Black Iron’s Glory

From the beginning of the 1st month of the new year, Claude led Tribe 131 into Robisto. He had no other choice, since Krado chose to turtle up in Baingana. Since the ships came with the winter wear and other supplies they needed, they had nested in Jinkle to spend winter and refused to leave no matter out.

Under such circumstances, Claude couldn’t bring his men to attack their tightly defended camp. He left only a clan of men to keep an eye on them and headed to Robisto with three other clans to look for opportunities to fight.

Robisto was in a far better state than Balingana, thanks to Port Patres having among the best fortifications in all of the seven Aueran colonies. It was also where Fearless, the kingdom’s fleet, docked at the end of their eastward trade route. To prevent pirate attacks and raids, the kingdom spared quite an expense to ensure that Port Patres had the strongest defences and firepower.

Not a single pirate would dare to test their mettle against the city. It was only after Shiks declared war on Aueras that Pancry, a Shiksan corps, rammed themselves into the city’s defences. Not only did they bash their heads in to the point of bleeding, they also ended up half crippled thanks to the huge casualties. While it was considered to be a stalemate, Pancry had done little more than occupy the river crossing point and set up their camp and defence line there as they waited for reinforcements and resupplication.

In terms of troop numbers, Pancry wasn’t too far off from the garrison of Port Patres. But when it came to combat power, all the garrison could do was defend the city. They weren’t a match for Pancry offensively. That was why Pancry still held the initiative on the battlefield despite having lost a third of their men. Their scouts were spread throughout the whole of Robisto and raided Aueran civilians in Balingana from time to time.

Since Claude’s arrival in Anfiston, Pancry’s scouts no longer dared enter the colony. Those who did would never return and Pancry was aware of the presence of enemy reinforcements. The few scouts that managed to return by some miracle already knew that they weren’t their enemy’s match.

But when Claude turned to Balingana and left Anfiston in the hands of Sevict, the Aueran soldiers were no longer as rabid and chased the enemy scouts all the way back to their camps. Sevict only ordered Ranger Line 034 to close off the borders of the entire colony and prevented the scouts from Pancry from entering and leaving as they pleased.

Now that Claude had turned his tribe back, the Pancry scouts in Robisto were in for another horrible lot. Before any of them set out, they would have to write their wills in advance. Nobody knew for sure whether they’d ever return. After losing about a clan of men, they finally found Tribe 131’s base: the river town of Mordo.

Mordo, as its name suggested, was built near Mordo River, a river branching out from Dorinibla River. The source of the river was the Mosraka Mountains, which was situated between Anfiston and Balingana. It was a small stream that flowed down from the mountains before joining up with Dorinibla River. The town of Mordo was located near Mordo River and Mosraka Mountains. The townsfolk mainly work as timber producers and farmers. There were about ten thousand Aueran civilians that made up around 1300 households. Around 70 thousand mix-blood natives were employed as labourers and the town was located 150 kilometres from the capital, Port Patres.

Mordo had a local garrison tribe. Initially, the tribe should’ve joined up with the rest of the troops at Port Patres when Pancry first invaded, but the enemy was too fast and surrounded the capital before they arrived. Mordo’s garrison tribe had no choice but to turn back as Pancry began to focus their attack on Port Patres instead of splitting their forces and attacking both the capital and Mordo, sparing it from being occupied by enemy forces.

Pancry heard that there was only one light-cavalry tribe among the Aueran reinforcements. Tribe 131 was taken to be a light-cavalry tribe due to their mounts. Coupled with the tribe of garrison soldiers in Mordo, they would amount to only two tribes. Hence, Pancry decided to get rid of the troublesome town since there wasn’t much they could do against Port Patres currently. It would be better to wipe Tribe 131 out first so that they would no longer cause so much trouble to their scouts.

In that sense, Pancry was far braver than Krado. At the very least, they took the initiative and didn’t turtle up like Krado.

Pancry sent out a light-cavalry line and an infantry combat line to Mordo. Perhaps they thought having four times the enemy’s numbers was more than enough to wipe out Tribe 131 and the town’s garrison tribe.

After five days of traveling through the snow to Mordo, the two lines from Pancry noticed that they were a step late. Apart from the rampant nikancha people causing chaos happily, not a single trace of an Aueran civilian or soldier could be seen. After capturing a few of the natives and asking them about it, they found that the enemy had found out about the two lines being sent there, they retreated to the town of Rockbear some 80 kilometres away.

Rockbear was another town that had yet to fall to Pancry. It was located between Anfiston and Robisto somewhere along the foot of Mosraka Mountains. The town was famous for a gigantic rock in the rough shape of a bear and was named after it. Rockbear produced a few kinds of valuable ore and rock that were used to decorate high-class statues.

After finding out that the Auerans had left Mordo, the wooden houses and wood-processing plants in town became the party grounds for the nikancha. They lived into them without permission and the two lines of Pancry had to chase them out of town and back into their ghettos before settling down in the town themselves.

There were tons of firewood stacked up in each of the buildings, mostly used by the former residents as fuel through winter. Even the streets were full of broken furniture and sawdust. The soldiers of Pancry thought that the mess was caused by the unruly nikancha people. They couldn’t be bothered to clean the place up after their long and tiring march and decided to rest well in the middle of the residential sector first.

The two lines of troops were so tired that they casually scheduled their patrols before going to sleep. They were quite disappointed their enemy left so early. Rockbear was around 80 kilometres away and it would take the lines of Pancry around three days of nonstop travel on snow-covered roads to reach there. So, it was decided that they rest well before continuing their journey. They didn’t make the slightest preparation and believed no enemy would dare to attack them, given their superior numbers.

Around ten during the night, the lookouts and patrol soldiers were assailed. The broken furniture and chunks of wood and sawdust on the streets began to burn. Soon, the buildings and wood processing plants around the outer areas of the town began burning. The fires spread inward the town gradually and by the time the soldiers in the residential sector woke up, they were completely surrounded by fire and unable to escape.

The gunshots were the loudest and most frequent around the stable south of town. Pancry’s light-cavalry line’s mounts and their infantry line’s cannons and supply carriages were all situated there, and that was where Tribe 131 made their strike. Claude wanted to take the war horses and work horses as his spoils.

It didn’t take long before the cavalrymen noticed Claude’s intentions. They gathered a large number of troops outside the stable and got into a heated battle with Tribe 131, but they had little time to respond to the sudden attack and were ill prepared. They sent out however many men they had to dash inside the stables to retrieve their mounts.

However, their efforts and sacrifice were all rendered void by Tribe 131’s four light-infantry cannons. No soldier was able to make it there as the scatter shot covered both entrances of the stable. The ones that tried only perished. They could only watch as Tribe 131 broke through the walls of the stables to take the surviving horses away before setting them on fire too.

The fires around the outer areas of town burned even fiercer. More and more houses in the residential area lit up. Pancry’s officers and soldiers only just realised that the buildings were doused with fuel beforehand. The chunks of wood and broken furniture on the streets were no exception. The slightest ember was enough to set a large pile of wood alight, trapping them in the middle of town without any avenue of escape. Their shrieks and cries for help reverberated throughout.

Fortunately, it soon began to snow and the fire was held back a little as a result. Some sharp-witted men began trying to save themselves. They used all manners of tools to move the fallen snow onto the fires burning away at the buildings and after much effort, they made a route that led to the outside of town. Just as they were cheering about being able to leave the burning town, the rangers were waiting outside for them with their tens of cannons and muskets.

Half the men there raised both hands and surrendered. Even the reckless officers had to calm down and give in, as most of their supplies and ammunition had become sacrificed to the god of the pyre. Less than a third of the soldiers were armed and most of them weren’t even donned in thick clothing, seeing as they had run out the moment there was a fire.

Mordo burned for another night and day and the last embers were only put out after heavy snowfall during the afternoon. The whole town had been turned into rubble. Only the west part of town where the ghetto of the nikancha people stayed was still intact. The ghetto had been a few hundred metres from town in the first place outside its walls. That was to prevent a possible uprising by them but that ironically spared their homes from the fire.

The actual Pancry soldiers injured or killed by the fire numbered far fewer than the casualties suffered at the stables south of town, but the fire did destroy most of the cannons, weapons and supplies the two lines of men brought with them. Even their mounts had been acquired by Tribe 131. The soldiers and officers of Pancry that managed to escape the fire had no choice but to surrender to survive. There was no way they could survive the five-day march back to their main camp.

The burning of Mordo concluded with Tribe 131 exterminating two lines of Pancry and capturing more than eight thousand prisoners. It was a harsh blow to the Shiksan corps and something they couldn’t imagine even in their wildest dreams. Two lines of troops left and didn’t return, not even sending any word back. It was not only after a few fortunate scouts that managed to circumvent the perimeter set up by Tribe 131 and saw the burnt remains of the town and getting confirmation from the nikancha people that they were made aware of the two lines’ demise.

As a result, Pancry wisened up and learned from Krado, withdrawing into their camps and insisting on not leaving. They would only decide what they should do after winter passed and their reinforcements and supplies came.

Claude could do naught but lead Tribe 131 back to Anfiston to rest for winter. From the 10th month of the previous year to the 1st month of the new year, Tribe 131 stormed through colonies and suffered quite a number of casualties through their subsequent battles. There were only around 1100 men of the original 1800 who were still in fighting condition.

The 2nd month was a slow month in Robisto and Balingana. The enemies remained turtled up in their respective campsites and Claude didn’t do much other than send Berklin’s clan to monitor Pancry and Krado. The reports he got were always the same. The enemy kept to themselves without leaving camp.

After the rainy season during the 3rd month, a large naval fleet arrived from Shiks. Pancry got a folk of reinforcements and Krado got two lines of infantry. Additionally, the warships that came along with the fleet began to bombard Port Patres once more. But this time around, their luck didn’t fare well and one of their warships was sunk. They could only leave with the fleet with their tails between their legs.

The reinforced Pancry and Krado began their attacks anew on Brikaman and Port Patres respectively. Robisto and Balingana was once more bathed in the flames of war. Claude led his tribe back to those two colonies but the enemy was prepared for them. They guarded their supply convoys heavily with one line of forces at all times. Apart from being able to eliminate some enemy scouts, Tribe 131 wasn’t able to achieve much.

But at the start of the 4th month, Claude finally received good news. The rest of Ranger folk had safely arrived in Anfiston. General Miselk summoned him back to folk headquarters.