Patham's efforts at secrecy are met with increased suspicion and surveillance from the Observers, rendering of limited effect, though they remain polite enough not to pry. They offer, claiming confusion as to the reason for the secrecy, not to enter the Magus' personal laboratory in exchange for regular reports on work done.
Work on motors continues apace. It would appear that thaumaturgic motors, in their basic form, are little more complex than purely electrical ones, requiring mainly a careful pattern in the winding of coils, and construction from more specific materials. Such basic motors, however, are heavy, with high torque and little speed, better suited to stationary machines than the proposed aerial project. Further work is needed, but it is clear that the challenge is far from an insurmountable one.
Half of the miners from the New Shaft are transferred to the original mines, carving out into the great, shallow veins of iron that inspired this fortress' construction. The rock is hard, and work is slow with half a team on the job, but several tons of iron-bearing rubble are carted to the smelters by the end of the week, doubling the fuel consumption and rapidly proving the unfortunate nature of the fungal charcoal. An additional smelting cycle is required to render the metal of acceptable grade.
While the beginnings of the dam are set in place, a slow, difficult task with little margin for error and a worryingly high risk of injury, the Serfs are asked to set up a full weaving infrastructure and begin producing fine cloth, since their goats have just been sheared, freeing up considerable raw fiber. A reasonable amount of what is produced in these batches will be needed for clothing and other such needful purposes, though it could be mandated away from them. Still, enough light, tight cloth will be produced for at least a small airbag, enough, perhaps, to lift a single dwarf. It is a pity the caverns burned so many times, cave spiders' silk would be ideal for these purposes, especially in comparison to thick, coarse goats' wool.
The least-skilled of the Infantry, those unlikely to see front line combat unless necessary, but still disciplined enough to qualify for this expedition, are selected for training with muskets. The weapons are not ideal, but the good steel needed to produce repeaters or rattlers is being used by other projects, such guns are quite unreliable to begin with, and the existing models are being steadfastly claimed by the Settler warriors.
By the end of the week, the selected thirty dwarves have been provided basic training in the use of firearms, then separated into five five-dwarf squads, each with an officer to make six. Ideally, the officers will be provided submachine guns to offer support while their men reload, but for now they have some of the dwindling supply of revolvers, shortened versions of the standard muskets, and a stubber each to allow signals and cavern lighting.
This armament and training has used much of the existing ammunition, necessitating more of the weapons team's time to produce more in order to have enough for the fortress to use its more advanced weapons in battle.
Without a greater dedication of resources, more advanced weapons will be a long time coming, and the more effective tools, like the cartridge-loaded guns, the surviving howitzers, and the sharpshooting rifles, will be without ammunition less than an hour into a battle.
Deciding that functional generators must be produced, to ensure they do, in fact, operate as expected, a full-sized rotary generator is constructed. When geared to a source of high-torque mechanical rotation, it is expected to produce roughly three hundred Watts of electricity. Not perfect, but of great use.
More work is likely to rapidly necessitate upgrades, and the alloy for turbine blades has yet to be perfected, but this prototype stands ready for installation, either at the dam when eventually completed, or at a smaller test assembly.
In other news, the elevator has finished being repaired. Though powering it remains a concern, it should prove of great use in emergencies.
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Topic: If Bay 12 was a fortress Part 3: RETURN OF THE CHAOS (Read 234950 times)