Brizo, a sudden look of confusion washed over his face as he asked, “No, the men are trained to row to the beat of the drum. Why is this a problem?”
“The noise is going to attract every damned within earshot. We’ll have a greeting parting waiting for us on the pier.” Constan said.
Chapter 54
Morning, October 14th 636, Bay of Joppa, Palestinia Province, Byzantium
Hostile Landing
As the fleet turned into Joppa’s bay the stench of death washed over them. Within moments the large stone piers of the town slid into view. Constan brow creased as his face was etched with a deep frown, he knew what they would find. His eyes gazed upon piers that were covered with hundreds of lurching bodies, drawn to the sound of the fleet’s drums.
They watched as several of the figures, eager to get at the approaching noise, were pushed into the sea by those from behind. Constan stood on the bow and watched the seething mass of the dead for several minutes. As they drew closer, he was able to pick out individual damned from the writhing mass.
Constan turned to Athos and said, “Get with Kentarches Zinvor and have him mobilize the 1st Kentarchia. Do it quietly. No need to attract any more attention than we’ve already done with those thrice cursed drums.”
Athos saluted and said, “Aye, sir.”
Constan made his way to Brizo on the forecastle and asked, “Is there any way we can signal the following vessels to get the Skutatoi mobilized without yelling at them?”
Brizo smiled, “Of course, I can use the signal flag for prepare the marines. That should convey the message.”
“Do it. We’ll need to attack from several vessels at once, to gain a foothold on the piers.” Constan replied.
Constan turned back toward the bow and saw that Athos had gotten the message to the 1st Kentarchia. Their Kentarches Zinvor was busy mustering them on the deck. The men worked feverishly assisting each other with donning their armor, and preparing their weapons. Athos, Baltazar, Nasir, Athea, and Liana had all followed suit and were getting their own armor on in anticipation of the battle that was to come.
A flash of lightning arced across the sky followed a few seconds later by a loud crash of thunder. As the sound faded, they could hear the voices of the damned crying out in seeming anguish over the loud noise from above. Athos and Baltazar approached Constan with his armor. Athos said, “We need to get you into your armor, sir.”
Constan nodded and said, “Aye, good lad.”
As the two friends worked to get Constan’s armor on, the Twilight Storm drew close to the first pier in the line. Brizo shouted, “Strike the sails! Stow the port oars!”
Several sailors on deck scrambled to climb the masts as the wind from the north intensified and tried to push them off the masts with its fury. With practiced ease, despite the wind, they scrambled up to the yard and began pulling the sails up. The effect on their speed was immediately noticeable as the Twilight Storm slowed to just a few knots.
As they pulled alongside the pier Brizo yelled, “Starboard oars reverse stroke!”
The oarsmen on the right side of the vessel began rowing against their momentum and the vessel quickly lurched to a stop. Looking down at the writhing masses of the damned reaching up toward him with obvious hunger in their milky white eyes, Brizo frowned, turned to Constan and said, “We need to tie off before the storm’s fury is upon us, or this ship will be smashed against the pier and destroyed. Can your men clear the pier?”
Constan nodded briskly, “Aye, we’ll get the pier cleared.” Turning he said, “Kentarches Zinvor, have your men string their bows. Maarika, lass, we’re going to need your services.”
Constan worked to organize the first Kentarchia of the 5th Babylon into strike and support groups. When everything was in place Constan asked, “Dekanos Baltazar, ye are the best fighter we have. Can ye lead the men onto the pier?”
Baltazar smiled showing his teeth in a feral grin, “It would be my pleasure to send these bastards back to hell.”
Turning to Maarika Constan said, “Ok, lass, let ‘em have it.”
Zinvor also bellowed at the Skutatoi with bows that lined the Twilight Storm’s railing, “Open fire. Aim for the heads!”
Maarika became a blur of activity as she used her sling to plant lead bullet after lead bullet into the heads of the damned standing in the spot where the gangplank needed to go. She was supported by two dozen Skutatoi of the 1st Kentarchia 5th Babylon, who were lined up on the port railing of the Twilight Storm. They fired their bows in quick succession, aiming at the damned’s head.
Unusually, the damned seemed to be aware of the arrow attack and began dodging them. At least to the degree that the crushing press of bodies enabled them to. Before long dozens of the damned sported several arrows sticking out of various parts of their upper bodies, and only a few had fallen to the bowmen.
Constan, standing on the forecastle remarked, “These damned, they seem, different, smarter.”
As dozens of the damned were slowly cut down by the efforts of Maarika and the bowmen, something unusual happened. The damned with a gleam of intelligence in their milky gray eyes, realized the source of the attack, and began leaping onto the side of the Twilight Storm. Some failed to grasp the side of the vessel and fell into the water. Others, their hands finding purchase on the oar openings, climbed up toward the bowmen.
What began as an organized effort to capture the pier, quickly turned into a fight for survival as hundreds of the damned attempted to board the Twilight Storm. Both below decks and above, the men of the 5th Babylon fought to keep the undead from entering the vessel.
Constan, seeing this shift in momentum, barked, “Drop the gangplank, Baltazar get down there and push these bastards back!”
The same two large sailors who had pulled the gangplank up prior to their departure, worked to drop it into place onto the pier. A female damned, with a jagged cut in her left cheek that revealed the sides of her teeth, stood in the spot where the plank needed to go. Seeing the plank descending toward her, but blocked by the press of undead bodies on the pier, she was unable to get out of the way.
She cried out in agitation as she raised her arms to stop the descending plank, and failed. With a loud crack, the bones in her fingers and then her arms gave way as the board mercilessly crushed them before striking her head, and ending her unholy existence. As she toppled over into the water, the plank hit the stone pier with a loud thump.
With a loud bellow to attract as much attention as possible, Baltazar drew his Spatha and charged down the gangplank before any of the damned could react. Followed by ten men, he quickly cut a swath through their fetid ranks and cleared a spot at the bottom of the gangplank.
Simultaneously, several hundred damned had climbed the sides of the Twilight Storm and reached the top railing. They worked together to pull themselves over the barrier in order to make a meal of the bowmen. Forced to abandon their bows in the face of this onslaught, the men of the 5th Babylon, drew their Spathas and began working to repel the boarders.
Despite the height disadvantage, working as a team, the damned managed to pull two of the men from their position standing behind the railing, over their shoulders, and onto the pier. The denizens of Joppa, starved of living flesh for several months, immediately ripped into their soft skin and feasted. As the hungry fed on them, their desperate anguished screams washed over the living, and sent shivers down the spine of all who heard them. The men could not help to ask themselves, Is that the end that God has planned for me?
Elsewhere on the pier, as Baltazar had previously instructed his assault team, five of the men formed a shield line across the pier, and began pushing toward the shore. The other five men of his team formed a line that started pushing toward the seaward side of the pier. It was slow going as these damned, unlike their predecessors faced by the 5th Parthica, attacked as organized groups instead of mindless individuals. By the time the pier was secured and the Dromon was moored, four of the ten men
in Baltazar’s group had slid down the gullets of the damned.
With the pier finally secure, another Dromon pulled pierside, on the side opposite the Twilight Storm, and tied off. Baltazar, fighting in the line with his six survivors, had formed a shield wall, and was holding back the putrid, rotting masses of the damned from regaining a foothold on the pier. Despite the evidence in the form of bodies piling up in front of them of the cost, Satan’s minions fearlessly continued to assail their position in the hopes of gaining a meal.
The smell of living flesh in the air, something that these damned had not sensed in several months, drove them into a frenzy. The bodies, just like at Yarmuk, quickly piled up in front of the fighting men. As they did so, the line of defenders was forced to take a step back onto the pier. This helped to solve their corpse problem, as in-between opponents, they were able to push the corpses of their slain opponents into the water. This story repeated itself across all of Joppa’s piers, as one by one the Dromon were able to dock, and push the damned off each of the piers simultaneously.
Constan stood on the bow of the Twilight Storm and surveyed the carnage below him and the scene further afield. His eye slowly scanned the town of Joppa laid out before him. The town, mainly consisted of crumbling one story stone structures occasionally interrupted by a slightly better maintained two story stone structure. Like ports across the Middle Sea, the immediate waterfront area was a mixture of warehouses, and seedy looking taverns. I bet this ramshackle town has looked much the same for the last thousand years. Constan thought to himself.
Turning to Athos, Constan said, “A bloody mess. Our boys haven’t even set foot on dry land and already, one in ten have been slain by the damned.”
Athos put a hand on Constan’s shoulder to comfort his friend and said, “These aren’t the damned that we are used to facing. They are smarter somehow, more intelligent.”
Constan turned to look Athos in the eyes as he said, “Are ye saying they have somehow evolved?”
Athos nodded slowly as he said, “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Gone are the damned that just mindlessly fling themselves at our shield wall. These damned work as teams, and problem solve.”
A bolt of lightning arced across the sky in a flash of light as another peel of thunder crashed overhead. Simultaneously, the wind howled and picked up intensity as the rain started to pour from the sky. The wind, pushed against the sides of the Dromon and caused them to gently bob up and down in the water. Constan turned and looked beyond the bay into the sea. The water churned, roiled, and frothed, seemingly enraged by the storm, “Trapped between a raging sea and an army of intelligent damned.” Constan sighed deeply and added, “God has truly forsaken us.”
Athos placed a firm hand on Constan’s right shoulder and turned the older man around to face him, “We’ve faced tough situations before. Think! What can we do to push off these piers, so we can extend the lines? The damned can’t be endless.”
Constan nodded slowly and turned back to the bow. The lad is right, I must come up with a way to get us off these piers. I wish I could just draw me Spatha and dive in there. I miss those days.
As he watched the carnage below continue to unfold, an idea formed in his mind. The gang planks. Smiling, he turned back to Athos and said, “Have a group of the men grab up the gang plank. They are to hold it at waist level and push forward. As they approach the line at the end of the pier, have the fighters drop to the ground so the men with the gang plank can step over them.”
Athos, beginning to understand what the old man was thinking, smiled and said, “Then what?”
“Push the sodden plank into the damned and force them back. As they are pushed back, have Skutatoi fill in the gaps on the sides to extend our lines. This will get us off this thrice cursed pier.” Constan said.
Athos saluted and said, “At once sir.”
Athos, quickly made his way down to the pier, and selected ten of the larger Skutatoi milling about. As instructed, they hoisted the gang plank and began to move forward toward the damned with it. The group of men holding the gang plank drew up behind their comrades fighting the seething masses of the undead.
As they worked as a team to raise the gang plank into place, Athos shouted, “On my orders, you are to drop to the ground and crawl backwards. We will be stepping over you and pushing forward with this gang plank. Once we are in front of you, stand back up, and fill in the lines to the sides as we push forward.”
Athos turned around and addressed the men milling about the pier behind his immediate group, “You are to do the same. Help to form new lines as we advance.”
The men, nodded at the order and drew their Spathas. Athos turned back to face the end of the pier and shouted, “Plank men, push forward!”
The Skutatoi fighting the damned, including Baltazar, dropped to the ground as the plank men stepped over them. One of Baltazar’s men, failed to scramble out of the way, before a thin bony arm reached out and grasped him. As he was pulled into the hungry mass of the damned, his screams echoed off the stone walls of nearby structures as the undead tore the flesh from his body.
This afforded the plank wielding men the distraction they needed and they pushed the large wooden barrier into the distracted creatures. Confused by the pressure from behind as they fed, the damned were forced to take a step away from the pier. As the plank men pushed forward, Baltazar rallied his men, and began pushing to the left and right of the barrier. For the first time since they landed, a leather sandal stepped off the stone pier and sank into the mud.
As they met the point of resistance where they were unable to push any further forward, the men holding the plank, dropped it, and drew their Spathas. They had managed to extend their line and form a half square on muddy soil with some fifteen men at the head of the pier. With the damned now falling at a greater rate, thanks to the extension of their line, they were able to make further progress in extending the line. This enabled them to lengthen the line out further to get more Skutatoi into the fight.
Zinvor, standing beside Athos yelled encouragement to the soldiers of his Kentarchia, “That’s it, men, you’re doing it. Forward!”
Excited by the growing success below him, Constan shouted orders to the men on the nearby piers to his left and right. Within minutes, they were repeating the gang plank tactic and forcing the damned back. This enabled the Kentarchias pushing out from the piers, to finally join their lines together. Though they took casualties, the 5th Babylon was able to slay the ever-growing numbers of the damned, as the growing lines from the individual piers joined together.
The men, not directly in the line of battle, worked to toss the bodies into the water. This helped to keep the killing field in front of the Skutatoi clear of obstruction as they slowly advanced. As the minutes turned into hours, the advancing mass of the dead rushing to feed, decreased from a torrent, to a flow, and then finally to a trickle. In turn, the 5th Babylon began pushing off of the waterfront onto the adjoining streets of the city.
Within another hour it was over. The damned of Joppa, and those that had lurched in from the surrounding countryside attracted by the noise, had been slain by the 5th Babylon. Constan, now in the town’s forum, ordered his two deputies, Droungarios Hovig and the leader of the light cavalry Damir, along with the thirty-one Kentarches plus Athos to report for a strategy meeting.
“First off let me commend ye. Your men fought bravely today against a variety of the damned we have not encountered before. These damned, unlike those that we have faced in the past did not mindlessly charge into our lines to be slaughtered. They worked in teams, attacked as groups, and used rudimentary strategy and tactics. If we had faced the kind of damned that we were used to facing perhaps one in ten of the 5th Babylon would have fallen securing this port. Instead the cost was much higher as three in ten of our men fell here today.” Constan paused for a moment to take a breath.
He took a moment to look over the small crowd of officers clustered around him. He met several of
their gazes with a reassuring smile. They’re scared. Can’t say as I blame them. Today was a hard slog and we still have many more miles to cover before we reach Jerusalem. What can I say to give them some confidence back? “Though today’s cost was high the experience ye and your men gained is invaluable. Ye now know that ye have what it takes to stand in the shield wall and work with your brothers against an implacable and relentless foe.” Implacable and relentless foe? What in the sodden hell am I becoming to use such pretty words? He thought to himself as the words came out of his mouth.
Constan raised his right fist into the sky and shook it triumphantly as he exclaimed, “Ye now have the confidence that ye can stand against a vastly superior number of the enemy in a difficult situation and prevail!”
Cheers erupted from the officers and the men within ear shot. After the cheering died down, Constan continued, “Ye’ve fought a hard-won victory today and have earned a respite. Ensure that the gates of the city are secure and that the walls stay manned by one in ten of our men at all times. The rest should secure adequate sleeping quarters for the night. The temptation for looting will be overwhelming. Make it the standing order of the day that no man is to be alone. Otherwise they will be tempted to sneak off and loot. If the men succumb to this temptation, they might inadvertently release some of the damned from their places of entrapment and fall victim to them. If that happens, they could start the whole bloody fight over again. Understood?”
The officers nodded in response to Constan’s question, “Good, unless there are any questions then Hovig, Damir, and Athos, ye are with me. We need to discuss our next move. The rest of ye are dismissed!”
The thirty Kentarches of the 5th Babylon stiffened into the position of attention and saluted Constan before they spun on their heels and departed. Constan turned to the remaining men present, Droungarios Hovig and Damir plus Kentarches Athos, “Walk with me.”
Byzantium Infected Box Set Page 83
