In Chapter 1, the story followed a regular Greek soldier in defending a fort, and now in Chapter 2, the soldier here is a bit of higher importance in military ranking, so any way here is Chapter 2 now.
A/N: The ships equipped here are armed with artillery pieces like ballistas and catapults. It was the only I could actually think of for an interesting naval battle.
Inspired by Call of Duty by Activision.
Disclaimer: I do not own Creative Assembly, Activision, or Rome: Total War.
Greek Campaign 2: Battle On Poseidon's Turf
In the year of 290 B.C., an event happened that returned war to Greece. The barbarian tribes of Dacia and Thrace and their allies, the people of Pontus, have made a simultaneuos attack on Greek forces in the north and the east. Though the north was successful in outlasting the attacks from the barbarians, the east was not so lucky. Having overrun the fort of The Arrow's Tip, the Pontic forces ran rampant in the Greek part of Asia minor. At this point ambassadors were sent to Antioch to seek help from the Seluecid Empire, seeing as they were also at war with Pontus. They agreed to an alliance against the Pontic war machine. Unfortunately, even with the assistance from the Seluecids, the Greek forces in Asia minor were overrun and cities fell before the might of Pontus. With the Seluecid's trying to defend the region of Cilicia through a mountain pass, help or hope of re-conquering the lost cities seemed impossible. It was until at the winter of 288 B.C. that intelligence was gathered that a massive fleet was gathering in the port near Ephesus trying to load an invasion force (3 armies at best) for an invasion of Greece. This was good news to the Greeks, as their navy was still strong. As the Pontic invasion force was ready to set sail, the naval defense force of Greece took to their positions over the heart of the Aegean Sea and waited for the battle over Posiedon's realm to begin.
"The great sea and the great sun is a great sight to see. That's why I chose to live as a soldier to protect its beauty, and to live as a sailor to actually see it itself. My name is Agis and I hail from the great city of Rhodes, and have a lovely wife and 2 kids. My parents and I went fishing alot back in the day in the Mandraki harbor, passing under the Colossus everyday, thinking that Apollo was watching over us everytime. When I was full grown, I wanted to be a soldier and have my own ship. Unforunately, I wasn't able to be a captain of my own ship. However, I was still able to be an officer in a ship which was basically a standard trireme, a standard ship to the Greek fleet. Now that war has come, I worry that the sea will be tainted by the stench of the enemy and I fear, will not survive it. Then again, that's why we're here, aren't we?"
Aegean Sea, 288 B.C. Spring,
"Reporting for duty sir," I said after a 15 minute break from watching over the crew, making sure they were doing their work.
"At ease," the captain ordered with a friendly tone.
I did as he said and when I looked around, hundreds of ships were covering the sea with each part of the fleet in a wedge formation. Biremes, Triremes, and even Quinquiremes were called here. The Quinquireme served as the fleet flagship as to a flag bearer is to an infantry unit. We were somewhere around the top-right part of the frontline. Our part of the fleet consisted of 10 ships: 5 Biremes, 9 Triremes, and 1 Quinquireme ship that holds our admiral of the fleet, Admiral Borus of Ace. I don't know where Ace is, but a port city or not, he knew how to run a ship. The status of a 3 star admiral is proof of that.
Our ship is a Trireme with no name, and runned by a captain named Phyrrus. All of us were eager to fight, as we were tired of patrols and hunting pirates.
"What is the word on the enemy, sir," I asked with eagerness.
"Pretty soon, Agis. So cool down your hot head, and try to help the crew do the same," Phyrrus answered," I just got word from our supervisors that their spies have returned from Ephesus's port and saw that the ships were embarking."
"Do you think this battle plan of ours will work, sir?" I asked with anxiousness still in my voice.
"We'll have to pray to the Gods for strength if it doesn't." he answered with worry.
I then looked around at our fleet, the hope of many of our people, all floating over a piece of Poseidon's realm.
"Yeah, many lives and families will be lost if we fail," I thought to myself while picturing Greek citizens being slaughtered because we couldn't pull it off. It gave me the chills just thinking about it. Suddenly, while wandering the ship in thought, I found myself eyeing a map of the areas around the Aegean Sea. My mind was filled with thoughts when looked at the map.
3 days earlier, City of Athens, The Acropolis,288 B.C Spring
Generals and admirals were summoned here by our leaders along with our fleet. I was staring at the columns of the Acropolis, trying to pass time until our commander, Admiral Borus came back from his meeting. Captain Phyrrus wanted to have the crew look around Athens, as they have never been to the city, even me. Unfortunately, he was ordered by the admiral to stay and guard the ship with a handful of men, so I was in-turn ordered by the captain to lead the men. What a way to carry out a thought.
After looking at the columns for a long time, I looked over the ridge to see Athens in all of its glory. Hard to complain about seeing such a sight as we were on the highest mountain around the city.
As the crew was starting to have signs of boredom, I called out to them to rally at my position. When they finished the order, I gave them the situation report on what to do.
"Alright men, it's getting late and the meeting is almost over, so let us go to the Pantheion of this place and meet up with the admiral. After that we return to the ship and call it a day, ok boys?" I asked.
"Yes, sir," they answered, nodding with agreement. Then I did something that would probably change their image of me.
"Oh and we are not walking it from here. We are to run all the way from here to the Pantheion, and no walking or I'll see to it you get to do the running again," I shouted with authority. The men groaned and complained when I said that, and all I did was chuckle.
"Why should we do what you are telling us to do?" one of the crewmembers said.
"Well for one, you guys look like you're outta shape (and they did too, probably the result of all the boring patrols and the sort), so a good marathon through the city should get you guys back up in shape in no time," I explained, "Besides, I did overhear the captain saying something about "fun and adventures" for about a week." The men quickly went into starting positions, showing that they preffered the marathon over a week's worth of "fun and adventures", aptly named by Captain Phyrrus himself. It's hard to blame them for being scared of doing that, especially when the captain forced them to swim about 3 miles along the Cretan coast, running the same amount of distances across the field without water, and for the whole night lay down on the beach on their backs and have the waves pummel them. They manged to pull through, but it seems that they've been traumatized by it rather than getting used to it.
As we were running though the city, many citizens were cheering us, encouraging us not to let them fall before their enemies that are coming. At last we made it to the Pantheion, we were just in time, as many generals were coming out of the temple. It was strange to actually plan in a grand temple. It was as if the Gods were lending there hands in the planning. I laughed at the thought. We stopped at the stairs.
"Alright, rest up until the admiral gets here," I ordered, recieving a response of acknowledgement. It took about 2 minutes until we saw Admiral Borus come.
"So, had fun," Borus asked. The men nodded after saluting him. "Good let us return to the docks now." The men said "Aye, aye, sir" and made their way into the docks, running like I told him to. The admiral was puzzled about their activity.
When we returned to the docks at nightfall, our fleet captains were summoned to our flagship, the Hydra, and a half an hour later, they were dismissed. When Phyrrus came to the ship, I greeted him silently as the men were sleeping. The other officers of the ship were with us.
"Ok, so what's the plan, sir?" I asked.
He laid down a map of the areas around the Aegean Sea and started explaining the battle plans.
Phyrrus started, "Our fleets will be amassing here, with our fleet stationed somwhere around here. Spies are sighting that the Pontic invasion force is going for the naval approach, and we are to hold them from the east until our Seluecid allies will reach the battleground and attack the enemy from the south. The Cilician pirates hired by us, will do the same thing and attack from the north. In the end, the enemy will be encircled and their fate sealed. The key here is that we must hold the line as much as possible, because if they break through, all will be lost as our allied reinforcements will be crushed due to smaller numbers." We nodded at every detail he made.
"We leave here at daybreak to this position and wait until the enemy comes. Until then, rest up. This battle will surely tire even Hercules himself," Phyrrus finished.
Present day, Aegean Sea, 288 B.C. Spring
Our crew of 60 was working on the maintenance of the ship. I was watching the sea from the side until a horn was blown at a distance. I stammered to the deck where the captain was and looked at the front of the ship. It was the enemy ships, which size looked intimidating. The whole crew just went crazy then and running to take their positions just as the horn was still being blown. You could just hear other ships doing the same thing.
"Load the ballistas and the catapult!" the Captain Phyrrus shouted. "Topside crew arm yourselves, and rowers, on my command, row forward!" Phyrrus continued.
"Come on, the enemy may look like more than you can handle, but if you let that idea get to you, it will be. Otherwise it is another day of pirate hunting," I engouraged the crew. It wasn't working. Even though they were anxious a few minutes ago, the expressions on their faces now have changed to a more frightened child. They have never faced anything this big anymore. Just the thought of staying alive was their only motivation and defence now.
The enemy ships were getting closer, and all was almost ready. The rowers were almost in postion, the catapult was ready with a gas-flamed projectile on its palm, the 2 ballistas were armed along with its gunners, and archers stringing their bows. We were good, just the courage of the crew was out of place.
A flaming arrow from the admiral's ship, which was quite a distance from here, was shot at the sky. We all new what it meant, that it was the signal to go forward. The captain did just that and ordered the ship to row.
"Row men, row to the enemy, and row forward to your destiny!" Phyrrus yelled at the crew, him being the only one who actually was able to keep his anxious self. The oars from the side then started to flap like a bird. Then he summoned me.
"Agis, I want you to supervise the deck, keep them in position, and scold them if you have to to keep their composure, alright," Phyrrus ordered.
"Yes, sir," I replied, going there at high speed.
The world seemed to slow down with the rockiness of the ship as we got closer to the enemy. Everyone except the rowers was holding on to something to prevent themselves from falling on or even off the ship from the rocking ship. I was next to the catapult inspecting if anything was wrong with it, but really I wasn't in the mood to do that in the eve of battle. By now we could see their symbol on the sails with the crew doing the same thing as we were, arming and rowing. Everyone was ready now, armed, focused, and holding on to dear life on the boat.
Just then I heard a shout from Captain Phyrrus. "Catapult, FIRE AT THOSE BASTARDS!" was what I heard and that was my cue.
"LOOSE!" I shouted at the 3-man catapult crew. All 3 of them seemed to snap out of there trance-like stare on the enemy and pulled the sinew holding the arm in place. The flaming rock then went up to the heavens. It wasn't alone, about 6 or 7 other flaming projectiles fired from other ships followed its flaming trail. When it went down, unfortunately, it only hit the water, missing a ship about a close 15 feet. I groaned at the miss, but I cheered up due to the fact that 2 other rocks hit the ship ours barely missed. The others missed as well, but it gave a boost of morale from the crew due to the fact they were cheering.
Now after a few moments, flaming projectiles from their ships were coming towards us, and what's more is that all of the frontal ships fired, giving us 5 times more than what we gave them.
One of the rocks was coming too close to us. "Row to the right!" the captain shouted. The word was repeated by the seers watching over the rowing crew under the deck.
We turned right fast enough to have the rock land close enough to our ship that water splashed on the deck. Then I noticed an explosion next to us. The bireme next to us was hit under the deck and was tilting. From what I saw, men were either falling off the deck or were trying to get out of the hull screaming. We left them behind soon after.
"Row back into formation, load the catapult, and ballistas fire at my command!" Phyrrus shouted, as the gunners were aiming at anything with a Pontic insignia. A we got back with the other ships the captain ordered firing the ballistas.
"FIRE BALLISTAS!" Phyrrus ordered, and the gunners fired away without knowing if it hit anything. "RELOAD!" said the gunners.
"Ramming speed!" he continued and the ship moved even faster. Other ships besides us were also doing the same thing. It was now a charging of the ships. Suddenly, there was an enemy vessel in front of us and our front ram hit their ram. The impact shook the ship enough to make many fall to the ground with the rest holding on to something. When I got up, I noticed that we were passing the enemy we rammed. Its front was utterly destroyed and in-turn was the part to first sink in the water. As its crew were screaming as they were abadoning their ship, our archers fired at them, killing many with their bodies still floating and tracking blood in the water.
We cheered at our triumph over that ship when suddenly, an explosion on our right side of the ship made a shockwave on the ship. One of the enemy projectiles hit us on the side. I then heard archers firing, and looked at the right part of the ship. Our archers were skirmishing with the enemies archers. They took cover whenever an arrow was coming at them, but 3 men were unlucky enough to get hit. I looked at the damage from the catapult and ran to the captain while keeping my head down to avoid any arrows.
"Get those men medics now!" the person in charge of the archer crew shouted to a few crewmembers.
"Sir, permission to help out with any injured rowers, sir!" I requested to Phyrrus.
"I need you to supervise the men on the deck," Phyrrus said.
"I'm going anyway, those men need more help than the topside crew!" I told him.
"Agis, wait, arrgh, Philotectes get over here!" I heard as I run over to the stairway leading to the inside of the ship. I know I'm going to get into trouble with this.
When I made inside, many of the rowers were still there doing their duty except the ones near where the rock hit. As I made my way there, I saw the seer in charge of the oar crew. I knew who he was. His name was Mereas. A tough fellow, a suitable trait to his job. I was about to ask him about the situation here when suddenly the hull bursted behind me. The world went blank for me.
All the world was slowed down in my mind. I felt light-headed and really felt like I was being crushed by my own weight. Then I felt something cold on my leg. It felt like water, pretty soon the coldness reached over my head and I couldn't breathe. Suddenly, a hand grabbed by my shirt lifting me up and was able to breathe again. After a few seconds of wonder, I snapped out of my shock and turned around to see who grabbed me. It was the same Mereas I was about to talk to. He noticed I was back in the real world and tried to put me back on my feet. The world felt like it was tilting.
"You ok, sir?" Mereas said.
"Huh?" I replied when a high pressure burst of water hit me, ensuring me into the real world. I was soaked enough to realize I was in the water for a long time. "Yes I'm ok. Thank you."
After finishing my thanks, I looked around and saw that the hull was flooding thanks to the rock that made a hole under the nose of the ship. The rowers were already out of their posts trying to get out of the hull with water acting as a quagmire in their escape. What made it worse was that the ship was tilting as it sunk.
"Let's go topside, hurry!" I yelled to Mereas.
"Ok sir," he replied, "Come on men move it. Get to topside quickly!" he passed on to the oarmen. They were struggling to move as the ship was both flooding and tilting. Also the holes puncture by the shrapnel of the ship created high pressure bursts of water, knocking down anyone who was in their path. Some of the crew tried hard to get through the holes that the oars were put through. Some of them couldn't fit, but most who tried were able to.
"Abandon ship!" Phyrrus yelled as we were going topside. The ship was now half sunken and tilting so much that anything could slide down and fall into the blue. I jumped off what was left of the ship, and as I was under water, lots of the crew also jumped off and were under water. I quickly swam up to get some air. As I went up, arrows were coming at us and there were shot bodies from our crew floating near me. There was an enemy ship firing at us, and when I noticed them there, they fired again and chipped 2 more of our crew. They screamed and quickly sank.
"SWIM AWAY, SWIM AWAY!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. When I turned back to see if they were going to fire at me, I saw some of the enemy crew getting shot at with arrows and falling off the ship screaming for aid. I traced to where the arrows came from and saw a friendly Greek vessel stop in front of of my sight. It was battle damaged with arrows and cracks, but was still fighting by firing its ballistas and arrows at the the enemy.
"Get them out of there. Bring the ropes!" I heard one of the crewmembers on the ship shout. I swam to it like it was a sanctuary. Others of what was left of our crew were behind me, following me like their guide. A rock thrown by the Pontics nearly hit us and it created a wave that pummeled us as we swam there. Arrows from the ship that was shooting us before continued the hunt forus, but luckily the friendll vessel's archers gave us covering fire. When we got there, we were exhausted and held on to the vessel as hard as we could to prevent ourselves from drifting away. A rope was lowered from their topside. "Grab on!" yelled the one who lowered the rope. The oars cleared the way of our climbing path.
"Alright...climb men...climb!" I gurgled some water while trying to speak to the men. The ship that They climbed one at a time while the rest held on to the vessel, diving whenever an arrow was about to come to them.
"You're turn," I told a young sailor. When he grabbed the robe, a shot arrow lodged itself into his head. He was still holding to the rope until he fell down back to the sea. I cursed at the enemy who did that.
"Give them covering fire, we need to save as many as we can!" a crewmember of the vessel said.
All of us were now out of the sea and I was last to climb the rope. I swiped the stuck arrows that were in my climbing path. When I got up, our crewmen were exhausted and most were either sitting down or on their backs. I looked at the ship and saw many things. From archers still skirmishing with the enemy to the catapult being destroyed with a bolt lodged onto the arm.
Where was Phyrrus? I hope he survived. As I was on the edge of the ship, ducking I look around where our crew was and still couldn't find Phyrrus. While I was worrying about the captain, an enemy ship from the left was scraping the Greek vessel on its side. Then a voice, which I'm pressuming was the captain based on his powerful voice, ordered his men to take arms.
"Ready your weapons, sons of Greece. Those Pontic bastards are about to board our beloved ship!" he shouted as he unsheathed his sword. Sounds of swords unsheathing were followed after his was. After realizing we were going to fight hand-to-hand, I rallied any crewmember of our ship to bear arms as well. The men followed me to where the captain was.
"Do you have any extra weapons we can use, sir?" I asked him. He pointed a finger at the direction where weapons lay wait to be used.
"Are you sure you want to try to face death again?" he asked while I picked up a bronze sword.
"If you guys fall, we will have to do it anyway, so might as well do it now," I answered, and my men cheered.
"Ok, be careful and let the Gods be with you," the captain said. "Here they come!"
The defenders of the ship were ready as the Pontic sailors fired arrows at us, all the while placing wooden planks on the ship for them to cross. The arrows they fired killed about 6 of the captain's men and 3 of my own men. The invaders then were crossing the planks with harpoons, yelling a warcry, though it was strange for some of them to fall off to the sea while still doing the warcry.
Now they were on the ship, and I charged the first one that got on first. I thrusted my sword into his stomach so fast he couldn't block it. The defenders charge at the boarders and fought. I punched another invader and the swung my sword, cutting off his head. Blood spurred out of him. An invader behind me was then charging at me at spear point, but then the captain came up behind him and thrusted his sword into his backbone. He stabbed him another few times to make suer he was dead.
It looks like were winning. We killed most of the boarders without too much lossess, and finally pushed back to the planks.
"Cross the planks!" the captain ordered. Now it was our turn to attack.
I was the first to go across and launched myself into an archer, pinning him to the ground. I punched multiple times until stabbing him in the chest. Others of his kind were being killed by the numbers. Our crewmen then made it into the hull, killing everything there path. The screaming could be heard below us. The captain of the enemy ship, known to be one because of the way he is uniquely dressed from the others, was then being stabbed by multiple Greeks. The last of the Pontic people were killed to the last man after his death. The captain raised his sword, letting out a victory cry. The others, including me, followed suit.
When I looked around the battlefield from the ship, the sea was full of things. Ships were sunk and their debree left behind, while dead men could be found in an area where the sea was red. The Pontic ships were doing what looks like a retreat, being chased by our own ships. I looked at the direction where the Pontic fleet was going to and found a great sight. Another fleet was at the front of the retreating fleet. It was the Seleucids. i ran to another part of the ship to get a better view. The Seleucid ships were ramming the enemy fleet with their frontal ram. The men behind were cheering them on when they were able to see the Seleucids.
Then I looked around more and saw a second fleet come in, this time from the north. It must be the Cilicians. They wouldn't be if they weren't assaulting the Pontic fleet right now. The men also cheered on and the sun was still shining atop of us.
"We've done it, Apollo," I muttered, talking to the sun with my hand covering my face. The battle was now over, and the Greeks have triumphed. Many Greek lives were now safe. The battle over Poseidon's turf costed many lives, but in doing so, saved millions more.
Several days later.
We were never able to find Phyrrus, and now he was pressumed dead.It disheartened the crew when they found out about this. After he was announced dead by Admiral Borus, who was raking role-call on the ships that were to still alive or not, he then gave me the position of captain for a new ship to replace the sunken one Phyrrus had commanded. I was honored to take the position. Even my crew was happy that I was now captain. I had now fulfilled my dream of commanding my own ship, but it bothers me sometimes that it costed a worthy life. Guess it is the will of the Gods to have it happen, whether we liked or not.
A Greek invaion force was to perform an invasion by sea into the Thracian controlled region of Bosphorus (the Crimean Peninsula). Our ship, the Pyro, was ordered to be apart of the invasion. I ordered the men to position themselves, and we set sail to Thessalonica, where the invasion force is to rally. "Yes, captain Agis!" was heard from their mouths. Can't wait to tell my family about this.
Well, there's Ch. 2. Long ain't it. Or at least longer than my first chappie. Sorry if it is though.
Oh well, read and review beacuase this is Ch. 2 for ya.