Maude swallowed hard before she entered the king of Aulbert’s strategy room. While she hadn’t fully agreed to help Aulbert in all aspects of the war, when Helena had delivered the invitation to come and participate in the strategy meeting, she’d jumped at it, in hopes that she might be able to earn her citizenship in Aulbert this way…not that it would matter if the country lost the war.
Jaspar was already in the room. They had come separately and still had yet to talk since their fight had happened. Helena had warned her in advance that Jaspar had also gotten an invitation from the king, and would likely be coming. Based on the look on his face at that moment, however, it seemed as though Helena hadn’t extended the same courtesy to him.
At this point, one of us just needs to apologize, she thought. And I’d really rather it not be me first.
Prince Erich was also in the room, and he and Jaspar were standing over a table with a giant map on it. The scene was reminiscent of the emperor’s strategy tent before the war began, but there were significantly less people in the room in Aulbert than there had been in the emperor’s tent.
Maude curtsied at Prince Erich’s presence. “Greetings, your highness,” she said. Prince Erich nodded and smiled at her.
“Be at ease, Lady Maude,” he said. “For we are all equals in the strategy room.”
She nodded and smiled, only a little bit. Jaspar wasn’t looking at her, and it seemed to be intentional as he was closing studying the map.
Another person walked in behind her, and she quickly moved out of the way so that they would be able to enter the relatively small room. She looked up to see a large man with thick, extremely curly red hair that was quite familiar.
Is he Melissa’s father? She wondered.
“Welcome, Baron Wright,” Prince Erich said.
“Greetings, Crown Prince Erich,” Baron Wright said with a little, much more informal seeming, bow.
“I don’t believe you and Lady Maude have ever met,” Prince Erich said, gesturing over to Maude. His blue eyes seemed to be sparkling mischievously.
“Lady sword saint,” Baron Wright said, doing a little bow to her as well.
“Wha…?” Maude exclaimed, throwing her hands up in front of her face. “Please just call me Lady Maude,” she said.
“Thank you, Lady Maude,” he replied. “I’ve heard so much about you. My daughter claims that she is one of your greatest admirers.”
Maude felt herself blush. “Lady Melissa is too kind,” she said.
“Nonetheless, I am looking forward to your help in these meetings,” Baron Wright replied
I know Lady Melissa helps him with strategy as well, Maude thought. I wonder if he’s protective of his daughter, rather than doubting her abilities like she thinks he does, Maude thought.
Maude looked back over at the map. “Even if I am only a little helpful, I am grateful to be here,” she murmured in response to Baron Wright.
“The king is now entering!” a guard to the room announced. Both Maude and Baron Wright moved towards the other side of the table, which brought Maude much closer to Jaspar. She did not look at him.
Everyone in the room bowed to the king. He looked nearly the same as he had when Maude had first met him, but he was now clearly sporting some heavy eye baggage.
“All hail the king!” Baron Wright exclaimed loudly. For what it was worth, the king seemed a bit embarrassed. Baron Wright grinned.
Maude looked around at the faces in the room. Her heart started to beat faster. My goodness, she thought. This reminds me so much of the strategy meeting right before I was sent off to war. She looked over at the king’s face. Surely they won’t be doing the same thing to me today, right?
“Thank you all for joining me today,” the king said with a wan smile. “I’m grateful for your presence, and hopeful that we will be able to come to a solution to what is happening in the war.” He looked around the room. “Each of us has a very important role to play.”
Maude swallowed hard, her stomach starting to knot. He’s going to send me out there against my will, she thought. I’m going to be commanded to risk my life again! Her heart rate started to pick up some more. What will I do this time? This isn’t like the empire where I had so few ties to return to…
“First, I want to talk about the machines that the empire has been employing against us,” the king stated. “For now, we’ve been calling them thunder tubes.”
Maude felt her eyebrows raise. What could possibly warrant a name like that?
“We have managed to get a few and we are trying to figure out how they work as quickly as possible. Ultimately, though, they shoot a large iron ball onto our troops and can quickly kill or injure half a dozen or so people.” The king looked grave.
Maude felt her stomach roll around in her belly. How did the empire get such complex, destructive technology? What hope does Aulbert have to recover from those losses?
“Each member of the empire’s armies has been issued one of these devices,” he paused, and the room fell into a solemn silence.
If this keeps up too long, it’s impossible for Aulbert to win. They would be better off abandoning the ship, she thought. If it’s that bad, they would probably be better off cutting their losses and abandoning their king and evacuating.
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In front of them all, the king sighed heavily. “I recognize that we’ve lost a significant number of troops since these thunder tubes have come into play.” He nodded at Prince Erich and Jaspar. “And I also recognize that we are very likely fighting a losing battle.” This time, the king nodded at Baron Wright.
So Melissa’s information was accurate, Maude thought. Hell, Melissa is probably the one who suggested to her father that the king ought to evacuate the country.
“But we can’t give up now,” the king said, earnestly. “It would be one thing if Ainsworth empire was a nice place to live, and most of Aulbert’s citizens would be treated well. But all of us at this table know that is not the case!” The king looked pointedly at Maude. “We all know that the citizens of Aulbert would mostly be facing certain slavery or death. So while perhaps surrendering and giving into the empire is the most logical and reasonable thing to do, it is not right for the citizens of this country.”
Maude’s eyes widened at the passion the king showed for his country. She knew for a fact that the emperor was not interested in doing right by his citizens or trying to ensure that they lived in good conditions. She had assumed that all of the leaders of countries would be the same; money and power hungry, forgetting about the people off of whose backs they lived. But here she was, feeling pride in the leader of a country that she had been living in for less than a year.
“I also know that there are many citizens in Aulbert who take great pride in our country and my leadership so far. It would be an insult to them to declare an evacuation right now.” The king sighed once more. “We are in a sticky situation. We have no capability to defend our troops against the thunder tubes, so sending more and more men to battle means we will eventually run out of men in our own country, as the battles have become like a meat grinder.”
Maude felt her stomach souring. Where did the emperor get this technology? She wondered. Why is the emperor only now just deploying it?
“Does anyone have any good ideas about how we might be able to defend our troops from these thunder tubes? We are just needing to survive short-term until we can find another way to win,” the king said.
The room fell utterly silent. Though the king had clearly tried to suggest that it was worth it to keep trying to win the war, it felt utterly pointless to do so.
We could all die within months, Maude thought. Even if we were to come up with a way to deal with the thunder tubes.
The room continued to stay silent. The king was starting to look disheartened. What did he expect when he called us here? Maude wondered. Seems to me like he was hoping for a miracle.
Prince Erich sighed. “Your highness…father,” he said. “Do we know anything else about the thunder tubes? Are shields able to block them? It’s a bit hard to strategize with what you’ve told us so far.”
“Ah, my apologies,” the king said. “I got so impassioned with my thoughts on not surrendering.” He cleared his throat, clearly looking embarrassed. “Shields are able to block them, but they can really only block one of them before the integrity of the shield is compromised.” Everyone in the room nodded, including Maude.
“How many troops are carrying these thunder tubes?” Jaspar asked. “From what I have heard and seen, they sound quite heavy.”
The king nodded. “They are exceptionally heavy,” he agreed. “But it seems as though each of the empire’s soldiers is carrying one.”
“What about the number of shots?” Baron Wright asked.
“Each thunder tube gets one shot after the battle starts,” the king stated. “We suspect that they all are capable of more than one shot, however, as the empire’s troops take the devices with them when they leave the battlefield. We also suspect that they have a stockpile of the iron balls they are using as ammunition back at their camps.”
Hmm, I wonder… Maude thought.
“What about Aulbert’s troops?” she asked. “Do each of our troops carry a shield?” Maude felt her heart skip a beat when she suggested that she was a part of Aulbert already. No one seemed to think twice about it. Maybe I am basically an Aulbertian, she thought.
The king looked at her, meeting her eyes and nodded. “Each soldier carries one shield which can only withstand a single shot from the thunder tube,” he said.
“When does the empire usually have their soldiers shoot the thunder tubes?” she asked.
“It’s usually at the beginning of the fight,” the king answered. “It seems as though their strategy is to get rid of as many of our soldiers as quickly as possible so that they can overpower whoever is left. The iron balls rain on our soldiers from above.”
Suddenly, the hours she had spent at the Rosenberg manor, pouring over the strategy books no longer seemed like a waste. Though it had been difficult and boring, it was all about to pay off.
Maude nodded. “Do you know about the turtle formation?” she asked, gesturing to the whole room. They all nodded. “What if we split Aulbert’s troops into two groups?” she suggested. “If the shields are large enough to cover two people, our troops could turtle, with shields over their heads, two soldiers under each, and when the shield has been damaged, the second soldier could put theirs above their heads. That should reduce the number of casualties from their thunder tubes, shouldn’t it?” she asked.
She surveyed the four men who were in the room with her. She saw their faces transform from shock to thoughtfulness to agreement.
“I believe that strategy could greatly diminish the number of casualties we’ve been experiencing from the device,” Jaspar said.
“It would be most important to ask our blacksmiths to begin focusing on creating more shields, as each unit would need new shields after each battle,” Prince Erich said.
Maude nodded. “It’s possible that we could recycle the damaged shields in some way to help with the amount of metal needed, right?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” Prince Erich replied. “But I definitely think it would be worth asking one of my blacksmith contacts.” Maude nodded.
“Hold on, hold on,” the king insisted. “We don’t even know if this strategy would work yet. There’s no need to pivot our entire metal making economy until we know it does.”
“Agreed,” Baron Wright said. “And there is one battle coming up that we could try it during. We don’t expect more empire troops to be headed toward that battalion until after we could get more shields to them.” Baron Wright pointed at a blue pin on the map, that was towards the southern border of Aulbert, one of the last places that the Ainsworth empire boarded the small kingdom.
“Another thing that may be worth trying is ambushing the empire’s troops,” Maude said. “I know that is considered fighting dirty…” She saw scowls on a couple of faces, “But you can’t deny that right now we are outmatched. Aulbert needs all the advantages we can get. Aulbert is filled with trees, and the empire is not. This is also our troops home turf. They know these battle spots better than the empire ever could. If we are looking to prevent deaths from the thunder tubes, the element of surprise will also cause the empire’s troops to become disorganized, meaning that Aulbert troops will have the advantage. Especially if they attack from behind.”
Jaspar nodded slowly. “That was a tactic you tried on my unit, right?” he asked.
Maude nodded. “Though, we didn’t attack from behind.”
“Right,” he agreed. “But we were virtually surrounded by our enemy and it was definitely disorienting for my troops.”
“Baron Wright, do we have another battle we might be able to try that strategy out on?” the king asked.
Baron Wright nodded, and pointed to a yellow pin along the northernmost border of Aulbert. “We do,” he stated. “As much as I don’t like the idea of a dishonorable battle, I agree we should try it,” he added.
“Excellent,” Prince Erich said. “Let’s try these two ideas out, and will reconvene if we need to.”
“That sounds great,” the king said. “Thank you all for coming to aid us today. We will be in touch.” The king smiled at Maude. Her heart felt a little bit lighter, and she smiled back.