Infrastructure: Part One Hundred and Seventy Five

Shortly after war stared Issov Hamniv signed up for the army like many people in Dalatyr. He went through the standard eight weeks of basic training, but unlike the rest of his platoon he had previous experience which earned him a position with the logistical position as a roadsteamer driver. It was a bit of a change from operating a steambus, but he got the hang of it. Mostly he picked up supplies from the surrounding farmland and brought them back to base, as well as move around some personnel and equipment. He did this job for about six months before he was promoted and transferred to a new program driving some new experimental vehicles.

It was a rough job which was done largely in secret, sending the various prototypes through their paces and working out problems with the Engineers. Many of them had some refinement done after the completion of the tests and there was a few. They tested how the worked on regular level ground, snow, ice, gravel, sand, mud, hills, rocks and logs in addition to speed tests, turning tests and so forth. This was often dangerous work. Issov had flipped over several times and had broken a couple of ribs and he was lucky that this was the. One of his fellows trial drivers was killed after a crash. A couple more were discharged due to serious injuries. After that came a few more specialized trials. Eventually, after considerable tweaking and a demonstration to Drive himself they were deemed fit for service and Issov found himself part of the First Motorized Company along with a hundred other people and sent to join General Smeth's "Mobile Reserve".

Once they arrived the First Motorized Company found themselves in an awkward posistion. For security reasons, they were kept away from the rest of the men while their vehicles were kept out of sight. Even so, from what he had gathered they were the talk of the town amongst the men who did everything they could to get a glimpse of the vehicle fleet. This was a bit awkward, but he could deal with it. He knew that at least some of them were trying to get a look as they rolled out for this day's practice maneuvers, even if they did leave before dawn.

Issov enjoyed driving his vehicle all things considered. She was much more powerful than either the steambus or the army steam Lorry and the alcohol burning engine was cleaner to boot.  She still had her faults and issues and needed a lot of love and care from skilled technicians, but he could live with that. She had her myriad noises but these grew on him. He did get rattled around a fair bit off road, but he put that down to the fact that any wheeled vehicle would not do well off road in his experience. Even so, he winced as he ran over an unusually large rock. He knew that the vehicle's other occupant, Uleg had less of a stomach for such jolts though Issov put that down to experience and the fact that he has a worse seat back there.

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