Herald of Steel

It was amidst such leisurely recreations that Alexander finally received correspondence from Lord Janus through a messenger bird, letting them know of his close proximity.

And Alexander breathed a huge sigh of relief, as he recalled the promise of 5,000 men made by Lady Miranda, their imminent arrival setting his heart at ease.

However, before Alexander could get to celebrating, like it had happened many times before, he was hit with a dilemma.

And that was that, Lord Janus's ship could not enter either of the harbors without Alexander taking control of the Phyrros Island.

This island was a small bit of land situated perhaps not more than 200 hundred meters from the mainland, and so sat right at the very center of the harbor, around the mouth.

It used to have a lighthouse and a military garrison, but after the tsunami a few years ago, all of that got demolished and was now mostly abandoned.

We say mostly because the infrastructure was still in the midst of being repaired.

So there was some military presence there.

Meaning they were in the range of hitting Lord Janus's ships with arrow fire.

Thus Alexander's heart groaned in pain as he read the message on the tiny scroll, where, despite the limited space, Lord Janus, still took the time to inquire whether Phyrros Island was safely and securely under Alexander's control.

As iterated there, without the control of that island, Lord Janus's ships would be undoubtedly peppered with arrow fire from Lord Parker's forces, making it impossible for him to enter the harbor.

Thus according to the old man, it was imperative that Alexander took control of the island before he could come any closer.

And learning of this extra requirement, Alexander quickly summoned his officers, revealing them to the task and informing them, "As you can see, we must take Phyrros Island island from Lord Parker if we are to stand any chance of winning this war. Only with the island in our hands can the reinforcements reach us."

"Now, the number of enemy garrisoned on the island is not known. But it cannot be too big. We have all seen how abandoned the place is. There is nothing there to shield the men from the harsh winter."

"So I estimate at best there are a few hundred unlucky sods who had the misfortune of being placed there. Meaning if we are quick and decisive, we can dislodge them."

Alexander's optimistic tone and clear analysis worked to alleviate much of the tensions in the room, as the officers began to feel it might not be too hard to carry out an amphibious assault in the dead of winter.

Of course, Alexander was sugarcoating a lot of the things, such as the estimated enemy numbers, which he literally pulled out of the sky because he thought it was the most convenient amount.

Thus, in reality, the proposal was quite hard to pull off.

However Alexander tried to dress these difficult challenges as best as he could, revealing to the men a proposed plan that he had just thought of,

"To take the island, I propose a two pronged attack. We will land a small force on the east side of the island right around dawn before the enemy can even wake up, so as to take them by surprise. And then once these men have fortified their position and secured a beachhead, we will launch a naval assault using our ships from the west side of the island, landing men also there, thus dividing the enemy's attention in two and catching them in a pincher."

"And with their flanks under threat, the enemy will have no recourse but to flee the island, most probably using the thin bridge that connects the island to the mainland as their escape route. We can then use the choke point there to massacre every single bastard there."

As far as plans went, this was quite a sound idea.

And so with no one to offer anything better, it quickly got rods of approval from the officers and the plan was set.

With Lord Janus rapidly closing in, seven ships, carrying about 1,000 men were hastily chosen for this endeavor.

Their mission was to land about 500 men on Phyrros Island along with a week's supply of food, water as well as equipment such as tents for the soldiers to rest the night in this cold season, and siege equipment such as large wooden logs and stakes to use in the building of ramparts and other fortification.

As for the remaining 500 on the ship, they were required to commandeer the boats, help carry the supplies on shore, as well as remain there to provide firing support from afar using crossbows and even small catapults, should the enemy get wind of their movement and try to push the legionaries back to the sea.

The entire task force was to be led by Commander Kazid, who, if you will remember was one of the main actors in defense of Alexander's lines against Lord Parker's full fledged assault.

Initially, Remus had shown great interest in leading the party, to the point he was threatening any officer who would even dare to contend with him.

But in the end, he was vehemently rebuked by Alexander, who reminded him that he was the general now and thus his place was among the troops here, to lead and guide them, not go on risky, naval adventures in the dead of night for the thrill of it.

And yes, instead of dawn, after a bit of revision, the timing of the attack was moved up to pre dawn, because as pointed out by one of the officers the moon was in full bloom in this part of the month.

Furthermore, as luck would have it, the drab and dreary weather of winter had also begun to clear up in the past couple of days, with the skies being no longer overcast with impenetrably dense clouds, but clean as spick and span, thus letting the warm, glow of reflected sunlight bath the city in conflict in its motherly embrace.

The light and illumination of a fully moonlit night was difficult to imagine for a modern city dweller who had never seen a single night without artificial light.

But it was truly magnificent, so bright that even Alexander could see the details of Phyrros Island all the back from his bedroom in the mansion.

And so it was on one such auspicious night, under the blessing of an almost full moon that the 1,000 men set off on their journey.

"Lights off! Do not make a peep." Kazid's officious voice could be heard even through the whisper, as he ordered all the torches and lamps in the exterior of the ships be douched, thus asking the captain to navigate only using the moonlit.

This was a tremendous ask from any naval officer, as even with a clear moonlit sky, naturally, there would be some parts of the sea that remained hidden.

Shoals, reefs, shallows, and even the fricking shore, all seemed to blend into one onerous being, disabling the human eye from discerning one from the other, such was the spell of the pitch black night.

Hence it was fortunate that the distance from the Royal harbor to the island was not more than a few kilometers.

And having already surveyed the sea covertly, by sending small scouting vessels at night to measure the water's depth and such, the captains of the ship faced little trouble in covering the journey even though they were blind.

The convoy proceeded with a lead ship showing the way, while the rest followed in a single file, slowly and meticulously, all powered by hundreds of strong, able rowers, whose huge wooden panels displaced gallons and gallons of seawater with each of the thrusts.

These men, sweating like pigs even in the middle of winter, moved their muscular arms as quickly as well as quietly as they could, all of them being situated on the lowest decks of the ships with only a few dimly lit oil lamps as means of sight, as each of them tried their damnedest not to break out into their usual shanties as a way to raise morale.

Until finally, they reached their destination.

The eastern side of Phyrros Island which was as barren as it was empty, just as their scouting had foretold.

And with all seven ships lined up stern to bow in parallel to the shore, all of them began to unload their cargo at once.

Meaning all the men, clad in full gear jumped off the tall ships at their commander's order without a single concern, getting themselves soaking wet in this freezing cold winter without any concern, and using the water and the soft sand to cushion their landin.

This might not sound like much, but in fact, it very certainly was.

Imagine jumping from almost two stories high, with 20 to 30 kilograms of gear on you, and not feeling a single shred of doubt in you.

It took real men to be able to do such a thing.

And these men proved them as such, quickly disembarking from their ships before forming a solid cohesive line formation, and then proceeding ahead to secure the frontlines.