5You guys are really killing me here. I can see that many people have seen this story but seriously, I NEED SOME REVIEWS PEOPLE! I really would like to see what people think about this story so please leave a comment. I am also working on the other stories but as I said before these things are typically when I got a good idea to progress. There are probably other people who can get ideas easier than me and if anyone could volunteer to PM me to bash heads with ideas it would be very much appreciated. Now on with the story.
Chapter 3: Settling Down
It had been only a couple of weeks since the arrival of the IDX, during that time the group was as busy as bees in the height of spring. They were very fortunate that Rufus as a lobbyist always carried a moderate amount of gold coins of rather pure mintage that he sometimes used to persuade some senators to approve the energy bills that were being passed through Congress.
They utilized his funds with the help of Night Raid (well the members that are not wanted) to get an empty warehouse for themselves at the outskirts of the Capitol. After they got the essentials, (food, bed, and industrial items) they all sat down and started making plans on what to do for the next few days.
"Alright, now that we have settled down let us plan the next course of action." Crane said while sitting down on a long worktable that they found with the warehouse. "From what I can see here, we are in a situation where we are currently stranded someplace that is not of our world. In some country called the empire which would be the closest to living in hell as we know it. Fortunately, there is a very organized rebel army that is waiting for the right moment to get rid of the current prime minister who for some reason reminds me of a Chinese chancellor called Cao-Cao. If we are to be here for an indefinite amount of time, I propose that we should utilize some of our efforts in trying to help them change this country for the better! The sooner this living nightmare ends, the more people that could be suffering from this could be saved!" This brought a round of agreement among the members of the IDX, of which Colonel Crane brought his attention to the nerds of the group and asked, "Joe and Max, how does the technical side of our situation look?"
"Well Joe and I were talking about it for a while and we are good security and material wise since the vortex took most of our tools and the ironclads in the workshop with us. However, we would need to find ourselves a source of Belgium Anthracite if we are to build more working ironclads and an ironworks to get the raw materials we need to build them. We are planning on prospecting the area for possible deposits of Belgium Anthracite or at least a good substitute with the detector that came along with us, but we think that it is best if we were to hide our Ironclad capabilities from the general public. That way when our Ironclads go into action they would be linked to Night Raid, but would not link to our normal selves which should keep us in the clear from the local authorities. However, it would look suspicious to the local authority here if we were to get an ironworks with no real product that they could see being produced which is our current dilemma."
It was at that moment that Rufus spoke up, "I think that I have the solution to your problem."
"Can you please elaborate on that then?" Joe asked.
"Certainly. As you all know, before I joined your wonderful company during the war, I was involved with the shipping industry. Therefore I learned to have a keen eye for opportunities that may escape the notice of most people. What I can see here that even though this country probably had a rather advanced science department to create the teigu. They didn't advance too much in the transportation and other departments."
"What do you mean?" Victoria asked.
"What I mean is that I can see an opportunity that could revolutionize the country while giving us an edge against our adversaries. One thing I noticed is that this country's transportation is heavily dependent on roads and canals. That is not bad and all, but we all know of a better transportation system that deals with the inherent problems of roads and canals. (For those of you who don't really know those problems here is a list: roads are good because they give a path for goods to travel however they are bad because dirt roads are dusty when dry and muddy when wet. Canals are good because they could carry more goods without the problems of roads however they need water and can't be used in winter because the water freezes.)"
"The railroad!" exclaimed Max in realization, "That is the edge and product that you are proposing. How on earth we didn't think about that!"
"It's probably because we are so used to railroads that we just assumed that they had them or at least something better if the teigu were any indication." replied Joe, "Although this brings up another point that we would also have an edge on would be the telegraph. Since, we would need to establish a line of communication between the stations so to prevent or at least mitigate rail collisions from happening. We could send messages faster than their courier system that they seem to be using which would benefit us in the long run."
"Do you think you two could be able to construct steam locomotives and telegraph systems from scratch?" asked Crane.
"Pish. We're from the Bureau of Steam Engineering. Building steam engines and telegraph systems are easy for us. The problem would be to find the manpower and training to get people to become familiar with our systems." replied Max.
"Perhaps we could ask the revolutionary army to fulfill the manpower problem. After all they probably have a large list of people that are loyal to them and are not fit for combat. Therefore, we would be giving something for them to do while protecting ourselves from people with questionable morals. I think you guys can imagine what would happen if the wrong people were to understand our capabilities." replied Rufus.
"Fair enough. But who will be in charge of setting the transportation and messaging systems up while the rest of us would be involved with the other projects?" Crane said thoughtfully.
"I think that we have the right person for that job." remarked Joe while eyeing Victoria.
"Ah yes. You are a special agent for the US postal service. With your skills it shouldn't be a problem for you to set up then." Replied Crane.
"You're right about that! Even though the telegraph systems were mostly the job for western union than the postal service we still have a very good idea of how the telegraph system works. Also the post office has been using trains to transport mail for a while so yes I can do it."
"Good then. With that we can address the final issue that we will have to settle which would be to seek the patronage of a government official."
"Whoa, whoa. Seeking the patronage of a government official? Are you out of your mind Crane?!" exclaimed Max.
"Actually, I can see the reason why we would need to seek patronage." Replied Rufus, "The history of the railroad was fraught with people who had interests in the other transportation systems trying to shoot down the railroad. If we don't get the backing of someone high up in the government, all efforts to establish the railroad would inevitably fail either legally or at worst physically."
"I can see your point. However, just who should we seek patronage from?" Joe asked.
"Well I for one wouldn't suggests the Prime Minister." retorted Victoria, "He sounds like the snake that you would prefer to keep as far away from you as possible since if you bring him too close it would strike you without hesitation."
"Also we can't seek the prince since he is being controlled by that Prime Minister." Replied Rufus.
"None of the other directors or nobility would work since they would be easily squashed by the Prime Minister if he had any reason to get rid of them. Not to mention nearly half of them are literal scumbags." Retorted Max
"There is one person that we could ask patronage from that is in very good standing with the Prime Minister and wouldn't care too much with our activities other than probably our certain advantages."
"Then pray tell us, Crane. Who is this heaven sent patron that we could recruit then?" asked Max.
"General Esdeath."
"Excuse me? I think that I heard that wrong but you can't possibly suggest that we get General Esdeath as a patron." Victoria asked.
"I'm not joking. However please let me explain. From what I heard Esdeath is a person who is only interested in conflict. Therefore, if we managed to get her as our patron, she wouldn't look into our activities too closely as long as we can maintain our operations smoothly. Secondly, she has a rather unique standing as the strongest in the empire and also she is not stupid. That way nobody would want to tangle with anything that Esdeath is involve with without risking her wrath putting us in a safe position legally and physically. It also helps that she is connected with the Prime Minister, but the Prime Minister just regards her as a very effective loyal tool and would not be interested in anything that she does. Also as my final point, since she is not stupid she would immediately realize the benefits of having a rail system tactically since the need to transport troops and materials is always a logistical problem."
"Alright. Even though I don't really like it, doesn't mean that I don't realize that you made some rather compelling points there." Victoria sighed, "Then who will be meeting with Esdeath?"
"That would be my job since I was a military commander so I should think that I could explain our benefits to her better than Rufus."
Everyone thought of Rufus dealing with a no nonsense experienced killer and had to agree mentally that Colonel Crane would be able to get through her better than the flamboyant Rufus.
"Now that concludes the meeting. Max and Joe would go prospecting for Belgium Anthracite while dealing with construction and research. Rufus will meet with Night Raid to get into contact with the revolutionary army for manpower and find an ironworks. Victoria will start planning the framework of our transportation and messaging systems and the training regimen for our new recruits. While I will arrange a meeting with General Esdeath. Any questions?"
After no one had any they immediately set to work on their objectives.
-fast-forward a couple of days, Max and Joe are at the fake mountain examining their detector with Tatsumi and Akame with them to act as body guards.
"Can you please explain why you two with no combat experience want to go Anywhere Near Fake Mountain?" Tatsumi asked while slicing up another tree beast. Akame was also thinking the same thing, but Tatsumi had already voiced her thoughts.
"That is an excellent question. Normally Max and I wouldn't want to go near a place like this unless we had a good reason to do so."
"And that reason is the fact that we need to find a deposit of Belgium Anthracite or at least a good substitute to it." Max ended the sentence while wrestling with the equipment and reading the dials.
"If I remember correctly Belgium Anthracite is what powers your Ironclads. Wouldn't it be easier if something else was used to power them?" remarked Akame.
"While that has been done before, it is something that we would rather not do unless there is no other choice." Replied Max
"How come?"
"Well for one, originally the ironclads were designed to use coal as a power source. However, the inefficiency and comparatively low energy density per gram of coal was not enough to power them for a realistic amount of time, which was a problem that hindered its use for combat operations. My mentor Zebulon found a solution around the problem which was the discovery of a material known as Belgium Anthracite."
"Just what exactly does Belgium Anthracite do?" asked Tatsumi (They had gotten rid of another wave of tree beasts and were on guard for any more coming.)
"It is not what it does was why it is used but the special properties of the material. Belgium Anthracite in particular has a very high energy density per gram of the stuff to make it powerful enough to power the ironclad and also allows us to use a small amount of it compared to the tons of coal needed to just make it walk a few steps."
It was then that the detector started to give off a faint beeping noise (like a Geiger counter).
"Hey I think we got something here!" yelled Joe.
"What?! What exactly is it doing?" yelled a surprised Tatsumi.
Max quickly brought his attention to the beeping machine toying with the knobs and examining the dials. Akame set a calculating gaze at what Max was doing but obviously she didn't know what in the world he was doing. However she hoped that by watching his actions she could get at least an idea of what to look for this Belgium Anthracite.
"Looks like that we got a faint signal of an Anthracite deposit." Said Max.
"Can you tell what grade it is?" asked Joe.
"Can't tell with the preliminary findings. Most of it seems to be radiation leakage from the source so it could mean that the soil has some rather good radiation shielding. If that is the case I would be rather optimistic about having a higher grade Belgium Anthracite than what we were expecting, but no celebrating just yet until we actually get to the source."
He then looks at Akame and Tatsumi asking "Do both of you have any experience in excavation?"
Akame and Tatsumi were puzzled but both answered that they had some experience in digging.
"Well this is the part where we get down and dirty." Max replied, "We're are going to dig our way closer to the source so we could get a good reading on the deposit and figure out the grade of the deposit. Thus allowing use to decide whether or not we could initiate mining operations."
-scene change to the base of Night Raid where Rufus is currently in conversation with Lubbock and Mine.
"Well what can we do for you Rufus?" Lubbock asked.
Mine in particular was keeping suspicious glances to Rufus, but she failing since she was being captivated by Chester. Who was not amused by her antics of coaxing him to let her pet him, constantly hissing at her whenever she tries. Rufus made a knowing gaze over the situation before bringing his full attention to Lubbock.
"We are settling down quite nicely thanks to Night Raid and we are quite grateful for the assistance. However, there are some issues that have come up that we hope that your organization could help us with."
Lubbock face hardened and asked, "Is it an assassination request?"
Rufus was surprised on that reaction but then realized that Night Raid was an assassination squad so of course they would think that their request for help could get mistaken as an assassination request.
"No. No. No. Nothing of that sort. The issues that came up are more of man power and the need to find an ironworks."
"Man power? Surely you don't think that a professional such as myself would do something trivial as to assist you in whatever you people are doing." Huffed Mine doing that high-class look.
Rufus didn't give any indication of being fazed by that rather he replied, "Oh no. I don't think that an accomplished lady such as you would be able to handle the job that we have in mind." Smirking at her astonished reaction of such a rebuttle.
She was about to retort to the verbal barb when Lubbock quickly answered, "An ironworks would be rather easy for us to find. However, I need to ask. Why are you coming to us for the need for man power? We are an assassination squad so you could say that we already have our hands full." He shrugged.
Rufus nodded but added, "What you say is true, which is why I am not asking Night Raid itself to fill our manpower requirement, but I hope that you can contact the Revolutionary Army to give us the manpower we need."
Lubbock turned thoughtful for a second before replying, "I see. That would make more sense. We could find people to help in your endeavor, but before we go the hard work of looking for suitable recruits I need to know what it is that you guys are doing."
"That is fair. There is absolutely no way that you all would be able to find the right people if you don't know what kind of job that we need them for. Very well. What we are planning on doing is to create transportation and messaging network in the empire. I will not go into the details right now since it's a work in progress. Quite frankly what we need is people who are detail oriented, can learn and memorize things quickly, decode and encode messages, has experience with machinery, and have knowledge in mining, civil engineering, and construction. Obviously, they all need to be aligned with the revolution so that is why we are asking for the Revolutionary army labor pool."
Lubbock was dumfounded by the request. He was thinking that the manpower requirement would need people who were familiar with combat, but instead was being asked for people with civilian skills. It was not like they didn't have a large pool of people with civilian skills, but mostly they had been using them as lower level spies since that was the only thing that they were good for. "Well it is not an unreasonable request, but why are you trying to create a transportation and messaging network? I thought for sure you people would be constructing Ironclads to help us in our fight against the empire."
"That would be true if only that we were not in hostile territory where the enemy's eyes are everywhere." Rufus replied, "What we are doing here is a bit of subterfuge. The transportation and messaging network is a double front. It would allow us to get the facilities needed to construct the Ironclads while also allowing us to construct the items needed for the transportation and messaging systems. Also by establishing a communication and transportation network we would be able to help with communication and transportation of war materials for the Revolutionary Army when the time comes. In the meantime we will be catering to the Empire who will not realize that they are helping their enemies own war ability with their money. Rather Ironic isn't it?"
Mine and Lubbock had rather neutral faces of course inwardly they were amazed with the man's thinking of utilizing the enemy's own power to attack themselves. They did find it funny that their enemy's money would be helping make their demise much quicker, almost like the idea of a person committing suicide without knowing that they were committing suicide.
"I would hate the day if I ever made an enemy out of you people." Lubbock smiled.
"So I take that you will help us with our issues?"
"Well. I'm not the boss, but I think that I can find you the people that fit your requirements. It'll probably take a couple of days, but I'll get it done."
"Please do. The faster we get those people, the quicker we can bring an end to this living hell."
-scene change to Victoria. Nothing much but she is going over maps and creating a booklet of regulations for the rail-line in addition of creating a training regimen for the telegraph operators.
-scene change again to Colonel Crane who is waiting in a waiting room to be received by General Esdeath. (took a little bribing, but he managed to get a meeting with her)
Colonel Crane was taking the sights of the palace knowing that he was literally in the belly of the beast. In the next few moments it will take everything in his power to convince the battle fanatic known as Esdeath to sponsor their railroad and messaging concept. He hoped that she would see the tactical advantages of a railroad and the need for it being sponsored by the empire. He was interrupted from his musing when a person came and told him the General Esdeath was ready to receive him.
He went into the office and sat down in front of her, steeling his self for the job that he had to do.
"I was told from the director of commerce that you require my audience?" asked Esdeath with a calculating gaze. "You don't look like a merchant to be precise. Have you some experience in the military then?"
"Yes, I was in the military for 25 years. After that I retired and did some soul searching of which I discovered Martial Arts. Nowadays I practice martial arts while conversing with my friends of which are the reason why I am here." Crane replied. "It was because of an idea that they had that should be beneficial to commerce and the empire that they requested this audience."
"Why an audience with me? Surely, they know that I have nothing to do with commerce and that I am more into the military affairs than anything else."
"The reason why is because that there are people who have vested interests in the roads and canals that we are afraid will do everything possible to prevent its construction. We needed the backing of someone high up that could protect us from such attacks while we continue with construction. Which is why you are the most suitable other than the Prime Minister since we do not want to incur his wrath if something does go wrong. But before you ask about the fact that this is the job of the commerce department, there are some other benefits about this idea that would help the military greatly. Which is why I was selected to give the details to you since both of us are familiar with the problems that the military has to deal with."
He saw Esdeath who was giving off a disinterested air earlier perk up a bit in the last part of his speech since this is the bait that they planned on hooking her into the project.
"Both you and I know that the army's main weakness is always the logistics. It takes time to gather the materials necessary for a campaign and even so there is the difficulty of transporting said materials over a great amount of distance in a good amount of time. The new transportation system utilizes an engine to pull cargo on a rail, thus allowing for greater loads carried and smoother transport. Saving both time and effort in the process."
He could see that Esdeath was becoming more and more interested in the idea since she obviously had to go through some of that pain in her past campaigns.
"While this is a tantalizing ability that your friends are promoting what would it make it any different from roads or canals?"
"A very good question. Roads and canals are good in their own ways. Roads could go anywhere and canals could carry more loads. However, we both know that going over roads really depends on the weather, too dry and the roads become dusty hell. Too wet and they bog everything down. Canals are costly to construct and maintain and are limited to where they are built. Also they require lots of water which too little would halt transportation traffic and they can't be used during the winter because the water freezes over. What the railroad as we call it would do is to lower maintenance and construction costs, increase cargo transport for less time, and could be able to go anywhere as long as there are rails to take it there. Logistically speaking it would allow faster troop movement and more materials shipped to the area of conflict than anything available. Also as an added bonus if you were to sponsor it you Miss Esdeath would get top priority for transport for free not to mention the revenue it will generate."
He could see the gears turning in her head contemplating the pros and cons of sponsoring their idea. But he knew that he got her hook, line, and sinker when he mentioned the tactical abilities and the fact that she would get priority transport for free.
"While I can see the benefits of such a system. It would be best if I were to actually get a feel of the system in person." She replied.
"Why yes. We will immediately build a test line between the Capital and Romari Road. All we need is for you to sign the paperwork to allow us to initiate construction. It would very helpful if we could use your crest for everything that we do so has less friction with the bureaucracy and expedite construction. Also an initial funding of 10,000 gold would be very beneficial."
"Yes you may do that, only for as long as needed to build this test line. I will give my final decision of fully sponsoring this little project of your friend's only if it lives up to the capabilities you described. Now if you could please excuse me, I have a meeting that I am needed at."
With that she grabbed a face mask that was hanging on a coat hanger and smoothly moved out of the office.
"Well that went better than any of us expected." Crane mused and then he himself took his leave.
-To the present time where they are having their board meeting.
"I know that we all have been working hard for the past couple of weeks and I thank everyone with their efforts in fulfilling or exceeding the goals that we set down all those weeks ago." Crane said, "Max and Joe your status reports."
"Yes. We have finished completion of the steam engine for the Capital and Romari Road test run. An industrial hauler with the ability of giving a smooth ride for passenger travel, almost like the one we used in the Civil War but with added improvements." Replied Max. "Rufus has to take the credit of getting us to where we are now since he got us a lot of good help from the Revolutionary Army. Heck we even completed the priority passenger cars that Esdeath and her Jeagers will be riding in whenever they need them. Funny how they will be relaxing in them not knowing that their enemies are closer than they think."
Max then turns to Joe and motions him to start the report about their findings.
"Well now. As you all know we have been prospecting for possible Belgium Anthracite deposits that we can use and I'm happy to say that it was beyond our original expected standards. Originally Max and I were thinking that we would probably find C to D grade ore similar to what we used for the war ironclads we used during the Civil War with the slight hope of B grade."
Everyone nodded at those standards. It was only after the Civil War that the Bureau of Steam Engineering decided to start a classification system for Belgium Anthracite ore after the extensive research of the cause of the harmful effects that were prevalent with the people working with the early ironclads. The classification system was set as S, A, B, C, D, and E.
E grade being the cheapest and what was usually used in civilian and industrial Ironclads, C-D grade being used for conventional military Ironclads, B grade for specialized industrial and military ironclads and Prosser drives (the good ones that is, there are those using C-E grades but that is typically people wanting to be cheap), and finally A grade for scientific research and experimental power systems like the Ashwell Dynamo. The S grade was something really theoretical since no one as of yet managed to find ore that fit the requirements of being labeled as S grade.
"Our actual findings were better than what we were expecting." Joe said, "The ore at Fake Mountain is 100% A grade material with the possibility of finding the elusive S grade ore in the mix, but that would require more mining for it to be seen. Since our friends at Night Raid have told us that danger beasts live in this area, Max and I have concluded that somehow the beasts are either utilizing or being affected by the radiation leakage from this source to become what they are. Kind of like Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection just that the effector is the Anthracite ore. The natural soil acts as a radiation shield preventing most of the radiation from getting out, but it is not perfect. So people are able to be in those areas for long periods of time, but they don't typically live there for generations mostly because of the danger beasts, which is a plus for our operations. Currently we are still searching for other deposits that are more remote and full of danger beasts, but are using the mining ironclads that we got to conduct covert mining operations on Fake Mountain to stockpile our supplies of Belgium Anthracite. Once we find a more suitable mining location we will transfer operations and seal up the shaft so that no one else will be able to find the lode."
He sat down and motioned Victoria to voice her situation.
"It is as Max had said, Rufus should get the credit of getting us good people from the Revolutionary Army. I have set up the Mail officers from initial group of trainees which would help me very much for training more people of our regulations and systems. We have a full complement of telegraph operators for all of the stations that we are planning to set up. Of course it needs to be seen if they will do as well other than the training sessions. The engineer training is going well with the help of Joe mostly since Max doesn't seem to have a good idea of teaching regular people how to maintain and fix things." She glared at the Max of which he was apologetically shrugging. "I don't think that we raised any suspicions regarding our hiring practices. Probably on the fact that we agreed that construction of the actual rail line was to be done by the locals around the planned line area. Not only are we adding money to the economy around our rail line, but we are becoming rather popular with the people in the said the area."
"Good. That should help us keep a lower profile since we are becoming popular with the people. It would also be good business for us to have an initial pool of willing customers who will tell by word of mouth how comfortable the ride is to their friends. Finally, Rufus how are our operations at the ironworks going?"
"Production of iron and recently steel is going within our projected levels. I'm doing some tricks with the paper work and the ingots to make it so that we are producing lower than actual so we could have materials for the new Ironclads. The actual smuggling of the ingots is being masked as the removal of hardened slag and scrap metal to a dump site where they are taken to our automated production facility. Kudos to the nerds of taking that idea off of Zebulon." Rufus smiled while making a look towards Max and Joe. Both who were proud yet uncomfortable at the same time at the words of the last sentence.
"Good. Well now, I guess it is time that we should greet our patron for the rail road company and pray that she would be impressed." Crane made a move to get up from the table when Max stopped him.
"Wait, we forgot the most important thing."
"Indeed? Then tell me what is it?"
"We forgot what our company should be called."
"Hmm… You're right. Alright then, anyone have any suggestions?"
They all went back and forth with different naming suggestions and rejecting them until they decided to call it: Union Transport, IDX.
Hey everybody. This is probably the longest chapter that I have ever written. Please review and if possible PM me of good plot ideas. Thank you and now this is PhantomGuardianoftheRepublic signing off.