The Ordinator, The time of change is approaching... Options

[Gaius Maximus]

So, I decided I would psot it ehre as well. Enjoy!

Chapter I

Raynari Vandareth sighed in relief, taking off his Indoril helmet. Sweat gushed down his brow, and he could feel the same was happening to his back, which gave him an uncomfortable feeling, since he could do nothing with his armor on. However, he wasn’t an Ordinator captain for nothing, so he could endure this feeling, like he endured the hits that came from Corprus monsters a mere several minutes ago.

“Captain? Are you alright?” A voice distracted Raynari from the dead body of a once-man in front of him.

Turning around, he was faced with an Indoril helmet, worn by one of his Ordinators, with whom he was tasked to clear out a nest of Sixth House heretics.

“Yes… Yes, I’m fine. Only several dents in my armor… Those damn monsters know how to pack a hit.” The Ordinator Captain replied, cleaning the sweat off of his brow with a gauntlet-less hand. The gauntlet that was supposed to rest on the hand was lying in dirt, deformed to the point where it was impossible to use it for its original purpose.

“Casualties?” Raynari finally asked after a moment of silence.

“We’ve got at least half a hundred of those beasts. Yet at a high cost, they took at least a quarter of our own men, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s double the number of them left in this cave.” The lower-ranking Ordinator replied with a sigh. Raynari shook his head slightly.

“Tell the remaining men to regroup into a schiltron. The heretics aren’t known for patience, they’ll come at us soon, so we have to be ready.” The Ordinator Captain ordered with a weary voice, again cleaning the sweat from his brow – it was still pouring. “Dismissed, Suleri.” Raynari added, cleaning the tip of his spear into the ground, which was also stained in blood.

With a salute, the Ordinator called Suleri hurried off, leaving Raynari alone with his thoughts once again. However, those thoughts weren’t the nicest ones, as the Ordinator Captain could hear footsteps approaching them – more Corprus beasts were coming into the cavern in which the Ordinators were trapped.

If this lasts for long, we’ll all be dead. Apparently, the informant underestimated the Sixth House while gathering information about this goddamn cavern… Vehk save us if no reinforcements come. Raynari sighed again, then shot a glance at his Ordinators. They were all weary, yet still more than willing to fight for the glory of the Temple and the Tribunal. They didn’t have much hope of surviving, and the little hope they did was in the form of a circular schiltron, a forest of spears deadly against cavalry and useful against infantry.

When the second wave of Corpus monsters finally began, the spear-armed Ordinators met it with grim face expressions and tightly gripped spears and shields. However, the mad beasts did not stop for even a moment of consideration, slamming into the schiltron. The tight formation retreated slightly, yet suffered light casualties, while leaving many bodies of Corprus monsters on the ground.

The Corprus monsters slammed into the schiltron again, suffering more casualties, yet making the circle of spears retreat a bit more. This was certainly not a welcomed situation, as soon enough, the Ordinators would be pushed into the wall, and their formation disrupted. Raynari had to quickly think a way out of this. However, it wasn’t that hard.

When the Corprus monsters slammed into them for the third time, he yelled out the command that could either doom the Ordinators or save them:

“ATTACK!”

Thus, when the Corprus monsters slammed into a part of the schiltron, their flanks were crashed into by the other Ordinators. Soon enough, the Corprus monsters were forced into fighting on three sides – their flanks and the front. Now was the time when Raynari had to lead a handful of Ordinators to smash into their rear, an action that the Corprus monsters would not expect.

As fast as possible, the party of some ten Ordinators separated from the main force, trying to stay away from the fighting. It didn’t take long for them to reach the location from which they could charge down on the rear of the Corprus beasts, hopefully turning their attention away from the other Ordinators long enough for the fighting to turn the way they wanted.

Raynari smirked, looking at the temptingly vulnerable rear of the Corprus monsters. However, the smirk was left unnoticed by his companions, since his head was covered with the Indoril helmet, which was in turn smeared with blood, as was his whole armor. He knew that soon enough, his armor would receive a new layer of blood, and a new set of dents from the monsters that fought ahead of them. Since there was no time to be wasted, the Ordinator Captain lifted up his spear into the air, then yelled out the phrase that all of the Ordinators were eager to hear:

“CHARGE!”

It took several moments for the Corprus monsters to realize what happened when the handful of Ordinators slammed into their back, and when they did, several of the monsters’ numbers were already dead with spears in their backs. However, when they did realize what happened, they turned to fight with ferocity that Raynari had not foreseen.

The Captain himself, though, fought with ferocity that equaled, if not surpassed, the ferocity of his enemies. However, his ferocity blinded him temporarily, which almost cost him his life. As he impaled a Corprus monster with his spear, another one lunged at him from behind, knocking him on the ground.

Raynari was unfortunate enough to land on a rock with his unarmored hand. With a sickening crunch, he looked as his arm twisted in an unusual way, indicating that it broke. As if that wasn’t enough, he cut it quite deeply, and blood started gushing out of his wound. But it wasn’t the only of his problems – the Corprus monster jumped on him, pressing him to the ground.

After a bit of struggling, Raynari managed to turn himself around, coming face to face with the disfigured face of the monster. A sickening stench blew at his face, though he did his best to ignore it, hitting the monster in the face. This didn’t seem to have much effect, though, and in return Raynari got a hit that broke his nose. He felt warm blood on his face, yet ignored it, moving his head to avoid another such hit.

What the Corprus monster failed to see was that Raynari’s fine arm managed to grasp the shortsword that hung at the Ordinator Captain’s side. Just as the creature was going to land another hit, Raynari swung the shortsword. It too several moment for the monster to realize what had happened, yet it soon roared in pain, staring at what was left of its arm. The rest of it landed nearby, cut off by Raynari’s shortsword.

Blood poured out of the remaining part of the beast’s arm, mixing with the blood on Raynari’s face and arm. The Dunmer frowned in disgust, then drove the shortsword in his hand into the creature’s neck, causing more blood to pour on him and mix with that of his own. With a one last roar, the monster fell down on Raynari in full weight, hitting his head against a rock.

The last thing Raynari heard before passing out was cheerful shouts and heavy footsteps of many armored feet.

***

Raynari looked around a large room, seemingly made out of gold. He did not know where he was, nor how he got here, yet what he knew was that he didn’t want to be here. Still, the room was so beautiful, and the wooden door leading outside seemed so ugly in comparison, he couldn’t make himself leave. What drew him more were other doors, made out of precious gems and diamonds of all sort.

In an oddly sluggish way, Raynari walked towards the diamond doors. It took only several moments for him to reach them and open them. However, when he did, he felt himself falling through the floor before he could even see what was inside. As he fell into the abyss, darkness surrounded him. The Ordinator Captain heard someone laugh, before opening his eyes.

Sweat gushed down his enormously hot brow. Raynari felt weak and sick, which was probably the case, as the first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was a man in blue robes – the Ordinator healer. Raynari was back in Vivec.

[Gaius Maximus]

One thing, you actually said gunpowder once. It's nothing big, but since you talk about cannons all the time, not about guns and because it was in all other cases identified as 'black powder', I think it's a typo.

Oh, and did I mention I loved the 'hail of lightning' formation?

Ah, thanks for pointing that out. I'll be sure to edit it...

And, if you care to listen, the 'hail of lighting' (How comes I didn't come up with such a name for it?) idea was inspired by the French Colons from Napoleonic Wars. The formation seemed impressive, since it conquered almost the entire Europe (until Wellington got smart and unleashed ownage upon French generals).

Chapter IX

Raynari smiled slightly, looking at his reflection on the large, blood-red jewel that was fixed on the ring which rested on his armored finger. Slowly, his right hand lifted up, the Indoril-armored palm pressing against the soft, ashen blue skin. Again a Dunmer… How very grateful I am to Dagoth Ur for gifting me like that. A soft sigh left his lips, and a burst of joy flew up from the corners of his heart. The ex-Ordinator wanted to laugh, to laugh and dance – it did not matter any more that he had betrayed the Temple and the Tribunal, that he had been infected with Corprus, that he was serving the creature that he once considered to be the greatest evil to be found in Tamriel, except perhaps the Four Corners of the House of Troubles.

“Dagoth Nerevar?” One of the Dreamers dared interrupt his euphoria. Raynari turned to the Dunmer at his side, and what the lowest servant of the Sixth House saw unnerved him slightly – the Grand Commander of the Sixth House Army in the Ghostgate Operation was smiling almost like a madman, his crimson-red eyes gleaming slightly, something that was visible even through the ash.

In truth, Raynari was like that ever since the time Dagoth Ur teleported him back to the Ghostgate – almost insanely happy. The reason of this was the slightly glowing ring on his gauntlet.

You see, when Raynari was recalled to the Red Mountain, Dagoth Ur told him many things, continuing the tale the Devil had began on the day the Reincarnation of Lord Indoril Nerevar had come to him. He told Raynari how Almalexia, Vivec and Sotha Sil betrayed both him and Indoril Nerevar. How they turned Nerevar on his most loyal servant, Lord Voryn Dagoth. How Nerevar slew Dagoth, and then was slain by his three advisors, who then made themselves Gods with the Tools of Kagrenac and the Heart of Lorkhan.

It was after Dagoth told Raynari that tale that the ancient wizard led the Nerevarine inside the Hearth Chamber, where his Akulakhan was being built, and where the Heart of the God was kept. There, Ur turned Raynari into an Ash Vampire, and named him Dagoth Nerevar. As proof of this, and as an attempt to buy the complete loyalty of the Nerevarine, he gave newly-named Dagoth Nerevar a ring. The ring had the power of creating an illusion, a very powerful one, which the wearer himself would fully believe. The illusion was that of Raynari as a Dunmer, exactly how he was before the failed attack on the Sixth House Base.

Dagoth Ur was completely right by assuming Raynari longed for his Dunmer body. Now, it did not matter to the supposed Nerevarine that Ur could be lying or attempting to trick him – all the ex-Ordinator could see was his mortal flesh, his armor, and the ring that returned it all to him.

In this blindness, Raynari accepted the title of ‘Grand Commander of the Sixth House Army in the Ghostgate Operation’, and agreed to march on his former kinsmen. He was to command an army of thousands of Sixth House followers, and capture the Ghostgate from the Ordinators and the Buoyant Armigers. To aid him in this task, Dagoth Ur had dispatched 40 of the cannons, all which were produced since the discovery of the black powder (‘cannonpowder’). However, the number of cannons did not matter to Raynari now – all that did was his skin.

The Grand Commander was still in this state when the Dreamer informed him that the army of the Sixth House, along with the cannons, had arrived and was ready to begin the assault of the Ghostgate.

“Everything in its own time. Everything in its own time…” Raynari replied to this announcement, before turning around to face one of the several Ash Ghouls that were standing near him.

“I need you to take a party of Ash Zombies and attract the attention of the Or- Heretics. Try to keep them focused on your for as long as possible – we’ll need all the time we can get.”

The Ash Ghoul bowed. “Yes, Dagoth Nerevar.” He grunted, before turning around and hurrying off. Raynari, though, wasn’t looking at him by then, no – the Grand Commander shifted his attention towards the cannoneer officers, as he needed to give out orders as to where to place the cannons. By now, he had the area in front of the Ghostgate scouted out, using his previous force so he didn’t need to waste time when the main force had arrived. Time was of the essence to them – they needed to take the Ghostgate as fast as possible, so that they were able to press forward to Ald’Ruhn before their cannons were reported to the Arch-Canon and reinforcements were sent for the Ordinators.

***

The lone Ordinator leaned against the wall of the Tower of Dusk, yawning beneath his helmet. Silently, he cursed the idea of him standing on duty today, since the weather was as bad as ever. If this continues, I’m going to go mad from the howling wind alone, not to mention the gods-damned Blight storm… He grasped his spear tighter, yawning again. At least I’ve got the helmet, so ash don’t fly into my mouth every time I open- However, his thought was cut short when a fireball exploded inches away from his head.

Bluntly, the Ordinator turned his head from the small dent in the wall to the direction from which the fireball came. There, he saw an outline of several figures, before another fireball flew into the wall.

This time, the watchman reacted, ducking into the Tower of Dusk, yelling ‘Alarm! Alarm! Sixth House Devils are attacking!’

By the time the Ordinator poured out of the building, the decoy was only a barely visible outline in the wall of ash.

While the Ordinators were busy dispatching forces to pursue the possible threat, they didn’t notice that on the slopes of the two hills that surrounded the Foyada that led towards the Red Mountain, forty iron cannons were being set up and aimed at the seemingly impenetrable Ghostgate. Of course, the rule that the gigantic stone gate was hard to breach only went with engines that the creators of this gate were aware of, which, obviously, did not include cannons.

***

The decoy did its job almost perfectly, and the Ordinators noticed the cannons only when they were aimed at the Ghostgate. However, when the party of Ordinators sent out to pursue the Ash Zombies returned yelling something about ‘unholy devices’ that were about to unleash their fury upon the Gate, forces were quickly mobilized. In fact, those were almost all the forces in the Ghostgate, and they were quite massive.

The entire backbone of the force was a line, made up from 5 schiltron squares, twenty-ranks-deep and twenty-ranks-wide. In the back, two more squares were present, who were to help the line in the case it was breached, or stop possible flanking attacks.

On the left, the Ordinators were protected by a Buoyant Armiger phalanx, one hundred-ranks-wide and eight-ranks-deep. The right flank was made up of three schiltrons, fifteen-ranks-deep and fifteen-ranks-wide. In total, the Ordinators had almost four thousands three hundreds of soldiers to fight against the Sixth House.

In response to this force, Raynari sent out eight colons of Ash Slaves, eight-ranks-wide and thirty-ranks-deep, arranged in the usual order. In the back, as support, was an Ash Zombie line four-ranks-deep and two hundred-ranks-wide. On the left flank, were two lines of Ash Zombies, four-ranks-deep and a hundred-ranks-wide. On the right were a line of the Zombies, four-ranks-deep and a hundred-ranks-wide, and two colons of Ash Slaves, eight-ranks-wide and thirty-ranks-deep.

Thus, the Sixth House had almost four thousands five hundreds of servants to oppose the Ordinator force.

The left and right flanks of the Sixth House were echeloned forward by 45 degrees, positioned nearby the cannons (20 on each side of the Foyada) to protect them. The Temple was probably intending to start the action in the flanks, as the phalanx and the schiltrons were slightly ahead of the main line.

After his scouts reported that, Raynari reacted accordingly – he ordered his left flank to advance and meet with the Ordinators. At the same time, he signaled his colons to move forward, and the line to be closely behind them, preparing to land a blow through the gaps.

The middle colons began approaching the schiltrons, firing lighting bolts as they did. However, the Ordinators were ready to counter that. As soon as the first bolts were shot at the Ordinator line, shields against lighting magic started forming around the schiltrons, put up by the Temple priests. They successfully absorbed the magic, forcing the colons to close the gaps and increase their marching speed. Thankfully, the enormous shields kept the priests focused enough not to be able to fire anything back at the Sixth House forces.

On the left flank of the Sixth House, another story was unraveling. Since the lines could not fire bolts at the Ordinators, the priests were free from maintaining any shields. Thus, several fireballs flew at the Ash Zombies somewhere from the middle of the squares. Several of them hit a Zombie, bringing the creature down, yet many flew over the heads of the Sixth House followers, due to the bad visibility.

On the right, at the meantime, the Buoyant Armigers were increasing their pace. Yelling their war cries, the Armiger hoplites slowly entered into a run, presenting the Ash Slaves and Zombies with a wall of Chitin and Steel. One that was moving at them with quite some speed, too. Seeing this, the Ash Priest that was in charge of the right flank ordered the line and one of the colons to retreat, while beginning to outflank the Armigers with the remaining colon.

Thus, the two forces collided, driven by fanatical hatred towards the other side. In the background, the cannons rumbled, sending stone balls flying towards the menacing walls of the Ghostgate.

Slowly, the dust of the initial collision settled, and the situation became clearer.

In the middle, the forces seemed to be equal, with the two combating sides locking in place. Raynari heard only mixed yells, groans and moans, crackling of the lighting bolts and ring of weapons from that direction; however, his scouts reported what was going on in the battlefield.

Slowly, however, the balance was being tipped to the Sixth House’s favor by the very laws of nature – the deeper colons began pushing back the schiltrons, who were inferior in depth. Still, it was a painfully slow process, and it wasn’t clear for how long would this go on – the rearguard of the Ordinators was nowhere to be seen.

On the Sixth House’s left, the battle was going more to their favor. The Ordinators were pushing their way through the two lines, what with their superior depth, yet they were sticking their heads into a loop that was the superior width of the lines – while the schiltrons carved their way through, they were slowly being surrounded by the Ash Zombies that they couldn’t engage. It was obvious that soon enough, the Ordinators would be encircled.

Yet on the right, things were not going as well. The Buoyant Armigers caught up with the Colon and the line soon enough, and slammed into the colon, forcing the line to come to its aid. However, that was something that did not go very well, as the Armigers were superior in depth (except for the spot where they were faced with the colon) and equal in width with the Sixth House force.

With these advantages, also their superior weapons, the Armigers soon pushed back the Ash Zombie line, and turned fully on the colon, beginning to press it from the flank and the front. Now, only the colon that was supposed to outflank the Armigers could save the right flank.

Yet, Raynari did not have time to pay attention to the fact that his right flank was crippling. Instead, his attention was focused on the opposite flank, where he had a possibility to beat the Ordinators back and turn on the Ordinators’ main line, landing a blow at their flank, which would then be temptingly open.

Thus, he did not waste any time. Slowly, the cannons were aimed at the mass of men that was the engaged fighters. However, the situation was a difficult one – the combatants appeared only as a grey and yellow mass to the cannoneers, and they couldn’t fire without risking hitting those of their own.

Yet, soon enough, there was no more need for the cannons to interfere. The Ordinators stopped pushing forward, realizing they were surrounded from all sides by their enemy. Raynari, wishing to be over with the three schiltrons as fast as possible, decided to make himself present, if only for the impact the appearance of an Ash Vampire would have on the Ordinators’ morale.

Following this plan, Raynari took the ring off of his finger. Slowly, his bones grew, absorbing the Indoril armor into themselves. His ashen blue skin turned white, his nails grew longer and sharper. His helmet was painfully embed into his skull.

Slowly, Dagoth Nerevar straightened his back, his Indoril-fortified bones releasing a silent ‘crack’. For a slight moment, a purple light emerged from his hands, and the Grand Commander of the Sixth House Army in the Ghostgate Operation leaped forward. Due to the powerful Jump spell he had just cast, Raynari’s leap ended an incredibly far distance away from where he started – the Ash Vampire landed nearby his struggling left flank. Without a further ado, the Dagoth howled, then leaped into the combat.

The Ordinators, already demoralized by being surrounded, were almost completely broken after an Ash Vampire appeared out of nowhere and started blasting fireballs left and right. At Raynari’s orders, the Zombies opened up a gap, funneling the Ordinators out of their midst. As planned, what remained of them did not stop outside of the ring and regrouped, but kept running towards the Ghostgate, thus leaving around seven hundreds of Ash Zombies free from combat and ready to crash against the flank of the Ordinators.

While the left flank of the Sixth House began preparing to attack the Ordinator center, and their right flank was being pushed back, the center was under heavy pressure on the right, where the rearguard of the Ordinators began their attack. Still, it didn’t look like they would soon shatter – Raynari still had time to pull his attack.

Which he did. Soon enough, the Ordinators heard war roars of the Ash Zombies, and the next thing they knew, two colons slammed into them from the left (their right), led by an Ash Vampire or, as they considered Raynari, one of the Devils of Dagoth Ur.

Slowly, this tipped the balance more and more to their favor. Encouraged by the presence of their leader, the Sixth House Forces began fighting with increased ferocity. The Ordinators, on the contrary, became less willing to fight, as they were pressed by two sides and were fighting one of the greatest evils they could imagine.

Thus, it was no wonder that the Ordinators began slowly crumbling, their resistance weakening, though painfully slowly. Noticing this, the Buoyant Armigers slowed down their progress on the right wing of the Sixth House, turning around to help their allies. Yet, they were prevented from doing this by a rain of lighting bolts that came from behind them – the outflanking colon finally joined into the battle, after finding its way back to the battlefield, from which they had wandered due to mistakes of the scouts.

Thus, with no support coming, the Ordinator main force began crippling. Soldiers in the back ranks broke off, one by one or in groups. After some half an hour of fighting, all that remained in front of Raynari was a thin crescent that was bound to crumble within minutes.

Indeed, it did, and, seeing that, the Buoyant Armigers began retreating. They were the only part of the Temple’s forces in this battle that managed to retreat with discipline; the rest of them routed or were killed, as there was no surrendering in this battle between mortal enemies.

Following this defeat, the Ghostgate fell in a short time. After three days of intense cannonade, the structure began giving in to the cannons. Soon enough, the remnants of the Temple forces abandoned them, allowing the Sixth House to take complete control of it.

In the Battle of the Ghostgate, the Temple lost around one thousand six hundreds of Ordinators, excluding the one hundred of Buoyant Armigers and the four hundreds of Ordinators that died on the battlefield after the battle was over. Thus, the Temple lost around two thousands and a hundred of their force; more than half of them routed or retreated.

The Sixth House suffered lighter losses. In total, nine hundreds of the entire force died, excluding the three hundreds that perished from wounds later, after the battle was over. Thus, they lost one thousand and two hundreds of their force. Those losses were made up for by the two thousand Ash Slaves and Ash Zombies, commanded by Dagoth Endus, which joined Raynari on the second day of the Siege of the Ghostgate.

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Apr 25 2008, 06:35 PM