30-01-2002 19:36									#1
	Empires rise, empires fall... Increase the size of your Attachments

Hmmm.. this is my first attempt at a story. Its based on a game I'm still playing but has got a little boring towards the end, this story is set around the exciting bits. This is Part 1 of a 3 part series (work permitting!)



The English knights charged out of the early morning mist like they had all the demons of hell chasing them. As they thundered towards the Greek positions they were a fearsome sight, but under the iron helmets their eyes were those of desperate men. They were the elite of the English army, the Queens Guard regiments, recently transferred from the northern front to the Greek border but pitifully few in number.

Two weeks earlier the Queen had impressed on their commander the importance of their mission:
"You carry with you the future of our nation. Even as I speak, Oxford has fallen and all of our small country lies open to the Egyptian 'crusaders'. The navy tells me that it has neither the ships nor the technology to stop this flood of transports. Every day brings me news of fresh landings on the eastern shores. All you need do is conquer a few of the Greek cities, we need to expand in order to fight off these foreign devils!" As the commander knelt before her he could hear the icy calm in her composure cracking, the pressure of the last few months beginning to show.
"As you will it, my Lady. We should catch the Greeks by surprise, but we will need reinforcements if we are to hold what we can capture."
"I'm sorry," the Queen held her head in her hands, the crown slipping a little on her head "You are all that's left, but I'll do what I can. Send word that Delphi has been taken and I will send you every citizen I can get to hold a spear. Go, and may God be with you."

The English commander held his sword aloft, controlling his bucking stallion skilfully as he addressed his remaining men, "Come on you b*stards! One last charge, for Queen and Country!"

It was futile, it always had been. The knights had been cut down in droves. Although unprepared, the training of the Greek garrisons had paid off, and the last hope of the English nation lay bleeding in the grass around Troy. The knights had thrown their lives away with reckless abandon but it had been to no avail.

A convenient agreement was made between the Egyptian and Greek governments; they would split England between them. The two diplomats met on a galleon in Liverpool harbour, the future of a nation scribbled hastily on a piece of paper. Within weeks it was made so. The Greek flag flew over London and the Egyptians captured the fleeing queen outside Warwick. A proud nation had been brought low and turned into a provincial backwater. It had been a war with no large loss of life and fairly inconsequential territory gains. A war to be forgotten. Or so it was thought…..