*Fleet Captain Madara Palendros sat in his cabin, reviewing the days reports. There weren't many this time, the sea voyage had taken longer than expected, and the beaurocratically minded were short on paper. It wasn't a situation he was sorry about, but not one he expected to last. They were back on course, and by the evening they would be landing on the shores of the Godslayer's continent. He supressed a smile, keeping up his cruel but professional demeanor even in private. One report in particular caught his eye, his sister ship, "the bane" had drawn and quartered four men for theft of food. Well, the rest of the crew would eat well tonight, for they would land when the moon was highest. In the corner of his cabin he glanced at the stacks of books, they took up a sizable corner of his cabin, almost 100 total, each of them represented one ship, the captains log from each vessal would be sent back tomorrow, to make sure the record of their journey survived even if for some reason they failed to win the day.
Fleet Captain Madara Palendros stood and went to his beside to lay down, a few precious hours of sleep would do him good before he led his men into battle. Before he could even shut his eyes though, a cry went up and the thud thud thud of leather boots on hard wood sounded outside his cabin. A small fishing vessal had been sighted and was rapidly fleeing from the fleet. This forced them to move up their plans, there would be no midnight surprise battle, no way to catch the small lithe vessal if reports were true. The call was sounded and the great battle horn of the ship resounded, calling on all ships to gather their soldiers under arms.
The well trained force as not long in obeying, not with the memory of four hanged comrads still in their fresh in their heads. the wind favored the fleet, but they were low in the water with their weight, while the small vessal was able to speed far out of reach.
Slaves were put to the fleet's oars, and the ship sped up significantly, nonetheless the town had several hours warning and a small army awaited the beach landing. What they could not have forseen was that this was no mere pirate fleet exagerated by a villager's alcohol filled head. The size of the fleet and its nature was not readily apparent until the massive numbers of small boats began to unload and the cannon's began to boom. The fighting was swift but bloody, the small town and village militias surged foward initially, but there were few professional troops, and the sheer size of the Hegemony's army made outflanking and destroying the small force an easy task. The small army routed quickly and the slaughter scattered them to the winds, few escaped and most of those would be hunted in the following days. The town had little choice but to capitulate.
Even the vision of the four quartered soldiers could not keep order after the soldiers entered the town. Most had not had a woman in nearly a year, even the officers had gone without due to the shortage of cabin women. Fleet captain Palendros scarcely concerned himself with this, they were after all, only enemy women.
The hegemony's flag was raised above the town, the outlying villages lay in ruins, and the remainder of the unloading of provisions and troops went without incident. Palendros bedded down comfortably that night, a young town wench lay next to him, the most beautiful of the lot of course, nothing less for the head of the invasion fleet.
~Let the impact of your army be as a grindstone dashed against an egg~ Sun Tzu
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