July 25, 2003, 18:26
|
#1
|
King
Local Time: 00:17
Local Date: November 2, 2010
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: A bleak and barren rock
Posts: 2,743
|
The Value of a Road
THE SCENE - A Makeshift Headquarters some miles outside the Leon border...
(Into the building comes a bloodied officer dragging a long sword behind him...his face, red and smeared with blood, is hidden to most everyone except Gastronome Neecap, a servant of Lord Toledo, who is present reviewing battle plans near a table surrounded by marshals...Neecap recognizes him at once as his brother, Sergeant Pugdog Neecap...the Sergeant walks to a general in control of the Santiago withdrawal, and begins to weep...)
Your roads are cut, sir. Damn me if I see why we cut them roads, but cut they are all the same. The Arabs couldn't have used our roads, but we were ordered, sir, ordered to cut them anyway. So, sir, we overturned some wagons and broke some dams. The road washed itself away... Away it did, away down the hillside, fences and gravel and all...
Yes, sir, we cut the bloody roads. They'll never be used again by no man, never, sir. We cut them. Damn me if I know why. I did my job, sir, I obeyed my orders. It isn't my place to question them, just to obey them. That I did, and did it well.
But the Arabs were on us immediately afterward. Two regiments we had up on that hill, cutting roads, sir. Two of them. The price of your precious road, sir. Yes, sir, the Arabs bounded up on their white horses and cut them all to pieces. Everyone one. Not a man alive did walk from that. Yes, many of those Arabs, they felt, we crushed their heads with our pikes, but they had their horses to bear, and they had their numbers. Huge numbers. Waves...
Yes, sir, I fear that we lost many a brave boy there, cutting that road.
So, sir, never forget the value of a man, never forget it. And never forget the value of a road. Two thousand men cut a road for you and died to do so. To annoy the enemy, we let them slaughter our boys. Those filthy devils cut their throats like pigs, men good as you or I, sir, but there they died all the same. God'll smite them for it, smite them like insects.
But they killed two regiments of boys. Never forget that. Never forget that our boys never surrendered, not a single one. I watched from a distance at this baleful slaughter. I wanted to go back there, but I'd been ordered to withdraw with my company. We couldn't have saved them. We had to watch, just to watch. Those roads washed away, and then the hills washed away, washed in the blood of our boys...
Those boys up there, sir, they died for us, for Spain. But most of all, they died for you and your damned road.
Remember their sacrifice.
(Then, Neecap recedes into the gloom of battle...)
__________________
Empire growing,
Pleasures flowing,
Fortune smiles and so should you.
|
|
|
|
July 25, 2003, 19:57
|
#2
|
Emperor
Local Time: 08:17
Local Date: November 2, 2010
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Haifa, Israel
Posts: 5,474
|
That's a good story... but shouldn't it be called 'The Cost of a Road'?
__________________
"Close your eyes, for your eyes will only tell the truth,
And the truth isn't what you want to see,
Close your eyes, and let music set you free..."
- Phantom of the Opera
|
|
|
|
July 25, 2003, 20:00
|
#3
|
Emperor
Local Time: 02:17
Local Date: November 2, 2010
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: The warmonger formerly known as rpodos. Gathering Storm!
Posts: 8,907
|
How many roads have ANY of us ever cut in SP? And if you did, the doing of it certainly didn't rip your heart out...
Damn, I LOVE the PTWDG!!
__________________
The greatest delight for man is to inflict defeat on his enemies, to drive them before him, to see those dear to them with their faces bathed in tears, to bestride their horses, to crush in his arms their daughters and wives.
Duas uncias in puncta mortalis est.
|
|
|
|
July 25, 2003, 20:01
|
#4
|
Deity
Local Time: 00:17
Local Date: November 2, 2010
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 11,289
|
Quote:
|
Originally posted by Theseus
Damn, I LOVE the PTWDG!!
|
Here, here!
|
|
|
|
July 26, 2003, 00:46
|
#5
|
Emperor
Local Time: 01:17
Local Date: November 2, 2010
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: listening too long to one song
Posts: 7,395
|
That road shall be avenged!
|
|
|
|
July 26, 2003, 05:53
|
#6
|
Emperor
Local Time: 08:17
Local Date: November 2, 2010
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Haifa, Israel
Posts: 5,474
|
I've seen the sight that this brave soldier described. It was horrible - gravel, scattered everywhere! It was horrible I say, HORRIBLE!!
__________________
"Close your eyes, for your eyes will only tell the truth,
And the truth isn't what you want to see,
Close your eyes, and let music set you free..."
- Phantom of the Opera
|
|
|
|
July 26, 2003, 10:03
|
#7
|
Emperor
Local Time: 02:17
Local Date: November 2, 2010
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Queens University, Kingston, Ontario
Posts: 3,183
|
Don't worry... I'm sure a stack of shibering workers will come along eventually and replace the road.
__________________
Proud Member of the ISDG Apolyton Team; Member #2 in the Apolyton Yact Club.
King of Trafalgar and Lord of all Isolationia in the Civ III PTW Glory of War team.
---------
May God Bless.
|
|
|
|
July 26, 2003, 10:12
|
#8
|
Emperor
Local Time: 08:17
Local Date: November 2, 2010
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Haifa, Israel
Posts: 5,474
|
Workers... HA! We've moved on to engineers long ago.
__________________
"Close your eyes, for your eyes will only tell the truth,
And the truth isn't what you want to see,
Close your eyes, and let music set you free..."
- Phantom of the Opera
|
|
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is On
|
|
|
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 02:17.
|
|