Charge at Zagoda

The **Charge at Zagoda** was a conventional horse cavalry charge which occurred in the opening stages of the First Prandac Proxy War; a war fought between Aratacian and Prandac soldiers and their allies over the wide, savannah-like expanses of the southern Great Basin coast. The charge was among the first encounters between Aratacian and Prandac troops directly during the war, and the last conventional cavalry charge in Aratacian history for many centuries.

It was a spontaneous attack of opportunity by the ambitious Captain Greslic who was leading his company of horse cavalry on a reconnaissance-in-force mission into Prandac-allied lines. Reportedly, the Captain himself was the first man to reach the top of a tall berm and see the unprepared and spaced-out column of inexperienced Prandac regulars.

Waving his helmet, Captain Greslic rode among his men exhorting them to draw swords and prepare to charge. The company, though at first hesitant, were convinced by their commander's insistence. They readied their blades and drew into close order, a task made ungainly and complicated by their own inexperience at conventional horse cavalry tactics, as for decades the Aratacian cavalry had operated far more as scouts and mounted infantry than as horsemen. Even the swords they carried were vestigial holdovers from a bygone period of black powder; many were unsharpened.

Within a few minutes, the company of the 8th was ready. Greslic had the good fortune to still carry an old bugle and still have the knowledge of how to play it; he belted out the order to charge on his horn and, in more of a swarm than a real formation, his company of olive drab-wearing horsemen stormed over the berm and surged down the hill, sabres flashing in the arid sun.

The Prandac, for their part, were caught utterly by surprise. Underequipped and undertrained, theirs was a second-line conscript formation meant to screen the Aratacian advance; the Prandac had not expected much of any Aratacian presence in the sector. They were still in marching order when they saw, to their utter bewilderment, hundreds of men on horseback charging toward them, kicking up a terrible duststorm and screaming battlecries. Entire platoons froze in confusion and terror, inexperienced reserve-officers choked up or shouted impotently to "fire". Sporadic small-arms fire was returned at the advancing charge to little effect, with several hundred yards still separating the combatants.

Panicked radio transmissions from Prandac infantry reserve-officers came pouring in to the front of the line, where six Infantry Fighting Vehicles were leading the column. Armoured and armed with machine guns, they stood a good chance of scattering the Aratacian cavalry provided they could be brought to bear quickly. Contradictory reports and a clogged radio net prevented any coordination, however, and the IFVs, along with the other reinforcements, were paralysed as they began to see what was unfolding themselves, to their growing horror and confusion.

The final hundred-yard stretch was deadly for the Aratacians. Prandac fire began to focus and platoon-level machine guns were finally being deployed. Over a dozen horsemen were shot dead and dozens more wounded or thrown off of their mounts; the edges of the cavalry swarm began to fray. But, bolstered by Captain Greslic's resolve, the charge hit home. The initial crash was remarkably violent; Prandac infantry were crushed underhoof, battered aside by the heavy bodies of Coronese mounts, were scalped and beheaded by heavy Aratacian sabres, or shot dead by pistol-toting horsemen. The centre of the Prandac column shattered, the infantry were overrun by the horsemen now chaotically milling about them, shooting and slashing.

Amid the confusion, Captain Greslic rode to his subordinate, Lieutenant Helfas, and ordered him to gather a group of horsemen and dismount, and to prepare a position from which to defeat the IFVs now advancing on their position and close to effective machine-gun range. Helfas obeyed the order, and within three minutes roughly twenty horsemen had dismounted, retrieved two squad-level recoilless rifles, and hid among the hastily-dug shell scrapes and weedy foliage for the approaching IFVs. This sort of light AT work was what the cavalry of the 8th had truly trained for.

Meanwhile, Captain Greslic lead roughly eighty horsemen toward the rear of the line, which was rapidly reorganising around the dozen-or-so 78mm field guns at the rear of the formation. Greslic and his company surged through the sporadic gunfire with minimal casualties and overran the loose picket of infantry, sabreing infantry in their shell-scrapes. They reached the partially-deployed guns and captured the crew. Amid the chaos, two of the guns were spiked by dismounted horsemen, and the rest were left as their crew was separated and taken prisoner. Meanwhile, the IFVs, who were surging into an unclear situation with little infantry backup, were fired upon by Helfas's AT picket. Two of the Prandac vehicles were knocked out, and the other four, fearing a more substantial defence, fled. With this, the Prandac regiment ceased to be a coherent fighting force, and the day was won for the Aratacians.

## Legacy

The unusual engagement made international headlines on Coron. The victory of courageous Aratacian cavalrymen over what was seen to be a brutish regime and its puppet-states bolstered morale domestically and increased public approval of the then-new Proxy War. The surprise victory prompted the War Department to delay its plans to dismount and mechanise the last of the Aratacian Armed Forces' horse cavalry units-- though this had more to do with perceived public pressure than a legitimate belief in the renewed viability of the cavalryman on a modern battlefield. Though cynics in the military establishment saw the engagement as a fluke, and Captain Greslic's actions as irresponsible and insubordinate, veterans of the engagement received various honours and were granted special permission to wear their sabres at formal functions, after their discharge, and on-duty, regardless of their rank.

Captain Greslic, an eccentric army officer part of the last generation of cavalrymen to graduate from Aratacia's officer schools, became a celebrity overnight. During and after the war he would publish memoirs of his exploits that were equal parts embellished and lurid. After his service, he would roll his lasting fame into a successful political career, winning an election to become Prime Minister in 4991 BNE. In modern Aratacia, he is still remembered fondly as an ancient folk hero, and one of the few good Prime Ministers from Aratacia's late experiment with electoral governance.