World Development System 160 91. Your very own weapons will be used against you.

***
Aurora Island, The Shipyard.
One of the Oldest captains from the Island asked Ross after the Shipyard was built: "It seems the construction of the Shipyard is going well. It already looks complete."
Ross was happy as things were on track, He smiled and answered, "Yes, Things are on time, before leaving I was personally trained by Lord Taylor for handling the operations and working of a domain. We are only waiting for Tim's arrival and construction of necessary machines and implementation of Designs to complete it. Currently, The Mulberry cement is a miracle ingredient for us in the construction industry and has helped us a lot at the initial stages when we were constructing the base. This decreased a lot of time as well as injuries to our men. This cement will also be used in making ships as mentioned by Lord so I guess you can call it a miracle ingredient. I wonder what sort of ships will we make using these ingredients as they instantly drown in water."
The old nodded as he made some observations, "Yes, I too have noticed that the speed of production over here is 4 folds as we are completely using the newest ingredients without any fear of getting leaked. Previously I only saw this type of speed in the construction of roads. This is also saving a lot of demand in labor which is low on this Island."
Ross: "The labor problem will be solved shortly so we don't need to worry about it. Additionally, we will also be using concrete and Mulberry cement on making our ships as well. Lord has an idea for making new types of ships which will be made with metal. I wonder what sort of ships will we make this time around using these ingredients as the concrete instantly drowns in water."
Old had another doubt which he wanted to clear, "I see that there was a lot of construction but we were also focusing a lot on agriculture on this island. It seems Lord is quite cautious this time around. What do you think?"
Ross smiled as he too knew the purpose: "Well it was expected as this is a big island. equal to 4/10th of a duchy, fully unexplored. Additionally, We have just finished the construction of the port so you can understand that we will be focusing on other things and there are the elves who would be coming in quite a few days so we have to maximize the usage of land this time around. We can't be caught unprepared by our enemies."
The Old man sighed as he spoke, "I guess this can be understood. Are those guys out yet again looking for those new horses?"
Ross nodded, "Yes, they are looking for those Aurora horses quite a few days. I wonder how long would it take to capture them. It would be very useful to us in our current situation."

The old man noticed the group and spoke, "It looks like they are already here. I guess they are early today."

After they came, All the men on the base were quite excited looking at Aurora horses.
One of the exclaimed after watching them, "Woah, they actually managed to catch such a big batch of Aurora Horses. What is going on?"

One of the men handling the stables spoke, "Yes, we aren't even able to tame those 2 guys in the stable and these guys caught 40 horses already. How the fuck were they able to catch such a big Horde."

Ross too was quite shocked watching them, He thought, 'I expected them to catch 5 horses max in a few days. I guess they have some explaining to do."
Ross calmed himself down and ordered his men.
Ross ordered his men as he saw Judd and others coming back: "Good. This Horde of Aurora horses will be a big addition to us. Guys immediately arrange a stable for them, they would need to be tamed and monitored 24 hours."

Ross enthusiastically approached Judd as he was the one who led the group.
Ross congratulated Judd as he saw him leading all the men: "You guys did quite a good job, Judd. This was quite a surprise to every one of us present here."
Hearing Ross's praise, Judd proudly claimed the credits in a haughty manner: "Of course. Who do you think I am? The best captain in the whole fleet."
"Yes, so how were you guys able to catch this many Aurora horses?"
Swann sniggered as he heard Judd's haughty tone and spoke: "Hmph, stop bragging conman, if not for my plan, you guys would still be wandering in the wilds while chasing those horses without any plan. Praise this God that you are free from endless exploration in the dark."
Judd didn't meet his eyes with Ross from which Ross understood what was going on.
Ross smiled and gave some good news to everyone only now: "Its ok, its ok, all of you guys will be awarded because of this achievement. Meanwhile, Judd, there is news for you."
Judd furrowed his brows a bit and asked, "What sort of news?"
Ross sighed and gave him the news, "We had our first clash with Admiral Shannon and it was a riot as soon as Blake arrived. I only got the news right now from one of the ships that travel frequently. Have a look at the letter to get a better understanding of the situation."
Ross handed over the letter to him,
Judd took the letter and started reading it, "Let me see the letter."
Judd was quite surprised after hearing of the raid, "Woah, it was quite a battle this time around with Fjord losing 5000+ of his men. While our losses were at the minimum with 109 dead. I guess it would have been 0 if Eric had a bigger fleet and not been outnumbered. I guess John will address this later on. What about that small guy, Tim? We would need ammunitions as we will run out of it shorty which will mean that we would be vulnerable to all these wild beasts. Those Dragon-elephants themselves are quite a nuisance as they try to claim our land every day."
Ross understood his concerns and replied, "Yes, Tim will soon be traveling with other men to create factories for ammunition and ballistae projectiles while at the same time he will be building the new types of ships, designed specially by lord John so you guys can expect big things. At the same time, they will also be bringing enough supplies so that we can last a month so we don't need to worry. Anyway, we will be preparing for their arrival now that we got the message. Are you guys clear?"
Judd nodded as he got his assurances, "Good, okay, now that everything is clear, lets head back to taming those horses. I will be taming that bastard of their leader."
Everyone roared as they heard Judd and left for the stable in an excited mood, "Yes, Sir."
Ross sighed as he saw them heading directly for the stables, He sighed and spoke, "Every single one of them wants to ride those horses. I guess I can't stop them as made such a big achievement today."
***
Fjord read one of the papers which were recently circulating in his domain, He read the headlines on one of the newspapers and cursed immediately, "Damn that upstart and his filthy usage of these Newspapers to humiliate and undermine us publicly. What is this bullshit they are speaking about, Darius and Grim deserting the battle? This negative news will reduce the morale of our armies. I want this newspaper immediately banned in my domain. Who is distributing these papers in our domain? Catch them immediately for conspiring against the state."
One of the ministers noted, "Yes Sir. I will immediately relay those orders. It is mostly circulated on the borders and from there it is traveling here. Most of the times it is our paid thugs who are doing. currently, as we haven't employed them for a long time they started this for doing business. I will look after them immediately. Lord if you don't mind there is one news I wanted to report you."

Fjord furrowed his brows as he frustratingly asked while he sipped Red Moon wine, "What is it after all that fiasco? is it another piece of bad news?"
The minister spoke with a bright smile, this was first good news for them after such a long time, "It is actually about Lord Erin. From the news we have got currently, we heard that he was successful in his campaign against Duke Rose when Duke was out to the south. Currently, he is coming from Port Bilch with 2 of those ships and their ballistas intact. It seems Admiral Shannon's plan of assaulting both of them at the same was better and gave us the required results. However, there were a lot of losses in the previous raid. We haven't lost so many people in one battle against Rose in the past."

Fjord was quite surprised as he heard him, "Hahaha, Good, good, forget about the losses of men. Just the fact that we will have those ballistas will be a big plus to us this time around. Prepare all the craftsmen in the domain so that they can start working on making the prototype of those machines." Fjord continued with a cruel and cunning look, "Now with these ballistas, I will show him who is the real boss of the seas. We will keep them engaged, tell the pirates to continue raiding their ships. This time we will also fund mercenaries to harass them through the land. Lets see who will last the battle of attrition."
Fjord murmured as he noticed the Red Moon wine that was from John's domain and immediately got angry, "It was good that I didn't punish Shannon on Jonas's advice or it would have been a disaster for me right now."
Fjord continued in a loud voice, "Damn, even though I hate the guts of that count, I still can't resist using the products from his domain, whether it soaps, wines or food. Why does he have access to such good men. This time I will rob all of his men and technologies. Lets see who in this kingdom would be able to stop us later on."

The same minister continued, "Recently there are reports that many trade fleets of ours were raided by that Pirate Blake after the last assault. Now they are quite blatant about it. And they are particularly targeting ships which are affiliated with us. because of this many of the merchants and even nobles are removing their flags to avoid any raids from that pirate. This is a big stain on our honor Milord. Our people are losing faith in our ability to protect us."

Fjord nodded as he knew about the incidents, "I understand your concerns. Tell them that they won't need to wait for long as we already got our hands on those ballistas, so it would be possible to make prototypes and counter them in their own game. So only a little bit more time is needed."
Fjord murmured, "This time I will sure this will be an end of you, Upstart. Your very own weapon will be used to kill you."

Chapter end