CHAPTER 119: STRAFING RUNS

The bombardment continued for most of an hour before the ships suddenly broke and began motoring south as fast as possible, while gaining altitude.

The fleet must have encountered more Dagos airships, and they were trying to get behind the other defenders before the enemy arrived, so they would have time to get back into position.

The damage done to the defenders had effectively crippled their artillery, and the stones were only hitting the Keep’s barrier a few times a minute now.

They were still targeting the wall, and the battle was still ongoing, with constant cannon and archer fire. But without the ability to take down a section of wall, they would have to attempt to breach with infantry.

It was possible. In fact, it was how most fortified cities fell.

But it was brutal and bloody on both sides, and the death toll would be horrific.

Dominic waited for more reports from the wall, as the last one they had received was {Wall holding, ramparts holding.} That was unexpected, but with the rapid firing of hundreds of rifles, they must have managed to keep the Dagos soldiers from crossing the moat and pressing the wall, where the defenders would have to lean out to fire at them.

That exposed them to the archers, but it was the only way to keep them from erecting scaling ladders unless you had another defensive measure.

Dominic wasn’t aware, but the mages of Burton’s city guard did have such a plan.

They had learned a spell to create boiling oil, and they could cast it over the wall without ever exposing themselves to enemy archers.

If the boiling oil didn’t do the trick, they could simply toss a lit torch behind it, and the resulting flames certainly would drive any enemy away from the wall. The problem was that the number of mages was limited, and once you had used a technique more than once, the enemy would adapt their strategy.

On and on, the gunfire and booming cannons echoed over the city, until finally, late into the afternoon, a horn sounded from the Dagos lines and the infantry began to retreat, leaving their crippled transports to serve as cover for their next assault.

Bodies littered the ground outside the fortifications, and as the smoke cleared, Dominic could see the deadly toll that the explosive cannon rounds had reaped on the infantry near the wall.

The stone cannonballs were patterned on the inside, and the outer shell shattered into marble sized fragments that had absolutely shredded the armour of the Dagos infantry.

Dominic examined the damage, then wondered if a ceramic shell might be better. Hardened clay wouldn’t be any more difficult to make than stone was. But, for now, it was functional enough, and the blast patterns appeared to be lethal for nearly fifteen metres.

There would be many injuries further from the blast than that. But only where the fragments managed to hit somewhere unarmoured.

Then, a half hour after the retreat, a group of soldiers with white stripes on their helmets approached the wall. Dominic wasn’t familiar with the marking, but those should be the Mortuary forces.

It was a polite way to say scavengers, but their duty was to recover bodies and possible survivors. There was a longstanding custom that they came unarmed, and only took the bodies, leaving any fallen weapons where they were, so they wouldn’t be mistaken as a night raid.

They also weren’t attacked by the defenders as they did their sombre work.

"Aren’t the airships scheduled to come down and switch shifts soon?" Dominic asked as the sun fell beneath the horizon and full darkness set over the blacked out city.

If they were going to land tonight, they wouldn’t have much of a visual reference to go by.

Princess Alexis shook her head. "No, they have enough fuel and food for two weeks, as long as they’re conserving when they’re not in combat. The crew that is up there was ordered to get some sleep and keep someone on watch for the night flights of the Dagos fleet.

We don’t have enough trained men to swap them out, and descending puts them at greater risk of attack, so it’s safer if they just float up there."

Dominic nodded. "You should get some sleep as well. I might only be vaguely familiar with the standards for a siege, but I do expect that there will be a night raid of some sort, attempting to get over the wall and cause chaos."

Princess Alexis nodded. "There are cots in the side room, bring them out, would you? It wouldn’t do for any of us to be unavailable when the messages start coming in.

Later in the siege, we can return to our own suites, but for tonight, it is best to be right here in the Command Room."

Dominic got up and pulled the three folding cots out of the storage room, then wondered how he was supposed to set them up in the room.

"Just two is fine. Marquis Burton has a room on this floor, just down the hall from us, which is still protected by the barrier." She explained.

Dominic nodded. That made sense, of course the Marquis would have a safe room next to the strategy room.

That did mean that they would be sleeping in their armour, expecting a night raid, but that wasn’t too big of a deal to Dominic. He had slept outdoors more nights than he could count, with or without blankets.

Sleeping on a lumpy cot with his armour on wasn’t the worst conditions he had ever faced.

They even had a fire going to keep off the evening chill.

Dominic got everything set up for the evening, and the Royal Guard rotated shifts for the overnight hours, while the Princess moved off to the storage room to change for the evening.

"While it might be more conventional to sleep in your armour during an extended battle, you can go ahead and change to sleep. We’re not front-line forces for this one, so there is time to put it back on if we see trouble coming." She explained.

Then she held up a magitech orb, and Dominic laughed.

She had a clothing orb for her armour and the modest dress she chose as night clothes. So, she could change between outfits in seconds.

"I will have to learn to make the Clothing Orbs one day. They’re an advanced magitech item, but for situations like this, they are just too useful." Dominic sighed.

"When we’re back at the castle, go to supply and request one. They usually have a few in stock, and we have people on contract to make them as needed. You’ll have enough money by the time that the war is over." Princess Alexis joked.

That he would. Even if he didn’t spend much time directly in battle, he likely already had enough money from the rewards given after the last time they were attacked.