The evacuation fleet made good time. While they had wider beams than the warships did, each of them had at least two weather mages who had been taking things easy for the last few days. They were quickly able to get under way and achieve a steady speed of about eighteen kilometers an hour (a bit more than 11 mph by their reckoning), which they could keep up for about sixteen hours. If the need arose they could sprint at 24 km per hour for up to two hours, though after that it would be unable to do anything more than keeping natural winds at their back afterwards. A couple of ships had steam engines which allowed them to keep that speed up for longer and as such had their wind mages reassigned to older vessels. The escorts could keep up about 35 km/h as long and could sprint at up to 40, but even so their job was to make sure that the slow moving mass of escorts could clear Infrastructural waters. While the general had seniority when the ships were docked, command went to the convoy's commander Admiral ti'Kalvonin once they got under way.At first they moved North By Northwest to clear the shoreline for twenty kilometers before turning due west. At first they encountered no serious resistance. Four Shchuka Boats attempted to raid the convoy one by one, two of which were sunk and two fell back. Two of these boats managed to fire before either being sunk or retreating, one of which managed to sink a galleon. It was not that long before actual warships began taking up the chase, however. The first one to come in on them was an Ironsides class ship. Comparatively small but still armed with a powerful pair of 150mm cannons each of which could send one of the Drow transports to the bottom with a single well placed shot. Even so the Admiral had an ace up her sleeve in case of this scenario.On-board the Infrastructural Ironclad the spotter and captain noticed something strange in one of the rearmost ships. At first there were small puffs of smoke aboard one of the ships and signs of struggle, then a signal flare was sent off from it as it began to turn away from the main group while it fired off it's cannons into a few of it's fellows which did the same, though a fair number of the shots crashed into the sea. In any case the ship fell behind it's fellows, dropped it's colors and made it's way to the Infrastructural warship, it's sailors cheering and waving as it approached. It looked like some of the slave sailors had thrown off their yoke and were making a break for freedom, seeking to greet their captors. As it past it got within five meters of it. In the last minute of the approach there was some concern about this, though it's gun-ports remained firmly sealed and could not do much damage even at this minimal range. Even so said preparations never got beyond a few cannons being loaded and weapons being passed out.Then suddenly it exploded.The double masted cargo galleon was one of three ammunition ships assigned to the evacuation fleet. The official reason for them being there was to resupply the army when Daagsgrad had fallen. However the Admiral had contrived another use for one of them in case things went sour, which she saw as an likely occurrence given her opinion of Admiral ti'Zaelros and as a way to help make a point in her personal battle for reform in how the Navy employs slave sailors. She had a special crew assembled for it composed of proven Janissaries noted for loyalty and had them trained in basic seamanship. If everything went pear shaped, the ship's drow crew would leave the ship and it would be carried along with the rest of the fleet's wind mages. Then a mock mutiny would take place, a few shots would be exchanged between it and it's companions (using low caliber shot and mostly aiming for the ocean) and make it's approach to it. Once they got close a Janissary would use a gunlock to set off four hundred and twenty tonnes of black powder. At that distance, it was enough to fatally wound the Ironclad.The Drow Admiral gave a slight satisfied smirk as she watched the sight with her spyglass, heard the roar of the explosion and watched as the infrastructural ship capsized and foundered. Even so she knew that it did not get them out of their predicament and that it. It gave them a bit of time and cost the Infrastructural Navy one of it's warships, a handful of trained sailors and marines and possibly diverting one of their crews to aide any survivors their might be around. Even so as she went on she saw on the horizon the smoke plumes of two more warships as well as couple more Shchuka Boats. As such she gave an order breaking her fleet into five groups that fanned out. It made her fleet more vulnerable to those quick moving boats but less vunerable to a long range shelling, which she feared far more. The southernmost of the groups would eventually be hunted down and smashed near the great bog and all of them would suffer at least one casually to Shchuka boats. Even so, more of her ships managed to escape the Icemountain sea than not.Previous- Infrastructure: Part Two Hundred and Twenty Four Next- Infrastructure: Part Two Hundred and Twenty Five