After returning it became apparent that it wasn’t as simple as Micky had first surmised judging by the alcohol on their breath. It seemed that they were both at a party of some kind. A party Micky had not been invited to.

Micky would ask but in the midst of combat was not the time. He ushered them inside the encampment and had Prin and the rest of the cavalry charge back out to route the attackers. This went well since they were already retreating from the unified encampment. However, that did not mean anything good either.

Instead the attackers hit the next encampment over. Micky would have ordered the cavalry to intercept, however they had already attacked their allies as well as their foes. Micky didn’t want to endanger his own troops to the chaotic melee that was the clusterfuck of whatever was left of the neighbor’s encampment.

Instead Micky had Prin chase down and intercept whatever enemies she could while he and his fellows rallied the troops to march out. He would march out 2 in 10 of his allied forces, keeping another 2 in 10 in reserve and having the last 6 in 10 rest and relax. They were not allowed to sleep as of yet, not that they could, but they were on orders to rest. There were only about 200 skirmishers sent to each camp at best. That meant 600 were set aside for the unified camp. However, Micky had built a veritable fort around the encampment. The small fires that set the outer defenses on fire did nothing and the few fire arrows that were sent inside did very little before the camp was an active beehive and more than capable of dealing with them before they caused trouble.

Maymay asked “What of the camp followers? Have they been assaulted as well? What has command said, or the legate? Have you gotten in contact with anybody?”

Micky thought about it. He sent out his scout squads in two groups, one to check on the supplies with the camp followers and the other to check further ahead. He figured that they would be smart and capable enough to catch up with command, or stay out of their way should command be as chaotic as the neighboring encampment is.

Micky looked out to the already retreating ambushers. The black forms were much fewer than they were when they first arrived. However, Micky would have to wait until dawn to see how they actually fared. What he did know is that less than ten of his own had actually fallen. Eight had been senturies and the last two had been manning the wall and fallen in surprise.

“I tried to contact the neighbors for a jug of milk, but as you can see they aren’t really in the mood. Too busy arguing with themselves to give me any attention and I will wait until they have settled it before I make a move.” Stated Micky.

Maymay looked out at the chaotic mess that was the neighboring camp. The soldiers were busy fighting each other and too busy to notice that the enemy had already retreated. Many had run into the woods deserting. However, that was also the direction that the enemy retreated themselves. Micky simply hoped that the neighbors situation wasn’t the majority or this would be an incredibly fast campaign.

“So where have you been? You seemed to be enjoying yourself.” Said Micky.

“Hardly, why weren’t you at the faction meeting. You are the lead and the legate is not going to be happy with you on the recent partitions in your name.” Said Maymay.

“What?” Screeched Micky.

“What?” Replied Maymay.

“What the hell do you mean what? What faction, what meeting, and who the hell is using my name?” Replied Micky.

“Oh, Ooh, I… I thought you knew. They’ve been using your name to approve partitions as the leader of the faction. I mean you… I guess you couldn’t have known. That was what I went to. That was where I was. I was in the faction meeting with the rest of the lesser noble faction. We have joined up to protect ourselves from the legate. I didn’t… they just invited me today or all days and...” Maymay said and went quiet.

Micky was raging and stewing. He was apparently the mascot lead of a faction he didn’t even know about. A faction that was pissing off the legate and using his name to do it. He felt like people were taking a loan out in his name and the lord was coming to his house to collect. The worst part is that what’s done is done and there is literally nothing he could do about it. What could he do? Go to the legate and say ‘it wasn’t me!’ tell him ‘They did it on their own, I’m the victim too!’ Yes, that would go over really well.

“Who are the real leaders of the faction? The ones that were calling the shots. I doubt that was your auspicious self since this was your first meeting and all.” Said Micky.

“Yeah, It was two boozos and a yes woman for the mixed nobility faction. One for the baron, one for the viscount. I don’t even know how the baron’s man even became the lead for his side. He was field promoted to centurion after the previous centurion for his division [Dead] after he fell off his horse.” Maymay said.

Micky facepalmed. So it was a noname man on the baron’s side and two women, one for the viscount and one for the mixed nobility that was left out. Apparently they thought that they would receive better treatment as a part of the smaller local faction than the two heavy hitters.

Micky thought about how things were going. Already he had the stink on him and there was nothing he could do to get it off. He already had the makings of a plan for that but it was going to cause even more trouble for him. However, he was going to have to cross that bridge when he came to it. Right now he needs to focus and recover from this latest attack. The enemy was fighting dirty and the legate just couldn’t handle it. He was fresh out of school and really shouldn’t be leading the army. And his advisors that should be brow beating him about it were just more pushovers. Micky felt a headache coming on. This campaign was really doomed. More, the enemies numbers just hadn’t thinned. They maintained almost an exact 6 million. On the other hand his own allies had shifted up and down over the campaign and were not making any progress.

Micky contemplated a lot of things. Most would have his own head chopped off one way or another. In the end it was not worth it.

Pagebreak

After the day arrived and the army woke up from a restless night. At least those that had been able to get some sleep anyway. Micky’s camp had absorbed the next division's personnel. The centurion having been executed. There were a lot of executions come morning. Not that the legate had anything to say about it. He was pissed at Micky to say the least, mostly at his success through the night. There were another 1 in 20 casualties last night. Mostly to their own troops. Replacement troops were quite slow as the benefactors were not seeing results. They had expected to already be receiving the bounty from raids on the fat juicy trade nation. But were unpleasantly surprised by the resistance. Not that the smarter ones were really surprised.

No, there were only a few people that had any expectations for the outcome. There were the glory seekers that expected to have beaten back the army by now. And there were the revengers that just wanted to bloody the nose of their neighbors for what they have done. Both are disappointed by the results so far. It has been a truly pathetic showing. To say that the support has been cut would not be accurate. It was more like the enthusiasm was waning.

To that end the legate needed something to show for all of his efforts. Which was why he was going for broke and going to launch another all out assault today.

“... yeah.” Micky said as he read the orders. He sent a return message to the legate. Who then replied ‘are you sure that this is accurate?’ or thereabouts in not so many words. Micky then replied again ‘Yes, these two centurions have volunteered for the assignment. I approve it as the leader of the faction.’ this got the following message from the legate ‘This just doesn’t seem like you. You have been fighting me on silly issues for the past few days and now you are volunteering troops for the vanguard of the assault? It is a great honor but not one you lesser nobles seem to appreciate or comprehend.’

Micky sighed over the messages. He then had his runner send the message again several times in several different ways with a varying amount of words. If Micky was going to be the bad guy then he was going to lean in. They wanted him to be the leader of the faction and get the legate pissed off? Then he was going to use his power as leverage and the first act of business was to send off the two assholes that put him in this position in the first place. Secondly was to invite himself with his executive power to the faction meetings. They wanted him as leader, so he would be leader.

Lastly, he was going to see if he couldn’t actually do something good with his newfound political power. Maymay had made him aware that the faction had not actually been requesting anything good with his name, or anyones really. Many had been asking for stupid and silly things like more alcohol or prostitutes. Others requested to be placed in better positions in the line. Not ‘Micky’ of course, no, the honorable ‘Micky’ was just fine making up the end and letting his soldiers die horribly. Yeah, Micky was going to put an end to that one soon enough.

First though, he had to plan. He needed support, and to do that he would have to contact the other centurions before the meeting. Now that there was going to be a power vacuum he needed to make sure that he was really on top this time. He already had a spy, Maymay was not exactly his staunch ally but she was a friend and acquaintance at least. And she wasn’t about to let randos up and kill him.

All of this had to move after he survived this latest assault though. Micky prepared as best he could. This was not going to be a friendly battle. This was going to be even dirtier than before. It seemed the legate was desperate for achievements and didn’t care about how many soldiers he had to sacrifice to achieve them.

The forces squared up and prepared. This was going to be an all out charge. There will be no turning back. This time even Micky was facing the enemy in front since it was just a charge. They would never get a chance to flank.

The horns were played and the charge was set. The drums beat like the hearts of man in their chests as they released a war cry. The charged and cast and launched and rode into battle. There was no holding back, only forward. This would make or break the campaign today. There was nothing that would stop these soldiers. They were charging, and they were desperate. For the nobles there would be a return in disgrace. For the soldiers there would be no return without victory. No fields, no home, no town, no spouse, no conciliation, and no return...