And so it came and went, that the search for winning firepower would turn up empty-handed, time and time again. Not since the time of the great Suarez had they come as easy as expected, these tallying marks which define promise and ability would be necessary, if the Redmen were to take root in the mainland of Europe once more.

So, in the winter of the sixteenth year, in the second millennium, Ayre the Wise set off from the port city of Liverpool, with a single task on his mind: to lay claim to advanced means of attack, not seen on the banks of the river Mersey for almost three summers. In his stead, the Redmen would see crucial victory take place at the Battle of Stoke, where rain and muck all but render aggressors useless on a typical day.

With this victory, Jürgen the Swift was building morale within somewhat faltering ranks. Chance victories around the British Isles had seen them conquer most of the smaller states, with battle looming near in the future in Lancashire. Not since the direction of the Redmen’s greatest leader, Kenny the Magnificent, had they seized all of said territories at once, and they looked poised to move forward and complete their mission.

As it were, Ayre the Wise would work tirelessly, crafting a plan for acquiring the new technologies of the Rus, who in turn were fortunate to seize it from a distant land in the southwest, which remains unnamed. Repeated in succession, these foreign engineers had brought great successes to the Rus, who, at times, seemed destined to take a prominent foothold in Europe.

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The people of lands controlled by the Redmen everywhere waited impatiently, as loyal subjects on the brink of wondrous accomplishment will do, and by the second moon of that long and arduous winter, no news had been heard.

Though some lost hope in their adviser, many others remained faithful to the cause, asking every man, woman and child, sometimes those they did not know, of the fate of this awe-inspiring alien war-machine.

Some feigned themselves as sages and seers, able to connect directly with the distant Ayre via telepathic communication, and still yet, others consumed these claims voraciously, searching for any reason to believe that the Redmen were again on the precipice of footballing domination.

From The Secret History of the Redmen: A Chronicle from Roy to Jürgen