Chapter XII: The Great Struggle begins.
April 1105 to End of 1105
Map of the Siege
Majorianus had managed to assemble tens of thousands of laborers, engineers, shipbuilders, sappers and miners for his colossal project. After working out the finer details of his plan, the main Dam, Dam #1 would be on the Southern End of the Vesta River, anchored along the major bastions of Fort Greifswald and Fort Mars. Dam #1 would have 4 sluice gates to control water flow and further up the river, an artificial lake was to be made as well. Furthermore, Forts, parapets, and battlements would be constructed in front of the dam itself to protect it. In the South, the construction of Dam #2, which aimed to divert water from the Northern Vesta away from the planned land bridge was built, with a fort with it. This was an utterly immense, and vulnerable construction project that required around a hundred thousand to complete. Construction would start in April of 1105.
Plan of Majorianus
Opimius, naturally, was not about to sit on his hands and allow whatever the Pomerlanian forces were doing to be complete. He did not realize it was a Dam until around Fall, but he made a point of harassing and disrupting the construction by the means of naval bombardment and night attacks upon the Dam itself. In June, an attempt to blow the dam up under night was thwarted because of the increased nighttime patrols that Pomerlane had implemented to put a stop to the raids. Pomerlane himself had decided to include the building of a navy up stream at Tsunami, as he believed that by next year or sooner, there would be an all-out assault to destroy the dam by every resource Opimius had. He did have plans in the meantime to counter such an attack without a fleet of his own though.
Of note before discussing the next event is the formation of the SFK and MKP by Pomerlane in 1103. Pomerlane had during the course of the siege of Poseidonia thought about forming an Elite Special Forces unit that based itself upon stealth, secrecy, and audacious operations after witnessing one of his siege engines be destroyed at night by a small group from the garrison. He would expand this idea to water operations as well upon his cousin, Pomerlius' advice. Thus he would form the Spezielles Försterkommando, or SFK (Also just called the Försters) and the "Marinekommando Pomeralius" or MKP. The MKP were nicknamed "Frogmen" by Pomerlane after observing how they operated.
As it would turn out, Pomerlane had tasked the "Frogmen" to sneak into the Grand Harbor under the cover of night and incoming shipping to destroy the gunpowder storage of the Republican Fleet. The operation was set for July 31st, as the light of the Moon would be less bright and conceal the Frogmen during their operation well. During that night, 12 Frogmen snuck into the harbor by hanging on to the side of a merchantmen before detaching and swimming up to a pier. There they waited until the coast was clear before climbing up and making landfall, quickly moving from building to building in total silent as was planned. Two of the Frogmen, would sneak behind two guards and kill them, hide the bodies and put on their uniforms. These two, one Antonius Maximus and Titus Marcius would then proceed to the gunpowder storage, subdue the guards there and light the fuse; making quick on their escape back to their squad. Ditching their uniforms, the Frogmen would dive back into the water unnoticed while the fuse slowly made its way to its payload.
Around Midnight, the Gunpowder went off in a massive explosion that left 50 men killed and 200 wounded in its vicinity. Several ships which had been moored close to the storage were blown apart, and many others suffered some degree of damage. Lax security had bit the Republican Navy in the arse hard that night and they had no idea what had happened nor would they ever. At the same time, the 12 Frogmen boarded a rowboat and made their journey back to friendly lines. Opimius, awoken by the explosion was absolutely furious with what had happened and would have the man responsible for the negligence in security, Gaius Flaminius, tried for treason and executed. It was a terrible blow to the Republican navy that would allow the Dams to have some time without the Republican navy harassing them, which would be crucial in the outcome of the siege.
Explosion of the Magazine
Opimius' biggest frustration was that this would delay his all-out attack he had planned against the Dam in August. Time was not on his side anymore, as he knew Pomerlane was building some kind of fleet and that without the naval bombardments, there wasn't much stopping progress on the dam. He was growing increasingly tired of the incompetence of his fellow patricians too. He may have been one himself, but unlike these other fools, he had actually fought in wars, and understood the art of war. No more, all commanders from now on would be commanders based on their merit alone and he took the events of July 31st to centralize all power within him. He took the title "Princeps" or First Man, as a means of showing his new power. But the war must go on and Opimius was not one to stop trying in the face of terrible odds.
Tacitus Opimius Tarquinius, Princeps of the Republic of Feeshland, who would famously say to the Tribunal upon their opposition of his rule "I am the Tribunal"
He would try to repeatedly launch night attacks and send rafts filled with explosives to the Dam, one in October actually managed to cause a great amount of damage and set back Dam #1 by a couple months, but he also knew that the Fortifications that were being built along the Dam were a greater concern than the progress of the Dam itself, as them being built would lessen the success of an all-out assault. Still, going into the next year, he maintained a facade of optimism to his men and to the people of Atalanta. He wasn't going down without a fight, and if Pomerlane wanted Atalanta, he would have to pay a heavy price to take it. The stage was set for the most epic battle of the war yet.