text: [Themes: sci-fi]
  
  You wait for a while with the gear. The longboat makes several trips back and forth as you take guard. Eventually one of George Godboles handpicked officers has you move the supplies to an area that's having some earthworks dug out. Nothing really impressive, just throwing enough dirt up to make it a bit harder if the local Indigs decide to charge the camp.
  
  "You'll all be serving your month of service starting now for this year." the officer informs you before giving out instructions. A few of you are sent to set up a watch, while most of your group, including yourself, is sent to go cut lumber to quickly throw up log cabins for a more permanent shelter.
  
  You find space in one of the tents to stow your gear and help both cut down, saw, and haul trees into position to be made into more weatherproof shelters. For the next several days you get up before dawn, eat the rations that are made available, and work until you're given a break for lunch and then dinner. After dinner you go to bed, and the next day you do the same thing all over again.
  
  You don't even see the Singhs for the first several days. You see David on about the third day.
  
  "Arthur! Hey Arthur!"
  
  You turn and wave to David as he leaves the cabin he's building.
  
  "Arthur! Have you been assigned a cabin yet?"
  
  "No."
  
  "Oh good! Marissa and I have one that's planned out already. We're assigned four people to a cabin with exception to married couples. I can get a cabin with Marissa because we're family, but I have less control of who stays with us. I was hoping you'd be willing to room with us."
  
  David wasn't bad company on the trip here. Living in the next bunk wouldn't be really all that different than how things were on the ship.
  
  "Sure David. I'll live with you. Most of my work is going to be out and about, so it'll give me a place to keep my things and you'll mostly have the space to yourself."
  
  "That's great Arthur! I'll put your name on the list!"
  
  David then ran off to go back to what he was doing before. You went back to move the next log. Two weeks later you are rooming with the Singhs and a friendly miner by the name of Ander Olson. In three weeks the town was built. The Cabins weren't pretty by any means, but they kept a good bit of the heat in and the majority of the wet out. The officer in charge of your work crew let everyone know that they still owed a week of work, but that would need to wait for later in the year.
  
  Finally a free man you find yourself in a position to begin scouting. No one really knows much about the land here besides there's plenty of metal in the mountains, and a lot of fur bearing animals just about everywhere. You'll be given some fresh fish eggs to drop into the ponds lakes and streams so that next year there will be plenty of trout and salmon to eat, You can do just about anything you would care to and after living in the Georgian kingdom the freedom gives you a high no ale ever has.
  
  "Arthur?" Your thoughts are interrupted and you finish packing to leave. "David and I know how to smith silver, but nothing's been brought down from the mountains. Would you mind if David and I went with you? At least until a mine opens up." It's Marissa.
  
  You take a moment to think over your answer. It's a common enough Frontsman practice to think before you speak. It drives most Georgians crazy though.
  
  Going with two people with you would be safer. If you get hurt you would absolutely be able to get help. On the other hand neither of them are at all familiar with so much as how to set up a shelter. You would need to teach them just about everything but how to make a fire. That will slow you down and may very well lose you time, money and very possibly food in your belly at times.
  
  > Don't bring the Singhs with you.
  "I'm sorry Marissa. I don't think it'd be safe to bring you along."
  
  "It can't be safe for you to go by yourself. We can't afford to stand by and do nothing without some kind of income. We'll need food soon."
  
  "The pair of you will do fine. Keep some of the food you're issued off to the side in case things get tight. The old scans from before landing said there was plenty of metal in these mountains. No way the stone tool using indigs around here could use it or move it."
  
  You leave before she can put forward another arguement. Arguing is something Marissa is good at and something you've never had any practice at. She'd end up talking you around if you gave her half a chance.
  
  You walk past the fence that's been built up around the town that's just been started. Passing by open ground that's covered in the stumps of trees that now make up the town, you find yourself in a position to make another decision about your future.
  
  You can head up to the mountains and start prospecting for the metals up there. The scan printouts that George Godbole saw before bringing you here only stated that the mountains had metal in them. Never did he mention anything about what kind of metals. One of the fastest ways you can help the Singhs is to find a vein of silver ore for them.
  
  On the other hand you don't know a ton about prospecting. Sure you can recognize gold, silver, copper, tin and the like. You just couldn't say much more than that. Maybe that's all you need though.
  
  You do know how to hunt though. You know how animals think for the most part, and you know what they need. You've killed and skinned plenty of animals, and you have the gear you need to process the carcass. If you can bring down an earth beast you have food, a hide, and maybe even the oil you can get from the fat. A Heran animal will get you a hide, and the oil. God knows you can make a decent living off of lamp oil and all the furs you're going to be able to ship back. It's the trade you had in mind when you came on this voyage, and it's the trade you came equiped for.
  
  > go hunting in the forests and flatlands.
  Best to do what you know. You make your way into the relative flatlands, both wooded and unwooded.
  
  You eat the rations that were given to you and mostly just see what edible terran plants are in the area, looking for sign of whatever animals live in the area. Over the next few days you work your way further into the hinterlands, the gunshots of other hunters getting further and further away.
  
  You set up the sturdiest temporary shelter you can manage once you find an area you think is suitable and set in for the hunt.
  
  The next day you spend hunting and skinning opax. You manage to find one very lost reindeer while you're at it and by the end of the day you've decided you have enough skins to where another would give you trouble on the way home.
  
  The walk back to the settlement goes faster this time. You aren't looking for sign or food this time and you make much better progress.
  
  About half a day from the settlement you see something you haven't before. It's a white furred creature that's broad as three men and on all fours stands just as tall as one. It's obviously a predator of some sort with the sharp teeth you can see in it's mouth and the ten centimeter claws on it's paws. You can't tell how much of it's muscle or fur but it's hide would sell well if you could take it down with one shot. You watch as the thing flips over a log with one paw and sniffs in the space where the log was. Can you drop a beast like this with one bullet?
  
  > shoot the beast.
  You lean against a tree and line up the shot. There's no way you can miss it. The thing's to big to miss even at the range of a hundred and fiftey meters.
  
  Lining the front sight post up with the creatures short muzzle you slowly exhale, and when you have the natural pause between breaths you squeeze the trigger until the riffled musket jumps in you hand and the smell of sulfur fills the air. The creature roars out in anger. Instead of running like you expected it too, it turns and charges you.
  
  In a panic you start reloading the rifle as quickly as you can. When the beast is thirty meters from you, you know the musket won't get another shot out and drop the weapon so your hands will be free to grab your knife.
  
  You hold your knife out point first so the beast will impale itself on it as it runs into you. It does just that and you lose your grip on the blade as it bowls you over. It's on you before you can even get to your knees. The creature opens it's maw and leans in to bite out your throat. You put your arms up and try to push it away out of some sort of useless reflex. The beasts mouth closes around your neck and your world goes black.