16I need to kill what to get a time travel coupon? Chapter 3
AN: Welcome back to the story everyone, I hope it will be a good read. For those that like this so far, after you've finished the chapter, you might want to go read 'Song of a Northern Sorcerer' by ffdrake, it is a long running story in the star wars x a book of ice and fire section, that has a consistent plot and an in my opinion interesting take on star wars meets medieval world that has magic. But enough of that, now onto the story.
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River south of the recently taken slaver outpost, a week after Anakin's announcement to the clones
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A galley slowly rows up the river, a dozen rowers on each side slowly pushing the ship forward as they approach the dock where they are expecting a warm welcome and some slaves to sell back in the city, so far not noticing anything suspicious as they can see the guards signalling them to come in, only for the eyes of their watch to open wide before he shouts ''Ambush! Up in the…''
Before the man can finish however, the ambushers he spotted realized they were noticed and start opening fire, one of the first shots killing him and sending him tumbling down towards the deck of the ship, landing in between the benches of rowers as up above his comrades duck for the meagre cover of the railing as shots rain down around them, with half of them losing their lives in the opening volleys before they find said cover.
With only ten men left, none of them being the officers as they where in the open area of the ship near the rudder, two forms can be seen rushing along the treetops and jumping onto the ship as their troops switch to only giving covering fire while most of surviving hostiles are grabbed with the force and thrown onto land some dying from the fall, others coming into the care of the clone interrogators.
At this point, only two men are left, as agreed upon between the attackers beforehand ''I am giving the two of you a choice… either you agree to be sent back to Myr and convey our warning to them, or,'' at this point Anakin steps closer all the while lifting them off the ground for a second before dropping them back down ''You experience what it is like to be thrown upwards three times the distance your allies travelled.'' Both very, very quickly agree to convey his message instead.
After this they free the slaves chained to the rowers benches and slowly move the ship towards the docks, getting everyone off of it and handing the now former slaves water to drink and a bit of food to eat, before getting them to rest in a group of small tents.
Fifteen minutes later Anakin is looking through the footage together with echo ''Good job on getting all that on camera echo. Please send a copy of it to my data slide, I believe it could prove very useful in the near future.'' As the other man nods and starts transferring the file, Ahsoka walks up to them, eye ridge slanted upwards.
''Are you sure that is going to be effective at helping gather more local allies at the gathering of town representatives? They have to realize that with the technology we show in fighting, we might very well also have faked this viewing.'' She shakes her head ''Hell they don't even know for sure how this is made, for all they know it is just hyper realistic paintings and draws put into a cycle after one another.''
Anakin nods ''They might yes, but this is more to show them what we are capable of, the actual convincing them we stand with them against Myr part will mainly be done by way of Lawrence and one or more of the slaves we freed from the ship.'' She looks at him with questioning eyes, causing him to roll his own ''Yes I'm fairly certain at least some of them will be more than willing to help on this, as a former slave myself I would have gladly partaken in a tribunal against slavers crimes and trying to put those that saved me in a better light.''
At this point he looks thoughtful ''Though to be fair Watto was, at least for a slaver, a fairly kind man so there wouldn't be much to talk about outside of unreasonable work hours for a child. The hut we belonged to before that, less so. Still would have gladly supported improving the public image of any group that saved slaves from their fates either way.'' At this point he shakes his head ''And that is enough about that for now, we should probably figure out a place to stay for these people first.''
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Libertas, two days later
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In a large tent structure set up specifically for today a group of representatives from nearby towns has gathered, to talk about formalizing the coalition a few of them already joined into. ''So general Skywalker, you have done very good work lately from what I hear, and if it was without as high a danger as it is I'd be more than willing to join this coalition, however the issue is that there is a large danger. Myr will launch an expedition to take out any rising power in this region, even if it is one that has no real chance of threatening Myr or any of its larger holdings, let alone one like ours that will threaten Myr through removing easy access to new slaves. How can we be assured that you can protect us against that?''
Anakin smiles at them before taking out his data slide ''While some of you can answer that question from having seen parts of it with your own eyes, I will allow recordings of our skirmish against a slaver galley and some footage of our forces do the talking for now.'' While talking he had attached the correct cords and moments later, he activates the video, which is now being projected onto the intentionally empty tent wall behind his speaking podium.
First the battle is shown, with those that haven't seen them in action yet now looking less wary and more interested, especially after seeing Anakin and Ahsoka just jump from one of the trees onto the deck and then throw the slavers off the ship, though a few also look more worriedly at Anakin now after seeing what at minimum he and one of his allies can do to opponents.
After the battle footage is over however, a birds eye view is shown instead of their camp, the view shocking almost all present in the hall as they can see the gigantic white and red coloured ship, with the houses and still under construction town on the other side of the clearing giving a good impression of scale. As the camera flies closer towards the ground however, more shocked gasps are let loose as thousands of soldiers in white armour can be seen marching down the centre of the clearing before a command be heard shouted and they stop, only to salute as one.
Anakin turns towards the crowd ''So who is interested in hearing more details about this coalition now?'' Everyone either shouts or gestures after a moment of stumped silence, only for Anakin to raise his hand and voice ''Calm now!'' and the room slowly quiets down again ''I'll pick several people for the first questions, now you in the first row, you young lady in yellow?''
''I believe I speak for everyone if we say that we're all interested in joining on two conditions.'' Anakin raises an eyebrow but gestures for her to continue ''We will all join this coalition, if you and your men join as well, in addition to offering the same construction options as you gave Libertas, with transportation to move people to those towns from smaller community if they wish for it.'' After a moment of digesting it Anakin turns towards the crowd.
''I will put it to a vote, whom of you would want this option. Say aye while raising a hand if agreed.'' He waits for what he said to be translated to everyone for a bit before starting ''Those in favour?'' the crowd roars with 'Aye!' loudly enough to surprise even Anakin. Who replies ''Then I will bring that proposal to my fellow leaders once this meeting is done.'' While saying this however his mind shoots into another direction 'Regardless of how I explain this the words 'Emperor Skywalker' are going to leave Ahsoka's mouth and I'm probably going to get reminded of it for the next decade or so…'
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Meeting aboard the ship, later that same day
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Ahsoka and Rex are staring at Anakin in silent stupor for a few minutes before Ahsoka gathers herself ''Anakin we have gotten eighty applications of towns and tribes of various kinds wanting to join us, of which fifty requests were sent in with those applications from smaller groups to be moved into a larger town where we can do infrastructure projects like we did in Libertas… how did you manage to get all of these people to agree to join the coalition?''
''Apparently the locals are all very interested in the infrastructure assistance after they saw Libertas, in addition to the fact that apparently the video I showed them being enough to convince them that we could defend them against Myr.'' He is silent for a moment before continuing ''They did however have one request.'' The other two look at him for a moment, their faces showing 'go on' ''They want us to join the coalition as well.''
The both of them look at him for a few minutes before sighing as Rex speaks up ''Might as well, that way we can help them along and be a guiding hand.'' It is at this point however that he stares Anakin in the eye ''However please don't do a Chancellor Skywalker turning into Emperor Skywalker for the love of the force, I've experienced it once with Palpatine and that was more than enough.''
Anakin shakes his head ''Yeah I am fully on board with that after seeing the consequences and actions taken to achieve it.'' He then gives him a smile ''However might I interest you in another proposition instead, one called: Empress Tano?'' Rex gives a smile in return as Ahsoka looks between the two of them with fear in her eyes.
''No way in hell, I am already feeling the pain in my hand from what paperwork I have to do now, there is no way you will ever convince me to do something so horrible to myself.'' She points at them accusingly ''If anyone tries that I'm abdicating the moment I can and forcing either of you to replace me instead, so don't even try it, not even just for a joke.''
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Late at night of the same day, the bridge of the ship
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Anakin once more stands ready for an announcement, and after checking the time one last time looks over to the operator next to him before nodding, who nods back and presses a few buttons before giving a thumbs up. ''To all those listening, this is Anakin Skywalker of the Republic Expeditionary Force, with an announcement. After todays vote we have decided to join the League of the Golden Fields. We now stand together with eighty communities in the spread throughout the Golden Fields and will defend them from any outside aggression, no matter what it takes.''
He takes a deep breath for a moment before continuing ''This also means that from now onwards, we are at war with any and all slavers in the golden fields region and will soon be at war with Myr. Prepare to fight men, for we shall do so and I will not rest till we have cleansed these regions from the trash that threatens the people. Any town or community leadership interested in joining up with the League of the Golden Fields, please get in contact with our headquarters through one of the radio's we have sent to our members.''
Within a week another thirty small communities had found their way to those radio's and were applying to join the League, growing membership with the combination of locals and the Republics Expeditionary to almost 50000 people, with multiple towns that had previously only had a few hundred inhabitants now containing over a thousand people. However while this explosive growth was mostly a positive for them, especially with the construction and scientific aid from their new extraplanetary allies, this more widespread information meant that those who had less positive intentions towards them now had more information on what was happening besides distraught rambling of the two pirates dropped off by gunship. Including one city that hadn't received news from its overlord on this and as such would act of its own accord.
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Council of Magistrates, Nykos, two weeks after the radio announcement
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A trio of men can be seen looking out over their city, looking out from the balcony, with the youngest of the three, the commander of their armed forces, speaking up ''We have no word from Myr yet, but if what information we can gather is trustworthy a new nation of sorts is forming in the golden fields. They've claimed to have dozens of villages under their command and that they will purge the area of all pirate activity all the while defending them from any form of outside invasion.'' All three of them look at each other before sadly chuckling and shaking their heads.
The eldest, the head of the economic affairs of the city as a whole, sighs ''And another group that hasn't learned from the past, unless you get a major power to support you independence of any form cannot be maintained in this region, it is too much of a threat for both Myr's and Volantis's liking if any power rises. We'll have to act quickly before they get it in their head that we were somehow involved or are sympathetic to the locals.''
Long ago this city was an independent city-state, however a bit over a century ago they had chosen the wrong side in a conflict between Volantis and Myr, being turned into a vassal of the latter as part of the peace negotiations. Due to the distance a fairly autonomous vassal, but a vassal that pays its tributes and follows Myrish policies nonetheless, that was entrusted by Myr in providing muscle to its interests in the region when required.
The third man, head priest of the local Red Temple as well as the overseer of public works and the small local diplomatic service, looks at the younger man that had first spoken ''How many soldiers could you gather within the next week? By then the spies I sent out should have figured out and sent back the location of any large nearby villages that have joined this league as you asked for.''
The younger man nods his thanks ''That would do nicely. If we manage to get there before they really build up much we can force them into a pitched battle after taking it, and if they fail to show up we can spread that news to show this isn't anywhere near as strong as it flaunts about while if they do show up we can take out a good chunk of their military strength, doing the same while also showing Myr our dependability once more.'' The other two nod their approval as he thinks for a moment ''I should be able to gather about two and a half thousand men to fight, five hundred of our own crossbowmen, a bit over a thousand mercenaries from the Talon and Pike companies and the remainder from the still relatively new khalasar nearby that is looking for true battles to prove itself and make a name in, the 'Blood Harpies' as they're calling themselves.''
His two listeners nod before the economic leader speaks up ''That would leave behind more than enough to defend ourselves in case another khalasar passes by. However, are you sure that you can convince the khalasar? The main reason behind them joining us previously was that their leader had a grudge against the Khal we were marching out against and even then we had to pay them off with a good chunk of the loot.''
The other man smiles ''It shouldn't be an issue, after the last few months the man knows and trusts me enough that if I point out how this might get into the histories and promise him three quarters of all animals we capture from these people and early pickings on a number of slaves…'' The two nod and give him the go ahead and he smiles ''I'll see myself out then, I should get started as soon as possible on contacting the mercenaries and khalasar so we can get their grandstanding out of the way before marching off.''
He gets a nod from the economic leader ''Be careful to not die in this campaign Yimir, without you to keep them loyal I don't think we can keep on enough of the mercenaries to scare off the larger khalasars and if we have to pay them off I'm uncertain about if we can afford our tribute to Myr.'' He shakes his head ''I'll go get started on the funds for logistical support.''
The two of them leave the room while the third man stays looking out of the balcony for a moment looking out over the city, remembering the last time a similar thing happened before shaking his head. Thoughts on the past won't help him now, they have to do this, for their city and if nothing else, for the continued safety and survival of their families. They'll win, but just in case, he should probably go through the plans they made to save themselves and those closest to them in case Myr comes calling.
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Libertas, three weeks after the radio broadcast
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As he focuses and lifts the last of the heavy concrete blocks into place, the engineer next to him sighs in relief before Anakin turns to him ''After this you and your men are fine right?'' The engineer nods and thanks him and apologizes for the inconvenience before saluting. However Anakin waves it off as he doesn't mind much since this gave him a chance to stretch his metaphorical muscles in the force a bit before he has to go back to more diplomatic work, in addition to sparing the men hours of heavy labour as a consequence of too many building projects while possessing only a limited amount of heavy machinery.
He looks as the engineer and his work crew of troopers start their work on the bridge that he had just laid the foundation blocks of, before shaking his head as he walks back towards the town centre noting how much had changed since his first visit. The roads are now more actual roads and less the vaguely defined paths created through the constant walking of people they previously were, dozens of new houses are along those roads and last but not least a renovation and improvement to most buildings that had already been there to make them more structurally sound.
After a while he reaches the same giant tent structure used as during the last negotiations, with two troopers at the entrance that salute him as he greets them before entering. Once inside he sees most of the others are already there, with only three others not having arrived yet ''My apologies if I'm somewhat late, I was assisting with construction work and not observing the time.''
He gets replies mostly along the lines of 'no problem', 'not a great issue' from them before Lawrence speaks up ''We're still waiting on Jeremiah and Morathi anyways so it wasn't an issue.'' Anakin gives him a thankful nod for the information before sitting down at the large table, with the two mentioned individuals arriving a few minutes afterwards, giving their own greetings before sitting down.
Anakin looks around for a moment to make sure everyone is actually there and he hadn't overlooked anyone before nodding and starting ''Welcome back again to Libertas everyone, it is good to see you again. And my thanks once more to Lawrence and the people of Libertas for allowing us to hold these conferences here.'' A momentary applause is held for the man who accepts it graciously before Anakin holds up his hand to signal silence as he speaks up again once they calm down.
''As you all likely already know, during this meeting we'll discuss the moves to make in the near future, especially our general diplomatic stance towards the neighbouring powers in addition to how we as a group wish for the League of the Golden Fields to function as an entity. Now let us broach the first topic, a potential diplomatic stance towards Volantis, Myr and Braavos.''
At this point half of the delegates start shouting suggestions ranging all the way from 'Burn the first two alive from the skies till they give up slavery!' to 'Let us negotiate while hiding most of the strength we now possess with your vast armies and flying vehicles to make sure that if we have to use them it will be with the element of surprise.' This spectrum also includes far simpler statements, such as 'Death to oppressors!' and 'Ally with Braavos'. It is at this point that Anakin remembers why he always had issues with decisions by committee, as he does his best to not slam his head into the table.
Several hours later Anakin has managed to guide the discussion into taking place in a calmer manner and the discussion is now finishing off for the day as Anakin makes a final statement ''Okay so to summarize the decisions made today, each member of the League can form its own separate military command, however the League as an entity will in the future have a quick reaction unit formed as a combined force of units from those various military commands.'' He looks around at this and all the delegates nod, if somewhat grudgingly for some, since this was something none of them had too much of an issue with.
''Next up on the diplomacy issue, we're not going to pursue active war with any of our neighbours except for pirate groups.'' He looks around the room for a moment with a fiery look in his eyes to keep the already grumbling delegates quiet ''As we agreed upon! What we are going to do instead is fight back with extreme prejudice against any attack by them on us while trying to seek friendly ties with Braavos and the Seven Kingdoms.''
Anakin waits for a moment while he looks around the room, the early diplomacy had been the hardest to go through. After looking around for a while and seeing that while a number of them disagreed with this more peaceful stance, the discussions and argumentation behind it had been fierce enough that they were willing to leave it for now. ''Good, now onto the next point.''
At this one he gains a smile as it was something they all agreed upon unanimously without much trouble, only the specifics of how to enact it being even a slight discussion ''Any and all slaves that enter our territory will if they wish for it be freed from slavery immediately and any people enslaved to you are automatically set free once you become a member of the League of the Golden Fields.'' This is the first statement to be instead met by a cheer as most of the delegates smile at one of the few things they could all wholeheartedly agree on.
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Near the town of Lourones, a week later
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Two clone troopers are out on perimeter patrol with speeder bikes, those currently being stationary as they're dismounted while on a hill as one of them thought he saw something ''So find anything other than endless waves of grass? You've been looking in that direction for quite a while and you've got the only pair of binoculars between us.'' His answer is silence causing him to look at the other man with slight concern ''Jake?''
Now his answer is instead to get the binoculars in question pushed into his hands while his brother points in the direction he was watching, as if to say 'see for yourself'. Taking them and now being concerned about what might have caused him to act like this he looks and for a moment doesn't see anything until… is that a dust cloud? Zooming in quickly reveals a giant dust cloud… but there aren't any large herds of animals in any direction. And it was coming from the same direction as where a potentially hostile city laid.
His eyes widen as he realizes the same thing his brother had, causing him to put the binoculars down before he turns to the other man and asks about it ''You also see a dust cloud large enough that only an army or giant herd could generate it?'' the slight nod is the only confirmation necessary ''Then we're heading back to town right now.''
Almost half an hour later a trooper at said town has been working on a radio for at least fifteen minutes before it finally goes active, causing him to sigh in relief ''This is Petar at post Lourones to base, Lourones to base, is anyone receiving?'' He hears a crackle and an affirmative, calming him slightly ''I'm calling for immediate re-enforcements, an army of at least two thousand men is approaching the town, likely intent on assault. From what our scouts could see a mixture of infantry and cavalry spread roughly equally between the two.''
The line is silent for a bit, doing nothing to help the radio operators nerves, before he gets a response ''Received loud and clear post Lourones, quick response unit is being scrambled to re-enforce, please take up defensive positions. Commander Tano and Captain Rex will be with these first re-enforcements. They will arrive at the earliest in half an hour however since all of the remaining ready force has already flown out to other towns there will only be one gunship with a dozen men accompanying them. Further re-enforcements will have to wait an hour for the return, refuelling and re-armament of gunships from other missions.'' He replies with an affirmative before leaving the radio post.
Outside he rushes to his platoon commander who is helping set up the last of the anti-cavalry stakes they had prepared just in case something like this happened ''Good news sir, we're getting sent a gunships worth of troops, under command of captain Rex and Commander Tano, bad news however is that further additions will have to wait till more craft have returned to base.'' He can see the man breathe a sigh of relief, before he turns towards him.
''That first one is most certainly good news Petar, though the second one dampens it a bit.'' as he speaks they can hear a warcry roaring out of hundreds of throats coming from the west and as they look they can see shapes approaching ''But join the lines now, we're going to first have to hold long enough for relief to arrive!'' he turns and shouts ''Man the defences, hold the line! We've only got to hold for half an hour before re-enforcements are here with air support, good luck!''
As his men take up positions, the village militia joins them, armed with spears and shields in addition to either gambeson or leather armour, most of it taken from cleared out pirate and slaver camps. Their leader speaks up to the platoon commander ''Where do you want us lieutenant Jackal?''
The now named Jackal takes out his binoculars for a moment and checks on the enemy before replying ''I'd prefer if you leave a small group of your men with us as a quick reaction force while the rest splits between guarding the eastern half of town and protecting the civilians in the town centre. Since they're coming from the west on horseback the chances of anything coming from the east is small, but they might have sent small patrols ahead to outflank us, and if the frontal assault fails might direct their forces there instead.''
The man nods in response and starts ordering his troops in low Valyrian with them quickly reacting and nodding to him, rushing to the directions issued while he himself stays together with a dozen men ''I'll command the quick reaction force, I've got the best common out of all my men as you know.'' Jackal nods his thanks before he turns back around to see that in the distance the enemy has started breaking into small groups as they start approaching at speed, likely intended as advanced scouts and harassing forces.
''Wait to fire until they've reached 1 kilometre, we don't want to scare them away just yet, need to make a good first impression. Pick your targets.'' As they are waiting for his command, his men follow his orders and pick their individual targets. While the men are mostly calm the sheer numerical disadvantage does make them a bit worried, however if they are slightly worried, the local troops supporting them are terrified. While more than willing to fight to defend those they love, they fear all they will do is lay down their lives while barely slowing the enemy down, even with the wonder weapons their new allies possess.
Seeing this their leader speaks up ''Remember, you do not fight alone, look to the man on your right, look to the man on your left!'' he gives them a second before he continues ''You fight for them, for your families and friends and with the support of our new allies, the entire golden fields region stands with you!'' At this he raises his sword in a cheer, his men joining him with their spears, just in time for him to turn and see a wondrous sight.
Meanwhile for the cavalry it has so far been a mostly uncontested advance, seeing only stakes planted into the ground from this distance as they approach before white clad shapes start becoming visible near those stakes, with no large force of any kind coming out to confront them. Still approaching with caution and readying their bows for once they get in range, most will never again get to use those for unknown to them on the other side of the battlefield the words ''Fire at will.'' were uttered.
While they might not have heard it, the effect is devastatingly felt by them nonetheless as bolts of blue fire start slamming into them, killing fifty men in seconds, with another dozen being hit each and every second afterwards as groups get ripped to pieces, men screaming in pain as burning wounds are suddenly felt on their bodies and their horses collapse underneath them from hits, often throwing them off or under, in many cases breaking bones on the unarmoured riders. Almost immediately individuals start breaking off and retreating before within barely more than ten seconds it has turned into a full rout instead as they desperately try to escape the hostile fire.
This is the sight the main body of the assaulting force comes to at least ten minutes later, a field with hundreds of corpses while a handful scattered survivors managed to get out of the line of fire with the Khan looking disturbed at said scene back with his main force, before the Military Magistrate starts riding over. ''Why did you not tell me about them having a ranged weapon that shoots globes of fire at our men, one outranging my archers by quite a distance.''
As he talks the other man looks over the field for a moment before turning his gaze back towards the Khal ''I can say with certainty that I didn't know anything about them having this kind of weapon, however that fact in addition to the places where this league originates from means that it is likely something that was only made recently and on a fairly small scale at that, but which can be easily replicated by more advanced cities.''
The Khal still looks angry but can now more easily control it ''You mean that you believe they likely won't have enough to arm all of the towns defenders…'' at the nod he gets he continues ''In addition to your city likely being able to make more of them if we get our hands on them?'' At this the man nods another time causing the Khal to weigh his options before calming a bit and nodding.
The noble nods ''Yes and especially with this being a ranged weapon, most if not all the wielders will be facing the open fields here, in the back should just be regular militia, though with these kind of weapons they'll likely have taken more and better gear from dead pirates than usual militia would get. You go there with your cavalry after flanking through the forest on their North-East, me and my men will try to get closer without being noticed through the fields over there while the mercenaries keep their attention until we attack, at which point they'll also charge forward, sound good?''
The warlord looks and thinks for a moment before nodding ''Yes, that does sound good. I'll start immediately to keep them from being able to adapt since they will probably realize quickly that at least somebody is trying to flank them once they realize the swords for hire aren't numerous or united enough to be the main force here.'' He then snorts ''Is probably the best use for them either way, most of them can barely hold a sword or spear, the damn idiots.''
As the other man nods and leaves for his own unit the Khal shouts orders to his troops in Dothraki and has them move back a while as if retreating before circling around out of sight of the town, hopeful of the chance to surprise them. While this is happening the magistrate has summoned his own officers ''Okay so the enemy has gotten their hand on some kind of missile weapon with a range equal if not larger than most artillery but far more precise, we'll use the farming fields as cover to advance stealthily while the mercenaries keep them distracted before we open fire once we notice the Dothraki starting their assault on the other side of the town.''
After his men nod and head to their own officers the magistrate has to spend precious time convincing the mercenaries to follow along with the plan of them attacking across the corpse riddled plain once his men open fire, before he joins his men in crawling through the fields of wheat. While they end some distance from the town, said distance is still within the range of his skilled crossbowmen and the yellow of the plants and grey-browns of the mud should provide some cover for his yellow and brown clothed men, though the crawling is slowed by the factor of having to keep the crossbows a safe distance from the dirt and mud to prevent issues with their firing mechanisms.
As he arrives near the edge of the field he sees that his men are still staying in cover as ordered, while he crawls forward a bit further to make sure he'll be able to notice once the Dothraki assault and then waits. Several minutes later he starts hearing a sound and almost stands up to deliver his shots only to realize the Dothraki couldn't have crossed the full distance yet, causing him to search for what could make the sound, his heart almost stopping once he sees it a while later… a flying beast, gleaming in the sun as if made from metal, white with red stripes adorning it.
Once it gets closer to the town blisters of light start appearing from places on it, only for him to see the same types of blasts that presumably killed the Dothraki fired, causing him to duck on instinct only to quickly realize the shouts of pain aren't coming from close enough and looking back up he sees they head instead towards the gathered mercenary horde as its sides open for humanoid shapes in white armour to rapple down on ropes followed by another shape in a dark brown robe to straight up jump out of it towards the ground. Then he sees it, the beast is controlled by a man sitting in a glass covered area, probably functioning like the steering of a ship, that is a chance!
Steeling his nerves he takes aim and looks at the other men near him before ordering ''Fire on helmsman behind the glass, if we hit him the thing will probably be uncontrollable!'' The men nervously nod before steeling their nerves as well and as they rise into crouched positions, line up their shots and take fire, the rest of the men, seeing this, also rise but to full height behind and start taking shots, some at the towns defenders, some following their leaders example and taking shots at the flying vessel as well.
A lot of the arrows hitting the gunship do little to no damage, however dozens of arrows reach the cockpit and manage to heavily damage the cover as one of the last arrows still flying hit it, breaking it and sending splinters and shards through the cockpit followed by two more arrows, one of which misses the pilot however the last manages to hit the pilot. The gunship starts crashing down as on the ground an orange figure holds up her hands, slowing the crash down and directing it to an open area, but in spite of all that a shock goes through the systems of the defenders as a cheer and morale rises among the attackers, galvanizing the mercenaries into a charge as on the other side of town a Dothraki Warcry erupts.
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And that is it for this chapter, my apologies that it took so long to be published, however I spent most of December injured and barely able to keep up with work, leaving me with little chance and motivation to write, all the while also having issues during writing a fighting scene in my other still active story. I do hope all of you did enjoy reading this. Onto the answers for the reviews:
Guest: Neat.
Answer: Thank you for the compliment.
Different guest: I will watch your career with great interest. Also, I suggest you limit your uploads to *at least* once a week, to prevent burnout.
Answer: You're not going to turn me into a two meter tall cyborg are you? I know I'm already the correct size, but still. Jokes aside, I do believe I have unintentionally followed your advice, and it is good to see that there's somebody interested in the health of authors.
And with those over, I would like to thank you all for reading and I hope to see you again next time, have a good day, if you have the chance do review, good reviews help making story writing both fun and easier.