Building an Empire in Another World

After several hours of travel Bruno arrives at the entrance to the lake, one so large he can barely make out the opposite shore. While observing the area, he notices a medium-sized hill opposite the one on which he stands, but taller than the rest of the surrounding area.

"There it is. The center of our empire. It truly will become a testament to our strength."

As his voice carries over everyone turns to look, and Heinz expresses his sentiments.

"I agree. At first I was worried the hill would be too tall and clutter the radar instruments, but that seems unlikely to be an issue. The West-East direction is mostly plains providing little obstruction, and the North faces a forested area. Though this will interfere with the radar, the G-towers have their own detection systems minimizing the issue."

Karl: "My Kaiser, I suggest we do this quickly. We have only 5-6 hours at most before the sun begins to set, and it will take at least 2 to reach the hill."

Fritz: "True. At my age sleeping on cots is unbearably hard on my back and hips. I'd like to sleep in an actual bed."

While no one else expresses outward agreement with Fritz, for fear of disrespecting Bruno, there is obvious support for him sentiment in most everyone's eyes. As such Bruno wastes no time in opening the system, and using the Combination tab to outline what he wants to build and where. After a few tense minutes, Barenger approaches Bruno with a confused expression on his face.

"My Kaiser? Is there something the matter?"

Bruno: "9 million…. 9 million Goldmarks. It nearly half of our entire treasury."

Barenger: "I understand, but it is a necessary and recoverable expense. There can be no shortcut on this."

Bruno: "…. Very well. I'll build it now."

As the word leaves Bruno's mouth, a blinding white light envelopes the entire hill. One that dwarfs the previous occasions in both size and brightness, forcing everyone to block their eyes and look away. After what feels like an eternity the light begins to dim, and what stands in its place absolutely floors everyone present. Even Bruno, who had a mental image of what to expect thank to the system, is astounded at both the intimidating and regal pressure of the sight. At the top of the hill is the Charlottenburg Palace, facing the lake. It's massive complex dominating the entirety of the top of the hill, so much so that it appears the top was flattened to accommodate it. The majestic and regal architecture standing as a testament to time of the culture and heritage of the German people, and their empire. Surrounding the palace is a series of roads and pathways connecting the Northern and Southern entrances to the Palace grounds. Once entering there is a major road leading directly to the Palace Square, giving visitors an up close look at the Baroque and Rococo style of architecture decorated with Corinthian pilasters. Leaving the Palace one follows the roads down the hill, encountering an impressive and intimidating fortress-like wall that forms a star at the base of the hill. The wall appears thick enough to house passageways and rooms within itself without compromising structural integrity. Not only is this true, but there are also several locations along the wall that contain bunkers armed with machine guns to protect itself and those behind it. Not only this, but the four points of this wall act as independent fortresses coving each other's blind spots with more gun emplacements. As if this wasn't enough, there are four large and intimidating towers in between these forts with the lower ones being square shaped and the taller being rounded. The rounded towers are designed to protrude halfway out over the wall while the square ones are designed to remain flush, protruding completely inside. At the base of each of the square towers are massive gates that are connected to bridges that cross over a moderately sized moat filled with water. One would think that such a facility surrounding the Palace would give a contradictory and dangerous impression, but a simple glance is enough to tell that it is gracefully designed and built to only add to the regal atmosphere of the Palace. This gives it a rather tasteful look. Dumbfounded once again, Karl speaks what is on everyone's mind.

"It's majestic…. A fortress-turned-work of art, displaying our culture perfectly."

Curt, regaining his composure addresses Bruno: "My Kaiser, this is absolutely wonderful. Would you mind explaining everything about it as we approach? It's beginning to get late."

Agreeing, Bruno gives them the rundown of the grounds. Obviously the top is the Charlottenburg Palace with some minor changes, like underground bunkers and storage facilities, allowing the ability withstand a seige and air raids if need be.

Surrounding the Palace is a heavily modified bastion fort with walls thick enough for walkways and rooms leading to bunkers and gun emplacements within to guard the walls when under attack. Atop the walls are traditional battlements to allow for protected movement on top of the walls. The forts on each point are heavily guarded with multiple emplacements for light artillery, heavy mortars, and machine gun positions as well as interior and underground facilities to allow the stockpile of supplies. These facilities also allow constant garrisons to man the positions to make sure the fort is protected at all times.

Then there are the towers. The two largest towers are the East and West facing G-towers standing at 57 meters tall. Though taller than their originally planned counterparts, they are based off of the generation 3 G-towers and are equipped with 4 twin 128mm guns and 8 quadruple 20mm guns for air defense. The towers are positioned to protrude outward to allow for points of observation along the walls, preventing potential enemies from scaling the walls if they sneak past the fields of fire for the gun emplacements and battlements. This aids the bastions in engaging those that cross the moat to hug the walls and escape gunfire, allowing them to focus fire on more distant enemies and those assaulting the entrances. The shorter 50 meter tall towers are modified generation 2 L-towers with a large gate situated below and flush with the exterior of the fort walls, armed with 10 quadruple 20mm guns for air defense. This configuration forces invaders to fight their way through across an exposed bridge before fighting through a fortress, while simultaneously taking fire from flanking fortresses on the wall.

While both towers have detection and intelligence gathering capabilities, this is the primary focus of the L-towers with the G-towers focused more on engaging longer distance targets. Furthermore, the towers themselves have them same accommodations and facilities as the forts at the points of the walls.

Second to last the walls themselves are constructed of the finest granite one can find layered in a running bond, and reinforced with steel rebar and concrete. This creates a strong wall made of durable stone that will last centuries, further strengthened with modern building techniques.

Finally between the fort wall and the Palace grounds is everything a capital needs to run a country: from governing and communication buildings, to hospitals and educational facilities, and barracks and residences for everyone who would work within and protect the fort as well as their families. Allowing them to live in complete comfort and safety, only missing businesses and entertainment facilities.

By the time Bruno finishes several of the ministers have wry smiles on their faces as they believe he may have gone a bit overboard, while the rest are simply overwhelmed with information. He did go above and beyond what they had expected after all, essentially placing a fortified Palace within a small governing city within an impenetrable fortress within a moat. This is, however, very much his personality as they know it; caring deeply for his countrymen and those beneath his command, and taking no shortcuts to ensure their safety and prosperity.

It is at this point they reach one of the gates as it opens, revealing an army of military personnel who came to greet their Kaiser. Alongside the troops are government officials needed to run everything in both the military and civilian aspects, and finally their families. As said before, Bruno essentially summoned a small governing city. A reality that sends a shiver down the spines of the ministers as they realize just how powerful Bruno's ability is.

Following him inside they make it to Charlottenburg Palace, where the ministers are surprised to be guided to their own sections of the palace. Surprisingly one of the modifications of the palace was to provide enough space for them and their families to live comfortably, but this is not where the surprise ends. Each of them has an emotional reunion with their families who were summoned alongside everyone and everything else, explaining the situation to each of their families. Of course there is a large amount of skepticism, but they manage to do so relatively quickly after hearing what has happened and what they themselves have witnessed. They were after all wrapped up in a blinding light before appearing in, what they perceive to be, an unfamiliar building.

As the night winds to a close, the ministers reaffirm their loyalty to the Imperial family and become excited for what the future holds. He held up his end of the bargain, and now it's their turn to do the same. After all man like Bruno to lead them with his newfound power, the future looks exceptionally promising. No matter who or what stands in their way.