Hand Over Fist

Dark Tide

Ironically it was a Gideonite that provided the answer. 

"C'mon, van Joss," Captain Longspear said in a low voice from where she was keeping the Kanid empress Kata company, her eyes on the struggling humans below. "Break through already and get out of there!" 

Eyes wide in astonishment, Uthon looked back at the human position. Van Joss was down there?? Well, that certainly explained how the company seemed to be commanded by two officers with vastly different capabilities. Van Joss was a seasoned veteran of campaigns against both the Ryon and the Tigris before he became an operative. Then he fought in several more shadow campaigns after that. It was his skill and experience in battle that allowed Uthon to successfully sell the idea of using van Joss on this mission to the other masters.

The former operative must've taken command from the officer that had been leading before.  Which was a good thing; if there was a man alive that could get the Gideonites out of their current dilemma, it was him. 

Abruptly his reflexes made the big warrior drop into a crouch. Just in time to let a good sized boulder whistle by overhead, feeling the wind of its passage on his weathered face. 

"The long tails have brought up more siege machines," Blacklock observed, his tone grim. Looking past the Lupus leader, Uthon watched a line of eight or nine long-range trebuchets, many sporting scorched timbers,  reload. It wouldn't be long before they were ready to fire another salvo. 

Which was bad news for the beleaguered defenders. The damn monkeys already owned most of the primary wall, thanks to their swarming tactics and almost inexhaustible numbers. Now they were going to batter holes big enough through both walls to let in the remainder of the still-massive force that had regrouped in front of the battered fortress. While a part of him despised hiding behind these stone barricades to begin with, and longed for open field combat, he knew that, while their garrison was significant, they'd be washed under by a flood of unwashed Primiad bodies that numbered hundreds to one of theirs in such a fight. 

Blacklock must've been thinking the same thing. 

"Come, Empress Kata," the big Lupus rumbled. "Let us get you off this wall and to your sanctuary in the inner courtyards. The outer wall has fallen. The inner won't be far behind. We need to prepare to make our final stand." 

Kelly threw the body off his blade and braced for the next wave. When it didn't immediately come, he paused to suck in a quick lungful of smoky air, willing the burn of fatigue out of his muscles. It was in that quieter moment that he heard the siege engines release and their munitions come whistling through the air towards them. 

"We have incoming," he barked and, as one, the battered elvish squad hunkered down and shielded their heads. 

Just in time: with a 'crunch' a large stone struck nearby, taking a gouge out of the wall as deep as the walkway. It simultaneously sent deadly shards hissing through the air like shrapnel. Kelly grimaced when he heard a couple of his soldiers grunt from shard impacts. 

"Sir!" his sergeant shouted as large stones continued falling out of the early evening sky around them. "We're exposed in this position. We need to take cover!" 

"What we need to do is get our asses off this wall, sergeant," Kelly immediately retorted. "Form up. We are leaving Dodge." 

"Copy that." The sergeant quickly turned to the rest of the squad. "You heard the cap; we are Leaving! Double time to the nearest ladder! Move it, move it, move it!" 

Kelly stepped to the side once they had reached the closest ladder to wave his squad through while he stood guard, bloodied sword in hand. Despite the fact they were taking fire from their own siege engines, the Primiad that had successfully swarmed the primary wall continued to fight, crushing whatever pockets of resistance they could find. That meant the elves were forced to fight their way through the thronging enemy while continuing to duck the massive stones whistling by just overhead.. 

So Kelly's squad, already battered and exhausted by their efforts to defend the wall, were even more tired and injured by the time they managed to reach a ladder into the space between the walls. A space that was already filled with defenders and attackers surging back and forth in frantic battle. 

A quick look over the wall yielded it devoid of any significant defending force. Kelly grimaced. That meant the alliance had already conceded the primary wall to the Primiad. He then glanced at the knot of humans still struggling to escape their situation out in front of the walls. With the alliance yielding the outer wall to the Primiad, the humans had no place to go even if they managed to break free. Nor was there anybody left that could tell them. 

"Good luck, van Joss" he murmured. Then he was knocking a charging Primiad soldier aside to follow the last of his squad down the ladder. 

Hearing the catapults firing, van Joss frowned. That could only mean the outer wall was close to falling and now the long tails were trying to soften up the inner wall to continue their effort to take the fort. 

For a brief moment he considered calling in the small company of rebels to once again put the catapults to the torch. But a quick search with the Cetaceans' mind gift yielded they had withdrawn several kilometers to the south to lick their wounds. While they hadn't quit the battle, they were too removed to effectively destroy the Primiad artillery before the second wall was breached. Once that happened, it didn't matter if the catapults were there or not. The fortress would belong to the Primiad and their greater numbers. 

Unfortunately it also meant that their window of opportunity to escape was rapidly closing. With the monkeys commanding the top of the wall, it wouldn't be long after that they'd have all the entrances as well. Then the Gideonites might as well begin running north as the fortress would no longer be a refuge. 

'Push, captain, push!' he silently urged, looking at the front of their elongated formation. 'You need to break through Now, or all is lost!' 

Abruptly the Primiad line on either side of the rear guard lurched before dissolving into chaos. Then an avalanche of Primiad came surging against the shield wall, the monkeys shrieking in outrage. Van Joss found himself smiling in grim satisfaction even as he went back to work with his daggers against the surge now thronging all around them. 

The berserker assault against the rear guard meant only one thing: the captain had broken through and the bulk of the company was now making best speed for the walls. Enraged that their trap had failed, the Primiad were turning their frustration against the remaining humans in the rear guard. 

All he had to do was keep their attention a little longer. Crying in dismay as they were swarmed under, the north end of the wall finally crumpled under the pressure. A crumpling that continued down the line despite everything van Joss could do. 'This was it!' he grimly thought as two more shield bearers went down, the pike men they were protecting, quickly after. Silently he prepared for his own death even as he lost count of the number of monkeys he had killed. 

Then a blow to his side spun the lean operative around and he felt his tunic grow wet and warm from his own blood pouring out. Still he fought on, his hatred giving him strength and purpose. Then another dropped him to his knees and, before he could struggle back to his feet, a glancing blow made his head swim. Unable to retain control over his body, he fell limply into the ground to stare up at the darkening sky. 

Whether it was darkening because of the time of day, or because at long last Death was finally strong enough to claim him, he wasn't certain. All van Joss knew was that an end was coming. 

It was as shadowy figures rushed all around, their cries of pain and anger seeming to be coming over a great distance, that the stricken agent heard another sound. At first he dismissed it as a dying man's fading imagination. But, as it grew louder and louder and the movement around him abruptly became frantic, he knew it was real. 

It was singing. Low and powerful, with voices that were not human but familiar nevertheless. Voices that belonged to bears that had become Fisted.

The Ursa had arrived.