The team encamps on the north bank of the Warta. Betsy takes charge of the bridge repair efforts. It’s a case of “must have the tools to make the tools” – she and the team’s other technical specialists need to repair the abandoned heavy equipment at the job site before they can get much work done. Worse, all of the machinery has been sitting inactive since ’97 – which means the engines are still set up to run on diesel, so the mechanics also need to convert them to alcohol fuel.
Those not directly involved in repairs find other things to do – hunting and foraging to reduce the net rate of food consumption, brewing fuel to keep the construction equipment going, and, of course, maintaining security while the team is immobile. It’s a few days of hard work for all hands, with much cursing and a good number of minor injuries for Erick and Octavia to tend. But when the reconstruction crew breaks for lunch on October 14, Betsy declares herself satisfied with the bridge’s stability.
The team decides to remain encamped overnight, building their fuel reserves and doing a little more hunting and foraging. As the morning of October 15 dawns clear and crisp, they break camp and, with Betsy ground-guiding each vehicle in turn, cross the Warta.
Bridge repair was an extended Tech roll for Betsy, predicated on the team repairing the abandoned crane. Each roll took one shift and restored one ton of load rating to the bridge deck. On a pushed roll, each 1 reduced the crane’s Reliability by 1, raising the possibility of breaking it and needing to take extra repair time. Industrial Light and Mayhem is the team’s heaviest vehicle, an 8×8 MAN KAT1 that weighs in around 10 tons unladen, and between 15 and 18 tons with its current load. Betsy accumulated 16 successes, which was enough – with some careful driving.
