Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 91: Safety first, violence second!

At the moment, Earl Godwin of Mercia was currently sitting in his "acquisition camp" outside the unfinished perimeter of City Titan.

While the defending industrial security forces and the opposing traditionalist levies exchanged insults and the occasional arrow, Earl Godwin was sitting in the rear of his forces, safely watching the progress of the raid from a hill composed of construction spoil.

At the moment, the crude wooden ladders were once more attempting to scale the grey, unpainted walls of the enemy formations; unlike Ragnar’s precision engineering in Nottingham, this was a disorganized mob attack in every sense of the word.

The prevalence of standard operating procedures had not yet become widespread in Mercia.

As such, Saxon housecarls hid behind wicker shields and overturned carts as they faced the "Titan Security Detail" from an unsafe engagement distance of 200 yards.

Seeing the ladders heading towards the "Sector 4 Residential Zone," the defending employees focused on terminating the trespassers.

Among the concrete ramparts, clad in the standard-issue "Site Safety" grey plate, was Leif the Lesser.

As the Acting Site Manager while Ragnar and Gyda were away, Leif personally led the efforts to defend the company assets.

Despite the harassment continuing for two days, the invading forces were just now starting to make progress on their attempts to scratch the mighty Ferro-Concrete walls of Titan.

With a clipboard in one hand and a heavy mace in the other, Leif stood along the ramparts as an act of managerial oversight.

The moment those ladders touched the company property, he would begin the eviction process.

"Remember the training!" Leif shouted, his voice cracking slightly under the stress. "Do not engage without a helmet! Safety first, violence second!"

Soon enough, the first ladder dropped against the concrete parapet, allowing Earl Godwin’s mercenaries to scramble onto the wall. Instantly, Leif collided with the enemy forces alongside several of the "Night Shift" security team.

A chaotic melee broke out between the salaried defenders and the commission-based attackers on multiple sections of the walkway.

Leif deflected an oncoming axe blow with his steel-reinforced clipboard before gripping the handle of his mace.

He utilized a technique referred to as "Percussive Maintenance" and precisely smashed the flange of the mace into the Saxon’s knee joint.

Though it was not enough to kill the man, it gave him a position of leverage where he continued to press the man backward and over the edge of the wall, into the dry moat filled with rusty rebar.

Before Leif even had time to file a verbal report, another attacker rushed towards him with a seax in hand, which he swung desperately at Leif, whom the attacker recognized to be the "Wizard’s Apprentice."

Swiftly evading the attack, Leif didn’t use a fancy sword technique. Instead, he pulled a lever on the wall.

A section of the floor grating dropped open.

The attacker fell through the trapdoor, landing in the drainage sluice below with a wet thud.

"Hazard reported!" Leif screamed to his troops over the sound of the ongoing carnage. "Hold the perimeter! We must protect the blast furnaces!"

As such, the employees of City Titan struggled with all their might to defend the zoning permits against the invading force.

Unfortunately for the defenders, they were essentially a skeleton crew. Ragnar had taken the "Heavy Assets" Division to Nottingham.

The men within the garrison were the "Interns"—new recruits from East Anglia wearing the older "Mark I" plate and wielding standard pikes.

Their helmets were the mass-produced sallets without the advanced visors, and their morale was dependent on the promise of the upcoming weekend bonus.

Compared to the housecarls of Godwin’s army, who were fighting with the desperation of men promised gold that didn’t exist, the defenders were outnumbered.

After several hours of bloody struggle, the defense of the Outer Residential Wall began to falter due to sheer volume of bodies. Ultimately, Leif was forced to give the order to his surviving staff.

"Retreat! Retreat to the Factory District!"

With that, the once diligent defenders of the perimeter clocked out from the walls and ran back to the Industrial Keep—the heavily fortified inner sanctum where the machinery lived—for a last line of defense. Leaving the residential zone for the taking of Earl Godwin and his luddites.

Immediately upon taking the walls, the attackers opened the temporary wooden gates and allowed for the rest of the mob to enter the outer city.

But instead of a rich Viking capital, they found... standardization.

A combination of confusion, disappointment, and frustration began to take place as the soldiers under Godwin’s command began to sack the city for its worth.

They kicked open doors, expecting to find hoards of silver and gold.

"Where is the loot?" a Saxon shouted, tearing apart a worker’s dormitory.

Inside, they found identical bunk beds. They found identical wool blankets folded in identical squares.

They found cupboards stocked not with wine and spices, but with hundreds of the dreaded "Nutrient Bricks."

"It’s... it’s all grey," another raider whimpered, holding up a standard-issue uniform. "There are no jewels.."

The heavily armed soldiers killed the few stray dogs that barked at them, and entire sections of the "Model Housing" were set on fire.

But the fire didn’t spread. Ragnar had built the tenements out of fire-resistant red brick and slate roofs.

The "sacking" was pathetic. They couldn’t burn the city, and there was nothing valuable to steal.

It was truly a confusing time for warfare, and the Titan defenders watched from atop the Factory District walls as their tidy residential streets were littered with confused Saxons trying to steal plumbing fixtures.

"They are stealing the copper pipes," Leif sighed, watching through a telescope from the factory roof. "That is going to ruin the water pressure for Sector 3."

Earl Godwin stood in the mud of the main avenue, gazing upon the scene of his forces raiding the "city" with a malicious, yet confused smile.

While drinking from a stolen canteen, a messenger came to report the situation from the frontlines.

"My Lord, the Residential Zone has been seized. The Viking ’Manager’ and his men have fled to the Big Smoky Building where they are currently holding on. It will be some time before we can break through those iron doors. What are your orders?"

Godwin said in a completely vicious voice as he looked at the lack of gold.

"Continue to raid the houses; strip the metal from the walls if you have to. I want to see how long the defenders can withstand the sight of their... incredibly boring homes being ransacked."

The messenger looked around at the bleak, brick architecture.

"As you command, my Lord! Though... honestly, there isn’t much to take. Even the spoons are made of tin."

With that said, Godwin continued to gaze upon the smokestacks that belched black smoke into the sky. Soon enough, the Factory would be his.

He would smash the "Devil Engines" and ransom the workers. Everything was going smoothly, assuming the Vikings actually had any money hidden in this concrete wasteland. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

***

Inside the Factory District

After arriving within the safety of the Blast Furnace walls, Leif cursed loudly as he threw his dented clipboard onto a workbench in a fit of fury.

"My efficiency rating is going to tank!"

When his Section Leads saw his reaction, they could not help but ask what they should do now that they were stuck in the Industrial Zone.

"Site Manager, what are we going to do now? We have lost the cafeteria."

Leif sighed heavily in an attempt to calm his nerves; after several moments of deep breathing (and checking the pressure gauge on a nearby steam valve to center himself), he opened his eyes, and with a solemn expression, gave his orders.

"We will wait until the CEO returns. By now, the Director is aware of the breach of contract and is marching south to audit the situation. We have to hold the production line until then..."

One of the Section Leads looked at Leif with a complex expression as he voiced his concerns.

"What about the housing units? The Saxons are... they are unscrewing the toilets, sir."

Leif covered his face with his soot-stained hands before saying what his troops feared the most.

"Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about the plumbing now. Hopefully, the Director will arrive soon so he can explain to them that sanitation is a basic human right, not witchcraft!"

Leif walked over to the window, looking down at the heavy iron gates of the Factory. The Saxons were banging on them with axes, but the gates were cast from high-carbon steel. They wouldn’t budge.

"Besides," Leif muttered, a small, vindictive smile appearing. "They don’t know about the Night Shift Protocol."

"The Night Shift, sir?"

"Yes," Leif said, looking at the steam vents lining the outer wall of the factory. "If they try to scale this wall... we purge the boiler pressure."

Unfortunately for Earl Godwin, Ragnar’s forces had not just "taken" Nottingham; they had liquidated it with record speed. The Director was not months away. He was days away. And he was bringing the "Can-Openers."

Only time would tell if the Factory of Titan could hold on long enough for the "Audit Team" to arrive, or if the secrets of the Blast Furnace would fall into the hands of the Luddite Earl.

During the duration of the siege, the residential furniture of City Titan would suffer immensely under the pressure of Godwin’s frustration, but that was the cost of doing business in a hostile market.

"Keep the furnaces hot," Leif ordered, grabbing a fresh clipboard. "And start drafting the damage report. I want every stolen spoon itemized. Godwin is going to pay for every single one!"