Infrastructure: Part Two Hundred and Forty Three

Like thousands of other teenagers Arina Shatski had come to Dalatyr in search of credits for both herself and her family, prospects of a life that did not involving farm work and to serve the cause of Infrastructure. The needs of wartime production had increased the needs of the industrial workforce and campaigns to bring in additional workers had been stepped up. She'd thought she might get a job as a clerk somewhere as she'd managed to get two whole years of schooling and could books hundreds of pages long, though it turned out in Dalatyr children got six years of schooling at least. Even so the Dalatyr Labor Bureau had found her work soon enough.

Arina's first job was as a construction laborer at a new arsenal complex on the outskirts of town. Lacking technical expertise it basically involved a lot of carrying stuff and screwing screws in on machines as a technician instructed. She came in towards the end of summer and ended a few weeks after the battle of Daagsgrad. To her surprise she was soon offered a job on sight once work was completed even though there were additional construction projects going on. As it meant less heavy lifting, working in the warm and paid a credit and a half more per day she accepted.

Even so after the first week she was second guessing that decision. The new job was not hard, but it was incredibly boring. The new armory complex's first product was shells for the military. The navy needed as much as it could get so they were made on a moving line. Empty brass casings went on one end, shells came off the other after a dozen workers were done with them. Her job involved operating the line via a simple lever control attached to a dispenser. The line moved in it's default position. When she pushed it up the line stopped and dispenser poured out a measure of propellant powder into the shell, usually up to a mark inside the shell. If the shell was only partially filled, which happened often enough, she pulled the lever down and topped it up using a measuring spoon before sending it on it's way. At the end of the work day they also had to wipe down the machinery with soapy water to avoid any chance of it blowing up on them. The facility was also under tight surveillance with lots of armed guards, many of them with specially trained dogs. The armor was in general off limits to unauthorized personnel in general and some sections more than others. Brass came in for the shell foundries in labeled boxes but the supplies for the inner facilities went through in unmarked boxes

One thing she noticed in the long hours of industrial work was the fact that the powder loaded into the shells was different to the stuff that her father used in his hunting musket. That was like pebbles while this stuff was larger and more regular cylinders. The official policy was that these pellets were better than regular gunpowder and left it at that. Even so she'd seen a lot of the things go down that line and the armory had several of them. She sometimes wondered what they were going to do with them, but one thing was certain: the Drow were not going to enjoy it one bit.

Previous-Infrastructure: Part Two Hundred and Forty Two
Next-Infrastructure: Part Two Hundred and Forty Four