Then the shout came; the great bellowing “For Honour! For Glory! For Passion!†then Lord Kalthorn's customary wailing bellow of a shout to scare his enemies, and the screams of his men could be heard. Robert looked at Matt, Matt looked at James, James looked over to Gareth, Gareth looked at Jon'Fa, Jon'Fa looked at Hector, and they all realised what they had to do finally. Matt turned; looked up at the tower over one hundred metres above them; and he started running with a bellow.
They all followed; and the Siege began. The men at the catapults saw the movement and the one at the centre ten let off all ten of his. He was a Gunnery Sergeant and had been given command of the weapons, but was only told they expected one load from each. The let off of his ten told the other nineteen Gunnery Troops to let off each of their ten. In a huge wail started from the centre a wall of boiling hot boulders; each the size of a small car came flying up in the air. They had been given three hours to prepare by Tiberius and had got the positioning perfect with the help of the Sergeant. The first; set off by the Sergeant came down with pin point accuracy to the top of the tower where he wanted the first shot to be aimed; to allow for, not only the ten boulders he had shot but the bits of the tower itself to fall onto the defenders. The Black Jade he knew would cause more damage to the men that the boiling boulders which would cause more damage to the few pieces of burnable materials in the tower.
Matt and Robert, having started well before everybody else were about quarter of the way up now still screaming at the defenders. A huge bang could be heard from behind as the first ten boulders flew up into the air; another bang as the draw bridge across the moat at the front of the fortress flew down and smashed against the bank on the other side. The large metal doors were still there and Tiberius practically pulled the battering rams into place himself.
A bang as if hell itself had fallen in on itself went off as practically in unison, although the immense speed of the boulders made it look as if they had all been set off in a chain, the catapults let loose their loads upon the side of the tower. One-Hundred and Ninety Catapults each threw their boulders into the air and everybody but Matt and Robert stopped running up the hill to duck; thinking the apparent cannons at the top had all gone off. The boulders smashed against the side; trailing fire and heat and death behind it and destroying the defenders. One bunny jumped over the side after being just missed by a boulder and slowly burning alive. He ran up to Matt; who quickly put it out of its misery.
Matt and Robert, now caught up by Hector and James were at about the half way mark of the Hill and were starting to be able to see the defenders burning in the tower as the last boulders came raining down upon them. “Charge!†Matt shouted again; and continued the trail as a war scream to rally the men again. He knew it would be a long run up the bumpy fifty degree incline hill but it seemed to be taking too long. As the last boulders hit; the Bunnies were also rallying and the cannons started popping out the holes in the side of the tower.
Over at the Fortress Gates; even with the garrison at Rümburg joining in the Battle with the huge cannons that the bunnies had forgot to plug the battle was not going particularly smoothly. Lord Kalthorn was still alive though; and viscously urging the ramming crews to ram harder at the gates which were starting to show signs of buckling after going without proper repairs by trained Thalmorian Ironworkers for Billions of Years. The bad was that even with the eighteen inch cannons of the Rümburg Tower trying their best to destroy the emplacements where the cannons at the gate devastated the attackers; there were huge numbers of defenders still alive. They were urged on though; and slowly the men were working their way up the wall to come in through the cannon holes.
Although they feared the huge cannons would be aimed at them; the cannons at Nümburg were slowly moved into position to destroy the catapults on the ground below which must have seemed a greater threat to the Bunnies that the attacking forces who apparently carried no gunpowder, no cannons, and no ladders.
A great bang, followed by another bang, and the air was filled with a thin layer of smoke which inhibited the view of the Bunnies to destroy the catapults. The bunnies also, having never used the huge cannons built by Eethbert to stop Hu'Zak so long ago, did not realise the pressure put out when a twenty inch cannon is triple shotted. There were dreadful screams following the huge bangs of the cannons when, standing so close to the cannons, the Kimanchou Gunners were literally ripped apart by the pressure of the bang in the barrel. Some further away like a Gunnery Officer still had their uniforms and most of the skin on their face ripped off by the pressure and the gun holes; clearly visible by the time Matt and Robert were three quarters of the way up the hill, started to choke with the bodies of the defenders as the replacements from on the wall came down to throw the useless cannons out of the holes.
The Gunnery Sergeant shouted at his men to get the new boulders; heated from the huge ovens he had got his Gunnery friends to bring in the relapse of time it took to reposition his catapults, and in only a few minutes the best Gunnery Troops in the Greathanc Army had loaded the two hundred catapults again. Arrows came down from the three surrounding towers of lesser importance which would be taken once Nümburg fell, and fell mostly pointlessly around the catapults. One however, hit the Gunnery Sergeant in the Leg. He did not bother to even pull it out and continued shouting orders to his men to fire. He refused help when somebody asked him about the leg; and ran up to his ten favourite catapults where he personally fired each one to start the last huge load of boulders which would attack the tower: as after this the attackers would be too close to safely fire the heated shot into the tower.
Slam. Even Matt and Robert turned around to see what had happened with that blast; not expecting another load from the huge array of catapults Lord Kalthorn had helpfully brought for them. They turned and ran again though, now not more than twenty metres from the great tower which seemed now like just a huge burning house waiting to be taken than something which is fearful to storm. Matt thanked the Gunnery Sergeant as they ran up the now much steeper hill.
The first catapult shot of ten boulders perfectly aimed by the Gunnery Sergeant slammed directly to the left of James; the first boulder actually coming down on top of the noise of the big cannon which had destroyed the right most five catapults in his arsenal. The second shot came down on the second cannon which had destroyed the left most seven catapults, and their Corporal, in the arsenal. The other eight shots from the Sergeant came down in between, taking advantage of the instability of the wall where the cannons were. The huge cannons; so long and heavy did not snap or bend with the hit of the heated boulder and instead were pushed down with the three ton shot, pounding the back of the cannon into the ceiling of the room where it had been kept all those years and ripping the floor off the area above. The cannon then fell over itself and started rolling down the hill; crushing the left flank of the attackers instantly. The second cannon did the same viscous ripping of the room around it; but rolled down the right flank. The cannon, more spinning that rolling down the slope went for Alan; and even before he saw it, it was practically on him. Metres from his head, he looked up and saw it coming for him. He just stood there amazed that it was so big and moving so fast; Hector turned around to see where Alan was and saw the Canon coming for him. Only metres away to his right; the canon however big was no threat to Hector but he decided on the spur of the moment; only feet away from Alan's head to jump in the way. Alan who was still looking up at the cannon not more than a foot from his head suddenly fell to the right, and started rolling down the hill again before he was stopped by one of the Men. The cannon scoured through the ranks which in quick order were filled by the rest; Alan luckily did not know who or what the dreadful stain of brains, guts and gore was on the grass. When the other eight boulders came down between where the two cannons were, the entire wall came out backwards, crushing the defenders on the wall and behind the wall.
The rest of the one-hundred seventy-eight boulders came smashing around the general area of the tower and luckily for the attackers at the Fortress Entrance, where they were beginning to make progress the other cannons in the tower according to the plans had either not been used because of the devastation to the gun men who worked then or because they hadn't been found by the Bunnies. Either way; they had not been used and so the defenders at the Fortress Gate began giving up and running away from the loopholes and deeper into the Mountain. Lord Kalthorn, with three arrows in his left leg and two in the right was amazingly alive; fighting and still pushing the battering ram crews to ram faster and harder.
I am actually pysically sorry for that; but I was told to by Athlon; hence it is so.
What is Yahoo doing on here!
