Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 108: Takeover of Northampton

General Bjorn stood in the middle of the "Northampton Construction Site" in which he had established outside the city walls.

He was currently wearing his matte-grey "Mark III" plate armor, reinforced with the latest I-beam steel from the Nottingham foundry.

A visored sallet helm was adorned atop his head, protecting his skull from potential workplace hazards.

The yellow sash across his chest identified him as the Regional Manager of the Security Division.

The veteran General, who now acted as Ragnar’s Chief of Operations, scowled as he watched the ongoing "renovation" of Northampton.

Due to a delay in the supply chain caused by a broken wagon axle, it took him an extra day to arrive at his target with his army. Unlike Ragnar, who enjoyed the theatricality of blowing steam whistles, Bjorn preferred the direct application of blunt force trauma.

While Ragnar had developed a taste for the corporate jargon of warfare, Bjorn was quite honestly tired of the paperwork. He had seen too much inefficiency in his life, and the fertile fields of the Midlands being turned into a muddy trench system pained his pragmatic soul.

However, as a warrior whose only skills were in the art of liquidating assets, he had no other option in life but to swing his hammer until the day he retired with a full pension.

Hearing the panicked screams of the Saxon defenders who were suppressed by the "Iron Gear" marksmen—many of whom had become talented "Typewriter" operators by this point in the campaign—he could not help but sigh and shake his head as he mumbled his inner thoughts under his breath.

"So much unnecessary downtime. They should just sign the contract... their redundancy is inevitable."

Despite the grizzled veteran’s views of the conflict, the enemy persisted with all of their being in defending against the standardized forces of Bjorn’s division.

Much like Ragnar, the army in which he had been tasked with commanding was filled with a mix of veterans, Saxon interns, and recently hired consultants. Many of the surviving interns in this conflict would go on to become Foremen, and even Site Managers within Ragnar’s future Directorate, but for now, they merely hunkered down in the trenches and shoveled dirt while avoiding the longbows of the feudal garrison they were facing off against.

It was after making this observation that the curtain wall finally came crumbling down. After a few days of bombarding Northampton with Torsion Spikes loaded with "Demolition Charges" (kegs of black powder), victory was within his grasp.

Bjorn began to wonder if Ragnar and Leif had already secured their branch offices.

Nevertheless, now was not the time for quarterly reviews. As such, Bjorn grabbed ahold of his massive Lucerne Hammer and ordered his troops to prepare to storm the gap.

Bjorn took a different approach to the hostile takeover than Ragnar did; he didn’t use steam or psychological warfare.

He bombarded the gaps within the wall with heavy canister shot, making sure to clear the rubble of any personnel foolish enough to block the right-of-way.

After clearing the location for some time, the enemy was afraid to protect it. As such, they had managed to stay quite a distance away from the area.

When Bjorn finally called for the bombardment to stop, the gap was rushed by the nearby heavy infantry and interns who ran into the city and began their "restructuring."

No matter how mighty of a defense was initially planned, under the kinetic impact of hammers and the covering fire of crossbows, the city quickly fell into the hands of Bjorn.

As one of Ragnar’s Executives, Bjorn had made sure to enforce the Directorate’s rules about the treatment of civilians and New Hires.

Any man who willingly surrendered to Bjorn and his army was treated with a degree of dignity and offered a job.

Under the watchful gaze of Bjorn’s forces, who had Ragnar’s "Employee Handbook" drilled into their heads, the interns were prevented from looting anything other than approved salvage.

After all of the enemies were rounded up as probationary employees, and the civilians were accounted for in the census, Bjorn gave the order to begin the "audit" of the Keep.

Unfortunately for Bjorn, the enemy Ealdorman was stubborn and refused to sign the transfer papers. As such, the bombardment continued for several days more before the Keep’s main gate was breached by a shaped charge.

Wanting to end the project as quickly as possible, Bjorn ordered his Grenadiers into position to lob their ceramic pots into the courtyard.

A common tactic utilized by the Loss Prevention team: after causing significant thermal damage to the enemy defense, a great melee had broken out as interns, conscripts, and veterans clashed with the enemy housecarls.

The castle was protected by the elites left behind in Northampton, comprised of heavily armored troops resembling the old royal guard.

Bjorn stayed in the back of the army, supervising the workflow as his forces slowly captured the courtyard before bashing down the Keep’s inner doors with a steel-capped ram.

They marched inside with their crossbows loaded and hammers raised. What followed was a liquidation of every man who resisted until finally, they entered the Great Hall where the Ealdorman was standing firmly in defiance of Bjorn’s authority.

When Bjorn forced his way to the front and saw the proud Saxon Lord, he could not help but sigh in his heart.

This man was clearly willing to die rather than admit his business model was obsolete.

The Ealdorman, noticing the respect given to Bjorn by the grey-clad soldiers, realized the possibility that he was the Regional Manager of this army. As such, he asked in confusion as to the location of the "Iron Demon."

"You are much too tall to be Ragnar the Ruthless. Who are you? And where is the Sorcerer who lays tracks on my lands?"

Bjorn noticed the usage of the phrase "my lands" despite being a mere vassal of a King who was currently eating Ragnar’s beef stew at the Thames.

This suggested the man undoubtedly had an overinflated sense of equity. As such, he sighed and introduced his rank and name to the Ealdorman.

"I am General Bjorn, Chief Operations Officer of the Directorate. The Director has tasked me with auditing this city, and as such, I have full authority to accept your resignation!"

With the massive growth of Ragnar’s corporate structure, he had begun to implement a proper title system in his army, which was equivalent to a modern corporation’s.

Unlike the feudal system in Bjorn’s past experience, he used the rank "COO" to give himself authority over logistics without needing a crown.

The stubborn Lord looked at Bjorn as if he was speaking a foreign language, and once more inquired about Ragnar’s whereabouts.

"Where exactly is the Viking if he is not stealing my city personally?"

Bjorn once more noticed the usage of the term "my" when referring to the branch office.

If it was not obvious before, it became apparent now to everyone in the room that this Ealdorman was not only stubborn but incredibly out of touch with market trends.

Thinking that the CEO of the Directorate would come to Northampton himself when he had a railway to build... Bjorn grinned and informed the man of his true market value.

"The Director is currently laying the Grand Trunk Line to Winchester and has asked me to secure Northampton in his absence. Now that the city belongs to the shareholders, and the Keep has been secured, I highly suggest you surrender. If not, I will terminate your contract by force."

At this point, it did not matter if the Ealdorman surrendered or not; the city was Bjorn’s and by extension the Directorate’s.

The Ealdorman’s willingness to accept the buyout was irrelevant. Yet shockingly, without an army to protect him, or the will of the people to stand up for him, the Ealdorman still refused to admit that he had lost. Instead, he chastised Bjorn.

"I will never surrender this city so long as I draw breath! When King Aethelred returns, he will drive you back to the sea, and I will be greatly rewarded for my loyalty!"

Seeing the stubbornness of this Lord had turned into a liability at this point, Bjorn merely sighed and gave his troops an order.

"Escort this man to the Human Resources Detention Center. I do not want him influencing the interns to unionize against our rule here!"

With that said, the soldiers slammed their fists onto their breastplates in a salute and obeyed his commands.

"Yes, General!"

After saying that, they quickly shackled the man in iron cuffs and dragged him off to the dungeon kicking and screaming about divine right.

"You cannot do this! I have tenure!"

With those words said, the troops did not react in the slightest. As far as they were concerned, Ragnar was a man who had proven himself time and again worth following.

No matter what the Church might say, he paid on time, and his dental plan was revolutionary.

Of course, they had no way of knowing that in the distant future, after Ragnar’s passing, there would be an enormous debate among the historians of England as to whether or not Ragnar should be classified as a King or a CEO.

With the Ealdorman locked away and the city’s defenders processed, the hostile takeover of Northampton had resulted in a victory for Bjorn, the first of many successful branch openings that would come from the first COO of the Iron Empire.

Bjorn walked out of the Keep and looked at the flag being raised over the ramparts.