The Battle Of Penzbeck

The so called battle of Penzbeck was a military engagement that occurred in the north east of Kymuria in 1033KF. The conflict was the result of a downed airship crew of Osharies from their blimp known as the "Olsra Obliterator". The other belligerents of the engagement were Penzbeck town's Royal Kymurian Constabulary officers, local militiamen and the general populous of the town. Though fighting bravely and stoically the Oshary crew was eventually overrun.

## The Crash

The exact reason for the incident is unknown. After the crash it was noted from captured documents that the "Olsra Obliterator" was operating far south of its target, which was the Reipen District of Olsra, but no explanation was put forward. At around 1am, the vessel's Captain, Ernst Von Goltz, was informed by the engineer that the airship was rapidly losing altitude. It was later found that the envelope of the airship had been inexplicably punctured. Von Goltz decided that the best course of action to pursue was to attempt a landing further south, away from Kymurian soldiers in Olsra and also allied Zeorin forces. This decision only adds further mystery to the story, since landing behind Zeorin lines would have practically guaranteed a safe return for the crew, however it is possible that the Captain was convinced, not unreasonably, that the craft would explode and burn upon impact, and therefore wished to use the ship as a terror weapon against the Kymurians.

Upon crashing into shrub-land at night, 15 of the 57 crew members were killed and another 12 were injured.

## The Battle

The rest of the 30 able-bodied crew members were ordered by Ernst to take what weapons they could find and prepare to raid the nearby town Penzbeck. The objective was to raid the town for supplies, especially medical supplies for the injured men left at the wreck, and then move further south west, by this point, the motives of the crew are unclear.

The following morning the 30 crew members, 11 of which had firearms, stormed into Penzbeck shooting dead three citizens in the town square and injuring one other. The Oshary crew men who had only blunt metal objects as weapons, mainly wrenches, began entering houses, attacking the inhabitants and looting the residences.

A large crowd of Kymurian citizenry gathered at the other end of the town square a mere 50 metres from the eleven or so Oshary gunmen stationed outside the houses. Initially the crowd began cheering, wrongly believing that the men were the Kymurian para-military group the black talons; the Oshary soldiers stationed on guard did not react to the applause.

Half an hour and one horse drawn wagon of loot later the Kymurian crowd quickly began to jeer at the mysterious men looting their town. The Oshary gunmen quickly escalated the situation by shooting a man waving a Kymurian flag in the leg.

Bits of furniture and rocks soon began to be hurled at the soldiers who in return fired indiscriminately into the crowd. Ernst, seeing the situation getting out of hand, ordered a hasty retreat out of the town with the horse drawn wagon of loot. The soldiers followed the wagon firing occasionally into the ever encroaching mob. Upon reaching the outskirts of the town a small contingent of about twenty Kymurian militiamen began firing at the Oshary soldiers several of which were killed. In the chaos, the horse darted from the carriage which was now under a constant hail of rock bombardment.

The Oshary soldiers began to retreat into two shops,were they attempted to create a crossfire, limited ammunition and few firearms prevented this tactic from being all to effective however. The two groups of Oshary troops were cut off, and after Ernst was pulled out of one of the shops and killed by the mob, the Osharies quickly began to disperse across the town through alleyways.

Most of the Osharys were eventually found and killed however five of them managed to get back to the wreckage of their airship where they found Kymurian soldiers. The Osharies subsequently surrendered alongside their injured brethren and were later symbolically transported out of Penzbeck in front of a cheering crowd.