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Vargo: Imperial Survey History Turning the Tide Duke Alvaro made turning back the Kurgan advance into the Okar valley the first goal of his new term as Protector of Vargo, and planned a risky winter campaign conceived by Field Marshal Porter Valencia of the Muster. The Brother Battle fortress at Ekron served as a staging area for a counter-assault conceived to break the back of the Kurgan army on Vargo once and for all. The Vargo Defense Force deployed and prepared for a battle the likes of which had not been seen since the end of the Emperor Wars. Hawkwood, al-Malik, and Hazat forces made up the bulk of the noble levies committed to the Duke’s campaign, supported by Brother Battle commandos and Charioteer and Hazat air forces. Duke Alvaro chose to personally lead the Hazat ground contingent into battle, taking to the field for the first time since the defense of Seren. His presence served as a symbol of unity and common purpose that helped overcome the political infighting that threatened to undermine the venture before it had even begun. Field Marshal Valencia hoped to lure the enemy into attacking Ekron by mobilizing some of his forces in defense of the port city Haina, which lay helpless before the Kurgan advance downriver, and pretending to leave Ekron undefended. The ruse worked. On 18 January, when the Kurgans swung the western arm of their expeditionary toward the inviting target of Ekron, they discovered that the bulk of the VDF forces were still there, cunningly concealed. Most of the forces dispatched to Haina had been militia levies. As the Kurgans reeled from this surprise, the Field Marshal pulled another ace from his sleeve. Using dropships and assault landers, he deployed elite VDF infantry and armor units that had been held in reserve, dropping them behind the Kurgan lines. The forces of the Caliphate suddenly found themselves caught between an anvil and a swinging hammer, with nowhere to run. The fighting was fierce and bloody, with heavy losses on both sides, but the Known Worlders won the day. It was a victory to be remembered in song and story. A New Enemy During the battle at Ekron, General Riddick, the commander of the Kurgan Expeditionary Force, was killed along with most of his staff, leaving the Caliphate army without leadership to organize a retreat. Most of the Kurgan soldiers were killed or captured by pursuing VDF forces as they fled toward the mountains and the Caliphate lands beyond. Demoralized by this stunning defeat upriver, the Kurgan troops threatening Haina likewise staged a hasty withdrawal toward the safety of their earlier conquests in the north. On 3 February, 5006, as the victorious defenders of the Triumvirate still celebrated their great victory, a new threat emerged from the shifting sands of the central desert. At his field headquarters in Ekron, Duke Alvaro received news of a massive military force moving out of the desert into the Erin River valley above Port Lewellyn. The affiliation of these troops was unknown, but their intent was made clear as they overran the Vargen-held city of Manaan and began to move downriver, ravaging every village in their path. Alvaro moved his command to Port Lewellyn to help Viscount Michael Hawkwood organize a defense against this new enemy. As reports began to filter in from advance scouts in the field, it became clear that this was no ordinary foe. In their initial skirmishes with the enemy, Hawkwood patrols encountered demon-possessed Vargens, shambling husks raised from the dead, and skittering abominations straight out of their worst nightmares. It was an army of darkness, marching straight out of the depths of Gehenna. At the head of that horde rode none other than Rees Catalfan, a renegade Imperial Eye agent who had turned from the Light in pursuit of otherworldly power. Long thought dead, Catalfan had returned to exact his vengeance upon those who had foiled his wicked schemes--and crush the Triumvirate while he was at it. Above his head billowed his personal standard, a banner as black as the void itself, and escorting him was an elite guard of grim warriors in midnight armor who called themselves Shadow Knights. Army of Darkness In a mocking pronouncement delivered via holodisk, Catalfan boasted that he would raze Port Lewellyn, still licking its wounds from the last invasion attempt, and turn its citizens into husks to fill the ranks of his army. That army, he claimed, was merely the vanguard of the numberless horde of the Children of the Void, servants of a demonic being called the "Lord of Shadows". Their master had decreed that Vargo would serve as his first fiefdom in the Known Worlds, and they were here to fulfill this commandment. Acting swiftly, Alvaro recalled the already battle-weary VDF forces from Ekron to redeploy in the defense of Port Lewellyn. He also called upon Primate Icarus for Church support in countering the insidious occult powers wielded by Catalfan and his acolytes. The Primate supplied Avesti and Inquisition shock troops, and arranged for Eskatonic and Orthodox theurges to lend their aid, while the Brother Battle sent elite platoons that had recently tested their mettle against Kurgan skirmishers in the pitched defense of Ekron. The heroic defenders chose to make their stand at a humble tributary of the Erin called Kinder Creek, halfway between Manaan and Port Lewellyn. Catalfan's horde approached the entrenched troops as dusk fell on the 16th of February, sweeping across the land like a dark tide of evil. The Protector waited until the fetid stench of the enemy filled the nostrils of his troops before giving the command to open fire. Artillery and slug weapon fire chewed into the front ranks of the husks, felling hundreds in a matter of seconds. The army of darkness kept advancing, thousands of possessed and undead marching forward to fill the gaps left by their fallen cohorts as the defenders rained a steady barrage of bullets into their ranks. The horde crashed against the VDF line, and a general melee ensued as soldiers engaged the enemy with cold steel. At first, the VDF line held. Then, as the last light of day departed, slavering horrors straight out of Qlippoth loped out of the darkness to savage the defenders. Slowly, inevitably, the line bent. Then it broke. The Last Stand Were it not for the heroic actions of Brother Battle monks who charged forth to engage the demons hand-to-hand, offering prayers to Zakhayelos as they fought and died, the VDF might well have been annihilated that day. As it was, barely two-thirds of the defenders left the battlefield alive, limping back downriver in the direction of Port Lewellyn to lick their wounds. Duke Alvaro met with Viscount Michael and Field Marshal Valencia at the Dail Eireann to assess their losses and prepare a last-ditch defense of the ravaged city. The prospects appeared very grim indeed. Demoralized and battered, the VDF was an army on the verge of collapse. After his meeting with the Viscount, Duke Alvaro boarded a flitter and returned to Vargo City on some mysterious errand. Some claimed that he had lost his nerve and abandoned the VDF in its hour of need. As Amaltheans tended to the troops billeted in Mael Plaza, the Viscount appeared before them to deliver a stirring speech, calling upon them to hold out hope. The Light would triumph, he promised them. Meanwhile, back at Kinder Creek, Catalfan and his acolytes wielded antinomy most foul to raise the fallen VDF soldiers as husks to serve in his army, and summoned demons to possess the prisoners they had taken, after torturing them into submission. His ranks thus restored to full strength, Catalfan resumed the march toward the prize waiting at the mouth of the Erin River. The horde swept over the villages around Gaddeau and Dres like a plague, swallowing up all that lived and leaving devastation in its wake. Across the river from Port Lewellyn, at a place of ancient power called Prophet's Crossing, the city's defenders deployed to make their last stand against the army of darkness. This time the soldiers knew exactly what sort of enemy they would be facing, but that knowledge held little comfort. Their resolve was bolstered by the presence of Brother Battle and Orthodox chaplains moving among their ranks, offering the solace that should they die, their souls, at least, would be safely beyond the reach of Rees Catalfan. 5 |