War and Honour

Prologue - Part Two

Five days later the army had crossed the north-east frontier, towards the city of Jiskosia. Jiskosia was found at the Yiddaki river’s mouth and his port was the main and easiest link to the island of Quarelia, which could have made the campaign complicated thanks to the metal and food situated in its warehouses. If the Onagha could have received provisions from the island, they would have been able to have a great number of supplies in a brief time, allowing them to move their army without worrying about its nourishment. Therefore, Leusk’s operational plan was to get to Jiskosia as quickly as possible, lay siege and leave a division to take it while the rest of the army would have moved towards Chakin, in the hinterland.

                The army moved exactly as planned, penetrating the Ranrak plain with speed and efficiency. During the journey the advance party had the opportunity to eradicate the poor people of some villages that Leusk had imprisoned to maintain the secrecy of the plan. All the food and the few riches of the inhabitants were catalogued and later seized as spoils of war. In the late afternoon of the ninth day of journey, the advance party caught sight of Jiskosia. The army’s units laid siege the following day meeting little resistance.

                That night the great Rad’sul’s war machines positioned themselves a few metres away from the city, as to be outside of the besieged’s range but close enough to be deployed quickly. The army included massive catapults and ballistae, but great was the presence of modified siege towers. The Rad’sul engineers created siege towers that were larger than usual, to allow wizards to get to the sides and support the “landing” of their infantry. The noise coming from the movements was remarkable, and was causing quite a disturbance to the generals. They had gathered to report to Leusk.

                The First General had already entered the heat of the discussion, talking with his subordinates about the various arrangements. He conversed swiftly, going from Otrom to Nuxe from Eroc to Arhon and to others in a few minutes. After spending the first hour making sure that the city had been surrounded correctly, Leusk got to the centre of the table and addressing everyone he said “We will begin to bomb them this very night. There is no reason to sit while they rest, tonight we keep them well awake. While the dark covers us we will move most of the army towards Chakin, as planned.” He stopped for a moment and then he continued watching Otrom “Otrom you will be put in charge of two divisions. Take the city and then reorganise based on what the situation will be then. Try to block their port as quickly as possible. You shouldn’t have many issues, the sacred council has been very clear about it.” Otrom nodded, then the conversation slid into arranging details.

                A few hours later the strong catapults had Jiskosia in range. When the dark of the night started to show itself, Otrom got to the start of the line of catapults and made a gesture the captain on duty. He nodded, turned around and screamed “Catapults. Light.” The catapults were loaded with massive boulders, but each of them had a wizard assigned to it that through a few words and gestures managed to flare up the rocks making them inflamed. At the scream all the projectiles lighted up one after the other, thereafter the captain screamed again, this time louder “FIRE!”. Almost in unison the catapults threw their hefty load on the city. From the army’s position you could hear the noise of the chaos that was being generated, while the first houses started to collapse. From far away it seemed that Jiskosia was being dyed of a bright red in multiple spots while the fire began to spread between the wooden constructions.

                Throughout the whole night the people of Jiskosia were struggled with panic and destruction, while the most courageous tried to put off the fires and limit the damage. Nobody noticed, and nobody would have cared, that almost all the aggressors had vanished, marching towards Chakin.