Ration supplier

Full stomach even in the middle of the war.

During the Age of War there were periods of time when even exiting one's house was very dangerous, mainly due to siege weapons or artillery attacking the city. Because of that, a lot of the buildings coming from that time had bomb shelters built into them. And although they might have been stocked with some food, at some point those supplies would start to dwindle. That's why ration suppliers have been invented, underground conveyor belts transporting food directly to one's home or shelter every day.

The machine

Client-wise, the ration supplier looks like a post, 27 centimeters in diameter and a 1.5 meters tall, going through the floor of the building. On its side, it has a hatch opening to the small compartment area with a bottom that opens when the food is delivered. On the top of the post, there is a light that starts to glow once the food is delivered and is ready to be consumed.

The journey of the food

Supply

First, the food needs to be created. Most of the ration suppliers are connected to factories specializing in the creation of processed food. Said rations are usually very bland, but they have all of the nutrients needed for the meal. Most of those who tried them compare their taste to that of cardboard. Because of that, additional packages with various spices are sold for a low price giving the rations an almost edible taste.
In heavily militarized cities that still utilize the suppliers, the food didn't travel directly from the factory to the client. Instead, they were stored in underground warehouses where they were checked regularly for any signs of poisoning. They are only distributed in case of emergency, such as an attack of the hostile nation.

Conveyor belt

After leaving the factory/warehouse, the food travels on conveyor belts through the maze of reinforced tubes. Said tubes were created to withstand the explosives and most of the conventional types of bombardment. Additionally, once in a while, a probe is sent through those tubes to check for any sort of structural damage they might have suffered. Rations are sent to each of the houses thanks to the stickers with barcodes that are printed on at the food factory. Each barcode corresponds to the number that has been assigned to the house in the factory's database.

Food is served

Once the food reaches the ration supplier, before it can be eaten, it still needs to go through some final touches. First, it goes through the remoisturizing process. After getting remoisturized, it goes through thermal treatment. In the last step, the machine removes the sealing foil from the dish and cutlery. The light on the machine starts to shine, the food is ready to be eaten.

After eating

After finishing the meal, the dishes need to be sent back to the factory to reduce the waste and accumulation of junk that could otherwise be recycled into new dishes. Depending on the model of the ration supplier or the technological level of the city, the dishes are either thrown back into the supplier through a slot in its back or they need to be disposed of by using the recycling trash can, which often is a shipping machine, sending dishes again through the maze of conveyor belts either to the factory they came from or to the recycling site.

Hours of delivery:
Breakfast: 5 am
Dinner: 4 pm
Supper: 7-8 pm

Access & Availability

Depending on the age of the settlement and the number of renovations it went through, the ration suppliers might still be in use there. In that case, they are present in almost every house. Otherwise, they are relics of the past and quite a rare sight.

A warning

Blue

If you ever go to one of the cities where those things are still in use, never use them. Maybe not everywhere it's as bad as in Zetalph, where the food is laced with Blue, keeping them calm and docile, but you never know what is added to the stuff you plan to eat.

The incident

During one of the wars that happened during the Age of War, a hostile army managed to get their hands on the underground warehouses where all of the food has been stored. They managed to poison the supply and did it in a way that didn't raise any alarm in the beginning. That was until the bigger part of the city has been poisoned. Thankfully, the poison wasn't deadly as it was tiresome for the body and straining the morale of anyone within the city.

Resistance

Lately, a group of people working against Witches and their influence, started to search for a way to access the food factories. If they could either prevent the addition of Blue to the food or find an agent which would neutralize it without anyone noticing, they could free hundreds of people from under their command.