Infrastructure: Part Fifty Four

Soon after the fall of The Yards work began on adapting their shipyards to suit Infrastructure's purpose. They had been nationalized by the infrastructural government and placed under the administration of the Bureau of Maritime Development. A couple were damaged in fights or by spiteful owners who would have rather seen their legacy gone up in smoke than taken and used by their conquerors. Fortunately, before they came the locals had expanded their shipbuilding capacities. There were fewer slaves coming through, so they decided to hold onto more of them for longer and put them to work in other fields to get the most out of them, both in their products and themselves. For the most part trained and broken slaves fetched a far higher price than unskilled peasants.

The changes were subtle at first, as they began making wooden hulled sailing ships. The design were refined to make them quicker, more space efficient and. Many former slaves went home, while those that remained worked shorter days for pay and no one working there was younger than ten. Alongside the freed slaves were a few people brought in from elsewhere on labor programs and locals from the cities themselves and farmers who worked there. There were a few scuffles between the freed slaves and the longstanding free men of the Daagsgrad and Borogskov, enough to warrant soldiers to be deployed to break these up. Work was improved shortly after with the introduction of steam powered circular saws and other mechanized tools as well as other more conventional improvements.

That said a real race happened in a few specially designated yards. These involved Drydocks and were adapted. Around them was sugnifigant construction working night and day as complexes were assembled. Large amounts of Dalatyr made machinery was brought in. By 23IA Drydock Daagsgrad-1 was refitted equipped for its new task. Components were shipped up river for assembly from Dalatyr on the new craft, starting with large steel girders for the frame.

Natasha Smedth was one of the engineers assigned to work on the new shipyards and eventually was sent to Daagsgrad-1. She oversaw numerous instillation, mainly the electrical systems and machine tools. That said, the engineering staff here (and indeed across all of Infrastructure) so she also did various odd jobs in making sure everything went smoothly. She worked on the assembly yard in Lake Murnev. Now she oversaw. She was impressed at how quickly they had managed to get things going, even if all they did at this moment was put together the ribs of the craft. They were made of steel and were fairly simple to put together, even if did require a fair number of winches and coordination. The they were mostly hollow and fairly light for their size. Soon they would begin putting the hull on what would be the front of the ship as they moved backwards. It was definitely an impressive site. Some locals were brought by to see it and from what she heard it had been the talk of the town. Just like the Vanguard was when it sailed by.

She wrote down a few more notes on her clipboard and prepared to go to sleep. At the momemt she just wished her dad was here to see this, as well as that bastard Malnov. Just to show him what he gave up when he decided to betray her and Infrastructure before he was carted off to the Dragonspine Mountains to spend the rest of his worthless life digging coal in the company of bandits, old bitter warriors and the rest of the scum of humanity the committee dumped there so their lives could be of some use.

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