Enlightened Empire

Chapter 327: Secret Operations

Darkness gripped Yua. Five days after General Dedrick's arrival on the island, it had finally stopped raining. However, the clouds still remained and cut off all contact between the people on the earth and the stars in the sky. Without light from above, it was hard to see even one’s own hand, let alone one's surroundings. However, that wasn't a problem for everyone. In fact, some people thrived in darkness.

Simo looked around, in search of his companions. They had all received the same orders and were all on the same path, but they didn't march in formation. Instead, they had spread out in a wide area. They were no soldiers after all, they were ghosts, and ghosts were used to working alone.

Under the cover of night, the ducked figures hid underneath blackened tarps as they sneaked their way across the battlefield, flanking the central part of the island and making their way to the eastern edge of the defenders' wall. The ghost warriors had come from Saniya together with General Dedrick, and he was also the one to give them their orders for the night.

Step by step, Simo edged closer to his goal, his body bent so it wouldn't show against the background of the horizon. Most people couldn't see in this kind of darkness anyways, but he wouldn't doubt that their enemies had people like themselves, warriors who were experts in night combat. Thus, they had every reason to be careful.

Once they came within five hundred meters of the wall, they had to slow down even more. Although the enemy camp was at the foot of the wall's center, and this place was thus easier to sneak up on, the edges of the wall were still defended.

From this distance, Simo could easily see the light of the enemy's lanterns dotting the wall, as well as the flames of torches carried by the guards. Unlike Saniya's camp, this place wasn't entirely dark at night. Up until the arrival of the ghosts, the defenders had to fear few night attacks, since most of Saniya's regular soldiers weren't warriors. They didn't have any heightened senses, so sneaking up on the defenders was less of an option during the night. However, things had changed with their arrival.

For now, their enemies still didn't know about the presence of the ghosts, so they would have an easier time getting close. At the same time however, the enemy's carelessness also meant that there were fires everywhere, which slowed down their approach. After all, they hadn't come here for a simple assassination. For this operation, they only had a single shot.

Thus, as soon as Simo came close enough to see the moving lights, he stopped and bowed down into the mud, the tarp draped over his head. His shoes were covered with cloth to take away the sound of his steps, but that cloth had long been soaked in the muddy ground, and its cold had begun to infiltrate his boots as well. However, he didn't move a muscle. Still like a statue, he watched the distant lights and began to count the seconds, to possibly identify some kind of pattern in the patrols, or maybe just to calm his beating heart.

One

Two

Three

…

By the time Simo reached 407 in his head, the moving lights had finally gone away far enough that he felt safe to continue. Now that darkness was restored before them, the ghosts began to move again. Although they were closing in on the wall, only occasional patrols would reach near here, giving them enough space to move undetected. All of Saniya's attacks had been concentrated on the central wall so far, so this place had become an afterthought for the defenders.

Thus, although constant breaks interrupted their advance, they inched ever closer to the wall. Hours later, by the time the moon would have stood high in the cloudy sky, they had finally reached their goal. For the first time in these hours, Simo looked to his left and right, to find his fellow ghosts and communicate with his eyes.

All of them nodded, one by one, and readied themselves for their final move. They waited for the lights to move away one final time, only then did they ignite their tinderboxes. The small fire shone bright in the night, and no doubt attracted the eyes of the distant guards, but they wouldn't need longer than a few seconds. Already, the little flame had ignited the wick which stuck out of the sealed bottle in Simo's hand, and set it aflame.

A few, decisive steps brought the ghost close to the wall, before he threw the bottle onto the palisades. The sound of shattering glass broke through the night, followed by shouts from the defender's camp to the west. As the bottle burst, it released its contents all over the wall, a refined side-product of the foundry that had been christened 'petrol' by their king.

Before the mixture could drip down the wall, the burning cloth set it ablaze in the blink of an eye. To Simo’s left and right, other warriors had done the same, with similar results. Soon, an entire section of the wall was bright ablaze, despite being soaked in rain all these days. The shouts of the incoming guards let them retreat back into the night, but it didn't matter. Whatever the defenders did from here, the general's plan had already been a success. The ghosts had completed another mission.

While the mission of the ghosts had been finished already, the mission of others was just about to start. In front of the Saniya camp's walls, Dedrick was waiting, hidden by darkness. Behind him stood the troops he needed for the second part of his plan: Hundreds of construction workers from Saniya, armed with sacks, metal poles, and large wooden structures.

With trepidation, he watched the edges of the walls, hoping to see the flames he had ordered. Although he couldn't see the sky, he knew that time was advanced already. For the second part of his plan, they would need all the nighttime they could get. Although the moon was covered by clouds, at least he wouldn't have to guess the exact time. Once again, his eyes wandered down to the bulky piece of magic in his hand.

This was a clock, designed by Egidius. At the size of a small buckler, it was small enough to be portable, and supposedly could run for a full day without being wound up. Although the insides of the mechanical device were too complex for Dedrick to understand, the clock face was still easy enough to read. Even in the dark he could make out that it was almost midnight. Yet still, he had seen none of the fires he had ordered.

In fact, the operation of the ghosts was the most precarious part of his plan. Were it to fail, today's operation would be a failure before it could begin. At that point, he would have to come up with some other kind of distraction to try again some other day. But by then, their enemies would be more alert, and there would be a larger chance that they would notice the existence of the construction workers in their camp and guessed their plans.

However, just as he wanted to look down on his clock again, Dedrick's worries went up in flames. Fires started along the wall of the defenders, on both of its outer edges. It was the signal for Dedrick and his army of workers to charge.

On the general's signal, they marched through the mud, until they reached around halfway between the two camps. All the way, the workers didn't talk, and no one lit any fires either. Their progress was slow, but they didn't have to walk for long. After they had reached the position they had scouted out in the days before, the workers began with their duties.

First, they took long steel rods, sharpened to a point, and drove them into the earth with even spacing, creating an oval ring inside the mud. At first the ground made way easily, but the harder rock underneath was a different matter.

The determined workers used cloth-covered hammers to force the stakes into the hard ground, and soon had created a basic foundation on which to build further. On both sides around the stakes, they placed over two meters high wooden structures. The walls were build from two rows of wood planks, with a large space of almost a full meter in between them. In their current state, they were too thin to defend even from muskets, let alone cannon fire.

Even so, the walls were still unreasonably heavy. In fact, all the work they did tonight wouldn't be possible with ordinary people, especially at night, when a normal person wouldn't be able to see anything.

Luckily, Saniya was extraordinary in many regards. While many of the soldiers in Saniya's armies were commoners, who were incapable of this kind of work, many of the city's construction workers were in fact former warriors who had been sentenced to hard labor several years back. Thus, they had the strength, as well as the ability, to fulfill Dedrick's plan. And as an added bonus, no one would suspect that their current actions would be possible, since no one outside of Saniya would believe that noble warriors would stoop down and do menial tasks like building a fortress in the mud.

Just as they had practiced behind their camp's walls over the past few days, the warriors soon finished the placement of the thin walls, fastening them around the metal spikes and sealing off all gaps between them. At this point, they had already been at work for almost an hour, but only now did their work really begin.

Behind them, other workers had already been mixing the concrete for a while, so all they had to do was fill in the empty space between the wooden walls. With the wood underneath, the concrete was insulated from the wet ground, while the walls held its shape. Over the next hour or so, the workers traveled back and forth between their old camp and the newly rising fortress, bringing more and more cement with them. Over time, they had enough to fill in the entire structure.

Meanwhile, the fires were still raging on the edges of the enemy walls, harsh enough to distract them from the quiet operations in the center. Once again, Dedrick had to praise his own genius. Surely, their enemies could never even imagine that they would be able to build a fortress in a single night.

By the time the walls would be dried, they would have staggered walls as high as a man and almost a meter thick, filled with slits to fire through and with solid bunkers interspersed between them. The bunkers were closed on three sides, as well as on top, and would withstand any kind of cannon fire. While the cement dried in its mould, the workers put on the finishing touches.

Some were moving cannons, powder and other supplies into the new fortress, while others built wooden overhangs atop the walls and installed water-proof tarps above the supplies, to protect the weapons from the rain that was sure to come any minute now. Others put up a wooden command towersin the center of the new fortress.

All throughout the night, they continued to work undisturbed, while shouts from the east and west reminded them of their distracted enemies. Finally, as the clock's arm reached five in the morning, the work was done, and the workers retreated back into the original camp, to rest and await the end of the war on Yua Island.

While the workers were done with their mission, Dedrick still had to stay awake, to organize the next stage of his plan. Just as the workers went to sleep, the soldiers came awake one hour before sunrise, just as planned. Almost all the troops in Saniya's camp got ready for combat, forming lines just outside their camp. Only a few soldiers would be left behind to defend the original defensive position on the island’s north coast.

After weeks of battle, the cannons had also been modified with larger, wider wheels, to better push through the mud on the ground. By the time everyone was in position, Dedrick pulled out his watch again. If the weather observations in Atau’s captain’s journal was correct, dawn would break above the island within ten minutes.

This was the darkest hour of the day. To him, it was the brightest. Finally, everything was prepared, and it was time for Dedrick to reap the rewards of his hard work. He looked around and found many of his old mercenaries interspersed with the locals, leading the charge as commanders, ready to support him in one final battle. With pride, Dedrick looked upon last night's handiwork for a few seconds, before he finally gave the command that would decide the war.

“All units advance!”