Chapter 1: Me, Captain?

Inside a small house, a young but handsome man was reading the news while sitting on a chair next to a fireplace, when he had almost finished reading, a man knocked on the door. He got up and went to open the door.

“Congratulation Sir William! By order of her Majesty the Queen, you have been assigned to the construction site 113, where you are going to build the greatest marvel of technology: the Generator.”

“Who are you?” said the young man with a suspicious tone.

“Oh sorry, I did not introduce myself. Good evening, Sir William, my name is Edward Owens, I work for the Imperial Exploration Company and I came today to relay the order of Her Majesty. Your Father, the prime minister recommended you to the Queen to lead this important expedition.”

‘Me? But how it’s possible? I am his youngest child why he would want me to lead this expedition?’ 

The shocked and panicked man didn't know what to do except accept this assignment because he had no job, and no food, with the increase in prices due to the drop in temperature, he could only eat very hard black bread with the money his father gave him each month. It was the first time in his life that he was given such an important task in his life.

‘No,’ he shouted in his head in a determined tone. ‘I'm not going to stay in this shitty house and do nothing anymore. I'm going to prove to my father, to my family, to all the English that I, William, am a great man!’

“Something wrong Sir William?” said the man in a worried tone.

“Oh, I am fine Sir Edward, thank you for the concern. Good, since I will be in charge of the construction site 113, how many men have been assigned to me, and how many resources? Oh, and more importantly, did the Imperial Exploration Company allocate any Automatons?”

Sometime between 1822 and 1886 the giant steam-powered robots are known as  were invented. These metal behemoths were born through the combination of complex clockwork mechanisms, the advanced computational engine, and the application of the Steam Core device. These huge machines, towering over people and structures, were the pinnacle of human engineering.

The Automatons if the company had allocated a some, would make it very easy to finish the construction, because they could perform any task without eating, pay, and would never complain or strike, more importantly, they could work non-stop.

“No, sorry to disappoint you but the company does not plan to allocate you any as it is considered too valuable. The IEC assigns you 75 workers and 15 engineers, and for resources, it gives you a budget of 35 units of wood, 25 units of steel, and 150 units of raw meat, you have to get the rest on the spot. You have 2 days to reach Liverpool and take a boat to your construction site. Good luck Captain!”

When Edward left, William sat down in a chair and thought for a long time. Will he make it, should he run away? No, if he flees he will be shot for desertion then even the Prime Minister will not be able to save William. After thinking about several solutions, he resigned himself and went to sleep. *sigh* ‘I don't know if I will succeed but I will at least do my best.‘

The next day, William with his suitcase in hand took the next train to Liverpool with the money from the IEC, it has been a long time since he left the capital, he was excited but he was afraid of the future.

It is very cold today, and he had the impression that it will get worse in the coming weeks, this is not a good sign, the site is in the north so it must be colder.

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William was sitting comfortably in the business class of the fastest train in the world, equipped with a steam core that allowed him to reach unprecedented speeds. William could finally eat normal food, with the crop failure it was very rare to eat white bread and meat, looking out the window, he saw thousands of farmers trying to plant crops while the ground was hard as stone with their wooden tools.

‘I am very lucky compared to these poor farmers, I hope that this icy wind will finally stop, even if I have the impression that it will be the last autumn.’

Thanks to his father he had access to more confidential information, he could receive the report of scientists and they are not reassuring.

He saw not only farmers but also workers who went on strike for better working conditions, and policemen who tried to force the workers to work. The empire declines!

When he arrived in Liverpool, a middle-aged man in an IEC uniform accompanied him to a car. He did not say a word. William could only watch the streets of the city. The city was full of beggars, the houses were in ruins, and there were so many corpses that they didn't even try to bury them, fortunately, it was very cold, so the corpses didn't rot. Only London still had enough money to get rid of the bodies

When they arrived in the middle of the city, the man said “The empire is crumbling but you surely know that. This expedition is very important if you fail, not only will you be killed, but you will reduce the chance of humanity to survive.”

William was shocked, the weather was that bad? Great Britain was the greatest power on earth with colonies all over the world. How could it collapse with just a little cold?

The man continued “The generator will be able to create a heat pocket and the survivors will have to create a city around it to survive. There won't be room for everyone, only the richest will be able to live there with some of the workers who have worked all their lives to have this chance. Every big city will have a generator that will only be able to accommodate a hundred people. A city of several million and only a hundred will survive. The generator that you will build will be for Liverpool. It's cruel but we have no choice, we don't have enough time and resources to build more generators, the great frost is coming, and we only have 3 months, but if you manage to build the generator in time you will have a place in the London generator. Do you understand?”

William did not know what to say, he wanted to protest and save as many people as possible, but with the arguments of the IEC employee, he could not do anything. The only chance to save more people is to create a more efficient generator but he won't have much time.

“Why only 3 months, The Empire should have started much earlier!”

“There are several reasons, 1st reason: the report of the scientists was received much too late. 2nd: the government did not believe in these scientists, it is only when this is irrefutable that they realized that without a generator they were going to die. The construction of these generators would ruin the country, that's why they only wanted to finance small expeditions. Now that the end of the world is approaching, the government is putting everything in place to build the generators even if they have to sell the jewels of the royal family. You have 1 month to build the generator.”

“But, but...” but William could only resign himself, and prayed to God.

Upon arriving at the port, he looked at the boat that would take him to the construction site. This boat will be his ticket to survival.

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