Blood and Iron

(This post takes place near the beginning of the war)
It was near the outbreak of the ‘Duchy War’, as the Andrennians had dubbed it.. Queen Anna sat upon her throne in the Kjellsama Palace, in the grand city of Mitta, Andrenne. The throne room was a grand one, with marble walls and columns, the bare white walls contrasted with the soft, navy blue fabric covering the stairs to the throne and the large dark blue tapestry behind the throne, which was covered in small golden (only in color) designs. She waited for the next issue in her nation to arise, or for the next UKAG issue to arise. Either would do. She was bored. Her palace door opened, an out of breath courier stumbled through, walking towards the throne. Two large statues sat either side of the throne. One of the old conqueror, the unifier of Andrenne- King Oswald the Great. The other of the Pagan Crusader, King Jonas the Third. The courier got to his feet, walking towards the Queen with a sealed letter in his left hand. “My Grace, a letter from the Kanadian colony!” Said the courier, bowing and presenting the letter to the Queen, who took it gingerly. She opened the seal, reading the letter quickly. She sighed. “Tell parliament to gather, please.” The courier nodded, and quickly walked out of the throne room.

After parliament had gathered, for no apparent reason, the Queen opened the door of the Parliament House, escorted by the regal Knight’s Guard. Both the Upper and Lower Houses had gathered. “Members of the Andrennian Parliament- I gather you here today to state one thing, and one thing only. With the power vested in me, by the grace of God, as Grand Queen of Andrenne and Goyanes, I hereby declare war on the Duchy of Sundeon. I demand that the Royal Navy be ready to ship out to the Kanadian colony by the end of this week, if this is not done in a timely manner I’ll have the lot of you fired and homeless. If it wasn’t already visible, this is of the utmost importance.” With that, she left the Parliament House, which was now chattering among itself.

By the end of the week, fearing their jobs, parliament had managed to get the Royal Navy ready to move out, while carrying the Royal Army. Most of the military was feeling patriotic about this voyage, helping their own blood defeat those who would wish to defeat Calgary, despite having been ‘kicked out’ by them, they were still of the same blood at heart. The anthem of Andrenne, and of the UKAG at the time, named ‘Norrdmäna’ in Andrennian, was sang before the Royal Navy and Army was sent off to help their Kanadian brethern.

SAA Kanada:

SAA Kanada:

(OOC: Oh My GOD Flakey. Like I've said 2 times before, you can't just send your ships up and down the strait in one post. My fleet isn't halfway around Cogoria for Pete's sake. Do it again and I will have you not be in this RP. Please edit your previous posts)

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(OOC: Like I said here, Flakey, you CANNOT AUTOMATICALLY TELEPORT YOUR SHIPS. I warned you, edit your previous post immediately.)

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(OOC: I sent those ships down the straight a few weeks ago, plus up it)

(OOC: Number one, I was talking about your ships from the other harbor immediatly being ready to sail and surround a group of ships.
Number two, you send 38 entire fleets of naval ships to one Kanadian fleet, in one post? Unbelievable. it's a no. Edit, as I said before. No more arguements, I don't want OOC clogging up this thread.
Edit: Thank you, Flakey.)

As the bells rang to alert the dockworkers of the arriving armada, which made its way into the large Calgarian harbor. Once the Duke was informed of the arrival, he mounted his horse and rode down to the docks, joined by his royal guard and a regiment of militia. At the arrival, he raised his pipe to his lips and smiled at the ships, whom were being directed in by Calgarian sailors and workers. A crowd of civilians started to form upon the new arrival of the towering ships, flying the flag of the UKAG. As anchors were lowered and the ships' occupants, thousands of soldiers, began to depart. The militias lined up around the Duke, who got off his horse and slowly walked towards the edge of the dock, and waited to meet whoever had been put in charge of this grand army.

---

The freezing Kanad group trudged through the ever thickening snow, bodies dropping and not moving again often, the men sang quietly to themselves to keep their lowered spirits up. Of the 16,000 brave soldiers that had first come with General Sean, only 9,000 remained. All others were either dead, left to defend settlements, or captured. Yet General Kanad pushed on, and the lights of Osdensk seemed to always be in the distance.

In Lamsdon port, south of the port held by Calgary, the ships were already departing. The journey was quick and nimble, with little interruptions. They had stopped a few kilometers from Sunnystone Harbor where the Calgarians were attacking. The ships had decided to standby waiting for more ships. Currently 2 Fleets were standing by. While they were waiting, they sent some look outs to watch what the Calgarians were doing to the town. A fleet from Highstone came a few hours later, from up the river. South in Flakeington, more ships were disembarking to Sunnystone. The fleets had decided to attack, so they slowy drifted towards the harbour. There were those Calgarians, trying to take the harbor and the city. As the fleet came through, the Captain fired a shot aimed at the largest ship. The fleets had entered combat with the Calgarians.

As three men were dragged by their collars into the throne room, feet kicking, with their hands tied behind their back. They were shoved towards the Duke and surrounded by all sides by armed guards with bayonets. The Duke frowned and spoke to the men, "Who are you?" A guard began to speak up but the Duke interrupted him, "I asked them, not you." One of the prisoners murmured, and a guard moved his bayonet closer. "Alfrede Entarch..." he said quietly. The same guard spoke up again, "We've found evidence of them spying and returning evidence to the Duke of Sundeon. Shall we follow procedure and have them executed?" The spies flinched at the word, and the Duke puts his fingers to his chin, "No, I don't believe so. At least not now. Have them speak, what precious information were you trying to move?" None of the prisoners spoke.
He stared at the spies, who remained silent, "Fine then, have them shot," the Duke said, and the guards grabbed their collars. One of the prisoners yelled out, "Okay, I'll talk! Uh..." the guards stopped and released the spies from their grasps. "We, uhm, were marking army movements south so, er, our armies could encircle the Calgarian one-" another spy nearly lynched him, but was held back. He yelled, "You idiot! You didn't even try to lie! Why, I ought to..." the Duke nodded.
"Well, thank you gentlemen. Okay, men, you can have them shot now." The spy who squealed spoke out, fighting against the guards dragging him, "B-but I told you!" "That doesn't mean I won't have you killed." The Duke waved and brought his pipe to his mouth.
That afternoon, the three men were blindfolded and, one by one, put in front of a firing squad.

The Cogorian advance was no stealthy operation, it was heralded by an incessant wave of noise as the fife and drum corps urged the troops ever onwards. The large host was moving towards the Sundeon border in their regimented formations, ready for the battle they expected merely to cross that imaginary line where one nations power ended and another's began. Ahead of the host, flitting among the trees, their green tunics offering some basic camouflage, and some well rubbed in dirt providing the rest, came the skirmishers. Trained to take ground in open order and kill from a distance, they were the bane of any officer's soon to be considerably shorter existence. The Cogorians had no idea where the enemy lay, but they hoped the skirmishers would find them with enough warning for the army to be deployed effectively.

A middle-aged man stepped off of one of the larger ships. He had graying brown hair, and wore his dress uniform. The man was a Field Marshal for the Andrennian Royal Army, specifically it was Sir Josef Ossler, a recently promoted Field Marshal. This would be his first war, and he intended to serve his nation and the United Kingdoms proudly. He walked onto the dock, observing the new environment around him. Soldiers waited on the ships for his command, which would be relayed to the various generals below him, which would then be relayed to the lieutenant generals below them and so on and so forth.

He looked towards the Duke, who he presumed was the man he needed to speak to. He stepped forward, speaking in Andrennian to the Duke. "I presume you are the Grand Duke of Calgary, Hulann Kanad? It is a pleasure to meet you, your majesty." Josef briskly bowed before speaking again. "We are here by order of Grand Queen Annabelle Kjellner of Andrenne, though I'm certain you already knew that. Is there somewhere my men can be quartered until we get further orders, your majesty?" Josef asked, staring at the city behind the Duke rather than the Duke himself. It was odd to call someone that wasn't his own Queen "your majesty". Something he'd have to get used to during this war.

Alwin was still on horseback riding listening the drums and flutes play together in harmony as his thousands of upon thousands of soldiers were marching. He looked behind to see all of his men behind him. They were in their dark blue uniforms waving their empire’s flag as proudly as ever advancing to gain revenge on the people that attacked their fatherland. Whoever attacked them must’ve been too stupid to realize that revenge and vengeance is one of the strongest things that push men on.

So as they were trudging through the Kanadian winter they were caught off guard by a Kanadian attack from a nearby ridge. The bullets made Alwin’s horse buck but he managed to stay onto it. As he looked around he could see about 20 men dead. Alwin though quickly ordered for his canons to load up and fire. However as they were ready to fire a second volley from the Kanadians on the ridge came raining down killing about the same amount of men as before and then BOOM! The canons fired upon the men and at the same time making the ridge slie down on top of the men.

After the ridge came down however Alwin got off of his horse along with his men and inspected the buried Kanadians. He saw some moving around and some that were dead but the majority of them were dead. Alwin stopped and looked over to a soldier that was trying to crawl away. As Alwin got closer the the man tried to crawl faster but it helped nothing as Alwin eventually got to the man.

He stared at the man for a while and then preceded to question about who was his commander. The man refused at first but then Alwin pulled out his sword and put it up to the man’s back and asked once more. The man replied with a weak “Sean Kanad” and then was ran through the back by Alwin. Alwin knew of Sean’s strategic mind and even with his numbers knew that Sean would put up a great fight.

Alwin then ordered his men to kill everyone that was alive and make sure to stab the dead to make sure that they were corpses. He then got on top of his horse and continued onto Osdensk. He would have blood no matter the cost.

The army marched on, numbers dwindling further down. A path was left behind the soldiers, of footprints and bodies. One of the last officers of a company left stepped up to General Sean, who was now walking on foot as well with all the horses dead. The officer attempted to warm himself best he could with his blue long coat, but it barely fought off the cold. He spoke in stutters with teeth chattering, "M-My Lord, the last food rations are gone and the m-men will starve soon, if the c-cold doesn't get them first..." General Sean listened, but didn't stray his eyes off northwards. The officer continued, "The soldiers are considering m-mutiny and eating the b-" "Be quiet. Another day marching and we'll be on the outskirts. If we lag behind, the Malorians will slaughter us all." The officer immediately shut his mouth, and strayed back into the slowly moving mob.

---

Much farther north, out of the mountains in much thinner snow, the Duke looked at Josef Ossler and thought to himself, "There are plenty of barracks by the southern end of the city. Next to the trenches and stone walls." He pointed vaguely south, where the city buildings began to thin out, "With loads of the army gone south, I'm sure your men can take their spots."

---

The Sundeonian soldiers peeked over the top of their small ditches. As the loud sound of drum and fife played loudly in the distance, and men immediately raised their muskets. Different officers yelling mixed together in a large speech blob of getting ready to fire. Messy line formations were formed, muskets were leveled, and the soldiers fired blindly and desperately into the green.

The Calgarian troops stumbled into the streets, crunching through the snow. Civilians looked out their windows and doorways and immediatly rushed to help the starving troops. After an hour, the entire remaining army was in the streets, scavenging for food and going inside fire-warmed buildings. The once grand army had been reduced to 8,000 soldiers, many of them not able to fight in their current condition. Yet they managed to gather around General Kanad, who had to yell for all of them to hear.
"Men of my army, I congratulate you. You have made it where your less fortunate brethren could not. But the war is not over. It is not even close to over. We will attempt to defend this town, but I know well we will not succeed. We shall instead hold off the new beast as long as it takes to evacuate the civilians and goods of this town. Then we shall return to Calgary, and I will make sure every one of you that makes it to that great city will be promoted," he glanced across the large crowd, "We will defend the southern side of the city in a loose semicircle. I will explain in depth to the officers, who will explain to you. Good luck, and remember you are doing this for the good of our country."
By sunrise, a few barriers had been created for cover, and the entire southern side of the city was surrounded by a line of soldiers about one or two ranks deep. Many of them were firelock armed citizens, defending their home. No matter how many men the Malorians threw at them, they would not give in without a good scrap.

As the soldiers were marching through the snow it was finally there. The city of Osdensk at last right in front of them. This is where they would get vengeance for their fallen brethren in Arkum. This is where they would repay the Calgarians for the burning of their city. Kanad may have thought that he was making a tactical decision whenever he attacked Arkum but if there was one thing he didn’t understand it is what revenge can do to a person.

Alwin at the head of his army finally relieved to get here but his work had just started. Alwin could clearly see the Southern fortifications. However he would not attack from one side as that would’ve been a stupid move that would’ve costed him more men than he wanted dead. Instead he ordered his troops to immediately set up trenches and fortifications around the whole city. If he could not directly assault it then he would starve it out and make sure no one escaped so his troops started to surround the whole city and dig their trenches and set up their tents.

Since Kanad only decided to defend one side of the city Alwin predicted that he didn’t have enough men for the whole city. So he decided to send a messenger to ask him for a parley.

General Sean waved another group of civilians farewell, as the started walking north in the snow. "By this rate, the town will be cleared by tomorrow afternoon!" he exclaimed to a soldier who'd just ran up to him. "Sir, we won't be able to keep this rate up. The Malorians have arrived and are surrounding the city. We don't have enough men to properly defend."
A silence ensued between the two, and the General leaned against an open supply crate, pondering. He spoke, "We'll have to compress our forces, then. We can-" Kanad was interupted by the soldier, "The Malorian leader called for a parley. We've captured the messanger, over at the town hall."
He stood up and was led by the soldier to a small wooden building, topped by a small white tower. Sean walked into the building, looking at the man in a Malorian uniform, he spoke in somewhat fluent Malorian, "I accept Alwin's offer of a Parley." he grabbed the smaller man's arm and physically dragged him outside, into the late afternoon light. He continued to lead him through the mess of streets before they came above a line of small ditches and trenches. The Generan pointed at a small farmhouses in squished between the two armies, "That building can be where we meet. Fifteen soldiers escort each. No more, nor less. Tomorrow morning, twenty minutes after dawn. Understood?" He finished speaking, and shoved the soldier towards the trenches, not waiting for a response, "Dismissed. You have until.." he glanced at the sun, nearing the horizon, "..dusk before my soldiers will fire on you." With that, the General turned on his heel and marched back into the town, earning snickers from some of the soldiers in the trenches.

---

The Sundeonian fifes sang throughout the trees, as an army of 35,000 soldiers marched through the snow and mud. On the horizon was a ridge held by Calgary. A crag sticking out of the surrounding meadows, which supported an old stone castle from the medieval era. Fort Neuramburgh, sat above the town of Neuramburgh. Early war, it had been taken without a fight, but now the Sundeonians would attempt to blast the Calgarians out.
Cannons boomed from the vantage point, and the first lines were all militia divisions. Canno n fodder. The lines exploded in arrays of red, blood and uniform. After the entire front row had been destroyed, highly trained Grenadiers marched over their fallen friends, using the low cannon ammunition to their advantage. They rushed forward and began to throw hooks and rope uselessly up the slope. The ones that stuck were unstable, and fell back down after the men started climbing. Instead, once the Calgarians had run out of cannonballs.
The castle's southern side was surrounded in cannons and men, and the barrage began. Dozens of guns fired until their barrels were red and were untouchable, and the cliff walls just below the castle crumbled. Pieces of stone and brick collapsed down the slope, and the bombardment stopped by noon. Columns of soldiers began marching up the only slope, a thin ramp only two men thick up the side of the cliff on the north side. As soon as the first few soldiers reached the top of the ramp, they were shot down off the side by musket fire, but the men kept coming and dieing. Eventually, the overwhelming numbers pushed to the wooden gate, braced by steel, and they began laying small piles of gunpowder from their pouches onto the ground by the gate.
The gate lit up with a spark, but it only charred the thick door. The soldiers took a different approach, climbing up the broken bricks, which occationally stuck out of the wall and provided a foothold. Many bricks shattered with pressure, but a few soldiers managed to make it to the top, firing off their loaded muskets and rushing in with bayonets. When the grenadiers made it up, they threw hooks up onto the walls, offering a better way up. Men rushed into the castle, heavily outnumbering the Calgarians, who fell back to the keep. They raised the flag above the central tower of the fort, and shot down desperately at the swarming Sundeonians. Every time they rushed up the hill, they were met with multiple volleys of fire, and they fell back down again. By the fifth time, they had stormed the thin wooden door at the bottom and began climbing the stairs. The Calgarians knew it was over, and surrendered. The castle had been won, but at the cost of nearly a thousand casualties.

After finally meeting with representatives from Calgary the Arrandalian forces moved out, heading off to join the war. Kaspar ordered about two thousand troops, mostly cavalry, to march towards Osdensk and aid the Calgarians there. The rest of the army would march towards Ünpei which has heavily beleaguered and in need of immediate reinforcements.

In the meantime the Arrandalian fleet began to break up. Most of the heavy warships headed off towards Calgary where they'd link up with the Calgarian fleet. The swifter ships also headed out, sailing back home to bring more troops and the supplies north. The rest sailed back eastward along the coast where they could keep an eye out for any remaining Flakian vessels that might be looking to take advantage of the undefended shores.

The reinforcements were well on their way when word reached them that Osdensk had fallen.

34,000 men remained in a large, Sundeonian army. They had taken Fort Neuramburgh, and the only thing between them and the Calgarian peninsula was a shattered army, and a snow covered mountain range. Leaving only a hundred men to garrison the fortress, the army marched onward to the north. Occationally, a Kanadian civilian would shoot at them with a musket, and they would be captured and executed.
Nearly half a week after the capture of the fort, alarm bells sounded at the sight of a Sundeonian army outside the grand capital. How in the hell had they made it this far north? Whatever the reason, the city's garrison of twenty-five thousand men formed up and began to march under the Duke himself, after he had requested the Andrennians to stay and man the trenches. The Calgarian army spread out in an inward arrow, like a net to try and catch the Sundeonians in. As the first shots were fired across the white field by a Kanadian militia unit, yelling and screaming only erupted from their. The Sundeonians only fired one volley and charged towards the outnumbered force, Red smashing against Blue.
But the Calgarians held firm, and fought back angrily under the blue and white banner. By midday, the situation still looked dire for the Calgarians. The men turned and ran for the trenches, the hundreds on thousands of men slipping into trenches must have been a sight for the Andrennians. They turned around and prepared to defend the ditches they'd called home for several weeks.