Chapter 181: Authority

Chapter 181: Authority

Noah found Darius in an administrative room overlooking the main supply district. Through the windows behind him, ogres moved cargo from the warehouses onto waiting wagons while several officers checked manifests beside the road.

Darius looked up when Noah entered and noticed the terminal under his arm. He set aside the report he had been reading and pointed toward the chair across from him.

"You finished quickly. I thought you’d spend another day inspecting the corridor before you came back with a proposal."

"I considered it, but another inspection wouldn’t change the main problem. I already know what Eldrath needs to control if I’m going to keep the supplies moving."

Darius leaned back in his chair. "That sounds like you came here to ask for more authority."

"I did."

"At least you’re being direct. Show me."

Noah sat down and placed the terminal between them. He opened the summary page instead of the detailed map and turned the screen toward Darius.

"I want Eldrath to take responsibility for the supply movement once the cargo leaves this base. That includes the convoys, not just the roadside guards."

Darius had been reaching for the terminal, but his hand stopped.

"You were assigned to secure the corridor. My officers already organize the convoys, and my soldiers are already familiar road transportation. Why would I hand that work over to you?"

"Because if your officers control the movement while my troops are responsible for protecting it, then the same convoy answers to two commands. That becomes a problem the moment somebody changes a departure time, delays a shipment, or redirects a column."

Darius pulled the terminal closer and read through the first section.

"We can solve that by sharing schedules."

"You can share the original schedule. The problem starts when something changes after that."

"That happens in every military operation."

"It does, but your officers all belong to the same army. Eldrath doesn’t."

Darius looked up. "So your answer is to take the convoys away from my people entirely."

"My answer is to give one force responsibility for moving and protecting them. Your officers still decide what the front needs, how much should be sent, and which shipments are most urgent."

"And once the cargo leaves here?"

"Eldrath handles it until it reaches the forward distribution area."

Darius rested one elbow on the table. "You understand why I’m not eager to agree to that after knowing you for one day."

"I’d be surprised if you were."

That response earned a brief pause from Darius.

Noah continued before the conversation stalled. "You’re trusting those supplies to someone else either way. The difference is whether that person controls the whole trip or only the guards standing beside it."

Darius tapped the terminal with one finger. "You keep talking about responsibility. Let’s be clear about the consequences. If one of those convoys disappears, you lose points on a mission. My army loses whatever was inside it."

"I know."

"Food, medicine, replacement equipment. Those are not abstract losses."

"I’m not treating them as abstract losses. That’s exactly why I don’t want divided control."

Darius’s expression tightened slightly.

Noah leaned forward. "If I control the convoy and it fails, the failure belongs to me. I can’t blame your officers for changing the schedule or sending it at the wrong time. You can’t blame my guards for arriving late because they were never told the convoy moved."

Darius studied him for a moment, then looked back at the terminal.

"That argument makes sense. I still don’t like it."

"You don’t have to like it."

Darius gave a short laugh. "You’re not making this negotiation easy."

"I’m trying to make the responsibilities clear before the first shipment goes wrong."

Darius scrolled farther down the proposal, then stopped.

"You also want my soldiers out of the logistics areas inside the towns."

"I want Eldrath to take over security around the warehouses, transport yards, road entrances, and other locations directly connected to the corridor."

"That is still a large part of the military presence in some of those settlements."

"It is, but I’m not asking for control over the town governments."

Darius pushed the terminal slightly away. "From my side, you arrived yesterday, inspected part of the route, and now you want the convoys, checkpoints, warehouses, and transport areas. That is a large amount of control to ask for immediately."

"I agree."

Darius raised an eyebrow. "That’s it?"

"No. I’m saying your concern is reasonable. You fought for these settlements, and I’m asking you to replace your soldiers with mine in the places that keep your army supplied."

"That sounds better than pretending it’s a small request."

"It isn’t small."

Darius stood and walked toward the window. Below them, two ogres rolled a barrel onto a wagon while another checked the load against a written list.

"My people have been keeping this rear secure while the main force continues north. You’re asking me to pull them out and trust goblins who haven’t operated here before."

"I’m asking you to pull them out after my people are ready to replace them."

Darius turned back. "Why should I grant your request?"

"I’m not proposing that you abandon a section of road and hope I fill it later. We transfer control one section at a time."

"So my soldiers stay until yours are physically in position?"

"Yes. Once Eldrath is ready to take a section, your people can leave it."

Darius returned to the table. "You should have said that earlier."

"You started arguing before I reached that part."

Darius gave him a brief look, then laughed despite himself. "Fair enough."

He sat again and turned the terminal back toward himself.

"I still have another problem. My ogres are stronger than your goblins."

"They are."

Darius stopped reading and looked up. "You’re not even going to argue?"

"There’s nothing to argue about. One ogre is physically stronger than one goblin."

"Then why should I replace stronger soldiers with weaker ones?"

"Because you don’t need one soldier to be stronger. You need enough soldiers to cover everything at the same time."

Darius leaned back slightly.

Noah continued. "Right now, your ogres are guarding warehouses, escorting convoys, watching bridges, patrolling roads, and holding positions inside the towns. Every ogre you assign to one of those jobs is an ogre you can’t use somewhere else."

"They’re assigned there because those places need protection."

"I agree. My point is that Eldrath can provide that protection without forcing you to keep using ogres for it."

Darius crossed his arms. "So this comes down to numbers."

"Numbers and distance."

"Explain the distance."

"Your patrols can win a fight once they reach it. The problem is how long it takes them to get there."

Darius’s expression changed slightly, and Noah pointed toward the road visible beyond the supply district.

"The Tigrans don’t need to stay and fight your patrols. They can hit a convoy, damage the cargo, and leave before a large response force arrives."

"And you think putting more goblins along the road solves that."

"It shortens the response time. If one position is attacked, nearby positions can start moving immediately."

Darius pulled the deployment map onto the screen.

"I saw how close you want those positions."

"Fifty meters."

"That is an enormous number of checkpoints over more than four hundred kilometers."

"I know."

Darius frowned. "You keep saying that as if the number doesn’t concern you."

"It concerns me. It doesn’t make the plan impossible."

"How many goblins are you actually planning to bring?"

"I’m still calculating the total because the roadside positions are only part of it. I also need convoy crews, town security, radio operators, reserves, and enough personnel for rotations."

"That is a major detail to leave unfinished."

"The exact number can change without changing the structure of the mission. If the calculation says I need more troops, I bring more troops."

Darius stared at him for a moment. "You say that very casually."

"I’m not casual about it. Eldrath simply has the manpower to make that kind of deployment possible."

Darius looked down at the map again.

"So the checkpoints aren’t supposed to hold alone."

"No. If one post is attacked, it reports the attack and nearby positions reinforce it. The value of the spacing is that help is already close."

"And if the first group is overwhelmed before the others arrive?"

"Then the next positions already know exactly where the attack is happening. They aren’t searching several kilometers of road after the fighting is over."

Darius nodded slowly.

"That makes more sense than the way you wrote it here."

"I can rewrite the summary."

"You should. Right now it reads like you’re planning to put goblins every fifty meters and hope sheer numbers solve everything."

Noah gave a small smile. "That would be expensive and stupid."

"At least we agree on that."

Some of the tension left the room, but Darius did not stop reading. He scrolled back to the section covering the occupied towns.

"I still won’t give you civilian authority."

"I don’t want it."

"You secure the warehouses, transport yards, road entrances, and other places directly supporting the corridor. My administration stays in place."

"That’s exactly where I want the boundary."

"If something happens in a residential district that has nothing to do with the supply route, my people handle it."

"That keeps the responsibilities separate."

Darius nodded once. "That should work."

He moved to the next section.

"My officers still decide what the front needs. They decide the amount, the priority, and when a shipment needs to arrive."

"I have no reason to interfere with that."

"And if I mark something urgent, you treat it as urgent."

"I will prioritize it, but I won’t send it through a section I already know is under attack just because the order says urgent."

Darius considered the answer before replying.

"That’s reasonable. I care about when it arrives, not whether you leave at a specific minute."

"Then we agree on that part."

Darius pointed toward the northern end of the route.

"Once the cargo reaches the forward distribution area, Eldrath’s authority ends. My people take control again from there."

"That’s where I intended the handover to happen."

"Good. I don’t want this expanding toward the front later because your convoys are already nearby."

"It won’t."

Darius leaned back and looked at Noah for several seconds.

"You really dislike overlapping authority."

"I dislike being responsible for decisions I’m not allowed to make."

"That is not quite the same thing."

"It’s close enough for this mission."

Darius smiled faintly. "You’re stubborn."

"So are you. That’s why this conversation took this long."

Darius laughed and shook his head.

When the amusement faded, he looked through the proposal once more. This time, he did not stop until he reached the end.

"All right. Here’s what I’m willing to agree to."

Noah remained quiet and let him state the terms.

"My officers control the supplies while they’re inside this base. They decide what gets sent, how much gets sent, and what has priority."

Noah nodded but did not interrupt.

"Once the cargo is released for transport, Eldrath controls the convoy and the security along the corridor. Your people also take over the logistics areas inside the occupied towns, but nothing outside that responsibility."

"That matches what I’m asking for."

"When the convoy reaches the forward distribution area, control returns to my army."

"That gives both sides a clear boundary."

Darius continued. "My troops stay in place until yours are ready. We transfer control one section at a time, and I’m not leaving a road, bridge, or warehouse without guards while your people are still moving in."

"You won’t have to."

"If the first transfers show that your people aren’t ready, I stop the handover until the problem is fixed."

Noah considered that for a moment.

"If the problem is that Eldrath isn’t ready, that’s fair. I don’t want you stopping the transfer later simply because you decide you prefer having your own guards everywhere."

Darius gave him a long look.

"That is exactly the kind of sentence that makes me want the conditions written down."

"I was planning to document them anyway."

"Good. Then neither of us gets to remember this conversation differently later."

Noah smiled slightly. "That might be the first thing we’ve agreed on without arguing."

"Don’t get used to it."

Darius pushed the terminal back across the table.

"You get the corridor once your people are ready. The convoys, road security, logistics sites, and the handover of the rear positions all fall under your authority inside the boundaries we just agreed on."

Noah picked up the terminal.

"And your officers keep control of what the front requests and receives."

"Exactly. I don’t care how you arrange the route once the cargo leaves here, as long as it reaches the other end."

"That’s clear enough."

Darius glanced through the window at the convoy forming below.

"One more thing. I don’t care whether you use ten thousand goblins or ten times that many. If I give you this much control, I expect fewer losses and reliable deliveries."

"That’s the standard I’m accepting."

Darius looked back at him. "Then bring your people in and show me this works."

Noah stood and tucked the terminal under his arm.

"I’ll start preparing the transfer."

Darius nodded toward the door. "My officers will keep the current arrangement running until you’re ready. Once your first section is staffed, we begin there."

Noah left the room with the agreement settled. Darius would continue deciding what supplies his army needed, while Eldrath would control how those supplies moved through the corridor and protect the locations directly supporting that movement.