The Big Ones

Chapter Nine: Attack Ships on Fire

Main Square, Gim, Principality of Qua-Toyne

Spear-Bearer Adem Aspietes hopped off his horse in the middle of Gim's main square. He walked into the shadow of the nearby bell tower and looked around as he waited. Qua-Toyne's defenders had truly abandoned Gim to the Lourians. The bell tower was positioned in the middle of the northwest side of the square. Narrow streets threaded through the surrounding buildings, and a market hall was raised over the center. From the square, he could see scouts on watch duty taking positions on the city's wooden walls facing the Inner Gim Forest. This far from the mountains, there was a lack of stone for building, so everything here was mostly wood and thatch.

The Qua-Toynians had made the correct choice. If they had attempted to make a stand Adem had planned to simply call the wyvern squadrons to burn the walls down and any buildings the defenders took cover in. Louria had uncontested local aerial superiority, and the wyverns were free to conduct ground strikes instead of anti-wyvern operations. With the Lourian navy able to travel much further than the army in a day, Adem suspected that the Qua-Toynian wyverns had been relocated to the coasts to counter the fleet. He expected he'd first encounter major aerial resistance in the skies above the plains past Inner Gim leading towards Fortress Ejey and the mountains.

The dirt-covered shelters built beside the walls would still have to be dealt with. Throughout history, they protected against wyverns coming in from high angles of attack. The tight spaces between them and surrounding buildings meant wyverns did not have enough space to land and take off near them, so they would require clearing one by one by infantry.

Luckily for the Lourian Army, Adem had a secret weapon to snuff them out. The artificers had a group of men trained on portable flame guns developed from the flame cannon program. These flame guns would allow a single man to unleash multiple fireballs or a single stream of fire onto a large target such as structures. In anti-shelter work, the door would set alight, and the fire would quickly spread along the interior wooden floors and walls.

In the case of stone shelters with metal doors, the door would have to be breached by a battering ram, and the artificer would have to carefully spray fire on as much of the interior as possible through the open doorway. It was too dangerous for the artificer to step through the doorway, as he could be shanked immediately from the sides before getting a chance to fire. Once the flames died, swordsmen would have to rush in to remove defenders who managed to hide in blind spots and avoid getting lit up by the artificer.

Accompanied by a squadron of cataphracts, Adem entered Gim while Domestic Pandour Raoul waited outside the walls with the rest of the army. It was up to Adem to decide the fate of the city and its remaining inhabitants who failed to evacuate.

Two Shield-Bearers marched up, escorting an old human man who hobbled along on a walking stick.

"Spear-Bearer, we found this man standing in front of his home near the dwarfen quarter. He speaks Lourin and has agreed to speak to you regarding the local conditions."

Adem nodded and spoke to the old man. "I am Deputy Adem Aspietes, commander of this force under Domestic Raoul of the East Lourin Army. Introduce yourself."

"I am Molt, a retired carpenter. I was born here, lived here all my life, and will die here, whether today or tomorrow."

From the way Molt was grasping his stick, it was clear he suffered from the conditions that affected all old human people. Adem thought Molt would topple over and break a few bones if he suddenly kicked away the stick. "Who remains here in Gim?"

"Just us old folk and our adult daughters crazy enough to remain to take care of us. Well, aside from the dwarfs packed into the dwarfen quarter. As soon as word arrived of your invasion, the dwarfs immediately scurried inside and closed the gates. They paid me to tell you that they follow the directions of the head clans in the mountains and will take no sides in this war."