Intuitions of War- chapter 13

Intuitions of war

Chapter 13: Preparing defenses

"Who here wishes for us to leave two armies outside to flank?" Lisander asked, and raised his hand for this option. Joshua and Jacob also raised their hands, both of them having a weird expression that was shining on their faces.

Lisander smiled secretly.

"Who here wishes for us to only leave one army to flank?" Lisander asked, the smile on his face widening. Caecca raised his hands, and Richard also raised his hands.

'God damn it…' Caecca's face drooped, unbelieving of this.

"You fools, just sacrifice a bit?! Do you know how many innocents are going to die?!" Caecca yelled out, and slammed his hands down on the pedestal.

"It's worth it to sacrifice a few people if we can utterly destroy the invading army." Lisander calmly replied, the smile on his face still prominent.

"You say innocents, but there's much more to it then just that, Lisander. The buildings will be destroyed, and we'll have to dedicate a lot of financial aid to that part of London. If each side is defended well, we can reduce the amount that we need to financially donate to a location." Richard piped up, and Caecca immediately picked up on that line.

"Exactly, there's more to it then just losing innocents, money will be leaving and going into donations to the location that gets invaded!" Caecca yelled out, a bit of a smile cracking on his face.

They could spare some innocents, but would they be willing to lose all that money to financially aid the location that gets invaded first.

"You know, you keep saying the innocents will die, but can't we just evacuate them?" Joshua spoke up, and offered his own thoughts.

"You know damn well that not everyone will evacuate even if we were to give an order!" Caecca yelled out, his nose beginning to get runny.

"At that point Caecca, it's the peoples fault for not listening to our warnings. We shouldn't feel bad about that." Lisander said, the smile finally beginning to disappear. Caecca was beginning to anger him a bit.

'Always saving everyone isn't possible Caecca, and wasting our time trying to attempt such a thing can lead to us losing many soldiers and finances…' Lisander understood where Caecca was coming from, he also didn't want innocents to die.

Yet, they couldn't do anything about it. If they tried, they'd sacrifice many soldiers to do such a thing.

"F… fine, I forfeit." Caecca muttered, his head held by his neck as it was pointed down. Lisander sighed, and began to walk for the exit. Many of the other generals also began walking towards the exit, Caecca and Richard being the only ones who were still staying in the building.

"Caecca, I'm sorry." Richard said, and stood up and began walking towards the exit. Caecca took a deep breath, and turned around and also begin walking.

'I'm too naive, I knew as a general that I would have to make tough decisions, yet I'm trying to force them into forfeiting soldiers to save innocents…' Caecca moaned in disatisfaction with himself and the world, and turned around to leave, though not before bowing to the people who witnessed this event.

--- sequence 2 ---

*2 DAYS LATER, 7:00 AM, LONDON*

"I'm… I'm…" Harper was extremely tired and was taking deep breaths.

'I'm finally here!' Though, he could easily say it within the dwellings of his head. He had finally reached London, and could enlist in the army.

'I can finally help with the war, and laze around a bit after the war has ended!' Harper was quite the naive, excited boy. He really did think that he could just waltz into the army, do something, and then back right out of it and then laze around for the rest of his life.

However, what he didn't know is that in a year, he'll be so motivated to win the war that he wouldn't even consider dropping out of the army.

'Alright, time to get in there and find out what the hell I should do!' Harper began walking through the streets of London, which seemed quite similar to the streets of Glasgow and Newgate.

'The usual stone road is quite popular, 'ey?' Harper questioned, wanting to learn a bit more about why everyplace liked the stone path design.

'Though, it's probably just because it's the easiest to make.' Harper began to think, until his train of thought was cut off by the many carriages on the stone path.

"Get out of the way, you damned hound!" One of the people driving the chariots screamed at Harper, who immediately got off the road and onto the sidewalk.

'In Newgate, the roads were never so full of carriages that people would actually have to use the sidewalk. London is a lot more populated and wealthy.' Harper was already beginning to like what he saw, the lazy life of carriages, wealth, food, and more in London.

'Might be my next home for a while, even after I leave the army.' Harper giggled a bit, and continued to stroll down the sidewalk of London. He looked left and right, and realized that the architecture of the buildings had a strong resembling to those of Newgate.

"Hmm" Harper simply let out a little sound, and kept strolling through London. There seemed to be a lot of greenery, so much so that Newgate was basically a toddler compared to London and it's greenery.

'However, it doesn't look like it's all good things.' Harper was closely inspecting the scenery, and saw some kids of his age. However, unlike Newgate, where the kids could play freely on the road since there was little to no carriages on the road, the kids seemed to be forced to play in the backyards of their houses, or in front of their house, on the sidewalk.

'Shows that even huge popular cities have their issues.' Once again, Harper was reminded of the issues of the world, where kids his age couldn't even play where they wanted to, and had to do it in certain locations.

"Hahhhh" Harper sighed, and started to burst out into a jog.

'It's about time I find the army and enlist!' Dedicated to try and bring this war closer to an end, he burst out into a jog to try and find where he could enlist for the army.

--- sequence 3 ---

*SCOTLAND, 7:00 AM*

'...Shit' This was what the Scottish king was repeating in his head over and over again. He was so damned that he couldn't even think up a response to the question that was being asked to him.

"I said tell me, Scottish king. Why did you not take our offer?" In front of the Scottish king sat one of the generals of the German army, who had proposed to Scotland to team up on Britain.

Well, it was more of a forcing them into teaming with them instead of proposing.

"No matter what I did, the nation would fall. If I attacked Britain, they're our neighbors, and could easily att-"

"No, they wouldn't be able to attack you back if they've fallen!" The General slammed his hand down on the table around which the king and himself were sitting.

The king stared at the German general dumbfoundedly, and then began laughing with a mighty voice.

'This Scottish laughing stock is laughing at me?!' The general was getting quite pissed, but as he was about to dish out some punishment, the Scottish king looked him deep in the eyes, with a look that seemed to penetrate the very essence of the universe.

"I've lived a long life, and have seen many things. This war started in my twenties, and has been going on for so long that I'm about to enter my sixties. Yet, throughout my whole life, I've never heard such bullshit before." The Scottish king had absolutely no hesitation in his voice, and the German general even hesitating a bit.

'Why is an old geezer that is almost at the end of his days holding such a powerful aura within him?' The German general was confused as to how the man still seemed to have so much authority, even as he aged.

'Wait, no… it's because he's aged so much that he's gained such authority. His wisdom grew with him through the years.' Though, it wasn't an excuse as to what he just said. The German general began to growl at the king.

"I don't want to see a dog growling in front of me, get out of my sight before I slay you and your puny army. We Scottish people may not be involved in the war, and we may not be nearly as strong as the nations included in the war, but at the very least, all my generals combined will be enough to take you down." The Scottish king said, as he gestured for him to get out.

The German general growled even more, though he wasn't an idiot. He stood up, and began walking away. However, before he could fully walk away, the Scottish king called on him one last time.

"General?" The king called out, a teasing smile appearing on his face.

"Y-yes?" The general replied stammering, but not out of nervousness, but anger.

"I'm, no, Scotland isn't involved in the war, but even we know that Britain wouldn't have fallen to such a pitiful plan, you fool." The Scottish king said, and before the general could whirl around and say something else, the guards standing around the two immediately aimed their guns at the general.

"Now get the hell out of my castle." These were the final words the general heard before he was given the boot from the castle.

"The king sure does have a lot of power and authority, doesn't he?" One of the guards said in a giddy tone, and the other guards laughed at him.

"I forgot, you're new to the guards that protect the castle. The king can be a little nervous sometimes, sure, but when he's set on something, he won't change his mind for anything, especially when it comes to things like morals and justice." One of the other guards replied to the first guard.

"Alright everyone, get back to your positions!" The leader of the guards yelled, and all of them scattered around to go to their places.

'All these fools… the king is definitely not that sure about the decision's he's making, no ruler is during war. Any decision could lead to a nation dying.' Only the leader of the guards seemed to know what actually happened.

'The king has basically declared war on Germany, and now that he's disrespected one of the generals, there's probably no going back.' The leader sighed, and also went back to his position.

'I guess Scotland will have to join Britain's side at this point…'