The Arren Industrial Syndicate was operating at peak human efficiency, yet the coke mines were still limited by the need to drain water and hoist the massive quantities of black earth to the surface. Furthermore, the rail network, while powerful, still relied on hundreds of oxen—a biological, slow, and expensive system prone to fatigue and disease.
"We have fixed the fuel and the tracks, Hemlock," Alex noted, looking at a diagram showing the comparative output of an ox versus a theoretical engine. "But we are spending too much capital on biological maintenance and slow metabolism. The animal is the bottleneck."
Alex knew he needed to mechanize the power source itself. He needed to harness the immense, constant pressure of steam. He needed to invent the steam engine.
Alex's design was an extremely simplified single-cylinder steam engine, built for one purpose: to generate rotary motion from the linear force of pressurized steam. It required precision that only his certified steelworkers could provide.
He gathered Garth and Marcus. "We are going to take the heat from the coke, transfer it to water in a sealed vessel, and use the pressure to move a piece of metal back and forth in a tight tube. This motion will then turn a wheel. This is the piston principle."
The immediate technical hurdles were staggering:
* The Boiler: The medieval forging process was incapable of producing a sealed iron vessel strong enough to withstand high-pressure steam without exploding. Alex ordered his team to use the highest-grade, coke-refined steel, reinforcing the vessel with external, standardized iron hoops—the first instance of high-pressure vessel design.
* The Piston Seal: The cylinder and the piston needed a near-perfect seal to prevent steam leakage. Alex introduced the concept of precision boring—using a fixed cutting tool to ensure the inner cylinder diameter was uniform down to the tightest tolerance they could manage.
The construction took months of tedious, frustrating work. There were four spectacular failures—boilers that leaked, seals that failed, and one piston that simply jammed. Each failure was treated by Alex not as a disaster, but as a data set, leading to immediate, quantifiable design improvements.
The first functional engine was not installed on a rail; it was installed at the most critical bottleneck: the deepest coke mine, where it was tasked with pumping out the ever-present water and raising the raw coal.
On the day of the first successful run, a crowd of workers, foremen, and nobles (including a curious Baron Tarsus) gathered at the mine head. Alex personally oversaw the fueling of the firebox with coke. The water boiled, the pressure gauge (a simple tube of mercury Alex had invented) climbed, and with a hiss and a clank, the piston began its rhythmic movement.
The noise was deafening, the vibrations immense, but the effect was undeniable. The engine did the work of thirty men and four water wheels combined, steadily pumping water from the mine's deepest levels and hoisting coal to the surface.
Garth, watching the machine work with tireless, relentless force, wiped away sweat. "It has no soul, My Lord," he whispered. "It just... works."
"It has no need of a soul, Garth," Alex replied, noting the output on his tablet. "It runs on thermodynamics. It has eliminated human and biological error from our deepest production channel."
***
The immediate goal was efficiency, but the Arren Industrial Syndicate had built a powerful new asset. The next logical step was clear: taking the engine from the fixed mine pump and placing it onto the tracks.
Alex immediately ordered the construction of a smaller, more powerful, high-speed engine—a locomotive.
When the first rudimentary Iron Horse rolled onto the Syndicate's rail line, pulling a string of twenty heavy wagons effortlessly, the world changed forever. The speed of the train—a terrifying fifteen miles per hour—was incomprehensible. The transport time from the furnace to the war depot collapsed from two days to four hours.
The railway was no longer just a logistical marvel; it was a symbol of absolute power. Oxen were sold off, and the money was reinvested into more locomotives.
The sight of the Iron Horse terrified the local populace. Children were forbidden from going near the "Fire Wagon," and sermons were preached about the metal beast that mocked God's creatures. Alex, recognizing the need to manage public perception, had the front of the locomotive painted with the stylized Arren crest, lending the machine a veneer of official nobility.
The Syndicate, now powered by steam, had transcended the feudal age. Alex controlled the ultimate trifecta: Cheap Fuel (Coke), Reliable Transport (Rail), and Mechanical Power (Steam). The Hero's war effort was entirely reliant on the smooth operation of Alex's integrated system.
Next priority: The war is shifting from a local conflict to a regional one, demanding larger scale mobilization. Alex needs to ensure the military can communicate and coordinate effectively across hundreds of miles without being bound to fixed wires. It's time to invent military field telephone and portable power generation.