World Conquest Online

Dom soon boarded the Galatea with Actumerus and the other Batavi Guard. Helena was talking with a captain nearby from one of the many merchant ships, whilst Himilco could be seen on the dock taking a shipment of lumber that had been sent down to him from Mountview Fort. Mountview Fort was currently clearing large patches of the forest to create a larger space for the fort to expand and was shipping excess wood back to Riverside. Tomyris had plans to expand Noctus’s normal day to day living above ground, keeping the hidden under belly of the Kingdom of Lazarus hidden.

Upon embarking, Dom noticed that Sun Shangxiang and the singular Praetorian Century of Legionaries under Centurion Septimius, were waiting for him. Their exceptionally clean armour reflected in the sunlight, whilst Centurion Septimius’s helmet plume rustled in the slight breeze. Sun Shangxiang wore a light set of leather armour other a dress. She and Septimius seemed to be in conversation whilst looking across the River as Dom approached, with the rest of the Praetorians settled neatly across the deck of the Galatea as it’s crew prepared her for departure.

"Are you coming to Jia as well?" Dom asked her, interrupting her conversation and causing her to jump slightly in surprise.

"Yes, I didn’t want to stay and train for the next week or so whilst you and Meritamen are busy with your roles. Plus my sister in law Lady Xu is at Jia so I wanted to visit her and her son." Sun Shangxiang replied with a smile, before turning to Septimius. "It seems that General Subutai has assigned Septimius’s Century as your personal unit for this campaign."

"We didn’t naturally fit in to any of the Cohort’s that are being built, instead we are planning to expand our Praetorian Centuries to create our own Elite Cohort by recruiting the best from each unit over the coming months." Septimius explained, "But that can wait until after this campaign, for now we are your personal Century."

"It’s good to have you by my side again Septimius!" Dom responded in genuine happiness, the Praetorian’s had been an exceptional unit since they had arrived, part of him had hoped he would get a Warriors Hall dedicated to them at some point, rather than them arriving from an Elite Unit Cube. They were amongst the best trained and deadliest of his expansive list of units. He had used his most recent Elite Unit Cubes on his newer buildings, but planned to use them on the Ninth Legion again in the future if the opportunity arose. "Will you be my personal Cohort in the future?"

"I am not sure what General Subutai’s full wishes are, but it would be honour if that was the case." Septimius replied, before bowing and shouting towards the ships Captain to have the Galatea pushed out and launched. Whilst Septimius and the Captain began shouting orders, Dom stood with Sun Shangxiang and watched over the ever growing Riverside, with the small number of buildings on the opposite bank.

"My life was growing up in a place dominated by giant rivers, seeing the Calm River in it’s natural and almost untouched beauty does make me feel nostalgic." She commented as the Galatea was towed away from the dock by some of the smaller boats that worked there.

They had soon left Riverside behind, taking the river down towards the coast. There was a lot of movement on both shores of the River, with the large expansive numbers of Civilians and Warriors of the Shield Army, working on buildings either farms, roads or homes. When they passed by Tranquillity, Lucius and Elder Qiao were seen waving towards them as they sped down the river, the two of them seemingly in another conversation about farming again.

The journey took a couple of hours, with Dom and Sun Shangxiang talking about the most mundane things in life. Dom mentioned his friends and them arriving soon, discussing a bit about their personalities, whilst Sun Shangxiang was talking about some of her childhood friends. Eventually the conversations led to Dom’s parents, where he explained how his mother was a Warrior like Sun Shangxiang’s father and had died in battle, whilst his father had gone missing in his youth.

"Your mother was a Warrior and now your wife is a Warrior." Sun Shangxiang had commented positively, trying to show Dom that he had a new family now. He smiled at her, before holding her hand whilst they approached the coast. He realised that this was one of the only times they had a normal conversation since there recent meeting, seemingly doing their relationship in reverse. He looked at her again, taking in how beautiful she was and shaking his head at how strange life had become. Part of him wished Meritamen or Sun Shangxiang were real people and on his Aunt’s shortlist, the simplicity of their relationships much less complex than anything he’d have to deal with in reality.

Eventually they reached the edge of the river, passing by Serenity and the small fleet that was now stationed to defend it. Dom could see the Sibylla doing some manoeuvres in the water, whilst another Trireme was stationed nearby. Dom assumed that Artemisia was having the new crews mix with the old ones to learn on the Sibylla before trying on their own ships. The rest of the dock at Serenity seemed empty, with the other Trireme’s of her fleet most likely being stationed at the fort in the north.

The Galatea took a southern turn towards Jia that could be seen in the distance. A large and sprawling town full of new members of the Kingdom. Dom could see a camp that had been built in the distance, whilst the docks were full with the Quinquereme the Bellona currently placed there, with the rest of Gan Ning’s Serene Sea Fleet’s Triremes anchored around. A space had been left for the Galatea, with the captain slowing the ship down and slowly taking her in to the dock, where a small group of Legionaries were waiting for them to disembark.

.....

Dom entered the Main Hall of Jia’s Town Centre, with Sun Shangxiang beside him. Tomoe was stood with Zhao Yun, Xun You, Qin Ming and Gan Ning as she looked down at a map, whilst Lady Xu, Meritamen, Crassus and Artemisia stood to another side. They all stopped their conversations when they noticed his arrival, looking in his direction.

"Don’t stop for me!" Dom exclaimed, wanting all of the eyes off him, as he headed towards Meritamen and the Civilian Heroes first, allowing Tomoe to finish what ever planning she was trying to come up with.

"We are almost finished." Xun You commented politely as Dom nodded back at him.

"No Subutai?" Dom asked Meritamen as he joined the circle of Heroes that were talking.

"He’s headed to the Cove with some scouts and his Eagle Genghis." She explained with a smile, "He wants to do his own due diligence before the forces set off, he said he’ll see you when you arrive."

"He’s our most Senior General and he’s gone exploring himself!" Dom laughed, surprised but also not surprised at the same time. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"It’s a bit like our Lord heading to the front lines." Artemisia commented, causing a laugh from Lady Xu, Meritamen and Sun Shangxiang.

"If I could join you, I would." Crassus countered, "I heard the Elite Legionaries of the Praetorians are now your direct unit?"

"Yeah, I am looking forward to having them by my side again." Dom replied to Crassus, "What are you all doing here?"

"We’ve been discussing our new underground networks we are wanting to implement." Meritamen explained, "Crassus is heading north again tomorrow with some elites we have gathered in Serenity, hopefully we can help Crixus set up an expansive network."

"I have some other things I need you to do whilst you are up there!" Dom explained, telling them about Andrew and Kai’s arrival and that Xun Yu and Shang Yang were creating a more detailed plan.

"I will delay my departure until they have sent some orders through." Crassus agreed, "I look forward to meeting this Kai, it will be good to have a reliable deputy."

"What does that mean?" Both Meritamen and Artemisia argued, both partially working for Crassus on different things.

"One of you is our Lord’s first wife, whilst the second is leading one of our most important Towns." Crassus replied quickly, whilst then praising Jia to Lady Xu.

"So am I a second wife?" Sun Shangxiang declared loudly in hurt. Causing Crassus to go red in the face as he realised he had also insulted her somehow. All those in the room turned at Sun Shangxiang’s words, before she began laughing at Crassus. "Sorry, I know you didn’t mean it that way."

"No, Lady Sun is correct, I need to watch my words or I will get myself in trouble!" Crassus laughed, before turning his tone serious. "By the end of this week, we should hopefully have completed all of the Kingdom founding missions apart from the last three; the Regalia that Ou Yezi is making, the great feast that Xun Yu is arranging and the acceptance by two Kingdoms of the same size or larger."

"The larger the Kingdom we declare, the larger they have to be as well." Artemisia stated, "I don’t the northern trading City covers the same space as we do."

"Neither do I." Crassus replied, "It’s something to think on."

"We’ll discuss it later." Meritamen said to Crassus, "I have my own thoughts, but I will need your help."

"Then I will leave it to you all." Dom replied, as he decided to leave them to their conversation and headed over towards the Military Heroes that were gathered over a table with a crudely drawn map.

Xun You was now talking, whilst Tomoe, Zhao Yun and Qin Ming listened in to what he was saying. Gan Ning beside him was pointing to parts of the map, which seemed to show the surroundings of the Cove, and had been drawn by a combination of scouts that had been searching around the areas.

"I don’t want to bring my ships in, until I know the cliffs surrounding the Cove have been taken." Gan Ning explained in a frustrated voice. "The scouts have not told us anything about the cliffs, for all we know they could have Archers or Ballista’s hidden in them."

"It is doubtful, but your worries are justified." Xun You agreed, "We will need to take them stealthily though, we need your fleet as the hammer blow."

"I can take some men tonight and we can take the cliffs here and here before first light." Qin Ming declared, pointing to both points on the cliffs. "Once we have secured them, we can signal for the main forces to come in."

"It’s frustrating that we can’t use the Cavalry in this battle." Tomoe grumbled, "I’ll take the first and half of the second Cohort down this route, whilst Qin Ming can take the other half with him."

"The Wudang Archers will be useful as well, so make sure you take them and some slingers." Xun You added, "That means that General Zhao Yun will get most of the Cavalry for this battle."

"I want to leave two hundred riders above the cove if any escape, but I will take the rest in to the Red Woods. We have built a camp at the nearest abandoned ruins, we haven’t began excavating them yet, but no tunnel has not been found so far." Zhao Yun explained, "We do not believe they could tunnel from here to the second ruins as they would have to pass by the Underground Ancient City and all of those tunnels have been previously cleared."

"I agree, if they will have an underground network, it can only be that one ruin they would leave from." Gan Ning stated, "There are no other exit points that have been discovered. Hopefully there is no cave system at all and we can clear this up nice and easily."

"Have we ever been that lucky?" Dom laughed in response, every time they thought they had dealt with something, there was something else linked to it.

"One day we will be that lucky." Gan Ning shrugged as he pointed at the map again. "If Tomoe is taking her forces down here in the centre, and Qin Ming is attacking from here in the south corner. Who is going to deal with the north side?"

"Lord Lazarus." Xun You put forwards as they all looked to Dom, the battle plan was clear. Qin Ming would split his units with each silently claiming the Cove’s cliffs at first sun. He would then assault with two of his Centuries from the south, with Tomoe and Subutai attacking the main arch of the Cove with her nine Centuries. Dom would then attack from the north with his Praetorian’s and the other of Qin Ming’s Centuries. Gan Ning would bring in three of his Trireme which would unleash arrows, before landing and conquering the town.

"It makes the most sense, I’ll have the Bellona, Enyo and Calypso to cover the edges in case there is a secret harbour anywhere." Gan Ning nodded in agreement. "I’ll take the Galatea, Echo and Cyrene in to the Cove."