Battle of Askros

Prelude

In the year 0 AR, Gavicus XXIX, the incumbent Dominus of Aurea (essentially an elected Emperor), died unexpectedly. Weasel, an offworlder-turned-gladiator Gavicus befriended and made a Patrician, was elevated to the position of Consigliere (Gavicus's 2nd-in-Command) less than a week before Gavicus's passing (replacing Quintus Floridius Longinus, who was recently indicted on corruption charges and forced to leave office). As a result, Weasel, the first offworlder in Aurean history to reach such a position, was elevated to the position of Dominus until the next round of elections. Weasel, already viewed with suspicion by many on Aurea, initially showed no interest in running for the office in the elections. However, an unknown agent entered Weasel's name into the contest without his consent, and since rejecting power in this context was seen as very un-Aurean (and would make him a pariah in Aurean politics for the rest of his life) and Weasel needed a high political position to keep the location of the Key to the Jungle safe, he was left with no choice but to run for election. Despite fierce opposition from the rest of the Aurean Patricians, ethnic Tangolians, and nativists, the election was decided in Weasel's favor by less than 1,000 votes in Sparteia, defeating his opponent (a Patrician from the Capital named Publius Julius Arius III) and his running mate (Qajeer, the Tangolian Khan). Arius remained friendly with Weasel, while Qajeer grew cold and distant, spending all his time in Tangolia and refusing to respond to Weasel's communications.

While Weasel was getting his cabinet set up and figuring out how to work with the Aurean Senate, Qajeer was left in Tangolia to seethe over his foiled ambition. The answer to his problem arrived when Rhys, a Vigamian working for the galactic warlord known as Tate, landed in Tangolia with 26,000 troops and a huge amount of money. The two made a deal stating that, with Rhys providing his small army and his funding, Qajeer would attack Weasel's new government by invading Argentolia. Rhys, knowing that Weasel was keeping the Key to the Jungle in the city of Nikopolis in southeast Argentolia, would besiege the city, capture it and the key, and march northwest with Qajeer through Argentolia, capture Astras, and allow Qajeer to usurp the throne. Once the deal was cemented, Qajeer sent Weasel an ultimatum: he could either voluntarily abdicate the throne and hand over the Key of the Jungle to Rhys, or he would begin an invasion of Argentolia to take these things by force. Weasel refused the ultimatum and sent what Limitanei he could spare to the Limes Tangolicus (the old wall along the parts of the Tangolian border not defined by rivers). He also set sail from Astras with the field armies of Calissylvania.

After around three weeks of preparation and troop movements, as well as being joined by the field armies of East Terra Centralis, Nikos, Cularo and Imbreus, Weasel's absolutely massive force had landed at Nikopolis and was preparing to cross the Anti-Imbreus Mountains and head towards the Tangolian Border, while Qajeer and Rhys had just broken through the Limes Tangolicus near Nyros. Unknown to the Aureans, Qajeer chose to keep the vast majority of his infantry guarding the hole they punched in the Limes Tangolicus to prevent a counterattack into Tangolia by remaining Aurean Limitanei. As a result, Weasel and the rest of the Aureans mistakenly believed that the Tangolians had invaded Aurea with mostly their heavy infantry field army and Rhys's mercenaries (also heavy infantry), supplemented by the Tangolians' elite cavalry regiments, when in reality, the vast majority of the force invading Argentolia was cavalry, supplemented by Rhys's heavy infantry from Vigam.

While Weasel's original plan was to simply march into the Anti-Imbreus Mountains and bottleneck Qajeer and Rhys in the narrow passes through them, Qajeer forced his hand by marching through the desert much more quickly than expected and threatening Askros, the largest city in the area other than Nikopolis. If he let Qajeer and Rhys take the city, Weasel's already low credibility as Dominus would be completely undermined and he would seriously risk assassination by his army. With little other choice, Weasel crossed the Anti-Imbreus Mountains with his armies and entered the city of Askros to rest and resupply before the inevitable battle that would come the next morning.

Battle

When Weasel heard from his scouts that Qajeer's army was not infantry-based and was almost entirely cavalry-based, Weasel was not very alarmed at first, as he also knew that he had Qajeer and Rhys outnumbered severalfold and provided that the Tangolian cavalry was anything like the Froudling cavalry he was used to facing on Arturia, he would prevail. While Julius Arius III, who was commanding the Field Army of East Terra Centralis, wanted to deploy in the typical Aurean fashion with infantry in the center and cavalry on the wings, Caesonius Theodosius, the commander of the Field Army of Calissylvania, convinced them to instead deploy in a hollow square formation, which would prevent them from being outflanked by the Tangolian cavalry in the flat desert terrain.

When the Tangolians first appeared from over the dunes of the desert, they did their best to intimidate the Aureans, beating hollow drums, blaring trumpets, and engaged in traditional Tangolian throat singing, unnerving the Aureans. Some of the Tangolian cavalry was also riding camels, which spooked Aurean horses unused to their scent.

The battle began with Qajeer and his horse and camel archers heading straight for the hollow square of Aureans. Arius and Theodosius sent their Limitanei into the fray to repel them, but the horse and camel archers were far too mobile and manouverable for them, and were able to run circles around them. These archers unleashed a hail of arrows at the Limitanei, driving them back. The archers then encircled the Aureans, releasing hail after hail of arrows at them. While the Aureans were able to protect themselves by raising their shields in the testudo formation, many arrows found their way through the cracks and hit the Aurean troops underneath. Many arrows were even able to penetrate shields, resulting in many Aurean legionnaires essentially having their shields and arms nailed together, and their feet nailed to the desert below.

While the Aureans tried to engage the horse and camel archers in melee combat, the archers were too quick for them, always retreating just out of reach and unleashing parting shots as they withdrew. Taking advantage of the weakened Aureans, the Tangolian cataphracts and Vigamian infantry would charge in, inflicting heavy casualties and wrecking havoc on the Aurean lines. When the Aureans loosened their testudo to repel these attackers, they succeeded, but the horse and camel archers would simply return to chip away at the Aureans even more. Weasel's plan at this point was to wait until the Tangolians ran out of arrows, but Qajeer was using thousands of camels, carrying arrows from the captured supply depot of Nyros, to resupply his archers. As a result, they could hold out essentially as long as they wanted.

When Weasel realized this, he sent out Theodosius, with all of the Aurean cavalry (which had been previously taking shelter in the center of the hollow square), to drive off the archers for a while. This charge had some success at first and inflicted some casualties on the Tangolian archers, but the Aurean cataphracts, weighed down by their armor, were slower than the Tangolian horse and camel archers, allowing the Tangolians to feign retreat and lead them to a nearby area of hoodoos and other rock formations that the locals had told the Tangolians was the den of a huge sandworm. All along the way, the Tangolian archers unleashed parting shots on the Aurean cataphracts, causing heavy casualties. However, the more lightly-armed Sparteians and deinonychus riders were able to keep up with the Tangolian archers, and were able to inflict some casualties by harassing their flanks.

Once the Aurean cataphracts were in the Sandworm's Den, the Tangolian horse archers retreated as quickly as possible into an adjacent gulch to the south, overgrown with cacti. While most of the Sparteians and Aurean deinonychus riders were able to follow the Tangolians into the gulch in time, the giant sandworm that called the Sandworm's Den home burst forth from the ground upon sensing the Aurean cataphracts on top of it, devouring almost all of them, including Theodosius. Those who survived scattered and fled into the dunes. The Sparteians and deinonychus riders, unused to the spiny cacti of the gulch, were weakened and slowed by the vegetation, allowing the Tangolian archers to surround and slaughter them.

Meanwhile, the Aurean infantry, no longer pinned by the Tangolian archers, was making some progress against the Tangolian cataphracts and Vigamian infantry. Although greatly reduced in number by that point, the Aureans were still repelling every charge the cataphracts and Vigamians threw at them, and even pushing them back. However, the Aureans' morale completely evaporated when Qajeer, at the head of his force of horse and camel archers, reappeared from the dunes, holding Theodosius's severed head in his hand with war trumpets blaring. Once again, the Tangolian cataphracts and Vigamian infantry retreated, and the Tangolian archers surrounded the Aurean infantry on all sides, pinning them into the testudo formation again and slowly whittling away at them with a nonstop hail of arrows. Meanwhile, the Tangolian cataphracts and Vigamian infantry conducted a series of charges that further weakened and disrupted the Aureans.

The Tangolian onslaught continued until nightfall, when Weasel decided the only option was to retreat to Askros. Arius advised Weasel to leave the wounded behind, as carrying them back to Askros (if it was even possible in one night) would sap his army of what strength it had left and they would have no energy to flee Askros once the Tangolians returned. However, Weasel refused to leave a single living soldier behind, instructing his troops to make repeated trips overnight into the desert and drag what wounded soldiers they could find back to the city. The remnants of the Aurean cataphracts, Sparteians, and deinonychus riders, who were out wandering the desert, saw what was going on and assisted in the process, resulting in a resounding success that pulled every single wounded Aurean back to Askros. However, there were unfortunately not many wounded left to escort back to the city to begin with, as most had already died of dehydration in the desert heat or were captured by Tangolian scouts, whom the Aurean soldiers sent out to retrieve the wounded sometimes skirmished with during the night.

That night, Weasel received a letter from Rhys and Qajeer, offering to negotiate if Weasel agreed to the terms of the previous ultimatum. With the remains of his battered and exhausted army threatening to assassinate him and Arius if he did not attempt to negotiate a truce, Weasel went to the Tangolian camp the following morning, thinking he could deceive them and use his skill with magic to take out Qajeer and defeat Rhys in a duel. Despite his best efforts, Weasel was very nearly killed by Rhys, who was far superior to him regarding magic. Weasel only evaded capture or death by feigning death. Weasel's crown was taken from his "dead" body by Qajeer.

Aftermath

After Weasel's disappearance, Arius led the remaining Aureans out of Askros, through the desert, and over the Anti-Imbreus Mountains towards Nikopolis, suffering heavy casualties from exhaustion, heatstroke, dehydration, and harassment from Tangolian horse and camel archers along the way. Upon his return to Nikopolis, he informed Aurea of what had transpired at Askros, and that Weasel was nowhere to be found. Plans were made to put Weasel's Consigliere, another offworlder named Ryan, in charge, as the Field Army of Zebusylvania was sent to Argentolia to reinforce Arius.

Rhys and Qajeer, thinking Weasel dead, sent their horse and camel archers southwest to harass Arius's retreat, while their infantry and cataphracts began a siege of Askros. They also sent a message to their field army at the Limes Tangolicus to join them outside Askros. Once Askros fell and their field army met up with them, Rhys and Qajeer began marching southwest towards the Anti-Imbreus Mountains and Nikopolis.

Weasel, unknown to anyone, managed to escape by roaming the desert until he found a Tangolian horse whose rider had been killed in battle. He rode to Melli, the nearest Aurean-controlled city, where he was able to hitch a ride on a giant argentavis bird bound for the southern Kingdom of Tiorangi. Here, he met up with King Puhipi of Tiorangi, one of his first and strongest supporters from the election, and set sail from Paiburn with the Field Army of Tiorangi. Before leaving Tiorangi, however, he did manage to send a message to the Aurean Senate, telling them that he was indeed alive, apologizing for the defeat, and telling them that he was leading another field army to challenge Rhys, Qajeer, and the Tangolians. However, he left his location unknown to avoid assassination, as pretty much everyone on the planet was furious with him by this point.

While Weasel would go on to win the war against Qajeer and Rhys, the Battle of Askros stained his reputation in a way that would not be redeemed until his victory at Dorylaeum against a different invader a year later, and the Aurean skepticism of Weasel's leadership deepened by this battle directly contributed to the province of Terra Centralis's decision to join those invaders against Weasel that year. Weasel's failure at Askros would go on to haunt him for the rest of his life, and he would still sometimes have nightmares about that day years later.