• Location: Industrial Ring, New Kourou
• Address: NE Guardian Way 2
• Surroundings: Faces the loading yards of the New Kourou QFRS and shares a perimeter road with the Space Drinks Inc. Plant.

Founding Year: 2625 (six months after Day Zero)

Founder: Vira Antonis — former Last Frontier data-archivist

Mission: Press tone-encoded fungus-shellac disks plus the hand-cranked lathes & sequencers that keep GAIA’s Local Hubs patched on a near-powerless planet.

Current Operator: Nationalised in 2631 and re-flagged as the Federal Shellac Manufactory (FSM).

• Construction Material: Cargo-crate steel skeleton, mycelium-brick infill, salvage poly-glass clerestories.
• Floors: One vast press hall, side-wing machine shop, mezzanine offices, and a secure master-stamp vault two levels below grade.
• Signature Feature: A 14 m “tone mast” short-wave array bolted to the roof — receives Friday Kernel bursts, then flashes an amber beacon when disks pass CRC.

Ground Floor – Press Hall

• Resin Mix Vats: Three jacketed kettles brewing fungal polymer and silicate filler.
• Disk Press Line: Six hydraulic platen presses stamping 25 cm blanks; each feeds directly to a cooling rack.
• Lathe-Writer Bay: Twelve hand-crank lathes for small-batch masters, plus one motorised “Tone-30 Pro” demonstrator.
• Sequencer Test Bench: Optical readers run a CRC scan on every tenth disk.
• Quality-Audit Platform: Catwalk office where auditors sign off the daily lot.
• Restrooms (2): Unisex AuroraSan compost stalls.

Mezzanine – Offices & Acoustic Gallery

• Founder’s Loft: Vira Antonis’ desk, original micro-lathe, and framed first-press disk.
• Design & Upgrade Studio: Draft tables, stylus microscopes, and the prototype EchoHorn jig.
• WBS Sound Booth (Beta-Age): Glass-lined room, used to cut live-session masters;
• Staff Break Nook + single AuroraSan stall.

Sub-Basement – Stamp Vault & QFB Bay

• Master-Stamp Vault: Temperature-controlled bunker holding stamping dies and Kernel firmware masters.
• Quantum Fusion Battery-Loop & Geothermal Exchange: Keeps presses running during grid brown-outs.

Exterior Grounds

• Loading Dock: Twin bays for Hoo-drawn wagons and Guarding-Bot–scanned pallets.
• Waste-Resin Sumps: Clay-lined pits where spent polymer cures into harmless bricks.
• Short-Wave Tone Mast: Receives Kernel bursts; doubles as semaphore for convoy drivers.

Hot resin, metal press-clacks, and the citrus-ozone of sterilised blanks fill the cavernous hall. Every few seconds a platen thumps shut, steam venting in white plumes that curl up past swaying chains. Overhead, amber hazard lights pulse whenever a CRC error is detected, and the floor crew groans—the run must start again.

• Vira Antonis (Plant Director): Approves firmware lots, negotiates resin quotas, signs CRC ledgers.
• Maintenance Bots (4): The Maintenance Bots maintain hydraulic presses, manage die swaps.
• Lathe Machinists (6): Cut masters, refurbish stylus tips, tune Tone-30 Pro kits.
• CRC Auditors (3): Random-sample disks, log checksums, seal GAIA lots.
• Logistics Clerk (2): Book short-wave bursts, schedule courier pick-ups.
• Cleaning Bot (1): Keeps resin dust off bearings and office glass.
• Guarding Bot (1): Scans crates / credentials at the only vehicle gate.

• Visitor Hours: Fri 13:00 – 17:00 (factory tour & retail kiosk until 2631; now government-only).
• Production Shifts: 06:00 – 18:00 (press line) / 18:00 – 24:00 (maintenance).
• Courier Window: Kernel lots handed to the NK Courier Service at 05:00 sharp each Saturday.

• 3 m alloy fence with vibro-alarm strands; single Guarding Bot (armed with a Guarding Troopers Stun Gun) gate.
• Random Guarding Trooper patrols (Industrial Ring round).