All Adventure Begins with Tragedy

Chapter XXII: The Final Blow

"Okay. Here's the deal!" The five of us, Myself, Jonathan, Adalayde,Riechale, and Yeahuyie, Sat around a table in a back room of the keep. "We are definitely going for a final blow, but we need to figure out how."

Jonathan took over, "We all agree that we will bring all men back from the front, meet up with Jenkins' army, and then launch our final attack. But we have yet to know how that final attack will play out. Yeahuyie?"

"Indeed. Thank you much. As
Isk-Jonathan said, there is much not know of. We do know place of Hammerite stronghold. It is northern west of here. Almost into Hurrit. Scouts report that thousands gather there. I say that the A.H.R.G. attacks from the north. From the mountains. Kryan army shall fight head on. They have most troops. The Ibnaharga will attack from west and east alongside the HDC. Both will fight together. Ahreah?" Yeahuyie explained.

"Hold on I'll be right back!" Riechale said hurriedly before she ran off.

"Um... I guess we wait then?" I asked awkwardly.

Five minutes later she returned with four soldiers behind her all carrying varied supplies.

Setting them down, she unfolded a map of Kry. After the soldiers had set down the boxes they were carrying, they left the room.

"What is this supposed to be?" I asked.

"A map."

"Okay obviously, but what are you doing with it? And what's in the boxes?" Jonathan persisted.

Adalayde sighed "Its obviously a map and pieces to help us visualize what we plan."

"Oh," Jonathan and I said in unison.

"Back to task at hand?" Yeahuyie put in.

"Thanks Yeahuyie, yes this is a map. In the boxes are pieces that we can write on or whatever to mark squads and such."

"Right. Take it away then Riechale. Where is the enemy fort located exactly?"

"Thanks Adalayde," she said smirking," So the Hammerites are holed up here," She pointed to a spot on the map a few hundreds kilometers off the coast, right below the Hurrit mountain chain. The Hurrit mountain chain ran from coast to coast dividing Kry from the wildlands of the north. A similar mountain range divided Kry from Fia.

"They have set up on a large hill surrounded, in a rough circle, by large mountains. They chose a very strategically smart place. The surrounding mountains will make it hard for a large number of troops to get through. Then we would have to charge headlong up the hill. Its a very steep slope with little cover. We would be facing annihilation if we chose to do that.

"Thankfully there are more options. They decided to mine out the top of the hill, and begun digging down. With the earth they moved, they built a wall around the top of the hill. Oh right. I forgot to mention, when I say large hill, I mean large hill. It is about one kilometer in width. I say hill because it is only about an eighth of a kilometer rise from the base of the hill, and is very steep.

"The goal of the mining was to not only to construct a wall, but also to build a fortification into the ground. A quite large network of tunnels and underground rooms sprawl out across the entire valley. Our goal would be to uncover one of these tunnels and infiltrate the extensive system. We could put, say, four hundred soldiers down there, and they would clear out the tunnel systems. Then they would move up and hit them from the inside. The Hammerites would be to distracted fighting those on the out side to actually notice they are under attack....."

####

The rain was definitely not helping. It had turned the hard, sturdy, ground into slushy mud under the feet of thousands of men. Warden squad, along with other squads, had been assigned to fight a long side the Ibnaharga. We were to rendezvous with the rest of the HDC upon reaching the location of the Hammerites. I just hoped to god that everything went alright. Now if this infernal rain would just stop!

It was coming down as a miserable sprinkle. Slightly obscuring my vision and dampening our senses. I tried as hard as I could to stay alert, but it was in vain. Not that it mattered. The long column proceeded unabated by any attacks.

"Hey Dove. Got any food?"

"Go away Jrinar."

My name wasn't actually Dove, but for some reason my friends in arms insisted on calling me that. I had originally been apart of the forty second armored division of the Kryan royal army. Armored division just meant We had slightly heavier armor and weaponry. Nothing crippling, but definitely enough to guarantee that only the stronger of soldiers got in.

I had been present when that surprise attack from the Hammerites whipped out our invasion force. I had just enough time to shed my armor before sprinting away from the fighting. I barely made it.

I ended up joining up with the HDC after they had taken the first Hammerite fortification. I was there for the second assault, as well as the less organized third and fifth assaults. For decisive attacks on other Hammerite fortifications, besides the first two, leadership was not present. I am not positive, but I believe a total of thirty eight fortifications were taken by various resistance forces.

And so here we were, marching towards the final battle, with this rain ruining everything. We could see the distant mountains we were aiming for. Looming ever ominous above us, always near, never closer.

Well we did eventually reach them, but it looked like they were never closer.

Apparently we were a bit behind schedule. Our allies had already uncovered a tunnel and were preparing to infiltrate. It was then that I received the sad, sad, very sad, news. I was to be on guard duty. Uhhhgggg.

I ended up just catching a bit of shut-eye while the others did battle. I could occasionally hear the distant sounds of battle. I didn't much heed it. A single division of the Kryan army was fighting head on. That was odd. They looked to be a scouting group. It did mean that the rest of the army was on its way, but easily more than a day away. I wondered how that would turn out. Every once in a while a returning squad would poke their heads out of the hole. They weren't going to attack enemies  yet. Apparently they to noted the oddness of the lack of Kryan soldiers. So a logistical assault continued while I sat idly by with nothing to do.