The tale of Castor Dioscuri

Part One. The Skirmish

A Great column of the Hellasian Republics army marched forward into what the Christians called " Peregrinus Terram" formerly the High elf Kingdoms OF Mataas Lupa. Castor and Pollux marched at the front of their co commanded phalanx of Hypaspists. They bore on their Hoplons not the Lyre of apollo , the crest of the state of issthmia but twin crossed lightning bolts. Castor glanced back over his shoulder at the men , he knew each of them would die for him or for his brother Pollux. They were legends made flesh after all, or so the story went. He turned to his twin brother, giving a nod . Pollux returned it and called for the men to rest for ten minutes. Castor looked at the landscape. It still had the scars from the invasion that had taken place years prior. The new plants growing around the areas of scorched earth. He knew that if he took a shovel and dug into the earth he would discover remains of a battlefield . He also knew it was equally likely , if not more likely he would find the remains of a massacre, scorched bones still filled with un-rotting elven bone marrow. He looked at Pollux as he took out the leather tube that contained the map. It was no longer odd for him to see himself when he looked at Pollux, they had the same sky blue eyes and black hair, their skin the same olive complexion. Pollux unrolled the map of the front lines and made a quick calculation.

"The hoplites are a day behind us , should we wait for them?" he asked adjusting his helm that was slid back atop his head, leaving his face open. Castor peered at the map and did a calculation of his own.

"We would leave the peltasts alone by an extra day , if the enemy where to attack they would have to retreat."

"Isnt that their job?" Pollux said, a smug half grin on his face.

"Its also ours." Castor replied absent mindedly

" The archers and slingers will be with us in a few hours if we were to send a a runner to them to get them to speed up." pollux said

"If we had our centaurs they would be with us already, or if we had our satyrs we could gwet the message to them twice as fast/" Castor grumbled, withdrawing his xyphos and sharpening it ith a whetstone, as he did blue sparks sprung from the blade.

"We must abide by our allies rules brother." Pollux replied rolling up the map and placing it back into its leather case.

"The wild card in this is that our quote-unquote allies wont even tell us where their armies are, we could get reinforcements at any time or never see a single Papal trooper."

"Send the runner now or they'll never get here." Pollux said ,ignoring his borthers complaints.

Castor did so and watched the peltast scout place his weapons onto the horse pulled cart, under normal circumstances for the phalanx it would have been pulled by their Minotaur marinos , but he was back in Issthmia. Lounging doing nothing. Castor sat down with the men , mingling and talking. When night fell he lay in the grass and listened to the land. All he heard was silence.

The midday sun beat down upon the Hellasian forces hiding behind the crest of the hill, gorse had grown upon it and it would have been a beautiful site had the gorse not been burned down to its stubs . Castor listened intently, he could hear the battle just out of sight, well more of a skirmish really. He heard a war cry but not in The common tongue of eurys, the continent they where currently on, but Germanian, the language only spoken back home on the continent of Ereb. He then heard the peltast sergeant command a retreat and the sound of furious running. He motioned for the phalanx to rise and they did so , as quietly as possible , raising their shields and holding their javelins in a ready position. The peltasts came diving over the hill and the hypaspists opened and closed the shield wall with expertly drilled precision.the peltast sergeant ran up next to the twins, grinning as his breath held barely a hint of heaviness despite the speed he had been running at.

" What are we looking at ?" Pollux asked as the hollering of the enemy drew closer.

"Hodge podge of Albans and Germanian mercenaries." The sergeant replied. " They're eager and reckless, I think they'll fall right for it.."

As he finished his sentence a screaming red bearded Landsknecht came over the hill whirling a Zwei-hander ,his coloured clothes twisted in the wind, the shock on his face at seeing the phalanx was quickly replaced by the shock of a javelin skewering his chest. The peltast sergeant grinned as the landsknecht fell grasping at the shaft of the javelin , the sergeant withdrawing another javelin from his case.

"Ill leave the rest to you ." he said running behind the archers as the mass of enemy troops came over the hill. The first mass fell instantly from the first volley of javelins from the phalanx, the second fell just as quickly from the next volley. The enemy continued to hurtle down the hill , normally the high ground is an advantageous position but now they ran right into a mass of Issthmian glaives. The archers now began to fire volleys as well , many bounced off the Albian soldiers' armour but the lighter armoured landsknecht mercanaries fell in droves. Castor noticed a man in a long gambeson beginning to chant.

"Mage!" he shouted as he withdrew a javelin from his own case, throwing it with all his might. As the javelin hurtled through the air ,the smell of ozone began to permeate the air and it crackled with energy , hitting the mage making the sound of a massive roll of thunder, pushing the mage back with the electricity. The Hypaspists cheered and the phalanx began to move forward . Suddenly there came an explosion on the right flank of the phalanx, Pollux turned raising a javelin of his own ,they had not accounted for their being more than one mage. Fire whipped around the fallen hypaspists but the ranks behind them just stepped forward taking their place, red magic missiles flew into the ranks, moving over and under the large round shields of the soldiers and hitting them , slaughtering  even more. Pollux spotted a female landsknecht making hand movements with red energy flickering around them and launched a javelin at her, the electricity and impact launched her back , the thunder clap and subsequent wave of energy pushed back several of the other soldiers surrounding her. One landsknecht ran to the side of the dying woman , placing her hand on the woman's stomach and seeing the life drain from her . The woman took no time to mourn, she hefted her scalloped zwei hander and charged towards the advancing phalanx, twirling the sword to build momentum and batting aside the glaives, then half swording the blade and stabbing into into the unprotected neck of the first soldier. She kicked the next hypaspist in the shin, doing no damage due to his greave but he glanced down , which was her desire. She grasped a dirk frm her belt and stabbed upwards , circumventing the protection of his helmet and piercing chin. She then hurdled over the gurgling hypaspist and came across the twins, her rage was stopped for a moment by the confusion but castor simply tapped her with a javelin causing her to be zapped into unconsciousness with the electricity.The few remaining Alban soldiers and landsknecht attempted to regroup and pollux smiled at hsi brother, this had been easier than anticipated, castor forced a smile back at him. 

Suddenly there came a burst of organ notes from the flank and castors face fell. The Papal army was here.