Summoning Our Country - NHS Kai

Chapter 35: Stranglehold

NOTE: This is rose. Hello all, here's your big Kai update.

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Cent. Calendar 17/02/1640, Kagis, Altaras, 14:07

The mighty wind of a thousand hurricanes swept all that stood firm and cast down all that resisted. The mighty goddess Astarte herself ripped open the heart of the city, mercilessly raising it high into the dark heavens. She then cried out, "This will make a splendid offering." But there were no favors to be had, no blessings to be given, no prayers to be answered. "Our leaders have forgotten us," the prophet cried, "and woah unto us, for the gods have gone blind to our plight and turned deaf to our pleas!"

This excerpt from the work of an unnamed writer who wrote of the suffering that the city of Kagis had endured during the Parpaldian invasion of Altaras was but one of the many people whose emotions were moved by the tragedies that occurred in the city in that dreaded week. The tales that described the events surrounding the siege of the city were almost mythical in their telling yet unnervingly vivid in their recountings. The citizens of Kagis who lived through the ordeal all give varying accounts, but the picture they all painted was not for the faint of heart.

After the destruction of the city's granaries on the night of the 15th of Febrond, the circumstances of which are still disputed by the Altaran authorities, hysteria plagued the city. According to King Taara XIV's war reforms, the fortified cities of the kingdom were mandated to have their food and water systems centralized to ensure the stability of the cities in wartime. This had the unfortunate effect of having most of Kagis's food supplies being stored in the city's granaries, which suffered a near total loss in the blaze that erupted on the 15th. The city still had plenty of water to take from the Sa'arak River, but their food supply of grains and non-perishables, which are said to be capable of feeding the population through months of siege, essentially disappeared overnight.

With elements of the Parpaldian Imperial Army having dug their heels on all sides of the city, the formidable ramparts of Kagis had turned from a safe haven keeping the enemy at bay to an unbreakable cage destined to starve them to death under its unyielding shadow. With only enough food to last through a few days for 20 families, far under the number of families that called the city home, the population got on its feet to either plead with the city government to do something or fight with fellow neighbors for what little food remained.

In the ensuing chaos, the city's embattled garrison was forced to turn their arms against fellow Altarans after a full day of bloody grappling with Parpaldian regulars at the gates. On the second day since the granaries' destruction, gunfire rang across the battlefield as Parpaldian siege batteries hammered into the city's walls and buildings. Crumbling houses and exploding ordnance maimed many city folks. Still, the number of civilians that the Parpaldian guns killed that day barely matched the number of civilians who died at the hands of their fellow civilians, from exhaustion and starvation, and at the ends of the bayonets of unwilling garrison soldiers.

Two days weren't enough to kill people due to starvation. Still, the lack of sleep during the night for fear of another strike similar to the one that destroyed the granaries, the excessive use of energy running from artillery strikes, and the enforced levy on the city folk to help with the city's defense all took their toll on the starving population. Some were taken to fish discretely in the river, but many of them were captured by roaming Parpaldian patrols. The city's singular chicken coop didn't last through the first day; people were even desperate enough to hunt the few crows and pigeons that flew through the city. But when all was consumed, some resorted to feeding on dead horses, cows, or rats. Rumors abounded of people nourishing themselves on the flesh of dead neighbors and kin.