68 - Defense Part Four
Morris and Harris, meanwhile, have their twenty cavalrymen ready. Because most Chakras attack from the east side, they can slip out with their men through the west gate.
As quickly as possible, the twenty-two men drive off, and then return to the border fort with a large bow.
What Morris has noticed, and the commanders of the Chakras have not, is that the attack on the border fort has thinned out to such an extent that there are no longer enough men to keep the garrison inside. The garrison, which still consists of nearly seven hundred warriors, is now held in by between one and two hundred Chakran warriors. However, these, like the main force attacking the New Legion camp, have left their horses under guard, and are currently on foot.
With loud cries, the two captains and their cavalrymen storm right through the group of Chakras. Due to the speed of the horses, the Chakras do not stand a chance to stop the cavalrymen. Without losing a single man, they break through to the gate of the border fort.
From the gate, the warriors have seen the attack, and rush to open the gate.
Meanwhile, the gate of the camp is about to break. Despite the ominous crackle of the gate doors, they still managed to stop the ram quite a few times. With the last hit, however, the head of the ram breaks right through the right door, Now there is a big hole in it. The Chakras adjust their ram slightly, so that the final blow can be given to the closing bar of the gates.
With an explosion of splinters the bar breaks in half, and the doors swing open a bit. Immediately, five soldiers of the second squad shoot their crossbow bolts through the open gates. This will bring down some of the warriors operating the ram, causing it to fall to the ground.
Despite this obstacle, the Chakras rush through the gate. At the same time, the men of the first squad also brace themselves, and the second row puts their shields on top of those from the first row.
For a moment it seems as if the soldiers are being knocked over by the weight of the attacking warriors, but thanks to their heavy armor they manage to stay upright. However, they are pushed back almost a meter. Sergeant Ice, who is in the second row, still almost manages to be beheaded by one of the largest Chakras he has ever seen. With a huge sword, he swings from behind his head to hit the squad leader behind his shield. However, his eyes suddenly seem to pop out of his head as his sword continues to point almost straight up. Both he and his opponent look up, to see that the sword has bitten into the top of the gate.
Then the other five soldiers of the second squad also shoot their crossbows, with take down several corporals, including sergeant Ice's opponent. A few moments later, the first five have finished reloading their crossbows and can fire them once more. Slowly the pressure on the first squad becomes a lot less, as the swords of these soldiers also take their toll on the Chakras. The gate slowly begins to fill up with the bodies of slain Chakras.
The situation on the walls also doesn’t look too good. Although the Chakras have not yet managed to force a breakthrough, the soldiers are slowly starting to become exhausted. The odds of the Chakras compared to the soldiers is enormous, and this time the New Legion does not have the benefit of surprise.
For Morris, the situation in the camp seems even worse than it really is. The garrison of the border fort was not prepared for his plan, and he feels it takes ages for the warriors to get there.
When the time finally comes, he charges through the gate at the head of five hundred warriors from the garrison. The besiegers of the garrison, now only about a hundred in total, have no chance of confronting this attack. Immediately after trampling them they move on to the main force of the Chakras.
The attack in the back turns out to be devastating for the army of Chakra. The commanders, who are at the back, are almost caught but they manage to flee because they have stayed on their horses. The ordinary warriors have to pay the price, as only a few manage to flee after their commanders.
"Well Morris, I think these commanders have a lot to explain when they return without their regiments." Cheers Harris.
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"We always get the worst jobs, guys. The fact that our skills include the exploration work does not necessarily mean that we always have to be ones picked for those things that no one else wants to do."
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John and his squad of soldiers are working on determining the defensive line. With stakes they indicate where the defensive wall and moat should be, where the palisade and watchtowers should be set up, and all the other things that have to be figured out before work can be started on the defensive works. Captain Raidon has the other one hundred and forty soldiers working on assembling shelters.
"Well sergeant, someone has to do it. And if we don't do it, what will become of the whole defense?"
"Keep your mouth shut Robin, my visible rank is that of squad leader. No one needs to know that I'm actually a sergeant."
"Who will find out? There is no one here. Everyone else is busy building huts."
"Better be on the safe side, soldier. Let's quickly learn to stick to the visible ranks. That reduces the chance of slips of the tongue if there are others around."
At this narrow part of the peninsula, the country is still almost a kilometer wide. However, it is not necessary to defend the entire length. The eastern part consists of a gorge of three hundred meters that is so difficult to climb that even John's best men doubt whether they dare to do so. The bottom of the gorge consists of a sandy beach, which is flooded with spring tide. Here and there you can see the traces of those high water levels. John can even see some planks from a fishing boat.
In the west is an elevated plateau. Just like the gorge in the east, it seems as if the ground that is missing there has been pushed up in the west. This plateau is higher than the tallest trees, and is therefore a natural line of defense. According to the inhabitants of Olanca, the top of the plateau is almost completely flat. A few have climbed the steep wall of the plateau as young people, but more than one has fallen during the climb.
To make this place even better for the defense, the largest part of the last three hundred meters is protected by a fast-flowing river. Of course it is possible to cross the river, but with only a few men it should be doable to guard this entire stretch.
John and his men are mainly occupied with a part of about a hundred meters where there is no natural defense. Here the terrain is a lot higher than the river, making a moat not feasible. A ditch is of course possible, but it will have less of an effect.
It takes John and his men two days to draw up the plan for the line of defense. Most of his time has been spent trying to find ways around the planned defenses. Now he reports to Raidon.
"In my opinion, it is possible to climb the plateau. But from above you can defend the entire plateau with a handful of soldiers. The same goes for the gorge, which can be climbed, but not if someone is shooting at you or throwing rocks down. Both places can you defend against a odds of a hundred to one? Maybe even more."
"And the river?"
"The river is a different story. We have found about ten places where it should be possible to cross. And it is also possible in other places, but then you’d lose a number of men when crossing. Yet the river is still a difficult obstacle for any attacker. It flows fast enough to wash away most of the junk, so a complete bridge needs to be made to get to the other side without huge losses. So apart from a long siege, the river is fine to keep under watch without fortifying it."
"That’s lucky for us, because without that bend in the river, the distance would be almost four hundred meters extra to strengthen. All right, I assume you've laid out the defenses?" When John agrees, Raidon continues, "the road that runs north eventually ends up at a city. Until it hits that city, however, the road runs almost directly to the north. So any army will probably follow the road to get to us. I want you and your men to follow the road to make a listening post somewhere."
"But I just wanted to pick out a bed in those beautiful cabins that you have made in the past few days." John manages to look bewildered. While he and his men have mapped out the defenses, the other soldiers have done their best to turn the many trees into sturdy huts. They sealed these with the tent cloths to make them warm and waterproof.
"Too bad John, they are for us while you can have fun in the wilderness. Also look at where you can trap Chakras. That will be your next task."
"Thank goodness! Otherwise we would get bored. A listening post is a lot more interesting than digging a ditch." With these last words, John leaves before Raidon can put him to work at the ditch.
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While first company is putting themselves in danger at the frontlines, at Centurion they have other things to do.
Lately Brandon had his recruits, led by experienced squads of soldiers, doing exercises on what to do when the island is once again invaded by pirates or others.
He found the old protocols a while ago, but they have proven to be almost useless. Most of the fortifications, lookout towers and other defenses have long ago fallen. Only Centurion and Arana are left on the island.
Thus Brandon had to rewrite the entire defensive protocols for the island.
Now, after their exercises have finished, he has to deal with the after action report. According to his sergeants, even his revised protocols will be useless without using way more resources than he has available.
To defend the island, they would have to use over a dozen small ships, like the fishing boats, to patrol around the coast. Furthermore, they would need over a hundred patrols the size of one squad each to patrol on land. A lot of these would need permanent camps all over the island from where they could do their patrols.
The only other option would be to let an attacker invade the island at their leisure, while they would only defend the two settlements. When an enemy would be spotted, they could then gather the troops and to the invaders to do battle.
“Whatever I do, Gareth, it’s the wrong choice. We don’t have the men nor vessels to do all those patrols, and if we somehow could use every soldier available and do them, then we would be helpless if something actually did happen. It would just take too long to gather all those little units to form a larger fighting formation.”
“I agree, Brandon, and the other option also isn’t something I like. We wouldn’t even know if there were enemies on the island, and everyone could be ambushed at any time.”
“Yes, especially those ins that will be built along the road soon. And Arana isn’t all that much better off. It needs a much bigger garrison to manage to hold out against a real attack.”
“So we need to think about something else. For now we’ll just have to continue with the second option, and maybe have the trade ship do some patrols around the island, with some soldiers to be stationed on it of course.”