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Published: 2013-04-21 21:08:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 2514; Favourites: 2; Downloads: 5
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Description
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 moulds 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 the 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 moulds and powder were brought in soon afterwards by a few gray cloaked figures who 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.
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