[Chargul]

Brightening 7, Cycle 1, Month of Kalendryas, in the Season of Winter,
Era I of the Celestine Mandate,
Era XV Post Fractum

Chargul arrived at the village with a company of provincial soldiers. With him there was 1000 from the 7th Regiment and 1500 from the 9th Regiment. They had brought supplies and tools, so as to raise a southern defensive fort in Auster, as was demanded by the defensive plans that Chargul had projected as being necessary. With an imperial mandate, Chargul knew all he needed to do was find a good defensive position and amusingly enough, a watchtower already occupied that.

"Good people of Auster!" The esh'lahier called out from his imperially granted horse. "I grant you a chance to serve the empire, to be recognized when an emperor is found at last. I have come with a portion of the 7th and 9th regiments to construct a defensive fort here. All those who help me will be helping themselves from the impending orcish assaults. You may offer your labour, you may offer your stone. All help is welcome."

Chargul did not wait for an answer. He commanded the 7th and 9th regiments up to the watchtower, from where they would start construction of the fort.

"I want a road leading directly from the city centre to what will be the fort's main gates." He said, and assigned ten man to that duty. Chargul didn't care how long that was going to take. He knew the road was going to be somewhat serviceable and there were other pressing matters at hand first. He rode around on his horse and stuck down poles at locations, to mark where the outer rim of the fort was to be. He needed it to be large enough to effectively house a thousand troops and to be capable of handling an additional two thousand in case of emergency. The outer rim he was marking had to take into account wall thickness, the soil and relief of the land.

When he was finished marking, he returned and gave out some clear orders to the officers.

"I want twenty wooden lodges to serve as barracks built. Make them twenty meters long, five meters wide. I want them to fill out an area fifty meters by fifty, ten on each side with four meters between them and three meters out to the perimeter of the site, facing west and east. Doors on both sides of the barracks. You'll find the area marked by the grey flags, they mark the boundaries. Here are the blueprints." Chargul handed the officer in charge a blueprint detailing the plans. "They're to hold three thousand and two hundred men at most, with bunk beds. Have twenty work on each house. They should be done in a cycle if all goes well."

"On the western side of the barracks, I want three supply depots built. These need to be underground and dry. They're going to be food storage, two for regular supplies and one for emergency and long-lasting supplies. Here are the blueprints, the area marked out is fifty meters along the length of the barracks and twenty five meters wide. Get digging and make sure to have the ceiling amply supported. Build too many beams, not too few.”

Turning to another, Chargul commanded “Eastern side. I want water. There’s gotta be some water in the underground here, so get digging. We’re going to need a lot of it. I want several wells and I want them deep. I also want a supply depot with water just north of the wells. Again, underground, store the water in barrels and make sure there are enough or even too many support beams. I don’t want it all submerged in dirt.”

“Just north of the barracks, I want a fifteen meter wide messhall, running the length of the barracks and supply depots. The whole one hundred meters. My calculations say that should be enough for 1600 people at this time. If we get more time to build it out, you just may yet get more comfort, until then, it’ll have to do. There’ll be room for a large kitchen too.” There remained a few things to be ordered.

“Let’s get an armory built on the southside. Same as the messhall, except only half as long from the water wells.” Chargul handed out blueprints for the rest of these designs. He was rapidly running out of parchment and paper, but it was possible he could get some more in Auster. He’d look into it.

“I want palisades to follow the path I made with those sticks out on the edge. Everyone who isn’t able to work on the armory, barracks, messhall, supply depot, wells or sanitation, get working on the palisade and ditch. We’ll build a bigger, better wall when we have some basics up. It should be possible for us to at least get two watchtowers circled in, so let’s get that done. I want a third watchtower built between them. If we can’t get two watchtowers circled in or even one, then let it be known that I want three well-built towers out of wood facing west, northwest and north respectively. They should be able to scout out the entire area around here without issue. Heck, if you have time, build a fourth one in the southeast corner”

“I want sanitation and trash holes dug out in the southwest corner and northeast corner. The main gate is to be southeasterly, headed towards Auster, I want a much smaller gate northwesterly, so that we can make sorties if we have to. Use the dirt from the ditch to build a motte on the other side and for the sake of your own peace of mind, follow those blueprints and lets get a symmetrical fort here imperials!”

The palisade was going to run evenly around the fort, leaving roughly between ten and twenty meters of open space between the wall and the buildings, depending on the area. That would be valuable expansion space and good sparring grounds.

Meanwhile, Chargul retired to the camp that was rapidly being set up and began to review his plans, looking for gaps in the security of the fort. Any officer with the guts to review them with him and be part of finding horrendous errors was welcome to join him.