Angels Blood

by Gerard Bond

  “Depth 70 feet!”

  They were less than a mile to the jetty but still a way to go.

  “Depth 60 feet! Depth 50 feet! Depth 40 feet!”

  Still they continued on under full sail.

  “Depth 30 feet!”

  Two more minutes and they were half a mile off.

  “Depth 20 feet!”

  This was going to go close.

  “Call out 5 foot intervals!”

  At seven hundred yards the call came.

  “Depth 15 feet!”

  Thanos turned to the flagman,

  “Signal for the three cruisers to hold back, the Man O Wars to continue on and that Captain Ephanos takes command of the raid on shore.”

  The flagman started waving out to the other ships. This was cutting it very close indeed, those Man O Wars would probably only be able to stay at the jetty for an hour or so, but no longer, when the tide turned they would get stuck very quickly.

  Thanos raised his telescope to study the jetty more closely. Three larger fishing boats were moored alongside a few small ones. A couple of them had spotted their own fleet the day before no doubt. He wondered if the town had emptied to the inland areas? It certainly would make his job a lot easier with the time constraints at hand, but then depending on how easily the town fell he may just lay anchor for the next high tide cycle. No point rushing things if he didn’t need to.

  There was an unusually large amount of crating sitting on the jetty. Would they trade in that amount of goods here? There seemed to be a wisp of smoke coming from behind some of the stockpiles. Thanos could not have known that the town was now a military garrison or that they had placed catapults and ballistas in strategic positions on the jetty. Hidden behind those crates were a hundred troops heavily armed with cross bows and bows, ready to open fire.

  Sergeant Burkhard couldn’t believe his luck, they were sailing right up to them! At a hundred yards his scream pierced the air.

  “Catapults and ballistas fire! fire! fire!” All of a sudden the jetty erupted, flaming pots of oil arced up into the air. They had timed their range to the second. Four pots descended on the Man O Wars and ballista bolts flew into them. The two lead Man O Wars took the brunt of the fire, one taking two direct hits, one pot square on the bow and the second pot smack damn in the middle. You couldn’t hope for more. The sound of screaming men burning and flames crackling immediately filled the air.

  The second ship was luckier with only one pot landing but still it was devastating. Ballista bolts were cutting through the ranks of the waiting men on the decks, all trying to avoid being hit. It was a mess on both boats and the first one swung away to the side, burning furiously. The surprise was total and very effective.

  “Crossbows and archers! Fire!”

  Now a hundred deadly sharps rained down on the decks of the ships raking then from stem to stern. The devastation was total. The second Man O War was swinging to one side too as a sailor dead and pinned to the ships wheel by a Crossbow bolt manned the helm. Burkhard would have to give the man that fired that bolt a beer afterward.

  They didn’t have it all their own way, the three following Man O Wars split up and swung wide, two going to one side and the third to the other. This time they opened up with their own catapults and six pots sailed through the air. Four found their mark, this time it was the turn of Burkhard’s men to burn and die. Two of the catapults were hit and burning, flaming bodies screaming and falling over the edge into the ocean. The sergeant understood their position would become untenable very quickly. Getting two Man O Wars was more than they had hoped,

  “Archers! Fire one more volley, pick your targets and then it's every man for himself!”

  Burkhard then turned and ran. All they could do now was get off the jetty. The remaining men were all running with him within the space of less than ten seconds. A second volley of flaming pots hit the end of the jetty but all of his men were long gone and retreating behind the barricaded gates to the town. They were a safe enough distance from the water and none of the ships could fire and hit them. Burkhard looked back down the main street. They had set up another two catapults there in preparation for this very situation.

  Captain Ephanos was a very angry man. They had just run into a trap like a bunch of rookies and gotten severely punished for it. He was sure that Underlord Thanos would have him soundly flogged and demoted after this even though he had been under direct orders. Ephanos had to save face and save himself.

  “Get us moored and disembark the men!”

  They moved in close, the end of the jetty burning behind them as the men poured on to it and waited to move forward.

  “Move forward to 150 feet of the walls of the town and get the archers to open fire in high arcs to land behind the walls!”

  The men all raised shields and moved forward, all chanting in response to their company leader urging them forward with vitriolic barbs spewing from his mouth. At the two hundred foot mark two fire pots sailed over the wall of the town towards the jetty crashing into the rear third of the column of men, fire enveloping them and again screams of agony as most of the ones hit dived into the waters beside them.

  “Archers fire!” Ephanos turned to his lieutenant, “Get three catapults on that jetty and down to within range of theirs. I want their catapults destroyed!”

  The lieutenant saluted and ran off barking orders. The troopers surged forward with their archers firing over their heads. They had no idea if it was having any affect. At a hundred feet the troopers stopped and kept their shields up. They had been taking return fire from the town and opposing archers were trading arrows. Two more pots came sailing over. One missed the jetty splashing into the water, the second caught the edge of the jetty and most of the flaming oil sprayed into the water too. Behind the men two catapults were loaded and ready, the third was still positioning.

  “Fire now!”

  These men were well trained and had been watching where the pots were coming from, their own pots sailed over the walls and hit home. Burkhard’s catapults were enveloped in fire, they would be of no more use.

  “Ballistas fire!”

  There were two small holes in their walls recently cut out and six foot long bolts with steel barbs on the end flew out directly at the troops on the jetty. As they hit their shields the bolts passed right through the first two ranks of men killing them instantly. The troopers manning the enemy catapults had been watching carefully. Upon seeing the direction of where the first bolts came from, they directed the next volley of flaming pots against the wooden walls.

  The walls of the town were made of logs of trees stuck in the ground and all were roped together for strength. Against the wilds and raiding thieves they were fine, but against a well-armed enemy it was an entirely different story. Two pots flew to their respective targets and hit the walls hard. A cascade of burning oil splashed out and through the cutouts and then two more bolts came flying out cutting down more of their men. The third catapult now fired at the main gates and added to the fire too, it would only be a matter of about ten minutes before the gates would be able to be breached.

  The first two catapults fired another volley at the positions of the ballistas, but it was not having an immediate affect, bolts were still being fired out at their men. The lieutenant directed all catapults to lob their pots directly into the town.

  Inside the walls there were a number of dead men and many wounded as the arrows rained down from above but they stood their ground. Burkhard looked about, this wasn’t going well at all. He knew it to be only a matter of minutes before the column of enemy troops charged those burning gates. He made a decision.

  “Fall back into the buildings on each side of this street! Use bows and crossbows to take them down!”

  The men all pulled back and withdrew to inside the buildings and waited. Then pots from outside started to crash into the town setting some of the roofs on fire. What should the sergeant do? Burkhard realized he was fighting a losing battle a
nd the enemy would soon take the town, they were much better trained than his men in warfare.

  Burkhard had to act, he ordered 100 men to stay and delay the enemy as best as they could. the rest he ordered to destroy what supplies were in the store building and withdraw to the eastern gates. He then took a small contingent and they raced off starting fires in as many buildings as possible, with luck if the fires got big enough they would engulf the rest of the town too.

  Outside the lieutenant had noticed that arrow fire from inside had dropped off to nothing. He waited for another minute then ordered the column of men forward.

  “Hit the gates! Take them down!”

  The soldiers rushed forward using their shields as battering rams crashing though the burning remains. Inside they were met with withering fire from the hidden archers and 2 dozen men were immediately cut down but still they pressed forward. Inside the walls the troopers realizing it was clear pressed forward against the incoming arrows and bolts. There was little hesitation after realizing where the defenders were. They rushed to the buildings and started battering at their doors to make their way in and take the fight to the archers. It was a costly exercise as men were cut down either by crossbow bolts or by swinging swords as they entered rooms but they were making headway.

  After another twenty minutes the town was taken with the remnants of the defenders running for the east. Little did the lieutenant know that the majority were now on horseback and retreating southeast along the inland road. A trooper came up to him.

  “We have captured two men sir.”

  The lieutenant reacted quickly,

  “Bring them to that building there and send in trooper Vascala and his men to find out what they know.”

  The trooper saluted and left. Turning to another trooper he ordered him to organize search parties to find what supplies they could and organize their return to the docks with them as soon as possible. Now he turned and looked around. There were a great many fires burning he could see, he had a suspicion the supplies were torched. The Captain wouldn’t be pleased at all.

  An hour later Captain Ephanos and his three remaining Man O Wars had returned to the rest of the fleet with a small number of fishing vessels. He had left the Lieutenant nailed to a tree for his efforts. The Captain had brought the bad news of no captured supplies and the fishing vessels while seaworthy had all been stripped of fishing gear.

  Underlord Thanos was not very pleased at all. They had lost 250 men and two ships for nothing. Thanos turned to his own Lieutenant and gave him strict orders.

  “You will take the Captain here back to his ship, I am making you the new Captain in charge.”

  “What shall I do with Captain Ephanos sir?”

  “Oh, behead him off the side of his ship and feed his body to the fish, now go.”

  The new Captain moved off quickly. The only good thing to come of this raid was that they had managed to gain some very important information from the two prisoners when they were tortured.

  So now they knew there was a deep-water port four days south of here. Should he risk a foray down there to see what shape it was in? He did have to salvage something from this trip and right now they had nothing. Thanos came to a decision. Turning to an aid he ordered a crew to use one of the ocean going fishing boats and take a southern tack along the coast until they found signs of another port. Then they were to return directly up the coast to him. With that taken care of he decided to have a second fishing boat return to Port Cholandra with the intelligence they had gathered. The Overlord would be very interested to hear of a new port further south.

  The enemy ships set sail moving off down the coast leaving behind an empty and burnt out town to be of no more use to the Kingdom. Looking back Thanos’ eyes glanced over the blackened hull of the burnt out Man O War settled in the water and its sister ship partly burnt and beached near the shore, both total losses.

  Back inland Burkhard was riding along on his horse passing information back and forth between his corporals. There were many wounded and the going was to be slow. He didn’t expect they would make the northern edge of Port Volarus for at least nine days. He knew some would die. They had lost eighty men in the town and by what he could tell another ten would probably die on the trail. He just hoped that when the boat he had sent south the day before arrived in Port Volarus, Raz would know to send a ship to the northern beach to pick them up at about the right time. He really didn’t fancy the idea of sitting in the wilderness until someone realized they were there. Just over two hundred armed men traveling south, probably not of any real consequence to anyone he thought to himself.

  Three days later the fishing boat returned to Underlord Thanos with news and it was disturbing indeed. A major deep water port was under construction and many cargo ships were moving in and out but only three Man O Wars could be seen. By their description Thanos quickly worked out that many of them were once Isogorrean. If that was true, had the crews mutinied and joined forces with Kingdom people? Normally he would have rejected the idea out of hand but he remembered that epic six-month journey without a thing in sight for all that time. It had taken all their will and authority to make it this far, right now he couldn’t say no.

  They had no choice but to go down there and see just how strong they were. Maybe if the conditions were right he could inflict some major damage. He was sure that Sealord Gacek would react swiftly and send down a large flotilla of his own anyway. This way any damage Thanos did could be finished off by the second fleet he knew would be sent and he would be able to give them invaluable information regarding their defenses. He was right in heading south. It had turned out to be a very important find. Thanos ordered the fishing boat to go back to spying on the harbor. That way he would have up to date information when he got there. It quickly pulled away and within two hours was on the horizon ahead of them. He expected to be there tomorrow afternoon at this rate.

  Late the next day, the six ships had dropped sail and were idle in the water. The scouting boat had returned and Underlord Thanos was being briefed on what had been seen. It was sounding very positive indeed. Of the multitude of ships in the harbor only four large cargo ships were anchored there with three Man O Wars. There was nothing else of significance in the bay at all. To the north a sheer cliff face, some of his men might be able to scale it. To the south of the bay nothing but swamp, well that would be of no use.

  Thanos decided to go in, dispatch the three Man O Wars and capture what cargo ships he could. Then he would burn what else of the town he could with minimal casualties. They would wait another hour before setting sail and when they approached in darkness he would have men disembark at the cliff face and scale it. They would make good use of having a few men on shore to wreak havoc from there as well.

  He looked up at the sky. It was cloudy but not overcast and it would be doubtful if the moon played a part tonight. It was a good thing though. Without a moon they would be able to get very close before opening fire. It wasn’t long before the order rang out.

  “Make sail!”

  As the sun set casting an orange glow across the unfurling canvas on the ships, they slowly moved off to what would be a major and final confrontation for many on both sides.

  A couple of hours later ten long boats that had disembarked from the shadowing Isogorrean flotilla were approaching the cliff face and as it was low tide they were lucky to have sandy beach at the base of it. The surf was a bit tricky but the seasoned sailors were able to negotiate their way to the shore without incident. Once the boats spilled their men onto the beach they quickly made their way to the rock face and began pulling themselves up with swords or crossbows strapped to their backs. It was two hundred feet straight up and only the hardiest and fittest were picked for this mission. It was slow going and it would take them over an hour to work their way to the top.

  Back on board the ships Thanos was taking his time. He wouldn’t enter the harbor for another half hour so that their timing was just right. He wanted
the element of surprise to be complete from both attacks, the land and sea attacks to happen together. The clouds were doing their job. The moon had not shown at all in the past hour and it didn’t look like that would change. A light drizzle had begun to fall. That would probably complicate and slow things for the rock climbers but he didn’t envisage any real problems with it.

  He considered his tactics once more. They had to stick to the port side of the bay when entering. The scouting boat had noticed all the larger ships had done so. Once in they would separate and move to individual targets with the Kingdom’s boats well spread out on the bay. He knew they wouldn’t be able to organize a proper defense anyway in the short time after the attack started. He had made sure of their moored positions too.

  The scouting boat had provided its last report to him at dusk. Each cruiser would deal with the Kingdom's Man O Wars in harbor with a surprise attack. His ship would fire first and when the other cruisers saw him start firing it would be the signal for them to do so too. It was a simple tactic but had proved effective many times. The cargo ships would be easy targets after that and if complications arose they were under instructions to beat a hasty retreat after firing at least a single salvo. Thanos was not going to make the mistake of sailing in without being ready this time. All men and all catapults were at the ready from the word go. The added advantage was they wouldn’t be seen in the almost pitch black of this night.

  The time came for them to enter the harbor and the ships moved forward slowly making their way line astern into the port. There were no alarms, no sounds out of the ordinary coming from the harbor or the town.

  On the cliff the men were making slow progress but it was steady. The drizzle proved to be a pain as the rock face had become rather slippery. They were only a third of the way up and a little behind but they couldn’t rush this, if one man fell, the others directly below him would be in real danger too. A few of the men still on the beach looked out over the ocean but there was only blackness. They knew the ships would be entering the harbor. For the next hour or so they would be on their own.