Fourth Vector Ch. 38

"I don't see how the Javans could have assembled one of this size so quickly," said Trevor while shaking his head. "Not after what we did to Roland Smart. If they've truly assembled an army so large, then god help us. We're going to need it."

Nina didn't say anything to that response. Instead, she looked deeply into the fire. Trevor didn't doubt that the same thoughts inside her head were also the ones in his.

What the hell are we going to do now?

*****

Trevor barely slept that night. There was too much to do to get the army into position and ready to attack by daybreak. He only managed to catch about an hour and a half of sleep before he was needed close to the front.

His forces were concentrated on the edge of a large forest as it came down from the mountains and into another plain. The Javans on the other side were separated by about two hundred yards of the plain before they were met by a small forest as well. The plain between them was mostly flat except for one small section that was predominantly rocky and only slightly hilly.

The plan would be to cross the plain right before the sun was up and make full advantage of the concealment of night. Once Trevor's forces had crossed the plain, they could assault the Javan forces waiting right outside the other forest and hopefully push them all the way off.

Trevor walked by his men that early morning, talking with them and cajoling them to great deeds when the battle began. Most of them earned his pity in some shape or form. The best word to describe the Tyrolean Army was ragged. Almost all of them came to him with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They fought with captured Javan weapons and wore captured Javan boots. Those that weren't so lucky fought with their grandfather's rifles or wore no shoes at all. A look into the faces of many of the men showed they were hungry and hadn't had a good meal in a long time.

It was clear that the Tyroleans were suffering from constant war. If there was one thing that Trevor wanted to accomplish, it was visiting the same suffering on the Javan people, to make them understand what continued war would look and feel like.

He would only accomplish that by breaking through their lines and as the attacking brigade began to move out of the forest and onto the small plain, he knew they had to win or die.

The start of the battle didn't go perfectly. The Javans seemed to anticipate a wider attack in the morning, and they were dug in and waiting for the attacking brigade as it attempted to cave in their center. Sounds of gunfire and explosions pierced the still morning air and the battle was well underway.

With the attacking brigade engaged, Trevor brought up the reserve brigade towards his center while he positioned the other two brigades on the flanks to prepare for any attacks from the Javans. Fortunately for them, the Javans seemed content to play defense and let Trevor's center do all the attacking.

Not so fortunately for Trevor, the attacking brigade could not dislodge the Javans, and after three separate attacks on the center, they finally had to admit defeat and pull back.

That was when Trevor shifted the battle into a new phase. If the center was too strong to puncture, then he would attempt to cave in the flanks. It was nearing midday as the brigades on the flanks went roaring forward, going around the center and falling on what Trevor hoped was the vulnerable wings of the Javan Army.

They found no such vulnerabilities. The fighting here was every bit as thick as it was in the center. Even with heavy mortar and artillery support, they couldn't quite get the Javans to break. They managed to push the Javans slightly but as evening started to descend on both armies, Trevor found himself in much the same position as he did in the morning--with an intact and waiting Javan force still in front of him.

With daylight receding, Trevor prepared for one final push. He substituted the reserve brigade for the one that had seen the most casualties (which was the left flanking brigade) and pushed forward with an attack with the other three.

This time, Trevor crossed the plain and joined the battle himself, seeing with his own eyes the strength of the Javan position. They were dug into a hillside that was defended in several rings of trenches that weren't easily countered. It was here that Trevor finally understood the force in front of him was at least his size if not greater.

There would be no dislodging this force with his current numbers. The Javans were just too strong. Where they had gotten these kind of numbers in short order was just as boggling for Trevor as it was for the men but one thing was for certain--the way north was temporarily blocked for them.

That night, Trevor gathered Nina and Gavin around the fire to discuss other options. Morale was low. Not only had they taken a decent amount of casualties after a single day's fight, they had nothing to show for it. Most of those men had died for nothing and now their options appeared to be truly limited.

"So let's put some ideas out on the table," said Trevor finally, his frustration already rising. "We can't go north. So what do we do now?"

"We can't go back south either," said Nina. "Most of the land we just came from is stripped bare of food. They weren't happy to see us go through the first time. They'll be rioting if we go through again."

"Agreed, we can't go south either," said Trevor. "So we've already eliminated two options."

"We could always go west," suggested Gavin. "We can follow the mountains westward until we reach the ocean. From there, we can hug the coastline north until we arrive at Belfort. They would never see us coming that way."

"They would never see us coming because we'd be dead from starvation long before we got closer to Belfort," said Trevor with a subtle shake of the head. "That stretch of land is mostly barren. It's almost dry enough to be a desert. There's a reason there aren't people that live there. It can't support that much life on those desolate stretches of hills. You can go miles and miles along without seeing a single tree or hearing a single bird. We'd starve before we even got out of Tyrol."

Gavin didn't reply. He stared deeply into the fire without saying another word.

Trevor reached behind his head with his hands. "The way I see it is that if we can't go north, south, or west, that only leaves one cardinal direction open to us."

Nina looked at him. "You want to go east? Towards Thessaly?"

"What other options do we have?" asked Trevor. "Thessaly isn't an ideal location but it's got a lot more things going for it than Tyrol right now. Let's count them."

Trevor then stuck out his hands and began to count off his fingers. "For one, Thessaly has been untouched by the war so far, so they're likely to have a good food supply for our army. Two, there are just as many Thessalians serving with the Javans, and therefore, they are as much our enemy. Three, it takes the war off of Tyrol, which was one of our original objectives."

"Where in Thessaly would we go?" asked Nina. "Thessaly is a big place and if our entire army moves out of Tyrol, our homeland will lose its protection."

"Worchester," replied Gavin with a tone of finality. "We should go to Worchester. It's the best location for us."

"How do you figure?" asked Nina.

"It's the provincial capital of Thessaly and so going there will make the biggest statement. There will also be ample stores of food and supplies there. It's the main depot for the Javans for their strike against the Ruthenians. If we can seize those stores, we can put a significant hamper on their war effort down there."

"Not to mention, Worchester is right on Tyrol's doorstep," said Trevor. "If any other strategic threats materialize against Tyrol, we'd be in a good position to get back quickly to block them."

Nina's eyes shifted between the two of them. "Are we really sure about this? Are we definitely going to leave Tyrol?"

Gavin didn't answer. Instead, he simply looked at Trevor as if waiting to see what he would say.

Trevor thought the question over for a moment, trying to look at every angle. Finally, he spoke.

"We have no other choice. If we stay here, we starve. If we go back to Tyrol, we starve." He took a deep breath. "We're going to Worchester."

That seemed to settle the debate, at least for the evening. Trevor wondered if the situation would be any different in the morning, especially on the Javan side considering their repulse of yesterday's attack. He had the army ready to defend their position just in case the Javans wanted to make good on yesterday's progress but they showed no signs of aggressive behavior.

It was unusual behavior for an army. If he was leading the other side, he would have attacked with everything he had that morning in the hopes of breaking the Tyrolean Army. When the attack never came, Trevor was forced to concede that he didn't understand this new general in charge of the army in front of him.

The newcomer didn't seem as aggressive as Roland Smart. Would that turn out to be a good thing or a bad thing?

When the battle never materialized, Trevor gave the order for the men to load up and begin to move out. Just as the enemy army was settling down for their nightly meal and rest, Trevor's was starting the beginning of the march east to Thessaly. He wanted to put some serious distance between himself and the Javans. If this new commander was as unpredictable as he thought, he wanted as much warning time as possible before he tried something new.

Trevor's army marched all night and for most of the next day. The men of the Tyrolean Army finally collapsed in exhaustion a full twenty-four hours after they'd started marching. In doing so, there was now a wide chasm between them and the Javans, and Trevor could afford to look ahead to what awaited them in Thessaly.

That evening, he stood looking out on the eastern horizon, watching as the night sky streaked into stripes of purple and orange before the sun went down.

"You're looking awfully pensive tonight," said Nina from behind him.

Trevor shrugged. "There's just a lot on my mind right now."

"Feel like sharing?" she asked as her arms wrapped around his torso from behind.

Trevor shrugged. "I just never expected that we'd be going this way. How quickly all my plans went to hell. I figured we might be halfway to Belfort by now."

"Maybe we're just not taking the direct route," suggested Nina. "We can still make the Javans pay and maybe this is the best way to do it. This might even be better for us, Trevor. If we can hurt their war effort in Ruthenia, we'll have killed two birds with one stone."

"Let's hope it's that easy," he mumbled. "Something tells me that the Javans won't take our invasion of Thessaly lying down. That's why I want to keep eyes on this Javan force behind us. I think this is just the beginning of something new."

Although he had no way of knowing it then, he couldn't have been more right.

*****

"Are you sure they're moving east? Not south?"

General Dennis Ryan gave the man in front of him a stern look. It was only the day after the inconclusive battle yesterday with the Tyroleans. For the most part, his men had accounted well for themselves the previous day. They didn't let themselves be pushed out of the way by the Tyroleans and thanks to their bravery, the Javan homeland was blocked off for them.

Dennis had just been sitting down to retire for the evening when word came in from their scouts that the Tyrolean Army was on the move.

"Yes, sir, I'm positive, sir," said the scout in front of him, a young man no older than twenty.

"They could just be starting east with intentions to get around our flank," said Dennis. "This could be a trick."

The scout shook his head. "My men are following them right now. They are still close enough behind to discern direction but not close enough to be hassled. The Tyroleans are showing no such signs of turning around or attempting to go behind our flank."

That was interesting news indeed. Dennis hadn't expected them to go east. Ever since the reports started coming in over a week ago of the Tyrolean Army moving north into Java, it had been his sole purpose to destroy it. Now that they were blunted, he'd expected them to return to Tyrol, where he would then pursue it until he could destroy it.

If they were headed east, just what was Trevor Downing up to?

"Get me a map quickly," he said to one of his deputies. "I need to put myself in their shoes."

A large map containing all of the landmass of the continent of Java was placed in front of him, even containing small details like major roads and some of the smaller cities. Dennis studied it for about ten minutes, trying to figure out why the Tyroleans would be going east.

There was no Tyrolean city of any importance to the east of their current position. Unless they planned to look back into Tyrol, there was no reason for them to go east. The road they were on now lingered in the shape of a snake all the way toward Thessaly, with the first stop of any importance being the city of Worchester.

Dennis' eyes narrowed. Worchester was the fourth largest city in Java and it was the largest city in Thessaly. It also had copious amounts of food due to its usage as a supply depot. Could the Tyroleans be headed there?

Would they be so daring to invade Thessaly?

If they did, they would put pressure on the war effort in Ruthenia. Dennis could only imagine the Emperor's fury if he learned that not only could he contain the war in Tyrol but he allowed their army to put the Ruthenian invasion in jeopardy.

If that didn't land him on a proscription list, nothing else would.

For now, Dennis had to assume they were making for Worchester since it was the worst case scenario. He quickly alerted his deputies to follow suit, wanting to trail the Tyrolean Army and make sure that was the case.

"We stay just far enough behind them that we never lose them out of our sight," instructed Dennis to those very same deputies. "If it turns out that they are making for Worchester, then our goal will be to occupy the city before they can."

"Sir, how are we to do that? They already have a full day's march on us and they can typically cover more ground than we can," said one of his deputies.

Dennis waved the question away. "It's simple, we don't let them gain any more time on us. We match their speed and attempt to one-up them. If they travel twenty miles in one day, then we do twenty-one. We cannot let them increase the distance between our two forces. I'll be damned if I let them take Worchester while we're still waiting to catch up in the wings."

"Should we alert the forces in Worchester?" asked another deputy. "Put them on high alert so they're aware of the potential for danger?"

Dennis nodded. "Good idea but most of the invasion army for Ruthenia has already departed. Those that are left are just security forces for the city. If the Tyroleans attack them with the same force as they attacked us yesterday, they won't last much longer than an hour. We are the only force of size that can stop them from taking that city. I want us to go after them."

"What about naval support?" asked the first deputy. "Should we radio the capital and ask if they have a fleet to spare? Worchester will never fall if their port is full of ships. They can make the Tyroleans pay for even attempting to attack it."

Dennis thought that question over for a few moments before answering. "For right now, no. None of this has been confirmed, and this could still be a trick on the part of the Tyroleans. Once we can pursue them and safely deduce that Worchester is their objective, then we can get the navy involved. They can also cover that ground a lot quicker than we can, so they'll have plenty of time to get into position."

With those last words, there were no final questions. Before Dennis dismissed the deputies so they could alert the rest of the army, he had one more thing to say.

"Losing Worchester would be a disaster for us. The Tyroleans have to be struggling. You saw the number of dead bodies from yesterday's battle. Half of those men were wearing nothing but rags. We can assume if they can't get proper clothing, they probably can't get adequate food either. That's what this move is all about. If we can block them from Worchester, we can win this war. The Tyroleans will have no hope but to disband. Make sure all the commanders realize the importance of this campaign. We have a real chance to end this war by occupying this city."

With those last words, the orders were given. The deputies rushed out of the room to alert the rest of the army. Dennis took one final look at the map in front of him.

If the race for Worchester was truly on, he would be damned before he came in second.

*****

A few days after the race for Worchester began, Jack Kincardine stood on the cliffs outside of Millpond overlooking the sea. About a couple hundred feet below him, his entire navy stretched out almost to the horizon. Every direction he looked, Jack could see the great guns of his fleet, all of them keeping watch on their position in Naxos.

Between the warships and the coast were also several transport ships, brought in from Galicia to assist with the army that was now camping out on the plain, an army that was now fifty-five thousand men strong. It was the largest such gathering of forces that Jack had ever seen.

And it was entirely under his command.

In the last few weeks, much of the army had been ferried over to Naxos from Apulia, coming in waves to make its camp outside the Nax capital city. During that time, Jack had ordered the force to attend to one of two major tasks. For the veteran soldiers, he asked that they help the people of Naxos get back on their feet, assisting with the rebuilding of the country now that it was freed of Swabian influence.

For the more inexperienced soldiers, he asked that they stay in camp and continue to be trained. Jack wanted a truly veteran force available to him when he took the war to Picardy. Despite the small Swabian army that was on Picardy, he knew that the Swabian commander, General Ferberg, was someone with a wealth of military experience under his belt. Jack refused to underestimate his opponent, and he would take every liberty available to ensure the landing was a success.

He also made sure that a small force was available to stay in Naxos once the rest of the army had departed. Jack didn't want the Nax to fear the return of the Swabians, and if his men still guarded the approaches to the island, he was sure the Swabians would leave them alone.

With all the rebuilding that was taking place, Jack had a chance to spend a lot of time with King Gaius, getting to know the man on a deeper level than before. Their relationship started off rockier than Jack expected. Gaius, and the Nax people in general, didn't know what to make of freedom after so much time as slaves. Much of the rebuilding process was teaching the Nax how to be human again and that effort started with their sovereign.

Gaius made a tremendous amount of progress in those weeks though. He was beginning to show signs of life once again, even responding to a few of Jack's jokes. There was still a long road ahead of Gaius, but Jack could be certain that Naxos was in safe hands once again.

As luck would have it, the Nax King soon joined him on the cliff overlooking the sea. Jack gave a nod to the man as he stopped right next to him, soon crossing his arms over his chest.

"That's quite the armada you have right there, Jack," noted Gaius as he gestured toward the ships. "The gods help any man that would stand between you and what you want."

Jack chuckled. "If only it was that easy. This force still has a lot of fighting in front of it. If only we could just show up and make the other side go home. We'd save a lot of lives that way."