While the chaos of the situation in the United States was fully unfolding before everyone's eyes, Herman was sitting in a rather different kind of meeting. He was surrounded by ten other generals, twenty historians, ten military engineers, and representatives from three different think tanks employed by the military. The room itself was rather bare, with most of the decoration consisting of maps, markers, and an almost ridiculous amount of paperwork covering the tables. It was not exactly an impressive headquarters, but that was partly because the military was in the middle of moving its headquarters from the highly secured bunker it had occupied for years.
The old bunker had served its purpose, but it was becoming a pain in the ass for practically everyone who needed to reach it. The military wanted its headquarters to reflect its actual status rather than remaining hidden underground in a location that was difficult to reach, especially for anyone who needed to travel there on foot. The new location was still secure, but it was more open and honest about the fact that this was the headquarters of Europe's military. Herman looked around the room and waited until he had received a nod from everyone present before beginning the meeting.
"Right, as you all know, why we are here," said Herman as he looked around the room. "We are here to discuss the feasibility, need, and cost of building castles at strategic choke points." He spoke with a completely serious expression, despite how strange the sentence would have sounded only a couple of years earlier. The idea of constructing castles for military defense, just as Europeans had done during the medieval period, had been discussed at length over the previous three years.
The reason the discussion had taken so long was simple: nobody had known exactly what Europe was going to look like after the Earth Expansion. The continent had changed too much for the old maps to remain useful, and placing military fortifications based on outdated geography would have been an expensive mistake. Now, however, the latest version of the map had finally been completed. That meant they could finally begin seriously discussing where defensive structures should be built and whether they were actually necessary.
The cartographers had worked their asses off for the past three years for precisely this reason. Europe could no longer rely on maps that merely showed cities, roads, rivers, and political borders. The military needed to understand the terrain itself, down to individual sections of land, if it wanted to properly defend the continent. Hills, valleys, rivers, mountain passes, forests, plains, and other natural features could all become strategically important in a world where armies once again had to worry about physical control of territory.
Without an accurate understanding of the terrain, there was no reliable way to determine where a castle should be placed. A fortification in the wrong location could become little more than an expensive monument. A fortification positioned correctly, however, could force an invading army to change its entire strategy. That was why Herman had waited until the new maps were sufficiently complete before bringing everyone together to discuss the issue seriously.
"Now, I want to give the floor to the historians for their pitch on why castles are needed for present-day Europe," said Herman as he sat down. His attention turned toward the lead historian, a man who was only thirty years old but was already considered one of the leading experts on castles. Herman had heard that Vincentas Janionis was autistic and that castles were his favorite subject, and honestly, Herman was not going to complain about it.
Vincentas Janionis was visibly excited. He had been waiting for an opportunity like this, and he now had an entire room full of military officers who were willing to listen to him explain why castles still mattered. For someone whose favorite subject was castles, this was practically a dream meeting. He straightened himself and began explaining his argument with the enthusiasm of someone who had spent years thinking about exactly this problem.
"The reason why Europe is in need of castles is that it needs certain hard points to defend its borders," said Vincentas. "There are no conflicts within our borders that require them at the moment, so you could argue that a second defensive ring is unnecessary. Whether Europe needs such a second ring is not my decision to make, but there is another purpose for these structures."
He paused briefly before continuing. "What you need is for castles to essentially drive a nail into the border and keep it stable. Once established in the right location, a properly designed castle would be incredibly difficult to take." His explanation was straightforward, but the generals in the room understood the military implications immediately. A castle did not need to stop an entire invasion by itself to be useful.
"If we are talking about other countries that could invade, then they would need to encircle the castle and starve the people inside if they care about minimizing casualties," Vincentas continued. "Taking the castle itself would be incredibly costly, especially if we factor in the difference between Stage One humans." Stage One was still the official terminology used by the military, and Vincentas used it without hesitation. The difference in strength between ordinary soldiers and stronger humans made traditional assumptions about medieval warfare increasingly relevant again.
An invading army could not simply ignore a fortified position sitting directly behind its advance. If the castle remained operational, the soldiers inside could leave the fortification and attack the invading army's supply lines. They could strike at logistics, destroy supplies, attack vulnerable units, and then retreat back behind the castle walls. That meant an invading force would have to leave behind a considerable portion of its army simply to keep the defenders contained.
"So if they just go around the castles, the people inside could come out and cut off the invading army's supply lines," Vincentas explained. "That means the invading force has to either deal with the castle or accept that it has a hostile force operating behind its lines." He looked around the room before continuing. "So, in the opinion of the historians, the point of castles has changed a bit over the millennia, but not that much."
Vincentas then gave the recommendation of the historians. "We recommend building them mainly as a deterrent and as a possible jumping-off point for our own invasion." He did not pretend that castles would somehow make Europe invulnerable. Their value came from forcing an opponent to consider the cost of bypassing them and the resources required to destroy them. "It will also help because it will give people pause if they want to invade," Vincentas finished before giving a slight bow.
"Thank you for your insight," said Herman. He was actually rather happy that the historian had kept his presentation short for now. They were not yet deciding the exact design of the castles, their locations, or how many would be required. At this stage, the meeting was simply about determining whether the concept was worth pursuing at all. The detailed discussions could come later if the military decided that construction was justified.
Herman then turned toward the military engineers. "Now that the engineers are here, any problems with building castles, we want you to ask." His tone was forceful, because he wanted the answer without unnecessary complications. If the military was going to consider constructing dozens of enormous fortifications, he needed to know whether the actual engineering side presented any major obstacles. There was little point in debating the strategic benefits if the structures themselves could not realistically be constructed.
"No, sir," one of the engineers answered. "We already built castles during the Trial, so there are no problems on our part. Show us the blueprints, and we can begin." The answer was surprisingly simple, especially considering the scale of the project being discussed. The engineers had already gained practical experience building structures designed for a world where traditional construction assumptions no longer applied. Their experience during the Trial meant that castles were no longer theoretical projects to them.
The representatives from the three military think tanks also failed to produce any serious objections. They had analyzed the proposal from different perspectives, but there simply were not many strong counterarguments against investigating the possibility. The military had the maps, the engineers had the experience, and the historians had provided a strategic argument for why fortifications could still have value. There was, however, one counterargument that was about to be raised, and the person making it was extremely happy to do so.
General Ruy Rosa was responsible for the military's finances. His purse was practically welded shut except when he received money, and even then, it somehow never seemed wide enough. He had spent enough time dealing with military budgets to know exactly how quickly a seemingly reasonable project could turn into an enormous financial burden. Castles were, from his perspective, precisely the kind of project that could consume money for years.
"This is all well and good, but I must ask why we are building these castles now and whether it is actually worth the cost," said Ruy. "I doubt building even a single castle will be cheap. It will take ages to build, and its lifetime is far too short if we are considering what happened to the Earth after the Expansion." His tone carried an almost finality, as though he had already decided that he was never going to sign off on the expense.
Herman technically had the authority to override Ruy's decision if he considered the project important enough. He did not like doing that, however. Military finances were not something he wanted to interfere with casually, because there was always another expense waiting around the corner. If the military started ignoring its own financial officers whenever it wanted something, the entire budgeting system would quickly become meaningless.
"You are worried that these castles will be destroyed after the Earth Expansion a second time," said Herman. He understood the concern immediately, and he could not exactly dismiss it as unreasonable. The military had already spent the previous three years wrestling with the problem of understanding a continent that had been fundamentally altered. Building massive fortifications only for another planetary change to destroy their strategic value would be an enormous waste of resources.
"Which is a good point, and as you have no doubt noticed, we have been wrestling with that problem ourselves for over three years now," Herman continued. He leaned back slightly as he considered the maps surrounding them. Unfortunately, he did not have a good answer for Ruy's concern. The entire meeting had been organized around trying to determine whether humanity could finally begin building for the future without knowing whether the world would change underneath them again.