Valkyrie's Shadow

Empire in Chains: Act 6, Chapter 15

Empire in Chains: Act 6, Chapter 15

Chapter 15

“So,” Ray said, “she conducted some ‘exercises’ with the men.”

“Yes, sir,” Captain Hawke replied. “They weren’t anything like the usual drills we do, though.”

What is she playing at...

The wind flicked at the fringes of Ray’s pavilion as he listened to the Captain’s report.

Upon returning from the second sweep out of his first outpost, Ray found nothing amiss in the camp. Though he would have liked to, he had little time to catch up with Baroness Zahradnik’s daily antics. They were due to depart for the next outpost site early the following morning and he had a dozen things to go over before turning in. His battalion’s advance up the valley required his complete attention.

Now, finally settled in on the evening of his fourth day in the wilderness, Ray could finally spend some time figuring out what was going on with the Baroness while he waited for more detailed reconnaissance reports of the area. The new outpost was being raised on one side of the increasingly wooded valley, where the river carved a tall cliff out of the range to the east. The sun had already sunk below the range to the west but the cliffs above still caught its light, bathing their position in its orange glow.

“What was the objective of these ‘exercises’?” Ray asked.

“Learning to fight as a squad, I guess?” Captain Hawke answered, “All on foot. Gave us a few things to think about, but everything we did’ll take a lot of training to come together.”

“Well, she did watch the Second Legion at work in The Blister,” Ray said. “Was what she was doing something she observed from Kabein’s men?”

“No, sir. She had us show her what we could do, pointed out some things from the manual and had us play a game that she played as a girl.”

Ray sincerely hoped that she wasn’t doing anything to undermine the Sixth Legion’s basic training. The last thing he needed was an excitable girl who believed that she knew better than experienced fighting men and their officers. At least it appeared that her influence was limited to the bodyguard he had left her to ‘play’ with.

“What else did she do?”

“Seems like she was spending time getting to know her men better. Aside from that, she let ‘em rest.”

“Did she say anything at all about our battalion or its officers?”

“Something about the way we’re clearing out this valley not working so well soon. Looks like she was right – things keep getting tighter and it’s getting hard to work with our horses. We’re gonna need to start fighting on foot to reach some of these tribes soon.”

The preliminary reconnaissance flights suggested as much and it was somewhat common knowledge that the wilderness grew less sparse the deeper south one went. He did recognise that Lady Zahradnik had a certain degree of competence as a Commander, but it didn’t take much to guess that cavalry wouldn’t be as effective as before. Progress would be slower due to the vegetation and more enemies would be present, but Ray was confident that they would still be able to press forward with few issues.

“Was there anything else?”

Captain Hawke stared blankly at the pavilion wall for a moment. While he was bestowed an honorary knighthood, the man was born a regular commoner and thus couldn’t be expected to present himself as smoothly as someone with an aristocratic or mercantile background. On the field, this didn’t mean much but it had the effect of making the sort of analysis Ray wanted of the Baroness difficult.

“She’s like one of them Noble Captains you see around the army, sir. Oh, she’s a Ludwig fan.”

Ray couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Ludwig, the Baron from Dreams of Red, sir.”

“I see. Thank you, Captain.”

Captain Hawke saluted before turning on his heel and leaving the pavilion. Ray watched his departure with a silent shake of his head.

What did the fact that Baroness Zahradnik was a Ludwig fan have to do with anything? Granted, many idolised the larger-than-life characters of the popular story, but surely she couldn’t be so swept up in martial fantasies that she expected to imitate purely fictional feats?

Surely not.

After an uneventful briefing the next morning, Lady Zahradnik and her bodyguard or squad or whatever she saw it as joined Ray on their sweep of the surroundings. With the portion of the valley accessible by cavalry much reduced, they would only need a day to break up the tribes in their path.

They started by following the river north, going through the areas cleared by their passage to the new outpost. The brush along the valley bottom, while still relatively sparse, formed large stands that demanded caution as his companies divided themselves to ride around them.

“The men still seem confident in these surroundings,” Lady Zahradnik noted. “How long will it be until you expect substantial resistance, Your Excellency?”

Was she growing more nervous the further they went from civilisation? He still couldn’t get a read on her. If there was one thing the young noblewoman excelled at, it was maintaining her aristocratic mask. Her incomprehensible activities offered no insight as to her objectives, but those, too, may have been part of the tactics she was employing to foil others’ attempts at discerning her motives.

“With a force like this, my lady,” Ray conveyed his assessment in a confident tone, “I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect anything today. Aerial reconnaissance hasn’t noted any settlements of particular note. The Demihumans here seem no better prepared to resist us than those around the previous outpost.”

It was a vaguely disappointing outcome, as far as he was concerned. The sooner he could bring substantial retaliation to bear upon the imperial border, the sooner use of the Death-series servitors held hostage by the Fifth Legion could be justified.

“How do your operations compare with those conducted in the Katze Marches?”

“The southeastern corner of the Eighth Legion’s former jurisdiction lies right over these mountains to the west,” Ray replied. “The areas bordering the Katze Plains are a windswept grassland, but as you approach the foothills the terrain becomes similar to his. We occasionally conducted operations to push back tribal groups settling too close to our borders, so I have a realistic set of expectations for what we’re doing here.”

“Given your experience, I’m surprised that you didn’t choose the familiar side of the mountains for your advance.”

“To be frank, my lady, it’s not terribly exciting. The fort at the southernmost extent of the imperial border along the Katze Plains is about as far south as we are right now. South of that is the slice of land leading down between the eastern edge of the Katze Plains and these mountains here, which will eventually have my battalion and the two divisions on the other side meet in a wide mountain pass.”

“So you chose this valley as it better suits your ambitions within the means available to your battalion.”

A rousing battle cry rose several hundred metres to their southwest as the Eighth Company clashed with a tribe of Demihumans marked out on their maps the previous day. Their discussion paused as they listened to the waxing and waning of combat.

?Kotenn, report.?

?Business as usual, sir. A few bumps and scrapes. Our Clerics’ll have recovered their mana by the time we get to the next objective.?

?Excellent. Make sure the survivors are driven west or south – we don’t want them going back into territory we’ve already cleared.?

Ray turned his attention back to Lady Zahradnik, who was patiently awaiting his response.

“Yes, my lady. Opportunities are to be seized, after all. Do you perhaps oppose such views?”

“On the contrary,” the Baroness replied, “I find that those who earnestly pursue their ambitions possess an undeniable appeal. As much as people like to share their aspirations with others, not all possess the courage to take decisive steps towards their objectives and few are able to see their actions through to the end when challenges arise. Being able to achieve one’s goals in realistic and productive ways is a valuable skill.”

If you like ambitious men so much, shouldn’t you be a Clarence fan?

Ludwig was possessed of fantastic degrees of martial valour that many readers found exciting. He was also a ‘perfect officer’ if one were to put it nicely. If one was blunt about it, however, he was the ideal tool who carried out the will of his superiors with unsettling single-mindedness.

Clarence, on the other hand, was a highly charismatic sociopolitical phenom whose mastery of domestic and foreign affairs firmly placed him at the top of the Great Hegemony’s list of rising stars. In Ray’s mind, at any rate. Clarence’s machinations were incalculably more effective and far-reaching than Ludwig’s localised influence as a Captain. The only characteristics that the two characters had in common were their piety and sense of order.

Ray directed his formations along their predetermined routes through the wilderness, his mobile headquarters shadowing their advance. The clamour of another battle rose to their west and he stopped on a rise to see if he could gain a vantage on his companies’ positions. Roughly five kilometres distant, the foot of the mountains were shrouded in what could be called a proper forest, but he didn’t plan on pushing into it.

“I spoke with many of the men in the past few days, Your Excellency,” Lady Zahradnik said as Ray scanned the surroundings, “they all seem to follow you in pursuit of their own ambitions.”

“Being a General isn’t just about the ability to strategise and command, my lady,” Ray replied. “Understanding what motivates your men is just as important, if not more.”

“Is that why you hand-picked these companies for your battalion?”

“Indeed,” he nodded. “Not all commands are cast from the same mould. Even in the Sixth Legion, many of the companies have a more…traditional outlook. Defensive mindsets; ideas of what attracts men into service; old values from the martial aristocracy. This outlook is appropriate for the regular army groups stationed within the Empire’s borders but entirely unsuited for an expeditionary force. I would even go so far as to say that the traditional attitudes of the Imperial Army are out of alignment with the vast majority of its citizens.”

They resumed their advance along its southwestern course. A few minutes later, the Ninth Company came in to pick up new lances, ammunition and other supplies from the mobile headquarters’ supply train. Ray nodded in satisfaction at the brisk, professional atmosphere that the men had cultivated in their operations since their first tentative sorties from the imperial border.

Lady Zahradnik watched them intently as well, but whether she appreciated the same things as he did was uncertain.

“The clash of values in an army can have severe, detrimental effects,” Ray told her. “Differences in individual direction; managing internal politics; lack of a unified vision – the slightest trace has the effect of stealing momentum and sapping energy from the whole. If taken to its extremes, mutiny and infighting will occur, but there doesn’t need to be a substantial amount to leave an army operating at a fraction of its potential effectiveness.

“In this battalion, every officer understands the broad strategy being employed, our objectives and what purpose they serve. Every man understands that, by carrying out their orders, they also serve their own interests. This unity of purpose allows us to achieve exponentially more than would otherwise be possible.”

“So you don’t believe that the other elements of the Sixth Legion will be able to obtain this same…level of performance?”

Rays snorted as he imagined all of the Commanders and their officers attempting to wrangle thousands of ambitious men who only paid lip service to the Imperial Army’s decidedly unambitious traditions.

“It would be difficult, my lady,” he told her. “The vast majority of the men in the Sixth Legion have served for less than three years. At least a third have less than a year of service. General Gregan, his Commanders and many of the Captains, however, have served for far longer. ‘Passing down’ generations of martial tradition has always been the Imperial Army’s way, but, as I mentioned, that ‘tradition’ is both defensive and rooted in aristocratic values that would be considered a luxury to the common man. It is the exact opposite of what recruits expect for the Sixth Legion.”

“Must it be one thing or the other, Your Excellency?” Lady Zahradnik asked, “The current system of honours in the Empire holds the distribution of titles at its pinnacle. This would naturally have the effect of scaling back the ambition of exceptional Imperial Knights once it is achieved.”

“This concern is addressed by the realities of territorial expansion into the wilderness,” Ray answered. “Even if an Imperial Knight is enfeoffed, they’ll still need resources to develop their fiefs. The men will be driven to achieve gains in the name of the Empire and the Court Council will more than happily part with monetary awards instead of land. Rather than scaling back the ambitions of the men, this sort of expansion serves to fuel it because of the overabundance of land and the need to develop it.”

“What of exceptional Imperial Knights? You’ll eventually have those rising through the ranks that may be the equivalent of powerful Adventurers.”

If only it were so easy. The Baroness’ question spoke of her inexperience…or perhaps because the Sorcerous Kingdom was filled to the brim with powerful beings. Exceptional individuals were exceptional precisely because they were of exceptionally rare quality. Those who did appear rarely joined any imperial institutions. Even the Great Imperial Knights and the Captain of the Imperial Guard were at best somewhere around Mithril or Orichalcum in personal strength.

There were far more people at that level of strength or higher who did not serve the Empire, instead becoming Workers, Adventurers, Gladiators or pursuing some other independent avenue. Nothing the Emperor was willing to do could tempt them into his service and he dared not court their wrath by forcing the issue. The strong dictated terms to the weak; Empires were no exception to this rule.

Not that the Empire would need them anymore. The power of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Death-series servitors stood beyond the strength of mortal men and they were leased out at an unreasonably cheap price when one considered that a single one of them could probably match the entire Imperial Army under the right circumstances.

“Individuals of that calibre rarely join the Imperial Army,” Ray said. “Those who do eventually become Great Imperial Knights or occupy other positions of honour. What of you, my lady? Given your assignment, I assume that you have at least some experience in commanding the Undead?”

“Enough that I am confident enough to assist with their integration into the Imperial Army,” Lady Zahradnik replied. “My experience as a Commander is limited, however. I am from a martial house and was raised under my family’s traditions, but I only inherited my position after the Battle of Katze Plains last year.”

It was all Ray could do not to laugh in helpless frustration as they rode along. Being lucky was often said to greatly influence one’s destiny, but Baroness Zahradnik was absurdly so. A whim of fate had thrust a young woman into a position of power that Generals with long careers filled with great achievements and hard-earned experience could only dream of.

This fact was both enviable and troubling for Ray. His objective was to impress Lady Zahradnik, but Lady Zahradnik’s ‘experience’ consisted of commanding forces that could end entire nations with little issue. Success for her was as simple as pointing a finger and watching her unshakeable, absolutely loyal Undead soldiers devastate everything in their path.

The Baroness’ perspective was something he had considered, however. Given her roots as a Noble of Re-Estize, her probable inexperience and the youthful frivolity in her actions, Ray expected that he would be able to appeal to her as a capable Commander. He had prepared men who would follow his orders as best as they could and her opinions would hinge on how her perception was accordingly framed.