208 The Cabal (1/2)
A figure stirred under a cover made out of soft animal skin. He carefully removed himself from the tangle of bodies cuddled up against him and strolled butt naked to the large open balcony. His bare feet brushing against a carpet of animal furs.
From the vantage point of his balcony, ex-United Nations of Mankind Marine Corps, Third Sergeant Raman took in a breath of fresh air and grinned widely. He looked at the city he shaped slowly come awake and sat down on a wicker chair to observe the sun rising over plains.
A wooden palisade ringed his tiny kingdom and further out a larger and taller concrete wall was being built to replace the palisade. Blocky houses made out of mud and stone bricks were arranged in a ring around his fortified palace also made out of local bricks and concrete.
”My Lord, the bath is ready,” A soft feminine timid voice spoke from inside the room and Raman stood up and stretched before he followed the scantily clad slave to the bath. A gilded gold collar ringed the neck of the voluptuous slave which indicted her status as a favored slave. The slave collar on a slave indicated his or her position. A gold collar generally is for slaves with masters of high ranks or status while silver collars are for slaves with some status or position and iron collars are for the lowest of slaves.
Should a slave attempt to escape and was caught, they will be beaten till an inch of their lives before slaving away at the saltpeter production factories for life.
Raman entered the Turkish styled bath and allowed the girl to wash him before he sank down into the waters and she massaged his shoulders while he soaked in the water. After washing up, Raman had a full body massage before he pulled the girl down and ravaged her.
Fully refreshed and dressed in a pair of white spider silk robes, he entered the dining room to find the rest of his gang already feasting on the food laid out on the table buffet style.
”Yo, here comes our great Sultan!” Former Petty Officer 2nd class Ivan Pavlo greeted Raman when he entered.
”Good morning!” Raman grinned at his gathered men and sat down on the head of the long table. ”Anything of immediate concerns?”
”Some of the orc village chiefs are grumbling that we are taking their men away and we are destroying their traditions and beliefs.” Chun-Kok, the only Chinese among the deserters said. He was in charge of Administration here. ”They complain that their people no longer have honor in their lives.”
”Ha! As if we care what they want!” Nicolas De Vos, running the Recruitment and Manpower department said. ”We did not force their young men to join us anyway! Hahahaha!”
”But Boss, I must say using a pyramid scheme on these dumb aliens is a damn good idea!” Nicolas laughed. ”We sell them guns and ammunition in return for slaves, food and trade goods!”
”And we don't have to worry about any rebellion from the orcs!” Ivan wiped his greasy fingers on to the table cloth. ”They are so stupid to fall for it! As long as they each recruit people who are willing to 'invest' in our weapons, they get a small percentage of the investment and if their recruited members also recruit more people to invest in, they too get part of the investment as a reward!”
”Hahahaha, seeing those dumb orcs doing sales is so damn funny!” Ivan laughed together with Nicolas. ”Ultimately all the profit goes to us!”
”Don't worry with the local Chiefs, I will be meeting them later,” Raman replied and picked up some cold meat from the plates. ”Siddarth, how are the fabricators coming along?”
”Pretty well,” Siddarth replied, ”We are in the midst of assembling the third fabricator, but we are pretty short handed here.” He gestured around the table, ”Only two of us are from Engineering with the knowledge to work the parts.”
”Well, some of you guys that are free need to help out with the fabricators,” Raman said. ”We need those tools to keep enjoying our life here, yes?”
The men around the table nodded and agreed. ”But Aaron, I want you to keep your focus on training our core of orc troops, you are excused from working with the fabricators.” Raman detailed out his work plan.
”Yes, Boss,” Aaron nodded, ”We need a more sturdy weapon design, those damn orcs keep breaking the guns!”
Raman sighed, ”Well, I see what I can come out with. How goes the training?”
”Well, I got over a thousand hot-blooded and grouchy orcs who keep trying to prove that he's the better Orc over the other,” Aaron said. ”Had to shoot a few of them to keep the others in line.”
”The cannon revolvers you made are pretty deadly in close range if they could stop trying to use the guns as melee weapons and breaking them in the process,” Aaron said.
The revolver cannons were a simple design with a revolving chamber able to hold four 25mm black powder short case rounds. The revolver barrel and frame was made out of carbon steel was too large for humans and elves' hands as it was specially designed for orcs.
The orcs were able to hit targets up to 15 meters away accurately with the revolver and blow huge holes out of a standard Empire plate mail.
”As for the rocket guns,” Aaron grimaced, ”Its accuracy is something to be desired. I am training the orcs to volley fire with the rocket guns and I don't want to be under the receiving end of that volley.”
The rocket guns were another design made by Raman. The weapon is similar to the M79 grenade launcher used in the 1960s. The difference being a larger handgrip, no flip up sights and different ammunition. It fires a 40mm black powder explosive shot with a crude rocket motor. The rocket is loaded singly into the break action of the gun and fired with a contact fire rune.