The sun had not even risen from its slumber when the first blood was spilled. The army group had left Pearsall the morning after and marched all day until making camp a few hundred yards away from the thinly walled of entrance of Dilley. Colonel Herbert had ordered them to rest up for the night in preparation for the morning assault. While the decision to make their camp so close was scrutinized by his officers the Colonel was insistent that they do so as a show of force. He wanted them to regret ever messing with San Antonio. Unfortunately this was giving the raiders time to prepare as reported by scouts who where dismissed as naysayers by the Colonel.
Colonel Herbert was discussing the plan of action with all of the ranger and dragoon commanders when he suddenly pulled out a single stick of dynamite. He told them that while he had to complain and beg the Fort Sam Quartermaster to give it to him since he didn't see some pitiful raider outpost worthy of using their limited supply of explosives. Fortunately, he had convinced the Quartermaster in time for departure. It was just going to cost 10% of whatever valuable loot they got.
"Whatever, I don't care about your bootlicking. Tell us the plan or we're going out on our own," hollered Captain Knox Starbuck. He was Despot Nathaniel Starbuck's nephew who was second in line for the throne after Nathaniel's own nine year old son. Despite his family's protest the young man had entered military service like his uncle in order to prove himself. And proving himself he was since he had already risen to Captain at such a young age. He taken charge at 26 years old of the 5th Squadron, famously know as the Night Witches.
The colonel looked stunned at the flagrant disrespect but he kept calm to save face. "Okay well...I want your squadron and the 1st Squadron to follow 'round the I-35 to the other side and place this here dynamite stick on their southern gate. We'll be doing a full frontal assault so they'll have a majority of their forces defendin' 'gainst us. Now them idiots used goddamn sheet-metal for their gate walls so it'll be a matta' of hours before we bust through. What the dragoon's job is once their back gate is blown up is to charge in at their back an' slaughta' their disorganized mobs throughout'a the streets. That good enough of a plan for you. Your. Ma. Jes. Ty."
"Yes. It is, sir," snarled Knox swiping the dynamite from the Colonel's hand. The cavalry left as soon as Captain Starbuck mounted his horse and now only the infantry were left at camp. Colonel Herbert gave the order that the 5th Company was to spearhead the assault by attacking full force the front gate. Fortunately, the north and south gates were the only serious defense the camp had and most streets were complelty open or had small roadside ramparts. Fifty men from the 2nd Company would split off and attack the northern Highway 117 entrance at the old high school while another 50 would assault through the eastern Highway 85 gate and enter E. Leona Street. The last twenty men would stay in reserve back at the camp in case the frontal assault team took too many casualties.
After the sun rose again the stars were still looking down from the sky before the oncoming light slowly overtook them, one by one. The soldiers in grey split into their squads taking positions behind rocks, debris, anything else waist high. Heavy gunfire followed after the raiders sentries spotted the rangers taking positions. After the initial hailstorm, the gunfights mellowed out to sporadic exchanges with the Nuka-Breakers taking the most casualties. The two 2nd Company detachments had already taken most of the southern and northwestern sections of the town occupying buildings on the corners to separate the Nuka-Breakers Forces. Most of the melee armed raiders lay dead and dying on the street while the remaining forces took positions by the two gates although a majority were still at the front gate.
The shooting entered a lull by nine'o'clock with little gunfire being exchanged at all. Crouching behind a detached piece of brick wall Colonel Herbert was smacking the ground cursing the heavens. "Dangnambit! That no good trader lied to us! He said there were 170 but there's easily twice that! Isn't that right Corporal?"
"Y..yes sir!," gasped said corporal struggling to bandage up a bullet wound on his shoulder.
Shortly a thundering wave of gunshots followed as the fighting picked up again at noon. By now nearly the entire southern section was cleared by the southern detachment but the northern detachment had retreated back to the high school after taking considerable losses. Back at the northern gate the Nuka-Breakers were taking more and more casualties with the ones who had taken their injuries when the fighting started where now slowly bleeding out to death one by one. The cavalry waited by some distance from the southern gate waiting for Captain Knox Starbuck, who had recently left, to come back from planting the dynamite. They didn't wait for long, however, as the tremendous bang of an explosion destroyed the ramshackle gate blocking the street. They galloped as if the Devil himself was at their heels, the explosion had flushed out the remaining raiders hiding in nearby buildings their sense of logic now giving way to a primal instinct to survive. Swiftly they were cut down by the cavalry who had now separated themselves to sweep through the streets hunting down any stragglers. The southern ranger detachment now freed from the burden of holding their position move up to face the vulnerable backside of the front gate.
Taken by surprise, the defenders were rapidly cut down in a storm of bullets from each side. The survivors dropped their weapons, raising their arms up in surrender. Once ordered to open the front gate, the 5th Company split in two, one group was to gather inside to deal with the prisoners while the rest were to gather the bodies of their fallen or wounded comrades and head back to camp. Colonel Herbert ordered the rangers to line up on one side of the street with the kneeling prisoners on the other. Any who where under fifteen years of age where given amnesty and would be taken back to work as farmhands. The Colonel thought hopefully some honest work would set the youngsters on back on the right path. Everyone else was to be executed on the spot. No exceptions.
Over time gunshots could be heard with the wet splattering of bodies hitting the floor. But the Colonel would not be there to see it. One of the forgiven youngsters, a lad barely into puberty, had told him that the slave pens were in the high school. And indeed they were, the Colonel promised them that he'd free them he just had to find something heavy enough to brake the locks on the doors. He wouldn't have chance of finding anything as he was rummaging through rubble a loud hollering could be heard behind him. It was not just any hollering, it was the Nuka-breaker leader himself charging down the hallway with said Nuka-breaker sign in hand. The raider leader smashed the sign against the Colonel's head who then fell over on his side. He was beaten mercilessly, holding his legs against his body in order to protect his vitals. It seemed to go forever until a wet thud was heard next to him.
Looking up, he saw that it was none other than Captain Knox Starbuck who had used his saber to decapitate the bandit leader. Giving a gentle smile, he held out his hand for the Colonel to grab on to. Captain Starbuck searched through the now dead Nuka-Breaker leader and out came a lone key labeled "slave pens". Once everyone was gathered back at camp and everything of value was taken from Dilley and final count was made. On Dilley's side there were 21 teenage raiders given amnesty, 89 executed post-battle, 190 killed during battle, and 42 slaves rescued. On the San Antonio side there were a total of 15 killed during battle, 32 lightly wounded, and 1 mortally wounded. Not bad at all the Colonel thought before passing out.
Zelent wrote:---
Houston, Capitol of the NCT, Several Days Ago
Finn Hickleberry was as happy as a Giant Gecko in a chicken pen. He had a lot of caps left over for traveling expenses the Minister of Diplomacy had given him and he intended to use them to the fullest. He set out for the city zoo hoping to see anything and was immdeialty brought back to his days as a kid with his pappy taking him to the San Antonio zoo. After spending a good two hours there, Finn made his way to one the theaters to catch a re-release of a pre-war movie. On the way back to Presidency he heard that there was some ghoul band playing jazz of all things. He remembered that there was a "Ghoul Town" section in San Antonio that had about two dozen or so ghouls living there but he had never personally been there. It wouldn't hurt to go so he went to check it out. Once it was over he finally arrived back at the Presidency, picking up the letter from a secretary he headed back and then retrieving his pony. "I'm definitely gonna take my future misses on a honeymoon here," the young man said enthusiastically as he left the city gates on his way to unknowingly contributed to the future of the Wasteland.
San Antonio, pop. 125,752
Despot Nathaniel Starbuk was not a patient man. The last six days he had done nothing but wait, wait some more, and then finally wait. The annexation of the now northernmost villages had left him cheerful but once he got back his mood just turned back sour. He had been waiting patiently in his office for either his messenger to arrive or for Colonel Herbert to return triumphantly. During that time he had the same boring talks with his Cabinet about repairing the citadel's southern walls, something about installing more solar panels on the apartment buildings, and approving a project to expand a local park but he didn't care about that stuff right now. He wanted to know how his Despotate's power projecting was going. He picked up his copy of Machiavelli's The Prince and began reading. He didn't know who this Machiavelli was or what an "Italy" is but he sure did write some neat stuff.
After some time passed, his Minister of Diplomacy barged in with letter in hand gasping for air. He revealed that the messenger had returned and promptly gave the letter to Nathaniel. He eagerly opened his desk to pick out a letter opener and swiftly revealed the contents. Reading it over Nathaniel was pleased that it went well. Signaling his Minister they set to work on writing a response. After a few minutes of brainstorming they wrote out the letter. By night they found the same messenger boy at a nearby bakery and sent him out with his second assigned pony.