[hider=Imperial Formaroth transport fleet, nearing Coruneon.]
[b]Imperial Formaroth transport fleet, nearing Coruneon.[/b]
It had taken days to just organise the force and get them to the transport fleet based in the harbor. Half a day to just load the men unto the ships and the fleet had sailed east for some time before spotters on the foremost ship called ‘land ahoy’. Something Claus had waited on for some time.
As usual he had made sure to be placed on the first ship in the flotilla as to be the first of his men to make landfall, he preferred to lead from the front, even if it was a bit foolish at times.

He stood at the fore and gazed upon the closing land of Coruneon, he didn’t really look forward to meeting up with his additional forces there. He was to meet up with the forces of Wulfrick and Greensworth, people he had no grudges against. No, the problem was the forces of Tuania, of whom he had a bit of a recent history with. He hoped they wouldn’t try to assassinate him or something.
He stood with a foot atop a barrel and held onto a rope for balance, wearing his new armour, it was mostly a new cuirass but he had made sure to order it reinforced over the breast, with fluting for extra strength and bordered with roping for added flair. It was now blued to a black sheen instead of painted black and painted with the clenched white fist atop its surface.
He had kept his old helmet, now reshaped to be even again, but it had a slight bend to it still and most of the old battle scars.

The wind blew strongly, but not too harshly. With a strong salty smell and taste in the air which Katrina could smell and taste as she approached Claus.

“You’ve been rather quiet the past few days sir” Katriana said with a smirk. After her voyages between Sypius and Telmarion she had grown accustomed to the sea, even if her legs still shook a bit “You still haven’t explained why you made me visit my uncle. I was quite content using couriers to reach out to him, even if it used up half my wages to do so” She said as she rubbed the back of her head where her uncle had slapped her. She had barely said two words before he had done it. It was clear he was not happy that she had run off to join the steel fist. At the very least after the first half an hour of shouting he had calmed down. As frustrated as she had been with him prior to leaving it was good to talk to him again. She was just relieved that she hadn’t ruined their relationship. As much as they drove each other up the wall, they still loved each other, in their own stubborn hardened way. It was strange, while it was clear he wanted her to come back he almost now seemed content with the decisions she had made. He had always been so protective of her during her childhood, perhaps he had finally come to accept she was old enough to make her own choices. Not that the stubborn bastard would ever admit it.

Claus stood and watched for a few seconds before turning his head and answering.
-”I guess i wanted you to save your wages to buy other stuff.” The smirk betrayed his lie, which was exactly his intention.
-”As for being quite we’re off to war, lots of things to think about.” He turned away and avoided the question, it wasn’t too obvious but Katrina picked up on it.

“But that’s not all is it sir”? Katriana said, unamused by how Claus avoided her question “Ever since you met my uncle you have been acting weird around me”. 
Only now did Claus turn his head to her, eyed her from top to bottom and then smiled.
-”Ever the stubborn one are we? Alright i’ll tell, I was worried if you’d feel vengeful with me after sending you to get things from the place you ran away from.” Claus smirked faked a sheepish expression.

Katriana’s face turned sour as Claus continued to avoid her question. She knew it was no coincidence that Claus visited her uncle shortly after her own meeting with the emperor. They all knew something about her mother and they were all keeping it from her. Still she knew how stubborn Claus was, if she tried to push now it would likely backfire and make him more persistent in not telling her. She would have to bide her time.

“What’s our first move once we land, sir” Katriana said, not trying to hide the bitterness in her voice.
Noticing her sour mood, he ignored the whole idea completely.
-”On landfall in Coruneon we’ll meet up with the Telmarion, Orog and Nash forces and their assigned dirtbags and lords in that order, you’ll have to do a lot of counting and then we’ll plan the final move up north.”

“What do you expect we’ll face” Katriana replied “Based on what the couriers have said Lycaon is doing well enough clearing out the rebels without our help”.
-”What i expect? Hopefully it ain’t elephants.” Claus almost shuddered at the thought, he kept on.
-”Those are a real bother, so preferably none of those. Otherwise i’m not sure, probably some Uzgobian militia types, some regulars and perhaps a squadron of tribal auxiliary, but I'm not counting on those.” He was seriously considering what sort of enemies might show up. He was also unsure if any nobles forces would fight for the uprising, he pondered and stroke his chin. He shrugged.
-”There’s a big chance the couriers are correct and we’re only coming in to mop up the remnants. So let’s hope for that.”

Normally Katriana would have laughed at Claus’s comment regarding the elephants. Instead she simply turned around and headed back below deck.
A bit solemnly, Claus watched Katriana leave before returning his gaze towards the shore.
He didn’t like that Katriana was angry with him, she was a stubborn lass, that’s for sure.
[/hider]

[hider=Coruneon shore.]
[b]Coruneon shore.[/b]
Much like he landed in Telmarion, Claus made sure he was among the first to make landfall in the first landing skiff. Walking up to some lesser officers waiting for his arrival.
What worried Claus greatly was a distinct lack of banners in the nearby encampment, missing large portions of the expected forces, even if the lack of Tuania banners was a relief.
The officers gave a nod and greeting with ‘General’.
-”What in Timtos festive surprises is this? I’m not seeing the banners i’m expecting!” Claus was annoyed and wanted answers, the younger officer present looked slightly taken aback while the older nodded and answered.
-”Not lord Timtos ser, it’s orders from above, the uprising is deemed not important and most of the forces are being sent to support the war in Seikatsu.”
Claus was slightly surprised when answering.
-”Seikatsu? Against the elves? Why wasn’t I sent there? I have a lot of experience in elven battle tactics and strategy.”
The group had begun walking and a pair of corpsmen intercepted the entourage which began to march towards the camp. The older officer reported once more.
-”No idea ser, can’t fathom the thinking of the imperial family, think it’s from them. You were to keep marching upon Uzgob.”
-”Hmph, well boss probably has a reason to, I just don’t like sudden changes of plans. Alright, let’s begin to assess our forces, my quartermaster is right behind me and with her i’ll begin the assessment of our forces.” Following that was a thorough assessment of the forces to march upon Uzgob, with the Tuania section and several others missing, there was only four and a half thousand troops left for the north.

Claus found himself once more with a local lordling, on an eastern shore inspecting troops that would be fighting against forces from Uzgob and just like last time, he was walking in front of Telmarion militia with broken spears and rotten shields.
At least lord Petrus Bornian of Coruneon wasn’t the snob Tuania was, but a similar sense of pride washed over him when they walked in front of his own forces. Claus at least was happy that the primary Coruneon unit of his supporting forces were at least armed properly, even if their haphazard training showed through in how the men stood at attention, given that calling what they did was ‘standing at attention’ by any standard was a bit of an overstatement..
This time he had enough and simply rubbed the bridge of his nose and just kept inspecting the troops.

Following the militia groups was something Claus was surprised and happy to see, even if he had little experience in leading cavalry personally.
Arrayed with banners held high and the cavaliers being at full attention with lances held high, the heavy cavalry from Nash was a beauty to behold.
-”Now we’re talking, how many of these gentlemen do we have?” Claus asked hopefully, but his hopes was slightly crushed when the answer was five hundred.
-”I see… well we’re here for mop up anyway. I’ll just have to make do.” He longingly took a closer look at one of the Nash armsmen, flawless attention and great control of his horse, clad in plated maillé and a visored helm with a striking black and white plume. A fine white silk Sash draped over the breastplate of the cavaliers.

He finished his inspection, obviously showing off his Steel Fist forces to lord Bornian, who were more impressed than young boy Tuania had been, which gave Claus good hope for this campaign and his new ally.
Overall two thousand militia from Coruneon, a thousand more from Telmarion even though Claus almost preferred not to have them. From Orog a thousand arms men were gathered, while not crack troops he saw that they were dependable and of course he had his Nash cavalry, his ace in the sleeve apart from his own vanguard.

Sitting in the command tent, Claus, lord Bornian his aides and Katriana had at length discussed marching orders and various details of logistics and inter combat group relations.
Katriana herself was pleased that the numbers were so low. On a more selfish side it meant far less work for her but on the other it also meant that the threats they were to face in Uzgob were likely to be less formidable than they originally thought. Afterall Katriana doubted Alasdair would send his forces all the way to Seikatsu otherwise. Unless perhaps the imperium posed an even greater threat than she could imagine, the thought made her shudder. 

“Considering that we have far less soldiers to have to outfit now, we may want to consider getting decent equipment for the Telmarion forces, else they may be something of a liability” Katriana reported to Claus, she had allowed her bitterness towards him to subside for now while she focused on her job.

-”Giving them our practice stuff would be better than their own gear.” His bitterness was showing through. “But to outfit that large a group on short notice will take some time. Also is the fact that the Tuanias should have been outfitting their poor sods in an acceptable way before sending them off to war so I'm not inclined to pay their expenses… but then again their weapons are pretty much rubbish, so I'm keeping the suggestion open, what do you sirs think about that?” Claus turned to Borneas and his aides, whom pondered the question and lord Borneas was the first to mouth his view on the matter.
-”The outfitting of the Telmarian militia is hardly of concern, we’re not expecting heavy fighting and as General Rotstein pointed out it would take valuable time, time we could be moving or fighting battles and generally finishing up this whole Uzgob ordeal.” Several nods from the aides and Borneas quartermaster added.
-”I agree with lord Borneas, while the poor equipment of the militia is an apparent threat to their fighting potential, we’re mostly here to do mop up after the church. On top of the fact that they should indeed have been equipped better by their masters, something i suggest we bring to attention in the campaign reports.” More agreements from those present apart from Claus and Katriana whom were concerned about the whole deal.
-”True, but what if there is a proper battle or two? A full third of our forces would be close to useless in such an event. That’d be possibly devastating.” Claus concerns were truthful but met little support.
-”Lord Borneas, do you have any weapons that could be used by the militia? The empire would of course buy them or return them after the campaign.” His question was direct but without any real emotion.

“As you know, Coureon has numerous strongholds and hillforts scattered around the kingdom. Each one has its own barracks so that the local militia can quickly arm themselves in the event of an invasion. Provided we have a guarantee that our losses will be compensated I could send word to the fort’s quartermasters to have the weapons and arms delivered to us”? Lord Borneas responded.
Claus pondered slightly, before answering.
-”It’s good that you are willing to lend the arms should they prove useful elsewhere, however i feel that it would waste far too much time to send for those arms and have them distributed, especially with the fact that the church has dealt with the primary threat in this campaign. So considering that we’ll not be bringing those weapons, the Tuanias should have armed their men properly to begin with.” He put forth his opinion matter of factly but one could notice the hint of disapproval in the mentioning of house Tuania.
Upon this turn Katriana got a bit reserved and bitter but didn’t word the fact. She did want those poor souls to be armed better and she recalled the siege of Clarm.
She also recalled the battle of Telmarion where thousands of similarly armed men had been slaughtered by the Mandarass forces, barely any chance for survival. It was a miracle by Timtos or Leplo that any survived at all.
She however understood Claus reasoning and kept her mouth shut.

The rest of the meeting was for lots of details like marching order and supply chains, where all present did their best to figure out the best solution for all the problems they could think of.
Almost two hours later the imperial force moved out, north, to Uzgob.
It was a long march ahead and the imperial forces were moving at a decent pace, still not knowing what would come next.

[/hider]

[color=f7941d]Collab by Me and master Morgan[/color]