Chapter 1

Scorpio October 27, 1069 A.E.

I am High General Thomas Tagard the IX of my line from the House of Leo. I am one of twelve Zodiac Knights who serve as Personal Councilors for Emperor Brian Boru, as well as Governor of the North African Sector of the Empire. At the moment I am seriously wounded on my left shoulder, and we are severely short of all supplies. Not knowing if my men and I are going to survive I am writing this to describe what just might be our last battle and the events leading up to it in hope that the Empire will know of our heroics.

It was the time of Libra October 18, 1069 when I received the message from Mayor Rona Lucas of New Nubia stating that her city was under assault from rebel forces. New Nubia was only three days hard riding from my capitol city of Bakiet. I sent a force of two squadrons or fifty knights of the third degree warrior class. That should have been well enough to handle the usual untrained rebels of the common class. Little did I know that these rebels were not only professionally trained, but had weapons of the warrior class!

It was not but the sixth day since ordering the knights to go help New Nubia when news reached my city that the rebel forces won a major victory in the desert as well as the city of New Nubia itself. I was in a state of shock when I heard the news. Nothing like this has ever happened before! Rebel forces never once defeated our empirical warriors in 300 years, let alone take a city in the process. Besides that Mayor Rona was an old and trusted friend of mine, in fact her own nephew was one of my senior captains. I stayed in that horrible state of mind until my servant David came to help. Good old faithful David, always there to give support or advice which I gladly accept. Though, he is only a servant he has long been a trusted confidant of mine.

I finally got my senses back and ordered David to prepare to march for New Nubia. I also sent notices to all of my Captains so they could prepare my personal company of 250 knights to retake the city of New Nubia in the morning. That night I could barely sleep, I knew nothing of the enemy but that it took a city and destroyed two squadrons of well trained warriors who had the best equipment. The best I could figure at the time was that the rebel forces must have heavily outweighed the knights. Though, if I only knew then what I do now, I would have never left Bakiet!

The next morning in the time of Scorpio October 25, 1069 David woke me early to get ready for the traditional military inspection and parade before leaving for battle. My company was in full military dress and at attention in the public square. Many of the people of all classes in Bakiet came gathered to parade us out of town. Most of the city was there. They shouted and screamed promises and oaths of loyalty to the empire, while I led my men out of the huge stone walls that protect the city of Bakiet.

We rode hard and by the end of the first day had made very good time. The sun was barely visible when I deemed it time to break for camp. That night my captains and I met under my tent to discuss and plan out our strategy for the upcoming siege. We were sure that upon seeing us the rebel forces would lock themselves inside New Nubia and we would have to pry them out without destroying as much of the city as possible. It wasn't until late in the second watch that we convened and went to bed. At that point I was totally confident that my company could handle almost any rebel forces.

On the morning in the time of Scorpio October 26, 1069 my company started the march south toward New Nubia again at a steady trot. It was about midday and the sun was at its zenith when I gave the command for a stop to rest the men during the hottest part of the day. I needed them and their horses fresh to attack the enemy when we got into range of the city tomorrow. Traveling in the desert is hard enough without having at least one good rest stop a day. It might just be that I am getting older, though I have not yet seen fifty-six cycles of the zodiac my hair is already turning to silver. However, I still retained my strength, and could not wait for tomorrow to come! I could already see our victory as my company marched out from the desert to surround and take the city.

About the same time as yesterday, I called once again for the company to break and make camp. That night I went to sleep ready for tomorrows battle, though it would be late in the day when we made it to New Nubia, I was sure there were going to be some rebels loitering around the desert near the city that we could kill.

Early in the morning in the time of Scorpio October 27, 1069 the pickets I posted for the third watch of the night came roaring into the camp. Their warnings brought all the men out as if they were never asleep, but just waiting for the war drums to beat. The pickets reported that a huge host was marching this way from the south and estimated that there were at least 650 men, half on horseback. We were about a little more than half day away from New Nubia, but I still didn't think we would be in any danger from anyone, much less a host of rebels more than twice our size.

The camp was enclosed in a portable square palisade fence which is used to defend mostly against any scavengers that may come unwelcome in the night. I ordered my most senior captain, Robert Anthony, to take two squadrons of 25 men each and build up the palisade with anything and everything they could find. My captains and I started to organize our defenses as best we could, give the terrain and materials we had at our disposal. At the time, I still did not think we would really lose, though I damn well knew we would have a costly victory.

It was about an hour or so before our camp lookouts caught sight of the rebel host. Strangely, at first it was not the awesome host described to us by our pickets. What we saw was just half a company or about 125 men. Our pickets swore that they saw many more than we were seeing now though; so my captains and I figured this was the advanced guard. That in itself was unsettling with me and my men. For rebels to have an advanced guard means, first of all, that someone is leading them, who, has some sense of military tactics.

The advanced guard stopped just beyond the projectile range of our arrows and spears. We waited and watched as they formed into a large circle and lit a fire. Then one of the men lit a torch from the fire and started to wave it around. All of a sudden our whole perimeter was lit up from the torches of hundreds of men who had surrounded our camp while we watched the decoy "advanced guard" from the south. I could tell that all on our command platform in the center of our camp, myself included, was shocked to see not only the size and force of these new rebels, but of leadership it must of taken to accomplish such a strategic maneuver at night without any one of the camp lookouts or pickets discovering them. Surely, the leader must have been someone from at least the third degree warrior class (which is a captain, or higher, for only they were trained in military leadership.)