Out in the open city square, in the calm night of the sky. The pair of adolescents are walking away in another direction. By Ellie's charge, of course, who knows the way towards the fjord of the Federation.
It is in the east district, where a conglomeration of rough businesses and companies resides. It is more known as an Industrial District by every citizen since they make a lot of things over there. Almost all the technological resources of the Federation are right in this region. It makes sense since the industrial ways of mankind are still thriving.
William learned all about it, through the notions of the 1st floor, as well as the 5th floor. The history and technical aspects of the current age were recommended by Mi-Yung. That includes factories of many kinds, with manufacturers of firearms, electricity, cars, tanks, ammunition, and so on. He even learned a few things about enginist and machinists.
Occupations such as that are one of the most prominent and most needed jobs on the market. People who learn these occupations are the backbone of the industries. With all-encompassing problems across the workings of all industries, it comes as no surprise.
They make sure of almost every corner where machines make human work more manageable. Maintenance, functions, and repairs of everything are up to the Machinist.
Enginist has an entire order of the military under their direct effects. The majority of cars or any biggest equipment have not survived the passing of time in the last century. Though, their records, prints, and plans are intact to this day. Making them a reality is not the easiest, but a lot of things can happen when enough recourses are in one place.
Especially the tanks, which need a ton of recourses. Both literal and fundamental for their creation.
In truth, the Federation doesn't have much need for them at the moment. They still have built few, since the Walkers are a limiting factor of quantity. The Federation had to include the lives of regular people. Many plans, resources, and everything to make it a tough, military-grade plan.
A lot has changed since the time humanity fought against the Dark Age with tanks and nukes. It was the beginning where the case was that. After all, no Walkers were present for over two decades after the start of the Dark Age.
Now, there are some tanks. That is true, while ammunition, rockets, and bullets are here as well. Yet, none of them are stronger forces than nukes that represent the rank of Walkers. The strongest kind are even better than a battalion of tanks and a few nukes.
After all, the effectiveness of humane weaponry has always proved to be lacking. Not against one another, but against the monsters of the Dark Age.
The defensive power of the Rank 4 and above monsters has incredible toughness. Regular conventional weaponry can't penetrate their defenses. Tank shells of the tanks are ineffective, with only a few exceptions of extremely focused and penetrative types of ammunition. That is only for Ran 4, and a few rank 5s. Further to the 6 and above, all humane tries are useless.
It comes as no surprise that Walkers are different. Yet, as the Walkers live and fight, the need for regular soldiers never disappears. It is the war for survival and even with smaller numbers means a slim chance. Humanity doesn't want to acknowledge defeat.
The recourses of mankind have many sectors and divisions of the Federation. There is no small amount of ordinary people in the ranks of many organizations for a lot of reasons. That includes the management of the Assembly Island and ranks of officers in the military.
After all, the Walkers couldn't make everything work with their limiting number. They could even station those with high training and enough time in the teams for Walkers. People like that would fight against the Dark Age from the sidelines while taking care of the equipment, or anything else.
Be it jeeps, helicopters, cars, motorcycles, and guns that could be effective against 4th rank and lower.
William remembers all of this since it was very common logic to him even back in the camps. Enginists of the Outside were not much different from here. Taking care of the factories is not the easiest, and many people had to work in the camp.
There, factories are running under constant pressure for the needs of the people. Large-scale food processing factories are the most important pieces of any place in any camp.
It usually involves massive containers and lines of machines. That led to the processing of wheat, potatoes, and a mishmash of vegetables. This sort of processing power and organization makes the many harvests last for a longer time. Like this, the food couldn't be spoiled.
That includes the many storage facilities under the ground. Stored with ice, jars, and centuries-old ways of preserving food. It is common even in the 22nd century. Years' worth of supplies is the base premise of the facilities. That, or deals to the Federation, or surrounding camps to make a barter trades.
Making a long-lasting paste of tomatoes is a source of many nutrients and no food is boring with its sweet properties. It is not far from calling it ketchup. Wheat, carrots, potatoes, and apples will last longer with proper care.
Other than that, milking facilities and running the refrigerated units to store most basic products.
Such facilities are usually enough for a dozen of enginist to work through. It is a hectic and prideful way of living, where any mistake is not possible. Lives depend on it, after all.
However, people in the Federation don't know of such worries. This city in itself has nonstop running electricity and warm water all year round. No worries about the Dar Age are already long etched in the minds of many people.
William found it quite surprising, but not shocking as much. People will get comfortable quite easily, while his work in the camp was the same. He saw a lot of people mourning the deaths of friends while getting back to work in no time.
From what he could gather, the Federation has large blocks of water turbines. They make electricity possible for this entire city, while the defense perimeter of the island is prone to no attacks.
If the turbines end up not being enough, the sun has always been kind enough to work with solar power.
William could not understand the principles of gaining energy. From the shimmers of light? He never found the reason why it all works. Even Ellie said so in the past since there is no need to understand everything.
Though, the curiosity could kill the cat, while he couldn't wrap his head around some wonders of the Federation.
Striding forth to the east district, a breeze of smoke and the industrial smell of breeze coming from the fjords makes this place quite unique.
There are not a lot of shops, but an increasing amount of all kinds of workshops. One could get repair about anything in the current times. Broken watch? It could be free or for 1 credit to repair it. Broken bicycle? Not a big deal.
Everything here has been made for the benefit of the regular people. The leadership of the Federation doesn't place many regulations on smaller businesses. It makes it easy to start any kind of work, but large ones, on the other hand, are different. They are very important for the running of the Federation and the effort of the Walkers. Lots of duns, recourses, and people are put in charge of such companies.
That is the making of ships, processing of metals, and so on. It goes all the way back to the missions to the mainland. Incredible missions of retrieving many materials with thousands of miners at times.
Those missions, from what William could gather in the library, take at a minimum a few weeks to finish. Usually, it is in charge of a group of dozen high-rank Walkers. Such missions of retrieval of the materials are mandatory in sustaining the needs of the Federation.
And, that doesn't include the need for going even further. The Federation needs to grow. So is humanity in order to shake the Dark Age away.
It is one of many ordeals that is simple sounding from the outside, but incredibly tough to maintain.
One of the highest Walkers in the Assembly is also in charge of the entire operation. They travel with a tanker or large ships to get all the resources back to the Federation.
After a bit of walking, William is looking at the fjord in all its glory. He couldn't help but still marvel at these displays of craftsmanship and hard work. It is not even his first time coming here. It's the second time when Ellie briefly let him here once. Since Ellie doesn't like this place as much, it was a small visit. It is noisy, and the air is not as comforting as in other regions.
Some of the machinery is workable through electricity, but coal is needed for the processing of the metals, and many craftsmen use them for their needs.
“So impressive,” William mutters the praiseworthy words.
There are a few dozen docks of quite a space of hundreds of feet wide, tall, and long sectors for shipbuilding. There is even one, that is significantly bigger than many combined. A tanker of incredible length is being built there. A feat of engineering, with so many resources, one would fall speechless.
It is not made from wood, but steel, and plated metallic plates. It is still halfway done, with another year or two of expeditions and missions to get enough recourses.
“This will be the second tanker of the Federation. A very important piece for humanity.” Ellie explains the obvious.
“I know. You told me about it when you showed me this place for the first time.”
“It is not bad to refresh my words,” Ellie argues while pushing William away. She doesn't want him to stay marveling about these pieces of metal for the next hours.
Smaller-sized ships are also built in the fjord but in other parts. There are even some privately owned businesses that make them for their livelihood. Such a place is the one Ellie has in mind for today.
Using high-quality wood for smaller boats is cheaper and easier to manage from an economical point of view. They are most often than not built with no electricity in mind. Sails would suffice since such things are old, almost like a modern human. Sailing, usage of the wind, and so on have been a technique for millennia.
Much to Ellie's plan, the company in charge of her trip is right around the facilities where the headquarters of the Irwin Joe Company is her goal.
Smaller kinds of boats and yachts are made here. Stationed around the perimeter besides the ocean, it has an open workshop of quite a space. It is almost as big as 5 blacksmithing workshops put together.
On the right side of this place, there is an even bigger place that William noticed as he walks beside it. At least 3 times bigger than Irwin joe's company. That is quite an incredible amount of highly valuable space. The big sign of Iron Clad Company is there on one big wall. It is a company for making equipment for the military.
In charge of this place is Iron Joe. A Rank 7 Walker, who build this place, thanks for the effort of his friends from the USA. He used to be from the last sectors of the Californian Department of the Federation. He grew up on the Outside, for the most part.
Owning this place, he is in charge of the entire block of military equipment for regular soldiers, to special types of equipment for Walkers.
William knows about it, yet he has no chance to go inside or glance around. Ellie pushes him further because her excuse has been that the tickets would expire, so he has no choice but to give up.
On the further streets from the large equipment-making company, a smaller company stands beside the ocean. Not small, nor big, it will build a couple of sailing boats, yachts, and boats a month, with high quality.
It is safe to say that fishing is a very popular and good product for getting money and food at the same time. It is one of the prime efforts of thousands of people.
Being in the middle of the ocean has its good sides, with the major problem being the distance from larger lands. Not like it matters since those lands are in the grasp of the Dark beings.
Just those expeditions are the most taxing and hardest missions a Walker could imagine. It usually goes with random picks of Walkers through the processing of randomness. One would never say no to that since Assembly Island is in charge of every operation of this kind.
It has no volunteers, apart from Walker from the Assembly. As for the regular people and personnel, they are under strict contract. A hefty amount of rewards and benefits is, of course, provided for these missions.
One normal man could get by from this month of work and not worry about credits for a couple of months. That may sound too good to be true, but the dangers involved are not worth it for many people.
Only after securing more numbers of Walkers, there were no injuries or fatalities. Be it from the attacks of the Dark beings, the many dangers in the mines, and the retrieval of materials.