Forged in Fire (Destiny's Crucible Book 4)

by Olan Thorensen

  First Light

  Marshal Gullar and his staff stood behind a heavy earthwork thrown up overnight. It was stout enough to stop anything but a 30-pounder ball and protected them from smaller round shot, canister, grapeshot, and musket balls, except for a lucky hit to the head if they peeked over the earthwork. Gullar had a telescope, but he had no reason to use it yet, because he couldn’t see more than thirty yards through the darkness. For once in this campaign, luck was with them. The larger moon, Aedan, had set just after dusk, and Haedan, the smaller moon, had followed two hours later. Even the starfield was in their favor. The great River of Stars that ran across the heavens would not be visible for another month. Broken clouds filtered whatever starlight remained. More clouds would be better, but Gullar thanked Narth for the lack of rain. It would have made footing difficult for the attacks into which he was about to send his men.

  None of the men spoke; no more could be said. Gullar and his senior officers had gone over the plan numerous times, and they had done the same with their subordinates. This review had gone down the chain of command until every single Narthani soldier knew his starting role. After the battle started, of course, it would be up to Gullar and officers on the scenes to adjust the initial plan.

  I never expected to find myself in this situation, thought the marshal. After all the years coming up through the ranks, early years of campaigns against the Fuomi, the eastern peoples, and then many years against the Iraquiniks, to find myself and my men in as desperate a situation as this. I didn’t say so explicitly to my staff, but I think all know we are in serious trouble. Even after reducing to half-rations, we only have two more days’ worth left. We’re as strong as we’ll ever be right now. We have to break through these earthworks and get to the open country beyond. Once in Preddi and back in naval contact, we can systematically reduce all the coastal provinces and slowly expand our control over the island. The High Command won’t be happy with the timetable, but they’ll get over it. The Caedelli might hold out in the mountains for years, but they would be more of a major nuisance than a serious threat, as we slowly starve and wear them down. And, of course, they must have some inkling of this on their side. If so, then we are both desperate.

  Gullar could see a hint of light behind the eastern mountain peaks. It was time. He turned his head to his second, General Kamil Avan, standing at his shoulder.

  “Start it, Kamil,” was all he said. Three words that would lead to so much by so many. The first name of Gullar’s second-in-command told Avan this was a fateful moment. Gullar never used first names during operations. Using Avan’s first name told his second the marshal wished him and all the men Narth’s good fortune and protection.

  Avan stepped back and spoke to a colonel, who trotted off into the darkness. He commanded the artillery that would now move forward to within grapeshot and canister range of the earthworks. They would provide artillery support to suppress islander fire. The artillery crews would take heavy casualties by being exposed and within the same range as the islanders’ guns, but it was a price that had to be paid. To precisely place sixty 12-pounder cannon in the dark could not have been done by the Caedelli. The professional Narthani artillery moved as one man once Avan gave the command to move forward. The distance to their assigned positions had been calculated, and one man from each battery let out twine anchored at the Narthani line. When the man reached the end of the twine coil, that was the position of this crew’s cannon. Each cannon also had two men with twine connecting them to the two cannon on each side and instructions to keep their twines tight. If Yozef could have seen it in action, he would have admired the discipline and execution. As a result, the Narthani finally set up the cannon no more than three yards apart, staggered in a perfect line, after wheeling the cannon more than a thousand yards.

  Another hundred cannon would set up farther away and would arc round shot over the attacking regiments to keep the islanders’ attention and make flanking positions uncertain whether the Narthani would attack them next.

  Earthworks

  Elac Kemescu was the first islander to hear the Narthani artillery moving forward, or so he claimed for the rest of his life. The Farkesh clansman had answered the call for all available fighting men to come to Orosz City. Feren Bakalacs, the clan hetman, led eleven hundred of his clansmen, including Kemescu. At Yozef’s suggestion, men not part of established units were distributed along the line, so that no single clan would be decimated should the Narthani overrun their position. Thus, Kemescu and four hundred other Farkeshers were positioned directly in line with the planned Narthani artillery positions. Bakalacs had passed Kemescu’s position only ten minutes earlier as the hetman toured his men’s different positions, encouraging them to make their clan proud and showing that their leader was taking the same risks.

  Kemescu leaned over to whisper to his cousin beside him when he stopped, turned to look over the rampart, and then cupped his hands around his ears.

  “What is it, Elac?” whispered his cousin.

  “Shh! I think I hear something.”

  The cousin ran off to their hetman’s position, to reappear less than two minutes later with Bakalacs, both men puffing and out of breath.

  “Hetman, something’s going on.”

  By now, several other men could hear the same something.

  “I think it’s wheels,” urged Kemescu.

  “Artillery,” stated Bakalacs. “Vegga and Yozef warned us their first move might be to try to get their artillery in position to support an infantry assault. This might mean they’re going to come straight at us here.”

  Listening men mumbled at their leader’s words. Runners ran to adjacent positions and to Vegga in the middle of the earthwork line. When word reached Denes, he sent a rider north toward Orosz City to where one of the natural streams came from the mountains and exited under the city walls. The islanders had constructed a crude dam across the stream, with the water flowing through two openings. Denes’s message arrived with the order to lower two barriers to block those openings. The water immediately began backing up and in short order reached the level of a sluice. It diverted the water into the trench in front of the berm and channeled it toward the river. Although the volume of water wasn’t great, it created a foot-deep, fast-moving stream racing straight down the trench. The speed of the flow, the slippery footing, and the four-foot-depth of the trench made for an unpleasant obstacle to any Narthani trying to reach the berm.

  Narthani

  Captain Munmar Kellan led his hundred men forward. He would not command from the rear or the middle of his men this day. They had to see him in front for what was expected of them. No one spoke. Every man knew to follow the artillery forward. Their regiment, two thousand strong, made up the first unit behind the artillery and therefore led the assault. To the inexperienced, this would have seemed the most dangerous position, though Kellan knew that the next couple of regiments, right behind his, were in the most peril. If all worked as planned, their artillery would open the attack, and Kellan’s regiment would charge after the fourth salvo. After that, salvos would follow at sixty-second intervals. It was Kellan’s task, along with every other company commander, to estimate the next salvo and blow a whistle for his men to dive to the ground. The artillery would attempt to fire over their heads, but misjudgments of timing and aim would inevitably cause casualties from friendly fire.

  Their regiment’s task was not to directly breach the earthworks but to carry planks, satchel charges, and rope and grapples. No matter what happened, they wouldn’t fire their muskets until they reached the base of the earthworks. The following regiments would take the brunt of the initial islander fire as soon as the Caedelli were alerted that an assault was underway. Once the infantry reached the trench, the Narthani artillery would be forced to stop firing, in fear of hitting their own men. The following regiments would carry only weapons and ammunition. Nothing else, not even water. To survive, they had to race the open distance to the islanders’ line and
over the planks put in place by Kellan’s regiment, then cross the trench, climb the sloping glacis of the earthwork, and use the rope and grapnels to force through any breaches created by the first wave.

  They had no need for water. In the few minutes between when they started their run until they were over the earthworks and in the islanders’ rear, there would be no time for water. If they failed, there would still be no need for water, because they would never again have need of anything.

  Islanders

  Elac Kemescu crouched beneath the rampart and had just raised a leather pouch of water to his mouth when the Narthani opened fire. Sixty 12-pounders fired grapeshot and canister from four hundred yards. The inch-and-a-half-diameter grapeshot were lethal out to at least eight hundred yards, but the canister was at the edge of effective range. His cousin had been looking over the rampant and stood mesmerized when the world flashed in front of him. His hesitation cost him as a partly spent canister ball that might not have penetrated much beyond a thick leather jerkin hit his right eye and ended his universe. Kemescu’s cousin simply sat back on his haunches, then fell onto his back without a sound or other movement. Kemescu didn’t bother to check whether his cousin was alive.

  Narthani

  The instant their artillery fired the fourth salvo, Munmar Kellan blew his whistle and yelled, “Go!!” He and his hundred men had to move forward as fast as they could before their artillery reloaded and fired again. They were told they had fifty-five seconds before diving to their bellies and hoping the next shots passed over them. The artillerymen aimed the first few volleys somewhat blindly because they couldn’t judge elevation accurately, given the initial lack of clear lines of sight. Since the top of the earthworks, the target of their grapeshot and canister, stood eight feet tall or more, in theory the artillery would fire over the heads of their own advancing infantry, but only if they had advanced far enough forward and no misaims occurred.

  Munmar Kellen didn’t need to urge his men on. They carried the twenty-foot hastily split planks from trees felled only a few hours earlier. They would place the planks across the ditch. In addition, each man had rope and a grapple looped over his shoulders or satchel charges in a backpack and digging tools in hand. At the whistle, they were off, racing to beat both the islanders’ return fire and their own cannon.

  Islanders

  The quiet of anticipation was replaced by the first Narthani cannon, followed by shouts of islanders getting to stations and gun crews loading. The eastern sky had lightened, and vision to each front began to resolve at closer distances. The Narthani’s following salvos of grapeshot and canister raked the islanders’ ramparts. The islanders suffered few casualties, because not many were foolish enough to keep sticking their heads up, with no more reason than to look.

  A few clansmen forgot or ignored instructions not to fire their muskets until they could see the enemy. Unit commanders screamed at the guilty and warned the rest. The cannon crews had different instructions: if the Narthani cannon fired before being clearly visible, they would do the best they could to aim at the Narthani’s flashes. The third Narthani salvo fired before the first islander’s gun returned fire.

  Yozef watched the initial exchanges from several hundred yards north.

  God damn it, God damn it, he repeated over a dozen times. You idiot! We should have had pickets out a couple hundred yards to give us more warning and oil- or kerosene-soaked woodpiles to light as soon as they started. Then our gunners could see better and the other men could start using their muskets, if infantry were coming—which they must be. Damn, damn. And why didn’t the Fuomi make that suggestion? Or Denes? Maybe I’ve been counting on them too much to correct my mistakes or help things I’m ignorant of. Damn, damn—

  Just as the light started to reveal the Narthani infantry, a fortuitous islander grapeshot round hit a Narthani powder limber, and a spark set off the entire load of powder. A blossom of light erupted eighty feet high and across as the load went off all at once. The flash illuminated the battlefield for hundreds of yards and clearly showed the lead Narthani regiment within a hundred yards of the ditch. Residual flames from the explosion provided a backlight for islander men to fire their muskets. Although their ability to aim at a specific target was questionable, any musket balls missing the first-wave regiment had a chance to hit something in the following waves, which were separated by fifty yards.

  More than three thousand islander muskets joined the firing, with the Narthani infantry as their targets. The islander artillery shifted from counterbattery fire to lower their muzzles and fire canister at the Narthani infantry. Despite withering islander fire, it started too late to prevent the first Narthani regiment from reaching the ditch. They put planks in place, with some men wading into the water, and others losing their footing and being swept away before they could regain their stance. As soon as a plank lay in place, a steady stream of Narthani raced across it.

  Yozef could see the first successful plank in place, then several, then a dozen or more and the Narthani pouring over. A Fuomi gunner who captained a 30-pounder repositioned the gun and fired canister down the ditch line. He swept thirty or forty Narthani from the planks, only to be immediately replaced by more. A second and third cannon followed suit, 12-pounders this time, with the same result—temporarily stopping attempts to cross the ditch, but the Narthani laid more and more planks into position, and then the second regiment arrived.

  The men, and a few women, stationed on that section of the earthworks now could see the Narthani infantry clearly enough to aim, because the Narthani had reached the base of the earthworks and crowded thick across the ditch. The section of the defenses directly under assault was about three hundred yards wide, but the islanders for several hundred yards on each side had joined in, firing obliquely at the Narthani. Cannon and musket raked the field. Narthani dead and wounded lay thick on the ground. The first regiment reached the earthworks with only 20 percent casualties. The second and third suffered 60 percent. By paying that price, the Narthani had more than three thousand men climbing the glacis and setting off satchel charges that both blew holes in the earthworks and killed some of their own men.

  They threw hundreds of grappling hooks over the ramparts. The Narthani used the ones whose hooked ends lodged in something solid to climb the glacis. The islanders cut or threw back most of the latter, but enough Narthani managed to pull themselves onto the ramparts that the islanders found themselves fighting hand to hand. It wasn’t that the numbers who initially reached the ramparts were so great, but the Caedelli had to stop firing at the advancing Narthani to deal with those in their midst, and the effect cascaded. As more Narthani reached the ramparts, fewer islanders focused on the front, and more Narthani reached the ramparts.

  In five minutes, the Narthani overran a two hundred-yard section of the earthworks. A reserve regiment of islanders, made up of the Hewell, Vandinke, and Skouks clans, formed a crude line and fired at the rampart now swarming with Narthani. The islanders momentarily stopped the tide as hundreds of Narthani fell, along with several dozen islanders still fighting and hit by friendly fire. Then the flow restarted. The islanders’ reserve regiment had no time to reload. Those who carried Yozef’s bayonets locked them in place and charged, accompanied by other men with swords or axes or men using their muskets as clubs.

  Denes had ordered more units north and south of the assault point to flow in that direction. The reserve regiment held just long enough for thousands more islanders to reach the breach—at a cost of three-quarters of its men becoming casualties.

  It was now light enough to see clearly, although the sun was still below the eastern hills. Despite the light, vision of the battlefield remained spotty, because of clouds of gun smoke that rose dozens of yards high. The wind hadn’t picked up yet this early in the morning. Finally, gaps did appear enough for Yozef to see what was happening. He had gripped the edges of the rampart so tightly that when he released both hands, all his fingers ached. The Narthani’s br
each seemed to be closing. It wasn’t closed yet, but more islander units had joined in.

  “Hey, Yozef,” Carnigan said. “What do you think?”

  “We held them. At least for now.”

  Gullar

  “We broke through but couldn’t hold the breach,” snarled Avan.

  Gullar sighed. “Yes, so close. We couldn’t get more reinforcements there in time, but at least we now know that the line can be breached.”

  “At the cost of how many men, though? Three regiments hardly exist anymore. Others suffered casualties before withdrawing, and we lost some of our artillery.”

  “But now we know more,” Gullar said firmly. “They closed the gap by bringing in reserves from both sides. What we have to do is attack at several points, so they can’t concentrate. If we can break through at even one point, we still can make this the decisive battle we wanted, although at a far higher price than anticipated.”

  “But you know that if we commit enough men for multiple attacks, and it fails with losses like our first attempt . . . ” cautioned Avan.

  “I’m well aware it’s an all-or-nothing attempt. It has to succeed.”

  Neither man had to speak of the consequences of failure.

  Avan took a deep breath. “If you’ve decided, I recommend we use the same basic plan as before, but this time attack at three points, using four regiments each, instead of three. It will mean moving every single piece of artillery we have forward and leaving only the cavalry to protect the rear. They won’t be of any use anyway, until we can secure a breach. The remaining regiments will guard the rear and be ready to move forward. It should be done as rapidly as possible. That infernal floating globe will see everything we do, so we need to form up and attack immediately, even if not all units are completely in place.”