The First Summit

The Second Summit, this time hosted in the city of Unone, commenced on a sunny day inside the athletics tracks normally utilised for the yearly Iyasu. Discussions began quickly after a handful of blessings were given by nadisun from Panaeolus, and quickly proved fruitful as a handful of complaints about the new army organisational system were raised and resolutions proposed in a matter of hours. Advice and opinions were heard from a great many people from the comparatively low scarui to the esteemed artkash and the foreign Hashas and Arathee dignitaries, all men present professionals of their craft in their own right.

Included among the Hashas dispatch were a sizable number of enclave Radeti who were proficient in Hashas techniques and who had made several displays and were expected to make a number more with kashi from Naotik, who were to display some improvised techniques for fighting off such attacks. The Arathee dispatch included the general Vezwa Yorum Rahn, who had earned a great deal of respect among his own people and the Radeti alike for his brilliant tactical use of siege weaponry in the war against the Erhteht. Meanwhile a great many men from other professions were present and began their own presentations on the cloudier second day, including that of master artkolac metallurgists at the very forefront of iron smithing and mahkee, who offered advice as to the construction of battlefield fortifications.

It was as one such mahkee detailed his designs that would allow archers to hastily erect a wall capable of deterring a cavalry charge with a shovel-like tool that the Radeti enclavesmen from the east began to march into the athletics track via an eastern entranceway, their steps perfectly synchronised and equipment polished to an impressive shine. The mahkee was taken aback by the interruption and spluttered something to the effect of ‘uncultured enclavesmen’, but all others looked on enraptured, eager to see what was about to be demonstrated. Whatever it was, it was apparently to be from the stands, which the Hashas-Ashru born Radeti were ascending. Something of siege warfare, perhaps, that would involve fighting an enemy on a plane above the attacking forces?

Then the killing began. Almost immediately four of the artkash, four of the highest ranking kashi in all Radet-Ashru, were slain after receiving brutally efficient stabs to the torso, the speartips of the enclave warriors utterly indifferent to the importance of the dead who fell lifelessly to the floor, some muttering regrets at having turned up unarmed and unarmoured. Next to their bodies lay that of Vezwa Yorum Rahn, his siege expertise apparently having done little to save him from his own punctured heart. Two dozen others died before all present had even begun to understand what was happening, whilst dozens more fell crawling over one another in an effort to leave the stands, struck in the backs by javelins. By far the most effective in their flight were the Naotik who, placed on the western edge of the congregation, had been furthest from the initial assault. Several of them including their still-alive artkash returned to the bloodbath a scant few minutes later at the head of their delegation’s display troops, too little too late; the enclave warriors were mopping up the last of the Radeti commanders that hadn’t successfully fled. The Naotik nevertheless began their work of contesting the slaughter, mowing down a number of the half-foreigners with a few waves of javelins before approaching shoulder to shoulder behind rectangular shields that had been both cooperatively developed with the Arathee and the subject of their intended display. The shields received a display, but not of the kind intended. Nevertheless they proved their effectiveness, the tight formation of the Naotik cleanly shearing through the lone enclave warriors who were only now coalescing into a traditional phalanx formation of their own, having previously been occupied by their butcher’s work. What followed was nearly ten minutes of exchanged blows between heavily armored and tightly packed combatants before a group of Unone militia arrived, immediately hewing into the exposed backs of the enclavemen’s backs, their lives being lost mere moments after their formation’s integrity collapsed.

The aftermath of the slaughter was bitter for the Radeti. They had spent the past year ensuring that the army would recognise the faces of the men to whom they should answer, and now all but a handful of those faces were cold, bloody, and slumped over the stands of Unone’s Iyasu athletics stadium. Those few that had survived would likely see themselves promoted to fill the highest ranks first, whilst new individuals would need to fill in the gaps as quickly as possible.

Other than the difficulty of repairing the army’s command, there was also the matter of the Arathee general’s death in addition to the necessary punishment for the traitorous Hashas who even now must have been planning for war following this extremely efficient first strike.

Civil dignitaries including the members of the budding Radetiya council began to arrive shortly afterwards, who were dismayed by the situation but quick to heap praises upon the rapid-reactions of the Naotik delegation, who were busy giving each other first aid and cleaning their equipment as necessary and who were responsible for the lives of those few attendees that remained standing.

Curiously, the artkash Keletet of Naotik did not wear a sombre face like most present, but instead a soft smile.