War is Coming

Emily was sitting under a shaded patio reading a book while also watching the progress on the construction project happening in the new residential area. She looked up from her book and saw Captain Alexander coming over on his own high wheel wearing his battle armor. He hopped down and left the high wheel leaning against the building and dropped to one knee, "Lady Connaissance."

"Are you proposing to me Jon, or is it something official?" Emily licked her thumb and then turned the page on her book.

"Wait, what? No, nevermind, Lady Connaissance, my advanced scouts hunting in the forest to the south brought word that construction on the border wall with the Kingdom has temporarily stopped and that two brigades of the Kingdom's forces have started to march toward Fruitridge." He pulled out a map of the area and tapped on a few places of the important areas.

"That first area, didn't that used to be a road that went to the Holy Chadtom Empire?" She thought for a moment, "I remember my Uncle received a medal from my father after fighting there a few years ago."

Captain Alexander nodded, "Our Lion Brigade suffered terrible losses there, it is also why I was knighted."

"Why do you suppose they are trying to reopen that road?"

He thought for a moment and then replied, "If I am not mistaken, the City of Connaissance was a major source for coal and iron that the Holy Chadtom Empire desperately needs. I would not be surprised if they simply force their way past the Windsor Kingdom forces and head straight here."

"To open trading with us once more, or to simply take what they want?" She closed the book and stood up, "Jon, how are the new troops and the current city guard coming along?"

"They can defend that wall, but I wouldn't want to take them down the mountain yet. They need a few more months of fitness training and a year of weapons drill."

She drummed her fingers on the arm of the chair, "Even if you had the wagons with you armed with Beehives?"

"The new weapons are incredible, but I would rather not show our hand with them yet. I'd like to keep the Beehive as a weapon of last resort should a true siege come."

She nodded, "Until we get the dirigibles working, we'll have to turtle up in here."

"Windsor Kingdom has two Brigades stationed at that the new border gate they are building, they already have it looking like a classic fortress. In a few months, it should be as solid as our main gate." He frowned a bit and said, "Dragon and Golden Bear Brigades are stationed there, so twenty-four knights. Along with six thousand soldiers. I don't believe the force coming from the Holy Chadtom empire even has a chance, but if we are wrong and that is just the advance force moving ahead of the main host, we could be looking at a group of one hundred thousand men marching on us."

"You're sure they wouldn't be marching on the Windsor Kingdom?" She looked at him with an intense gaze.

"The Windsor Kingdom has just had a change in Kings, but the current King, your uncle, is a military genius. The last thing the Holy Chadtom empire would want is to go to war with them. No, I am sure of it. They are coming here. In fact, that group of refugees we just accepted back here, I think many of them are former citizens of the Empire. They have the accent and darker skin color."

"Mr. Dickens, his wife is from there isn't she?" Emily thought for a moment, "Then let's go with the plan that they are coming here and that we'll have an insurrection spring up just as they arrive should they get past the Kingdom's forces. Let's have Mr. Murray's team quietly install a few auto lashes and beehives on our side of the wall. Just enough to cause a civilian insurrection to surrender at once. I don't want to have your men worry about their backs should a true siege come in."

"Shall we retire the business elite?" He asked with a serious expression.

She shook her head no, "I want to keep them in place for now. When it comes time to move the population out of their current homes, we are going to see a lot of unhappy citizens. I'll need those rotten bastards to take the fall."

A soldier on a High Wheel came flying over, "Sir Alexander! A battle has broken out at the border wall!"

*****

"Sir Conners your scouts count as well as you!" Leonard yelled angrily, he pointed his sword to the north and to the south, "There are clearly four brigades on either side of this fucking wall and we have already lost the advantage here. I would call for a retreat, but we have nowhere to go."

Daniel valiantly walked along the top of the wall and said, "They aren't stopping, they are headed north. We lost the battle, but not the war. We'll let them head up to the wall there, and then hit their rear."

"Hit their rear? Sir Conners, unless you really can't count, they have already killed most of our force here and outnumber us four to one even when we had our full force." Leonard angrily spit over the wall on the troops marching through the shattered gate below them.

Daniel turned to him and said, "Sir McCoy, the woman I mentioned before, the one at the end of this road? It's Emily Windsor-Smith. She also has Sir Alexander and Lion Brigade with her there."

Leonard stopped in mid-tirade and then looked at the lines of foreign troops marching under them, "Oh hell." He sighed, "Why didn't you say so earlier? My men would have stayed to fight to the last man to guard this cursed gate." He turned and jogged down the wall, "Listen up, prepare for a fast march. We are going to be hitting that lot from the forest, so pack light. I want a crossbow for every man who is not an archer that we have left alive. We are going to save the Princess or die trying."

The hundreds of men on top of the wall looked tragic and defeated. After getting the order, they started tossing aside heavy armor and weapons and armed themselves with a single sword, dagger, and a ranged weapon. By the time the last of the soldiers from the Holy Chadtom Empire headed north through the smashed gate, the border force began to move out. A small deterrent force of archers left by the Holy Chadtom Empire fired a volley arrows causing the chasing force to take cover behind the wall once again.

"Sir Conner, it looks like we'll have wait until the cover of darkness to move."

Daniel nodded and then said, "These men are only here to stall us, they are moving much too fast to care about us, that's why they didn't bother to finish us off. They are after that city or something in it, I am just praying that it isn't Emmy." He whistled once and pointed north causing a war horn to sound twice. All of Sir Conner's force marched forward in neat lines daring the archers to fire at them, "Let's go, Leonard, these bastards have already headed north to catch up with their main force."

One of Sir McCoy's men walked over, "Sir McCoy, we have finished the headcount, we have one full archer battalion and three hundred foot soldiers made up of the other battalions."

He nodded and then gave the hand signals for his men to head into the forest going north.

*****

"This is bad, it looks like that's the main army marching down there. That border wall didn't even last the afternoon. At their current rate of travel, they'll be at the base of the mountain in a week." Captan Alexander handed the spyglass back to Emily.

She frowned and then asked, "If it's their main army, how many soldiers will they have with them?"

He rubbed his chin, "Most likely, somewhere between six to ten brigades."

"What will they need to get through this wall, and how hard can we make it to get up this road?"

He looked over the wall and the gate carefully, "They will need catapults or a long log on wheels to ram into the gate. Getting any of that up the road will be a nightmare. I think what they'll be thinking is that we will need food and can't withstand a long siege. If they planned an insurrection at the same time, it will target the food here. This gate may not even be in their planning you know. Dragon Brigade built it after the took control of the city."

"Let's keep a close eye on the wealthy. If they are aware of this, we'll see them make a move shortly before that force gets here."

Emily's group of inventors gathered with Captain Alexander and Emily. She explained the situation of the approaching forces and asked for suggestions on how to make the trip up the road unpleasant.

One of the men laughed and then said, "Your Highness, these types of weapons are things we already have built and ready for use."

Mr. Murray nodded and said, "The only way into the City is up that road, and since we haven't built the conveyor system yet, things like a simple rockfall, boiling oil, log fall and some of our specialty steam weapons are enough to make even the largest most disciplined force feel like coming here was the worst decision in their short lives. Once they make it up that road of death, they'll be walking into our auto lashes and Beehives. If they have a million men, we'll have a million dead bodies to clean up."

James Duhan spoke up, "Your Highness, you see those two bunkers to the left and right of the roadway just before the summit? That's for our Dragons to use on the road. Trust us, coming here is the worst thing any army could ever imagine. We have finished work on three more sets of dragons already. The amount of fire raining down on that road is going to be spectacular."

Emily shook her head and laughed, "Gentlemen, I admit I have been too caught up in my work building the city lately, I should have known you'd outdo yourselves defending our home. if a force ten times as large as the force we met on the way here comes, what can I expect?"

"There and here are not the same in any way." The professor started speaking for the rest of them, "Our weapons are designed for anti siege warfare, we used them on the wagons as if the wagons were mobile fortresses. Here we have an actual fortress and have covered the choke point in the most advanced antipersonnel weaponry ever seen on the planet Hanston. Those men marching up here are as threatening to us as an anthill. The auto lashes here can run for two days straight if we need them. The Beehives here can be reloaded over and over. Our steam cannons can level any siege engine brought up that hill. Our dragons won't allow a single unburned soldier to even get within range of any of that. The only thing we have to fear at this point is that we'll make such a mess of these soldiers that we'll end up with a plague of flies."

Thomas nodded his head and then took a knee in front of Emily, "Your Highness took a chance on us, please allow us to show you the true future of the art of war."

Emily looked at Captain Alexander who shrugged, "I am thinking about how to get these guys to invent me something that fires with enough range that I can still be worthwhile in the next war."