In just one afternoon, the enemy had transformed the treacherous terrain across the stream into perfect ground for a large-scale assault. It was one of several things Dude had never anticipated.
Before that, there had been the questions of why Prince Chris was so wealthy and where his artillery had come from. Both had caught Dude completely off guard.
What shocked Dude even more was the speed and quality of the engineering work. Both were utterly beyond anything he knew.
As evening fell, the enemy engineers withdrew and the guns fell silent. Dude stood behind the battered earthen wall, gazing at the orderly fortifications opposite him, and the hand holding the Telescope began to tremble involuntarily.
"Sir... we have to launch a night attack..."
The colonel standing beside him offered the suggestion in a low voice.
"If this keeps going, we'll... ah..."
Dude glanced back. Thousands of men were taking advantage of the lull in enemy shelling, keeping their voices as low as possible as they hurried to build new earthen walls with branches cut from the west and mud they had dug up.
Thickening the earthen wall was already futile. Beyond repairing it, Dude had drawn up plans to build two more walls behind it.
But how long could they hold out against Prince Chris's heavy guns?
Dude did not know, could not be certain, and refused to speculate.
All he knew was that every earthen wall was soaked in the blood and sweat of Minisian soldiers. Hands split at the webbing by the shock of shellfire, shoulders rubbed raw hauling earth and stone, eyes bloodshot from sleepless nights-how much time could all those sacrifices buy them against those steel beasts?
"Messenger."
Dude spoke suddenly, his voice as hoarse as scraping sandpaper.
"Fetch Captain Lacey."
When the young Captain