Night's Kingdom

Long before the Islamic Empire came to power or the Aztecs built the ziggurats in South America, two countries were in control of most of the world. These two governments were the Lost Empire of Atlantis, and the Lost Empire of Rhune. Atlantis’ capital city was located in the area of Alaska, and Rhune’s capital was in the area of Australia. Atlantis was more technologically advanced than Rhune, but Rhune had an army twice as large as Atlantis’, and had more resources. Both countries were rivals but had managed to make an effort to live in peace. The governments still disagreed a lot, and there were some minor skirmishes most of which only had to do with renegade activity.
This was before Rhune invaded the neutral zone. They had decided to set up an outpost on a small inactive volcanic island. Atlantis noticed the move and became suspicious. Rhune’s excuse was a defensive outpost to warn the mainland about possible upcoming disasters. Since Atlantis had done this many times, they weren’t too surprised about the expanse of land.
Several uneventful months passed when Atlantean spies on the island reported seeing heavy defensive structures and weapons being built around the volcanic rim. They said that if the island were to be attacked by enemy forces, it would take several thousand troops to break the defensive position. Atlantis soon realized that they had turned a blind eye to an oncoming threat. The alarmed government took immediate military action. Experts knew that it would take several weeks or even months to build up the military force capable of running the Rhines out of their castle.
Atlantis soon built up an invasion force containing many different kinds of ships. They had cruisers, destroyers, frigates, war galleries, and troop carriers. There were about two hundred of each kind of ship and about four thousand men. The fleet then departed to the small island. Meanwhile, Rhune was expecting just such an invasion force, and had delivered most of their navy and army to the fortress. Their navy was about the same size as Atlantis’ but it had two more ship types. These were the battleship and the floating gun. With this kind of firepower, even with only a few of these large weapons, the navy was about three times stronger. The fortress consisted of two main parts, the inner castle and outer wall. The wall circled the rim of the volcano and had tribuches every one hundred feet. The volcanic rim also had a section blown out making a “doorway” leading in and out of the crater.
This doorway was the only way in and out for any sane person. Otherwise someone would have to break through the outer wall to get in. However, the entrance was the most heavily defended area on the island. It featured catapults, cannons, a large stone gate, not to mention the arcing towers and trenches.
There were many natural defenses also. On the upslope of the crater, there was dense foliage and low visibility causing any invading army to be a sitting duck. Also, if an army were to break through the outer wall, they would be met with a sheer cliff drop. Since the island was a dormant volcano, the beaches were covered in a deep ash. This made soldiers who were not properly trained to sink their knees.
Atlantis did not know any of this, and so were quite confident they could overrun Rhune’s position. When they arrived, they were met with a barrage of cannon fire. Luckily, the troop transports were near the back of the formation so they did not suffer many casualties. This onslaught lasted about five minutes when Atlantean ships opened fire and the troop transports headed to their destination. They were so small, they could sneak through the heavy cannon fire and land on the beach.
The soldiers, however, were not as lucky as the ships were. They didn’t expect a wave of carefully shot arrows to rain upon them once the door was open. This threat was eventually neutralized, but heavy casualties were sustained. The second defensive position they encountered were the trenches. Rhine forces had dug themselves trenches to force the enemy to descend upon them. However, they had to retreat when an enemy frigate opened fire on the trenches, which were ill equipped for the attack.
This was just the beginning. When Atlantean soldiers discovered the heavily defended entrance, they were forced to split their numbers. One group was to attack the doorway, while the other was to sneak up the crater and attack the wall. Both groups suffered heavy casualties and couldn’t take it any longer. Cannon fire was useless against the doorway because cannon balls could not maneuver that passageway and lodged in the dirt walls. Also, cannons couldn’t elevate enough to target the outer wall, thus, causing the attacking force to retreat.

This battle is just one among the many to come in the clashing empires’ future. Rhune and Atlantis were about to engage in the largest full-scale war known to man.