which was merely a note of confirmation. It was a land across the sea, uninhabited save for primitive tribals, but it was due south of a set of Drow Colonies, among them those of Galthirith. Colonies which, despite the threats posed to them by the High Elves and other powers, had been thriving. A foothold by a rival power in this new world, even one five thousand miles from their assets was a unacceptable hazard to their long term plans.
As such she calmly put down the report on the table. Then, in a lightning movement, she drew her dagger and brought down her into it. The rest of the officials got the message. Whatever reason the Committee had for setting up this settlement in the New World, it did not matter. They would not be allowed to cultivate this settlement. Ironclad fleet or not, it would be sent to the abyss to rust. The other figures got the message and by in large agreed with it. There would be war.
(Boiler Room, cargo ship Success, Open Ocean, Summer 34IA)
The task of the Infrastructural Fleet on it's first transoceanic voyage was to deliver everything needed to set up a viable settlement to serve as a beachhead for further development. As soon as word had reached the Coldlands that the endeavor had been successful, plans were put into order to further development. This meant less space was taken up by bare essentials like flour, potatoes, brick molds and nails, which freed up space for less essential gear such as drilling equipment, machine tools and ammunition, as well as more people. Among them were two companies of soldiers, a fair number of new civilian volunteers and, to fill out the gaps as quickly as possible, some 1,024 Detentional Laborers. Among them was Acke Horboslev.
About a month ago, there had been a small uprising in Horboslev. There was some dissent since slavery had been abolished and the deposition of Lord Jere when the Infrastructural Army. But this did not manifest as much beyond grumbling until three Infrastructural Cavalrymen were killed in the street by a cloaked figure, which got the attention of the barflies at the Cod and Goat Tavern (Acke being one of them), which ended up getting three more cavalrymen killed in a riot. Oddly enough, a few crates filled with a variety of miscellaneous rifled muskets, ammunition, bullet molds and powder were brought in soon afterwards by a few gray cloaked figures who swiftly left after unloading their cargo. With these the town was up in arms and began sending out men to gain support from surrounding villages, or failing that, steal their stuff to use it to fight.
This went for nine days on until a company of soldiers came in with a cannon and dealt with this uprising quickly. Horboslev was broken up, all the children were sent away to orphanages and all the adults were sent off on Detentional Labor projects. Some of them were sent across the sea. There were others as well chained up in the hold of this ship. There were highwaymen and bandits, a couple pirates, some criminals from Dalatyr, The Yards and the Garrison Towns and a few old warriors and similar that had been working in the mountains before being re-assigned. It was cramped and foul smelling in the hold, despite the daily hose down and the instance of chamber pot usage. To make the most of them, some of them were assigned to clean the decks or to shovel coal into the engines. On the eighth day, Acke had that job.
For ten hours he and and six other men fed the fires with only a couple rest and lavatorial breaks. While it was cold outside, in this room it was incredibly hot as the furnaces burned. A cloth was given to be tied over his face to keep out the dust, the men from the mines told him that this helped with the coal dust and the first thing the guards did to punish you was take it away for the day, which was not pleasant at all when you were around a lot of coal. The stuff got everywhere. Even though those who did this work were on double rations at the end of the day, it was not an experience he wanted to repeat. He was not looking forward to life in that distant land.
(Infrastructural Navy ironclad Ironsides, Open Ocean, Summer 34 IA)
Petty Officer Igor Igorovik was part of damage control team of the Ironsides, a fact which, for the most part meant he was an odd job man aboard the ship. This included a variety of tasks peeling potatoes to swabbing the deck, as well as making sure the lower ranking men under his command did their jobs. There was some drilling as well to keep them on the toes. Still, while it was a job which did involve a decent amount of hard work, he did not find it much of a challenge.
On the thirteen day of the Fleet's second Transoceanic voyage after lunch, he went out on deck. It was a sunny day and had gotten warm out and in any case, the deck needed swabbing again. On the Horizon he took note of a minor oddity. A thunderhead was on the horizon from the northwest despite it being a very nice day without a cloud in the sky. He briefly hoped that it would not come their way and by the windsock, that should not be a problem and he went to work. But over the next twenty minutes, people began to pay more attention to the storm cloud as it converged and, in the distance rumbled. There is a special type of frustration which is begotten from knowing that the work or money you invested into a task is going to be for naught and this began to build up in Igor. "Brushes down lads." He said in a tone which, while not unkind, did convey his annoyance at this turn of events.
Then came word for the crow's nest. "SHIPS AHOY! FLEET SIGHTED TO STARBOARD!" The last ships outside the Armada which were seen were a week ago. Some men gathered about the Starboard bulwark to see. It took some time, but eventually they saw them. It was a large fleet, forty one ships in total, most of them underneath storm head. Two things were notable about them: The first being that they were sailing fast, despite the fact that they were not going with the wind, or at least not the wind which was going by the Ironsides. The second was that their sails were black. He heard the briefings in training and the stories from the Sailors who went up against these ships. These were Drow ships, a whole fleet of them and they were coming this way.
They were in for the fight of their lives.
(Drow Fleet, Open Ocean, Summer 34 IA)
At the front of every Drow warship was two things: A ram and a Corvus. The ram was a runic blade kept under water, used to pierce the hull of enemy warships. The Corvus was a bridge mounted on a pivot with spikes on the which could be brought down on an enemy ship, allowing warriors to easily run over and storm the craft. Leading the charge of a Drow fleet was the Ship of the Line Nalithan Brenolth (Reaper of Fleets), a formidable craft of 3,600 tonnes, four masts and 122 guns, manned by nearly a thousand sailors, marines and slaves. Along with the Corvus stood Admiral Dravos ti'Halithnon, inspecting the fleet on the horizon with his spyglass.
On the Horizon he saw his target. They had been identified beforehand, but there was no mistaking that fleet. Moving through the water with sails tied down or absent altogether and leaving in their wake their trails of coal smoke, leaving aside the Hexagonal Seals which adorned it's ships. They were Infrastructural Ships. He knew this would be a difficult prey to subdue. They had managed to destroy a couple of raiding frigates and sloops that were sent to ravage their commerce and loot shipping for taking the black ports and ending the flow of slaves from the Coldlands.
He put that down more to incompetent merchant house captains, incautious in their execution which let them be bested by a mixture of conscript infantrymen, half trained ferrymen and peasants with some exotic new toys. As far as he was concerned, there was a silver lining in this cloud in that the Merchant families got another minor setback. It was the Destiny of the Drow to take this world and bind it in chains. Those that fought and bound those to their will were deserving of power and prestige, not oversold peddlers. In his book owning one slave caught forced into chains at swordspoint was more worthy of respect than three that had been bought by coin, or ten acquired by breaking bread with mere humans and paying them to hand over their enemies and criminals. His fleet had a few merchant captains among its ranks, but they could still be of use when led by someone bred for combat and leadership.
The enemy was formidable. It was hard shelled, armed with distructive weapons and unlike most ships built by mere humans was not bound by the wind. But formidable did mean not invincible. He had at his disposal a formidable fleet, one which would send terror into the soul of kings and generals. It was something of a hodgepodge, quickly formed out of a hasty coalition of four Drow Realms, but it would serve its purpose. They had no shortage of guns and marines, as well as a thunderhead in tow by mages. It would be quite the prize to seize just one of these these ships. In a few moments battle would be joined and the rightful masters of the ocean would dispose of these pretenders.
