Epic Unearthed

by Thomas Turner

  Chapter XXXVIII

  The Last Battle of Atlantis

  The Atlanteans had a good victory at Campiton Gorge. Overall, they destroyed more than two-million enemy warriors at Masaba and the gorge. Their survival was due to the leadership of Quentoris, but he is marching to the capital a broken man. The war has changed him. Mentally exhausted, he no longer knows what he is fighting for except to save what is left of his civilization. Both cities which helped Atlantis become a strong empire are destroyed, and no one in the Atlantean Empire will go unscathed.

  Quentoris finally reaches his capital. He has seen nothing but death and destruction. The general enters the gates of Atlantis where he receives a hero’s greeting. After the people of Masaba and the West Wall Army arrive, the injured are ordered to hospitals, then to be the first ones evacuated from the city by ship.

  At the walls of the Atlantean capital, artillery is being prepared for the inevitable battle. The enemy has seven-million to take out their objective. Atlantis will be harder to take than the Great East Wall. Nevertheless, the Atlanteans are backed into a corner.

  Due to the valiant efforts of those at Masaba, Atlantis has had time to produce more artillery and munitions. Atlantis is the last stronghold of the empire. Daygun has five-hundred-thousand warriors to fight the entire continent. The city has more artillery than that of the Great East Wall and Halotropolis combined. The weakness of the capital is its large size, which means more ground to cover.

  The capital is still being evacuated by sea. Daygun feels he can overcome his antagonists. The enemy is very deep inside the Atlantean Empire and their supply lines are very long. Daygun is relieved to know that Quentoris and Persephone are still alive. Since Quentoris entered the capital, Daygun notices that he is acting differently. When the battered general looks toward his countrymen, he seems to look through them. He adequately functions as a general, but is void of emotions.

  Quentoris’ main tactical strength is with artillery. Persephone, from Halotropolis, is strong with the sword. Daygun is from Atlantis, and his major attribute is the bow. The three will complement each other.

  The Continental Alliance sets up camp four miles north of Atlantis and stays in place. This gives the Atlantean ships more time to evacuate civilians and wounded soldiers. Melercertis, Borealeous, and Nextear know if the Atlanteans fall here, finding and destroying their fleeing adversary will take time. The Atlantean enemy will have to rebuild their navy to find the inhabitants of the peninsula. Daygun’s empire has territories all over the world, so the Continental Alliance will have to defeat their enemy one location at a time.

  Before the Atlantean capital is completely surrounded by land, Daygun’s generals assemble to make a plan. Quentoris, Persephone, and the Atlantean Emperor look at a map on a table. Looking at Quentoris, Daygun says, “We are on the verge of losing this war. We have almost fifty-thousand archers ready to fight. Each of them has close to three-hundred arrows.”

  Quentoris adds, “Our artillery is ready and at your disposal. Last month, we produced thirty catapults and twenty-four giant crossbows, by cutting down every molless tree in our empire. This puts us at three-hundred catapults and two-hundred giant crossbows. Each crossbow has sixty pieces of ammunition. We only have three walls to protect. Thanks to Ashastonous’ leadership, the enemy cannot attack our harbor. The Continental Alliance will try to take our city, but that will be at a high price.”

  Persephone says, “Our infantry is ready.”

  Daygun replies, “This is the last battle of Atlantis. Either we conquer or are conquered. No matter what we do, Atlantis must be abandoned. Our physicians say there is too much death here. With the dire possibility of an epidemic, multitudes of people will die from such a plague. Over one-hundred years ago, this happened in Garsha. At first, there were fifty-thousand deaths, and then hundreds of thousands of people died of an epidemic from decaying bodies left after the war. All civilizations are in trouble. Mother Nature will kill our enemy. Because of their ignorance, more of their people will die from disease than this war. We have to leave Atlantis until nature restarts itself. We will have to isolate ourselves.”

  Persephone questions, “Where will we go?”

  Daygun replies, “There are other continents far from these civilizations that may not become infected. Consider the Iteru River. There, our small city-state is isolated from most of our aggressors. Another option is three-thousand miles away, where the continent is inhabited only by primitive tribes. Our population needs to reside far from this destruction. We must scatter out to insure the survival of our civilization.”

  Quentoris says, “What about the rest of mankind?”

  Daygun replies, “As in the prophecies of Edicus, humanity will live on. Our civilization will intertwine with the rest of humanity. Thousands of years from now, a conflict will emerge, just like this one. We must protect Edicus’ writings to protect the future; our priest believes his prediction will come true, and that his writings are the key. I have given orders to make ready Edicus’ tablets to be taken to its destination.”

  Quentoris says, “What if there isn’t an epidemic this time? What if the disease doesn’t exist or is eradicated? What if mankind has become immune to this disease? What if Edicus’ prophecies are false?”

  Daygun replies, “My father believed in Edicus. I will honor his sacrifice to our empire and respect his last wishes. Nonetheless, we will regroup and conquer our land in the next couple of years, when we are ready. I have put every piece of iron ore in reserve to make swords so we can take back our home. Six military cargo ships, which survived from the Mantineian and Kyrenian Sea battle, are en route to Mancater to begin the production of swords.”

  Persephone says, “That is over three-thousand miles away. This is the storm season and the chance of their making the trip is poor at best. With that kind of weight, the ships will not survive a heavy storm.”

  Daygun says, “I had to put our iron ore in a safe place where the enemy cannot take it or destroy the factories we will build there. All iron ore is aboard our ships. Ashastonous is on the important journey. Near Mancater, we also have ore mines. Before, it was not cost efficient to ship the ore here. Because of our circumstance, we will produce our arms there.”

  Quentoris stands and says, “As for the matter at hand, we must destroy the enemy here. We must deplete the numbers so that they will not want to find us.”

  Daygun replies, “In the last month, the heroes of our empire have become evident. More war will be waged. Those who gave their lives to God and our empire are the heroes, and will never be forgotten. I have lost a brother and a father. They are heroes to me and to our people. I will mourn for them after this war. I have to govern my emotions now for the greater good of our civilization. We will falter here, but our people will live on to make something happen for mankind in the future. Get your warriors ready and prepare for the inevitable. We will not give up our homes peacefully.”

  More ships travel in and out of the Atlantean harbor. Every day the capital is less crowded. However, many inhabitants of the capital do not want to leave, and would prefer to defend the empire to the death. Death to the Atlanteans is just a stepping stone to God. With His guidance, the Atlanteans will not give up their land to civilizations that do not believe in Him.

  Atlantean battlecruisers and destroyers are repaired from damage suffered during the sea battles. The warships are being used to also evacuate people. The ships’ crews are to reinforce Atlantis in the last stand. The sailors have felt trapped aboard their ships and are ready to fight the enemy on land.

  Kaydence helps in the Atlantean hospitals, taking care of children and the elderly who were wounded in Masaba and Halotropolis. She is prepared for battle. She loves her husband and obeys him, but she is ready to fight to the death, and is tired of fleeing. Kaydence is worshiped by her empire as the perfect role model. Because of Kaydence’s devotion, she makes sure she is seen doing things in her community. She wants the empire
to know that royalty is standing behind of the rest of the population.

  The Atlanteans are ready to fight, and have noticed more activity from their enemy. Tightuses are on the front line. The Atlanteans are prepared and so is the enemy. The Atlanteans are tired of waiting to die. They will face their destiny head on.

  Melercertis and Tito stand on a hill looking toward the Atlantean capital. The Ladonean Emperor says, “What has the world done? We are about to destroy the most technological empire known to man. Religion has been taken and twisted. On this side of the battlefield, man is using our gods as an excuse to destroy an entire civilization. Who is to say our religion is not the right one?”

  Tito replies, “If we don’t do this, our religion will destroy us back home, and the rest of the empires on the continent will see us as weak. You are leader to our people and our gods. We will lose everything if we don’t go forward.”

  Melercertis says, “You’re right. There is no other way. Send in the assault. The time for change starts now.”

  The Ladoneans begin their attack. Crossbows in the tightuses move into range of the city. Over two-hundred tightuses head straight toward the Northern Gate of Atlantis. The Atlantean capital has only three sides of land to protect. The east and west side of Atlantis is covered by hills, and difficult to be attacked in significant numbers by infantry and cavalry. The only flat ground outside Atlantis is the northern side, and Atlantean artillery positions are heaviest there. Daygun orders his artillery to fire. The bombardment is concentrated on the battlefield for maximum efficiency. Thousands of enemy warriors die, or retreat. The only things moving toward Atlantis are the tightuses. In the middle of the first attack, every invader is either dead from Atlantean arrows or artillery. Within an hour, over one-hundred-thousand enemy men have lost their lives. The tightuses stop in front of the Atlantean capital and cannot proceed. Because of the bombardment from the Atlanteans’ giant crossbows, some of the tightuses catch fire, but the Ladoneans extinguish the flames and continue forward.

  The tightuses roll closer to the Northern Wall of Atlantis. The Atlanteans’ giant crossbows give everything they have to the enemy, but cannot stop the siege towers. This battle comes down to technology, and the Ladoneans seem to have the advantage.

  The Atlantean catapults are easier to maneuver than the crossbows and do what they can to fight the tightuses, but some tightuses hit the first Atlantean wall. The enemy surges forward, running out of the tightuses and into the Atlantean capital. From a distance, Archers from the Atlantean secondary wall fire on anyone who emerges from the giant siege towers. Not one enemy soldier makes it out alive. Corpses pile on top of each other. The men of the tightuses have to move their dead to stay on the offensive.

  While the Atlanteans are preoccupied with the tightuses, the Continental Alliance’s artillery moves forward. The enemy catapults fire onto the walls of Atlantis. Atlanteans’ giant crossbows change direction and return fire to the enemy artillery. Some of Atlantis’ walls are already damaged badly, and the enemy infantry cannot go forward until a wall is totally breached. Atlantean archer emplacements are firing upon their adversary. Daygun’s army has more archers and more arrows than they did in the previous battles and can fire for hours without running out of munitions.

  The Atlantean Emperor orders what is left of the Atlantean heavy cavalry to gather outside the gates. The Atlantean cavalry rides toward the tightuses and rams into the enemy siege towers. During the Atlantean offensive, many tightuses are destroyed. All mammoths correlate their attack to hit the Ladonean war machines at the same time. Because the tightuses are top-heavy, the large siege towers tumble over and kill the enemy warriors inside. The tightuses retreat to regroup. It took one month to build such structures for the sole purpose of destroying the walls of Atlantis, and they are now being wiped out on the first run.

  While the tightuses retreat, the enemy’s heavy cavalry charges the Atlantean heavy cavalry. The Atlanteans are outnumbered, but fare well against their enemy. In the background, the horns blow from Atlantis and the Atlantean cavalry returns through their gates. Daygun cannot afford the total destruction of his cavalry at this point.

  There have been heavy causalities on both sides; it has become a stalemate. The enemy lost one quarter of their heavy cavalry, and additionally, is losing too many tightuses.

  Daygun climbs onto the first wall and cheers for his men. Because he begins to applaud, the rest of the Atlanteans cheer in the aftermath of the battle. Even though the battle was a gridlock on both sides, it seems the Atlanteans won.

  Within thirty minutes, the tightuses move forward again with their heavy cavalry. The Atlanteans fire on the enemy and wreak havoc. The enemy has no choice but to fall back again. The enemy attempts to remove their dead from the battlefield, but the Atlanteans kill those who try. At this point, there will be no ceasefire. This is war to the death. No prisoners will be taken on either side. There is so much hate that no one views another as a human being. Each person on each side seems to be an enemy without a soul.

  A constant stream of ships traverses in and out of the Atlantean harbor, each ship leaving twenty minutes after docking. Men, women, children, and supplies are thrown onto the ships. Supplies are stowed below deck after embarking. There is no time for detail.

  The Atlantean flagships take a little longer to transfer supplies on board. They are so massive that twenty minutes is not enough time. It takes an hour to load the heavy battlecruisers to capacity.

  After weeks of evacuating, only thirty-two percent of the Atlantean population is off the peninsula. There are not enough ships for the task. Men and women trapped in their city are preparing to fight to their deaths.

  Daygun’s light and heavy cavalry will soon be ordered to another offensive. He is waiting for the enemy’s heavy cavalry to appear. The Atlanteans will be outnumbered twenty to one in cavalry, but are better trained.

  Without warning, the tightuses move toward the city once more, with their heavy cavalry following closely. The gates open. The Atlanteans’ heavy cavalry exit full speed and hit the right side of the enemy. The Atlantean mammoths seem enraged, and have never fought as hard as they do now. The enemy animals almost retreat as the Atlantean beasts charge forward. Atlantean heavy cavalry destroys nine-to-one ratio on the battlefield. Atlantean archers and artillery destroy the rest. After an hour, there is almost no enemy beast to fight back against the Atlanteans. The Atlanteans kill almost every mammoth, giant rhino, and elephant in the enemy’s arsenal.

  Enemy archers come forward to the battlefield and fire on the Atlantean heavy cavalry, trapping and destroying it. It seems that all mammoths are dead in the Atlantean Empire, where two months ago, there were tens of thousands. Now, they are almost extinct, and those still living are used to move the tightuses. The Atlantean archers halt the advance of their enemy.