Frozen Flame of Dawn - Chapter 117

Chapter 117: Chapter 57: The Next Phase of Stability and Research_2
Aiden exhaled sharply, rubbing his temple. “I figured as much as these vehicles weren’t built for an environment where the terrain is changing every week.”

Layla nodded. “Exactly and that’s not the worst part because mutated beasts are only adding more difficulty to this problem.”

She looked at everyone and pointed out. “Even though our armored RVs and transport trucks getting reinforced and repaired, they’re still taking serious damage and some beasts have torn through the plating, others have managed to flip smaller armored vehicles making is more damaged.”

“We’ve started modifying a few of our armored cars and RVs, reinforcing them with thicker plating, shock absorption systems, and new suspension designs to handle rougher terrain.” Showing some images on the monitor, she explained. “We’ve also tested enhanced materials, making some vehicles strong enough to withstand direct attacks even from strong mutated beast without denting or flipping.”

Murmurs spread through the room as this was important progress.

“That’s good,” Amira said. “But what’s the main issue?”

When Amira said those words it was like she knew Layla habit about sharing some good new and then drop some bad information after it.

Layla’s expression darkened. “When though the durability can be tested and determined with the help if Aiden and Amira as their abilities can be essential for this, being they are strongest here but….” she stopped for a moment as she looked over and continued. “after all reinforcing and upgradation the weight of each vehicle increased a lot which resulted in high fuel consumption.”

A collective sigh went in the room as they immediately understood the problem—Fuel.

“We can reinforce our vehicles all we want,” Layla said, “but at the end of the day, they run on fuel, and we don’t have a huge reserves ourself.”

Tommy, silently muttered, “Well, shit.”

Aiden frowned, thinking hard as he asked. “How much do we have left?”

Layla didn’t need to think over as she answered. “Taking all the reserve in basin town and the nearby 200km zone we cleared, we are looking around 400-450 ton liter petrol and diesel in our reserve. And with our current missions and patrols, this fuel reserves will last approximately three to four months before we start running dangerously low that taking account of using old vehicle not the new upgraded one’s.”

A tense silence settled over the room and they all knew what that meant as without fuel, their operations would slow and missions would take longer while transporting people, supplies, and evacuating survivors would become difficult.

Bella leaned forward, resting her chin on her fist. “Do we have any sources nearby?”

Layla sighed. “Not so sure as we don’t have any detail about these reserve location as for the all petrol stations, storage depots, refineries, and military fuel reserve sites within towns or cities and highway road are the only source we can count on now. But if found we have to transport those fuel here as being left unattended can cause many problems.”

“But being outside our perimeter and far away can cause problem due to least two to three days of travel in new and dangerous territory.” Layla added.

Amira exchanged glances with Aiden. as this was a serious problem, but not unsolvable.

“Then we’ll have to plan a fuel expedition, Layla so prioritize mapping out the closest, safest fuel storage locations and I’ll assign teams once we assess the risks.” Amira said, her voice decisive. “But also try look for any alternative for this.”

Layla nodded firmly. “Understood. I’ll have a report ready by tomorrow.”

Aiden leaned forward, his fingers tapping against the table thoughtfully as he added. “Wait—Layla, while you’re at it, see if we can use electric battery as replacement for this.”

Layla not surprised by the suggestion said. “We already tried and converted some of our vehicles to run on electric power as we already have few awakened individuals with lightning-based abilities, so have designed battery storage systems, which could potentially reduce our dependence on fuel but..”

She then added “we don’t have a enough amount a equipment and material to create enough and also we have to keep that in mind that these battery don’t have long life so we have to regularly change it which again creates problem of materials.”

That idea made sense but also costly and not feasible right now.

After a moment Layla’s eyes lit up as she thought of something while quickly scribbled it in her notes. “That’s… actually I just thought of a unique approach that if we can develop vehicles powered by stored spiritual energy, like using these beast core which having large amount of energy, then we would able reduce our long-term reliance on fuel.”

Amira smiled and nodded. “We’re already seeing the world evolve but if we can make our technology and these new abilities or spiritual energy can coexist then we can develop many things and solve many of our problems.”

Layla grinned, already forming ideas. “Alright, I’ll look into both fuel first, but I’ll also start researching on alternatives and find a way to store and utilize spiritual energy in a stable way, so we won’t have to risk these long fuel expeditions forever.”

Going back to her seat after saying her update she said her final piece. “When you go on rescue mission in the nearby towns or cities try to find some people both our research and engineering department as we have great shortage these individual”

“Sure we keep look into this.” Amira said as she looked over Bella and Aiden to share their update too.

Bella didn’t moved from her seat but started taking immediately after Amira’s look. “For internal force and security update ”

She tapped the digital tablet in front of her, and immediately, a new set of statistics appeared on the monitor. “As of now, we have 1,000 armed personnel for manning the outer wall in shifts, while we have another 500 assigned for regular patrols and monitoring inside the walls, covering the area between the outer wall and the newly developing inner wall, as well as the town.”

Amira nodded slightly, as she mentally processed the numbers.

Bella continued. “And these force is made of, 1,000 newly recruited awakened individuals, who volunteered to join and have been undergoing training and to compensate for their lack of experience, we’ve assigned 500 of our own trained unit members to guide and support them.”

Amira with her arms crossed questioned. “That’s a decent number, but are they battle-ready?”

Bella sighed, shaking her head. “That’s the issue right now, as even though we have chosen the majority of the new recruits who were best suited for defensive combat and long-range attacks, so to provide them safe distance and time to prepare their attack and also being ideal for plan for walls.”

“But still they don’t have any combat experience, expect the training while having no prior exposure in fighting mutated beast” She paused, clicking a few keys to zoom into detailed deployment visuals on the monitor. “But even with this current force, we’re barely able to properly man the entire wall after splitting them into shifts.”

A slight murmur rippled through the room.

Amira tapped her fingers on the table. “What’s your estimate?”

Bella sighed again, rubbing her temple. “To properly man the walls without overworking our forces, we need at least 1,000 more recruits—minimum.”