War of Dragons (35 page)

"Oldcastle is and has been strategically unimportant for hundreds of years," Zygar interrupted sharply. "Tell me of Newcastle."

The General shuffled his feet, looking down before returning to the map. "My plan was always to take both cities simultaneously, and in addition to the successful capture of Oldcastle, we also launched an attack on Newcastle, concentrating our forces here, knowing of its strategic importance. We easily overwhelmed their defences and took control of the air over the city, clearing the way for the bombing to begin. Unfortunately, just as the bombing was about to start, additional Red Dragons arrived, appearing from nowhere and attacking the bombing units just as they were about to hit the city, resulting in most of the bombs missing their target. We quickly eliminated these Red Dragons to regain control of the skies without suffering any considerable losses. We then proceeded with the ground attack, but with all of their buildings intact, we were unable to take the city and were forced to retreat."

"No surprise there, General," Zygar commented sourly. "Why would you attack that city on the ground when the bombing run failed? Their ground defences are legendary."

"Yes, well, we thought having invested so many troops in the initial attack—"

"You'd throw all the rest away," Zygar said, interrupting his sentence.

"We had taken the air," General Pushak protested. "If Perak's forces had cleared all the towns as they were meant to—"

"The objective was to clear all of the smaller settlements between the two major cities and the border," Perak said sharply. "Something you were taking credit for yourself just a moment ago. We were never tasked with eliminating all the settlements in the area, and there was always a risk of attack from the west."

"Thank you, Colonel," Zygar said irritably. "Speak when you're spoken to by me when you're in this room. General, we had plans for what to do in this scenario, and they didn't include a pointless attack on their strongest defences. Who gave the order to attack?"

"Well, I thought that we had a chance of—"

"You gave the order yourself?"

The General nodded, looking down. "We had driven them from the air and I thought we could take the city. It was a mistake."

Zygar shook his head. "I gave a direct order not to do that, General Pushak, and yet you decided to ignore it. How many troops did you lose in the ground assault?"

"Well, I haven't the exact numbers yet—"

"Estimate," Zygar commanded, his anger now clearly visible.

General Pushak paused for a moment, muttering to himself as he calculated. "I would estimate in the region of one hundred and fifty thousand were killed. I expect that many of the enemy also died—"

"One hundred and fifty thousand dead for nothing! That must have been almost all of your ground forces. Did you not have the sense to withdraw when it was clear that they weren't going to succeed? The plan was clear: if the bombing run failed, retreat and attack again the next day. If you truly had defeated them in the air as you claim, the bombing run the next day would have been easy. Now, you've lost too many of your troops and will need reinforcements just to hold the land you have taken, let alone think about taking the city, so you can't do it tomorrow, can you?"

The General nodded miserably. "The bombers can be ready immediately, but I will need more troops for the ground assault. But General Zygar, this was the best protected city in the Kingdom; high losses were always to be expected."

"Victory was expected, General, and losses were only acceptable in pursuit of victory. That was your last action as General."

Zygar turned to Perak. "
General
Perak, you will take command of the Northern Army. Capturing Newcastle will have to wait until after Furnace has fallen, so it will be a rather unfulfilling task at first, just maintaining hold of the little we have captured. At least I can rely on you to follow my orders. Now, show your predecessor how you reward failure. You have your sword, I trust?"

Before Pushak could say a word of protest, Perak stood up, drew his sword and swung it at Pushak in one smooth movement, slicing his throat wide open. Blood sprayed from the wound onto the wall and Pushak fell in a heap on the floor, a pool of blood beginning to form around him. Perak knelt to wipe his sword clean with Pushak's cloak, before calmly returning to the table to occupy Pushak's chair.

"General Xanot," Zygar said pleasantly, continuing as if nothing had happened, "please give us your report."

General Xanot had turned white, looking at Pushak's prone body on the floor. Xanot was of the same generation as Pushak, having become a colonel when Pushak was made general and although the two of them weren't friends as far as Perak knew, he probably knew Pushak better than anyone. Perak watched him carefully to see how he would react.

Xanot looked up at General Zygar, his eyes still wide with astonishment, but he managed to recover quickly. "Yes, sir, my report, of course, right away. We've taken Black Rock. The operation was a resounding success and went exactly as planned. Losses on both sides were substantial and I don't have estimates of their losses, but they almost certainly outnumber ours. Estimates of losses in the surprise attack from Perak's forces are low—less than five hundred of the troops deployed, against an estimated kill of about ninety thousand and prisoners taken amounting to around nine thousand. The initial air assault had much higher casualty rate and although we destroyed them through our higher numbers, we lost more than they did, with an estimated loss of around fifty thousand. Many of their troops fled back to the city, giving up the skies surprisingly easily. Of course we lost none in the bombing run, and well, you've heard how successful they were from General Tarek and I must say, he wasn't overstating the case. The ground assault was more successful than the aerial combat and we only lost around five thousand taking the city."

Zygar nodded, absorbing the information. "All within our estimates. What of their losses in the ground assault? How many prisoners did you take?"

Xanot shook his head. "We took no prisoners; they'd evacuated everyone except those who could fight. I don't have an estimate of their losses on the ground yet, but it will be available shortly."

Perak raised his hand. "Permission to speak, General?"

"Go ahead, General."

Perak smiled at the word, ecstatic at his sudden promotion. "We suspected that they were planning evacuations in each of these cities," he commented. "Our spy told us as much. The numbers of prisoners is disappointing, but it may have helped us in the attack as many of their warriors were probably involved in the evacuation and made the attack easier.  Not meaning to take away anything from your success, but five thousand is an unusually low number of losses for this sort of operation. I suspect that the Reds found a way for their fighters to flee the city during the invasion. We know there are a number of underground tunnels around Black Rock; they could have used those to escape the city once they realised it was lost."

"Which means that the capital will be much harder to take," Zygar said quietly, thinking aloud. "Yes, that's a possibility. They still have to get back to their capital, of course. What of their other towns?"

"I ignored them," Xanot replied. "Black Rock was the priority. I will attack them tomorrow."

Zygar shook his head. "No need for that yet. If they fled Black Rock they'll be in the neighbouring towns. I suspect that they will want to retake the city and will lose far more troops than us in their doomed attempt. Wait for them to attack and then counterattack immediately and take the smaller cities."

"Of course, General. As you command."

Zygar turned to the third of the senior generals. "General Farak, how did you fare?"

Farak was the only other general from Pushak's generation, but Perak knew that he wouldn't be at all troubled at Pushak's demise. Both of them saw each other as rivals, assuming that Zygar would choose one of them as his successor. Perak hardly knew Farak; the tall, thin general was someone that he had only met a few times before.

Farak smiled smugly. "A question you already know the answer to, General Zygar, I am sure, having saved the best till last. We took Obud, the surrounding cities and towns and are in control of most of the East. A more comprehensive victory would be hard to conceive. The detailed report will be available very soon. It will make for very enjoyable reading."

"Can I trouble you for the figures?" Zygar said with a smile.

Farak nodded. "Of course. Perak's boys did a superb job and the countryside is littered with around forty thousand Red Dragon corpses, but a mere few hundred of ours. The air attack was initially a little disappointing, as Obud had much higher numbers of defenders than our intelligence sources had led us to believe. Kessick's purples, under the able supervision of Colonel Nabegar, led the charge, and as expected, were wiped out fairly quickly, but managed to dent the Red's numbers. They were reinforced by the main body of Nabegar's dragons, but the ratio of Blues to Reds was not as favourable as we had hoped. We outnumbered them, of course, but not enough to quickly eliminate them and at one point Nabegar had to consider calling off the attack. Fortunately, this was when Perak arrived with his dragons, which tipped the balance in our favour and the battle then ended very quickly, clearing the way for Tarek's troops to obliterate the buildings housing the Dragonstones, as well as a large number of their defensive towers.

After that, clearing the city was a fairly simple matter, with our ground troops finding less resistance than we expected, and the city was taken fairly easily. The city is still in the process of being cleared, and I expect that the pile of corpses outside the city walls will have around eighty thousand Reds and about a hundred thousand of ours."

Zygar smiled. Perak knew that Zygar would have known far more about the situation than he let on and would have known how close to failure it had become. He wondered if he was aware of Kanesh's manipulations prior to the battle. Kanesh had manipulated both Perak and Tarek into ignoring Zygar's orders; Perak could see that now. Of course, he held no grudge against him for doing so; had he not, the operation could have easily failed. Farak had a reputation for brilliance but Perak wondered if he was past his peak now.

"Truly excellent," Zygar commented. "Did many escape?"

Farak nodded. "It's hard to assess that without knowing how many were there in the first place, but the more reliable of my officers report that the number caught on the ground was much lower than we expected. In addition to a well organised evacuation of non-combatants, I share Perak's belief that they had a plan in place for retreating once it was clear the battle was lost. Of course, this also reduced our losses, but it does mean that there are many who have survived to fight another day and have probably fallen back to Furnace."

Zygar nodded. "Yes, that is unfortunate.  I'm satisfied that it was unavoidable though, and you're to be congratulated for a successful operation. A very successful operation and an achievement that needs to be rewarded. When the time comes to attack Furnace, you will coordinate the attack. You will command colonels from each of the armies, as this will be a combined attack force, rather than left to any individual army. It's a tough job, but I'm convinced that you're the man for the occasion."

"Thank you, General," Farak replied, glowing with pride. "I'll start my planning with Kanesh immediately."

Zygar shook his head. "Kanesh won't be available, I'm afraid. In your absence, someone will have to step up to lead the Army of the South-West. I'm promoting Kanesh to general. Under your tutelage, he's proved himself an able leader, don't you think? I can't think of a better choice as a replacement, can you?"

Farak was speechless. He'd just had his permanent command taken away from him and handed to a man who just moments ago was a colonel from the Army of the Interior. Perak stared at him, trying to read his expression. This could only be viewed as a demotion, unless he was foolish enough to think that he was being reserved for something greater. Farak nodded, then smiled proudly. Perak shook his head, disgusted. Clearly, the old fool thought that Zygar was setting him aside to name him as his successor in the event of his retirement.

"No, none that would be better," Farak spluttered. "General Kanesh, allow me to be the first to congratulate you."

Kanesh beamed proudly and the room was filled with polite applause. Zygar raised his hands to request quiet.

"Generals, let us move on to our next steps. With the notable exception of the north, yesterday was a resounding success. We will resist the temptation to overstep ourselves and move to attack Furnace before consolidating our victories. Concentrate your efforts on eliminating all Red Dragon settlements between Obud, Oldcastle, Black Rock and our borders, and any small settlements around those cities. Attack any towns that present an immediate threat to your troops, but do not advance yet to attack larger towns unless essential. Is that understood?"

All of the generals nodded. "Of course, General Zygar," General Kanesh replied. "I will begin reconstruction of Obud immediately to aid our defence of the city when the inevitable counterattack comes. They won't stand a chance."

Zygar nodded. "Good, although I wouldn't assume there will be a counterattack in the East. It would be excellent if they were that foolish, but we cannot count on it. They may launch an attack on Black Rock from the west, but Obud is probably beyond their reach, even from their capital. No, they will be expecting us to move to attack Furnace immediately and will be readying their defences. Instead, we will be ensuring that there is nothing between us and Furnace to slow our attack. When we attack Furnace, it shall be as decisive a victory as those in Obud and Black Rock. Thank you, gentlemen; we will meet again tomorrow."

Chapter 20 - Evacuating the camp

"You're not making any sense, John," Theo told him. "How is this just the beginning? Our mission was very clear: find the slave camp, bring back a few prisoners as evidence that we've been there and then escort the rescuers to the camp. We've done much more than that; we've protected all these girls and we've help defeat the guards. I think our part is done now, don't you? And as for Gul, well, I know your girlfriend is a Red Dragon and you really want to help them, but you can't ask him for more than this. This was all that your friends negotiated with the Browns."