Chapter 8

The Baron was in a pretty good state, all things considered. His hair was ruined, completely caked in blood which created disgusting clumps of reddish-gray hair. His small bun was completely undone, hair flowing wildly where it wasn’t stuck together by sweat and blood. The only consolation he had was that it would at least stay out of his eyes.

His face was in a similar state to his hair, covered in wounds ranging from cuts to splinters to bruises on both eyes, and completely covered in blood, both his, the enemy’s, and his allies. His clothing was torn to ribbons, but his armor didn’t even have a scratch.

Considering how many Orcs had come to assault his castle, he was looking pretty good. The state of his men was much the same: disgusting, haggard, exhausted, completely beaten down, but alive.

The Orc general who came to relieve them looked at the Baron, admiration written clearly across his face. He was in much better shape than the Baron, though he was still covered in blood. Unlike most of his Orc commander types, he wore a tabard over his plate; an incredibly complicated coat of arms composed of a shield flanked on either side by two Orcs surrounded by barbed rose stems was embossed in the middle.

'You lot got in a real scrap! Not sure my Boyz woulda 'eld 'em off. I'm Jeremy, by da way. Jeremy Elbertson."

The Baron smiled at him weakly.

"Well, Herr Elbertson, I appreciate you coming when you did. As you so intelligently surmised, we had quite a fight on our hands. We could have lasted maybe another three hours. So, do you have a message from Jack for me?"

Jeremy smiled and handed the Baron a scroll.

"Roight! Yes 'e did! 'E said to go roight back to Londonsburg. ‘E said ‘e ‘ad somefin to discuss. Wif you, o' course!”

The Baron unfurled the scroll and skimmed through it. It said exactly what Jeremy said, ‘Bring your men back to Londonsburg, I have something to discuss with you’.

“Yes, of course. I love discussions. We will be heading back after we’ve counted the dead. Are any of you planning on garrisoning this castle while we are gone? The original garrison is mostly wiped out by now, not entirely sure how many are left.”

“Kinda. Wez gonna be ‘ere til wez ordered to move out into Yorksburg lands. We let ‘em break deir backs against our walls, now wez gonna go break ours ‘gainst deirs.”

“Exciting. Well, I really must get to work then. Don’t want to keep Jack waiting. May London watch over you.”

General Elbertson smiled widely and thumped his chest loudly.

“An’ I ‘ope whateva da Empire ‘as for gods watches ova youz! Fuck it! I 'ope London watches over youz!”

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After doing a headcount in the courtyard, they finally knew what their losses were. Jean spoke to the Baron as he wrote in his notebook.

 

“So, we lost 43 pikemen, 38 swordsmen, 59 gunners, and just nine skirmishers.”

The Baron scratched the back of his head. He had washed off all the blood, but it still felt gross and knotted.

“Why so few pikemen? I had them at the front. And why so few dead in general? Maybe the bombs helped more than I thought they would.”

Jean responded without looking up from his notebook.

“Very possible. I like to believe that my explosive bolts and ballistae made a difference in the battle. They could only come through a small area in just a handful of towers, and only a few at a time, perfect for pikemen. Also the ladders seemed to be deathtraps, though it was their main form of entry.”

Jean lightly shook his head.

“I saw Gaius cut the árms off of eight Orcs at once. Honestly, it was terrifying.”

The Baron crossed his arms across his chest and chewed on his thumbnail.

“Hmm…would you say that I made a difference? You think I helped reduce our casualties enough to be statistically significant?”

Jean looked at the Baron like he was stupid, a fairly common occurance when Jean was interacting with the Baron.

“You blew up two towers single ‘andedly. And you ordered the creation of the ballistae. And the men seemed to fight much ‘arder every time you came by. Of course you made a difference.”

The Baron smiled and threw an arm around Jean.

“I knew that! I just wanted to hear it out loud!”

Jean scoffed.

“You are a child.”

“That’s what my son says as well!”

Jean extracted himself the Baron’s giant arms.

“Well, ‘es right.”

A small smile crept across his face.

“You are a child.”

The smile disappeared quickly.

“Anyways, when we get back to Londonsburg we should ‘ave another recruitment drive. It may have been less than we expected, but we did take around 16% casualties, not including anyone unable to fight after that.”

The Baron’s face fell a bit before nodding solemnly.

“Right, yes, we will do just that. We did lose the vast majority of our swordsmen. As much as I hate to say it, it is easier losing men that I haven’t grown attached to, and I would rather not throw my veterans into the meat grinder if I can avoid it. Honestly, I think that swords may end up being just a sidearm soon enough, for regular soldiers, at least.”

The Baron nodded and stopped chewing his thumbnail.

“Let us gather together some Orcs who do not mind charging into danger.”

Jean went back to writing in his notebook, not looking at the Baron.

“Of course, sir.”

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The Baron addressed the Orc guards in front of the Skipper’s Palace.

“Hello! It is I! The-”

The Orc guard cut him off and pointed behind him with his thumb.

“Yeah, we know bruv. Jack said to tell youz to ‘ead roight to ‘is study.”

The Baron was slightly annoyed, but he mostly sad that they cut him off. He REALLY enjoyed talking to people, and talking in general. Especially if it’s at great length about absolutely nothing. He smiled and gave the guards a small bow instead of doing anything to air his greviences.

“Thank you, I’ll head right in.”

The Baron passed the guards and began walking down the lengthy hallway. The hallway looked a lot like the aristocrat mansions that the Baron got a tour of in his past life, tidy red carpet, giant windows placed equidistant from each other, occasional stand with a flower vase or some other decoration, overall, it was quite nice. The Baron found Jack’s study and walked right in after knocking.

“Jack, it’s me, Baron.”

Jack was sitting at his desk, writing something. He put down his feather quill and waved the Baron over, pushing a glass in front of the Baron’s seat. It contained a beautiful amber liquid.

“Roight, come an’ sit. Wez got business to discuss.”

The Baron did as he was told and gratefully accepted the glass Jack offered him.

“So, Baron, I want ya to level wif me. Why is you really ‘ere?”

The Baron sniffed the liquid then sipped from his glass. It was whiskey, very high quality. The aroma had notes of many different Orcland spices and fruits, with a hint of Oak. It had a very complex flavor, the various notes of spices and fruits alongside the Oak made for a very pleasing liquor.

“How do you mean? Are you saying I have an ulterior motive?”

Jack took a swig out of his bottle of whiskey.

“Yeah, basically.”

The Baron chuckled a bit and took a sip of his own whiskey.

“Well, I certainly appreciate the honesty. I tend to meander quite a bit before getting down to business, but that’s just a me thing.”

The Baron smiled and leaned in conspiratorially.

“To be honest, I just like the sound of my own voice.”

Jack chuckled.

“Yeah, I can tell. Now, wouldya answer please?”

The Baron took another sip.

I should probably slow down, but this is very good stuff!

“Before I answer your question, would you mind answering a question of my own?”

Jack kicked his feet up on his desk and placed his hands across his massive gut. He looked nonchalant, but the Baron had been around long enough to see through that. His hand never strayed too far away from a weapon.

“Sure, why not.”

“Excellent. Tell me, what is your unfiltered opinion of the Empire?”

Jack thought for a moment, scratching the top of his bald head.

“Well, I fink it’s garbage, mostly. Would be best for da world if it fell apart, no offense.”

The Baron smiled and nodded his head slightly in agreement.

“Youz down dere don’t take kindly to folks like me, or de elves an’ ofer non ’umans. ‘Cept for de bray’erds, don’t quite get dat.”

The Baron shrugged.

“Neither do I. And I work with one. Something about them just…makes you feel neutral at worst. Not sure what causes that, but that feeling is there. They’re even quite rude at times, but I can’t bring myself to truly dislike any of them.”

“Roight. Well, friendliness ta one non-uman race ain’t make it ok for youz to ‘ate us. An’, speakin’ o’ non-uman ‘ate, I see youz don’t feel da same as your Imperial Ilk. Youz got a Elf! An’ a bray’erd, an’ youz been ‘irin’ my boyz an’ treatin’ ‘em well. So, either youz is special, or I ‘ate the Empire for no reason. An’ I’m pretty sure I know which one it is.”

The Baron smiled and nodded appreciatively.

“Hm, an astute assessment. The only reason I can get away with having Jean and Gaius working with me is twofold: I run a private company, and I am the Baron. The laws regarding who you can and cannot hire for private companies are rather vague.”

The Baron shook his head.

“Except for when it comes to Dwarves for whatever reason. Utter nonsense, as usual. Oh, and, I am extremely popular in the Empire. I have worked directly and publicly with our Empress over the years, and we have done a lot of work together to increase the quality of life for our people. If the Empress were to arrest me for anything it would reflect poorly on her in the eyes of the people, and it would make her look somewhat…ungracious, to the other noblemen who have skeletons in their closet.”

The Baron chuckled and absentmindedly fiddled with his wedding ring.

“There are perks to being a notorious philanthropist, and treating everyone well no matter the rank. Combined with my belonging to the prestigious Bickenstadt line, and, well, I can get away with anything short of treason, though I of course try not to abuse this power too much.”

Jack crossed his arms across his chest.

“Roight, I can follow dat. Now come on, what’re youz doin’ ‘ere, for real? I answered your question, an’ youz seem satisfied wif it.”

The Baron chuckled and took another sip of his whiskey.

“Of course, and after hearing your answer, I will be forthright with my intentions. Excellent whiskey, just by the by.”

Jack growled slightly and the Baron put his hand up placatingly. He set the glass down and a put on a very serious expression.

“I plan to rebel against the Empire, tearing it down and replacing it with a democratic republic, ideally. I also plan on reversing all Imperial policy regarding race, and I hope to work on Imperial race relations through a sophisticated propaganda campaign.”

Jack immediately relaxed, still guarded, but much less than before.

“Roight, fank London. I was ‘fraid youz was gonna be ‘ere to feel us out for an Imperial invasion.”

The Baron waved his hand dismissively.

“Oh, no. We would not send me to do that, most likely just some spies disguised as merchants. Also, I would very much like to add something important, something for you to consider, and an observation, and possibly even a suggestion or solution to a problem.”

Jack waited a second before gesturing to continue with his glass.

“Your men are skilled, disciplined, and incredibly fervent in their beliefs. I have yet to fight alongside better allies, and that is saying something. However, religious fervor can only do so much when musket balls are flying towards you. I hope that your army is more modernized than Yorksburg’s, because if not, the Empire could rip through your men without even trying, no offense.”

Jack held up his hand in a placating gesture.

“None taken. I seen da way guns rip apart good men. Only reason we don’t ‘ave many is Orc smiths work slow n’ steady. Quality speaks for itself dough.”

“Agreed. Now, onto my intentions for Orcland, and a possible solution to some problems. What I wish to do here is to create an alliance between us. When I begin my revolt I wish for you to harass Grossenstadt and Jagstadt, diverting resources from the Bickenstadt-Grossenstadt and Holenstadt-Grossenstadt frontlines.”

The Baron shrugged.

“Though, even if I don’t get an alliance, just the threat of such a thing would divert resources, Grossenburg is just a boat ride away from Orcland. You can see the shores from our watch towers if you use a good telescope.”

Jack nodded his head.

“Roight, I get what youz is sayin’. Hmmm, well, I ‘ave an idea for ‘ow I’ll decide. Wez is gonna start our offensive, yeah? Your gitz do well, ‘elp us take Yorksburg an’ anyfin’ tween dat an’ us, an’ I create an alliance with youz. Do poorly, an’ no alliance. Sound good?”

The Baron smiled brightly.

“Oh yes, that sounds excellent. I can’t wait to lead you to victory!”

They both shared a laugh before Jack got an idea.

“Oh, roight, an’ do you fink youz can ‘elp me modernize my army? Just teach me ‘n da boyz ‘ow you gitz work down dere.”

The Baron scruffed his chin in thought.

“I’ll have to consider that one. I really don’t have much personnel to work with. How about you, say, send observers to watch my men during battle, and then come to me with any questions you have afterwards? And, I don’t know, maybe I can spare some people for a couple of months after this. Would you be willing to pay?”

Jack sounded excited, nearly yelling his response.

“Only too willing, yeah! Dere’s dis git dat came from Yorksburg, yeah? ‘Es real mad at Yorksburg, dey apparently refuse to modernize at all! Dat’s borderline ‘eritical at dis point! London said wez gotta keep up wif da ofers so wez don’t get all killed!”

Jack paused briefly to take a drink and compose himself.

“Anyway, ‘e said ‘es gonna work for us now, tell us ‘bout all da shit Yorksburg don’t want us to know, an’ all ‘e asks is dat I modernize my army, a fing I were already finkin’ ‘bout! What a steal!”

The Baron nodded sagely.

“Of course. Information wins wars far more readily than guns and spears.”

Jack laughed and slapped the desk.

“Ain’t dat da truef! Well, I sayz you oughta get goin’! Youz gotta ‘ire more Orcs, wez attacking Yorksburg in a week, or ‘owever long it takes to get everyone in position. When you’re ready, youz is gonna be workin’ wif General Jeremy down at Cornwall.”

“Oh, you mean the Orc who came to relieve me?”

“Yeah! Youz is already acquainted, roight? Real noice git, youz is gonna work great togeffa! Well, youz is gonna be working wif ‘im, well, more workin’ for, ‘e is a general. ‘E’s gonna be leadin’ 6,000 gitz roight to Yorksburg! Take everyfin’ long da way, den wait for us an’ siege Yorksburg! Right simple, yeah?”

“Quite.”

“Great! Now, get movin’! Da boyz is already livid I makin’ ‘em wait til everyone’s in position! Wez is real disciplined loik, but da boyz still get real restless.”

The Baron finished his whiskey and stood up.

“I’ll get going then. Good luck, Jack.”

“Tanks bruv! You too, keep yer ‘ead on yer shoulders a’ youz is gonna be golden!”

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Two days later, the Baron had hired a little over 200 Orcs, bringing his numbers up to 844 in total. 417 Pikemen, made up of mixed human and Orc soldiers, 295 gunners, all human, and 75 skirmishers, mostly Gobs. There was also the addition of 55 of a newly added type of infantry the Baron had created talking to his Orcish allies known as ‘shock troops’, made up of mostly Orcs alongside gifted ones with Udo and Fergus. They were equipped with round shields and handaxes, which the Baron was told was the “Orcish charger’s equipment”.

A few men got shuffled around, with many human pikemen being switched over to musket and bayonet, and the vast majority of human swordsmen being switched to both pike and musket. The Baron had decided that dedicated swordsmen were becoming somewhat obsolete, and at most the sword, for most regular soldiers, should be relegated to a sidearm.

They were drilling the new recruits until it was time to leave. Many of them had prior training, as depending on which city they belong to they are obligated to get militia training, so the current goal was to get them used to working alongside humans, and to teach them exactly how working with humans was different, and how to best use the human and Orc’s unique traits to create a stronger whole.

“Thrust as one! Your goal is to push them back! The kills go largely to the gunners! Your goal is to hold the enemy back, not to kill! That is just an added bonus!”

Ludwin was drilling the pikemen. They were using the training method they used the first time, as it seemed to be somewhat effective. The new Orc pikemen were placed in the back behind the humans, their job was to thrust above the human pikemen, creating an even denser wall of spearheads than before. The Orcs were working well with their human allies, Ludwin was extremely pleased.

“Cover your comrades back! If the man in front of you is open you step forward and protect his back! That’s it! Keep it up!”

The only real problem these Orcs had was their formation. They oftentimes stepped out of line, as the mixed formation of incredibly tall and wide Orcs with relatively smaller humans required a bit more effort to get completely right. The humans often had to take bigger steps than they were used to, and vice versa.

Udo was watching Orc shock troops do dummy work. They would form into a line, then charge at an opposing line of dummies with practice spears attached, with some having multiple attached and some spears stuck into the ground behind them to create a very dense wall of spears. Their goal was to block and batter the spears aside, then lay into the dummies with their axes and use their momentum and sheer size to push the dummies and create gaps in their lines.

“Come on boys! Do not drop your shields when you attack! Keep them up and facing the enemy! Back to the starting line boys, let’s get moving!”

The Orcs chopped away at both spear and dummy for a few seconds, then retreated and formed in a line again. Udo walked over to one of the Orcs and drew his sword.

“You, shield dropper! I want you to attack me! Do it like you’ve been doing so far.”

The Orc looked a little nervous, but complied. He got deep into a stance, then stepped forward and swung his ax. As he stepped forward, his shield was moved to the side as his body rotated to bring his ax down with force. Udo stepped past the chop, directly inside the Orc’s guard, and placed the tip of his longsword at the Orc’s neck.

“You’re swinging your shield to the side when you rotate your hips. You need to keep your shield in place, attacking around it instead of moving it. Come on man, you should know this already! Keep that arm in front of you at all times, keep it frozen in place even as you rotate. Understood?”

The Orc meekly nodded his head.

“Right brother then get back in line. Focus less on your strikes and more on your defense.”

Helmut watched the Gobs with his hands crossed behind his back, occasionally shaking his head in disapproval.

“Keep both eyes open! You won’t be shooting at static targets, you and them will be constantly moving!”

The Gobs seemed eager to learn, but were also kind of sarcastic about the whole thing, which annoyed Helmut to no end.

After displaying to them what exactly they should be doing multiple times, he figured they would quietly listen to him and learn quickly like the other ones did. But, this new batch of Gobs had yet to be properly cowed. Helmut shook his head and sighed openly. This was not working.

At this rate, they would not be ready for the upcoming warfare. He thought that, since all of these Gobs had some level of experience, that training them would be easy, but they just seemed uncoordinated, lazy, and generally kind of dim. But, the Baron believes in Helmut, and he did give him the order to whip them into shape, so he would do as much as he could.

“Here, let me show you something. You! Put on this helmet. It’s enchanted.”

The Gob happily put on the helmet and looked at Helmut expectantly.

“Now, begin running around.”

The Gob looked confused, but after Helmut stared at him blankly for around 30 seconds, he did as he was told. Helmut dashed into the woods in front of them. After about a minute of the Gob running around randomly, weaving in between trees and vaulting rocks, a shot rang out from behind everyone, nowhere near the woods. The shot pinged off the Gob’s helmet, knocking him over.

Helmut appeared behind the group of Gobs observing, startling them as he spoke up.

“That is what I am trying to teach you. Stealth and precision.”

The Gobs look at Helmut in unabashed awe. The Gob who took the bullet was sitting up, still a little dazed. An enchanted piece of armor may stop a bullet, but it does not stop the kinetic transfer. Some lessen it somewhat, but most do not. It’s a very complicated enchanted process.

Even though some of the new skirmishers were having trouble, overall everyone was working well together. The pikemen seemed to be in sync, the shock troops were colliding with their dummies with the force of a freight train, and the gunners were tossing out volleys quickly and efficiently. The Baron was fairly pleased with this, because he wanted to head out immediately. The attack on Yorksburg would begin in two days.

“Ludwin, Udo, Helmut! Get everyone ready to march, I want to move out today.”

They all gave their acknowledgements and ran off to do as the Baron asked. The Baron had something he wanted to prepare, and he knew just who to ask. He found Jean walking around the inn, taking notes on the architecture.

“Jean! Do you think you can outfit a cart with enough explosives to blow a castle door off its hinges?”

Jean fully closed his notebook, placing it in his inner breast pocket.

“I mean, probably. If we ‘ave enough powder.”

“I can get you a couple of kegs filled with powder.”

Jean sighed and shook his head.

“Is this really the sort of thing I should be doing? This idea seems fairly simple, shouldn’t you just have a laborer do it?”

“Well, here’s where you come in: I want it to explode on impact with the door, using that stuff you put on those ballistae arrows. I want my men to roll the cart into the door and have it explode. Can you do that for me?”

Jean smiled and pulled out a different notebook from his opposite side inner breast pocket.

“Of course! I would be delighted to! But, what ‘appens if the castle is on an ‘ill?”

The Baron shrugged.

“I don’t know, put a very long fuse in it or something. Can’t be too hard.”

“Fair enough. Alright, I’ll get on making that. Oh, when are we ‘eading out?”

The Baron smiled brightly.

“Today! Our first objective is known as Castle Blenham, a couple dozen miles away from the Londonsburg-Yorksburg border. Should be a lot of fun!”