Winter set in over the chaotic lands in which Dalatyr was sited. As it set in, its people braced themselves against a foe that was older and could prove far more deadly than warriors. They slaughtered their animals, stockpiled firewood, sticks, charcoal and cowpats and made sure that their homes were well sealed to keep the precious heat of fires in. The gangs of bandits retreated from their prefered hunting grounds to their home villages, to live well off the fruits of their foul efforts or into caves. Many of the merchants that frequented these cold lands made their way to the south and southwest to sell what they had gathered. Save for a small number of people such as trappers, charcoal burners and loggers, people made an effort not to go outside if they could avoid it. Even the warriors largely retreated in light of the cold. Dalatyr was only a minor exception to this rule in the first winter after the Survivors took control. Mining was continued by the captives and the blast furnace kept going as slowly more of a building grew around it, but most people fell back to behind doors. Though the natives noticed that very little smoke came out from the Great Hall where those strange metal men.Boris mused on this fact about his masters as he made himself busy, a warm cup of beef broth nearby. For a smith who had a good forge, winter did not mean a major disruption to work. While he was glad to see Heisenoff put down, his lot stripped of power and the new masters never seemed to engage in the brutish "fun" or give women unwanted attentions that his lot were so fond of, he never knew what to make of them. Even if they were quite benign and he never herd them speak with anything other than a flat calm tone, they commanded fear from their ability to make a mockery of warriors. He had heard stories of Golems, but these did not resemble the tales of servile hulks of metal, stone and pottery. He could understand some traits, such as how they did not eat or drink, but he was perplexed by the fact that that they stripped the hall of its sheilds and ornaments of Heisenoff's lot and either sold them, or melted them down. While the old warriors were by no means pleasent, if nothing else he knew what was going on in those scared hairy grim heads of theirs.They always were pushing a project of some sort, be it the brick kiln, the blast furnace, the iron converter, nightsoil disposal, paper making, crossbows (though they stopped ordering them), stills, soapmaking, that thing with animal manure or the strange looms and spinning wheels that they had designed. Sometimes they would offer some assistance such as the bellows machine which fueled the blast furnace and they often oversaw things, but for the most part they made use of their labour to fufil their vision. The end results of these projects had a major impact on how things went on in Dalatyr. He constantly received ingots of steel and he was grateful that he did not have to spend all that time turning lumps of bog ore. He was certain that they had greater plans, but he still wondered what they were and what they would mean for him and his family.Now, in the dead of winter they moved onto another projects. In addition to ingots he had been delivered a set of steel tubes, sets of blueprints and orders to complete the device as was laid out. The other smiths of the town and the carpenters were also tasked with this project. He set to work making nails and the various fine bits that were required for this project, as well as setting up a lathe that provided a critical part of the operation. Early on, they inspected his work and would point out an error until he got the hang of it. The carpenters provided the wood bits while the other seven smiths of Dalatyr provided their bits for the project, doing much of what he did, although he let them use his lathe. At the end, either Boris, his wife, his son Pyotr or his Daughter Junna would then put them together. It took some attention to detail to get the little Tinderbox mechanism on the side to work properly, but he got the hang of it. Starting around new years the first of these devices were completed and in exchange he received a fair amount of the paper notes that their shop accepted as currency. The deivces reminded him of a crossbow without the bow and he suspected that they were. It was clear that they wanted alot of these devices. He was certain that they were weapons of some kind (and indeed more primitive versions of these things did exist elsewere on this world), even if he did not know how they worked and the machines said that their purpose would be reveiled in time. In the meantime, his work on these devices ensured that every day there was meat on his family's table and he had pride in his work. So he pushed on as he fastened the barrel to the stock.As was mentioned earlier, warfare more or less stopped during the winter months in the Cold Lands. Snow made marching to battle a horrid ordeal for men and horse alike, livestock that had not been slaughtered were well penned up, besieging a town with stores for the winter was an exercise in futility and the last thing you wanted was for your warm clothes to have bits torn off of them. In any case, having a breather to let wounds heal and to rebuild their equipment was considered to be a good thing. Out of the high failure rate and the reprisals that usually happened afterwards for interupting this effective ceasefire, a distain emerged among the warriors about any form of winter fighting save for guarding what they had and the occasional actions against bandits.That said, the constant skirmishes and raids of these fractured lands would often claim its victims even in the dead of winter. Once and a while, villages would be leveled and those who survived would be left homeless. Groups of these vagrents would wander the Coldlands, with little more than what they could carry on their backs in search of some place where they could live. They would aimlessly trek from town to town hoping for someone willing to shelter them. They were generally turned down by the local warriors, the way most of them saw it they were weak cowards for letting that happen to them in the first place. Bandits rarely bothered with them, as they rarely had anything worth stealing. More often then not they were turned down. They foraged for food, found what small items they found in the forest, took advantage of those people who were charitable and gathered sticks to sell as firewood and pelts to get a meal or a couple of copper coin. However, many would eventually be forced to some theivery to keep themselves alive. Some would eventually become outright bandits. A few of them would even give themselves over to slavers, even though they had a tendancy of killing unmarketable merchendice. However, few remained homeless like this for more than a year, they largely either found somewhere that they could settle during the summer or autumn, or they faced the winter with neither supplies or shelter against the cold.A small family of these victims made their way across a field, having been rejected several times near the Solstice. They were peasants who had their lives swept away when a dozen men driven by bloodlust and beer. The family name of these six figures was Kyoth, for that was the name of the town they came from. Now nothing more than ruins that would be resettled next year by those brutes and their minons. They had not had a decent meal in a week and four days ago, they had lost one of their own, a boy of nine. A lad named Anton, loyal and hard working, he had once been fairly strong for his age before hunger slowly took his toll and he had succumed to cold. In their ranks was a Stefia, who carried in the mess of rags that served as her clothing her three month old daughter. They set up camp near Dalatyr with nothing more to eat than a meager broth of acorns and a squirrel to see them through. They had been lucky that while their had been a fair bit of snowfall, there had not yet been a major cold snap. They were on the edge. As they settled down with nothing but than their blankets, body heat, a meager fire, their raggety clothing and the bare minimum of a tent to keep them warm. This was enough for an infrared scanner to pick up.They were awakened by the sound of hoofbeats. They peered out of the tent as the lone rider dismounted. He was rapped completely from head to toe and carried a blade. They would have darted, but doing so would mean abandoning what little they had. "Do not fear." He said in a flat, calm monotone "I bring assistance." It then produced a flask and several cups, pooring each one a measure of hot chicken soup as well as a loaf of bread. They thanked the stranger for this unexpeted kindness. "This tent is a poor shelter against the cold. We can provide a superior one." They agreed and were led by him. It was a two hour walk, even when he refilled their cups with warm soup, but they made it to the gates. Mythalya, the matriach of the famly insited in carrying the hand wagon along. As they walked, he asked a few questions. They saw the faint glow from the torches of guards manning the walls and a lamp nearby the gate. The Guard, who was resting in a heated shed signaled that all was clear. The door gate was unbarred and their hearts rased as it opened. The rider dismounted, his horse was taken inside to be stabled and he invited them in. They were soon led to a brick building. It was bare save for a fireplace, a pile of logs nearby it, a lavatory composed of a chair with a hole in it with a bucket underneith, a water barrel, a broom, a few sheets neatly stacked, a few straw mats and four other people lying in blankets. These stirred in annoyance at sound and the draft that was let in, muttering for them to close the door and getting back to sleep as they did. To the Kyoth family, this might as well been a palace.---As the newcommers were settled in the Dormitory, One Which Seeks To Understand Everything New It Encounters Upon It's Discovery-153401 (Discovery for short) was pleased at the sucess. Five new labourers had been procured, with two more being well on their way. Plans were already being made for their long-term accomidation. This would mean that housing would need to be aranged. As it stood, they would most likely be put to use making brick molds starting in the morning. There were definately problem figures among the displaced, but if worse came to worse they could always be added to the detentional labour force, although Discovery did not believe that would be nessisary with these individuals. Still it was a sucess to save them, it was criminally wasteful to let such valuable human resources expire in the cold. The Warriors of the Coldlands had a strange mentality about weeding out weakness, and yet they shunned sources of strength when they walked up to their doors.As winter gave way to spring of the Coldlands, activities that had been haulted by the frigid winter winter started up once again. It was muddy and damp, but it was time to put down crops and raise villages. Among these was the return of the Merchants. A few of them were locals, weathering the winter in the cold at their home villages during the worst of it and sometimes did some minor trade during the warmer spells. The most sucessful of these were foreigners. These men from warmer and more developed areas often had caravans of wagons and could afford armed body guards. They exchanged goods as they went, exchanging things between towns and gradually building up supplies of valuable furs and precious stones and metals. Among the first to arrive at Dalatyr was Johan Reddendorf, a tall thin man with a caravan six ox carts strong who frenqueted this area on his usual routes.Johan was quick to notice the changes that happened. He had been by this place several times before, including twice last year. The first time was a few days before Heisenoff and his lot were dispatched and once more in the fall. He was suprised to here that more traders were comming to Dalatyr, the area becoming safer as metal men kept away bandits and raids and that they had taken up making grain and potato based spirits and cheap iron. He managed to do buisiness as usual and pick up some of the local liquor, which sold quite well. It was strange as he did buisiness with agents of the new rulers, styling themselves "The Committee", which seemed disinterested in the higher class products that he sold. They were not the least bit interested in jewlery, ornate ceramics, fine wines that he could usually unload on sucessful warlords despite their finacial sucess, even if they did buy a few of the chainmail shirts and the two brestplates that he was carrying. He had seen the Iron Men that guarded the place, but while they were untalkative and their visored faces were without expression he did notice the way that they observed things. Something about their betrayed an intelligence stiring inside, quietly taking everything in. This combined with their apperence made him realise that they were no Golems. He wondered if some of the rumours about them actually running the place were true. This time, he heard from some other merchants that Dalatyr was keen on buying up sulfer, as much as possible and at a above average price. He made a note to go to Syeragrod and pick up a decent sized load of the stuff before making his way to Dalatyr.Once he got to Dalatyr, he noticed some changes had happened. Around the north gate a space had been sectioned off with a palisade for the loading and unloading cargo. Their were a few brick buildings in here, with more going up and more bricks being made outside. Things were a bit cleaner, more people than usual had new cloths, the smell was better than was usually the case in these towns and things were more crouded. Another new addition came walking down to greet him. A strange tall dark haired woman with two guards flanking her. She was pretty, but their was something off with her skin, and more importantly, her eyes which were jet black. Johan's job had demanded that he be very good at reading other people, but you did not need to be an expert to see that something was off with her. She identified herself as Nova and said that she would speak for the committe in matters of trade. She made a note to inspect his cargo, examined a peice of his mineral merchendise, picked up a couple of baskets and told him, in a kind, polite and fairly pleasant, but oddly monotone gave him his answered. "We will buy all the sulfer you carry. Fifteen copper peices per basket." He was suprised at such a high offer for something this mundane."Very well" he said. She was presented with a chest and was given his payment. It was all there.Nova smiled "May I interest you in a few steel ingots?""You may indeed" Johan retorted happily as he was lead along to a warehouse filled with them, taking care that he did not see the back of her neck. As he was escorted along, Supernova was satsified with the preformance of her new face, this being the first time it was used to adress a Human that was not one of her subjects. It took to assemble the servos and the synthetic skin to go over them for her new face, but it made communication with the natives much easier.For the Dalatyr militia, things continued as usual during the winter and spring as the first aniversery of the comming of their mechanical superiors. They guarded, patrolled, drilled, assisted in the projects that the Committee set out, oversaw detentional labourers and responded to raids. They had done a lot of work in. Three men died in summer during a praticularly bad raid, but their were nine new volunteers. they had done a fair bit of wok was done setting up brick houses during spring. Their uniforms were expanded, heavy felt coats were added for the winter while one by one they received leather shoes, trousers and gaiters. Their jackets had two additional peices of material put on their sholders to make carrying armor easier. A new standardized type of helmet was finalized, as was a cuirass design, but they were given low priority in production. While they had been a fairly basic backup when they were first raised, time and experience gradually made them a more capable and discplined force.Sven Smedth had advanced in this militia, attaining the rank of sergeant, having demonstrated a knack for command in exercesses, the fact that he could write his own name as well as general popularity among the other militiamen. He had noticed the stockpiling of the new tube weapons as well as the strange fondness that they aquired for sulfer. Then they began unearthing one of their less remarkable designs, unremarkable hillocks of straw, dung and mud that they had soaked with piss and kept sheltered during the winter under crude huts. Wheelbarrows full of white stuff were taken to a newly built watermill, along with charcoal and the sulfur and barrles were taken out to a storehouse in the village. This caused some comment among the people of Dalatyr, as well as some speculation by Sven on what was going on. They were quite secretive about this. He had guessed, after a few discussions with farmers that this had to do with fertilizer until he herd of binding small measures of the stuff in waxed paper.He found out one early summer morning when he along with Yanov (a friendly and thoughful older fellow) Petrov (a short man who always seemed like he needed to prove something) and Kven (a refugee who had come in late fall). Drive brought them outside and presented each of them with one of the weapons. He then demonstrated their operation, the loading of powder, paper and small lead objects that looked vaugely like acorns down the tubes, ramming it all down, preparing the tinderbox mechanism, bracing the device against the arm, lining the sight against the target and firing. Sven and the rest of them were shocked by the crack and smoke the thing created. It reminded him of the few times he saw one of the wizards the warlords employed in action. Drive handed over a couple of these weapons to these men and had them practice with them, carrying, aiming and marching with these weapons in hand. After a couple of hours of this they were instructed to fire at targets, starting at twenty meters. As Sven got a feel for the weapon, he was suprised to see how accurate it was. The target was then moved back to see how far they could shoot. After a few shots, they were taught the importance of cleaning and oiling.As they did so, Drive examined their actions closely and how they made progress. He informed them if they were in error or inproperly loaded a gun. He was testing the users, trying to work out the best way to train them to use these weapons. Their experience with crossbows was of some basic help, but they still needed work. However, this would yeild in time as the men were clearly getting the hang of it and when they were, training the rest would be much more smooth. Soon they would be ready to move on to the next phase of their plan.As firearms were being issued to the militia and Drive oversaw their training with these new weapons, another form of training was begining on a larger scale. They had a variety of long term plans, but it was apparent that a bottle neck would happen. Their would soon come a point the labour force would need to be able to read and write to properly function, this would also make administrating them easier. They did have a system of writing that was effective and was easy to process, although it was clear from what few books were gathered that they had yet to master it. The locals did have some reading and writing, but after some examination, only fouteen people could write among the two thousands subjects that lived in their domains. Four priests, Heisenoff's clerk and a few artisans that had picked up reading and writing in a rough and ready way. This state of affairs was to be rectified, but it took some time to get going.Supernova oversaw this development. Paper production had been started up last summer, but had been a low priority when compared to some of the other things such as sanitation, defense, coal mining, the blast furnace and so forth. During the winter they had stockpiled the stuff. By spring work had been finished on a printing press. Things were finalized with the creation of a schoolhouse, which was completed by early summer. Once it was completed, she selected its teacher. This was not praticularly dificult, Allea Ivonova was the best choice. She had been taught to read by her father wit the family's book on woodworking. He had thought that would be a good quality to help her land a decent husband and was not in a praticularly critical area of work. She was asked to do it, and because the locals on the whole were in the habit of doing what they were told she agreed, although she was clearly aprehensive even when the wage was mentioned. For two weeks, she was given a rundown on what was planned and the objectives. It was clear that she was nervious about it, but never the less she was curious about it. She had noticed how things had improved, there was more meat available, the town did not smell as bad after their policies about nightsoil and hand washing, people seemed healthier and their was more meat and money about. She figured that this was for the best.And so school began, a decree was made that children that were either nine or ten years old in Dalatyr were required to attend classes starting at the summer solstice three days out of every four days (with some exceptions for harvest, sickness and so forth). Thirty Six children were gathered that day in the brick schoolhouse that had just had its inexpertly applied plaster dry. Each one received a book and several sheets of paper. The stundents were greated by Supernova."Children of Dalatyr," She said "Here we will begin program to better your condition. Over the course of the year, you will learn a whole new language. One that is far more enduring than what you use in general conversation. For a word spoken only lasts for a brief span of time, while one put onto paper or stone or other surface is much more enduring. You shall be given the ability to hear words long after they were put down and a voice that may be heard a thousand times over long after putting it to paper. This is quite a privilege that you are about to receive. One that shall open up new things to you in the future. We have tasked Allea..." she briefly jesturing to the student's new mentor "...to give to you this gift of knowledge and she has been deemed capable of the task at hand. May things proceed smoothly and efficiently. Farewell."And with that she made her way out and the first lession began. Each one of the students was given a book, which assisted matters and helped them along. She stumbled a bit here and there and the children were quite often a handful but she persevered. A few people had to sit in the corner for being to disruptive. When class let out, they were told to take their books with them. Damaging them was clearly stated to be frowned upon. They were also told to tell their parents what they had learned. Allea was a bit overwhelmed and oddly exausted by the experience. But if nothing else she did feel that she was doing the right thing. And indeed, her efforts would be a boon to her pupils latter in their lives.The night before the first firearms were issued, a few people were awoken by a strange sound. A thuding somewhat like the crack of thunder, despite the fact that it was mostly clear out. A few guards saw a few flashes of light comming from the north after seeing the survivors leave with one of their stranger ideas. An iron tube they ordered the casting of, which was mounted on an unorthadox cart. When they returned, they said that it was a test. When they returned, Petrov who had been on gate duty asked them what they were doing. Drive answered him quickly..."Carrying out a test, corporal."And that was that. The device was then chained up. Latter, he would find himself intrusted with its use.A few weeks after the first issuing of firearms the Suvivors began a recruitment drive. Requests were put out for able bodied young men to serve in order to amass a fighting force of one hundred and twenty soldiers in Dalatyr and its Satellite villages. This involved calls to arms in public places as well as the distribution of posters. In the first four days of this, some thirty four men had been gathered for training. Twelve more volunteers would come in over the next couple of weeks. Most of these were farmers and young labourers, seeking to make a little cash. In any case, farmwork had been going easier with the new ploughs and the supplies of compost. Their were also a few refugees who felt that they owed their lives to the Survivors, a couple of slaves that had been bought and freed who held similar views. Unusually among the recruits was a farmer's daughter named Sal, who recalled what she saw involving her mother and two raiding warriors when she was just seven. Their was some discussion about this female recruit by the Survivors, but it was concluded that she could use a rifle and that she was willing to do this voluntarilly. Seven detentional labours were give the chance to earn their freedom by battle. To fill the rest of the gaps to meet the quota, the survivors resorted to conscription.Each new recruit was given complete uniform as soon as possible. These had been stockpiled over the winter by the seamstresses and other clothiers of Dalatyr. Helmets were still largely from the old stockpile, which had been augmented with the helmets of captured raiders. The contrast with their uniforms was clear. New style helmets and cuirasses were being produced, albiet slowly and with priorty for the latter. For accomidations, a couple of shelters were set up and each soldier was given a blanket and a backpack. After they arrived, the swore an oath to defend their homes from its enemies and to obey the commands of the Committee. Among those intrusted with training the new recruits was Sven, now promoted to Lieutenant. Drive had instructed him and three other men about how this would go. He was intrusted with a group of twelve new recruits and his job was to oversee them through various exercises over the next few weeks.On the first day, his squad stood before him and he came out wearing his new cuirass. They stood to attention in ranks and awaited inspection. He walked by them. He knew that most of them had some respect for the guards. They looked a decent lot on the whole, even if he did question the logic of having a woman in."Men" he said, as he suspected their were some brief snickers "You are here today to help us defend our homes, friends and families. Our enemy remains the same, those stinking brutes from Kivier, Blossdelf and Shelging. They were cut out of the same cloth as Heisenoff and his cronies. They have seen us as but weak cowards that they can rob, ravish and kill at their leasure. I say that is a lie. Cunning, skilled and fearsome they may be, they are still just men. I have seen them bleed. I have MADE them bleed! Now, thanks to our new masters, we now have the means to put them down like the rabid dogs they are. The next few weeks will not be easy on you, but if you go through with this by the end of of it you will be able to face these men down and put them out of our misery. Do you get me?""Yes Sir!""Good. First we will start with marching." And with that he started teaching them how to march. They would have to master this before moving onto shoot. With this began a change for this fighting force. What had been a purely defensive militia was to be transformed into an army with offensive capabilities.Kievier was a village twenty six kilometers west of Dalatyr and had long been its biggest rival before the comming of the Survivors. It held two vassal villages while being of comprable size. The two Warrior Hosts frequently raided each other for livestock and other supplies. The only complication was a bog that rested on the border of their domains and needed to be circumnavigated. The ruler of Kievier, Urlic the Profane shed no tears when he was brought news of Heisenoff's death. He had dismissed the claims of metal men as being the inevtiable distortions of the chains of rumours, gossip and hearsays by which news was conveyed across the cold lands. He figured that they were just a band with a wizard or two that managed to get in by posing as merchants. He then decided to test their mettle by sending twenty three warriors, including five horsemen, to pay a visit. Of these, two of the footmen returned, both sporting odd burn wounds on their arms who confirmed the claims of metal men. He then remembered the tall tale of fire spitting creatures that lurked in the forest around a fallen star that he had heard, and wondered if the two were somehow linked. He tried a night raid in the summer, but that to was repulsed easily by the invaders. With that failure, Urlic was forced onto the defensive for the next year or so until he could replace the losses. Fortunately, he got word that Dalatyr's other neighbors were diminished.For the people of Kievier, life continued more or less normally, although their was a few changes. Their was a bit more trade going by and their was some worry. With Urlic's forces diminished in scale and size, their was some worry about enemy raiders. Rumours also spread about Dalatyr, most of which apsolute nonsense with whatever truth there was being quickly lost. Occasionnally they would see that strange bird thing that never flapped its wings do a couple of flybys. Hard liquor became somewhat more common and some of it ended up among the locals. Winter went by without famine and in spring, the warriors remained on the defensive.Then one noon they heard a report of a force advancing, given what they were wearing these were from Dalatyr. Along with them were a number of wagons, so presumably they had come for a seige. Their goal was to starve them or burn them out. Neither was a good prospect. As afternoon came, the force came into sight. One of the guards manning the watchtower reported that there was about eighty of them, with only a couple on horseback and all carrying odd tube weapons. Somewhat unusually, they did not incircle, merely set up a line along the western side. Then their was a loud sound that as much as it sounded of anything to the people Kievier sounded like thunder. About a minute latter the sound repeated and part of the walls erupted into chunks and splinters. Some paniced, others looked on in horror. Eventually people would find the cast iron balls in the wreckage of damaged houses, but no one was looking for these at the time. The another shot impacted. The guards on the watchtowers said that their was a thing that some of the men from Dalatyr were stuffing stuff down that erupted into smoke. Between the crashes, there were a few odd sounds, as well as smaller thuds and movements in thatch until the sentry in the watchtower fell down dead.Slowly among the warriors and people of Kievier, a panic built. Those metal men of Dalatyr had found a way to make a mockery of walls. All hopes of waiting this out were gone. Urlic knew he had only one option left, he gathered his men and sallied forth to drive off this force. Powerful though their masters were and their wall breaker, Urlic was determined to show these farmers and craftsmen what a real warrior could do and sallied his men forth.Urlic's force burst out of the western gates. He knew he had one shot at this so he threw everything at the line of enemies. He rallied all his warriors, as well as dragging along a number of civilians armed with hand tools and whatever remained in his armory, in total eighty six charged out of the west gate towards the force that stood out there two hundred meters. The hastily press ganged men at the front to disrupt the enemy lines, behind them the warriors on foot to ensure that they pressed forward and hammer the and fourteen cavalry holding up the rear to hit the flanks. The infantry swiftly fanned out. But as they charged came a sound that the warriors of the Coldlands would soon come to dread, the thunder of a volley of gunfire. Thirty six rifles going off at once. Not every shot hit and not every hit killed, but fourteen men and a horse dropped. Some of the remaining peasants broke off in panic. A second volley sent the rest of the peasant scattering. The remaining infantry and cavalry continued their charge, one trait that they did not lack in was valour. They pressed on attempting to close. A couple of arrows were loosed, but landed well away from their marks. Non of Urlic's men got within forty meters of the Line. Urlic himself laid motionless eighty seven and a half meters from itOnce the charge had been stopped, Drive ordered the advance on Kievier. Those that had fled were not persued. The gates had been left open with no one to bar them. Once inside, squads of men made their move proclaiming the change of regime. As soon as they were in, two green banners fluttered in the wind. Looting of houses and rape was forbiddon, though fallen warriors was another matter. Sven's company was assigned to scavenge through the fallen for anything of use. It was admittedly a bit of a morbid task, but he did not object to it. Living a life in an area like the Coldlands gives people the opinion that squemishness about taking stuff off of corpses could easily lead to you of becoming one yourself. He examined the remains one by one, prodding them to see if they were still alive. Those that were still alive in the aftermath were disarmed and judged. Most of the surviving warriors were tied up, as they could be useful in one way or another. Two of them were deemed to be too badly damaged and were delt with in a more simple and final way. A good strike to the neck would do it quite nicely. That praticular job Sven saved for himself, which was far worse for him than the battle. There was a diference between the kill or be killed nature of battle and this dismill task and he wanted to prevent his men from having to do it.Despite this, they collected what they could. Weapons, shields and body armor were given priority. There was more padded cloth than he expected. Most of which had bullet damage and were to be burned, as were cloth and leather helmets and general clothes that received damage. Cloth armor that had not received much damage would be pulped for paper or given to the detentional labour force. Metal helmets, shields, armor and weapons would be either added to the arsenal, sold to merchants (a cut would go to the soldiers) or if it was of praticularly low quality recycled. Saddles could also be flogged and the horses, once their meat had been smoked or salted could provide plenty of food for the detentional labourers. Anything else belonged to the soldier who found it. As for the corpses themselves, the locals would be free to dispose with those as they wished, with one exception. A servered head tended to go a long way in getting it through people's skulls that their had been a change of leadership.Sven, along with ninteen other men would be stationed here for the next few months as the garrison. They would oversee the rebuilding of the walls, the establishment of a brick kiln, the creation of a proper nightsoil disposal force, as well as shooting a couple of raiders and training up twelve volunteers to be re-assigned elsewere. A Survivor would also generally be present to keep a tab on things. Their was some resentment, but they did not revolt as they knew how powerful the survivors were and in any case, Sven and the survivors were far less unpleasant in their rule than the Urlic was and their was an increase in trade. A couple of beligerents, many of whom were frequently drunk were sent to the coal mines but things were quite containable. Over the next two weeks, he heard of the fall of Blossdelf and Shelging and eventually his garrison received eight additional men recruited from these areas as backup. What had once been a source of destruction and death for Dalatyr would serve it's expansion.After the first expansionary campaign, the Survivors managed to cease control of an additional four thousand people spread among eight additional villages and towns. The Conscripts were de-mobilized and a few of the volunteers were de-mobilized over the next month, being placed on reserve duty. They were replaced with a total of forty eight recruits from Kivier, Blossdelf, Shelging and their vassal villages and environs, a mix of volunteers and warriors who chose continued military service to their new masters over a dreary existance mining coal which allowed it to retain its size of a hundred and twenty. To improve troop movement and trade, they set to work building roads and bridges, while a few radios kept the villages in touch with Dalatyr and each other. More raw materials were being brought in and after a few campaigns, bandits began to fall back to safer areas making trade more profitable. Raiders soon learned to fear the crack of gunfire. Their were a few casualties over summer and fall, but these were made up for by new recruits.The Great Hall of the main villages were taken over by the Survivors and their forces as headquarters. Though a different approach was used. While in Dalatyr the Great Hall was converted into the Survivor's general living space and workshop in which humans were barred from enterence shortly after they assumed control, in the other towns it was much more open. They were partitoned off with internal walls and served as a general store, a barracks for the garrison and an office for a Survivor administrator. For the most part, they did away with the "Shields, blades, furs and other bits of dead animals" decor that the warlords favoured, although having a single well positioned sword was useful for steering the locals to their point of view.In the office at Blossdelf, Supernova waited as two people were brought in a month after the conquests. A middle aged man and his wife, nervous in her presence. She was quite interested in these creatures and the way they lived and interacted with each other. One of the reasons why she had been the first to adjust her form to one closer to humans was because of that fascination. One thing that she noticed were also amazed by the light in the place. A electric lights had been installed, powered by solar pannels that now covered much of the roof as well as a couple of power cells tucked away. They could offer enough power for a few basic tasks as well as to top up their bodies power cells."Why have you summoned us, milady" The man said, exerting as much effort as possible not to dare offend her."Vasili and Marta, i have an offer for you two""What is it""Vasili, you are an blacksmith, are you not?""I am, noble lady.""And Marta, you do have three sons, ages eight, fifteen and seventeen?" This was part of the ritual of interactions. She kept a database of all the humans under their rule. She could just go strait to the point without them. But she savoured the use of the conventions of spoken language. In any case it had been made clear that blunt direct commands were not always the best way to work."Yes, fine lads.""Both being trained in the ways of metalworking""I has been tricky at times, but yes, milady.""Very well. I have for you an offer. We have a number of projects being persued in Dalatyr that have need for metalworkers. We believe that it would be most productive to treansfer over your eldest sons be sent to work there to help us complete these projects.""What about the forge here?" Vasili asked."We understand that both of you are in good health and we trust that your youngest son is as well. Your two eldest sons shall gain some additonal skills and i am sure, being good young men they would send cash home. Their would be nothing wrong if you decided to drop in every once and a while. We could even arange some time to them to talk with you via the transmitter." They had shown the general population the Radio to their amazement, even if they had a hard time explaining that it was not some form of magery.The two them talked it over for a while. "We shall send them over." Vasili responded. They were used to taking orders from the powers that were."Wonderful! Arangements shall be made for their transportation. Farewell." The two smiths left the office, talking under their breaths. That had been easier than she thought and soon they would have more resources at Dalatyr to further their projects. The conquest of the new towns did much for the Survivors, it increased security and provided them with more resources to futher their objectives. Iron ore, timber, leather, wool, food, charcoal, furs that could be traded and most importantly, it increased their human resources.Over a period of 16 months since their initial capture of Dalatyr, the Survivors had taken Dalatyr and its surrounding environs and transformed them. New industries had been set up, crops were made more productive, sanitation was improved, bandits were beaten back, trade increased and the boarders were expanded, increasing the population twice over and bringing in more raw materials to fufill the projects that the Committee mandated. To fuel these projects, coal and charcoal was used and iron ore was nessisary for the steel industry. A respectable coal deposit was located nearby and their were sources of iron ore that were enough for the imediate needs. Charcoal was obtained by charcoal burners, who benefited from monitoring cameras and watchtowers while bog iron hunters would ply their trade and sell the lumps of metal rich stone that they collected. The newly conquered villages had much of their output of both coal and ore brought over to be fed into the Blast Furnace. Still much of the coal and raw ore that Dalatyr was provided by Detentional Labourers.Detentional Labour was the Survivor's prefered method of Punishment. Execution had its uses, but the end result was a corpse incapable of work. Things such as beatings, floggings and torture compromised the preformance of the indivdual afterward (both in terms of their health, strength and often in what the Survivors categorized as programing defects), were often unreliable and it created unwanted resentment among the labour pool as a whole. Jailing meant that the individual lay idle while they consumed resources and was only used for a few cases. Fines were useful for minor infractions as were certain restrictions such as barring certain people from taverns, although many cases warrented more severe punishments. For fairly minor offenses, the punishment was fairly light, usually taking the form of several weeks to a month in which a couple hours a day were spent on the roads, building work or in waste dispoasl. Mining was usually limited for more severe crimes, along with captured warriors and bandits. Defiant to the Survivor's authority and violent, this was deemed the best way to get some use out of them.These hard cases were largely confined to two fenced off labour camps: one around the nearest iron deposit, one among the most most notable coal deposit. If their was a more pressing need for one resource, labourers were transfered to the camp, although coal mining was generally given the higher priority. In these facilities they lived. A few guards supervised each area to make sure things proceeded smoothly and efficiently, though the Survivors were capable of keeping a close eye on them. Cameras were set up to moniter production, and each worker was given a restraint collar to ensure productivity, quickly punish laxness, monitor activities, track their movements and if need be, remotely disable or terminate the worker by slitting their throats. These were charged every night, using either a land line to the fusion reactor or a set of solar cells on the roof of their barracks to charge them. The assembly of these collars was given top priority by the survivors and much time on the fabricators was spent creating them.Life for these labourers was redigmented and organized, with a usual workload of fourteen hours of work. Two hours were set aside for eating, bathing (required every two days) and clean up of work enviroment. Every twelve days they received a four hour workload and occasionally in case of weather work would be cancelled. Outside of punishment for failure to preform their duties, there were systems in place to incentivise the labourers to do their best. Labourers were organized into gangs of ten workers and their was a system of individual, team and collective rewards and penalties in place. For general good behavior, meeting or exceeding quotas people received merits, which could be cashed in to lower quotas and workdays shortened, indoor work such as kitchen duty, have rations increased as well as getting meat (often horse stew, recylcing the dead mounts of raiders) and get beer or small amounts of spirit with meals, as well as forgiveness for minor infractions. Counterproductive behavior was met with an increased workload and reduced rations. For every ten merits that an individual labourer earned, his gangmates got one each and the same went for demerits. This encouraged labour gangs to make sure that their members were productive and did not go about breaking the rules. If production was praticularly high, every worker would be given a merit. Those labourers who preformed well typically had better clothing and were less skinny. Their were a few deaths, but the general policy was to keep them alive as long as possible, as corpses were no use at all. During the winter, miners were given cold weather jackets, either furs or felt based and tarps were used to shelter miners from the wind, although mining did slow.Mining output rose considerably after the survivors came, as the mines were manned perminantly and the survivors improved the output per worker through planning, ordering large numbers of wheel barrows to make it easier to move things about and latter a greater number of steel tools. When Dalatyr was taken, they had some thirty Detentional labourers and that would go up over the years. Sixteen months after the Survivors took over, they had over a hundred and fifty three, a number which would increase even further.