The mountain wind swept past the gray-stone walls of Mountain Throat Fortress in the early morning. Derrick Heller stood before the camp gates.
He had yet to change out of his old cavalry uniform, and dust from the Yellow Earth Plain still clung to his shoulder insignia. Derrick had just received transfer orders from Lakeheart Town, reassigned from cavalry battalion commander to the garrison commander of Mountain Throat Fortress. His duties were clear: command the garrison, protect the surveyors, and control the terrain.
A sixty-man Survey Team stood in formation on the open ground before the fortress. At its head was a young technician wearing round spectacles and carrying a brass instrument case.
"Sir!" The man saluted, his voice clear. "Third Group of the Survey Detachment, reporting to the front line as ordered to conduct a terrain survey of the eastern section of the Rocky Mountains."
Derrick returned the salute with a nod, but his gaze was firmly drawn to the objects carried by the mule train behind them. These were no ordinary compasses and measuring rods, but precision instruments he had never seen before.
At his request, the Survey Team leader displayed and explained each piece of equipment on the platform in the center of the camp.
"This is a theodolite, designed by Mr. Nick Wood, a graduate of the Ves Institute, and manufactured by Wood Precision Instruments Company." He carefully opened the brass casing, revealing the intricate graduated dials and telescope inside. "It can precisely determine azimuth and elevation angles. Used together with a Spirit Level, it can survey longitude, latitude, and elevation in complex mountainous terrain, with an error of no more than three arcminutes."
Derrick leaned down and looked through the telescope, adjusting the knobs. The outline of the distant ridge instantly came into focus, and