The Fireseed Wars

Kalvan wasn't convinced. He knew that King Theovacar was a hard taskmaster and a dangerous man to cross. No commander worth his salt would want to be the one responsible for his King losing his palace and his treasury. If he were in the castellan's shoes, he'd rather die with his boots on fighting than at the blade of the Kingdom's executioner. Furthermore, Errock was a mercenary with no home base and didn't quite grasp the psychology of a defender guarding his own city.

Kalvan knew that he had no intention of despoiling the city or pillaging it. Still, regardless of his surrender terms, the Greffan commander had no reason to trust his words or honor. After all, Kalvan was an outlander, an eastern barbarian to the Grefftscharri, who believed Greffa, a city founded over two thousand years ago, to be here-and-now's center of civilization. Once the wall was rent and a gap was made, the fight would be furious and bloody and the defenders would give no quarter nor ask for any.

"How much longer do you think these walls are going to hold up, Colonel Nathros?"

The batteries fired again, shaking the ground and sending up a small cloud of white smoke ribbed with gray. The stench of fireseed filled the air. The wall shuddered and a whole section of brickwork, about the size of a city bus, fell back into the city.

"Not long, Your Majesty! Another volley or two should do it!" he shouted, in an attempt to be heard over the sound of increasing gunfire as the Hostigi fired at the defenders who had gathered to protect their walls.

Kalvan turned to Captain-General Verkan. "It's time to bring up the first wave."

"Already done, Your Majesty. The Mobile Force pike companies, using half-pikes, will be the first through the breach, followed by the musketeers. I'm holding back the Riflemen until the passage is cleared."

"Good thinking, Verkan. If there were more defenders, I wouldn't enter the city with just one breach like this. However, there aren't enough defenders to really slow us down. After they're defeated, I'd like you to take the Mounted Riflemen and secure the Great Treasury of Grefftscharr."

If what a tenth of the stories he'd heard about the Royal Treasury were true, Kalvan could float the cost of the entire war on a quarter of the gold amassed in Greffa over the millennia wrenched from the Black Hills and the Gold Coast of California. However, he wasn't holding his breath. Usually rumors were far greater than the truth which lay underneath them. Regardless, he would have one big thorn pulled from his side when the city fell, while King Theovacar would have a civil and public relations disaster.

"Excellent!" Verkan roared. "If tightfisted Theovacar had invested his gold in better and more soldiers, we wouldn't be in a position to abscond with his Treasury. The stories about the Royal Treasury are Greffa's favorite tavern gossip."

A few minutes later, there was another combined barrage with both batteries and Galzar's Mace. With a shudder, the great wall collapsed, leaving a gap all the way to the ground about the width of five men on horseback.

As soon as the smoke cleared, a party of defenders pushed their way outside. Two volleys from the Sharpshooters left about a quarter of them dead or wounded with the survivors pouring back through the gap.

IV

Verkan resisted the urge to be the first through the jagged fissure that split the walls. Instead he signaled for his dragoons to move forward. The pike-men with their shorter half-pikes and halberds moved at a trot until they reached the fallen rubble and large stones from the wall's face. The defenders had created a barricade of fallen stones, rubble, broken furniture and several overturned wagons about fifty paces behind the breach. As soon as the Hostigi advanced beyond the gap, they began shooting crossbows, calivers and ancient arquebuses. Several of the dragoons were hit and the rest fell back.

After reordering the dragoons, Verkan ordered the Sharpshooters to advance through the defile. The First Company of Sharpshooters, carried as their banner a white skull on a red field, showing a black spot at the center of the temple, over two crossed rifles. The riflemen were accompanied by their shield bearers. Verkan advanced with them and when the shields, with firing holes, were seated he ordered them to fire. A volley rang out and any of the defenders who weren't hidden behind the wall of rubble were killed or wounded. After another volley, Verkan gave the order to fire as targets of opportunity presented themselves.

The Grefftscharri were hunkered down and pinned to their position and it was time to move forward. Verkan called up the pikemen and halberdiers, who moved ahead and began to flank the impromptu barrier. With the Sharpshooters keeping the Greffans behind their barricade, potshots from behind the gap quickly ceased. If nothing else, Greffa's defenders had learned to respect the Hostigi riflemen, especially the First Company of Sharpshooters.