Infrastructure: Part Forty Six

Theodoric Skyanov was from a low ranking warrior family in one of the small warrior states near Daggsgrad of peasant background. One of ninety six men in one of the many rifle formations the alliance managed to muster and equip. Unlike many similar riflemen, he actually had some combat experience firing in combat, for his master was one over to the alliance by its assistance in the conquest his old rival lord Kragsnep. In that battle he managed to gain enough skills to be promoted from a simple peasant levy to a permanent fighter. He got a better home, a brigandine, two fat pigs and a bag of small coins. He was amazed by the scale of the force that they managed assemble and equip and when he marched into battle. He heard about the Infrastructural Army, but he dismissed much of what he heard. People loved to lie about how good they were and when they were defeated they made their victorious appear stronger than they were. Who would respect a a man who fled from a pack of weaklings? He was nervous, everyone was. But he was convinced that they had the advantage.

That was until battle started.

His formation advanced into position as quickly as possible. The the firing started. Before they got into position they were met with a hail of fire. Most of it was directed away from his formation, but he saw it. How shell blasted through formations of men and then was the firing. It was inhumanly fast. He eventually got into position and began firing, but they fired back and they were relentless. They got off four shots in the time that it took for them to get off one, even with fear pushing him forward and keeping his mind on target. How did they fire so quickly and so accurately buzzed around his head. Then he saw a a few of them go down, but after his third volley two of his friends drop dead beside him. "HOLD IT TOGE..." barked Sornev, his warlord's third son and the commander of this ragtag company before he was shot in the head. He looked around and saw that a few other men were running and heard the sounds of terror and panic, in his and other companies and a cavalry charge fall down in droves under concentrated fire. In a split second of terror, he dropped his rifle and ran for it.

He bolted for cover at full sprint, jumping over fences and ditches. He eventually saw Uori, one of his close friends and came close to him. He knew that any moment he could be shot dead or be horribly maimed by a bullet. Whatever little comfort he could find was a godsend. Eventually they abandoned the sprint for a long distance jog. They had no idea what was going to happen next. Return home as a coward and be loathed, live a solitary life as a bandit, return to the fray with nothing to fight with besides two eating knives? The two talked about it. Try to find other survivors and maybe form up and launch a renewed offensive at nightfall seemed like the best option. If it worked they would be heroes.

They turned back and marched looking for others. Past farms and farmers that were more concerned with defending their homes. They called to a few soldiers, but most ran away. They began to hear odd horns calling in the distance and saw horsemen running by in the armor and uniform of Infrastructure. They closed in searching. They swerved and tried to evade them. But then, exausted they walked by a farmhouse and behind it came one of them brandishing a pistol.

"I should let you know that this fine contraption can put three holes in both of you before needing to reload if you are about to try to flee" he said calmy "Now I am going to have to ask for your surrender. Don't worry, my compatriots will be here shortly."

Theodoric stood there in shock as this set in and things finally settled. Even as he fled, he held onto a vague hope. That the tides would have turned, and that he might have actually helped turn them with a ragtag band of reorganized men. That the same panic was building in the enemy and they would have broken as well or that their other flank would have been hit by a cavalry charge and fell apart. Even if they were defeated, he imagined attacking their camp at night and slitting throats, striking from the bushes when they least expected it or defending his home town from the infrastructural assault. That hope, however vague and irrational died as he saw that cavalryman standing before him. He knew that his forces had lost. They Alliance's army had been defeated and Infrastructure had won.

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