Disclaimer: I don't own stargate
Chapter 3
Location: Earth, Great Britain, North Yorkshire
It had been a week after Marcus and his class had first gotten the Ipads.
In that week, much had been learned and some assumptions were disapproved while new theories were established.
Marcus frowned while late in bed staring at the Ipad screen and seeing how his village was doing.
Only five days ago he had tried to give his villagers advanced knowledge and whilst it was possible to give advanced knowledge that might be technology or tactics it would create a large cooldown to give any new knowledge.
Still you could give a decent amount of small knowledge like how to do an existing technique better or to make a slight suggestion that might lead to a large discovery.
So whatever you did a large amount of the innovation needed to happen with the aid of the people themselves.
Marcus had whilst the blacksmith was making new mining and farming equipment (which lasted for 4 days.) let a group of 12 men starting to train with wooden sticks/weapons and trying to instill a basic amount of discipline.
Surprisingly the game almost didn't have an unrest mechanic and almost all of his commands were immediately followed and with quick work but it was just a game that was logical.
Marcus was thinking about trying to start with copying the roman legions and following the roman tactics.
However, since Marcus did not have enough troops to effectively create whole roman legions he began with giving the rough idea of the roman maniple which was not that advanced a piece of knowledge.
A roman maniple is a group of soldiers that worked in 3 ranks of men with a width of 20 men.
Then there were three types of maniples: the hastati who were the new and young recruits who fought in the front line, the principes who were more experienced and the triarii who were the most experienced of all.
Personally, Marcus didn't like the system since it disabled most of his elite troops from fighting whilst his recruits were smashed into little bits.
Still it was good for the slightly hilly terrain Marcus's town was and it was not too large for his capabilities like the roman legions.
After the 4 days of creating mining and farming equipment (with mining equipment taking the priority) the blacksmith made some relatively crude iron swords for his soldiers to use whilst the local hunter who lived on the outskirt of the village was ordered to give some of his hides to the woodworker who would then use them to create some shields for his soldiers as well as some basic studded leather armor.
The rest of the 3 days until this moment Marcus had let his troops practice with their new weapons and he used some of his soldiers as scouts to gain intelligence about some of the villages in the proximity of his own.
It seemed that his village was one of the major powers in area of around 13 villages.
Of those other 12 he only had around 2 villages that were just as powerful or slightly weaker than his own village.
Marcus knew that he could not take all the villages on at once and even his rivals so he made a devious plan to make sure he could grab a large number of smaller villages while the 2 major villages weren't looking.
Once the huntsman had handed over the leather hides was given the objective to try and create a war between the two villages who already had some hostility between each other.
The huntsman would create a fire or create some of the livestock of one village and create a relatively obvious trace back to the other village making them think that they did it.
Whilst the two major powers were making war with each other or focusing on the other village Marcus would quickly grab a number of smaller villages.
3 days ago, the huntsman successfully managed to kill one of the lambs of one of the villages then the second day they found the pre-arranged trail to the other village which then resulted in an angry conversation between the two village elders that then resulted into a declaration of war and a few minor skirmishes.
Yesterday Marcus had sent the most charismatic of his villagers to work as a diplomat and went to the three villages escorted by the 12 other soldiers who mostly acted friendly one of the friendly villages they were visiting.
This village already had friendly ties with Marcus's own village and gladly accepted the offer of joining Marcus's village when they saw the new military might of Marcus's village and the news that they had an oracle which was generally considered to be a sign of good luck.
The other village was more reluctant but with the charisma of Marcus's ambassador combined with the presence of the soldiers reluctantly accepted the offer.
This was an example of Marcus's favored tactic of diplomacy through force which saw him use diplomacy to try and avoid a war but also remain in a strong position.
Finally, the last of the villages utterly refused the offer and even spitted into the ambassador's face which was a sign of great disrespect in the area.
Now Marcus was preparing his troops to send his troops to the hostile village to request a battle in the open field to prove who had the strongest right to rule the village.
The army was led by the sergeant Marcus had appointed from the soldier who had some prior military knowledge and who was the most talented in the art of war.
The plan would be to have a formation with a double line of 6 men with the sergeant in the tip of the right flank.
After the battle was finished his sergeant would live in the village for some time whilst a few villagers from the original village would be send to the originally neutral and even more would be sent to the hostile village.
This was to ensure that any resistance was quickly suppressed whilst the new villagers would cause the newly annexed villages to gain a more pro-Marcus's village who had less resistance
Marcus then though "damn I need a better name for my village/nation".
Seeing that he needed a short term to call his village he thought to use the original name of Mardon until it had grown a bit.
Furthermore, Marcus's right hand in ruling the village would be the same person who went as a diplomat to the villages and who was also talented with administration and leadership it seemed.
In the beginning Marcus's population in his village was 83 people crammed into relatively small houses.
Now it had expanded to 159 people with one village having 35 people while another one had 41 persons and both easily went into compliance though the village of 35 people that needed to b forced a bit under Mardon had some more problems but those were quickly deal with.
Now Marcus sent the orders for the forces of Mardon to attack the hostile village and hopefully tomorrow to have one more village under his control.
Location: Pegasus galaxy, Tahn, Mardon
Tristan Rothgard stood firm as he observed the enemy approaching.
Tristan was the sergeant of the maniple appointed by the oracle himself because of his talents and because of his loyalty and determination.
Before the oracle returned Tristan's father was the eldest man in the village and the most important person in the council of elders that ruled the village in the absence of the oracle.
Under the orders of his father Tristan had fought battles against wild animals, bandits and even a few light skirmishes to defend his village from any hostile threats.
Yet now he commanded one of the largest groups of warriors the village had ever raised since the absence of the old oracle thousands of years ago.
If you would observe Tristan you would see a large and relatively handsome man with blonde hair and blue eyes that spied on his enemy like the eyes of a hawk spotting his prey and looking for its weaknesses.
The enemy was outnumbered by the troops of Mardon but not by a large proportion with the enemy having 8 men and the forces of Mardon having 12 men.
As Tristan observed them he could see that the enemy had limited armor and only had on normal clothes which while useful in day to day life did not give a good defense against an iron sword however crude it may be.
Furthermore, he saw that they were gathered more in a crowd and that they acted more chaotic in comparison to the troops of Mardon who over the past week had trained almost constantly and had gained a larger amount of discipline in comparison to the other tries in the area.
At a distance Tristan could not say much about the morale of the enemy but he could already see that they were not as confident as his own troops seen as he could see by their relatively reluctant movement.
Tristan had deployed his 11 men and himself in 2 rows of men with him in the middle of the first line commanding his troops in the front of the battle standing side by side with his own men.
Then Tristan observed his own men; they looked confident and ready for battle but he could also see some signs of anxiety on the men and also a bit of fear in their eyes at the battle which might take their lives.
Slowly the enemy approached coming closer to them by the minute and whilst first they seemed to be relatively small they slowly began to grow taller until they were only 50 feet away from them.
Tristan then took a step forward and looked at each and every one of his troop seeing a determined group of men who were ready for battle who anticipated to defeat their enemies but also men who were also afraid to lose their lives or be severely wounded like many others warriors.
Seeing this Tristan knew that his men could fight but that a speech would give his men an advantage that would make sure that less men got wounded or lost their lives and that would inspire bravery in them to fight the enemies.
"MEN" he would say with a loud voice" TODAY WE FIGHT, AGAINST AN ENEMY THAT HAS DARED DEFY US; WE GAVE THEM A CHANCE TO STAND WITH US UNDER THE GLORY OF OUR ORACLE THAT WILL GUIDE US TO GREATNESS BUT THEY REFUSED.
Then he would point at the enemy approaching "HERE YOU SEE THEM APPROACHING US, THEY THINK THEY CAN STAND AGAINST US AND THAT THEY WILL WIN; THEY ARE FOOLISH AND WE WILL TEACH THEM NOT TO STAND AGAINST THE MIGHT OF OUR ORACLE AND IN HUNDREDS OF YEARS THIS WILL BE REMEMBERED AS OUR FIRST VICTORY TO SHOW THE WORLD THAT WE ARE THE CHOSEN OF THE ORACLE AND THAT WE WILL WIN.
At that moment Tristan would raise his arm and shout even louder than before "LONG LIVE THE ORACLE" which his men would then repeat smashing with their swords against their shields "LONG LIVE THE ORACLE".
"now men, stand ready "Tristan would say in a calm and determined voice as the men were now only a short distance of 20 feet away.
When the enemy were only 10 feet away they would pause and both combatants would stare at each other, it was silent then with only the sound of the wind and the sound of the birds singing unaffected by the battle that would happen in only moments from now as if they had no care of the world of men where men fought and died and in their point of view nothing changed.
Then the enemy town leader would step in front of his troops and stare at Tristan who could be identified by a red colored stripe on his leather helmet as the leader of the troops.
As they waited for what felt like hours but what most likely was minutes the enemy leader shouted "CHARGE "and the enemy charged towards the troops of Mardon who awaited the commands of their leader.
Seeing the enemy charging Tristan said loud and clear "MEN, ready yourselves, SHIELDS UP "the front line would then raise their shields with the second line ready to support the front line if needed.
Then as the sound of feet charging approached and the battle cries of the enemy were shouted the men of Mardon were silent and determined mentally readying themselves for the battle.
Only second later the enemy hit the center of the front line smashing against the shield of the soldiers of Mardon who only took a step back and then orderly stayed and fought as a semi-unit opposed against the enemy since they were definitely still not as disciplined as the roman legions on earth they did fight more as a unit compared to other tribes of the area.
In the front line the enemy were held back with the soldiers of Mardon fighting against their individual opponents whilst also working together when needed.
After a few seconds of fighting and after the initial impact the second line then quickly ran out from the sides of the first line and in a u formation surrounded the enemy.
It was sweaty and noisy in the front-line Tristan thought as he rammed his shield against the enemy and when that created an opening against the enemy in front of him slashed his blade into the right side of his enemy and after the enemy was shocked for a moment head butting him and taking that enemy out.
For a single moment, he had rest and saw that the plan was working and that the enemy were surrounded and that some of the enemy in the back line ran away from the u formation from the top and thus decreasing the morale of the 3men that were still fighting since 2 were wounded and unconscious and 1 of them was killed and then two had already ran away and whilst the rest of the enemy tried to flee they were now surrounded in a circle with the troops of Mardon surrounding them.
The enemy leader who had survived and furious of what had happened wanted to kill his enemy but he also saw that he was outnumbered and surrounded and that he had no chance to win anymore so he threw his sword away at the feet of the man who seemed to be the leader of his enemies.
Tristan then smiled seeing that they had won the battle and not a single one of his men had died whilst there were only a few wounded and a couple of his men having some bruises but no serious wounds.
Then Tristan picked up the sword of the enemy leader and looked down upon his enemy; then he spoke with conviction and cold determination at the enemy leader "you have failed your people and have rejected the open hand of the oracle who is wise and benevolent but also strong and ruthless as you have seen and by opposing his will you have hurt your own people and fought a battle that you could not win."
He would then put away his shield and pick up his sword with both his hands "and whilst your people must not be punished for your actions, you must pay for your crimes against the oracle and your own people by opposing him and letting your own men get wounded and killed."
"Now I Tristan Rothgard sergeant of the 1st Maniple of Mardon with the authority given to me by the mighty oracle sentence you to death for standing against the oracle and failing your own people."
One of the Mardon soldiers would then keep the enemy leader down holding him by the shoulders while the neck was outstretched.
Tristan then raised his sword high and in two strokes with great strength but with a crude sword beheaded the enemy leader.
The battle was won
Location: Earth, Great Britain, North Yorkshire
Marcus woke the next day and quickly pulled out the Ipad from under his bed and observed the results of the battle.
It seemed that he won the battle with only 3 of his own men being wounded and only 2 men of the enemy dying including the leader and the rest of the enemy being captured and their wounds being treated.
He then sends his troops together with his commander Tristan to garrison the village to suppress any resistance against his occupation but with the orders of trying to be benevolent and get the population on his side with them not being severely punished or treated harshly which was how normally a newly conquered village was treated and since the troops of Mardon had rightfully defeated the leader and conquered the village there wasn't that much resistance and that pleased Marcus.
Marcus then also ordered for some of his own villagers to go live in the newly acquired village that had now increased his population to 219 with this village having 60 people living there.
Then Marcus ordered for his military to be increased to 24 men with 3 men being recruited from Marcus's original village and 5 men being added from the village that peacefully accepted Marcus's offer of annexation and 4 being added from the neutral village this was both to simply increase his military and to show that the newly acquired villages were also part of Mardon and could also easily be able to enter the military or any other job thus making sure that they were more easily able to see themselves as part of Mardon.
Then he ordered the blacksmiths from all 4 villages to first make mining equipment to create a new mine in some of the newly acquired territory where a large vein of iron was found as well as to send more pickaxes to the mine in Mardon where coal was mined to be used in the blacksmiths and in the middle of the houses.
After that mining equipment was made for around 3 days there would be 2 days of making some farming equipment to make equipment for the coming harvest and then 2 days of reforging weapons looted from the enemies that wasn't good enough to be used as a weapon but could still be reused and finally any blacksmith would need to take at least 3 apprentices to make sure that there were enough blacksmiths to make weapons and tools to be made.
Furthermore, Marcus got some people thinking about how to make a central city and scouted the area to find an area that would be ideal to make a new central capital that was able to hold a large population since a more centralized city would increase the amount of development in Marcus's growing land.
Marcus also made plans to start dividing the land to be ran by a few land owners who owned large amounts of land in comparison to a lot of small farms which would make the farms more efficient and there could be more people to do other jobs then farming for example: masons, potters, artisans etc. So more advanced things could be made as to again increase the development of the nation.
Meanwhile Tristan his commander would continue to train his men and start implementing a strict training regime with a drill master being appointed by him that was almost collectively hated by all the men but he was able to quickly increase the amount of discipline in the troops and make them work together better.
Furthermore, Tristan personally with some of Marcus's guidance would think of some new tactics to be used that would prove very effective and with Marcus guiding him towards the idea of roman legions everything was preparing as Marcus planned;
Still the two other major villages were fighting each other since each was not able to overpower the other but the smaller villages were starting to notice the village of Mardon growing quickly and some of those villages were starting to get more friendly with Marcus's village in the hopes of if they were ever conquered to be treated properly while some 3 other villages were gathering together to make a coalition against Marcus and Marcus was planning to do something about that since he would not stop for a coalition.
Here was another chapter and I apologize for not having a normal schedule for posting but I am a little busy with school right now.
If anyone has constructive critiscism please say it but don't go and flame me
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