The Elder Blogs: Fall of Setaimx
It was the dead of night with a full moon lighting up the night sky. A strong easterly breeze propelled the immense naval fleet to their destination; a total of 350 ships sailing through Ninten-do Bay in an orderly fashion.
Small cutters and sloops sped past an assortment of large warships, frigates, and supply ships as they scouted around the fleet. Their job was to locate any ship that didn’t belong to the fleet and engage it in a delaying action so that the larger warships would be able to catch up and sink it. Only one ship had been spotted and quickly sunk as the fleet continued on unmolested.
Sean, the Pirate King, stood by the helm of his flagship the Serenity a floating fortress boasting three decks, with a crew of 800, and armed with 125 cannons. The sails fluttered in the breeze as Serenity slowly sailed across the bay amidst the fleet. Sean looked at the fleet all around him with pride. No one, in the history of the Elder Blogs, had ever amassed such an army.
As he continued to look out at the fleet, his two guards Mario and Luigi behind him silent as always, one of the signalmen approached him and saluted, “Sire, signal from the Enterprise sir.” Sean, continuing to gaze out at the fleet, nodded for the signalman to continue, “Captain Kirk is ready to break off from the fleet and proceed to his destination.”
Without turning to look at the signalman Sean replied, “Tell Captain Kirk to proceed and to follow his orders to the letter. And good luck”
“Aye sir,” was the immediate reply as the signalman saluted and ran off to deliver the message to the Enterprise.
Sean watched the signal be relayed with flashes of light and observed as a third of the fleet moved slowly away to head up north to the lands of MooseyMcMan. Captain Kirk’s orders, in conjunction with General Solo, were to take over the land, dig in, and defend the area until the entire coast was secured and the foothold firmly established.
As Kirk’s fleet disappeared into the north General Anduin Lothar joined Sean on the command deck. He was a large man with a broad frame wearing plate armor that had a golden emblem of a roaring lion upon his chest. While his long hair was being blown about by the wind he stroked his beard while waiting for Sean to acknowledge his presence.
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General Lothar had once been a great military tactician in the land of Azeroth, across the Sega Seas, but had fallen out of favor with the new king when the old king had died. Arrested on trumped up charges he was given over to slavers. He had been on one of the slave ships when Sean the Honorable Knight had attacked and captured the ship. Sean had freed them all and, like all the other slaves, Lothar had vowed to serve him.
And so here he was, a general once again and one of the twelve Captains, under the command of Sean who was now the Pirate King. When Sean had heard Lothar’s story he had asked if Lothar would be able to gather an army of his former countrymen who were renowned for their infantry all along the Genesian continent. So Lothar returned to his homeland, in disguise, and was able to bring with him 10,000 heavy infantry comprised of veteran soldiers who had become disgruntled under the new king’s leadership.
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Sean turned around and noticed that General Lothar had joined him on the command deck, “It is about that time isn’t it?”
“Yes sire it is.”
Giving a big sigh Sean motioned to one of the signalmen who immediately came up to him and saluted, “Signal Captain Samus on the Revanche and have her take her fleet to the coast directly west of Setaimx. She is to unload the troops, let them rest for tonight and march out around noon tomorrow. I expect her to meet me with the troops at the Setaimx village in two days.” Sean said as he remembered the time he had spent with both Samus and Morrigan before the fleet had sailed.
Immediately the signalman went to the side of the ship and started flashing the message to the Revanche. The Revanche signaled her acknowledgement and, with the majority of the fleet, headed northeast while the remainder of the fleet, under Sean, sailed on a course slightly southeast towards the river that fed into Setaimx Lake.
Because of the enormity of the fleet, keeping the invasion a secret was next to impossible. So the plan was to hit Setainx quickly with the fresh troops that had been billeted at Pirata. The troops that had traveled over the Sega Seas would need time to recuperate their strength before entering into battle.
Now Sean was entering the lake, which was right next to Setaimx Castle, with only twenty-five ships and a total of 10,000 men. The mercenaries that he had hired, 75,000
strong, would bolster his numbers so long as they were within striking distance at the same time that Sean’s ships entered the harbor. They would be under the command of Captain Sheppard who commanded the Normandy.
Shortly before entering the harbor the ten supply ships veered off to allow the soldiers and horses to disembark and march the rest of the way to the castle. Two warships and 3 frigates stayed behind to give them protection while the last ten ships went on with the Serenity to sink any enemy ships in the Harbor.
“All hands to battle stations,” Sean yelled as the sun started to appear on the eastern horizon. The order was repeated throughout the ship as the crew went into a frenzy to load the cannons and prepare to fire.
Sean’s fleet finally entered the harbor where he spotted a dozen small ships anchored in the bay or docked at the harbor. A couple of minutes later the Serenity and the rest of the fleet were within firing range.
“Signal the fleet to open fire,” Sean shouted. “Fire all cannons!”
Immediately the tranquility of the night was violently disturbed as the thunderous volleys of cannon fire decimated the sleeping ships. Wood exploded and flying debris was thrown into the air as the ships were destroyed. Fires flared up to allow the attackers a better target to attack and, within 5 minutes, the enemy ships had been sunk to the bottom of the harbor.
“Order the fleet to take up positions and bombard the castle walls until we breach her,” Sean ordered as the sound of bells echoed across the lake, from the castle, to warn the inhabitants that they were under attack.
Because they did not have time to cut down trees and make ladders to scale the walls, Sean had decided to use the ships to create a breach in the Castle’s walls in order to take it as quickly as possible. The faster he could capture it the sooner he would be able to secure this position as the staging point for his invasion. It would be a vital point to receive supplies and reinforcements as the conquest would continue on.
As the bells continued to ring Sean’s ships took up position, dropped anchor, and opened fire at the walls of Setaimx Castle.
Looking over at General Lothar Sean said, “Time for us to go ashore with the rest of the men and rendezvous with the army.” As the two of them left the command deck to take one of the boats to shore, with his personal guards in tow, Sean gave the order for the ships to unload the rest of the men.
As the ships bombarded the Castle with cannon fire dozens of boats ferried the last of the men onto shore just below the castle. For the first time, since he was ten years old, Sean stepped onto the Elder Blogs land.
Immediately he formed up the 400 soldiers that had disembarked and they marched away from the castle for a short distance and waited for the rest of the army to meet up with them. Yet Sean was angry, for there were no signs of the mercenaries that were supposed to be here.
Realizing that the mercenaries weren’t here Sean turned to General Lothar, “Send a scouting party northwest to find those bloody mercenaries. I went several other scouting parties to look around the immediate area to make sure there are no surprises.”
As General Lothar went to issue the orders a signalman approached Sean and saluted, “Sire, word from Commander Buchanan from the Serenity. He reports that the lookouts have noticed the castle walls are only partially manned.”
Puzzled Sean told the signalman to relay that the report has been received as he waited for General Lothar to come back. The sounds of horses galloping away caught Sean’s ears as the General returned, “Lookouts have reported that the walls are not fully manned. What do you make of that general?”
“I’m not sure sire. It is possible that they are evacuating the city to protect the population. I remember reading their history and they set fire to the place to cover their retreat.”
“Let us hope that they do not do so this time General,” Sean said in a hopeful tone. “The castle is vital to this invasion. Guess we’ll have to wait for the scouts to return and tell us their findings.”
For three hours Sean, and the 400 soldiers, waited for the army of 10,000 to meet them, the night gone and morning taking its place, as the sound of cannon fire continued on. Finally they appeared and General Lothar had them take up positions along the area where the cannons were concentrating their fire.
Ten minutes later a group of scouts returned and reported that they had discovered a lot of tracks heading eastward from the city gates.
“It appears that they did evacuate the city while we were destroying their ships in the harbor,” General Lothar commented.
“From my reports these people only had an army of 8,000 men. So we might be looking at a small force whose objective is to slow us down so that we do not overtake the population,” Sean added. Then anger suddenly took hold, “Damn it! Where are those mercenaries!?” Looking at the wall, where the ships had been attacking for the last three hours Sean continued, “That wall is ready to be breached and I wanted those mercenaries to go first.”
Another hour passed and the scouting party, sent to find the mercenaries, returned with the news that the army was about 4 hours away.
Incensed Sean looked at General Lothar, “They will not be here in time and that wall is going to be breached any,” suddenly a section of the wall collapsed and a cloud of dust rose into the air.
Immediately Sean told the signalmen to inform the ships to cease firing as General Lothar shouted orders, “Heavy infantry units through the breach first, light infantry follow behind and archers aim for the defenders on the wall! Cavalry stay back and prepare to charge on my signal when those western gates are opened!”
With that the infantry, consisting of 2,000 heavy, 5,000 light, and 1,000 archers rushed towards the gaping hole in the castle walls. Waiting patiently, along with Sean and General Lothar, were 1,000 horsemen, 500 engineers, and an assortment of surgeons, blacksmiths, fletchers, and people of other various occupations who would stay behind as the soldiers fought.
As the infantry moved into the enemy’s range their archers opened fire and men started to fall. Yet Sean’s own archers answered with a volley and continued to pepper the defenders with arrows. At the breach were several hundred defenders who had quickly mobilized to stop anyone from trying to get through.
With a mighty roar Sean’s forces smashed into the defenders with a great clamor and the fight for the city was begun. As the defenders were slowly pushed back by his own forces Sean quickly swung up into the saddle of his black stallion, taking the reins from Mario who had been holding the horse, ready for General Lothar to give the order in which the cavalry would charge in.
Twenty minutes passed by and in that time the defenders had been pushed back from the wall for all of the soldiers to get in and claim the walls for themselves. As the western gates opened up General Lothar yelled, “Charge!”
Immediately Sean’s horse sprang into action and the entire cavalry charged through the gates and hit the defenders from the side. The fighting was fierce for the defenders were determined to protect their home. But they had been outnumbered 5-1 and continued to be pushed back.
From atop his horse Sean rained death down upon those who stood before him as he skewered them all on the point of his rapier.
Time passed and the defenders were only a couple hundred strong and surrounded by Sean’s army. Yet they continued to fight and Sean saw their leader shouting orders to form a circle. The defender’s leader was garbed in green clothes and wielding his sword with great skill yet his clothes were dirty and splashed with dried blood. Yet Sean also noticed he was very young as the boy continued to fight alongside his soldiers.
“Hold,” Sean suddenly yelled and his men pulled back away from the defenders who continued to stay in their formation, waiting for the fight to resume. The sun shone down upon the scene of carnage. Hundreds of corpses from both sides were strewn about in the streets.
Moving his horse forward, and over corpses, Sean locked eyes with their leader, “Throw down your arms and surrender. You will be allowed to leave unharmed with a message for your people.”
The young leader stepped out from the circle and approached Sean without a trace of fear, “Who do you think you are attacking us without reason?”
Impressed with his courage Sean answered, “I am Sean the Pirate King of the island of Pirata. And who am I addressing?”
“Seta-Link of the Hyruleans in the land of Setaimx.”
“Well Seta-Link,” Sean replied as he got down from his horse, sword in hand, “Will you surrender?”
Immediately Seta-Link shouted, “Never,” and attacked Sean with a thrust to his heart. As Sean parried Seta-Link’s thrust the remaining defenders dropped their formation and charged his men. The fight had resumed under the blaze of the noon day sun.
But the fight lasted only a few minutes for the defenders were hopelessly outnumbered. To a man they were slaughtered while Sean continued to duel with Seta-Link while shouting that the fight was between the two of them and no one was to interfere. He had seen his two personal guards, Mario and Luigi, coming up behind Seta-Link but Sean wanted to keep him alive.
Seta-Link, while skilled with the sword, had let his anger cloud him and attacked Sean in a vicious manner. Thanks to his years of experience Sean was able to control the fight as Seta-Link began to grow tired.
“Give it up boy,” Sean suggested. “I’ve been fighting battles before you were born. Surrender now so that you may rejoin your people.”
With a snarl Seta-Link sped up his attack so that Sean had to concentrate on blocking each blow. Suddenly there was an opening in Seta-Link’s defense and Sean tripped him up.
With a thud Seta-Link fell to the ground as Sean said, “Your men are dead. Your people have fled the city. Stop fighting and I will allow you to rejoin your people!”
Letting loose an incoherent cry Seta-Link threw himself at Sean. Surprised by the move Sean was unable to block Seta-Link’s thrust and felt pain in his left arm. In anger he parried Seta-Link’s next attack and slammed the hilt of his rapier into Seta-Links’s head knocking the boy unconscious.
Exhausted from the duel Sean breathed in large amounts of air as he motioned for General Lothar to join him. Lothar approached, blood was splattered over his armor and his red cape had been torn, yet he waited for Sean to catch his breath.
“Call for the engineers to start repairing the wall first thing tomorrow morning. Have the surgeons get set up and take care of the wounded. Send a message to Commander Buchanan to unload the rest of the supplies and send in the extra cannons to put up on the walls. See to the rest while I take care of this boy,” Sean ordered.
With a fist to his chest Lothar started shouting orders as Sean’s personal guards staunched the blood flowing from his wound. Once the wound was bound up Sean stepped over to Seta-Link’s still unconscious form and took his sword. Noticing a soldier passing around a bucket of water, Sean motioned to the soldier who brought him the bucket.
Drinking from the bucket of water Sean then dumped some of it onto Seat-Link who woke up spitting out some of the liquid. Before Seta-Link could stand up Sean said, “Stay where you are or I will run you through with your own sword.”
Grudgingly Seta-Link stayed seated on the ground as Sean continued, “I am going to let you go with a message for your people. They may return to this castle so long as they swear fealty to me.”
With that said Sean tossed Seta-Link his sword, who caught it, and told him, “Now go catch up with your people and give them my message. Luigi, get this man a horse.”
As Seta-Link rode away to rejoin his people Sean got on his horse and rode out of the city, his two personal guards following, and found General Lothar down by the harbor giving out orders.
“When those mercenaries finally get here I want half of them to help the engineers repair the walls. Have the rest take up positions at the wall and send out scouting parties about a day’s travel in each direction. I want ample warning should anyone try to attack us while we re-organize and prepare ourselves,” Sean said. “I’m going to head back to the Serenity and get some sleep.
“Yes sir, I’ll be sure to have the reports ready for you when you wake up.”
With that, Sean was rowed back to his ship and went directly to his cabin. Opening up the door he saw that everything was still nice and tidy. There was a book shelf filled with different types of reading material that focused on the various aspects of warfare. In the middle of his cabin was a large desk where he could read dispatches and in the corner was his large plush bed. Covered in red satin sheets and feathered pillows.
Without another thought Sean laid down on the bed and went to sleep immediately.
He could worry about things later after he had slept for a few hours…