Photography was reinvented by the Greater Iwans about a decade before the Kreeolian War began. After nearly three years of fighting, the war ended on August 3, 2143. Color processing was still another twenty years away at war's end. This photo was taken at Sanluz on August 9 and commemorates the valiant crew of the ironclad, GIHS D'Monz, which ran a gauntlet of fortresses along both sides of the Mizz'sip River to break through a string of smaller Kreeolian warships, which blocked passage down the river. Half of the D'Monz crew were dead or wounded by the time the ironclad reached the enemy ships. Despite that, the crew was able to smash through the enemy blockade. Although the badly damaged ship remained afloat, only these twenty crew members of a complement of one-hundred-twenty survived. Forty-three other shipmates were so seriously injured that they all died within ten days. The Greater Iwa Hegemony fleet had been blocked in its progress down the Mizz'sip for seven months. The admirals did not believe it was possible to successfully negotiate past the Kreeolian forts, until a frustrated Captain Mark Forester went against orders and signaled that the D'monz was going to attempt to do so. Their success inspired the admirals to risk their navy and, except for their reserves, the entire fleet steamed down river past the forts. Three large ironclads were sunk and eight others badly damaged, but the vast majority of Hegemony ships got past the forts relatively intact and very much able to fight. Following the D'Monz's lead, they completed the destruction of the enemy fleet that the D'Monz had started. The victory was swift and decisive. There was nothing to stop the Hegemony ships from descending down river to Orlonz. The Kreeolians, not wanting to risk an attack of their capital by the superior naval forces of the Hegemony, sued for peace as the fleet neared the city. The peace accord was signed on August 2, effective the following day. The treaty's provisions ceded the territory south of Iwa between the Mizz'sip and Mozruri Rivers to the Hegemony. Their southern borders now secured by those two rivers, the Iwa Hegemony would become the Iwa Empire within fifty years as Iwa turned its attention northward and to the business of absorbing its Hegemony partners within the Empire. _____________________________________ An alternate future history for your reading pleasure. Thanks for looking and reading. Even with Predation's LoRez figures, it took a while to create twenty different figures and four different sets of uniforms for commander, officers, petty officers, and seamen (and women!). The ship is Michael_C's "Ironclad USS Keokuk" from Renderosity. The basis for all the uniforms were created by Varsel and their textures and can be found at ShareCG.com. French Sailor Hats by Gary Childress (Renderosity Free Stuff). Jeremy