Chapter 4

The night was filled with screams of terror as citizens in the surrounding city and village ran for cover from incoming cannon fire. The american ships at dock fired back at the invaders but with only a crew of five on each ship, only two cannons could be fired at a time.

"Dammit! We are getting killed out here!" A sailor yelled.

"We just have to hold them till the Arendelle Navy gets mobilized!" Another yelled. The Arendelle Navy was being mobilized but not nearly fast enough. Several of the fifteen american ships had been destroyed and sunk. The enemy ships were extremely fast making it difficult to lay a hit. Five men heaved to arm two of the Bunker Hill's cannons. After loading the cannonball they lit the wick and covered their ears as the cannon fired scoring a direct hit on the enemy ship.

"WE GOT EM!" They cheered as they saw an explosion envelope the back of the ship sending it to the depths.

"Must have hit em right where the gunpowder was." A sailor said. Their victory was short lived however as the flagship emerged. It was massive, unlike any ship they had ever seen. To make matters worse, it was clad in thick slabs of iron with four decks filled with cannons from stern to bow.

"Mary Mother of-" A sailor said as the flagship open fired and turned the Bunker Hill into a pile of sawdust. The remaining cannons struck six more ships leaving only the Monitor II to defend the coastline. Back at the castle, Grant and Johanssen were mobilizing their troops for a counter attack. The Arendelle army brought out shore cannons and placed them towards the coast. Grant looked out and saw his entire fleet in flames.

"Bastards." He cursed.

"SIR!" Peggy yelled looking through his scope. "Ye better want to take a look!"

"Whats going on?" Grant asked grabbing the scope and looking through. His heart stopped as he saw dozens of boat carrying enemy infantry towards the shore.

"Damn!" He yelled. He ran to the main hall where his troops were awaiting orders. "Enemy has a shore party! Prepare for ground combat!" The crowd of civilians yelled in terror as Arendelle and American troops ran to the castle armory and received swords, muskets, daggers, and ammo.

"Great we finish one war just to fight another!" Eli yelled. Marcus felt exhilarated in a way. This was his chance to prove himself! He looked up to see guards escorting Queen Elsa and Princess Anna to a secure location.

"I can't just hide while my soldiers and people are dying!" Elsa protested.

"If you die their sacrifice will have been in vain your highness." General Johanssen said. "My men knew the risks when they signed up."

"But you know what I can do! I can help!" Elsa cried.

"Do you think you could raise an ice shield to cover the city?" Johanssen asked. Elsa thought about it, she did create an entire castle of ice but that was a far smaller task than what she was being asked.

"I'll try." She said as she walked to a window and concentrated. Around the rim of the city, small veins of thick ice began to come together and rise. They sprouted upwards intertwining like a spider web. Elsa grunted under the extreme use of her powers. Just as a muscle tires from extreme use, so did her powers. After enclosing the entire city with a barrier of thick ice, she collapsed to the ground. The sound of cannonfire striking the ice barrier could be heard.

"It won't hold forever, but it can give us time to mobilize." Johanssen said.

"Kristoff please don't go." Anna cried holding onto him for dear life.

"I have to Anna." He said taking her hand. "I promise I'll come back."

"But what if something happens?" She asked tearfully. It broke Kristoff's heart to leave her like this but he had no choice.

"Don't think like that, I will be fine. I'm trained to do this." He said.

"Ensign Kristoff!" Johanssen yelled. "On me!"

"Yes sir!" He said as he turned to Anna. "I love you."

"I love you too, please come back." Anna said as Kristoff kissed her forehead and ran to battle. Outside, Obi looked up to see ice surrounding the castle.

"What sort of sorcery is this?" He asked.

"If this is some new weapon it would have helped tremendously back in the states." Jonas said. A massive boom was heard as a chunk of ice fell from the dome and destroyed a nearby home.

"This thing won't hold much longer!" Johanssen said as he called two servants to tend to Elsa who was exhausted from creating the ice barrier. "Move all infantry and artillery regiments to the waterfront. I want all cannons positioned directly at the ships and the coast where the infantry will land!"

"Erik where is your Navy?" Grant asked. "Where are your ships?"

"Most of our fleet is defending ports across the country. The few ships we have here are ready to fight but are behind the ice wall." Johanssen said as he attached his sword to his belt.

"Alright focus your land cannons on the incoming boats. Your ships can take care of the enemy vessels." Grant said.

"Very well. Good luck Ulysses." Johanssen said as he mounted his horse and ran off barking orders. Grant ran out where he saw his regiment of men. He had four hundred and thirty men. Grant went to his men and began issuing orders.

"This isn't our land but those ships attacked and killed our men on our vessels." Grant said. "Let's give them some payback!" The regiment yelled and cheered as they headed for the coastline along with three thousand Arendelle soldiers. A massive explosion ensued sending hundreds of sharp ice particles through the air. The ice rained down on the soldiers killing and wounding them. Marcus looked up to see that the enemy had blown a huge hole in the ice dome and the enemy boats had landed and were offloading troops.

"FIRE!" Johanssen yelled as cannons unleashed hell upon the incoming enemy. Bodies blew apart as the incoming artillery shredded any organic material it came across. The enemy was relentless as they continued to advance despite the incoming fire. The hole continued to widen as the enemy ships hammered it with cannonfire. Soon it was large enough for the enemy ships to shell the city. Cannon positions soon went up in flames as enemy artillery destroyed them giving the invading infantry a chance to continue their advance. Kristoff boarded his ship and ran to the gun deck.

"Focus all fire on those ships! The shore cannons will take care of the infantry!" Kristoff yelled. His ship fired its cannons at the enemy fleet scoring a direct hit on one of them. Marcus could not believe how many infantry had made it ashore, there had to be thousands of them advancing. Marcus and Eli were both in the front line and had their muskets aimed and ready to fire. Marcus and Eli felt their hearts beating at inhuman speeds from the rush of adrenaline. It took an iron will to stand there while the enemy advanced closer and closer. Once the enemy was only fifty yards away Grant gave the order.

"FIRE!" He yelled as thousands of muskets fired. Incoming enemies dropped like flies from the wall of lead.

"CHARGE!" He screamed pulling out his sword as his troops made a deafening war cry and ran towards the enemy. Musket fire from the invaders killed hundreds of Arendelle soldiers as they tried to run forward. Marcus saw a man running at him with his sword raised intent on decapitating him. Marcus brought his musket up and blocked the enemies sword. Marcus got a good look at the enemy. He was wearing a black under suit with plates of dark red armor. He wore a mask that enclosed everything but two small slots for the eyes and one beneath the nostril to allow breathing. The mask seemed to resemble a samuri's mask. On the soldiers chest was a emblem of flame. The two struggled against each other before Marcus proved to be the stronger of the two and pushed the enemy off and thrusted his bayonet into the man's gut. Marcus felt a strong twinge of guilt as he saw the man's eyes go dark forever. He felt in that moment, he had not only killed the enemy but also the innocence of himself. These thoughts were quickly thrown aside as another man in armor ran up to him with his sword raised. Marcus readied his sword to defend himself but the enemy fell to the grown dead. He looked and saw Obi aiming his musket and gave him a nod.

"COME ON YE SEARATS!" Peggy yelled as he swung his sword through the chest of a soldier. A dozen dead bodies surrounded Peggy as he slaughtered the incoming troops. A soldier ran towards Peggy and struck his sword with all his might into Peggy's left leg. The soldier grinned in victory but was surprised to see Peggy smiling.

"Its wooden lad." Peggy said lifting his pant leg to show a sword stuck in solid wood. The soldier realized this and tried to move away but before he could get to his feet his decapitated head rolled to the side. An explosion rocked behind Peggy as a cannon struck the wall behind him breaking one of his prosthetic legs. "AH DAMN IT!"

"Sir!" Jonah yelled as he shot an enemy in the head with his musket before running to Peggy. "Are you okay?"

"Gimme a damned plank!" Peggy ordered. Jonah ran to pile of rubble and pulled a plank from the pile and brought in to Peggy. Peggy sat down and pulled out a small bag containing nails and a hammer. Johah was impressed, talk about being prepared. "This ol seadog still has some fight in him!" Peggy yelled as he charged a group of enemies. Eli was taking cover behind a destroyed home with twenty other american soldiers as musket fire struck the wall in front of him. He took this time to reload his musket. He then peeked over the wall and quickly ducked as a bullet almost ended him. He cursed as he quickly looked over and shot his musket. He then fell behind cover to reload. He cursed the reloading process of a musket. Obi continued to provide overwatch from above and quickly picked off any enemy that came within range. He heard rustling behind him and saw two enemy soldiers coming for him. He turned over and shot one in the stomach. The other, angered by his partners death, ran at Obi blind with rage. Obi brought his musket up and caught the blade down the middle of the rifle. Obi saw pure hatred and anger in the enemies eyes as he slowly began to lose the battle. Obi pushed with all his might and finally knocked the enemy to the ground. Before Obi could react he felt a sharp pain in his leg as he looked down to see his foot was no longer attached to his body! He fell due to lack of balance and hit the ground with a thud. He reached for his dagger but the enemy kicked it away and stuck his blade right into Obi's throat. His world went dark as his body emptied his blood through the wound.

"OBI NO!" Eli yelled seeing his friend die. Eli aimed his musket at the man who had just killed his friend and fired. The man fell to the ground screaming as the bullet caught him in the chest. Eli wanted to mourn his friend but the time was not now. Kristoff was having problems of his own, especially once he saw the arms on the flagship. One salvo of those cannons would destroy any ship.

"Concentrate all fire on the flagship! We need to take it down before she open fires!" Kristoff yelled as the ship steered its way so it was parallel to the flagship. The ship shook from the recoil of ten cannons firing on the port side. Only several cannonballs found their mark as they struck the flagship on the top deck taking out a mast. The flagship was clearly angered by this as it began to return fire. One cannon struck the main mast and destroyed its sails. Kristoff knew they were sitting ducks here and that it would mean certain death if they stayed.

"ABANDON SHIP!" He yelled as sailors began to dive off. Kristoff made sure everyone was off the ship before jumping himself. He hit the water just as a large salvo of nearly sixty cannonballs turned his ship to splinters. Kristoff took in a large breath as his head broke the surface of the water. He began to swim towards shore all the while dodging fire. As bad as Arendelle was faring, the enemy had taken some heavy blows. Several of the ten ships they had brought had been sunk and most of their land forces had been decimated. Grant fired his revolver at two enemies and killed them both. He estimated no more than two hundred enemies were left. He saw them clustered towards the shore awaiting evacuation. All of the shore cannons had been destroyed leaving the infantry the only land force. Grant found it strange how the enemy ducked down and covered themselves.

"What are we waiting for?" Johanssen yelled as he rode up beside Grant. "CHARGE! All the infantry charged the shore in clusters in an attempt to overwhelm the enemy with superior numbers.

"Something isn't right." Grant said. That's when he saw the flagship aiming its gun directly at them!"

"SHIT! RETREAT!" Grant yelled but the order came to late. The enemy ship fired its cannons relentlessly as the entire land lit up in a fiery blaze. Thousands of bodies burned and were blown apart as they were caught in the fire.

"SHIT!" Marcus yelled as a cannonball struck no more than fifteen feet in front of him. He continued to run along with the surviving soldiers to escape. Jonah ran for cover when a cannoball struck behind him and blew his entire lower body to pieces. He yelled out in pain as he began to bleed out. His misery was not to last as another cannonball literally took off his head before detonating and killed a dozen soldiers. The sailors manning the flagship continued to load their cannons ignorant of what was coming their way.

"INCOMING!" A sailor yelled as the Monitor II sailed at full speed directly into the flagship. The iron hull making quick work of the wooden one. Water began to spill into the lower decks of the flagship as it began sink. The ironclad quickly reversed itself and pulled out and aimed its cannons at the ship.

"FIRE!" A sailor on the ship yelled as the ironclad fired her weapons at the flagship destroying its starboard hull. The flagship began to disappear under the water as the sailors in the ironclad let out a victorious cheer. Once the bombardment was over, Marcus looked to see an entire field littered with bodies. He saw only fifty men emerge unscathed from the field, only fifty!

"Finish those bastards on the shore." Grant ordered darkly.

Elsa, Anna, and the royal council sat in a well protected chamber hidden deep within the castle. Anna whimpered from the sounds outside and Elsa was still heavily exhausted from the use of her powers.

"Elsa?" Anna said whimpering. "I'm so scared."

"Me too." Elsa admitted embracing her sister. "I promise I won't let anything happen to you." They were interrupted by the sound of sword clanging and bodies hitting the floor. The two guards in the room heard this and drew their weapons, ready to die for their queen and princess. The door burst open as five enemy troops stormed the room. The two guards quickly reacted and took down three of the invaders before being cut down themselves. Anna screamed as the dead guard hit the floor with blood spurting from his torso. Elsa quickly raised her hands to fire ice but was shocked when nothing came out. She realized she was spent from creating the ice shield and her powers needed time to recover.

"How pathetic." A voice said. Elsa and Anna both cringed, the knew that voice.

"Who are you to attack our kingdom?" Minister Alexander Erikson yelled in defiance. He was an older man but he refused to sit there while two women were being threatened.

"Shut it old man." The leader said as he shot Minister Erikson dead. Elsa gasped.

"Who are you?" Anna demanded.

"Oh Anna, you always were so blind." The man said taking off his helmet revealing a character they hoped to never again see.

"Hans?" Anna said fearfully.