Konrad, squad leader of the 'First Storm Trooper Squadron', stood in the middle of the white-stone street in Vertenville's inner district. The pale road reflected the dim glow of the twin moons overhead, turning the armor of the stormtroopers around him into rows of faintly shining silver statues. They stood at attention along the street and intersections, weapons ready, helmets tilted toward the dark horizon.
Behind them, an entire artillery battalion struggled with the night's work. Twenty 7.5 cm Light Howitzers were being hauled into position by hand, their iron wheels grinding against stone as crews leaned their shoulders in and pushed. A few soldiers cursed under their breath as they tried to maneuver the guns into rough firing lines aimed toward the distant silhouette of Blackstone Castle in a rapid succession.
Konrad watched the slow process with growing irritation.
"It's almost an hour now! Where in the actual hell are the reinforcements!?!" he complained, arms crossed.
His signaler, a hunched over a portable signal device, looked up from a strip of freshly decoded message sheet.
"They're coming, sir! High Command confirms they'll be here arriving shortly. The troops are being led personally by Marshal Elena."
Konrad's expression brightened instantly.
"So the Bear got sacked, huh..." he said with a grin that showed a bit too much satisfaction. "Halting an entire operation just to change dress… absolutely ridiculous." he thought.
"That would appear to be the case." the signaler replied, still focused on the sheet as he translated the dots and dashes. "High Command also orders us to maintain continuous bombardment of the castle using solid shot throughout the night. They don't want the enemy getting any rest."
He paused for a moment while decoding the final line.
"And they expect us to attack at dawn. Fast and hard, just the way we like it."
Konrad's grin widened for a bit.
"Great, but I really want it to be faster than that... don't want to give'em time to prepare the defense.."
He walked over to the artillery crews and waved an arm sharply.
"Alright Boys! Start firing! Keep the castle under pressure all night."
Moments later the guns came alive.
The first howitzer thundered, its barrel leaping backward as a solid iron shell roared into the darkness. Then another fired, and another... and another. Soon the whole street echoed with rolling booms as the artillery battalion began blindly hurling shot toward the unseen fortress.
No flashes nor explosions came back in return to lit the night. The heavy iron shells vanished into the darkness, their impacts swallowed somewhere beyond the city walls.
Konrad watched the arc of one shot disappear into the sky.
"They're solid rounds", he thought, "It can't cause that much collateral damage.".
In reality the shells were landing wherever gravity decided, smashing into random roofs, courtyards, empty streets, and occasionally the castle grounds.
But from the street below, the night kept their secrets.
------
Several blocks away, Marshal Elena rode through Vertenville's main road atop her massive warhorse, 'Red Hare the Fifth', the animal's hooves struck sparks from the stone as it carried her through the quiet district.
Behind her marched five hundred soldiers of fortune.
They were heavy infantry in polished armor, each carrying a mixture of sword, spear, mace, or flail along with large shields strapped to their backs. Their white cloaks and disciplined ranks marked them as the famed 'White Company'.
At Elena's side rode another armored war maiden, 'Jane Hawkwood', clad head to toe in bright white plate with a hawk emblem worked into her pauldrons, where Elena's armor carried the red accents and mane of a lion, Jane's on the other hand, carried the white feathers cloak likes that's of the wings on her back.
"After this, we're expecting overtime pay and at least a week of rest." Jane said in a grimly yet serious tone.
Her voice carried the irritation of someone who had spent the day saving a random countryside village from a goblin horde, only to immediately march straight into an urban battlefield afterward.
Elena chuckled in replies.
"I can ask our leader for it. No promises though, mia amica."
"Suit yourself." Jane replied dryly.
Soon their column reached the inner district where the stormtroopers were deployed.
The sight ahead was chaotic, as howitzers continued firing down the long streets while the field gun's artillery crews tried to set up firing angles using nothing but moonlight and the distant silhouette of Blackstone castle. Their calculations were… questionable at best.
Konrad spotted the arriving officers and stepped forward.
"Welcome to the front, Lady Elena and..."
"Jane Hawkwood, White Company.," Jane said, giving a small nod.
Both women dismounted from their horses and approached him while the artillery thundered in the background.
"So..." Elena asked, brushing dust from her gauntlet, "How's the situation?"
Konrad explained quickly.
His stormtroopers had already sealed off every road leading to the castle, machine-gun nests covered all entrances and exits, the enemy inside the castle was completely surrounded.
Most of the officers wanted to storm the place immediately under cover of night.
"But High Command says hold until dawn," Konrad said. "Artillery can't aim properly in the dark without visual correction we can only fire blind suppression."
Elena listened carefully.
Then she smiled.
"Well, my mission is to take the castle within two days and eliminate this city's lord anyway," she said calmly. "So I support the night assault."
Konrad blinked.
"Really?"
"Yes, I'll authorize it." She said in replies, remembering of how much authority 'Auftragstaktik' (Mission-type Tactic) give to her to be used on the field, that's include overriding the high-command itself for the sake of mission's success.
She held up a hand before he could celebrate.
"But your artillery problem still needs solving."
"That's the issue," Konrad admitted. "We can't see where the shells land."
Elena thought for a moment, tapping a finger against her gauntlet.
Then she nodded.
"Don't worry," she said, "I brought exactly the tool for that."
She raised her arm and gestured for a signaler that was sitting nearby.
"Send a requisition to the high command, to prepare the "Starlight Shell" for me."
------
High atop Blackstone Castle's outer wall, a squad of crossbowmen in black studded leather stood guard against the cold night wind.
Their leader, a sharp-eyed man whose gaze resembled that of a hunting hawk, stared out into the darkness beyond the walls with his crossbow resting in his hands.
"Stay alert, boys!" he barked.
One of the crossbowmen nearby was practically falling asleep on his feet.
As if to emphasize the warning, a solid howitzer shell suddenly screamed through the air above them.
It passed harmlessly overhead and slammed into the courtyard behind the wall with a heavy *thud*, throwing dirt and stone into the air.
The men flinched, while the commander sighed.
Most of his soldiers had been awake for nearly an entire day. Between the attacking soldier and the constant random bombardment, exhaustion had begun to crush their discipline.
Some were literally drifting into unconsciousness while standing.
"Don't drink, you dumbass!" the hawk-eyed commander snapped at another soldier who was gulping down schnapps like a desert traveler finding water.
The man ignored him completely.
Others had already given in to despair after witnessing their enemy fire power, some even whispered prayers, clutched charms, or simply stared blankly at the sky whenever another distant boom rolled in across the skies.
To lift their spirits, the commander searched for something encouraging to say.
His eyes drifted upward to the sky, and what he see are two moons hung above them, pale and silent among thousands of stars, but the most important thing that he could see are things that he can't. The Darkness of the night.
"Don't look so gloomy," he began, "At least at night they can't see us...
He never finished the sentence.
Because suddenly, the sky exploded with light so blindingly radiant that it might just well be a newborn star, as the darkness of midnight vanished as the entire battlefield was washed in the brilliant light, for the first time that night, the attackers could see the castle clearly.
And the artillery adjusted instantly, the bombardment that followed was not random, but getting more and more precise with every shot.
Shell after shell screamed through the glowing sky, smashing into specific sections of the fortress walls. One weak point collapsed into rubble, then the guns shifted and another section shattered.
To their dismay, the defenders barely had time to react as their hawk-eyed commander turned just in time to see the wall beneath his squad crumble apart under the concentrated barrage.
Stone split as the parapet gave way, as he and his men plunged downward with the collapsing wall into the darkness below.