23. Company of the Red Scorpions
Lord Commander Duncan POV
'Seven hells, what is going on?' How is this possible? was this an invasion force?' What Tywin said was starting to seem more likely. This wasn't a common bandit camp; no this was a proper mercenary camp. It was too well defended and this hadn't been set up overnight. Whoever did this, knows what they are doing.
"THIGHT FORMATION! KEEP THOSE SHEILDS UP AND PUSH UP THAT HILL! ARCHERS, TAKE COVER AND WATCH THOSE TREES!" I shouted at my men, driving them forward if we messed up here, we would be picked apart.
It was only then I heard another group pushing up alongside us. One of the men at arms I recognised on the wing of their formation. 'Dam, where is that boy Tywin?' Was the only thing that could go through my head as I heard several more arrows and crossbow bolts make contact with my shield and the others next to me.
Egg was going to be very disappointed if anything happened to the boy. He had plans for him and if he died here, it would be a political disaster. The boy was very promising, I had to admit, probably better than young Gerold. Gerold was gifted with a strong body and a talent for the martial arts, but Tywin also a match for him, even with their size difference.
No, the main reason was that he wasn't destined to be a fighter. It was something that he was also gifted with, he was bright. The type of bright that was apparent enough that it showed even amongst some of the small council members. He was also hard working and had a strange insight into the lives of smallfolk. Something that was rare for an heir of a Great House.
"PANG"
An arrow had glanced off the side of my great helm, these sons of whores were beginning to target me specifically now. 'Sigh' Being the biggest on the field dressed in gilded Armor and having a white cloak would do that, archers always were attracted to the biggest and shiniest targets moving on the field. "I'm getting too old for this shit".
While trying to move up the hill, we had to slow down the pace to avoid the rows of stakes that were hidden in the bushes. The ones who got hooked up on them would often get hit by arrows when they got tripped up by them. Suddenly I heard the sound of horses screaming ahead. Someone had broken through, but who?
The sound of battle could now be heard, one of the groups had penetrated the camp's defences. The rain of arrows had completely stopped. "MOVE IT! DOUBLE TIME!" I commanded, whoever it was would need our help.
Captain Malaro Sanar POV
Adaridos Histohr, the 6th son of a minor noble, he was daring, cunning and was the furthest thing possible of a coward. The men had taken to calling him The Red Scorpion, common but deadly, found back home in the surrounding of The Jewel of Myrth; The Great City of Myr. Hence the name of our small mercenary band; The Red Scorpions.
For the last two and a half years, we had been raiding the heartlands of The Seven Kingdoms, after we had successfully completed the contract that brought us here in the first place. The old captain Lazan had pushed Adaridos to take on a second contract when a hedge knight who they had recruited, had brought them information about a retinue of one of the "Great Houses" that was making its way to the Capital.
It wasn't a difficult choice as we had been recruiting from the local bandits and hedge knights to bolster our numbers. However, we had underestimated the level of resistance that we would get from the retinue. It was of no consequence as most of the men were from the fresh recruits, unfortunately Lazar had been killed during the ambush, an arrow to the throat I had heard.
Even with the setback, we came upon another caravan on our way back to the ships. With the coin from the goods and the captives, we had made more than double the profit from the previous year plus the reward we had made from the contract.
As a result, we returned to Westeros, this time we made our plans and after recruiting and training more men, we were able to earn quite a bit of coin. Even with our discipline with recruiting and selling our goods back in Lys and Tyrosh, we still ended up being discovered. All good things must come to an end.
It was only that this wasn't the men of some Small Lord, this was heavy armoured knights and cavalry, and from the looks of it, it was the Targaryen's themselves. We had already made plans that should we be discovered. We would defend and slaughter or capture whoever tried to attack.
Then we would retreat and later return and relocated somewhere else. The key was that there would be no witnesses, it was the whole reason why we had never carried a banner or spoken the true name of our band.
Even if it was the men of the Royal House of these lands, it made little difference. Our numbers matched theirs if we counted the raiding party, however we still had the advantage, we had already established a proper defensive position on this hill. We also had archers and crossbowmen, something I had noticed that they had severely lacked.
These Westeros mongrels thought that they could take us by force, even if they had better equipment and horses, it was all in vain, all we had to do was rain death upon them until they either gave up on we picked them off one by one.
"Malaro, we appear to have attracted a big fish!" Adaridos said as he was watching the enemy's men attempt to get past the rows of stakes we had set, as our men reigned arrows and bolts down on them. He laughed and gave a wicked grin, as he pointed at one off the enemies. "That one, that one there, the big one with the white cloak, he is a King's Guard. That means that there is a Royal here." He said to me. "Don't kill the White Cloak or the Royal. We may never be able to return to the Seven Kingdoms after this, but, the ransom from them will be enough for us to retire as minor nobles."
Suddenly we heard the sounds of hooves coming towards the entrance to the camp. The entrance we had left open, or at least it had appeared that way to anyone approaching. As it was only big enough to allow a carriage to pass through. Suddenly heavily armoured knights came charging through the entrance.
An unfortunate recruit who was slow to act was speared by a knight and pushed to the side, just enough for another destrier to crush the man under his hooves. The knights charge abruptly came to a halt as the horses were impaled on picket that sprung up from a shallow trench that ran along the entrance. It had been attached to a giant log by a rope that acted as the trigger for the trap.
Of the 12 or so knights that had rode in, 4 of the them were down, trapped beneath their dying beasts. The rest had either avoided the trap or were now back up on their feet. Suddenly more men started pouring in on foot through the entrance, things were starting to look bad but as usual, Adaridos maintained his calm and just stood like a hawk surveying the now chaotic battlefield that had not too long ago been our camp for more than a year.
"That one there, that one in the black armour, it is the Prince. I saw him once in a tourney." He quickly said while keeping an evil grin. I followed his finger as he pointed. "The one in the black armour on the brown destrier."
I finally noticed him amongst the knights that were now causing chaos in the camp. Without a moment to waste, Adaridos grabbed his helmet and his long spear, his men who had been using bows just a moment ago, had already dropped the and grabbed similar length 12-foot-long spears. They were our more seasoned men who come with us from Essos and had been waiting for the intruders to enter the camp.
Now moving in step with him, he had around 15 men who were now ready to deal with these dogs. This would definitely been a bloody battle, we would be lucky if we could leave with a third of our men however only around 50 had been with us from the start, the other 130 or so had been recruited along the way and replaced over time.
As we had practiced, I quickly ordered my 20 crossbow men to change their targets, from the men trying to rush up the side of the hill and as soon as the first volley was ready, we fired it at the knights and the men pouring in through the gates. The first 2 volleys would slow them down and give Adaridos time to rally the remainder of men in the camp and get into place.
As the second was fired I was satisfied. Quiet a few had been hit and now had bolts sticking out from them including the Prince as Adaridos had pointed out. "QUICKLY, RETURN FIRE TO THE MEN COMING UP THE HILL." I shouted in the Westerosi tongue. As I turned and also began to re-draw my crossbow, I felt a sharp pain slam into my shoulder. I tried to turn my head but all I could do was slightly shift my body as I felt my body lose all its strength at once. Pain had overtaken me.
One of my men who was standing with me looked down in horror in his eyes, as he leand over to try and help me I saw it, and arrow moving so quick went through his ear. As the pain spread through my shoulder and chest, I felt a thud, the man had fell on top of me but I barely felt it. But soon a heavily armoured knight stood over me and without wasting words I saw his armoured foot coming at my face and then it all went dark.
Tywin Lannister POV
We had finally made it up the hill, Robar and the others had mostly acted as my shield as we push our way up. Along the way I had killed a few more with my arrows as we made our way up. The final obstacle was a more tightly packed row of stakes on the crest of a hill, placed at a 45-degree angle.
The design of the camp was brilliant. It was made in such a way to deceive enemies into attacking it, the camp the terrain was all a trap, and we had taken it hook, line and sinker. If only we had a Warg or a Green Seer, it was something that I would definitely need to move up further on my list. In a medieval setting, an aerial view would be a major advantage.
As we finally neared the perimeter, I saw that the Prince and Geralds men were now spilling into the camp, however they were facing fierce resistance. There were a lot more men than we had anticipated and they were starting to organize.
I also notice archers and crossbow-men spread out along the perimeter. We were on the furthest side away from the entrance as the camp was an oblong shape. The archers covering this section long dead from my arrows.
I then noticed as we made our way over the fence a more neatly arranged row of crossbow-men who had just completed a volley in the direction of our men. They hadn't noticed we were here yet. I also 'Observed' who was the one giving the orders and it was just too tempting.
Before he and his men could resume firing at the Lord Commander and his group, I left loose an arrow then went through upper arm, pinning it to the side of his rib, the power was enough that it had knocked him over but I had restrained myself enough that he shouldn't be dead. As one of his men turned to help him, he too took one to the head.
I only needed a few alive to get my answers, the rest didn't matter. I looked at the armoured backs of my other 3 escorts as the crossbow-men who were now beginning to reload their crossbows. "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING, GO GET THEM."
They needed no further prompting as they quickly lunged forward towards the men who were only around 15 yards away from us. I too continued to launch arrow after arrow, taking down targets as Robar was the only other at my side.
As I did, I surveyed the battlefield, I could still work with this even if the battle had devolved from the planned one-sided slaughter into bloody struggle. I was confident that I could turn this around and squeeze out the two things I wanted from this whole situation. The only thing that was left was for one more person to enter the battlefield.
A/N
Late release. Work was busy again this week, plus I had to restart this chapter a couple of times. I was having a problem with the POVs. I remembered that George also liked to use disposable characters as well sometimes. Not all POVs will be minor or major characters, some will be there just for the sake of perspective. The follow-up chapters shouldn't take too long as I have already set the tone for the next few chapters.
Thanks for the feedback from the previous survey for potential fan-fics. Just throwing it out there, one of the DC Villains that I would most like to use is Toy-Man, I think he is seriously underrated and I intended to do a more mature version that is less whimsical and more mastermind. Comment and let me know.