TNL 48 – Preparation Part Four

In the early morning, Aulis is awakened by banging on his door.

"Aulis! Mayor! Wake up!" is shouted from outside.

Slowly Aulis wakes up and walks to the door.

"Who is there so early? Couldn't this wait for me to get dressed?"

"Sorry, mayor, but this really couldn't wait. I was just sailing my ship, and I was less than two miles at sea when I saw a bunch of ships in the distance."

"Ships? What kind of ships?"

"I think pirates. I think they are the only ones who have several larger ships. Unless you've been notified by Centurion that they have a real fleet?"

"Damn, if we're really attacked, I think we have a big problem. You're right that you woke me up."

Aulis is now wide awake. Immediately he steps out the door to go to squad leader Mateo of the garrison.

"Uhh, mayor, shouldn't you put something on before you wake up the squad leader?"

Aulis begins to blush and rushes back inside.

"You're right. That's what you get when you get rushed out of bed!"

A little later, Aulis is with squad leader Mateo in his office. The squad leader was already awake and calmly takes up the situation.

"No one needs to panic, Aulis." The squad leader always addresses Aulis with his name, instead of with the mayor.

"Those pirates can't just enter the village. After all, engineer Duncan recently stretched that tree chain in front of the entrance to the port. They can't just sail through that. The real danger comes when they storm the village. I only have nine soldiers, and my men cannot be everywhere at once."

"What do you propose we do?"

"I will spread my men over the walls. With two soldiers at the gate, and two men on the other two walls, we will certainly not be surprised.

I myself will take the rest to the harbor. We will man the watchtowers at the entrance to the port. Who knows, maybe we can hit some pirates with our crossbows."

"What should I tell the inhabitants? I can hardly reassure them with the fact that we only have two soldiers on each wall."

"Well, I'm afraid I can’t tell you much that will help you with that. Other than that my men and I will do our utmost best to preserve the village."

For Aulis, the conversation is not as enlightening as he had hoped. On the way to the main square, where they hold their meetings, he thinks again about what to tell the people.

"Folks," he begins his speech a little later, "as some of you may have heard, a fleet of some pirate ships has been seen. We suspect that they will come to test us.

Our garrison commander, squad leader Mateo, has told me that he and his men will do everything they can to keep Arana. What he hinted at, however, is that he simply does not have enough soldiers to have much chance of success."

The inhabitants of Arana become very restless. Most of them had expected to be able to build a safe new life here, not to be raided again.

"My question to you, dear people, is to ask yourself if you can help defend the village. I know that our hunter Dew could do quite a bit of damage with his bow. I myself know how to handle a pitchfork, and I know I'm not the only one!

Let's form a militia where everyone uses their own tools. If we work together, we can make sure that no pirate gets over those walls!"

An affirmative cheer rises from the crowd.

When the three pirate ships come within sight of the watchtowers an hour later, Aulis finds himself on the pier in the harbor. Almost half of the inhabitants of the village have joined the soldiers on the wall, but Aulis wants to see how the pirates' attempt to enter the port goes first.

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As soon as the pirates come within reach, Dew, who has lined up in one of the watchtowers with two of the soldiers, starts shooting at the first ship. His longbow has a greater range than the crossbows of the soldiers. Immediately a single cry can be heard from the pirate ship. A little later the cries double, when the soldiers also start shooting.

Maybe it's because of the arrows, but the first pirate ship doesn't even seem to notice the tree chain. At full speed, the ship rushes to the port. The other two ships seem to be sounding a warning, but it's already too late.

With a huge blow and splatter of wood, the ship collides with the large tree trunks that are half in the water. For a moment, Aulis fears that the chains that hold the logs together will fail, but then the pirate ship lies still, only to be slowly pushed backwards by the tightly drawn chain.

Meanwhile, hunter Dew and the soldiers continue to shoot their arrows at the pirates on deck of the ship. Most of the pirates are easy targets, as virtually no one was able to keep to their feet when the ship suddenly came to a standstill.

The other two pirate ships have meanwhile adjusted their course, and are heading for the beach near the village. Slowly the battered third pirate ship follows, and then sets course for the sea. Apparently it is too damaged to continue the attack.

From the remaining ships, pirates now jump ashore. When more than fifty pirates are on land, they walk to the village. Almost half of the pirates have a rope with a grappling hook with them to climb over the wall.

Squad leader Mateo, who has followed Aulis with his three soldiers, sees the danger immediately.

"You there, guys," he points out to a bunch of ten-year-old boys, "run to the walls to call the rest of my men to the gate. We will face the pirates outside the walls."

Squad leader Mateo informs Aulis that he has to take care of the vacant positions, and then rushes to the gate. When the nine soldiers are with the squad leader, he throws open the gate with the help of one of the soldiers. He then calls on Aulis to close the gate behind them and not to follow them.

As always, the soldiers of the New Legion have their entire equipment on. However, squad leader Mateo does not intend to use the usual tactics. He knows that with ten men he cannot form a shield wall long enough to stop the pirates. That's why he and his men leave their shields behind. Instead, they first grab their crossbows, which are now loaded, to try to hit a few pirates. Once their arrows are fired, they drop their crossbows and grab their two-handed weapons. Most of the soldiers have large swords on their backs, but the squad leader has a real battle axe.

With these huge weapons, the soldiers run towards the pirates. Normally, odds of six to one should not be a problem for the soldiers of the New Legion. They have often had so many enemies in front of them.

However, the pirates do something unexpected. Instead of fighting the soldiers, they retreat. As a result, the soldiers become quite scattered, and eventually they are surrounded and on their own by enemies who all keep their weapons ready. Apparently, this time the pirates have taken the legionaries into account. The survivors of the first battle must have told what happened to them.

Aulis and the others see from the walls that the pirates are slowly but surely luring the soldiers of the New Legion away from each other. To Aulis, it seems as if the soldiers are being swallowed up in the horde of pirates. It doesn't take long before the soldiers are defending themselves more and more desperately. The only reason they are still alive is that they wear their heavy armor.

Several times Aulis sees that a soldier is hit by a sword. The soldier then turns around to attack the pirate who just attacked him.

Unfortunately, the soldiers are not invincible. Slowly but surely the soldiers get tired, making their movements slower. Until eventually one soldier goes down. He was hit on the head with the knob of a sword. Even on the walls they could hear the reverberations. Aulis does not want to think about how hard that must have sounded to the soldier who had the helmet on. Fortunately, another soldier was standing nearby, and he quickly works his way towards his comrade. He stands wide-legged over the other to protect him.

Aulis decides that enough is enough. He takes matters into his own hands. He quickly summons the inhabitants of Arana to follow him and then rushes to the gate.

The people who follow him all have their tools with them as Aulis had asked in his speech. No one knows better than a farmer how to work with a rake or a pitchfork. And the butcher, despite his size, is still a horror with his meat knives. Thus Aulis leads a group of twenty inhabitants out of the gate.

The pirates, who can only keep the soldiers of the New Legion in check thanks to the odds, can do little against this new attack.

As soon as the pirates split up to stop Aulis and his people, the men of the legion manage to regroup. Now that they are under less pressure, they can move closer to each other, so that they form a loose formation again. As a result, the pirates can no longer surround the individual soldiers.

Squad leader Mateo sends two men back to help Aulis and the inhabitants of Arana. The remaining eight soldiers slowly push the pirates back to their ship. Due to the heavy blows of the enormous weapons, the pirates are pushed back.

Meanwhile, the twenty pirates opposite Aulis are attacked from behind. They must now hold their own against angry civilians with a hodgepodge of improvised weapons. Because of all those strange weapons, they can only defend themselves with difficulty. While they are busy with their own safety, they are now also cut down from behind by the two soldiers of the New Legion. When the larger group of forty pirates sees that their companions are being defeated, they start to run. Booed by the inhabitants of Arana, the pirates drip off.

"Well folks, if you ask me, we won't see them again any time soon. I think we've all earned a drink now. The first round is free!"

With these words, Aulis closes the exciting morning and leads the citizens to the building that serves as the inn.