The General's War

So the battlefield had been laid out. Every army in it was gathering just barely enough resources to keep up with the constant battles. General Dashington Oakson owning the south- western corner, while mistakenly choosing very powerful rivals and making very powerful enemies. His only way to relax was to think of his one true love, Mishka, who was waiting for him back in his Homeland of Trodheim.

"Sir, General Blackhat has successfully invaded our most westward wing and seems like he plans to conquer our entire continent!" said a messenger to the already stressed general. To which he replied, sighing.

"Will this madness ever end? Let me see the map"

Upon a thorough review of this map, Oakson quickly noticed that by moving his troops to attack, Blackhat had left his own border undefended.

"I have a plan, instead of taking our own land back now, we will simply use our remaining forces to launch a strategic counter attack, cutting off Blackhat's supplies. I will participate in this battle myself, this will certainly demoralize Blackhat's men and make our redemption attack even easier."

And so General Oakson began suiting up and sending messengers to all of his remaining armies, for they must now prepare to risk their lives for a dangerous plan...

Meanwhile, back at in Trodheim, Mishka reads a letter, composed by her lover from the battlefield which had been sent two weeks earlier.

"My dearest love, I know these are dark times, but must ask you to be strong, for I must do the same in order to stay alive without you. No gunshot could ever hurt as much as my loneliness and I still long for the time when we might be together. I must confess, I do not fight this war for our proud country, nor for the protection of our freedom, but I answer the call to arms only with the intention to protect you. Without you, this war would be a lost cause for me, and I would gladly let Blackhat and his allies take all the lands, but your existance alone is enough to keep me fighting, enough to keep me alive, even when all seems lost."

Mishka began to weep softly, as a tear slowly rolled down her cheek. She couldn't help but think that Dashington might not return home like he promised, and she already found herself being tempted by another man.

Back at the battlefield, Oakson and his army of seven thousand find themselves only 4 miles away from their destination. One scout rushes back to the general with news about the enemy forces, informing him that Blackhat did not anticipate the attack and only had his border guarded by a measly one thousand men. Dashington knew his men were tired from the long walk, it was approaching nightfall, so he had to make a decision of whether to camp for the night and attack in the morning, when they might be discovered and had to fight through a more fortified stronghold, or continue the march and seize the element of surprise to the pinnacle of efficiency.

This was indeed an important battle, for not only did it open the door to all of Blackhats's empire, but it would stop the vast majority of his resources from entering, thereby crippling his power.

Although it seemed like an unpopular decision, Dashington chose to lead 1,500 men while the rest stayed behind to rest in case there was a change in plans. As the army rose to the top of a hill, upon which they could see their target, Dashington gane out a mighty war cry which seemed to echo louder as it moved through the ranks. The men immediatly responded with a tremendous roar, powerful enough to get the attention of the stronghold which they desired so.

They all began to charge down the hill, falling out of formation as the ones who still had energy sprinted to the front of the ranks, with rifles inhand, they got into range and opened fire on whoever was unlucky enough to be in their way. Unfortunately, these were also the first men to fall, as the enemy was not an incompetent one. They returned fire laying down 300 men in the first five minutes of battle. Bullets could almost be seen as they passed through the men's bodys, ending lives and destroying entire limbs. At that point, the bulk of the army had found its way to the target, and managed to take down most of the defensive fire.

As the battle came to an end, from the original 1 500 men who led the attack, only about 250 had survived, however, they did manage to take over 700 prisoners, who were all later executed. The rest of the army then moved in to the stronghold, and began to prepare for a massive counter-attack.

General Oakson had received a small foot injury, which would force him to walk with a cane from that point on, but this did not slow him down at all. The next day, he even picked up five thousand men to march over to the land which had been taken from him earlier, knowing now that that land was completely cut off from all supplies.

This army now, was able to rest as long as it needed, for it made no difference how long it would take to crush Blackhat's forces in his land, and so they marched on.

As expected, that territory was relatively easy to conquer, and from there, a vast new amount of wealth was available to help the Trodheim forces, enough even, to expand east, to a neutral, yet wealthy land, which could lend a lot of much needed support to the cause.

This story is written by (but not finished yet) my friend, LARS PELOQUIN. (i'm trying to get him to write more)