Vehicles and Mechanized Transport

On Autumn transportation is a serious issue, fuel is few and far between; and the roads a plagued with ruthless bandits that little reason to leave you alive after they take your belongings. For these reasons transportation is radicaly different from what me or you are used to. The Vehicle defines the method, but the lands define the path.

Wagons and Carts
This is the most common form of transportation, as functioning engines and plentiful fuel have not been common since the days of the Babylonian trade sphere. This primitive method of travel is a two edged sword; while nearly silent and capable of being hidden easily, it is impossible to outrun road criminals unless you have the finest of draft horses. While unwise to rely upon, most bandits with sympathize with a cart pulling peasant more than a commoner in a car. In many mountainous areas, a cart with an automaticaly locking wheel is safer than a car; many have perished when a steep road has given away.

Motorized Cars and Trucks
Arguably the most dangerous method of travel, the car is easy to hear, spot, and a prize for roadside predators. However, when traveling in convoys with well armed escorts the car becomes the most mobile for the commoner to travel. Regulated roads provide a safe but expensive alternative to the dirt paths, but are still not totally safe from the truely desperate. State operated armored cars lead the way when it is time to transport good upon wheels, while smugglers maintain quiet running electric cars to make use of illegal roads that dodge checkpoints.

Trucks, while otherwise identical, have larger engines and sacrifice room for passengers in favor of more cargo space. These are valued for their horsepower and shipping capabilies, while para-milities prefer deploying trucks as improvised fighting vehicles. Certain companies specificaly create private roads for their trucks, being for more economic than paving a new rail system.

Trains
Perhaps the safest way to travel overland, all trusted train systems either run deep underground or are escorted by an armored rail car, more than able to defeat all potential bandits. The wise build rail roads far from streams and roads, making it even more difficult for civillians and criminals to illegally board the train. An entire subculture of wanderers have developed around unlawful riding of trains, being nick-named "hard hands" as the many cuts and strains of holding on have made these folks' hands very rough to the touch. While it technically is a death-penalty crime to smuggle ones' self upon a rail car, hard hands are generally aprehended at the next stop and released.