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[Free Republic of Texas]

[TXS] Texas Republic - Episode 4 - Standoff in F10, Our Island is Taken

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**Note -- Originally posted to Reddit June 1, 2019

Fellow Texians and Men of Honor in all Parts of the World,

I come to you now in earnest to account the loss of our island in F10 to the rogue agents of Wendigo and Jazz Cabbage.
I would dare say that it was a fair fight to the last man, but from our own ill-preparedness that was hardly the case. Our island harbor was protected mostly by the ships at anchor, their crews set to ready action should any hostile approach our entrance. But due to the earlier raids by the accursed bandits of the Wendigo and Jazz nations, our harbor lay exposed and empty except for the wrecks of our small Texian fleet...which we were in the due course of salvaging when the scoundrels appeared on our horizon once again!

A ship of unknown allegiance first approached our harbor and the call went out to action! I climbed the High Guard platform and manned a mortar...one of my captains joined me there and manned a second. We identified the ship in harbor as she opened fire on our remaining yards and structure...as suspected it was our friends to the West come again to harass our small settlement and test our Texas good nature. In appropriate response we tried our best to bite at their heels with what teeth we had left ~ Don't Tread on Me!

Our pucklers began to shout out sightings of men-at-arms on foot and mounted bears entering our valley. We turned our mortars then to the inner grounds of our crafting hall and surrounding buildings as my captains called out positions and sightings of the invaders.

We caught sighting of a second brig off our eastern coast...at anchor in the unprotected waters where we have often invited visitors. It dawned on me at that moment that it was the exact spot we had invited a Jazz Cabbage galleon to come ashore to harvest cotton just days ago and welcomed them with our nicest Texas hospitality....myself guiding them to anchor using multiple flares and bidding them safe travels on their peaceful departure afterward. It is now believed in my heart that their pale excuse of needing our cotton was but a ruse to scout our defenses and make ready for these underhanded and treasonous actions against us. So be it...all pleasantries be damned at this point!

The High Guard turned our mortars on the offending brig at anchor to the east and we opened fire! She bore the brunt of our assault and made a hasty retreat....leaving ashore her men and cannon bears to fend for themselves!

It was one of several small victories we enjoyed during the night. But that was just the beginning.

We rained mortar fire down on the island below and exhausted our stores of ammo in rapid order. One of our captains mounted horse and rushed from our crafting hall up the sloped cliffs to High Guard and brought us new stores and supplies. An enemy cannon bear followed him and we attempted to rid our cliffs of the animal to no avail. Protected by own platform, the enemy began to attack our mortar structure from below and was helpful enough to instruct us and advise us on our lack of experience and poor tactics. We Texians enjoyed a laugh or two as this helpful individual seemed willing to help and yet so willing to grief us at the same time. How noble these brutes must think they are, I wonder?

The battle lasted for some time. We would attempt to man puckles and swivels as our hired crews would fall, only to be cut down ourselves by either cannon or marksmen or grenadiers. It was a good fight and quite the spectacle, to be sure!

Our High Guard mortars kept up the barrage during the battle until the enemy was able to assault it directly on foot and rid us of our mortar captains -- then they set about to destroy the mortars themselves which they accomplished unopposed.

Their cannon bears made short work of the crafting hall walls and our beasts of burden were slain in their pens. Wall defenders died at their posts or had their stations blown out from under their feet from cannon fire. Our stores were plundered, our crafting resources pilfered and many of my fellow Texans were slain in their beds at slumber with no chance or offer of surrender or retribution.

From our hidden spots among the cliffs and ridges overlooking our small settlement, my captains and I bore witness to the destruction and the barbarous nature of these poor bastards who would have you hold their actions in high esteem as "fair play" or "it's just PVP". No my dear friends, utter destruction for the sole satisfaction of kicking a dog while it is unable to bite you back, is not fair play....not by Texas standards at least.

Then the leader of the assault called out his wish to now talk. Suddenly it would seem that once there was nothing left to destroy or pillage this man would wish us to join his allegiance and swear fealty to himself and his band of miscreants.

To be absolutely clear and honest, my captains and I had discussed this possibility already prior to the events of the day at hand -- prior to the raid on our harbor by the Jazz Cabbage brig, Grimm Reaper. We had already noted that the Wendigo nation seemed to be good sports and had only given us their cursory attention in due course as they made patrol of our waters in search for their intended quarry, the YT men of China.

I swear to you now on the Holy Ground of the Great State of Texas that had the Wendigo and Jazz Cabbage invasion come to our shores with peaceful intention to recruit the Republic of Texas as an ally and sought our favor as a friendly harbor in the F10 war....they would have been met with respect and interest.

But as God is my witness when their demands came in the form of an ultimatum to either join them or pay them taxes after such a pointless raid of utter brutality and accompanied meaningless show of force....my one and only response was, "Have you ever been to Texas, sir?"

It was our national hero, Colonel William Barret Travis, who upon hearing the demands of el Generalisimo de Santa Anna, that the garrison of men of the Alamo mission surrender their arms and submit to the Mexican army, answered with a single cannon fired over their heads! If I had but one shot and one cannon at my disposal, my answer would have been likewise.

My Texian captains and I stood our ground with nothing but the rocks and sticks in our hands and we refused their satisfaction. Our hearts and minds were set. They would have to take it by force for we would not give them a single inch.

It was then that the Wendigoans and Jazz Cabbage men set about to take our claimed island from us. They established their claim and set their perimeter.

I took note of the time and my captains and I discussed our options. To some, the battle was over and the time was late...our ships were at the bottom of the sea and our base was but a shell and empty walls. Understandably, some elected to retire for the night and hope for the best. A few of us remained.

I inquired to the men who now wished to take our home from us if it was truly their intent to play hide and seek for the next three hours as our island would count down and cycle back to peace time.

They assured us that they had nothing better to do.

My captains and I discussed how sad a state of affairs it must be to be in such an organization that would have nothing better to do than spend an entire night taking pennies from the poor and call it fun. Why would anyone want to join up with such a group in the first place, I wonder?

To be honest, some of their members expressed their displeasure in the situation. We could overhear their discussions....and one of the ships departed entirely when a single YT ship made its presence known in the grid. The Chinaman's poor attempt at insult to the Wendigo nation made even our Texas captains smirk. We bantered in private, "and they think we are with these guys? Do they not see that nobody is coming to help us???"

But the line had been drawn in the Texas sand.

We set our minds to harass the invaders and try to keep one of our number within the line at all times...thinking that if we can delay the declaiming of our island for the next 3 hours that the fight would be ours and their efforts totally wasted. It was a battle of wills at this point.....we were determined to defend our small claim as best we could or at least make it the most irritable action for them to endure as possible.

We gave it our best.

At one point, we had sent a captain to our reserve base and returned in a small sloop loaded with supplies. We donned armor and weapons, firearms, bows and arrows, grenades...and we steeled ourselves to rush the walls of our own crafting hall. We split up and came into sight...one of my captains stripped his armor to appear naked as before, attempted to lure them out as seemed to work easily and had been often repeated.

When they came upon him, myself and one other lept from our cover and rushed them...muskets and blunderbuss fired, swords drawn. It was a short fight but chaos none the less. I ran through the melee having spent my powder and ran to the crafting hall. I literally ran into a number of their men who let me pass not knowing it was a Texan wearing armor and not one of their own. I was able to approach their claim flag and discern the timer -- it still showed 59 minutes and the Texas flag was still above half-mast. We were doing the best we could and it was going to take them all night to be sure.

My captains were killed in the fight but I escaped detection for some time. While hiding inside the boundary line, the claim timers were frozen, contested. They would have to find me.

I could see the back of the crafting hall and I remembered that I laid some ceiling tiles next to foundations when I put in the plumbing for our seed crops....if I could make my way to one of those tiles, perhaps I could hide under it and go unnoticed for some time. It seemed like a plan so I jumped at the chance. I ran to the back of our structure and demolished one of our cisterns...directly behind it was an open space under our wooden floors and I crawled inside.

It didn't take as long as I had hoped for them to find me. In fact, I wondered if they had a lookout posted above the valley in the cliffs and he had seen my actions because it wasn't long before one of their men addressed me at the end of a musket and bid me come out. He fired to persuade me. I had just used my final respec and focused all my energy in health. So his musket did me far less damage than he had hoped and I'm sure the full plate armor helped as well.

I crawled out to face him and he fired again....I grinned under my visor and drew my sword!

We tangled...I embraced him in close hand-to-hand combat and danced around him leaping and jumping. Then I remembered the grenades I had on my belt....I began dropping them at our feet as I laughed maniacally in my bloodlust. This one man was about to pay for all the wrongs given us by these miscreants!

To my great satisfaction, I blew both of us to smithereens....and laughed and celebrated for quite some time!

Another small victory.

The game of cat-and-mouse continued...for hours, literally.

At another moment in the effort, I found myself swimming in our harbor among the wreckage of our ships. A pair of elephants had gotten themselves tangled in the debris and I knelt below one of them perched on the hull of our harbor tender sloop. I was inside the circle and contesting their claim, again. Quite happy with myself I knew they would have to go to a great length to find me.

I thought I was discovered when one of their men swam around me and literally demolished the plank I was perched on....I fell into the water behind him and immediately swam away under our docks. He did not follow. Did he even see me? I curled back under the docks where we had left many open spaces between columns, pillars and stacked foundations....I could hold my breath for quite some time and could catch air when the waves and tides surged. Not long after I was discovered once more and put to the sword.

One of my captains managed a huge feet of luck when he was able to rush the crafting hall and lock himself in the space between the inner and outer main gates. To the joyful glee of myself and my fellow Texians we laughed and joked about how they would have to really put in some effort to get him out...stone gates on one side and a medium wood gate on the inside of the crafting hall....surrounded by stone walls. It was a tomb fit for a king, or in this case, the most brilliant turn of luck of the night.

We laughed as our invaders gathered what grenades and hand weapons they had and began to chip away at the gates.

My captain taunted them yelling "Tik Tok, Tik Tok!!!" from inside his coffin.

Another small victory, yet short lived. they eventually blasted him out but every minute and every second counted to our favor. We were not winning, but neither were they!

They eventually setup cages and gibbets and instead of killing us outright they switched tactics to try to take us prisoner. They would chase us with grappling hooks and assault us with clubs. We countered by rushing the rhinos and elephants and slapping them as we ran into the courtyard to be taken captive. If done right, the animals would kill us and knock our foes in all directions as well.

Their beastmaster made work of taming every animal he could. They eventually had a small herd of goats guarding the claim flag and we would run in and jump into the middle of the aggressive animals and attempt to get them to chase us out of the claim area. One of my captains rustled up a small herd of elephants and lead them into the fray to much entertainment and confusion.

They eventually caught me and placed me in their guillotine...they removed my head and took their prize...it was a grizzly scene but a small victory for them to be sure...and a hard won trophy. I hope they never forget this night and think about it every time they look upon my face. I hope it haunts them.

But the night was not over. Another of my captains retired...the next day brought real work to be done and 2am was his last call. That left it to only two of us remaining.

We took turns in our efforts...one would lay in wait while the other would do his best to distract the enemy whose numbers were also greatly reduced from the start of the evening. When they were distracted, the other of us would run in and try to hide inside the claim. The enemy had been hunting down our beds and safe havens and were removing them as methodically as they could. They even enlisted the work of a small sloop to destroy our watch towers around the entire island since each had a safe bed inside. We also had platforms and observation points on the cliffs facing the open sea and those as well had to be destroyed or climbed and the beds thereon removed.

It was tedious work I'm sure...and meant to make them earn every second of their conquest. I was caught again and placed in a cage...guarded by one of their men who was quite apologetic for the circumstances. We chatted and I expressed my utter displeasure for their antics and methods of harassment and promised that this was not a sure way to earn one's respect or allegiance. In fact this was how one makes enemies, not friends.

I eventually died of thirst and went about the work of thwarting their efforts once more.

With less than thirty minutes remaining in our combat window my fellow Texan was captured, leaving me alone. I spawned at our last bed...our farthest south platform, facing open ocean on the side of a cliff. I knelt in a corner and privately discussed our situation with my fellow captain. He was taken with full health and well fed and rested...it would be some time before he would die in their cage. The timer was under 20 minutes. Would the claim fail if the island came out of combat before our flag was lowered? We didn't know but that was our hope. While we were discussing our options, the enemy climbed onto my platform and stood just outside my doors. I heard them discuss that they had no way of destroying the walls or doors as their grenades and blasting powder was spent. They suspected this was the last bed and they would just wait for me here. They had no idea I was just inside and heard every word.

It was then that I laughed to myself as my plan solidified in my mind.

When the timer clicked 15 minutes, I demolished the platform on which we all stood. The entire structure fell out from under our feet and we all plummeted to the cliffside below. The plan did not quite go as I imagined because we did not fall in the water and nobody died when we hit the cliff -- it was not so far a fall after all.

And lastly, the weight of the materials now in my possession made it impossible for me to run away. Damn the luck!

My enemy made short work of me with clubs and knocked me out just as I was able to drop my inventory on the ground. They shackled me and lifted me to their shoulders and began parading me back to their base and the waiting cages. Happily they estimated that the fight was done and they had won.

But it was a ruse....I played the part of being knocked out until I regained my strength....at once the man carrying me dropped me and I landed on my feet! I leapt from the cliff and found the water below and made for swimming the deep and followed the cliffside below the surface. I was very familiar with the waters of our small island and as long as no sharks, mantas or crocodiles caught my scent I would be able to make the harbor.

As I held my breath I circled past the harbor and came out on the northern cliff slope....just a few yards from their claim flag...I just needed to run that short distance to suspend their claim once more...maybe for the last time.

But the effort was in vain. At that moment, the island was still in combat phase for another several minutes, but they struck down our Texas flag and our claim was lost!

The battle was over.

....

It would take gold for me to contest their claim now and all our gold had been stolen from us during the night. What we had left was on the claim flag as I had not thought to remove it when the invaders appeared on our shores.

The claim was lost and there was nothing I could do about it.

The victors called out asking what my intentions were to which I responded "I need to find a way to remove these hand cuffs" which they replied they had expected me to be food for the sharks by then. My captive captain began to ask them to remove him from the cage he was in....which they were reluctant to do so seeming intent to add insult to injury. His pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears...as they took him to their guillotine. In response he pointed out their poor sportsmanship and I myself found a crocodile to help remove my shackles.

Unable to return to our once home island, we retired for the night...swearing that our vengeance would be patient and measured, as is our way.

This was Thursday night and all the way up til 3am on Friday morning. It is now the weekend and we Texians are busy making preparations to claim a new settlement and work towards new ships and bases of operation and we will incorporate many of the new ideas we have learned in the past few days to bolster our defenses against such invasions in the future.

And rest assured....one day the time will come....that we will present ourselves before the factions of Wendigo and Jazz Cabbage and ask a single question:

Remember us?

~Republic of Texas

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