The Greeks would soon be starving. Poseidon had not only cut off their trade routes when he beached their ships, he’d made fishing an impossibility. Once their rations were spent, they’d be depending on spoils of war to survive, and without their ships to raid up and down the coast, there weren’t many targets within reach. They hit Tenedos first – the poor island was close enough to Troy’s eastern shore that when Poseidon withdrew the sea, it went from being a small city on an island to being a small city on a hill. Once the sun baked the exposed sea floor long enough that troops could walk on it, the Greeks had marched on Tenedos and sacked it thoroughly, taking everything not firmly secured to the earth – including the people.
After Tenedos, branches of the Greek army spread North and South, following the coast line of the Troas penninsula. While Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Menelaus planned the siege of Troy, Ajax the Greater – something of a savant in the realm of defensive warfare - prepared them for counterattack. Diomedes and Nestor headed into Dardania, and laid siege to its port city, Dardanus. It was a softer target than Troy, but still tough. Meanwhile, Teucer and Achilles led their troops south. Teucer captured and occupied the coastal town of Colonae, while Achilles moved onto Pedasus.
The further into the siege they got, the clearer it became that seizing Troy’s allied city states would be vital. If they wanted to reestablish their supply chain and feed their troops, they needed merchant ships, fishing boats, and safe harbors for them.
Unfortunately, Priam’s forces were always one step ahead of them. Odysseus had always respected Hector as a smart man, but hadn’t anticipated such maneuvering. What he didn’t know, until later, was that Hector had quietly ceded many of his strategic decisions to his younger sister, Kassandra. Kassandra’s counsel had been dismissed by Priam and almost every other man in Troy – after all, who would take guidance from a preteen girl in matters of war? The one exception was Hector – Hector knew that Kassandra's considerable time spent in Apollo’s temple had honed a natural brilliance no other Trojan could match, regardless of age, experience, or anatomy.
The Greeks had Odysseus, Athena’s prized pupil, and the Trojans had Kassandra. Athena’s mentoring was doubtlessly more relevant to warfare, but even so, Kassandra was still a sharp thinker, and - perhaps because she was a child - she was far more ruthless than any of her brothers. While Dardanus had dug in and braced for a real fight, Hector had – at Kassandra’s bidding – forced the smaller southern towns to evacuate while he burned the ships in their harbors.
That made capturing Dardanus and its shipyard essential for the Greeks. Unfortunately, Pedasus was 60km south of Dardanus. If Achilles abandoned the burning port as useless, he might get his Myrmidons back up north quickly enough to join the battle. Even if he did, though, the glory would still be Diomedes’s.
So Achilles and the others marched East, following the coastline past the mountains towards Thebe and Lyrnessus. The two cities were allies of Troy, each comparable in size to Dardanus, but they shared a port city, Adramytium. While Thebe and Lyrnessus had fortified themselves, they'd each expected the other to sacrifice their own security to protect Adramytium, and as a result, the port city's defense had been badly neglected.
While the Myrmidon’s hunkered down to minimize the visibility of their black armor on the green plains southeast of Troy, Achilles and Patroclus examined the landscape. The two cities overlooked a large natural harbor, with the smaller port city between them. Ordinarily, the Adramytium likely caught overflow from Troy’s port, receiving traders who didn’t want to deal with the complications of mooring in the ‘big city’. They also boasted small fleets of fishing vessels. If the Greeks could take and hold Adramytium, they might be able to circumvent Poseidon’s barrier, or at least bring in some fish to feed the men.
“I can tell what you’re thinking,” Patroclus said to his lover, “You’re thinking we can just go down there and seize that city with not more than a few hundred men behind us. You’re thinking about Agamemnon groveling to express his gratitude. But you’re forgetting, we’re not like you.”
“I’m not forgetting that,” Achilles said. Achilles never forgot that. His mother Thetis, was not human – she wasn’t a goddess, not like Athena, but she did come from a similarly potent bloodline. Achilles's father, Peleus, was human with only a little Olympian blood in him, but given Achilles prowess and build, everyone had decided, long ago, that Zeus must be his real father, and neither Peleus nor Thetis had denied it. Whatever his parentage was, Achilles was stronger, tougher, and faster than any man in either army. Diomedes could, to his credit, keep pace with Achilles for a while, but not for too long. Ajax was stronger, perhaps, but he was also slower physically and mentally.
“You haven’t turned around to go get reinforcements,” Patroclus said, “Which makes me think that you are forgetting that.”
“Is that what you want me to do? Call Agamemnon for help? You have heard what his men say about us, right?”
Patroclus frowned. He understood where Achilles was coming from. As much as he’d hated passing as something they weren’t in Skyros, he hated far more all the whispers of the backward hicks in the Greek army. He would love nothing more than to show the bigots who the real men in the army were.
“We can probably take Adramytium with the men we have, but you know we couldn't hold it. Thebe and Lyrnessus would disgorge their armies and overwhelm us in a matter of hours."
"I agree," Achilles said, "We simply don’t have enough men to take two cities in battle.”
“But..." Patroclus studied the waves, "Maybe battle isn’t the answer here. Look out there in the water, in the center of the bay.”
“I see boats,” Achilles said matter-of-factly.
“Moored boats,” Patroclus said, “moored in the middle of the harbor. And see how they move with the waves? They’re lashed together.”
“Why?”
“It’s a party, Achilles. A festival. Look, you can see men hanging lanterns from the rigging.”
“I sense a plan is hatching in that devious brain of yours, darling.”
“It sure looks like it’s going to be a fancy party. And who goes to fancy parties?”
“Fancy people,” Achilles said, “politicians, priests, wealthy merchants…”
“The most important people in either of those cities will either be on those boats tonight, or they will have loved ones who are. All of them, already packed onto a few ships.”
“You want to hijack the party?”
“Yes,” Patroclus said, “We have enough men to sail the ships back up the coast. We board the ships, take control of them, and take all of the party guests back to our camp.”
“Odysseus can use the hostages as leverage to negotiate for the cities’ surrender,” Achilles nodded, “But how do we get three hundred armored men out to those ships?”
“How many men will be down there watching those fishing boats tonight?” Patroclus asked. We bury our weapons and our helmets here on the beach, walk into the western-most city in the dark, incapacitate the handful of guards at the docks, and then load up onto a couple dozen of those little boats.”
“And then attack the party unarmed? Leaving our gear here where any beach bum can walk off with it?”
“You think it’s a bad plan?”
“No,” Achilles said, “But I don’t think we need more than a hundred men to take control of the moored ships. The others can take our gear and start marching back to Pedasus while you all follow me out there.”
“Follow you?”
Achilles reached up and tapped the toggle inside his helmet. His Hephaestus-forged armor folded away until it was nothing more than a golden cube in his hand, “I don’t need a boat to cross a bay, and I don’t need this armor to deal with some half drunken small town celebrities. I’ll take point, scout the area and eliminate any opposition.”
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