The tremors began before the horns.
At first, it felt like aftershocks from the night before…small vibrations running through the trench floors, shaking pebbles and sloshing water barrels. But then the tremors deepened. Grew heavier. Rhythmic. As if the ground itself had joined the orcs in their endless war-song.
Captain Braedon stood atop a forward fortification, hand gripping a spear like it was the only thing keeping him upright. A murmur passed through the lines as soldiers turned toward the horizon.
What erged from the fog was not an army.
It was a line of tal-covered behemoths.
A group of Thyrians were headed towards the Threian lines and alongside them was the Rhakaddon Cavalry.
"Damn it," Braedon whispered. "By the light, Goddess help us."
The Thyrians already gave the Threians enough trouble before, and adding the Rhakaddons into the mix, it's a recipe for destruction.
Massive, armored creatures that moved on thick legs the width of trees, their bodies armored with bone plates and fine iron. The Thyrians' heads were broad, like monstrous bulls bred for war. Dozens of them lined up in front of the first wave of orcs, each beast harnessed and guided by teams of orcs using chains and ropes.
They didn't march.
They thundered.
The ground cracked under their weight as they began to move, slowly at first, then faster, their formation tight and straight. Behind them, orc siege operators followed, pushing catapults and ballistae into new positions to support the charge.
Lieutenant Faris sprinted toward the artillery line.
"Thunder Makers, focus on the lead beasts!" he bellowed. "We take them down or we don't live to regret it!"
Cannons rotated. Charges were loaded. Spotters scread distances.
The first volley fired.
Six booms split the air.
Iron balls streaked across the field and struck true. One Thyrian stumbled as a cannonball tore through its front leg. Another reeled as its armored head was dented by a glancing blow. But none fell.
They kept coming.
Braedon shouted into the line, "Spearn to the gaps! Boomsticks ready for dismounts! This is the storm!"
A great blast rocked the trench as a forward cannon exploded from overuse. Shrapnel tore through two crewn and shredded a nearby engineer's leg.
Faris scread, "Keep firing! Load again!"
The Thyrians along with the Rhakaddons reached the outer palisade.
And tore through it.
Logs split like twigs beneath their charge. The outer spikes were flattened. Entire watchtowers crumpled as the behemoths slamd into the eastern wall.
The first breach opened with a sickening crunch as a Rhakaddon ramd its head into the embanknt. Dirt and n flew. A second creature followed, widening the hole.
Orcs poured in behind them.
Screaming.
Swinging.
Killing.
Braedon rushed toward the breach, sword drawn. Behind him ca a fresh detachnt of infantry, every man and woman knowing full well what awaited.
They t the orcs just beyond the broken wall.
Chaos reigned.
Boomsticks flared. Bows snapped. The sll of sulfur mingled with blood and bile.
Odric arrived at the flank with two heavy teams and imdiately opened fire into the side of the Thyrians. The shots hit, so penetrating between plates, others ricocheting.
"They're slowing," he shouted.
But it wasn't enough.
A third beast slamd into the wall and rolled over a group of piken. The sound was like wet wood breaking. Braedon watched it happen…felt helpless.
Then, salvation.
From behind the lines, Faris's Thunder Makers fired again. This ti, with two smaller iron balls linked together by chains, chainshots.
The whirling tal chains spun through the air and wrapped around a Thyrian's forelegs. It stumbled, crashed into a crumbling tower, and finally stopped moving.
A cheer rose…but it was short-lived.
Another Thyrian broke through.
Gresham appeared beside Braedon, sword drawn.
His battle energy covering his entire being.
"We cannot hold them here," he shouted. "We have to collapse the breach!"
"How?"
Faris answered, running up with a fuse in hand.
"We bring the outer wall down on their heads."
The engineer pointed to the spot above the breach, where old powder stores had been buried in the early days of the siege.
"If we ignite the store, the wall collapses. Buries them all."
"And half our own line," Braedon growled.
"Better a crater than a corridor," Gresham snapped.
Braedon nodded.
"Do it."
Faris didn't wait.
*****
Five minutes later, the charge was set.
As Braedon and Odric led the remaining troops into a controlled retreat, Faris and two assistants crawled beneath the walls, sparks already flying from the length of fuse in their hands.
"Light it!" Faris roared.
The fla ran fast…too fast.
The team barely made it back to the trench before the walls exploded.
Earth ripped open. Rock and timber shot skyward. A sound louder than anything yet tore across the plains as the outer walls collapsed, burying Thyrians, Rhakaddons, orcs, and siege engines alike beneath a mountain of rubble.
The shockwave knocked Braedon flat.
Silence followed.
Then, slowly, cheers.
They had held.
Barely.
*****
At sunset, the field was quiet again.
The breach was now a crater.
Gresham stood at its edge, staring at the bodies…man and beast…buried beneath the earth.
He didn't speak.
He just returned to his tent.
And wrote.
" Countess,
Today, we fought monsters.
Living battering rams, armored and bred for nothing but destruction. Our outer wall is gone. Our line is cratered.
We buried them…at the cost of our last reserves. We held.
But I ask you again: where are you?
You once spoke of Threian pride. Of unity. Of noble blood and sacred duty.
And yet here we stand. Alone. Bleeding. Burying.
I have no patience nor eloquence left.
I only have this:"
He paused.
Then scrawled the final line.
" We have done our part. Will you do yours?"
He sealed it.
Another letter.
Another day.
But no longer any belief.
He had long given up in receiving aid from the Blue Countess. Major Gresham accepted that their defeat is not far away, but he must hold their current location for as long as they can.
The ones who went out for the expedition. Deep in the Tekarr Mountains were still yet to co back. They were the ones that he was waiting for.
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