ArS6 Taking Off by Peter Rhodan

Author:Peter Rhodan [Rhodan, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Changes need to be made

It appeared to Ernak, as the day wore on, that most of the major tribes had been gutted in the battle and had lost a lot of their leaders into the bargain. A group from Ruga’s tribe arrived at the camp, and two of those men had personally witnessed Ruga killed by an explosion directly in front of them. They said their casualties had not been that heavy at first, and they had charged past the fort, firing at it from long bow range, before collecting themselves on the far side to repeat the charge. It was then that the heavy artillery hit them, causing more casualties in that one salvo than they’d taken in total up until that point.

Ruga ordered a new charge along the far side of the fort, but they had barely gotten underway when another salvo of explosions erupted in the area, and that had been when Ruga was killed. His son, Frogar, took the lead and they made another firing pass on the fort, during which they took even more casualties, and then, as they formed up in an open area to the west of the river, the heavy artillery dropped several more salvos on them. Frogar ordered yet another charge, to support one of the other tribes who were attempting to weaken the defenders so that the Venedi foot assault could succeed, and they charged past the fort once more.

They then assembled as before, at the far side of the fort, only this time they were assailed by even more artillery, and Frogar ordered them to charge past the fort on the southern side once more. By this time there was barely half the tribe still mounted, but they set off to carry out Frogar’s orders, charging past the fort, taking a few more casualties as they did, and then they ran straight into the new moving machines of the Romans. They were assaulted by the small artillery that the Romans now had with their infantry, while at the same time being shot down by the men in the armored boxes on top of the moving machines, they simply didn’t stand a chance, they were helpless, with no suitable weapons to defend themselves with.

Frogar was killed, and what was left of the tribe fled north, and eventually recrossed the river where they happened to come across one of Ernak’s tribesmen, who invited them to join the camp here. Ernak had given the group a good look over as they rode up, and he doubted there would be as many as two thousand left from the whole tribe. He had barely finished listening to their recount of the disaster when a group of Venedi staggered in. There would have been lucky to have been two hundred men in the group, and a young man, who was clearly the son of a chief, or a noble, from his gaudy, if besmirched attire, presented himself to Ernak.

“I am Gvozden. My father was the war leader of the Venedi, who allied themselves with you Hunni.

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