The Basteg Defense
As dawn approached, the villagers in the city are looking forward to another day of peace among everyone. Peasants from the farms that dot the countryside start their day just like any other day. But no one knew inside the city that there was a war being fought on the border of the country. Forces from Basteg and Kilderan started to clash. Kilderan's forces of some 2,000,000 overtook the Basteg force of 2,500,000 without any problems. The forces of Basteg was highly trained and equipped, but the generals of the army misused their forces and started to get greedy so they started sacking and plundering Kilderan's cities, leaving no one alive inside the city. Each city was burned to the ground, leaving nothing standing as they approached the capital. Each of the general’s greed caught up to them, losses were heavy, and each city of the 15 that was burned to the ground cost 15,000 soldiers on the Basteg side.
Basteg's forces were tired, starving, and in dire need of re-supplying. Basteg's generals, already 3 of the 5 that were sent were wounded, sent a message to the king, stating that they can’t go anymore because of the battles that were fought. But they didn’t send that they burned each city to the ground, only saying that they were being attacked marching straight to their capital. Each general that was still in good health gave an order "All soldiers stop and rest till supplies arrive.” The wounded generals gave a similar order except it was changed to "stop and rest," to "stop and set up defenses for the resting troops"
On the other side however, the new army of Kilderan was ready to fight (the old one was re-called to the capital, new troops, armor, and weapons were used)... and they weren't going to wait till Basteg's forces gets re-supplied. The generals of Kilderan all agreed on a tactic that would kill off the enemy without losing many soldiers, the plan was to attack at dawn, when everyone is getting up. 50,000 soldiers found their way to the camp at which the Basteg's forces were camped. 5,000 troops on each side were waiting to attack the un-able army. "Now!” The artillery captain shouted, causing the trebuchets to launch rotting cow remains into the camp. Inside camp, many things were being shouted, one such as "There” “here!" or "Everyone run!” The stench of the rotting cows started to affect the troops inside, making it hard for them to stand, much less defend the camp. Everyone running, this way and that way, but none of the generals was commanding. The troops soon found out that since they thought they were in trouble, they left and no one was in command. As night fell, more stuff was being thrown into the camp, this time, flaming rocks, as the troops who did make it out called them. The troops inside didn’t run, they couldn’t! The place was surrounded by Kilderan's forces. The attack of artillery lasted until dawn the next day. When dawn came the camp, a burning wreck that used to be a camp, was finally attacked. The Basteg forces, having no where to go, fought very bravely. Clashing of the swords and the arrows from the archers were all that could be heard. One man was being sliced to pieces, until an arrow struck him in the head. Blood, remains from the cows, burning buildings, and the stacks of bodies were piling up. The attack lasted only a day, but losses were heavy on both sides; no one was left alive from Basteg's army. Of the 50,000 troops that were sent from Kilderan, only 11,000 remained.
As news of the total defeat of Basteg's army reached all over the world, the news was banned from Basteg, for it was feared that any loss of the army meant that the people would turn against them. The bad news turned out to be good news as Basteg wanted their people to be safe, and not trying to overthrow the government.
"King! We have terrible news!" Exclaimed one of his aids.
"What's the terrible news!? Come on, out with it!" shouted the king.
"Our 5 generals have failed to capture the country of Kilderan, but there's worse news.”
"What!? How can there be worse news than that!" The king shouted, with an angry tone.
"We...ll... Sir... we have lost 3 generals and an entire army... sir.” The aid said.
"WHAT!!!” The king busted out the door he was standing by, telling his aid to follow. Stopping at a window, the king started screaming, with a very annoyed and mad face. Then his aid tried to calm him down, but he wasn’t expecting what happened next. The king, patting his aid on the shoulder, grabbed him and threw him out the window head first!
Splat! The aid had hit the ground, sending a noise all throughout the castle, guards started to run to the aid. He was found with his head broken, all bones broken or almost broken, and laying in a puddle of blood.
"Ah... that’s better, I feel a lot better now. Guards! Send patrols to find our sneaky little generals...” The king said calmly.
The king now had to do three things, first find a new aid. Second, he had to find the generals that were still alive from the invasion. Third, he had to come up with an army larger than the first one. One of the patrols that the king sent out had found both generals alive and well. They were sent to the king, fearing that they would be killed and thrown into the streets for the people to play with. They finally reached the king.
"Ahh, what do we have here today?” The king asked, and laughed about it.
One of the generals spoke up "Uhh... Sir... You have two of the bravest generals around!"
The king laughed and gave out another question. "Oh do I? If you were brave, you wouldn’t be standing here today, now would you?"
"No sir, we wouldn’t.” Said the general.
"Now since you know you’re not supposed to be alive, what kind of way do you want to die now?” The king questioned both generals.
"No way! We ran for a reason! To be alive today!” The general exclaimed.
"That's just too bad, isn’t it? Well, you have to die today!” The king said, "Guards, come here!"
Three guards rushed to the side of the king, "Yes sir?” The guard asked.
"I want you to bring one of these cowards down to the dungeon, but I want one to go to the gallows...” Just as the king spoke, the guards did what they were told to do, and the generals, looking at each other, was screaming "Nooo!!! I don't want to die!!!"
"That's still too bad; you should have died in camp.” The king told both generals.
Kilderan's people and the army were celebrating their great victory. But that was only one of the many victories soon to come. After partying with the townspeople, the army, fully refreshed and ready to fight, starts the march towards the capital of Basteg. At the border, lookouts spots Kilderan's army, and signal the standing army of 500,000 to fight off a 1,500,000 troop army. The border battles were tough, each side not giving up any ground, but losing many soldiers. After many months of battling Kilderan's forces, the weather, and sickness, the standing army finally gave way. Close to 450,000 troops were killed during the fighting. The march to the capital is finally close!
The news of the war was getting harder and harder to keep away from the people of Basteg, so the king decided to give the news to the people. He feared the people would overthrow him, but the people did something the opposite of what he thought, they took up arms! The second army of Basteg was started, now it had only 200,000 people, but other militias and town defense groups joined in, gave the new army 1,000,000 troops.
Its first test came when the army of Kilderan was on route to Mashtuur City, the second largest city in the country.
Lookouts spotted an army, the Basteg army, but they didn’t know who it was. They thought it was the enemy, so they rang the bells and called the last resort group of defenders to defend the city.
"Fire!” The leader of the defending army shouted, giving the order to fire the artillery that was placed on the walls of the city.
The general of Basteg's army saw the artillery coming, and sent a rider to the gate of the city
"Stop firing! Stop firing!” The rider screamed at the defenders on the wall.
"Why should we stop firing at the enemy!? Are you insane!?” The lead defender said to the rider.
"We're not the enemy; we are Basteg's second army!!” The rider screamed back.
"Alright, stop firing! Hold your fire!” The order was given, but everyone was questioning it.
Basteg's army marched into the city, with a crowd of people growing to take up arms against Kilderan. The man in charge of keeping a count of how many people joined the army lost track of people, close to 25,000 joined when they entered the city.
Finally, a week passed and Kilderan's army was spotted!
"Wow.... How big you think the walls are to this city?” A general of Kilderan asks himself, in awe of the size of the wall.
He turns around to his army, speaking to them. "Alright men, this isn’t going to be easy. They have a huge wall in front of us; troops inside the city could be double of what we have. But we need to fight hard, believe in what will happen, and think about what we are going to do to them for what they did to us! Now turn around, look straight at the man close to you, you might not see him ever again. Now fight! Fight for your country! Fight for the people that were killed!"
As the general stopped, the lead captain of artillery shouted "Fire!"
The fight was on for the city!
Anything (and everything) was shot out of the artillery. The army was constructing huge siege towers and many ladders and rams, while the artillery was being fired; the army was getting prepared for the fight of their life. As the afternoon came, on the 6th day of bombardment, it stopped. Only to have the 2nd phase of the siege come. People were fighting; and jumping off the wall to escape. Clashing went on day and night; each man that was left from the attack on the wall had red colored swords, shields, and armor from all the blood. No one could take a step after the fight for the wall without stepping either on someone, or someone's insides. Some people weren't dead yet, they just had their guts stabbed through and laid there to die. The smell was horrible; almost the same smell as the rotting cows back when Kilderan won their first battle. After some resting and cleaning up, Kilderan launched an attacked on the main city. Fighting was hard, each inch of the city was very costly, men dropped in the dozens in some parts on town. Other parts’ fighting wasn’t that bad, in the better sections, there weren’t any defenders. Fighting in the bad areas lasted 3-5 days without gaining anything, until the church bell rang, and every defender had to retreat to the center of town. The center of the city was a killing zoo for everyone. The center city fighting lasted a week, until they finally surrendered. Out of the 1,025,000 Basteg's, and 1,000,000 Kilderan's, only 1,000 captured Basteg's and 500,000 Kilderan's were left.
Partying by the Kilderan's lasted all day and night, as the battle paid off completely.
"Good news sir! Kilderan has launched a new army to take our offensive place!" The messenger said to the general now in command of defense for the city
"That's good! Now go join the others in celebration!” The general told the messenger.
Lookouts spotted the third and final army of Kilderan just five days after the messenger came. Everyone was happy to see them. They were like gods to the soldiers still recovering from the great battle. Now, only time is in the way of Basteg's last stand.
As the king of Basteg got the horrible news that the second largest city of his country was lost, he asked "Why!? Why did we have to kill their people!?"
He was left to wonder why; one simple word could have changed it all. Now he had a problem, an entirely new army was coming for his capital, and he has maybe five days to get an army strong enough to stop them from capturing the capital. He was out of options; no one wanted to fight for him anymore. It seemed all was lost for him.
No one wanted to fight, but that was before they knew that an army was marching straight to the city. Now everyone and their brother wanted to fight against Kilderan. The king had some hope left, but much of it sits in the hands of millions of untrained citizens, fighting with farming tools. Could they stop them from taking the capital? What will Kilderan do with the capital if they take it?
All the questions, all the doubt, all the hope, and everything they have been fighting for, will now be answered as the lookout spots the army closing in, artillery drawing near. Everyone waits, thinking that this is their last day in life. There is one moment whereas it looks like time has stopped; Kilderan is in eyesight of the capital of Basteg. "Fire!” Both armies start to exchange artillery fire; Basteg had artillery placed on top of the wall, so they can use it against them! Five days pass, as artillery fire rained down upon the city. Finally, the seventh day has come, and each of the armies has run out of things to shoot with. The attack starts!
The battle was bitter, no one gave up until unable to wield a weapon, and the stacks of bodies were piling up three bodies high. Each man who died had his guts slashed apart. Legs, heads, and arms of people were scattered about, but this wasn’t the end of the entire battle, no no, it was just the beginning. As the wall was finally taken, out of the 500,000 went up it, 25,000 came down for the push for the center city. But the 330,000 people defending it, no one was left. The push for the center city was even bitterer than the wall attack. Six days of hacking and slashing people apart and only one street was counted under Kilderan’s control. It looked as though Basteg wouldn’t go down without a fight, and fight they got. Seven weeks went by, still fighting, only this time Kilderan controlled much of the city, and all they needed was a final push into the center city. Out of the millions of people defending, 150,000 were left; fewer than 50,000 could wield a weapon. All hope was lost; none of Basteg's allies came to help, as they thought they should have got it sooner. Kilderan finally makes a push into the center city, with 200,000 to their 50,000, this was going to be an easy victory, but there was only one street into the center city. The attack wasn’t easy, it was the same as the entire battle was, by day three of the attack there were close to 40 troops left for Kilderan and the lucky ten left for Basteg. The fight continued, only it wasn’t as bad. Day 4 dawned and 2 people were left, the king of Basteg and the General of the Army. Everyone was in a pile, or under a pile of dead bodies. The general thrust his sword into the king, fatally wounding him, but he didn’t die right away, so the king took all the strength left of him to slash the general in two! Finally, the king died shortly after. Basteg's capital, once glorious, with power and wealth, was an empty land of nothingness, and no one came to claim the city. To this day somewhere out there, a city remains, still the same as it was during that Great War.
The end!
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