Chapter 84: Planning and logistic (1/2)
Walking down the stage, Markus momentarily stopped to look back. 'After such an effective speech… Back in the Kingdom, I could take the rest of the day off…' With his eyes gravitating towards a gathering of the officers and other influential figures of the Gener clan, all Markus could do was to release a long sigh before hunting his head down and approaching the group.
”Great job at the stage.” Already focused on a diagram Yelna continued to carve with a stick in the ground, Al praised his far descendant. 'Well, it still doesn't feel real.' Constantly plagued by his inner denial to accept the fact that he was interacting with one of the most legendary figures of his nation's history, Markus only nodded his head before looking down at the simple schematic.
”Forward camp?” Raising his eyes on the girl, Markus only received a nod in response. Just like he recognized from the mundane, square-based layout of the lines and blocks, what Yelna was drawing on the ground was one of the basic tactical structures adopted by the military engineers.
”Should I ask about it or…?” Noticing how immersed in the drawing Al was, Ation turned his head to the side before inquiring. Yet, as strange as his question could be, it was a consensus he worked with Markus as they tuned their respective language to a butchered mix that they both could understand.
Yet, that didn't mean Markus could suddenly share his knowledge of physic, theorem of matter, unified measuring metrics… Even though he had the proper words to do so, unable to explain the concepts themselves properly put a huge dent in their ability to communicate.
As such, whenever a problematic matter would arise that Markus ancestors would fail to understand, they would ask whether it was suitable for them to even receive the explanation. In the end, in the middle of nothingness while surrounded by hostile cities and possibly nations, confusing the top brass of the clan wasn't the greatest idea.
”It's fairly simple. In the future, the scale of the wars would grow to an unimaginable degree.” Pointing his finger at the drawing on the ground, Markus explained. ”A need arose to create secure camps for moving the foodstuffs and munition. This design is one of the universal ways of turning an empty plot of land into a secure outpost.”
Taking a step back, Markus looked around before picking up a relatively straight stick from the foliage. Moving back to his spot, he started creating simple marks besides Yelna's diagram.
”Each of those marks means something. The small dot refers to living quarters, the cross means military areas, circle refers to economics and so on.” After drawing five distinctive symbols, Markus then moved his stick above Yelna's diagram. ”Do you have any set on mind?”
Even though the entire diagram consisted of squares of various sizes and placed under different yet repetitive angles, the true magic of this schematic laid in the usage of all the open blocks. In other words, how one would fill the spaces between the lines marking the road was a true challenge in pulling out the most of such structure.
”We don't have our technology.” With her hand suddenly stopping, Yelna just stood in her place while staring at her own picture. Only after a long moment her hand moved again, pushing the tip of her stick into the soft earth again. ”I think we should go with a two-seven-three-one-one scheme.”
Each of the numbers Yelna gave referred to a type of structure Markus outlined before. Three spaces for living, seven spaces for food, three spaces for military, and one space for economics and utility each.
”Still, it's hard to figure out such an unusual scenario.” Brushing his hand against the short hair on his beard, Markus continued to calculate different possible layouts. As regretful as it was, there was no specific algorithm that would output the perfect solution for any given set of numbers. One had to come up with concepts on his own, always checking if the proposed setup fulfilled the requirements that the structure enforced.
”With so much space just for food… There is no other choice, we will need some sort of barrier.” Staring down at the diagram, Markus bit his lips. As they were right in the middle of a huge forest, finding a relatively secluded spot where one of their future settlement flanks could rest entirely on some sort of natural barrier…
To say that it would be a challenging task would be a gross understatement.