Danikel Groot woke up feeling awesome. This was his first day on his new job at the Master Waggon Works. His boss had just assigned Danikel to work on the new experimental wind waggon about to be built and at the same time promoted him from a machine class two apprentice to a machine class three apprentice. He didn't know much about it, but as a new apprentice calss three mechanic he felt it would be fun and exciting. Just think he thought, a new kind of waggon that would revolutionize transportation between the twelve settlements and he, Danikel would be in on it from the beginning.
The big waggons hauled goods between the settlements situated more or less along the Cone river. The river ran about 20 miles beginning at a deep boil a few miles inland to the ocean near New Town. New Town was the first settlement built by the foundlings after their ship foundered near the ocean outlet of Cone River. Cone river was so named because it began at the boil and was fairly narrow gradually widening as it approached the sea outlet. The shape of the river was basically that of a cone, hence the name.
The original twenty foundlings were forced to land at the mouth of Cone River some 400 years ago. History books indicated that the original twenty landed when their sailing craft began to leak excessively after they had been adrift at sea for nearly three months. History did not reveal where or how far away they began, just that they had become lost at sea after a severe storm pushed them out of sight of land and they became disoriented. No device existed for navigation at sea out of sight of land. Today the population of nearly ten thousand souls had expanded into twelve settlements that fortunately work close together to survive on this land of endless grasslands filled with giant carnivore cats. The accidental colonists had no choice but to work together to survive on this land.
They quickly discovered that the big cats lived in the endless grasslands that bordered the tree line along the river. The trees extended about 100 yards from the river's edge. The grass was very tall, slightly taller than a full grown man. The cats normally fed on large herbivores. Small wolf like animals managed on the leavings of the cats. They also were dangerous to man as they hunted in packs. Any man going about on his own was fair game for the cats or wolves and virtually powerless to stop them. Fortunately the stranded initial colonists lived on the boat and stayed close to the river among the trees. The cats rarely came into the trees as their food game stayed out in the grasslands.
The giant cats were a tawny straw color with thin vertical strips of slightly darker color. They have a short tail and smooth short hair coat overall. From about thirty feet away while standing still, head down they cannot be distinguished from the grass. Tbey proved to be a terrible adversary for men on foot in the grass as the colonists soon discovered.
The larger male cats are about twelve to fifteen feet in length, 5-1/2’ tall at the shoulder and held their head erect at 7-1/2’ to look out over the tall grass. When stalking they kept their head down sniffing along the ground for prey scent. The cats weigh between
850 to 1400 pounds depending on their age and sex.
The cats were equiped with powerful hunting weapons. Their canine teeth were on top and bottom of their jaws and about 7-10”
long. In addition they had twenty more sharp teeth in front and on the sides that were about 4-1/2” long and twelve wide
crushing molars about 3/1/2” long and 4” oval shape. Their curved claws on all four feet are 7 – 10” long, four in front per paw with one large hooked claw on the side of both front and rear feet. Claws are thick with sharp edges but rounded tips
that cannot readily penetrate deeply into tree bark or core wood.
The colonists soon discovered that the giant cats could jump about 12 – 15 feet
horizontal from a crouched position and when on a run the jump distance can be over
25 feet. A running cat can clear brush and rocks to a
height of over 10 feet. The cat
can jump up a tree about 12 feet from a bounding short run by grabbing
the bark on the way up to a horizontal branch.
Cats cannot continue climbing trees unless there
are horizontal branches. Claws cannot be
readily inserted into tree wood deep enough to hold weight of cat. If a man sees a cat far enough away and climb
a modest sized tree with no low branches, he might escape the cat. If the tree has branches with the bottom
most less than 12 feet from the ground, he cannot hope to escape the cat.
The big cats are very fast for an initial burst
run of about 150 yards, reaching perhaps 30 miles per hour. They can also lope along at 10 – 12 miles per
hour for perhaps 20 – 30 minutes and walk at 8-10 miles per hour for over 6
hours. A man on foot cannot hope to escape.The first settlement took advantage of the trees and a twently foot high stockade was built. The big cats were not able to climb the stockade wall. After a time the cats that lived close to the forest discovered the vulnerable men and women and their domesticated draft animals. When the colonists arrived they had a few bows, several bundles of arrows and a number of nine foot spears to rely upon. They learned that it took many bow shots to discourage a cat or even kill it. A lone man could not operate a bow quickly enough to bring down or discourage a big cat. Also, it was a very lucky spear thrust that would kill or discourage a cat. Colonists quickly learned that they must go about in groups of four or more skilled bowmen and spearmen to be able to fend off a lone cat. When a hunting pack of cats appeared the group could not hope to survive.
The colonists quickly worked on a type of windlass bow for the walls of the settlement. This bow shot larger six foot long arrows a considerable distance due to the 150 to 200 pound pull of the windlass. With these powerful bows cats that strayed too close to the stockades were quickly killed. The big cats soon learned to stay well away from the stockades and work could then be done relatively safely for a 100 yards or so outside the walls in daytime.
The windlass bow was too large however to be man carried, so individuals would carry large spears some eight to nine feet in length along with a standard 50 pound pull bow with 3 foot arrows when working outside the settlement walls. Although these could be effective weapons against the cats, it worked best that several strong men went about together equipped with both bows and spears and they were within the 100 yard kill zone of the windlass bows.
Many years ago deposits of metal ores and coal were discovered along the river or close to the tree line. Those findings led to the need for additional settlements near those deposits so they could be exploited. The metals and coal were both important for many reasons. Those findings led to the need for waggons to move along trails near the river in the forest to move resources between settlements. The waggons were drawn by between four and six domestic draft animals that were domesticated from the large herds of grazing animals in the grasslands. Of course the large cats would go after the draft animals which were their natural prey. The settlers equipped the large waggons with several windlass bows, bunches of arrows and spears. Each waggon had a crew of one or two drivers and four to six weapon operators.
Being next to the river, boats were developed and built as well. Not having a good knowledge of boat design as yet, these were modest in size and powered with just a few sails. Although the river area as well as the grasslands had regular winds, it was difficult to maneuver and control the boats further up the river which was quite narrow there. Boats therefore were used primarily along the river nearer the mouth where the wide expanse gave plenty of room to maneuver.
Although having sail boats the settlements had not been successful in exploring along the sea to any great distance due to the tendency of the winds to vary daily and the lack of suitable landing places. Landing on the grasslands that existed to either side of the Cone river mouth for hundreds of miles was very dangerous due to the big cats. People would be relatively safe from the cats by anchoring aways offshore, but any landing party was terribly vulnerable to attack.
Travel between settlements was more sure with the large armored waggons. Goods and equipment could more reliably be moved between settlements. Also, people would be safely transported inside the heavy armored waggons. A special type was developed that had narrow viewing slits for the passengers. Waggons also had from four to six windlass bows mounted in protected turrets on the top of the waggon. Bow operators had a trapdoor cover on the turret top so they could better scan the area. When a cat was detected they would drop inside and close the trapdoor. The large bow arrow slot had an aiming slot above it and several other slits to the side gave the bow operator a way to keep track of a nearby cat.
It was fairly common that a cat would attack the draft animals that pulled the waggon and manage to injure or kill one before the arrows and spears would kill it or drive it away. In such a case the draft animal that was unable to pull could be uncoupled and left if dead or trot along side the waggon if ambulatory.
Over the nearly 400 years the settlers had been along the Cone River, several attempts had been made to travel through the grasslands and explore. All such attempts had proven disastrous due to the vulnerability of the draft animals. They simply could not be adequately guarded in the grass and the explorations had to be aborted. Several attempts had never returned, probably because of attacks by groups of cats and or wolves. In the grass lands big cats hunted together in groups helping the to overcome the defenses of large groups of the herbivores.
The idea being developed by Master Waggon Works featured a design that would use wind power rather than draft animals. Should the concept prove workable further exploration of the vast grasslands would be possible.
