The Empire

[Guest Judicator84]

It was a long time ago, the fighting, the wars, the glory, the defeat. I was one of the greatest, decorated by the emperor himself, but now he's dead, they're all dead.

 

It was the final battle. The emperor's army's had all assembled upon the 5 hills surrounding the city of Vestigues, the capital of our enemy, the Palits. We were 50,000 strong, with 7 contingents of 2,000 high lords lancers, 26 battalions of 1,000 regulars, and my force, 10,000 Imperial Royal Guardians. We were the best. Armed with decorated armor and weapons of the finest caliber. We had seen battle after battle in the name of his majesty, yet none would prove more trying, and more deadly, than this one.

 

Vestigues was a well-fortified city. Its walls were as deep as the length of three men. Walkways were built for Palit archers, some of the best in the region. Stables and barracks well within the fortified walls, making it hard to bombard with catapults. Palit forces laid out defenses across their territory. Every man, woman, and child was armed with weapons.

 

The Palit army itself numbered near 125,000. Most were regulars, but some belonged to the elite Huchkata band, a special group of archers trained for the most precise and deadly shooting capable of a bow and arrow. We didn't know the number of Huchkata, but we assumed there couldn't have been more than 20,000.

 

The plan was simple. Bombard the walls and outer parts of Vestigues until they're built defenses were crushed, then send raiding parties to gather information and destroy anything that could be used against us. Finally, we launch major attacks from the five hills, sweeping the valley and eliminating all forces that we meet. We had food and supplies to last us 9 months of heavy battle, 17 if we stretched the fighting out; we were prepared, or so we thought.

 

It was the 3rd night of the new moon. We had been catapulting the city for nearly a month now. We took out most of the defenses beyond the walls on the east and north fronts, and part of the wall had crumbled on the south end. We had no losses; we estimated the death of over 1,000 Palit soldiers. We saw success near. That's when it all went wrong.

 

On that night, 5,000 Palit forces escaped beyond our lines into the valleys beyond the hills. We had not seen them move out into the next valley because our troops had taken to drinking, feeling there was no way the enemy would attack. Our base camp on the Vestul hill was ambushed. By the end of fighting, a contingent of lancers and 6 battalions of regulars were all dead, with enemy losses only around 500. This was a huge blow to our forces. We lost our entire defensive planning because of this, and now we have to spread our forces thinner than before in order to protect the hill. We thought we were ok, and then, there was more...

 

It seems some of those Palits that survived did not return with their commanders to the city. Instead, these soldiers sabotaged our 1st and 2nd catapult battalions. When ordered to launch, the catapults stopped half way, sending the container of burning oil upon the soldiers firing them. We lost what was equivalent of one catapult battalion. We merged the 1st and 2nd into one, but now, we didn't have catapults bombarding the Eastern side, which was weakened as I mentioned before.

 

To add to our ailings, the emperor fell sick. He was dying of a weak heart, according to our healers. His strength had been growing weaker for some time now, but none assumed he was this badly gone. Still, the Emperor was quite determined to see this final campaign through. He started 5 years ago with the invasion of Palit forces; he wished to see its end. The emperor decided not to wait for the defenses of the city to be destroyed. He decided it was time to march and take the city. This proved to be the final battle none would ever forget.

 

His majesty wanted the demise of the city and its inhabitants to be quick. The operation was to take less than 10 hours. It included the destruction of all stables, barracks, and the elimination of all Palit troops. Any civilians found assisting the enemy were to be eliminated, and those that survived were to be brought into slavery. We would invade in three waves. My Guardians were to hit first, taking out preliminary defenses. 3 lancer contingents and 5,000 regulars would then march and secure a large amount of the city along with my guardians. Finally, the last 3 lancer contingents and 34,000 regulars would make the final charge, with 5,000 regulars as reinforcements if needed. The plan was simple,my Guardians would charge the Southern flank, after heavy fired would be laid out upon the Western and Northern fronts with moderate bombardment on the South so as not to attract attention there. Once our forces have taken out any Palit soldiers both on the walls in the South and whatever troops or civilians we may end up meeting, we'd signal for the second wave to begin the assault, and the third would soon follow.

 

I will lead the first wave, the second wave will be led by Simplit, a general trained by the emperor's father himself, and finally, the last wave will be lead by the Emperor, in his final campaign. We are to take out a force over twice our size, and all we have is our faith in our emperor and his decisions, but on those beliefs, we shall fight till the end.

 

The attack itself is to begin late in the night. The bombardment is to begin near sunset while the first wave attack is not to happen for quite a while longer. We waited at the base of hill in the South, called Mudra, or Widow's Peak. That name would come back to haunt many wives of these soldiers about to die. There was a large trench on the bottom of the hill that gave us the perfect launching point for attack.

 

Soon after sunset, the bombardments began. All sides except the East were bombarded by large containers of flaming oil, boulders, and small metallic balls used much like stones on a slingshot. Our soldiers prepared themselves for the fight of thier lives, as sounds of men and women dying ringed through our ears. After about an hour, the valley towards the city was clear and an opening large enough for troops to march in 5 columns was opened. We decided now was the time to attack. We couldn't wait any longer, lest the Palits reinforce the broken wall.

 

We Charged. We Charged with every god forsaken gift we had. We charged with courage, faith, loyalty, and honor. Our troops made a clear pass to the wall with only a few soldiers shot down by Huchkata archer's on the remaining part of the wall. An alarm could be heard throughout the entire city. Children could be heard crying as mothers frantically tried to take them to safty behind the makeshift lines being formed by Palit regulars to stop us.

 

My forces were unable to climb the wall at our present location, and the only chance we had of not being cut down my the Huchkata was to rush towards the watchtower that sat adjecent to the wall. We could climb the tower and cut down the enemy's best in a matter of minutes. To do this, we needed to break down a civilian blockade set up by the local militia. I sent 6,000 of my Guards to attack. One could not avoid the blood to come next. My 6,000 charged the line, but found themselves in oil pits dug by the civilians directly in front of the blockade. Huchkata arrows of flame streamed through their own city as I saw 6,000 of my finest burn to death.

 

We knew we needed to signal for reinforcements, so we went around the fire pits and found a latter placed next to the wall further down from the battle field. We climbed. We

 

climbed for dear life, for the shred of hope that someday we'd be able to tell our children how the empire would save us from certain doom once again. We had to leave all but thirty forces on the bottom to safeguard the latter from the Palits, in case we needed a route of escape. Several of the Thirty with me were quickly cut down by Huchkata. As I sent fifteen one way and fifteen the other in hopes of cutting down the archerers, I looked upon the grounds where our

 

reinforcments waited.

 

What I saw next would burn a lasting imagine within my mind that not even the gods themselves could wash away. It was a trap. The whole time we were secure in the thought that we could catch any attempt to break pass our lines after the incident on Vestul was shattered. I watched as the emporer's forces were cut down by Palit arrows, but not fired from the city, from the hill where the emporer was to attack to. They flanked us. The flanked us, and they took our catapualts. I watched as thousands of imperial troops where sliced down into nothingness, into

 

the oblivion of death.

 

There were no reinforcments, they were defeated, crushed, and now, we have nothing. My soldiers are dead, the empire's soldiers are dead. That day, we lost more than we bargained for. The Emporer was killed in a fight with a Palit soldier. We lost everything. 15,543 prisoners were captured by the Palits. Those dead numbered tens of thousands. The Empire not only lost an army, but it lost thousands of fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, and friends loyal to a cause.

 

And now I sit here...drinking my ale, remembering the old days. Watching a new group of soldiers ready to march for the empire, but I must ask, to what avail? Till our countrymen lie all over the world, spilling wasted blood and sweat over territory that is not even ours? No. No more. I will not stand for it. I never will again. I am an old man, and will not watch yet another generation of souls sent to thier makers for the greed of the empire. Not anymore.

 

You ask what I can do? Huh! Plenty. You just watch...or perhaps, you'd like to join us? How about it? humph...I'd expect you'd say no, assassination is never easy, just pray that perhaps, someday, you'll be there when an emporer isn't blood thirsty and greedy, until then, men like me will always be around. Good day sir.

 

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Ok..This is my first try, so give tell me what you think...credit to Peredhil for convincing me to do this, and I hope you like this. The spacing might be odd, so I apologize for that if there's a problem with it. As for the story itself, it's actually part one of a series on this I'd like to write. I'm working on other parts that will look at the same scene over and over but from drastically different points of view. Enjoy!

 

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Reply Gyrfalcon25

Visitor

Posts: 1

6/29/01 6:02:12 pm

Re: The Empire's Great Loss

 

I think this is a great story. Please, keep them coming. If you wish, also post it in the Archmage UBB Conservatory. =)

 

I would, but I have to find my PW...

[Guest Eniigma7160]

This is an interesting story, I will enjoy reading your next issue, but you really need to fix the spelling and grammar mistakes, and you need to watch it when you shift from past tense to present tense. Good luck, and keep writing.

[Peredhil]

I'd welcome another covering of the battle from the other point of view as you originally intended.

 

Pick up a Pen and start writing!

 

 

 

[Guest Judicator84]

heh...you sound like my teacher....I have always had problems with tenses....it's just a habit of mine that I never got out of me...lol....I'm actually a pretty bad English student, so this probably came out better than it could've. RL's taking up time, but I'll get a new one in sometime....Christmas break might give me the time to do it, we'll see...