"We do not abandon our countrymen. Ever."The decision is made: The
Crabby Wench will remain in port, and you will weather the attack. Ovechkin orders everyone below decks. There's little to do but pray for the best. Throughout the night the sounds of gunfire and bombs echo against the hull, but it seems like the Forenians aren't targeting cargo ships. Then, one bomb strikes the deck. [1d6:5] The night is a chaotic rush of putting out fires and sealing off damaged pipes, but in the morning, the damage is minimal. Besides the hole in the deck, three tons of food have been ruined, and a beam fell on the heavy lathe, damaging it beyond use, but it may be reparable. There was only one fatality: against orders, one woman had gone above decks to wave a Vlanladosian flag in the hope that the Forenians wouldn't target the ship. She was fairly close to where the bomb hit, and was injured by splinters of the wooden deck. The doctor couldn't save her, even after a blood transfusion, she bled to death before morning. Her husband was distraught. "I never should have come aboard this ship- the entire plan is madness, and this expedition is cursed!" He left before the ship made way.
You have 998 people.
Later that morning, on July 29th, your ship sets sail. This is Day 1 of the expedition. There is beet cake served, and a performance of the Vlanladosian National Anthem, but the death last night casts a grey fog over all the festivities. The expedition has suffered a fatality before it has even begun. How many more will there be, before it is finished? With a creaking groan, the two steam turbines come to life and propel the
Crabby Wench out to sea.
The Passage of TimeNormally, action will take place in one-week blocks, that is, you will decide what actions to take and where to assign your labor, and you will see the results after a week of effort. If something happens earlier than a week which requires your immediate attention, a vote will be called. This will be the case for the first few actions on the journey to Antarctica, which should only take a week but may have several complications. The first of these occurs just three days underway: the cargo hold has begun flooding. Before anyone notices the damage, everything in the additional cargo space re-arranged by the Forenian engineer is lost. This might be a result of combat damage from earlier, or simply a consequence of turning what might originally have been some kind of space for bilge pumping into cargo space. Additionally, the ship is beginning to list. After applying their best efforts to get pumps operational and prevent further flooding, your engineers estimate that you will need to throw 15 tons of cargo overboard to ensure that the ship can stay on course.
Lastly, the livestock has been fed wheat from the rations set aside for colonists, since there isn't any dedicated livestock feed. Unless they're grazing, they'll consume more food than they produce, but they can be butchered later in a pinch.
Labor AssignmentsYou can assign people, usually in blocks of 100 at a time, to tasks. Right now, at sea, there's not much to do, fishing would probably necessitate stopping the ship and everyone is eager to leave the
Crabby Wench's rusty, rum-reaking quarters. The only really important thing to do right now is repair the heavy lathe so that you can begin manufacturing more equipment (using steel from the ship itself, most likely) when you arrive in Antarctica. There are 100 people dedicated to cooking and cleaning right now, as well as 100 people dedicated to keeping the ship running, leaving 798 more or less idle.
-998 Individuals
-1 Doctor
-1 Architect
-1 Mining Expert
-3 Mechanical Manufacturing/Repair experts
-1 Agriculture Expert
-1 Electrical/Radio Engineer
-1 Theoretical Physicist
-1 Expert Hunter
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100 Assigned to Cooking & Cleaning
100 Assigned to running the Crabby Wench
798 Idle
Main Cargo Hold:
-Steel Foundry
-Machining Tools
-21,870 Food rations (Enough for about 19 days, consuming 1133/day) consisting mainly of Vlanladosian products: Fish, beets, potatoes, and barley-wheat.
-500 Caged chickens (consumes 100 rations/day, but produces 80 rations a day in eggs)
-20 Caged goats (consumes 20 rations/day, but produces 5 rations a day in milk)
-2 Cows (consumes 20 rations a day, but produces 10 rations day in milk)
-400 sets of fishing tools
-200 sets of construction tools
-200 sets of farming tools
-200 sets of hunting tools (spears and traps)
-200 VL-41 "Dove" Semi-Automatic Rifles
-40,000 rifle bullets
-1 Crane (all mobile equipment is steam powered)
-1 Excavator
-1 Tractor
-4 Tons of coal
-1 Ton of medicine
Fuel Reserves
-20 tons of coal should be left over when you reach Antarctica. This is an estimate, and dependent on how long it actually takes you to get there. If you burn this, you won't be able to take the ship out of Antarctica.
You must decide what to throw overboard to clear 15 tons of cargo space. The steel foundry or machining tools each weigh more than 15 tons, so those alone would do the job, but the most obvious pick might be the excess coal in the fuel reserves. Besides that the food rations weigh 1000/ton, you have 1 ton of chickens and goats, the 2 cows weigh a ton each, 200 tools weigh a ton, 10,000 bullets weigh a ton, the excavator and crane each weigh 5 tons, and the tractor weighs 2 tons.
You should probably order one or more of your mechanical experts to try repairing the lathe, and you might assign some people to repairing the ship deck, if you can think of where to get materials from. Besides that, you can have the idle passengers take up some useful task, if you can think of one.
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Topic: Exodus from Vlanlados (Read 29303 times)