Aetherian(Part 1): A War Begins

Torinn

 The sun rose when Val's army arrived at the walls of Meridian, the biggest city in Alessia. Torinn Bloodbane had split the army into four separate camps in order to completely surround the city and set up anti-aircraft cannons in each one to be sure that no supplies or reinforcements arrived by air. It had been fifteen years since the Draconians last had a good battle, but a siege could take months for a city to fall. They might not get a fight for weeks, especially since they had no transport aircraft to lift troops over Meridian's walls. Not that it would do any good since the Alessians had their own anti-aircraft artillery. Caira Vestarr was wearing a suit of light, brown armor, and had a short, brown cape sewn with the short-faced bear of House Vestarr.

"Are the anti-air defenses prepared for action?" she asked, speaking in Draconic.

"Yes," answered Torinn. "And all four of our camps are fully stocked." Suddenly, a bright light glinted from the top of the walls of Meridian.

"Get down!" Caira screamed, and she quickly thrust her snowy rapier into the air, raising a thick wall of ice with it, just as a loud gunshot was heard. "Sniper."

"From the wall?" asked Torinn.

"That could be a problem," said Caira. "The other camps will likely have to deal with the same whenever they try to breach the walls. Are the trenches dug?"

"They are," answered Torinn. "The soldiers will have cover, now."

"We still have to get a good look at the city's defenses," reminded Caira. "And it will only be harder with the snipers on the walls."

"Then, how will we deal with them?" asked Torinn.

"We have to have snipers ourselves," answered Caira. "Do we?"

"There are beam rifles and indirect cannons," said Torinn. "They can go through and over walls."

"The mortars might be our best bet," Caira suggested. "But I don't know how we'll see what we're hitting without getting shot."

"We could take our chances, couldn't we?" asked Torinn.

"The Queen specifically ordered us only to hit the wall, Torrin," said Caira. "She doesn't want to harm civilians."

"Capturing the city will take months at the rate we're going," Torinn complained.

"Just be patient," Caira urged. That was going to be impossible. Torinn and the other Draconians loved a fight, but they still have yet to find one from the army defending Meridian. They believed that only cowards hide behind walls. Caira and Valeria made the arguments that holding up in a defendable city was the smarter choice than open combat, but even so, Torinn wouldn't have his army deprived of action for much longer.

"There has to be another way in," he said.

"I'm sure there is," agreed Caira. "If we could see it and live to report it to Her Grace, I'm sure it would help. Actually..." She stuck her rapier into the wall of ice, and made a quick swipe across it, making a cut wide enough for her to see through. Torinn had to kneel down in order to look through it, but he could see a small drainage pipe that was just above the ground. It seemed just large enough for him to fit through, but if they tried to sneak up to it with the sun out, they would be sitting ducks. Valeria was sitting at a long table in the largest tent in the camp when they reported what they saw to her.

"A storm drain?" she asked.

"It either leads inside the walls or the inner cities, Your Grace," said Caira.

"Or both," added Torinn.

"How many men would you need?" Val asked.

"Hopefully, not too many," answered Torinn. "We could sneak behind the walls to open the gates and let the others in."

"Is that your plan?" asked Valeria.

"It's the only logical one we have, Your Grace," answered Caira. "Should I inform the brothers?"

"You might need them," said Val. "If the walls are as defended as we think they are. But wait until night." Caira and Torinn found Satoru and Michio in the trenches three hundred yards from Meridian's walls. They were using some kind of electronic device, and repeatedly peeking their heads over the top of the trench, as if they wanted to get themselves killed

"You know, I'm sure the Alessians will still be there if you keep looking at them," Caira mocked, as they climbed down into the trench that was ten feet deep. "You're going to get yourselves killed."

"Well, excuse us if we're only trying to ensure the success of this siege," assured Satoru. "We have a spider drone out there."

"A what?" said Torinn.

"It's a tiny robot that can climb walls, send video footage with night vision, heat signature detection, and it's almost always mistaken for an actual spider," said Michio. "Does Aetherian have this kind of technology?"

"Not that I've seen before," answered Torinn.

"See, we're climbing up the wall, now," said Michio. They looked at the monitor of the device Satoru was holding and saw the wall of Meridian as if the camera was walking on it.

"How high is the wall?" asked Caira.

"Three hundred feet," answered Satoru. "We could be watching this for a while."

"In case we are, there's a storm drain that we could use to sneak into the city," said Caira. "Queen Valeria says we should wait until the sun sets so we can sneak up to it undetected."

"Seems as if Her Grace has more insight than we thought," agreed Michio. "But we still have to know what kind of defenses the wall has."

"Snipers, for one thing," said Torinn. "My scouts also reported mounted turrets and anti-aircraft batteries. We aren't sure how many soldiers are on the walls, though."

"It couldn't be too many," Satoru suggested. "You can only fit so many on those walls."

"Compared to how many of us there are, you mean," reminded Michio. "Still, there's not much more we can do until nightfall."