The Plains of Pluto - Chapter 16

Southern Wistla River

Leodgar walked along the iron top deck of the Isarna, enjoying a few minutes of calm night air. These iron ships were a miracle and he’d shown dozens of times over the last eight months just how powerful they were, but being inside of one was a little like being inside of a closed furnace.

They were cramped, hot, and everything inside of it felt like it was covered in a layer of coal dust from the constantly burning boilers powering the entire thing.

Fresh air had truly become a luxury at this point.

Worse, the opportunities to take these small escapes out of the ship were few and far between, as most of the time the enemy was never far away, trying to find a way across the river. It was only after weeks of relative quiet on the opposite bank that he felt safe enough for these short sojourns, and then only in the evening when the moon overcast like tonight.

And only for a short few minutes.

Leodgar closed his eyes and listened to the water lapping against the megan plating and the sounds of some of the small number of Britannian legionnaires on patrol on their side of the river.

In another time and place it would be almost peaceful.

With one last deep breath of fresh air, Leodgar turned and went back to the top hatch of the ship, descending back into the armored confines of the vessel.

Most of the men were in hammocks stretched along the gun deck. It wasn’t luxurious living, but men had an uncanny knack for becoming accustomed to all sorts of accommodations.

Just outside of the ship’s pilot house, where the ship itself was commanded and steered from, he found Appius already waiting for him.

The man looked a little green.

The youngest of his officers, he knew how he would have felt in the young man’s place. It was going to be his first time in command of a watch, which was a big moment in any young officer’s career. There might still be a war on, but that did not take away the duty to train the next generation of leaders in the legion, especially in the navy, which had not existed a decade ago.

“Sir,” Appius said, standing at attention when he noticed Leodgar.

“Stand easy,” he said, patting the young man’s arm. “Are you ready for your first watch?”

“Yes, sir. I … Yes, sir.”

Leodgar smiled again. “You’ll do fine. The opposite bank has been quiet all day. We haven’t even seen a picket today. Which doesn’t mean they aren’t over there. Quiet and safe are two very different things. You can’t let your guard down.”

“No, Sir. I mean, Yes, Sir.”

“You’re not alone on this stretch. There’s a century spread over this mile on the friendly side of the river doing some reconnaissance. Not enough to fight, but they will be keeping an eye on the opposite side. Part of your job tonight is to be in regular communication with their pickets. I’m not expecting them to see anything, but protocols must be maintained, and it will be good practice for both of you.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Good. We’ll stay at a skeleton watch tonight. Keep the gun crews…”

Leodgar’s next words were swallowed up by a thunderous explosion, the blast close enough to make the ironclad’s armor plates shudder. More shells exploded seconds later, causing both men to grip the low ceiling to brace themselves as the ship began to shake more violently.

“Battle stations!” Leodgar bellowed, already running into the pilot house. “Every man to his gun!”

Pushing a sailor out of the way, Leodgar pressed himself up against the observation slit, trying to see what was out there in spite of the overcast night. He could have kicked himself, walking along the top of the boat, oblivious to the easterners setting up on the opposite bank.

There. The telltale flashes of enemy artillery and rifles on the eastern bank.

“Opposite shore. Cannon fire two points after of the midline. Have gunners spread fire across the entire section of the bank and signal the infantry on the shore to bring up units.”

The crew scrambled to carry out their orders, although the delay in his cannons opening fire felt like an eternity. Part of his brain defended them, since most had been settling down for the night and everyone was caught off guard by the attack, but he did not like giving the easterners free rein on his ship.

A tremendous impact rocked the Isarna. He’d been looking down that side of the ship when it went, and saw the shell explode as it hit the water, billowing out into a fireball. It wasn’t solid shot like they’d faced before. These were explosive shells, just like the ones they’d started using.

They’d been hit by the concussive force and shrapnel, not a shell itself. The explosion seemed a little weaker than what the shells they had been using themselves produced, but not much. The armored plates on this ship were thick, but he worried that they would not be strong enough to deflect a direct hit by one of those shells.

His cannon finally opened fire, and explosions of their own began tearing up the opposite shore. Except for brief illumination when a shell exploded, however, he had no idea how accurate his fire was or where, exactly, the enemy cannon was firing from.

It wasn’t direct fire, which had to mean they’d somehow also copied the howitzer design, allowing angled fire giving their cannons some added protection.

Another shell exploded off the port bow, closer this time. The enemy gunners were finding their range.

“Signal the shore battery!” he ordered. “We need illumination! And tell them to get up one of the damn observation balloons.”

Moments later, a distinctive whump sound came from the western bank. The firing sound was much different than a cannon, but distinctive enough he could hear it over all the noise. A bright light exploded above the river, slowly drifting down, casting harsh white light over the river. The illumination revealed a nightmarish scene, dozens of small boats packed with Eastern troops were already on the water, while more waited at the far bank.

Everyone on the opposite bank froze at the sudden light. They may have seen the artillery in action, but this was new. He’d made sure his men knew about it enough to not freeze, since the light did not last long, but it must have been a surprise when the shoreline lit up like midday.

It had shocked him the first time he’d seen it demonstrated.

“All guns, target those boats!” Leodgar commanded. “Priority to the closest craft!”

The Isarna’s rifled cannon roared in response. The first shot caught a boat packed with soldiers square in the center, the explosion ripping it in half and throwing men, and parts of men, into the water for dozens of paces in every direction.

More cannon fire followed as the gun crews found their targets. Shell after shell slammed into the approaching boats. Some missed, sending up towering geysers of water, but others found their marks. The river began filling with debris and bodies.

Another shell struck close, sending water cascading over the iron deck. Leodgar ignored it, trying to focus on something new in the water. A group of boats were coming out very close together, but not pushing hard toward their position. They were moving slow, only staying a little off the shore.

It took him a moment to make out the thing they were dragging between them. Some kind of wooden structure, like logs lashed together, with some kind of planking lashed to their tops. He’d never seen the likes of it before, but its function was obvious.

It was some kind of portable bridge they could put in place to get men across the river quickly. A clever design, and also a sign that there were a lot more men on the other shore than he thought, if they planned on storming across once the bridges were laid down.

“They’re trying to bridge the river,” he called out. “New priority targets, sink those log rafts! Make sure to signal the men on the shore.”

His gunners adjusted their aim, blasting away at the makeshift bridges. He wished the infantry had more than a single cannon. The rifles were nice, but even with the flares, visibility wasn’t great and they didn’t have enough men to mass fire. What was going to win this was high explosives, and he could only get half his tubes into the battle.

One shell found its mark, blasting timber and bodies skyward. But there were more coming, and in the intermittent flashes of artillery fire, he could see dozens of small boats weaving between the larger pontoons.

“Sir!” A sailor pointed through the observation slit. “Look!”

In the darkness, several boats had slipped dangerously close. Grappling hooks sailed upward, clanging against the iron hull. Ropes went taut as the enemy prepared to climb.

They were well under the angle his guns could reach.

“Repel boarders!” Leodgar shouted.

His men started to toss grenades out the gun ports, which forced most of the boats back, but one had men already half up the side, trying to get up quickly. If they had any kind of explosive on them, they could do serious damage to his ship.

One of his crewmen, a particularly brave man who he’d have to single out for recognition if he survived, popped up out of one of the top hatches and sprinted across the deck. The sailor slashed through one rope, then another, sending climbers into the water. The other two ropes still attached went slack as men fell off the sides and into the water.

The crewman had come prepared and reached to his belt, producing one of the fin-stabilized grenades, yanking the safety strap free and hurled it into the water where the men had fallen.

The explosion sent a column of water and pieces of men raining against the ship’s hull.

“Tell that man…” he began, and then the world erupted in flame and thunder.

Leodgar was picked up by the force and hurled into the opposing wall, bouncing off the wood and metal interior before slamming into the deck, his head cracking against the metal. For a moment everything was blurry and he could barely focus on anything but the copper taste in his mouth.

Looking up, he realized he could see clouds and the occasional star. Actual stars. It took another beat for his brain to recognize the massive hole torn in the pilot house roof.

Around him, several of the men he’d been standing with lay motionless, dead, including poor Appius, who was staring at him with lifeless eyes, a gig gash in the side of his head.

Leodgar shook his head to clear it, and the sight of the young officer, before pushing himself off the deck. Blood ran down his face, and his left arm hung useless.

“Damage report!” He said, trying to hold his balance as the deck pitched beneath him.

“Fire dead here, sir,” someone called out. “Steering mechanisms damaged!”

“Get damage control parties moving,” Leodgar ordered, pressing a hand to his bleeding scalp. “And keep those guns firing!”

“Sir, we’re taking on water below. That last hit opened up the hull.”

“Open the starboard ports and start bailing,” Leodgar commanded. “Get the carpenter’s mate down there. We patch what we can, but those guns keep firing.”

Moving back to the observation slit, he watched more boats push forward across the river. The water between banks had become a hellscape of fire, smoke, and bodies.

They were going to be swamped soon.

“Reload with canister!” Leodgar ordered.

Enemy artillery continued to pound their position. A shell burst directly overhead, showering shrapnel down through the open roof, killing a sailor right behind him.

The enemy fire rate had slowed, but his guns were now completely occupied with the boats trying to board them, giving the enemy gunners free rein.

He was just considering if they should abandon the ship and burn it, trying to escape to the shore, when fresh explosions began to walk across the eastern shore, hammering the enemy guns and men still trying to launch boats.

Several of the explosions were deeper, away from the shore. They must have hit an enemy gun and its limber directly, as an explosion ripped into a much larger explosion, that seemed to cascade down a line. It was as if some great beast had burned a line down the fields behind the shoreline, sending flame streaking into the sky.

The enemy had set their guns and powder stores up too close together, allowing them to be caught in a kind of cascade.

Running to the other side and looking out the opposite observation slit, he saw multiple Britannian field pieces opening up, along with maybe a hundred rifles.

The reinforcements had caught up.

He could even see one of the observation balloons up, which explained how they were hitting those enemy pieces so accurately.

The combined firepower of the ironclad and shore artillery converged on the enemy positions. Through the smoke, Leodgar spotted muzzle flashes growing fewer and more sporadic.

The enemy was still sending a few boats in the water, but with their cannons gone and the massive explosion in their rear, the fight had been taken out of them. Another few minutes and what boats were still left in the water turned around and tried to retreat. The crude bridge attempts had been thoroughly shattered, leaving broken timbers and bodies floating downstream.

Leodgar watched through the observation slit as the enemy withdrew into the darkness. The eastern bank, briefly illuminated by shell fire, showed the aftermath: broken artillery pieces, cratered ground, and far too many still forms lying where they fell.

“Cease fire. Keep the men at their guns, but everyone else is to help with the repair efforts. Signal the shore that we are damaged and have dead and wounded.”

A sailor approached, medical kit in hand. “Sir, let me see to that arm...”

Leodgar waved him off with his good hand. “See to the critically wounded first. I can wait.”

The sailor hesitated, then nodded and hurried off. Leodgar looked up, out the open hole in the roof of the pilot ship.

They’d repulsed the attack. Barely, but they’d survived.

***

***

Devnum

The crowd gathered in front of the Palace Complex was the largest they’d had in the week, filling into every possible space around the palace.

The big difference is this one was planned. In the week that the senators had continued to sic mobs on the palace and work up the people with their ridiculous lies, she hadn’t been sitting idle.

Yes, she should have seen this coming and blocked, but she had been in politics her entire life and knew how the game was played.

Which is why they’d done more than just inform the masses that a major speech by the empress was coming. She’d had her people construct a raised section just inside the palace grounds standing above its wall to ensure that every man sitting in that section could see the crowd, and that the crowd could see her. She’d invited, with praetorians for some of the more reticent people, members of both Imperial and Roman senates along with government officials and regional officials from here in Rome as well as Caledonia and Ulaid. She’d also made sure to include all of the visiting dignitaries in the city.

All of that was for a reason, but it was also a smoke screen to make sure every imperial senator was there and sitting in places of honor at the very front.

She would not allow any of these men to hide from what was coming.

They’d erected a second stage at an angle from the one filled with senators, but this one was just a platform from which she could speak. Ky had described the way they used to be able to project their voices through devices like the earpiece she wore so that it could be heard over a large area, and she wished she’d had one of those now.

She’d been trained to project her voice well and knew at least those in the square around the palace square would hear it, and they’d handed out copies of the speech to men set to go around town and repeat it, but it would be nice to be able to do it all at once.

She spared one last glance at the senators, several of whom had smug looks on their faces, no doubt thinking they had gotten the upper hand on her and this was, in fact, a public backing down for her to give in to their demands and give them what they wanted.

Foolish men.

“People of Britannia, I have heard your cries for justice for the youth of our empire and for fair treatment. I have heard it, and I understand it. My own husband stands on the front lines fighting this war with your sons, brothers, and husbands just as he did six years ago against the Carthaginians. I know the weight this war has placed upon your shoulders. I’ve seen the empty chairs at dinner tables, the shops struggling to stay open, the fields left fallow as our young men march off to distant battlefields. Which is why I come before you today. I have struggled with the decisions I have been forced to make for the good of every citizen of our empire. I have cried as a mother over a son for each man we have lost, which is why I feel it is right that I lay the case of our empire before you myself. You, the people of Britannia, should know what we face so you can fully understand the decisions made on your behalf, as is your right as citizens. I know many of you have heard by now, but Egypt, once our ally, has betrayed us. They have thrown their lot in with the Eastern forces, the very enemy that seeks to crush our way of life beneath their heel.”

A murmur rippled through the crowd. They had, of course, heard of this. It had been the talk of the town ever since word broke. But hearing about it second hand and from your leader were two very different things.

“It’s true, this was a shock to everyone in the empire, but we will see to this challenge as we’ve seen to every challenge we have faced before. Doing so … surviving this betrayal, will not come easily. It is going to require hard decisions if we are to deal with this. I also know many of you have by now heard of rumors of conscription. Again, this is true. What isn’t true is some of the information you have heard surrounding the acts of conscription we are in the process of drawing up. I implore you, before you let fear or anger cloud your judgment, listen to what I have to say. Let me make the case to you, the people of Britannia, on why we had to come to this hard decision.”

There was another sweep of unsettling sounds from the crowd, although it was more muted than Lucilla had expected. Maybe they weren’t prepared for her to address it so directly.

“Our forces, while they still hold the line in Eastern Germania, are pressed hard. They fight bravely, but with the addition of much of Greece and Egypt to their already significant numbers, we have again found ourselves greatly outnumbered. Worse, these easterners have found ways to copy even our newest technology, which has taken from us the very advantage that allowed us to defeat the larger Carthaginian forces in the last war. Egyptian pirates now strike at our bases in the Middle Sea and raid our shipping, limiting the supplies available to our men in the field. These challenges have cost us dearly, but we have not backed down, because they have made it clear now, and in their allying with the Carthaginians in the last war, that they will accept nothing short of total domination of every town and village in the east. Until they have subjugated us like the Carthaginians of old. I will not stand by and allow the rise of a new Carthage, no matter where they came from. I tell you this not to scare you, but for you to understand the difficulties we face. For you to understand what has driven us to the point of asking what we have to ask. Without more soldiers to hold the line, all of the will in the world will not stop them. Without the manpower we need, manpower we are not achieving through volunteers alone, all we have built, all we have sacrificed for, will crumble. I have walked the trenches of Germania. I have seen the brutal reality of this war with my own eyes. And I tell you now, we cannot afford the luxury of complacency!”

The crowd grew quieter. That was the one thing the senators had made sure to leave out of their pamphlets. They didn’t want the people to really know the stakes they were facing.

“So yes, we are asking to be entrusted with your sons and husbands, brothers and fathers, to ensure that every one of us has a future. We ask this, but we are not Carthage. We do not hurl bodies at our enemy until one side breaks, and we do not spend lives needlessly or foolishly. We are Britannia, and our strength has always lain in the quality of our soldiers, not merely their quantity. Every man called to serve will receive the same rigorous training that has made our legions the envy of the world. And we will not discriminate. No one will fight while others live in safety. The son of a senator will march alongside the son of a baker. And for those who serve, I give you my solemn vow, your families will be cared for, your livelihoods protected. I ask you, How many of your neighbors, your friends, have already volunteered? How many families are already missing fathers, sons, and brothers? This is not about forcing you to fight, it’s about sharing the burden equally, so that no one family, no one community, bears too much of the cost. To those of you who have served before, I ask you to speak to your neighbors, your friends. Help them understand what is at stake. Remind them of the oaths their fathers and grandfathers took, the sacrifices they made so that we might stand here today, free and prosperous.”

She paused dramatically, looking over to the senators.

“I know you have heard that we intend all sorts of atrocities, that we would ask for your sons while forgetting who we are and what we stand for. These are lies. Some among our leadership would have us bury our heads in the sand, pretending the storm will pass us by if we simply ignore it. They sit in their villas, counting their coins while our brave men and women bleed on distant shores. To those men, who claim to speak for the people while lining their own pockets, I say this. Stand with us now, or stand aside. The time for half-measures and compromise is over. If you cannot find the courage to do what must be done, then you reveal yourselves as cowards who would let Britannia burn to protect your own fortunes. People of Britannia, I call on you now to make your voices heard. Demand accountability from your leaders. Refuse to let complacency and greed destroy everything we have built. And know this, if the Senate will not act, then I will. I will enact whatever emergency measures are necessary to ensure our survival, even if it means overriding their authority.”

The crowd got very silent at that. This was the point that had a lot of people up in arms. When presented starkly, it could look like despotism. Again, maybe they didn’t think she would address it so directly. Either way, she knew she had the crowd’s attention. Even the men in the senate, sitting with the other dignitaries, were silent, waiting to hear what she had to say.

“That, however, is not the path I wish to walk. I want to pass a law to ensure the conscription is fair and that everyone pays the cost for the lives we lead, instead of leaving the fighting to the poorest members of society while the rich sit on their piles of wealth, profiting from men’s dying. We are strongest when we stand together, not as senators and citizens, not as rich and poor, but as Britannians. Our history is one of endurance, of rising to meet every challenge that fate has thrown our way. And we are not alone in this. Every other people on the continent, all of our allies, are enacting similar laws and mobilizing their people in the defense of the west. We do not stand alone, but we cannot stay safe on our island while others send their children to fight for us. As we stand with our neighbors here, so should we stand with our neighbors across the channel.”

That got a response. The senators might have felt smug in riling up the mob, but they’d forgotten that the mob was still the mob. They might be easily angered, but they were still on their own side, worried about their own self-interests. Senators forgot that anger at their enemies was not the same as support for them. People clapped and a few shouted support or agreement with what she’d said. She knew they were at a tipping point. That they could be made to do the right thing, if it were presented as the best option for them and their families.

“So I ask you now, will you stand with me? Will you fight, not just for your own families, but for every family in Britannia? Will you show the world once again that we are a people who cannot be broken, who will not be cowed, who will face any threat and emerge victorious?”

A roar went up from the crowd.

“Then let us move forward as one! Let us show our enemies, and those who would doubt us, that Britannia’s strength lies not in our walls or our weapons, but in the unbreakable spirit of our people. Together, we will weather this storm. Together, we will secure a future for our children and our children’s children. Together, we will write the next glorious chapter in the history of Britannia!”

As the crowd’s cheers reached a fever pitch, Lucilla stepped back from the podium. She knew this was just a moment, and people’s whims were fickle, but already she had her people out on the speech, making this same pitch on every major corner in the city and sending word to the other major cities in the empire. Telling them of what they faced and laying out for them, in more detail, what she was prepared to offer the people who were conscripted and those who stayed home.

She just hoped she could keep that momentum going.