The Small Palace

"How are you holding up?" Subutai asked as he appeared beside Dom at the bottom of the stairs.

Dom was still bandaged up but he had a smile on his face as he watched the column of troops enter the city. Beside him were Prince Sethi and Abubakar who also had looks of exhaustion on their faces. Tomoe was to the right of the gate overseeing the Elite Egyptian warriors on that side with Cleombrotus, most were covered in bandages and had some wound or another on their bodies. Whilst Leonidas was on the left hand side of the gate looking over the Elite Egyptian warriors there, who were in a similar situation to the rest.

Dom was grateful to see that the warrior that had saved him in the earlier fight was still alive, as was the one that he had replaced in the line. He was feeling he had built a good comradeship with these warriors through the battle and the lead up to it. and was saddened by all of the losses that they had taken.

"Tired and sore all over." Dom replied to Subutai, "I think that was a close call."

"I was starting to have my own worries as well." Subutai agreed, putting his hands on his lower back and performing a small stretch.

"Let's not put ourselves in this position next time." Dom joked to Subutai, before looking at the army that marched through the gate.

Hundreds of Egyptian Warriors marched through the gates and headed down the different paths in to the city, with different Commanders taking them in the direction. Each unit was comprised of spearmen and swordsmen, with archers taking up a central position to fire ahead at any opposition. The Cavalry had done an initial charge though, clearing the paths of the slower moving Hittite infantry that had all began to retreat towards the palace in the centre. They hadn't moved any further than that though, and were waiting on their infantry counterparts before a final push could take place.

The Chariots hadn't entered, and instead had created a defensive line outside of the city gates to stop any Hittite from escaping and passing on detailed information to those that were across the River. However the enemy across the River must have seen the large Ra Legion charge in to the city by now and must be coming up with their own plans to re-take the city before it was captured.

King Rameses II had a key role now to hold the Hittite force back across the River and destroy their morale, whilst giving the Ra Legion the chance to capture the city and get defensive positions prepared for any potential counter attack.

Whilst Dom and Subutai were talking, a group of horsemen approached, with their Leader smiling happily at the sight below him.

"Your plan worked great Lord Lazarus!" General Tau said happily, "It's also great to see our Prince Sethi and Commander Abubakar have survived."

"It did, I'm just sorry for the losses to your men that we took." Dom replied seriously, genuinely saddened.

"It is a shame, they were the best of my Infantry." General Tau responded, "But I can always train more, at least Sethi and Abubakar are fine."

"Only just!" Prince Sethi interrupted, an angry glare on his face as he stared up to the horsed General. "What took you so long?"

"Watch your tone, you may be a prince, but you are just one of many." General Tau replied back angrily, "You are not your father yet. We had to wait for the signal, and be out of sight. It is rather difficult to have nearly four thousand warriors march and get here quickly and in formation."

"You got here faster than I expected." Abubakar stated, "I wasn't sure if I'd survive this, but for his highness I would have been happy if my death had been helpful."

"As we all would." General Tau agreed.

"So what is next?" Dom asked General Tau.

"Banas has your horses, I was thinking we could go for a nice stroll up to the palace and ask them to hand it over to us." General Tau responded.

"That does sound like an enjoyable task." Subutai agreed from beside Dom.

"Prince Sethi and Commander Abubakar, please may you look over the men and help repair the damage to the gate." Dom ordered, "We'll join up with General Tau and see if we can get the Palace captured without the loss to more life."

Abubakar agreed quickly before the Prince could argue back and went to relieve the Spartans from their tasks, whilst Subutai waved over to Banas who was nearby with the other Riverside Horse Archers. She soon headed towards them, the five large Red Hare horses behind her, who seemed grateful to see that their riders were alive.

"You look a mess." Banas said as she approached, looking over the bandaged Dom and the blood covered Tomoe who had now joined them.

"This is mainly their blood." Tomoe responded with a grin, before pointing at Dom. "However the Lord decided he wanted to fight in the front row and that is definitely his blood."

"I didn't realise that the Lord of a Kingdom should fight in the front row of a battle, or lead on an infiltration plan." Banas continued.

"Yes, I understand, I'll try and refrain in the future." Dom replied with a shake of his head. He grabbed the reins of his horse and climbed on to the back of it, struggling with it's height and his soreness. He eventually got on top of it and looked around to see that Leonidas, Cleombrotus, Tomoe and Subutai had all mounted their horses and were waiting.

"Let's go see the Palace then." Dom said, turning to General Tau who had waited for the Riverside group to finish their small reunion.

They made their way down the central pathway towards the small palace at the centre of the City. Most of the doors of the buildings had been torn off, with Egyptian Warriors searching them and pulling out any people they found inside, be them male or female, old or young. All those that were found were then escorted towards the city gate where General Tau had decided to use them as a defensive line is the Hittites decided to attack.

The pathway was littered with Hittite bodies, the majority of them being warriors who had been kept behind as a last line of defence if the Egyptians had won the battle on the River. To their surprise they had been pulled in to a fight of their own and the Cavalry and forward Infantry lines had made quick work of them as soon as they had been given access to the city.

"We should be safe on our way up." General Tau commented, "My men have been clearing the route, there should be little space for ambushes now."

"I wouldn't say something like that." Dom responded, "When ever someone does, the opposite usually happens."

"Only when Gan Ning is around." Subutai added.

"Who is Gan Ning?" General Tau asked.

"Another of my Commanders." Dom responded, "He would have very much enjoyed this campaign."

They soon reached the Palace that was surrounded by over one thousand of the Ra Legion. The Palace was much smaller than Dom expected, with it being only a couple of floors tall. The outer wall of it was only a couple of metres high and could be easily scaled by the surrounding warriors, if not for the Hittite forces that had barricaded the gate and were inside waiting for such a move.

The walls were made from a white stone and were smoothly shaped, rather than the harder surfaces of the other buildings they had passed. Dom could see from his high position on the back of his Red Hare Horse, that beyond the outer gate was a small surrounding courtyard, which was packed densely with warriors. Beyond that was the couple floor high palace that seemed to have an open tiled forum on the ground floor that Dom could see in to.

Dom seemed to make eye contact with an overweight man inside, who was stood at the fresh hold to the forum like room. There were two wooden doors on either side of him, that were symmetrical and of a much higher quality than those they had passed through the city. He was guarded by two tall warriors who both held a sword and a wooden shield. In front of him was at least one hundred warriors, whilst others flanked around the edges.

The man had an angry look on his face as he looked across the courtyard and to the few mounted men that he could see beyond the wall. Dom felt that if looks could kill, he'd have died ten times over already.

"A frontal attack will be costly." General Tau lamented, "We have the numbers, but I'd rather not pull the rest of the Ra Legion to this location, when they are busy preparing the town for a siege."

"With the amount of them inside, we could easily starve them out." Subutai replied, "They can not have enough suppliers for a long period."

"If the King can't hold them back at the River, we will be on the defensive with a large enemy force at our heart." General Tau responded, "I can't afford to starve them out."

"We could just launch lots of arrows in at them, then follow through with a charge after that." Subutai commented, "It will still be costly when we fight on the inside of the Palace, but we can use our Elite's to fight room by room."

"Most of our Elite's came with you earlier, I don't have the numbers to do that in a short time." General Tau replied, "I just wish that I could send my Cavalry in, but they are not made for this time of battle. Even if we loose our horses and go on foot, the Lancer's haven't got the right equipment for it."

"We could ask them to surrender?" Dom interrupted, "It would be the best solution for us all."

"And how do we do that?" General Tau asked, "Hey fatty, please put your weapons down and we won't kill you? He wouldn't believe that, and nor should he, I would have to kill them, there are too many to hold right now. He knows that as well, as I suspect it is what he would also do."

"He could surrender to me and not you." Dom commented, "Surrendering to Riverside rather than Egypt gives him a third party guarantee of safety."

"We still don't have the men to guard them." General Tau replied sadly.

"It's fine." Dom stated, "I'll have them join my forces and fight for us instead!"

"And how do you plan to do that?" General Tau asked seriously.

"I have a plan..." Dom replied, "Game Support, are you there?"