NationStates Jolt Archive

Caesarea:
The port was bustling with activity, merchants trading goods, ships coming and going, and smells of food rising through the crisp morning air. A horn was sounded, announcing an immediate evacuation of the waters. Merchants jumped back aboard ships, and rowers went into immediate action. The port was silenced within minutes. Only one merchant ship remained, the owner of it an old Egyptian man, limping and walking slowly. The sound of clattering hooves on cobbles were heard as the horsement approached the vessel. With perfect timing they stopped in a line and approached cautiously.
"Why did you not leave the harbour? You were given the warning, all other ships left. Why do you remain here?"
The old man shivered, he felt frozen, he knew what was coming. Without waiting for a response 2 of the horsemen dismounted and seized the man, taking him to the cells. The remaining men kicked their horses and advanced onto the gangplank, dismounting on board. They wandered through the ship, finding a whip. They started randomly flogging the rowers into leaving the harbour. Once the ship was out the men got off the ship and rode back to the harbour. They stood there, silent as statues. Out of the morning fog came ships, one after the other, pulling into the harbour. Nearly fifty of these ships were counted entering. The ships were full to the brim of soldiers, armed to the teeth with pilums, gladius's and spears. This was clearly with a purpose, gossip around the town said war, but with whom?

Jerusalem:
The sun rose over the Dome of the Rock, silence reigned out in the desert. Gradually the sounds of feet could be heard, tens of them, hundreds of them, thousands of them. The noises got louder as the men marched closer. They marched in through the city gates, in full armour, helmets, armour and spears and short swords. Rumours of war were rife, but who was attacking who? Why? And most importantly, when?

1 legion=10 cohorts
1 cohort=10 centuries/480 soldiers
1 century=80 soldiers

And they set forth from Jerusalem, the Caesarean army had rendezvou'd with the Jerusalem army at Jerusalem, and together they marched. 10 legions of foot soldiers, with only 4 cohorts of cavalry. With them were 30 trebuchets, mighty killing devices, meant to tear through flesh or mortar. As if that was not enough, upwards of a hundred onagers wheeled through the middle of the army. This army was so mighty that none would stand in its path, least of all the targets. And as the afternoon sun beat down on the soldiers, they ploughed through desert sands, the armour weighing them down. Finally the decision was made to pitch camp, and they stopped for the rest of the day. Makeshift tents were erected, and horsemen were sent out to scout. Everyone else had the rest of the day off. At night they would march.

The ships had no such problems, as they sailed they were joined by more ships. A vast armada, almost a hundred strong now sailed the waters. They stopped out of sight of the city as nightfall approached....

Nightfall, and the troops were back on the march. The cool night air meant they made much better progress, and they crossed into Egypt in no time at all. Here there were problems. Scouts rode back to the generals, reporting bad news. Memphis stood on the other side of the mighty Nile, and there were no nearby crossings. The Nile itself wasn't all that deep, but the men were in armour.
"Here's our problem sir. The men could probably cross the Nile, but not in their armour. If they take their armour off, they become sitting ducks for arrows. What do we do? Further downstream it becomes too deep to cross, further upstream is the delta. All kinds of animals dwell there. We're stuck sir."

"Hmmm... this is a problem. I may have a solution though..."
The man nodded as the general whispered into his ear and he rode off to do his bidding. The troops continued marching throughout the night, approaching Memphis by daybreak. The ships had sailed through the Nile, sails furled, making as little noise as possible. However they had been spotted, and so had to stay just out of range of the city. 20 men were offloaded from the ships, as per the generals command. The men kept low, taking care not to be spotted. They crawled through fertile farming land towards the city, their spears by them, their swords and armour left on board the ships.

Meanwhile:
The trebuchets, mighty devices for tearing through stone, were wheeled to the front of the army, and technicians stayed by, setting them up. When they were fully set up they were loaded. The city of Memphis was just coming to life when the first boulder came crashing into the temple of Isis. It was quickly followed by three more, then boulders started crashing into the city walls....




ooc: At this point, Euroslavia has agreed to help me. He'll RP the Memphis people.

"We're under attack!" shouted a man, keeping guard on the city.

It had been a complete suprise that Memphis was to be invaded. It was believed that the Nile would prove to be the main reason why Memphis was to stay a strong power within Egypt, however, this case had just been proven wrong...

The enemy trebuchet's had already begun their massive assault against the city, the first stone smashing through the temple. In Memphis, if the first building to be attacked during a raid happened to be the temple, it was a bad omen, however, majority of the other city-states at the time knew of this, and were able to use this against their own morale.

At the time of the attack, the entire city was still asleep, besides the few men left to watch guard. Even then, the guards had fallen asleep, leaving the city to be ransacked. Horns were blown, and the entire city was awakened in a fury. Men quickly grabbed their armor and weapons, and scurried off to defend the city, however, the defenses were in shambles, and the men were completely disorganized. All throughout the city, women and children were being gathered and sent away, in order to spare them from the ravages of war.

One man, full of a suit of armor and a bow and arrow in his hand shouted, "For Memphis! Take these godless men down!"

A couple dozen men charged towards the trebuchets, to stop the attack that had begun, not realizing that the armies of the enemy hadn't even begun their own attack...

At that point, the entire city charged at their enemy, and prepared for a battle to save their own city, but it wasn't looking good....at all.

Three legions stood there by the trebuchets, armed only with swords. At an order, the men dropped to the ground, revealing three legions behind them with spears.
As the spears were launched at the advancing men a horn was heard. One by one, speeding into view, the rowers working to the maximum, came the ships. Most of the men were in the water by now, and the rams of the ships get them full on, ten of the ships put pay to most of the men.
Another ten came into view, archers on the front. The was a hiss as 50 archers released 50 arrows, which flew into the remaining men. The waters of the Nile ran red, as they had during the bible times.
The other 80 ships then came to load up the soldiers and transport them to the other side....

Meanwhile: the 20 men assigned to their task stood stock still as the men left the safety of the city. They released a spear each, taking down 15 or so men. Then they blended back into the shadows. The men seemed to be under attack from all directions, and it should cause havoc.

As the men of Memphis scrambled to take on the attackers, they failed to realize that in such an attack, the city would be left completely bare, and open for plunder. There wasn't even any organization to the attack either. The men jumped into their boats and took off towards the enemy, feeling like their victory would give them fame throughout Egypt, however, this wouldn't be the case. In order to win such a decisive battle, they would have to attack in unison, and they shouldn't have even left their own city in the first place. One rule in general was to never leave your city defenseless.

Majority of the ships, on their way to stopping the trebuchets, had been rammed into by the enemy ram ships, and sunk, leaving them men to either swim their way back to land, which wasn't likely, or to try and jump into one of their comrades' ships, which wasn't likely either because they didn't act like one army. Each man was for themself in the end. The men that were remaining in ships, in their continued charge towards the goal were being aimed at by the archers of the enemy. Approximately half of all the ships remaining were emptied, due to the fact that the men operating the ships had been struck by arrows, leaving a very small, and still disorganized attack upon the enemy. Memphis was known for its armies, however, this battle could lead to the downfall of the entire city-state, leaving an embarrassing scar on all of those involved within Memphis... for life.

The women and children continued to flee away from the battle, in hopes that their husbands and sons would come back to them, and tell them that the battle was won, and that they could return to their homes, but just looking back to the ravaged city, and the already high amount of dead bodies on the ground... it didn't look like they'd ever return...

One legion was quickly ordered to remove their armour and pursue the women and children, which they did. Despite the considerable headstart, it was only a matter of time, and soon they were rounded up by the soldiers, who were armed with the gladius's. They were brought back to the city, where they were put inside the ruins of the temple, under guard until a decision was made with regards to them.

The men who had fallen into the river were fished out by Judean soldiers, and taken prisoner. The ones in the boats were boarded, standing very little chance against the Judean attacks.

The army slowly but surely crossed the river, victory now within their grasp.

The battle was over, men stood around everywhere, soldiers bathed in the river, whilst more soldiers stood guard over the prisoners in the temple. In the ruins of one house, the generals sat planning. Eventually it was decided: The men would work on rebuilding Memphis, once that was done they would be given their lives back. The people would be allowed to go back to their normal lives, albeit with Judean soldiers guarding instead. The Judean presence would be small, only one legion. The men would be given back their normal lives, and the legions would march back, excepting one.

An alarm was raised, a man had attempted to escape. There was a rustling in the bushes and the man had 20 arrows impaled in him. After the shooting had finished he resembled a pincushion. He gave a last moan and toppled into the river and was quickly washed away, the only signs that once there was a man there the stains of blood on the path to the city. From the hilltop temple, a scream was heard as a woman lost her husband. The archers resumed their hidden places in the bushes.

The general chosen to go and deliver the verdict climbed the hill and read it out, loudly and clearly. There were a few glances, but most of the people kept their heads down. This seemed too good to be true, there must be a catch. He finished and climbed back down to his comrades.

The remaining people of the city of Memphis...mostly a few women and children who refused to leave their city in the midst of the war, stared at the oncoming attackers. They began to settle into the city, as if it were built for them, however, there was nothing that the women and children could do to stop them. Their husbands had been brutally murdered, and they themselves were lucky that they had survived.

There was an unsettling feeling in the guts of the remaining citizens of Memphis...one of defeat and humiliation. Would it have been better to die that day, rather than put up a fight? Probably.

They all looked at each other, knowing the feelings that they would hold in their hearts if they didn't put up one last fight to oust the attackers, and they quickly grabbed whatever they could, and charged at the enemy. The children were told to stay behind, and pray for their mothers' souls...

ooc: That seems highly unrealistic to me, I did just give them their freedom! You wanna edit or repost?

ooc: That seems highly unrealistic to me, I did just give them their freedom! You wanna edit or repost?

OOC: Well...you didn't exactly say what you were dictating...so... and you did kind of slaughter one of the citizens of the city...I mean, yea, you did say that you had intentions to give them freedom, but do you think that they'd want to accept it, seeing as their entire families had been murdered, and their lives had been ruined?

The soldiers gaped in shock at the women running towards them, the women outnumbered them by five to one, but the soldiers were armed. They quickly retreated from the temple and moved down. When sufficient reinforcements arrived they moved back in.
"Spear butts only!" The order came in, do not kill the women, only use the wooden end of the spears to maim a few. The soldiers formed into a line, each one with the spear ends facing the women. As the women approached them they jabbed with the spear ends, to knock them down. The tactic worked, as women tripped over the women who had fallen to the ground. No women appeared to be dead, although a few would certainly have stomach aches in the morning.