The Plains of Pluto
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 5
Western Coast of Africa
Valdar stood on the beach surrounded by his men, some of whom were still unloading the longboats pulled up in the sand. The midwinter ocean breeze was biting, and he looked forward to the men getting the temporary shelters built to get away from the chill.
Around him were some of his captains, but also engineers and architects from home, legionaries for security, and even a collection of men from Chief Ekoko’s tribe.
This was the spot his scouts had picked for their first new port since the war with the Easterners began, and the excitement level was high.
“This is an excellent find,” he began, as the last of his men joined him. “I was assured I would be impressed, and so I am.”
The peninsula’s curve created a perfect natural breakwater, protecting ships from the strong ocean currents while still giving them access to the gulf to the north.
“It’s an excellent location, Admiral,” Captain Egil said. “With us here and the Port of Vikhavn to the north, it gives us control of the entire bay. Any ships coming around the hump of Africa and transitioning down its length will have to deal with us, one way or another.”
“The beach is too exposed,” the lead engineer said. “We’d need fortifications running the entire length and on the Atlantic side, not just at the harbor mouth like Vikhavn. An enemy force could land on the ocean side and march straight across.”
“How many forts would we need?”
“Five, at a minimum. Two on either side of the port, one at the tip of the peninsula, and two more on the Atlantic side. It would be an enormous undertaking.”
Okan, one of the sub-chieftains Ekoko had sent along, pointed across the gulf to the distant shore of the mainland.
“Those waters are too rough for your ships,” he said in careful Latin, the trade language of the Empire, that his people had begun to pick up. “It is good for fishing. The land here is very rich, better than at home. Good for growing.”
The man wasn’t wrong. Several rivers flowed into the gulf from here, creating a lush delta that, although brown from the winter air, would be green and fertile during the summer.
Others thought so, too. Their survey told him there was a very small village in the area. A local tribe, probably fishermen.
“They’ll have to be relocated,” Captain Fabius said quietly, following Valdar’s gaze.
“It is as it will have to be. A lot of our manpower is coming from Ekoko’s tribe, and our security, and they want to expand and become something more than a handful of affiliated villages. Could we judge them, after we’ve done much the same? They will provide us with additional defenses, especially if we can convince them to spread south of the peninsula as well, controlling the entire mainland and giving us this protrusion for our port and ship maintenance. In return, they are far enough from home that they will rely on us to keep them supplied and in contact with their people. It will bring us back together.”
“The engineers are not wrong, though. This position is not as defensible as I’d like,” Egil said. “A good location strategically, but a poor one tactically.”
“The range of our forts using the new shells will keep most of the enemy at bay,” Valdar said. “If positioned correctly, they will have overlapping fire that will make it hard for anyone to land, although I think we will end up with three forts on the Atlantic side, and not two.”
“That will require a lot of material,” Fabius said.
“And the supply lines will be stretched thin,” the engineer added, having been listening to them. “They will take time to build.”
“Then we shouldn’t delay. Begin what surveys you need and let’s work out a detailed plan for the location of each fort and the port facilities. I want this started by the end of the week, using what supplies we brought with us.”
“We’ll need to construct temporary docks first, although with the slope of this beach, I’d like to make it something more durable and permanent once we’ve made some inroads.”
“The permanent facilities can come later,” Valdar said. “Once we’ve established a proper beachhead. How long for the temporary structures?”
“Three weeks, maybe four. We brought enough timber and iron for that much, at least. The permanent structures...” The engineer shrugged. “That depends on how quickly we can establish local quarries and sawmills.”
“We’ll import most of what we need for now from the works Chief Ekoko is setting up near Port Vikhavn. Eventually, his people will probably set up similar works here, but that will be well outside of our timeframe and I don’t want to wait. I want these forts to begin going up as soon as possible.”
“I’ll get started on it,” the engineer said, nodding and heading to his men, who were still near the longboats, to begin giving out commands and see to bringing supplies ashore.
“Weather’s turning, Admiral. Looks like a big one brewing,” Captain Egil said.
Valdar studied the clouds, noting their speed and direction. The weather patterns here were different from his home waters. He’d learned on his first voyage around Africa how the winds and currents turned in a different direction here than they did north of the continent. He’d talked to the Consul about it once, who’d explained things, most of which he didn’t understand.
The gist of what he got out of it was that this was just the way the world worked this far south. When the Consul said that if they went far enough, it would be cold in the summer and hot in the winter, that was where Valdar stopped listening. He could only take so much madness.
“Looks bad. Early for the season, but not unheard of.”
“Should we pull back to Vikhavn?” Fabius asked.
“No need,” Valdar replied. “See how the wind’s running? It’ll sweep up the gulf, away from us. The peninsula should give us enough protection, especially if we move the ships to the leeward side.”
“Good for proving the harbor’s worth, too,” Egil noted. “If it can shelter ships through a hurricane, it can handle anything, although I’m not sure the temporary shelters will survive that kind of storm.”
“We should talk to the engineer, then. Maybe we should start the permanent structures now and not worry about stages. Get with him and see what he thinks and, if necessary, send one of the larger ships back for another round of supplies he’ll need and have the port commander there send word to acquire more, so we don’t have to wait entirely on Ekoko’s people.”
“I’ll take care of it,” the man said.
Yes. This was a hell of a start.
Factorium
“These are quite detailed,” Ebro said.
Sorantius nodded. His Hispania colleague had joined him four years ago and had quickly climbed up the ranks. He was quick-thinking and inventive, but sometimes had the habit of pointing out the obvious.
The stack of diagrams and instructions that had arrived earlier that morning via messenger from Germania was, as he said, very detailed. Each page was numbered at the top to identify the order they were to proceed in, and clearly laid out step-by-step instructions, along with a note that said ‘the next step with guncotton.’
Straightforward. To the point. It was one of the things Sorantius appreciated about the Consul. Sorantius had had a chance to go through everything once, and now he needed to make sure Ebro was in alignment with him and understood what they needed to do.
“Indeed,” Sorantius replied, flipping through the first few pages. “This is all preparation for getting the guncotton, once it’s created, ready for the next step in the process, where I believe it will be turned into true powder, although the Consul has not shared those plans with me yet. It’s laid out in stages. For stage one, the washing, we’re going to need at least six large vats, with each able to handle roughly five hundred pounds of guncotton at a time.”
“That’s a lot of fresh water to carry in every day,” Ebro pointed out.
“I know. We won’t have to build a whole feed system, since Hortensius has already built feed lines to the various boilers for the steam engines across the city, but it will have to be greatly expanded. That’s for sure.”
“So, we get the water in and wash the guncotton through the vats and then redirect the water back out again. We’ll also need some kind of mesh to allow the particles through, along with the residual acids and water, and keep the guncotton in. Something we can open and close to soak and then rinse it, maybe.”
“The Consul anticipated that and has a mesh design on page three.”
Ebro flipped to that page and said, “Yes, I spoke too soon. The vats will have to be durable and will still wear away from the acids, even diluted this way.”
“Yes. Wear will become a problem and will require regular maintenance and replacement of the vats. This, however, is the easy step. The next two are much more complicated,” Sorantius said, flipping aside another page, revealing large and detailed diagrams. “We’re going to need Hortensius to create several of these large, steam-driven agitators. These things are massive, especially with the accompanying steam turning system to constantly rotate the inner drum with a housing where we can add soda ash into the mixture to further purify it. And then there’s this one. Another large drum, this one with the added function of cutting the washed guncotton into a fine pulp, which is then passed into this stamping press to further reduce it to a fine consistency.”
“Then a last wash through cloth filters,” Ebro said, finishing the last document. “This is a lot of processing for one batch compared to the black powder we are currently producing. Scaling this up will be difficult. The manpower alone...”
“I’m aware, but apparently the effectiveness of this will greatly outpace the current black powder, allowing for new types of gun designs. Or so Hortensius keeps mentioning. This isn’t all, either. It seems pretty clear from where this leaves off that there are more stages for producing the gunpowder, since clearly this pulp itself, while very flammable when dried, is not going to be able to be used in weapons itself.”
“So, we need an increase of water intake, passing through washing vats, through an agitator, through the stamping press, and more water for the final wash. That’s it then, aside from the later stages as you mentioned.”
“No, there’s one more thing. We cannot just take the finished water and dump it back into the river or use it in any other processes, since it will be very acidic and saturated with particles from the washing process. The river runs to Devnum, then out to the sea, and is the primary source of the city’s drinking water. The Consul points out that if the river is filled with these acids and other matter, it will make it deadly to those drinking it, which would certainly have the Empress paying us a visit.”
“So, do we just store the contaminated water forever?”