Chapter 357: Primitive Yet Advanced
Luca's forces arrayed themselves at the base of the wall, while the Crimson defenders atop it prepared their own defense.
The cultists, armour and weapons all daubed in red, were in a frenzy up there, screaming taunts down at the attackers, even hurling severed heads and body parts as a deliberate humiliation.
Kian sized up the situation. Below the wall, Luca had three thousand usable troops and three Knight suits, though the Knights themselves couldn't do much against a siege.
The number of Crimson defenders atop the wall was unknown, but Kian guessed somewhere around twenty or thirty thousand, otherwise they'd never have taken a city this large in the first place.
Khorne's followers, despite the reputation, actually valued discipline highly. As chaotic as the defenders looked screaming from the ramparts, a closer look revealed they'd taken up disciplined positions along key points, formed into proper defensive lines.
Charge in carelessly with Luca's three thousand, and they'd be wiped out before they even got a foothold.
Fortunately, Luca's Knight suits meant he didn't have to worry about the enemy sallying out to encircle him. Without that edge, a wave of the cult's main force pouring out of the gates would have crushed his three thousand men outright.
Luca knew this too, of course. The standoff was clear: he couldn't storm the city, and the cultists inside didn't dare come out. Stalemate.
Luca climbed out of his Knight suit and called a council of his commanders in camp.
"Friends, here's our problem. We can't take the city, and the enemy won't leave it. What do we do?"
One of his officers offered, "My lord, perhaps we should simply hold siege. From what I understand, the Baron's city has only three gates, one main gate and two smaller side gates. With three war engines at our disposal, any cultist force foolish enough to sortie onto open ground will be crushed underfoot before they get anywhere."
A decent suggestion, but it would take far too long, and objections came quickly.
"That won't work. This is a major city, stocked with enormous supplies. The cultists could hold out for years on what's stored inside. And even after supplies ran dry, they'd simply turn to cannibalism. A proper siege here could easily take five or six years."
The mention of five or six years silenced the room. Nobody had that many years to burn sitting outside one city wall. Was this really worth it?
Nobody said it out loud, but there was also the unspoken fact that none of them had any personal connection to the people trapped in that city. Not their problem, technically. They could simply walk away.
But everyone in the tent knew Luca well enough not to suggest something that reckless out loud.
While the group sat stuck, one of Luca's Enginseers, a red-robed tech-priest, spoke up.
"My lord, the key to breaking this deadlock lies in properly unleashing the strength of the sacred machines. The walls are tall and thick enough to keep our Knights out of the city proper. But once a Knight breaches the interior and begins its work of destruction, the enemy will collapse in a single strike."
One of the officers asked, "That's precisely the problem, though. The Knights are too large to fit through the gates."
The Enginseer explained, "The main gate of the Baron's city is quite large, built in two parts: an outer gate and an inner gate. The outer gate is only heavy timber, easily broken by a Knight's strength. The inner gate, however, is a ceramite door two meters thick, far too tough to force open. It can only be raised slowly, by the heavy winches mounted on the gatehouse above. And beyond that inner gate lies a large anti-cavalry trench, which requires a lowered steel drawbridge for anything to cross.
So, if we concentrate our force on seizing the gatehouse itself, we can operate the winch to raise the ceramite door and lower the bridge. Once that's done, our Knights can march straight into the city, and the corrupted army inside will be finished."
Luca liked the idea immediately.
With this world's technology dragged back down into the age of cold steel by the Chaos taint, whoever could mass enough manpower in a single spot could seize local superiority.
The cultist force inside numbered at least thirty thousand. Luca only had three thousand, but three thousand men could absolutely seize control of one stretch of wall, at least for a brief window.
If they could take the gatehouse before the enemy's main force could respond, raise the door, drop the bridge, the fight would be over.
Luca swept his hand out decisively.
"All of you! Prepare for battle now. Concentrate the force, seize the enemy's main gate!"
What followed was a scene that looked simultaneously primitive and highly advanced.
The Enginseers drove up massive vehicles fitted with extendable ladders, the same kind firefighters use to reach the upper floors of a burning building. Over a dozen of these vehicles rolled up to the base of the wall, set their ladders against the stone, and heavy infantry in full plate, shields raised and cold-steel weapons drawn, began the climb.
The cultists atop the wall answered with a hail of rocks and javelins, trying to pin the attackers below.
Luca, meanwhile, was inside his twelve-meter Knight suit, its powered gauntlet scooping up boulders and hurling them up onto the ramparts.
Each of these stones was easily the size of a full steamer of chopped-pepper fish head, and with the Knight's monstrous output behind the throw, they slammed into the top of the wall with devastating force. Crenellations, defenders, everything in the impact zone was pulverized instantly.
The Enginseers, in the meantime, drove forklifts, excavators, and heavy transport vehicles around the field, hunting for boulders suitable for throwing. Once they found a good one, they'd haul it over to Luca so he could pick it up and hurl it in turn.
Kian watched the whole spectacle unfold and genuinely didn't know what to say. Primitive and advanced at the same time, in the most absurd way imaginable.
Unfortunately, the cultists inside understood exactly how critical the gatehouse was.
If the attackers took it, raised the ceramite door, dropped the bridge, and let the Knights march in, things would go badly for them fast.
They'd already committed to certain rituals inside the city, rituals they couldn't afford to abandon. If a Knight suit broke through and disrupted whatever they were doing, everything they'd bled for to take the Baron's city in the first place would be wasted.
Which was why the defenders stationed around the gatehouse were the strongest, most ferocious warriors the cult had. Two or three hundred of them packed that short stretch of wall solid.
They carried heavy iron shields and short, close-quarters mauls suited for melee, and they cut down every one of Luca's men who came within reach.
Worse, they moved with clear discipline, advancing and falling back together, two or three hundred men moving like a single organism.
Luca's forces pushed onto the wall and fought this elite cult formation for less than ten minutes before falling back down the ladders in retreat, leaving close to a hundred bodies behind.
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