Joint post for Ali with Rico
Port Staor, Borea
After weeks of caution and preparedness, the spotters along the coasts and lighthouse spotted the incoming Kalatianburg fleet and sent messengers to Port Staor on horseback as fast as they could. Once the citys guards were alerted of the incoming threat, the city’s garrison quickly mobilized and grabbed their muskets, crossbows, armor, and whatever else they had in their armories with them and conscripted all able-bodied men to serve in the battle from the citys population of 140,000. The drawbridges drawn back, the gates barred and shuttered, men positioned on the walls, and the fleets sent up spread out the chain to block the bay, this was going down in the history books as one of the largest battles in medieval history.
Kalatianburg was one of savagery and would see this as the greatest slaying in history, Nacato ships lead the way, they had all mind to kill the Xagrurgian but wasnt sure what the Kuthern had against them. Regardless not one to be out savaged the Nacato 45 gun Frigate 10 all together started there bombardment of the naval fleet preparing for the Kalatian ambush unseen in the distance.
While Admiral Li Tang wanted to destroy the Kalatian fleet immediately, he knew from his previous combat experience with the Ethalrians and pirates that the 10 ships were simply a trap, a lure to the bigger, horde-like Kalatian fleet reported by the spotters along the coasts. He barked out orders to his second-in-command to signal the rest of the Xagrurgian fleet, all 40 of them, to line up and return aimed shots but maintain in range of the coastal defenses the city offered. Meanwhile, the men on the walls scanned the hills for any enemy armies, prepared to fight to the death.
The Kalatians had there own tactics when using the lure, to there advantage the owned the island with the town of Cryo on it, from there their ships could be constantly reloaded and food loaded up. Instead of appearing head up with the enemy the Admiral ordered 18 ships to join up on the 10 ships from the front and 27 ships to appear from behind encircling the ships. Meanwhile several smaller boats had been launched to meet up with the men went there during the blockade, in total 32,000 Kalatians were to march on the port and massacre all living creatures not deemed slave worthy. This trait of barbarism made the Kalatians stand out, they didnt look at their enemies as humans but nothing more then crop In the field.
Sir! We got 40 more Kalatian ships approaching!, yelled the man on the admirals crow’s nest. The admiral remained stoic at the message, prepared to fight and protect the people of Xagrurg at all costs in the city. The admirals flagship itself was the XNV Glorious, the pride of the Xagrurgian Navy and possessing several prototype technologies and the best men from the service manning it. The Admiral, with all 40 of his ships, gave the order to fire a broadside at the Kalatian fleet, unleashing a hell storm of hundreds of cannonballs at their foes. Meanwhile on the walls, the men on the watchtowers spotted the marching enemy armies and alerted everyone on the walls. The commanders gave the order to fire at will, resulting in mortars, cannons, and muskets going off all at once. Assisting the defenders were the magnificently-made fast-firing muskets, containing 30 musket balls in each and permitted levels of rapid fire unseen of before. As the cannon balls and mortar shells flew, the men reloaded their muskets and prepared for the next volley, aiming up.
Fire the guns, Destroy their navy! Xagrurg is a puny tiny baby! The sailors chanted as they let off rounds of artillery at the port city and the ships, the soldiers waited until an opening was blown open to enter. Upon entrance, they received heavy fire from soldiers carrying muskets and other small weapons, the Kalatians sent in there brute soldiers from Latianburg who were built muscular and bred for war. They entered the homes snatching the women up and childrens killing the father in front of them before biting a chunk of meat out of the wife knock and eating it.
FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! a Xagrurgian infantry commander barked out at his battalion. 5 rows of 50 men fired in volley, the first row firing first, crouching and reloading, the second firing next, and so on. This proved to be highly effective against the infantry charges utilized by the Kalatians, until they actually got up close that is. The muscular Laitians proved to be formidable foes for the typical Xagrurgian soldier who fought with such ferocious vigor seen in the feral wolves of Yasteria and the Aurians of Gondwana. Several civilian patrolmen, typical commoners deputised and armed with a weapon and trusted to restore order as the actual guards were busy defending the walls, scrambled all over the city and were horrified by the war crimes committed by the Kalatians. Eating their children, women, and men, many were outraged and proved to further reinforce the anger felt by the Xagrurgian defenders against the Kalatians.
In one case, a Xagrurgian patrolman ran back to his house to see a Kalatian eating his familys corpses. Infuriated, he hacked and slashed at the Kalatian with his katana until he was severely injured and on the ground, begging for mercy. He was about to finish the job until he paused for a moment and then said, Im not like you, and kicked him in the head and dragged him into the street where he slowly bled out while the patrolman wept and mourned for his fallen loved ones in his home.
Admiral Li Tangs flagship was battered, bruised, and even leaking, yet still fought on. The gunners worked tirelessly to load the guns, ram, and fire, the noise of the cannon blasts absolutely deafening. Several Xagrurgian warships were sunk by the Kalatians broadsides, but the Xagrurgians weren’t the only one with major casualties. Kalatianburg lost many of their warships on their reckless and aggressive assault on the Xagrurgian compound, some of them trapped by the chain and picked off by the coastal defenses, others knocked out by broadsides, or some simply blew in a spectacular fashion from hits to their gunpowder storage compartments.
An stray artillery barrage from a Kalatian ship flew above the walls, above the battlefield, spilled with blood, violence and gore, and hit a warehouse carrying gunpowder and other volatile ingredients, which exploded in a massive blast, sending shockwaves across the entire province. Many were knocked down by the sudden force yet got back up and continued fighting. But, the fire lept building to building, quickly becoming a massive flame hard to tame. The surviving civilians from the Kalatian raiders ran to the cisterns and wells with their buckets and threw the cool liquid onto the fires, hoping to temper the flames. The dedicated firefighting force (who in actuality was the city guard) was forced to be split on fighting both the Kalatians and the fires. Truly, this was a sight to behold from afar, a cultural, political, and economic jewel in flames. Before the flames were beginning to reach the Great Library of Borea however, several scholar-bureaucrats rushed to save several scrolls and books from the building and hid them in the secret cove used by the Xagrurigan Navy all those years ago and travelled through the underground catacombs built during the last devastating plague. If the city itself was going to be destroyed, at least parts of history and knowledge would be saved from the onslaught.
Mankind in the aggregate, I have found to be brutish, ignorant and unkind, whether those qualities were covered by the coarse fabric of the peasant or of the fanciful and indulgent silk robes of a noble. And yet in the weakest of men, in moments when they are alone and themselves, I have found veins of strength like gold in decaying rock; in the cruelest of men, flashes of tenderness and compassion; and in the vainest of men, moments of simplicity and grace. -anonymous scholar-bureaucrat survivor of the Siege of Port Staor.
The Latian brutes continued there onslaught but instead of burning the city down they left half of it standing including the Library, the onslaught of brutality continued to carry on in the other half with carcasses missing chunks of flesh from them raped women and dead children set ablaze. This was the true cruelty of the Kalatians they did not have respect for anyone against their motives, they would make them feel the pain of 1,000 Kalatian all because the Hamas raided a settlement. Out in the sea the Kalatian continued there bombardments wave after wave, round after round blasting there way through the Xagrurgians.
Filled with rage and anger about the Kalatian raiders, this served to only inspire more citizens, both men and women, to take up arms against the Kalatian raiders running through the streets. Many grabbed pitchforks, sharpened former brooms, and even stones to fight back, injuring several in the process. The bay, once a magnificent site whose beauty was illustrated in several paintings, was now filled with debris, smoke, and the smell of death as the naval battle raged on between the Xagrurgians and Kalatians. The Kalatians appeared to be becoming desperate (or emboldened, depending on whose viewpoint you look through) in their assault against the Xagrurgian coastal fleet, taking more and more casualties as the Xagrurgians fought back with their coastal emplacements and broadsides. Meanwhile at the walls, the defenders continued to pour tar over the edge which landed on the Kalatians, causing havoc. On the watchtowers, the crossbowmen, on the orders of their new commander as the old one died in a battle on the streets, switched from standard arrows to flaming arrows and redirected their focus toward the ladders bridging the moats, in an attempt to stem the flow of Kalatians into the city.
Finally, the rounds ended and the remaining forces fled back into the forest, leaving the ruins of what was once a golden jewel of Borea. The Kalatians leaving half of the city standing was seen confusing even by the commanders viewpoint, but the Queen’s orders were clear and there mission finished for now in the city.
With the city and fleet devastated from the attack, the Xagrurgians were going to be knocked out of the war for quite a while. Even though this was a pyrrhic tactical victory for the defenders, ultimately the Kalatians won in the long-term strategic aspect. The news of the Xagrurgian militarys failure was seen as shocking to many considering their technological superiority and military expertise, resulting in a wave of backlash from traditional military thinkers against the progressive-minded strategists who advocated mainly a focus on ranged weaponry and not enough on close-quarters-combat.