A Helping Hand

For hundreds of years, humanity has defended itself from the attacks of the demons, but that is all they have done - defend. It was about time for that to change. When the Bloody Moon comes, the demons would be able to launch their full attacks and begin to create more Red Mist producing towers where they have taken land. The further back humanity could push the demons now, the more room they would have to weather the coming assault.

To this end, Roland planned to take the fight to the demons by reclaiming the ruins of Taquila to deprive the demons of their forward base from which they could send attacks. However, Taquila was a significant distance away from them and it was a stronghold for the demons. If the army were to attack, it would be the demons having the defensive advantage rather than the humans. The demons would no longer be enc.u.mbered by their logistics and instead the humans would be. So, Roland came up with a plan to correct these deficiencies, by expanding their logistic capacities while retaining a defensive advantage.

The plan was created which would take place over several months. They would utilize a leapfrogging technique, building successively further outposts connected to each other by rail. Each outpost would be a hardpoint that could hold off a demon assault while reinforcements arrived.

Each outpost would have an armored underground barracks to house the garrison. There would be several concrete bunkers protecting the outpost which were to be constantly manned, even at night. Anti-aircraft emplacements would be present to deter an aerial attack. There would also be a few cannons at each outpost. The most critical part of this plan was the new weapon system called the Blackriver.

The Blackriver is a large train that can travel on the tracks between the outposts. The train would be equipped with numerous cannons, much like the railroad guns used on Earth during the world wars. In addition to being artillery, they would also be heavily armored in order to survive a demon attack. They would also contain numerous machine guns to fend off close enemies and blades were affixed to the sides of the train so that it could mow down enemies when the train moves. The train could provide long range support, close range damage and was armored. It could serve as a mobile fortress essentially.

Not only would they defend the area between the outposts, they would also be able to quickly respond to an attack on an outpost. The Blackrivers were mobile and thus could be used to reinforce wherever the demons were attacking. The speed advantage given the railroads would be an important factor for humans to defeat the demons.

The construction over the defensive line has been ongoing and Neverwinter has already constructed several outposts to extend the reach of their military. On the other end, the church is building their set of outposts heading to Taquila from the opposite direction. It was hoped that eventually the two lines would meet and then they would encircle Taquila with their combined forces.

Once their armies were in position, they would be able to be supplied easily through the railway. Furthermore, their logistics line would remain protected because of the systems of outposts. So, not only would the building of outposts help move the army forward, it would also help keep it there. Finally, it was hoped that in the future, the whole thing could be upgraded into a complete defensive line to hold off demon attacks once the Bloody Moon arrives.

The construction of the outposts have been proceeding smoothly. The first thing they did was to recruit workers. By offering a higher wage, the construction crews were able to fill their requirements by attracting vast amounts of workers. Many of these workers were immigrants from the other regions of Graycastle. Roland was promoting a centralization program to concentrate the population into the cities. This has lead to many people moving out of the countryside and into Neverwinter. Many of these people were desperate to obtain permanent residency so they eagerly took on the job which promised to give them a place in Neverwinter once they were done.

Having the migrants was quite helpful. Without the increase in the labor pool, Roland would have to shift people away from existing jobs in the factories in order to do construction. This would hamper the industrial development of Neverwinter. Furthermore, it would be a huge waste because the educated people should be working in the factories where their knowledge was useful rather than construction which consists mostly of menial labor. It was very fortunate that Roland had access to a vast pool of immigrants.

The demons have not been completely idle while the construction was ongoing. The demons have kept themselves informed of developments by using the Devilbeasts to scout out the progress of the outpost construction. Initially, they even launched raids from the air by sending down Devilbeasts to start killing workers. The raids managed to kill a few workers but the anti-aircraft guns managed to kill all of the Devilbeasts. The demons quickly stopped the raids since trading valuable air forces to kill untrained mundane workers was not in their favor. Once Andrea started using her sniper rifle to pick off Devilbeasts that got too close, even scouting was beginning to be problematic.

While the demons didn't manage to do much physical damage, the attacks did cause quite the panic among the construction crew. Initially, many of them were spooked by the danger and wished to stop working. The demons had almost dealt a crippling blow without even being aware of it. Fortunately, Roland managed to convince the workers to stay by introducing what amounted to a life insurance policy that promised that in the case that a worker died from a demon attack, their family would be paid money in compensation. Most of the workers were satisfied with such an arrangement and the workers without families that also felt the work was too dangerous and quit were replaced by new recruits. Since there have been no more demon attacks, Roland hadn't needed to pay out any money at all.

The air was safe, no new demon aerial attacks have been launched since the first couple of attacks. The demons couldn't afford to advance along the ground either, the machine guns and cannons would tear them apart like they did in the past. On the surface, it would seem like that was all the defenders needed. However, there was one more area of attack - underground. Fortunately, Roland was made aware of such a threat and as a result, adequate measures were taken in order to defend against underground attacks.

While it may be tempting to just use Sylvie to scout for enemies, events have shown that they can't be too reliant on her. That is why they have taken other measures to eliminate demons buried underground. Since demons cannot bury very far underground, an artillery barrage would be able to clear them out. Thus, sustained artillery bombardment is used to "clean" an area. After cleaning out an area with artillery, it would then be safe to send in men to build a new outpost. It was through this slow leapfrogging that the control of the army would continue to extend. The method showed results. Several times, the demons attempted to bury Spider Demons in the ground, but the artillery bombardment killed them. After the loss of several Spider Demons, the demon forces decided to cut their losses and stopped hiding underground troops in the path of the outpost's advancement.

Roland looked over the reports once more. Their progress, while slow, was consistent and safe. For now, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Things were going very well and Roland thought that all their vulnerabilities were covered. Hopefully, they could continue on to reach Taquila without any demon opposition.