Hauskarl

**Key Features** | »Voltager rifle»Bucket of Lasbyge»Strength-enhancing battlesuit»Instructions manual (with colourful pictures)»Alan wrench

## Tactical Analysis

* **Haus call:** One of the two battlesuit-wearing infantry trained at the Brakkr. The Hauskarl are combat engineers equipped with a Voltager rifle.

* **Leg godt:** The primary purpose of the Hauskarl however, is what they carry on their back. Carrying a special backpack reverse-engineered from the Concordiat and Directorate that allows them to fit a frankly ridiculous amount of Lasbyge, with a collapsible ladder. The Hauskarl can build a siege tower at any impassable terrain, such as mountains, sharp inclines, or walls, that once completed lets any infantry bypass that terrain. Letting the Norse slip pass the enmies walls and burn their base from within

* **HEY!:** While rather fast to build, the siege tower still takes time, during which the Hauskarl is vulnerable to getting shot at. So they should either have an escort protecting them while they build or that do it in a secret area.

* **Sneak build:** As a Hauskarl works within the battlefield most would soon learn common sense, in that building a large tower could potentially make them a priority target. As such these Hauskarl would requisition metamaterial cloaks to hide themselves as they move and construct their towers. Those that don't tend to die much sooner.

## Background

*"For helvede! Where in the Hel is that brick!"*

- A Hauskarl building a tower.
It is not an understatement that Ole Kirk Christiansen revolutionized the Fylkirate architecture when he created Lasbyge. Thanks to him buildings could be constructed within days, or months as most, while still being just as sturdy as normal brick and mortar. And while he always griped about it, being a pacifist at heart, the military greatly benefitted from Lasbyge as it allowed them to create bases and outposts within seconds, eventually leading to the NMCV that can print out the bricks by the thousand to create a base within minutes.

Eventually, many generals realised that this could be used offensively since they can quickly build bunkers and defense within seconds in enemy territory. That idea was scrapped when it came to light that without reinforcements the Lasbyge would collapse to simple cannon fire. Their second idea was to use the bricks to build a simple tower, letting their soldiers scale what would be impassible walls and attack the enemy within. Thus they started trials by giving Drengrs special backpacks, using the same technology as the Viking's looting sack, but immediately saw two major flaws.

The first was that the infantry hated wearing the pack. Even with its theoretically infinite space it still weighted a lot with the bricks, drastically slowing down those who carry it, with most soldiers throwing of the pack as soon as possible to get into the fight. And even if they do reach the walls or other unpassable terrain none of them (except the Handverker) had the knowledge to build a properly sound siege tower, leading said tower to either collapse once someone's foot went in, collapsing from a stiff breeze, and in one case accidentally dropped them on their own foot (requiring medical attention).

The second flaw had came to light when they shifted to having the Handverker carry the pack, in that showed promise the fact that the combat simulations had them being constantly under fire while they build meant that most of them would have dropped dead before they started, and again many of them couldn't bear the packs eight and often threw it away when the generals aren't looking.

Thus the Fylkirate realised that to use this idea they would need a new unit. Starting by modifying the Viking battlesuit to focus more on carrying strength than durability so that the soldier can carry the siege pack more easily, they would start to take and train the bravest and strongest Håndverkers on how to use these new suits and the siege tower their suppose to build, and finally a voltager rifle for self-defence. And after much positive testing these new "Hauskarl" would be tested in the way every Norse is tested, through combat.

Sending them towards the northern Alps. The Hauskarls were tasked with breaching a Concordiat fortress situated in a valley, for months their forces had tried to breach the wall to no avail as the valley was simply too small for their artillery and aircraft to move through, and its front was too heavily defended for their forces to break through, and the sides and back were impossible to attack as it was blocked by impassable mountains.

With their task set the Hauskarls began building their siege towers by the mountains while the main attack forces distract the Concordiat. And on the final day, the main forces pulled back, making it look like they were retreating, causing the fortress forces to celebrate within their fortress. And when nightfall came, and their forces were partying and drunk, the Norse suddenly came down from the impassable mountains to the Concordiat shock and horror. The battle ended within minutes, the grounds soak in blood, and within the Fykirates celebration the general gave a toast to the Hauskarls, who let them passed the impassable to strike at their foes.