A week ago, near Lannisport
( Gerion Lannister's perspective)
After meeting with my brother Tywin, I was ordered by him to send one-third of the Lannister Fleet to patrol the high seas. He suspected we would be under attack, but despite patrolling for two days, we haven't encountered a single ship.
As usual, it was an ordinary and peaceful night at sea, but Fog was thick. The waves rocked the Laughing Lion rhythmically, like a cradle. I love only one thing, as much as I love adventure, and that is my daughter Joy. She is a Hill child, meaning illegitimate, but my brother promised that if I bring enough honor to our family, he would give her our surname.
One thing that made my brother and me share the same suspicion was that we hadn't seen a single Ironborn vessel or even a fishing boat in the past two days, which made me feel very uneasy.
My keen ears picked up the sound that broke the silence of the night. Moving along the rippling waves, a ship suddenly broke through the fog and appeared. With swift coordination, the Ironborn boarded the ship from the side beside us. I immediately dispatched a Crow to Lannisport, ordering them to steer our entire fleet. I hoped it would be fast enough, as if divine intervention were on their side. Such dense fog was unheard of for this time of year.
They came from almost every direction. We had about 40 warships lined up in a row, circling Lannisport, but the Ironborn surged in like an endless tide.
I ordered my warships to move alongside another warship to assist in the defense. As my soldiers and I boarded the ship, we saw a Giants clad in full plate armor and wearing a sea monster helmet, hacking down anyone who dared to stand before him. In his left hand he held a black round shield imprinted with a golden sea monster; in his right hand, a large, one-handed axe. On the entire ocean, there was only one madman who would be fully armed at sea, and that was Victarion Greyjoy.
I tried to surround him with my men, but he was like a mad bull. He charged straight through our encirclement. Although we had two ships of troops, the Ironborn still outnumbered us. Each of their ships had nearly that many soldiers. They weren't there to launch a surprise attack; they were an invading force.
The information I gave my brother was correct. If we hadn't believed it, we would have lost our entire fleet without any warning. Our soldiers fought bravely, but the sea is the home of the Ironborn. We had no chance of winning, especially outnumbered. They were pushing us overboard, so I ordered a retreat to my ship while Victarion continued its charge.
Before boarding another ship, I ordered all operational vessels to form a defensive line. Half an hour later, only 20 of the 40 warships remained. Our sole objective at this point was to keep them here until the rest of our fleet arrived to provide support. The Ironborn approximately 70 warships, and we had sunk only 5 of them.
As we slowly retreated, the scorpions on the Ironborn longships shot down giant arrows at us, tearing our sails and leaving them behind, making us prey for the Ironborn Ironborn, which approached us like a swarm of ants.
We were approaching the mouth of Lannisport. From land, we could see the fleet clearly because the fog had almost completely dissipated. They were sailing toward us in three columns.
Our fleet consists of 100 warships and 20 merchant ships. The merchant ships are not suitable for combat, so they are still in port, but the rest of the warships are on their way to help us.
Now we had a chance to defeat them, but all my hopes were dashed as the fog dissipated. Victarion's forces came from the north, so all our warships were positioned to the north. A force of more than 50 warships was approaching from the west; they must have been using the fog as cover to flank us. As they approached our flank, I saw the leader of the charge.
He was tall and thin, with fierce black eyes and a beak-like nose. He wore a long, coarse wool robe dyed the green, gray, and blue of the Drowned God. His hair and beard were long, reaching his waist. Seaweed was woven into his beard and hair. His hair looked very rough from being exposed to the sea. He carried an axe in one hand and a water bag in the other. This man was Aeron Greyjoy, the "Mad Priest of the Drowned God."
( Paxter Redwyne's perspective)
According to the message sent by the House Tyrell three days ago, the Ironborn have begun their attack on the Shield Islands. In this short time, I can only find enough manpower to mobilize 120 of the 200 ships. My other 80 warships will arrive two or three days later.
In the last message we received, we learned that all of Lord Hewett's shops and houses had been looted, and the sanctuary had been burned down. Lord Hewett and his family were trapped in Oakenshield Citadel. Due to the attack on the port, approximately 30-40 warships owned by the House Hewett were destroyed.
Lord Hewett must be senile. He was supposed to be the Ironborn's shield against the Reach, which is why his family was granted nobility, but instead he fell into the Ironborn's ambush—a dereliction of duty. In my opinion, he should be punished for it.
As we approached the waters near the Shield Islands, dusk was falling. On the horizon, we could see the Ironborn's longships approaching from the west, but when I looked through the Myr Lens, they appeared to be only thirty or forty ships lined up in a row. These barbarians dared to underestimate Redwyne Fleet. It seemed I would have to teach them a lesson today.
The sun was partially obscuring our view of the approaching enemy, but in broad daylight, it was impossible for us to ambush them on the high seas. It seemed they intended to use a concentrated attack to shatter our central formation and split us in two. In response, I reduced my fleet size; with such a small number, we could repel them quickly if they attempted such an attack. But a few minutes later, just when I thought everything was going well, my men in Rook's Rest began screaming in panic.
"They are far more numerous. Their ships are at least three times the number we imagined!"
Hearing this, I felt a cold sweat run down my back. How could I have seen only thirty or forty ships? I quickly reached Rook's Rest and used my far-seeing ability. The Ironborn, using the sun as a curtain, approached us in dense formation, their warships lined up in a long, serpentine line. We didn't realize this until sunset, but it was too late. They had as many ships as we did.
I immediately signaled to all the warships, and we began to expand our formation. Just then, the Ironborn warships split into three groups. They attacked our formation from three points like a trident and began boarding our warships. Our warships were unable to maneuver properly in the chaos, colliding with each other, while the Ironborn warships tore at our formation like agile eels. We had the same number of warships, but it didn't feel like that.