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Colonel Rogers surveyed the construction site spanning the dry flatlands and across the huge, slow-moving river which had brought both abundance and misery to the broken Zulu people.
'All this just for a little oil', he thought. England had gotten itself involved in an expanding international conflict, and being stuck on the loosing side had gotten cut off by the exporters of the much longed-for commodity. Europe was being reduced to a moonscape wasteland and England was a shambles. Her few allies agreed to spare some of their limited oil reserves if England could arrange to supply electrical power in return to the various expanding African colonies.
Thus came about "The Hoover Project". The massive dam being constructed was supposed to be even bigger than the famous Hoover Dam in America. It had to be to fullfill the terms of the agreement.
However, England was in sad shape after decades of warfare and could not supply the machinery to build the collosal dam. Not surprisingly, the military enlisted the help of the Zulus, all of whom were titled as 'volunteer laborers'. Thousands of workers toiled from dawn to dusk carrying rocks from a quarry quite a distance away to slowly build the dam. Others cut and shaped the rocks into building blocks. While some did the dangerous work of masonry on the dam itself using a crude system of ropes and pulleys to move the rocks.
The colonel walked past the 'incentive grounds' which provided incentive to the volunteers. A line of cringing, sweating and groaning natives clung to a rope to keep it from dropping a rectangular cement block on the heads of a row of their comrades lying tied-up a couple of meters beneath it.
Rogers held his head up to observe the laborers toiling. "Hurry up now! They can't hold out much longer! You do want to save your friends and family members don't you? Remember what happened yesterday!" A guardman hollered out, reminding the workers of the day before when the exhausted rope holders had lost their grip and the block had fallen before the day's quota had been fullfilled.
Sometimes the quota was achieved and the merciful stop blocks were placed under the cement weight and the petrified hostages released. But most times it fell and more hapless innocent Zulu villagers perished in the drive to build the dam. It was cruelty born out of England's desperation. An empire in rapid decay.
As he continued to observe a shot rang out and a lagging worker stumbled and fell under the rock he was carrying. "Soldier, get over here!" Rogers yelled out.
The shooter ran up to the colonel and gave a crisp salute. "Yes sir!"
"Soldier explain to me why you just shot a prisoner!"
"Sir, the private was trying to set an example to the other workers sir!"
"Have you ever heard of something called the Ordinance Declaration you mangy rat?"
"Sir yes sir."
"And do you know that if we expended one round on every Zulu who kicked the bucket we'd be beating off invaders with spears and rocks?"
"Sir the private understands and will beat lagging volunteers with his rifle butt from now on sir!"
"Dismissed!" Just as the the nervous guard ran off another ran up to the colonel and gave the traditional crisp salute.
"What do you got for me soldier?"
"Sir a report just came in that says a Zulu guerilla group of 63 members was just massacred in the Mangeni region. We have no units in the area and do not know who carried out the operation. The guerillas appear to have been very well armed with various calibres of machineguns, auto-shotguns and grenade launchers sir."
The colonel grinned slightly despite the uncertainty of the report. "No units in the area? Are you sure there was no SAS involvement?"
"No sir. According to Zulu informants, the guerillas were pressing villagers into their ranks. And the report also says there was evidence that the guerillas had fired heavily in all directions. There were bloodtrails from some wounded being carried out. That is all the information we have now sir."
"Send in 3 patrols to police up the area and make sure they collect all those weapons before more of them hoodlums get them. Maybe it was inter-guerilla rivalry. We should be happy that the Zulus are killing each other off and providing a solution to our problems. Soldier you are dismissed and keep me informed of the situation."
'All this just for a little oil', he thought. England had gotten itself involved in an expanding international conflict, and being stuck on the loosing side had gotten cut off by the exporters of the much longed-for commodity. Europe was being reduced to a moonscape wasteland and England was a shambles. Her few allies agreed to spare some of their limited oil reserves if England could arrange to supply electrical power in return to the various expanding African colonies.
Thus came about "The Hoover Project". The massive dam being constructed was supposed to be even bigger than the famous Hoover Dam in America. It had to be to fullfill the terms of the agreement.
However, England was in sad shape after decades of warfare and could not supply the machinery to build the collosal dam. Not surprisingly, the military enlisted the help of the Zulus, all of whom were titled as 'volunteer laborers'. Thousands of workers toiled from dawn to dusk carrying rocks from a quarry quite a distance away to slowly build the dam. Others cut and shaped the rocks into building blocks. While some did the dangerous work of masonry on the dam itself using a crude system of ropes and pulleys to move the rocks.
The colonel walked past the 'incentive grounds' which provided incentive to the volunteers. A line of cringing, sweating and groaning natives clung to a rope to keep it from dropping a rectangular cement block on the heads of a row of their comrades lying tied-up a couple of meters beneath it.
Rogers held his head up to observe the laborers toiling. "Hurry up now! They can't hold out much longer! You do want to save your friends and family members don't you? Remember what happened yesterday!" A guardman hollered out, reminding the workers of the day before when the exhausted rope holders had lost their grip and the block had fallen before the day's quota had been fullfilled.
Sometimes the quota was achieved and the merciful stop blocks were placed under the cement weight and the petrified hostages released. But most times it fell and more hapless innocent Zulu villagers perished in the drive to build the dam. It was cruelty born out of England's desperation. An empire in rapid decay.
As he continued to observe a shot rang out and a lagging worker stumbled and fell under the rock he was carrying. "Soldier, get over here!" Rogers yelled out.
The shooter ran up to the colonel and gave a crisp salute. "Yes sir!"
"Soldier explain to me why you just shot a prisoner!"
"Sir, the private was trying to set an example to the other workers sir!"
"Have you ever heard of something called the Ordinance Declaration you mangy rat?"
"Sir yes sir."
"And do you know that if we expended one round on every Zulu who kicked the bucket we'd be beating off invaders with spears and rocks?"
"Sir the private understands and will beat lagging volunteers with his rifle butt from now on sir!"
"Dismissed!" Just as the the nervous guard ran off another ran up to the colonel and gave the traditional crisp salute.
"What do you got for me soldier?"
"Sir a report just came in that says a Zulu guerilla group of 63 members was just massacred in the Mangeni region. We have no units in the area and do not know who carried out the operation. The guerillas appear to have been very well armed with various calibres of machineguns, auto-shotguns and grenade launchers sir."
The colonel grinned slightly despite the uncertainty of the report. "No units in the area? Are you sure there was no SAS involvement?"
"No sir. According to Zulu informants, the guerillas were pressing villagers into their ranks. And the report also says there was evidence that the guerillas had fired heavily in all directions. There were bloodtrails from some wounded being carried out. That is all the information we have now sir."
"Send in 3 patrols to police up the area and make sure they collect all those weapons before more of them hoodlums get them. Maybe it was inter-guerilla rivalry. We should be happy that the Zulus are killing each other off and providing a solution to our problems. Soldier you are dismissed and keep me informed of the situation."
Looking forward to see how the story will unfold.
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