Counterattack, Chapter 2 and 3

Western Anuire, Erntenir 1585 H.C (Haelyn's Count), Reign of Emperor Kendar Kalien the I

Characters involved:

Imperial Side:

1. Lord Mourde Daelor, Commander of the 1st Avanese Horse Company, Marshal of the Offensive , often reffered to as General of the armies.
2. Lord Agelmore Taliern, Lord of Glocaester, Captain of the Imperial Heavy Cavalry.
3. Jarod Thalles, the Pirate, Commander of the Mieran Mercenaries.
4. Slevan Klingea, former Captain of the Five Star mercenary company. Captain of the Mieran Cavalry.

Boeruinean Side:

1. Commander William Noeld, Captain of the Archducal Guard, Right Hand of the Archduke Boeruine.
2. Alexander Katleaf, Seargent of the Archducal Guard
3. Lord Endre Reanlien, Lord of Caelwyn

Chapter 2:

Daylight was fading over the town walls and the light from the fires of the Imperial camps could be seen atop the distant hills. Patrols walked the streets of Coere, wary of and the town gates were closely guarded in case any attempts were made to sabotage them. The town was deathly quiet as peasants and soldiers alike feared at night. Minutes passed, then eventually hours, and soon, the sun returned. It slowly edged up over the hill upon which the Imperial camp was situated and brought light at the people of Coere once again. No spies were found; no scouting parties were spotted; no skirmishes from the Imperial army were sent. There was some relief to be found from the peasants who were grateful that they had not killed them in their sleep.

Captain Noeld walked towards the gatehouse just after sunrise to get his night watch report."Nothing all night sir," one officer told him as he entered the room. "It seems there intent is on starving us out."Captain Noeld looked out the slit on the wall towards the Imperial campsite."How can you tell?" the officers all looked at each other worryingly, as if the truth hard to bear."They look like they have settled on the hill and, from what we've discovered, plan on staying there until we surrender or become so weak that taking Coere wouldn’t cost them anything great." Captain Noeld looked down at the ground, fearing the answer to his next question."What about reinforcements from Bindier; Have you received any word of their arrival?"The look of despair in the officers' eyes gave the captain his answer. There was a long grim pause."I see." he said finally, "We're on our here."

Suddenly, people began shouting outside. About what, nobody inside was sure, but they had a good idea. The Imperials were beginning the siege. Captain Noeld and the officers moved out of the gatehouse to see militia and archers running in all directions in order to reach their assigned positions. It was chaos outside: everyone's voice was drowned sounding of trumpets, the beating of drums, the clashing of sword and spear against shield, and the chanting of the advancing Imperial army. They numbered roughly strong with several hundred archers behind as support. A unit of heavily armored cavalry men, no doubt the general was amongst them, was leading the attack. The rapid march of the Imperials made the dust beneath their feet to erupt into the air, causing a sort of smokescreen, partially covering them from arrow fire. Then the marching stopped, as did the chanting. All was quiet until the Imperial general rode in front of his army along side with his standard bearer and his bodyguards. His standard bearer called out in a hoarse voice.

"People of Coere! My most generous Lord does not want blood. He is willing to forget your commander's insulting remarks to our emissary, He is willing to offer yet another chance to end this.”

"Any man willing to surrender and leave the town unharmed may do so. The Lord promises that no harm will come to you. If any of you have sense, you will make the decision."

"You have until nightfall."

The General reared his horse around and rode back behind the wall of Spearmen. The entourage followed with haste. On the walls of the town, the cries of peasants  and the soldiers spread around like a disease. Alexander began to recall, he had lived that again,he thought about the General's words. He hoped his Captain was not fooled. He knew, anyone who left the town was doomed to die. No matter how fast they ran.

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The mass of people gathering at the gates continued to grow until even the last man had arrived from the far end of the town. The people were in hysterics, and nobody calmed them; the sun had already began to descend towards the horizon. The city was under curfew until a meeting could be held and adjourned at the town hall. Nobody allowed stepping outside the walls, and peasants were asked, and sometimes forced, to return to their homes.

The town hall was situated in the centre of Coere. It looked out onto the central plaza where some people had begun to gather. Captain Noeld entered the main gallery where an assembly of officials and representatives had already started discussing a course of action to take."We cannot hope to put up a fight!" one official said."This is the Imperial army!" another called decided to remain silent for a few minutes until the noise died down a little."If we leave tonight, under the cover of darkness," an elderly official began, can return to Bindier and warn the Archduke about the Imperial advance!"There were murmurs and nods of agreement."I have no intention of dying here!" the elder continued, "And I am certain none of you have any intention either!"Others began proclaiming openly now:"Why should we die here?""We're not peasants!"

"And if you make it to Bindier, will you tell the Archduke that you failed to uphold your oath to protect and govern his lands?" Captain Noeld called from afar. He had enough of their arrogance. "I'd be surprised if you even made it a mile from here before getting killed by the scouts." The room went silent instantly: Captain Noeld had their attention now."You are all fools to think that you can leave here alive. Their general will make sure that no-one escapes to tell about the size of his army."Almost immediately, began shouting and arguing again even more than they had previously done."Silence!" the elder roared above them all. Every official stopped talking simultaneously and were on the elder."You, captain, are even more foolish to think that you can possibly fight off this horde at our gates."All eyes turned to Captain Noeld. He could pressure that was piling on him as he racked his brain for a response to the elder.

There noises emanating from outside in the plaza. More people had gathered outside the town hall to learn the news of the council's decision. People were yelling, some crying, others remained silent in anticipation that all hope was lost: the sun was almost below the horizon. The sky was mix of bloody red and orange. Captain Noeld burst out of the town hall and into the mass of people that were now overflowing the central plaza area. He needed to return to had to convince the militia to fight.

By the time he reached the gatehouse, the enemy general had emerged from amongst his soldiers who were already celebrating their soon-to-be victory. Their confidence gave in more to Captain Noeld's nerves: he was beginning to sweat at the forehead. He wiped it off with his hand and took a deep breath, waiting for the Imperial general to speak out.

“Your time is up! This is your last chance; vacate the city now, or suffer consequences of defying the Emperor of Anuire!"

Nobody said a word: the entire wall was quiet. Much to Captain Noeld's surprise, the soldiers held their peace, and did not move from their positions on the battlements, that lasted almost ten seconds, until one Boeruinean soldier called out:"If your Lord wants this town, he's going to have to pry it from our cold dead hands!"The uproar afterwards was immense: the cries and cheers echoed all throughout; the entire cheer was so effective, that even the peasants began to join in. Captain Noeld was baffled: what had their hearts and minds so easily? He turned to the soldier at his side and asked, “Why are they all cheering?"The soldier stopped mid cheer, and stared at the captain as mad."Why?" the soldier repeated, "Haven't you heard? Reinforcements are arriving from the West, with the Archduke himself leading them!" Captain Noeld just stood dumbstruck!

He couldn't believe it: Coere actually stood a chance at breaking the Imperial siege. He unsheathed his sword and raised it up into the air. It shone in the moonlight, reflecting down into the enemy ranks. The soldiers followed his example, and soon, every sword and spear was raised towards the heavens as if they were saluting an invisible leader; And then, in unison, as if someone had given an order, they all cried out, not in fear but defiance,

"AUDACES FORTUNA IUVAT!"

Chapter 3:

The message was clear to the Imperials: surrender was out of the question. Their general reared his horse and raised his hand. The Spearmen began bashing their spears and shields together and started chanting in unison. The chanting entered a sharp crescendo as the soldiers grew more excited. The wasattack imminent. William called for the archers to line the ramparts, and be ready to fire at will. The Imperial general roared the command to charge and extended his hand forward direction of the walls. The Spearmen raced towards the gates in a berserk charge, screaming and banging their shields and spears as they did. The archers on fired their arrows into the huddled mass of men, bringing down most of those leading the charge. This did nothing to dash the spirits marching army, as they closed at the gates of Coere. Another wave of arrows rained down on them, cutting their numbers by another fifty. Again, the advancing army was not showing any signs of breaking their charge.

The third wave of arrows had a more demoralizing impact on the charging attackers as Captain Noeld believed it was time for the archers to set their arrows alight. The simultaneous burst of fiery arrows killed about seventy men and wounded forty others. The Imperials slowed their advance, giving the archers a chance to fire again. More Imperials fell, causing serious blow to their moral. They slowed their advance to a slow walk as they tried to form several spear walls to protect themselves from the arrows. The Imperials had lost hundred soldiers by the time they reached the walls of the town. They threw themselves against the gates to try and break through. The Spearmen in front raised their shields above their heads as cover.

William called for some spear militia to stand at the gates and be ready to charge on his command. One last wave of arrows was sent down and the gates opened to let the militia charge the wavering, yet adrenaline-pumped Imperials. The clashes of spear against shield and armour, and the cries of agony as soldiers fell in the fray instilled anxiety in the mind of Captain Noeld: for a moment, he thought he had made a grave mistake in sending the men outside the walls. But his panic subsided as he observed several Imperial soldiers breaking from the fight. Then more, and more, until after several seconds, all remaining Imperials had been routed and now made for the camp on the hill. The militia cheered and roared in delight at the sight of the fleeing enemy.

William cried down to the militia,"Great work boys, but we're not out of this yet!"The men settled and obediently returned to their positions in high spirits. A small victory made all the difference to these soldiers, William thought to himself. Or perhaps it was too soon to judge their behavior, based on the fact that they had sent weakest and most expendable soldiers. Some men went about picking up the dead at the gateway: Imperials were laid to rest outside the wall to be collected, while the rest of the dead and wounded were brought inside and placed in the central plaza to be claimed or attended to by physicians. William wandered about the mass lines of bodies stretched as long as the town hall itself. Some had died in worse ways than others: some had horrible gashes on their bodies and organs had dangled out where the cut was while the rest had cleaner deaths. The smell was due to get worse as the day lurched on.

A trumpet sounded at the wall, and Noeld turned and bolted down the alleyway to reach the gate as quickly as he could. The sound of soldiers shouting orders and running in the opposite direction to safety rang along the battlements: another attack was imminent. The next wave of Imperials was marching across the fields slowly, and taken some artillery with them; ballistae. Now the walls were about to be put to the test against basic siege weapons. The meter-long bolts were loaded onto the ballista, they could impale anything in their way. Some Spearmen set up positions nearby, ready to charge once the gates had been breached. The first bolt fired into one of the gateway towers, taking a medium chunk off the side, and sending it down to the ground behind the wall. A second one penetrated the wall below where William was standing and could clearly see it jutting out, wedged between two great planks of wood.

The third missed the wall, but ended up through the window of a two- building and a fourth bolt, set alight, soared straight over William's head, missing him shorty,  plunged into a mound of hay, creating a small blaze and a pillar of smoke began rising from it. Ballistae were certainly not the most accurate machines, but they can cause amount of panic; people poured out of the houses near the fire, and began yelling and running in every direction. Soldiers ran to them, ordering them to return indoors, it was safe, or safer."It would be silly to think anywhere here was 'safe'." William thought to himself.

Two more ballista bolts were fired into the right gate tower, partially destroying it. A great cheer erupted from the Imperials below as they grew more confident, knowing the gates were weakened.

"Captain!" someone called, William turned to see a soldier running towards him carrying a letter.

"Captain," he said again, "Our reinforcements, led by the Archduke, have been delayed; they were ambushed by skirmishers. They fought the attackers off, but they must be an hour or two afar."

"Then we must hold the walls until then, soldier!" Captain Noeld had to raise his voice as a large boulder was hurled into the left gateway tower, completely destroying it. They had brought in catapults to finish what the ballistae had started. Now the gatehouse had no towers and was partially vulnerable to battering rams and siege towers. William ordered more soldiers onto the walls to back up the archers in case of an assault on the walls by ladders or towers. More boulders were hurled at the gate in an attempt to break it down without the use of a battering ram. William knew the gate would not last long. He called up some spearmen to cover the gate in case it was breached. More boulders sent hurtling towards the gatehouse, and others were aimed at the wall on the left, possibly to create another breach for the Imperials to pour through. Three tore through, the structure was weakened and begun to creak. William couldn't afford to lose any men at this stage, so he called the men on the crumbling wall to withdraw.

Another three boulders smashed into the wall, causing an eruption of smoke and splinters. Some soldiers were sent flying, while others were impaled by large splinters of wood. As the smoke cleared, William stared in horror at the scene; the wall section was completely decimated, showing a clear opening for the Imperials to enter. Celebrations rang out from among the enemy ranks, and they charged.