Dean held the rifle in his hand.... It was the first prototype of the new Elysian Mk 1 rifle that intended to replace the mismatched scavenged weapons in the hands of the Elysian Militia.

Yes, those weapons were superior in every way to the Elysian Model 1, well, every way except for one.... Sustainability.

Truth be told, Dean’s ammunition procurement and scavenging from before the snow fell, and after made it very difficult to sustain large scale formations over a long period.

Prioritization of ammunition went to the hoplites and peltasts. And anything else currently went to the Militia.

But the militia was simply any boy and man capable of bearing arms, drafted for sentry duty, garrison roles, and providing support in the event of an attack.

These weren’t professional soldiers, and they didn’t need to be. What they needed more than anything was a rifle which was easy to manufacture and simply to resupply. And since Dean currently lacked the chemical manufacturing capabilities to create smokeless powder, he needed to rely on something more simple.

Black powder could be easily created, and the chemicals used in primers could be salvaged. Whereas smokeless powder was harder to manufacture long term.

This was why he worked tirelessly with Elysium’s greatest minds to devise this weapon. It was a controlled-feed service rifle derived from pre-Winter hunting actions, combining the reliability of the Mauser 98 with the simplicity of the old Winchester rifles.

The idea was to build a receiver strong enough for tomorrow’s ammunition, even if today’s ammunition is crude.

The stock was a "musket" style made from laminate hemp "wood" and stained in a rich and dark lacquered coating. While the metal was heat-treated in charcoal dust, and painted over with a thick coating of baked soot and hemp oil.

It was a dead-matte finish. The black paint filled the rough pores of the dark gray metal. It looked rugged and heavy. It did not reflect any light in the snow.

This home-made shell would seal out the wet winter air. It would protect the steel from the corrosive bite of their crude black powder.

Dean racked the action back and placed the proof testing round inside it. Two of them stood side by side. One was a leftover 203 grain SP 7.62x54r round leftover from Dean’s stockpiles.

And the other was a domestically produced 148 grain black powder copy.

The 203 grain smokeless round inserted flawlessly into the chamber. While Dean aimed down the sights. By now the weapon had been thoroughly tested for safety and devised over months of development and testing.

Dean had no fear it would blow up in his face, he only cared about putting the round down range. And after aiming down the tangent sights, he found the paper target at approximately 100 meters.

He took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. The gunshot crackled across the range, and the bullet flew down range flawlessly, striking the target exactly in the center of its bullseye.

Dean ejected the spent casing by pulling the bolt handle up and backwards, where he inserted the second round. The black powder variant, which for the time being, the rifle was designed to handle.

He sent the bolt home and aimed down the sights once more. Pulling the trigger only after he had adjusted for the difference in strength of the cartridge. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The gunfire was noticeable less fierce this time, as the round went downrange and struck approximately three inches below the previous target.

Dean ejected the spent casing ,and left the bolt open, as he sat back and relaxed. Gazing down at his handiwork, he nodded with approval.

"My calculations were off, I suppose if we fired another 203 grain round, that would be within an inch and a half of the previous round. It needs a bit more testing ,but the rifle is good. Once the final round of testing has been concluded, we can begin production immediately. Make sure to melt down the steel, and reload the brass... we can’t afford to waste anything."

Dean stood silently proud of their work. He didn’t express it, such a thing wasn’t required, they could tell by the way the rifle handled that it was a weapon worthy of its name.

He didn’t wait for the engineers, machinists, and other observers to respond. He walked away, while the rifle was still sitting on the bench.

One of the men quickly fetched the rifle and began to take it apart. For inspection and cleaning. After all, they were dealing with black powder and corrosive primers. These weapons needed far more maintenance than the older world’s counterparts.

Within the next month, the foundry would begin producing these weapons and their ammunition en masse. And in three months, five hundred of the Elysian Mk I Rifle, along with its load bearing webbing would be issued to the Elysian Militia as their new standard long arm.

It wasn’t an ideal weapon for combating a modern armed force. But after a year into the long winter, the reality was that reliable production of arms and munitions, even if they were older designs, was vastly superior to modern weapons that could occasionally be fired for a short time.

After all, hundreds of black powder bullets flying down range by the militia were better than no bullets.

Dean didn’t know when, or if he would ever be able to produce a modern line of smokeless powder munitions and the rifles that used them.

But for the time being, the Elysian Mk I would have to serve its purpose. And though he didn’t realize it, the ability to domestically design, produce, and maintain such a primitive weapon design already put Elysian at a higher capacity than the overwhelming majority of communities, settlements, and proto-states being formed in the vast and treacherous wastelands of the new world.

Further yet ,if the remnants of the old world were to discover such a capacity, then they would immediately rank Elysium among the highest levels of threats that emerged once law and order collapsed.

Luckily for Dean, they were too busy suppressing other targets north of the habitable zone.