Following his failure to convince the erstwhile Prefect of Shirekeep, Audun Joel, to commit the Ridari Mindonoon of Araxion to those under his command, Generalmajor Dravot had returned to Eliria a disappointed man.
To cross the Reynardine Walls and batter his way through the ruinous urban sprawl of Shirekeep to Raynor's Keep, he would need at least a four to one numerical advantage over the Shirekeep Garrison. As it was, with the 10th Division of the UDF and the Emirati Riddare he had, at best a two to one advantage. Worse than that, his armour had been lost in the action against the Imperialist incursion into Angularis, and he'd been obliged to dispatch his artillery across the river to shore up the remaining Vanic Temple Guards and Stratiots. He simply lacked the means to conduct a direct assault.
After arriving at the Palace of Krull to deliver his report, he ha fully expected the Council of Eliria to dismiss him from his newly appointed offices and send him back to the provinces. In truth, he'd half welcome that. There were other demands on his time after all. The ESB Group was in disarray and the Tarjeisson Trust existed in little more than scraps of parchment and a collection of account numbers.
Instead the Councillors thanked him and invited him to comment on some proposals put forward by Queen Noor. Dravot had listened patiently, making good use of the diffident expression that he had learned to employ when in the presence of the blue-bloods. At the end he had made some tactful suggestions and, to his surprise, had been rewarded by a dispatch eastwards into the thawed lands of Wintergleam.
Wintergleam, a cratered and boggy landscape of thawed tundra in the rainy month of Rugaall was not an enticing prospect. The road to Ketsire had been a monotony of moors, rain clouds, fogs, and sheep, innumerable damned sheep.
His first task, upon arriving in that unremarkable bailiwick was to attend a command conference with Generallöjtnant Majken Björnsson of the Snáwfyrd, Generallöjtnant Þórgnýr Svendsen of the Sjöhöfnleiðangr, and Generalmajor Geirr Årud of the Fallskärmhúskarlar. Årud, a professional soldier and Huskarl, visibly bristled at being under the command of Björnsson, a civilian reservist called to the banner as part of the precinct yeomanry or Leidang. This had made for a somewhat awkward briefing where Årud was simultaneously trying to discredit the opinions of his nominal superiors whilst at the same time angling for an enhanced place in the coming battle.
It wasn't Dravot's concern. All he had to do was relay the orders and watch the outcome.
The attack began at dawn on the 10th of Rugaall when the Fallskärmhúskarlar crossed the internal border into Suthergold to attack the legions of the Reserve Army that had been stretched along the frontier by the fallen government of Aurangzeb. In their wake would follow the corps of the Snáwfyrd, advancing towards Kingsgate and the Sjöhöfnleiðangr driving towards Tephal. Once these Imperials and the rabble they had managed to raise in Goldshire had been dealt with, the road to Cabbagefall would be open.
