Laterne Von Prussia [Intercom update: 3 Sept]

[The Diamond God]

In the year 1917, the Prussian-flagged passenger airship operates on the trade-winds between the English Channel and inland Germany, known amongst crew and clientele as the "Lantern." The airkriegsmarine designated Imperial Airship Laterne Von Prussia was decommissioned from naval service along with the sister ships of the same class, the I.A.S. Vier Winde and I.A.S. Tänzer in der Ruine after the dissolution of Prussia’s territory and the disbandment of its fleet and armies in 1913.

The I.A.S. Vier Winde was lost over Germany in 1915 with all hands upon running aground after the ship listed heavily to port when its cargo of Anthracite dust shifted in heavy storms. The I.A.S. Tänzer in der Ruine was lost to pirates shortly after leaving dry dock at Southampton on it's shake-down cruise after the required modifications from a capital class warship to a civilian liner.

The Lantern, once the jewel of the Prussian fleet, famed for its swiftness and maneuverability, was partially destroyed by cannonade fire from air pirates journeying from Portsmouth to Gdansk while it was escorting trade ships. Now restored, the elegant, fast airship is one of the last passenger ships operating on the dangerous routes between the warring nations. It is often subjected to raids from all factions, but has never been shot down, and has never been boarded; a small contingent of marines are stationed on board, to protect passengers and to man the guns.

Crewed by a hardy few, The Lantern is darkly opulent, although its riches are faded, and the walnut decks are unpolished. Its flags are grey, the furled fins are ragged, and the passengers are quiet. The journeys are always anxious. The ship is regarded with suspicion, rumored to harbor spies and traitors from Germany, England, and elsewhere, desperate people that are escaping somewhere, or someone. In the dim fogs of war the ‘Lantern’ does not illumine the darkness; it simply moves within it.

-----------------------

The Laterne Von Prussia is comprised of twenty-four full decks, and about fifteen half-decks. The half-decks are used for additional storage and maintenance only. They are numbered from the bottom upwards. There are two passenger elevators located at the stern and bow of the ship. They span Decks Ten through Fifteen and Fifteen to Twenty-three respectively. There is one cargo elevator, located at the stern of the Laterne. The primary manner of travel between the decks are the ladders, located at the stern and bow of each deck.

Decks One through Five are located in the Belly, and are actually just one full deck; the other four floors of the decks were knocked out to make room for all the wiring and mechanics. Decks Six to Eight are purely for cargo and coal storage. The crew’s quarters and marine’s barracks are located on Deck Nine. The crew sleeps towards the stern of the ship and the marine’s are towards the bow. In between the barracks and the quarters are the private quarters of the officers of the Marines and the Crew. Deck Ten it is the kitchen of the ship as well as the formal dining hall, for the passengers, regardless of the class of passenger. Deck Eleven is a covered promenade; formerly it held the Laterne’s main battery. Now the passengers who wish for a little fresh air visit. Deck Twelve is where the helm and navigation is located, as well as the Marconi room. It is not sealed off to the passengers persay, but it is definitely encouraged that the nonessential personal stay off of Deck Twelve. Deck Thirteen to Fifteen are purely for the entertainment of the passengers. There, there is everything from a squash court to a gymnasium to a post office. Deck Sixteen is where the third and second class smoking rooms are located; it is a wide, airy deck with few rooms to encourage mingling. Decks Seventeen and Eighteen are the baths, for sanitation; Deck Seventeen is for the third and second class passengers and Deck Eighteen is for the First class passengers. Deck Nineteen to Twenty-two are where the third and second class quarters are located. Deck Twenty-three is exclusively for the use of the first class staterooms. Deck Twenty-four has been sealed off for some time; it used to be another level for the first class, but the Laterne did not attract that many passengers of wealth, once the novelty of flying on an ex-war ship wore off. Since then, it’s rooms have either been sealed off for parts, or turned into weapon’s lockers.

Because she was a warship, the balloon of the Laterne is filled with Helium and treated with a chemical compound to keep the gas from leaking out on a sub-atomic level. It is more expensive to maintain this way, but the captain thought it was worth the price; he’d watched his best friend burn to death in an Airship in the Steam Wars because of an exploding balloon. Four boilers propel the three turbines which move the ship; her sails are used for directional purposes only. The balloon is held by wires to the deck of the Laterne as is spanned by a series of cat walks.  

[The Diamond God]

Exerts from The Prussian Empire: Entering the Modern Age 1850-1915, by Robert Dorian with a Foreword by Vladimir Nobakov

"Terra has been altered drastically since the invention of the steam-engine, an invention that was nearly forgotten! Many technological advances were allowed because of it. Everything from steam-powered locomotive engines to fantastical flying machines to war machines that were previously only conjured in our wildest, darkest nightmares. And no one embraced this so well as the great Prussian Empire."

-1850: The Prussian Empire installs boilers into its official buildings, heralding a new age for the Prussian Empire; they had suddenly become world-players. Only a handful of other counties were using steam at this point on Terra. King Frederick William IV is assassinated; his fifteen year old son is crowned that same week and is nick-named "the boy king." The title stuck with Francis Josephe Nabakov throughout his entire life.

-1860: At the death of his first wife, Princess Aida of Germany, the twenty-five year old King Francis Josephe Nabakov remarried later that same year to his half-sister Princess Gisela Ludovika of Belarus, cementing Prussia's alliances to the east.

-1861: Princess Gisela bears King Francis's first born son. He is christened Albert Xavier Nabakov.

-1885: Crown Prince Albert Xavier Nabakov is married to Margot Tenebaum of Belgium, a niece to the crown; by the end of the year, Margot Tenenbaum had given birth to a pair of twin girls, princess Sophia and Lucy.

-1890: The first Prussian powered aircraft flies for an extended period of time. Later in the year, the first of many steam-powered ships are created, sparking the beginning of the arms race, when the Common Wealth of Britania to the West felt threatened by Prussian military expansion.

-1893: To compete with the British fleet, the Prussian Empire commissioned a new class of airborne warship: the Juggernaut. It was designed to outclass and outfight their British counterparts, the Dreadnoughts. Crown Prince Albert Nabokov marries Princess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie of Bavaria, cementing the Prussian Empire's southern allies to it permanently.

-1900: The first of the three commissioned Juggernaut Airships, I.A.S Laterne Von Prussia, is launched from her slipdock. Within the year, her sisters (I.A.S Veir Winde and Tänzer in der Ruine) are launched as well. Crown Prince Albert Nabokov assumes the throne at the death of his father.

-1908: The Prussian Empire becomes involved in an international incident between itself and France involving one of it's experimental steam-machines, a new "tank," called the Titan. 103 France citizens were killed. Despite Prussia's best efforts, the French will not be placated; they cry for blood. Many high ranking officials on all sides of the world just assume this is France's excuse to curb the expansion of the "uppity" Empire.

-1909: The Great War is officially declared. War erupts across the globe as alliances and treaties are honored. The Prussian Empire fields the first of its many experimental technologies to the battle. Notable Battles: Arakais, Metropolis, Blitzkrieg, St. Patrick's Crossing. Total casualty listings: 130 million souls.

-1911: Prussian Empire officially defeats the Southern European Coalition of Countries. It turns its full force to the north and west, to attack the Angelo-Franco alliance. Notable battles: Iron Ridge, Iron Town, Somme, Arras, Milan, Ligoran, Crater. Total casualty listings: 191 million souls.

-1912: Despite their many victories on the battlefield, the anti-war sentimentality is growing. In June of 1912, the sentiment became violent when pre-laid detonators placed by Insurrections were ignited, destroying or mortally crippling all but five of the production centers and factors in the Prussian war machine. Later that month, more sabotage occurred, this time against the natural resources. The Prussian War Machine ground to a sudden halt and the military scrambled to merely keep their immense gains on the battlefield. Notable battles: Serenity Valley, Boros, Labyrinth, Ypres. Total casualty listings: 211 million souls.

-1913: Word leaks to the Prussian Empire's many enemies of their lack of factories, despite their best efforts, and massive joint offensives are launched. Before the year is even half over, the Empire must surrender merely because their dedicated soldiers have no ammo, no food or supplies. The great empire was brought to its knees because of a handful of well-placed bombs. The signing of the Treaty of Boros officially ended the Great War; the Prussian Empire surrendered unconditionally. All military assets are seized, and the Empire is saddled with the cost of the war, world wide, crippling their economy for the next 100 years, at least. Perhaps the greatest insult to the Prussians was the fact that the Angelo-Franco Alliance divided up their vast lands and holdings, for their own gain, thus keeping the Prussians from keeping a self-contained war machine from rising ever again. Notable battles: Serenity Valley, Nausicaä. Total casualty listings: 93 million souls.

-1915: Veterans of the Great War (now officially titled "The Steam War") find a lack of respect for their experiences in the war back home. Or more precisely, a lack of jobs. Most of the veterans were volunteers and conscripts who's contracts with their home state ended within months of the signing of the Treaty of Boros. With little option left to them, a great many of them turned to pirating, bringing a new scourge to the war-weary settlements. I.A.S. Vier Winde is lost with all hands at the end of the year.  

[The Diamond God]

Imperial Navy Code of Conduct

XXX► Gєηєɾaℓ
Follow the Gaia ToS. You do this everywhere else on Gaia, so it shouldn't be so hard to do it here too. Please respect the other roleplayers here, be polite and kind. Follow the golden rule; treat others how you would like to be treated. Don't spam in this thread (ie. bumping, chatting, unrelated posting, ect.) Keep the damn swearing to a minimum. Also, no god-modding, powerplaying, auto-hitting, ect. This is a PG-17 roleplay, and if you violate this rule, or any of the rules for that matter, I will ban you from this roleplay! And I can reject your character profile for whatever reason I want to, though my reasons often have logic behind them, I am really not picky so do not freak out from the length. Oh and I do the three strikes and you are out. Some things can be worth two strikes and some can you can be banned right away.

XXX► Lιʈєɾα¢y
This is a semi-literate to literate RP. This seems needless to say, but no *asterisks* or -dashes- for actions, and no emotes for emotions. I want you to write your posts up like you're writing a novel. So speech will go in "quotation marks", thoughts will be italicized and any OoC will go in double brackets { }, [ ], or (( )). Your choice. I understand a few mistakes but make sure we know what you are saying and do not use this as an excuse to mess up. I'd like to have at least one paragraph, seven sentences, in your posts, but having more would be awesome.

XXX► Pσsʈιηg & Dєdι¢αʈιση
This is a long term RP, and I'd like it to stay alive for a good long time. So if you play on joining, then please make sure that you can post at least three or four times a week, and I would love it if you could post more than that. So if you don't think that you can meet the posting standards, or will become too busy to stay active in the future, then please don't join. Use of pretty posts is love. Put some time into making your posts look good! At a bare minimum, you have to have colored text (don't use something like yellow or cyan, however. I don't appreciate having my eyes burning out).

XXX► Ȼђαɾαcʈєɾ Pɾσfiℓєs
Use the form to make your character profile, and please don't change it. I worked hard on it. I would like well rounded characters, no mary sues, or gary stus, please. Everyone has a weakness, an everyone has their strengths. I want to learn about your characters, and to have their true selves revealed bit by bit. But you can still make them good. Just not every minute characteristic of them. There has to be room to grow. When you finish up your profiles, PM them to me, titled 'Laterne Von Prussia' URL pictures only please.

XXX► Fιηαℓℓy
Last rule, I promise. I congratulate you for reading up to this point, too. If you have, I don't have a different title for you PMs. Just call them what I said before. So the last rule is; you must have fun here! It's an RP, and it should be used to be entertaining! So have fun with it everyone! Also, I might change the rules later on, so be aware.  

[The Diamond God]

Profile Layout

Username:
Character Name:
Date of Birth:
Sex:
Height:
Weight:
Ethnicity:
Place in the World [Crew, Marine, Passenger, et cetera]:
Weapon(s) [Keep in mind the time period, as rank in the world]:
Biography Summary:
Other:
Physical Description:
Appearance [URL only please]:

Meet the Crew

Username: The Diamond God
Character Name: Lucille "Lucy" Cohen
Date of Birth: 13 August, 1896
Sex: Female
Height: 166 centimeters
Weight: 56.69 kilograms
Ethnicity: Caucasian; primarily Prussian
Place in the World: Crew; Chief Engineer on the Laterne
Weapon(s): A brace of pistols and a rifle just in case her pistols can't hack it.
Biography Summary: As Lucy was born on an airship (in the middle of a storm to be honest) it seemed only natural then that she fell in love with the machines. She's a wizz for inventing and maintaining boiler parts. Her father served on the Bird's Eye View as the navigation officer, and his family was allowed free passage on the View. However, in 1909, Bird's Eye View was shot down on the grounds that it was carrying war vital supplies for the enemy; of the two hundred passengers and crew, one hundred and thirteen were killed, including her parents. In a rather twisted turn of fate, it gave her a fear of heights, but the thrumbing of the engine's of a ship soothes her nerves. Rather then be shuffled along by the state, Lucy ran away and ship "hopped," making her way across the continent by serving as a "grease monkey." Her latest home, is the Laterne Von Prussia post bellum, for about a year.
Other: Afraid of heights
Physical Description: Petite, but strong in her own rights.
Appearance: Lucille "Lucy" Cohen

Username: Raithsburne
Character Name: Adlahard Von Weitman
Date of Birth: Sixth of March, 1894
Sex: Male
Height: Six foot four inches
Weight: Two hundred and ten pounds
Ethnicity: Caucasion
Place in the World: Marine
Weapon(s): Mosin Nagant, and seven inch combat knife.
Biography Summary: Adlahard was born in the Empire and decided from day one that he wanted to join the newly established Air Marines. He studied hard regardless and joined at the age of seventeen during war. He was assigned to the crew of the Laterne Von Prussia as a private first class. at the signing of the treaty he was a Lieutenant. Now though he is Captain of the Marines that still guard the massive ship.
Other: Adlahard keeps a pet snake in his cabin and uses it as a pest control in the barracks. Adlahard was injured during the war, his arm slightly lame. He uses a experimental gauntlet that is supposed to help him use his arm, most of the time it doesn't work.
Physical Description: Adlahard is long and gangly, stretched out over his frame with wiry muscle.
Appearance: The Officer with the Mechanical arm

Username: Shiratori-Jane
Character Name: Thierry
Date of Birth: Unknown
Sex: Female
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 150lbs.
Ethnicity: Caucasian, French
Place in the World: Crew
Weapon(s): Bow and Arrows
Biography Summary: Thierry's past is a mystery onto herself. The only undisputed facts that she had been able to retrieve were that her biological parents were still alive but on land; she was French and that she had been found about eight years ago on an airship during the war by a soldier whose main responsibility had been to guard the passengers. As the years passed since that night, the young female allowed herself to be taken in by complete strangers as it was her only choice and became learned in various subjects especially archery, fashion and her presumed native tongue of French. However, her interests also took her into the mechanics of navigation but not far enough for it to be her profession as yet. Currently, she has taken homage on Laterne Von Prussia for another attempt to find out her true identity since the name 'Thierry' was given to her by her last guardians, who had been hoping for a boy.
Other: She stashes her archery equipment under her bed and is most likely to be found with the navigators if not sleeping. There is no need for company with her but friendly faces would not be turned away rudely either. Also, she appears to be twenty-three years old so that is the age by which she goes. Surnames freak her out.
Physical Description: She is above average height for females as well as thick and very curvy.
Appearance: Thierry

Username: Chalybs Levitas
Character Name: Jack Leopold "Young Floyd" Floyd
Date of Birth: 2 December 1898
Sex: Male
Height: 182.8 cm (5' 11.96'')
Weight: 84.3 kg (185.5 lbs)
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Place in the World: Pirate
Weaponry: sword, longknife, warhammer, grappling hook, pistol, and three class F hand-bombs.
Biography Summary: Once a farmer, Jack's family fell into debt after the Great War, when his father's service garnered resentment and bad prices for all the farm produced. Jack set out to seek his fortune, sending back whatever he could spare, in the hopes of easing his family's burden.
Other: Once he joined up with a group of "creative mercenaries," Jack soon found himself posessed of rather useful talents regarding blades and projectiles. He quickly gained a certain ammount of respect, if only for his skill in raids.
Physical Description: Lanky, blond, and lightly tanned, Jack generally relies more on reach and speed than strength, but he's been known to swing his hammer around with a certain ammount of ease.
Appearance: Casual, lightly armed | Formal, heavily armed

Username: The Diamond God
Character Name: James Stephen Weir
Date of Birth:13 January, 1892
Sex: Male
Height: 178 centimeters
Weight: 78.47 kilograms
Ethnicity: Caucasian, English in basis
Place in the World: Marine
Weapon(s): One pistol, a standard issue rifle and a combat knife.
Biography Summary: To escape a life of hardship, James signed into the Royal British Army. Two years later, the Steam War broke out. He served with honor and distinction for many months on the most violent parts of the front. His record was blemished in the Battle of Iron Ridge, when his unit was sent over the top; he was blown into the air by a shell and landed mouth first into a corpse. Before he lost consciousness, he inhaled the stench and tasted the rotting flesh. Since then, he's had a hard time stomaching anything as just the reminder of food brings back that corpse. James was pulled off the line for a few months to recover before being thrown back into the meat grinder. He was finally discharged after the Battle of Boros in 1912, due to medical complications. His unit had been in the rear when they'd been gassed. James hadn't managed to pull his mask on in time and had been burned by the chlorine; blinded by pain, he'd wandered into a burning building and had suffered third degree burns to twenty-three percent of his body before a comrade had pulled him out. After the war, his sight had slowly returned to him and he'd made his passage by serving as a marine onboard the Laterne.
Other: One of the few members of the Latenre who fought on the right side of the war.
Physical Description: Border line skin and bones, thin and sickly looking.
Appearance: James Stephen Weir  

[The Diamond God]

Intercom

25 August, 2010: Officially open. ^.^

3 September, 2010: The layout is up...finally. See post No.1 for details.  

[The Diamond God]

Lucille "Lucy" Cohen

Lucy stood up high on one of the observation platforms in the Laterne's Engine Room, watching the beautiful dance of the controlled chaos below. Workers hurried from one station to another, monitoring equipment, bringing brass parts to another, dodging the cogs and mechanical arms of their charges and all of it was still pressed with the same crest, a tribute to her days as a war ship. Not for the first time and most assuredly not for the last, Lucy wished that she was still a "grease monkey" and was a part of the chaos. It was the heart of the ship; they controlled life, down in the Belly. The great Laterne Von Prussia ran off of no less then four primary boilers and three secondaries. The secondaries were originally designed to aid it in combat, back in the days of the Steam War, to give her that little extra kick of speed and maneuverability; the Imperial Navy just left them in because it was too much of a hassle to remove the entire mechanisms and then patch her back up. While the behemoth was entirely propelled by the boilers, she was kept aloft by the massive helium-filled balloon wired to the deck; sometime back before the Steam War (she couldn't remember when exactly; history was never Lucy's strong point) the Prussian's had perfected the technique of treating the fabric that made up the balloon to prevent leakage. Meaning, that if you put in X amount of lifting gas, X amount will still be inside by the time you dock at your next port of call.

Lucy was abruptly pulled from review of her home's heart by the shouting of her name, dimly heard over the sounds of the machinery. She glanced down to see a grease stained face titled up at her, thickly gloved hands cupping around it's mouth; half of the remainder of what she could see was covered by one of the eyepieces that marked the man as a shift chief. Seeing he had her attention, the man dropped his hands away from his mount and gestured. Lucy nodded and turned to the ladder, soldered onto the rear of her platform; descending that was like dropping into a whole new world. The heat and smells amplified a dozen times over and the noise! Lucy was thankful for her ear plugs right about then. And above all, steam swirled around them, limiting their vision to virtually nothing, a mere three meters in front of them. The shift chief had to lean close to Lucy's ear, shouting into it just to be heard over the sounds of the machinery.

"Boiler three is actin' up again. The boys think it's somethin' inside, an' I tend t'agree with them. We need t'shut her down an' let her cool before we can start t' think on repairs."

Lucy nodded; she trusted the man's judgment, hell she'd picked him herself! The captain is not going to like this...The Laterne would have to reduce speed significantly, to only run on three boilers and it'd take hours to warm up the secondaries to compensate.

"Show me."

Lucy followed the man's broad back as he stomped confidentially through the thick soup of the deck back towards the Pit, where the primary boilers were kept; they were placed below deck level by about three meters, leaving them virtually in a pit. He stopped at the edge of the pit, and Lucy kept close to him, mindful of the lack of a rail. Not that she is afraid of falling, not three meters at least. She's just cautious at falling three meters down into a pit full of super-heated brass boilers belching away at their jobs. Lucy tried to see through the steam to the boiler indicated; she could see something was wrong with it, but not much was proving itself to be obvious on the exterior. And if it wasn't obvious, then it was usually internal. Damn. Lucy leaned close to her shift chief.

"Shut her done and warm up secondaries one and two. As soon as you can, get to working on them."

She left, the chief's barks of orders sounding barely louder then a whistle so close to the boilers; most of the grease monkeys had earpieces for that very reason. Long, twisting cords of wires led back to a switch board at the base of one of the two observation platforms. It was this board that allowed a shift chief's orders to be heard over the engines. Lucy climbed back up onto her observation platform, about midway in the room. It was like climbing back into a sane world. She uncradled the telephone and tried to key up the bridge. There was nothing but static; Lucy tried a second time and received the same solution. The internal lines were down again. Piece of s**t ship.

She sighed and moved back towards the ladder; there was nothing left to do but to run to the bridge herself. The Laterne Von Prussia's belly required significant maintenance, and her engineering staff was barely able to do even the minimum. Times had not been well for the Laterne and she couldn't afford anymore help, even if she needed it. She could barely afford two shifts worth of help, making the engineers have twelve-hour shifts of cruel, back-breaking, nerve twisting work. Lucy closed and sealed the Engine Room behind her, sealing all of the sounds and noises back in there; her heart pulsed with dull throbs, barely heard through the thick metal. She dislodged her ear-plugs and cut through the center of ship, not wanting to be near the many windows, or hear the whispering that reminded her they were thousands of meters above the earth's surface and moving very quickly.  

[The Diamond God]

Lucille "Lucy" Cohen

Lucy found the bridge to be quiet; an unusual event at that time of day. I wonder what's up... She stayed near the door, not wanting to get to close to the massive banks of windows at the far end, near the navigation stations. Lucy cleared her throat to get the captain's attention. The man sighed when he saw who was trying to get his notice; it never boded well to see her up here, so far away from her comfort zone.

"What is it?"

"One of the boilers needed to be shut down; we're waitin' for it to cool before we can start the repairs."

"Damn it, Cohen. I hired you to keep the Laterne running, not shut it down. Do you understand how far behind schedule we're going to be because of it?"

Lucy pressed her lips into a thin line; most people didn't understand just how particular the steam-engines could be. And on this rust bucket, we're just lucky that it was a boiler then went down and not one of the turbines. It was bound to be an expensive fix, but nothing too bad. She took the lashing silently. Finally the captain stopped; he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Switch on the secondaries, then. And as soon as you can, get that boiler working again."

Lucy left without another word; there was nothing to say. She didn't need to be told her job, even if he felt the need to do so. a*****e. She paused outside the bridge to chat briefly with Hard. She summoned up a smile for the lieutenant; it wasn't his fault she was in a shitty mood, now was it?

"Lieutenant. How's the arm faring today?"  

[The Diamond God]

Lucille "Lucy" Cohen

"Please, Thierry, how many times to I have to tell you? It's Lucy. Oh, and we had t' shut down one of the boilers, so be prepared to make some course adjustments. Your chief will tell you about it, but I just thought you might enjoy some heads up, since you're stuck with the gunt work."

They call you "Hard" you're a hardass. Lucy resisted the strong urge to roll her eyes; for some reason, people did not like that. They thought it was improper for a lady to make such vulgar motions. And while Lucy may not look like a Lady (gowns and the like had no place in her Engine Room; they tended to snagged and such the occupants into the unforgiving machinery) she did own a dress. Somewhere. Lucy was pretty sure it was in her closet. She pulled her mind away from the state of her clothes, and freed Thierry from Hard's grip by triggering the auto-release. Lucy had installed the "kill" switch as a precaution to such events; of course, it had a sister, a small wheel and the opposite side of the brace to tense. You never know when you suddenly need a death gripe on something.

"When you're off, Lieutenant, swing by the Belly; I'll see what I can do."  

[The Diamond God]

Lucille "Lucy" Cohen

Lucy nodded her goodbyes to Hard and Thierry and left them; Laterne Von Prussia had a skeleton crew, across the board, and they were all busy. She made it back to the Belly in time to watch as the shift chief orchestrated that rare event when they pumped the cold air from outside the ship to a highly localized position. Most often it was used to kill the occasional fire. But once in a great while, a boiler or some other heated piece of metal needed to be worked on, and they didn't have the ability to shut the whole system down. Two boys used guide hooks to drag a long, snaking brass pipe over to the Pit.

With a great whoosh, they opened the pipe onto boiler 3; a great hiss of rebellious steam blocked out the operation from Lucy's sight, even from up on her observation platform. It cleared in a few minutes and Lucy watched as two heavily padded youths climbed into the boilers. The boiler was still hot enough to burn the lads severely without protection. As soon as they stumbled back out, and climbed out of the Pit, they yanked their padded helmets off, gasping for fresh air. They relied their finding back to the shift chief, making him frown. Without being asked for, Lucy hurried off to join them. By the time she got there, the cooling pipe had been shut off and stashed out of sight.

"As far as they can tell, it's the dammed flute that's jimmin' the whole system. Maybe we can run a liner through it, fill in the holes long enough t'get us into a port?"

Lucy was shaking her head before he even finished. Things were not looking good; Flute's needed to be replaced once they'd blown. s**t.

"We're too far away. The heat'd burn through it before we got half way there. Just...just shut it down, an' use all three secondaries t' compensate. I'll see what I can do about a new flute. There's plenty of scrapes on this heap."