Greetings everyone! Welcome to day 8 of NaNoWriMo2015 – I can’t believe I’ve made it a whole week blogging every day about my writing, much less that I’ve actually managed to write every single day. Today’s writing is a chapter for Julius, our erstwhile hero of the people.
Current Progress and Word Count: EDITED: 17,157
Current Goal for today: 18,000
Not sure what’s going on in the series? Preorder Iron Tribune through Amazon and Smashwords and check out my other novels, Brass Legionnaire and Copper Centurion! Also check out my Facebook Iron Tribune Release Party! I hope to be able to reveal Steel Praetorian’s cover art by that time, as I’ve already got the message out to my cover artists about it!
“So what should we do then, to prevent our walls from being blown to pieces?”
“We need to put something soft in front of them. Like when you try and damped a battering ram, only on a larger scale. Since I don’t think wrapping the entire fort in cloth would be practical, we could build an outer barricade of dirt. If we build it to match the height of our walls, with a ditch in between, we’ll have the advantage of protection from direct fire, which the hill should absorb, and keep the advantage of our walls, which aide us against direct assault.” Theophilus was excited now, the words piling up as they tried to escape his mouth. “We should put our stakes in the ditch, to slow down an assault, and if we connect it to the river, we could partially flood it as well.” Julius thought for a few moments, visualizing the idea in his head.
“Excellent idea, tribune. We’ve always built out forts with a ditch, but this outer hill you speak of will need a new name, once it becomes part of our standard practice. I’ll bring this to Commander Paulos this evening. Write up a brief explanation of your idea, the manpower you’ll need, and the timeline for completion, Nicephorus. Have it on my desk within the hour.” The boy’s face shone, and he saluted crisply before practically running down the ramp, bowling over legionnaires in his wake.
“Our counter to this new weaponry is… dirt.” Julius said, shaking his head. “Incredible.”
Modern Papyrus 