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The following is a dramatic retelling of the events within the command tent of the Special Action Unovan Army. It has been pieced together through research of correspondence between those involved in the Swordsfall, as well as after-action reports and recorded oral histories from veterans. The Swordsfall is considered one of the most important events in Unovan history, and is both a defining moment for the Republic's armed forces, as well as a black stain on the history of the Republic, responsible for shaping the approach that Unova and the world at large would take towards pokemon. The animist nature of Johto in particular is credited by many to be a direct response to the Swordsfall.
The tent was stuffy, despite the chill in the night air outside of it. The men crammed into the field war room perspired underneath their heavy cotton uniforms, standing shoulder to shoulder and craning their necks to see the maps laid upon the heavy wooden table in the center. Colonel Robinson, dressed in his finest, looked solemnly down at the table and then around at the men gathered round. His droopy eyes, accented all the more by the dark circles beneath them, coupled with the salt and pepper stubble on his face gave him the appearance of a man twenty years his age. His broad shoulders slumped and his usual ramrod straight posture had become slouched and almost sullen. The Army of the Unovan Republic had paid dearly to put him and the men around him in this tent, and it weighed on him thickly, like the storm clouds that hung low in the sky outside.
"The advance detachment, may the dragons judge their souls favorably, have successfully led the Swords to the plateau. We have four companies of men and their associated materiel positioned at each of the cardinal directions. The Swords cannot flee." Colonel Robinson gestured to each of the pushpins in the map as he spoke. "I leave the specifics of each direction to their presiding Majors. And, speaking of, has there been word of the condition of Major Pool?"
He turned to his aide who shook his head and said quickly, "I will inquire immediately, sir."
Robinson nodded and watched the man struggle to leave the tent, before he gestured to Major Wilkes, standing to his left and said, "Major Pool commands the east, so we shall leave his specifics to the end."
Major Wilkes was a wiry man, with an impressive mustache that offset his thin limbs. His left arm sat in a sling, and a thin frown that portrayed a perpetual displeasure at his injured predicament was plastered across his lips. "The northern company is made of the very best the 7th Cavalry Squadron has to offer, as they have managed to survive this long. Their objective…" He placed a set of three figures on horseback at the northern end of the plateau and then pushed one of them gently towards the center an inch. "Is to remain at the northern end of the plateau, and await the sound of the horns, whereupon they will charge forward, driving the Swords back into the waiting, cold embrace of Major Rotenbury's men."
He sighed and threw his arm a dirty look. "They are sure to succeed. And it is my deepest regret that I will not lead that charge." Major Wilkes gave Major Rotenbury, standing to his left, a nod and then stepped away from the table.
Rotenbury approached the table and placed a set of four figures bearing muskets with extremely long bayonets at the south end of the map. His bulky arms, bulging against the fine cloth of his uniform, poorly concealed his long history on the front lines. "Gentlemen, as you know, the 3rd Infantry Regiment has taken a considerable beating." He reached out and knocked one of the figures over. "We are fighting at roughly one-sixth our original strength. The men that remain are tired. They are terrified. And they wish to see their homes again."
He sighed and shook his head. "They will sound the horns to signal the advance. But they will not hold unless Major Cook's artillery support is able to sufficiently slow the advance of the Swords and Major Pool's men are able to land an effective volley. And I must say that the men waiting for the Swords to come upon them are less than enthused about firing and then bracing." He rubbed his chin. "If the Swords break through the men, or worse still, rout them, the ensuing chaos as the men break could see many of them brought down by errant fire…"
Major Cook stepped forward, his wild blue eyes glittering in the firelight of the lanterns upon the table. "The air will be thick with grapeshot and chain-shot from the 1st Artillery Battery, Major Rotenbury. It is expected that at least one of the Swords will lose its nerve and break back into the advancing cavalry where they'll be brought down with pistol and sword." He placed two cannons to the southeast of the formation of riflemen and exclaimed, "Why, by the time the Swords have made it to your men, they'll be so full of holes you'll have a devil of time getting a ball somewhere that hasn't been hit!"
There was a commotion in the tent and several of the soldiers compressed further to make way for Robinson's aid and Major Pool. The man had seen better days. His handsome face had been marred by a large scar that had taken off a sizable chunk of his left cheek along with his eye. The wound now sat hidden away beneath layers of bandages. His midsection had been bandaged over several times as well, and spots of blood still soaked through in patches. Pool's wobbling posture and unbuttoned coat made it clear that he had been recovering in bed and it was with a quiet, raspy voice that he said, "Assuming the 1st is able to actually land effective fire."
He strode up to the table and leaned against it for support. "Is this how we send our men to their ends?" He gestured to the map and the array of figures placed upon it. "If the 3rd is routed, the chaos that follows is going to leave the 2nd Rifle Platoon in a miserable position. The men are expecting to have standard bayonets fixed, not the overlong variant the 3rd is using. I cannot rightly say they will be equipped to receive the full force of those three charging behemoths." He placed a single figure bearing a musket behind the three that stood in a row. "And they will surely not hold if and when they do receive them. The 2nd sits at a mere quarter of its strength."
Colonel Robinson stepped forward and placed his hands on the table, heaving a sigh. "A score of good men gave their lives to bring us to this moment, and countless more gave their lives beating the Swords back to the plateau itself. To give this fight anything less than all we can muster is an insult to their memory. Nevertheless, it is not a hopeless cause, dire though the situation may seem. We have the benefit afforded to us by a small collection of ferrothorn that the beastmaster has kept in reserve. They will be able to impede the Swords as they advance to help soften the blow against the 3rd.
"Furthermore, though they are shaken, Major Wilkes reports that the blazing mounts that have survived to this point remain in good health." He gave Wilkes a curt nod. "Their penchant for spewing gouts of flame on the attack will be of great use against two of the Swords. So do try and mind your fire." He looked specifically at Cook.
Wilkes nodded. "Aye. The unmatched speed of those horses will shine brightest here on the plateau."
"In less than four hours, the dawn will be upon us, and the attack will follow first light by exactly one hour. Educate your men in the light of that dawn. Remind them all, and yourselves: we fight with blessings of the dragons, and we fight for the future of the great Unovan Republic. Confidimus sunt in dracones."
"Dracones in aeternum!" replied the men in the tent automatically.
As they filed out, mumbling among themselves, Robinson stared down at the maps upon the table and moved his lips soundlessly. His aide waited until the last of the men had cleared the tent and then said quietly, "Are you tallying the dead, sir?"
The colonel frowned and shook his head. "I've become too easy to read. This is the best chance our people have of ridding ourselves of these troublesome beasts." He brought his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "And still they afforded us little more than the bare minimum to accomplish this task."
"You've accomplished a great deal with what little you've been given, sir."
"Mm. Blazed this trail over the broken bodies of men that will never see the Unovan Republic proper ever again." He reached out towards the figures upon the map and knocked the entirety of the 3rd over, along with the 1st. Then, he knocked over half the figures representing the 7th and then finally the three figures representing the Swords.
The aide looked on with a grim expression. "These estimates seem almost excessive, sir."
Robinson did not reply for a long while before he turned to leave the tent and beckoned for the aide to follow. "They are anything but."
The following is a letter penned by one Corporal Richard "Dick" Quincy in the days following the conclusion of the Swordsfall. Corporal Quincy rode near the "tip of the spear" , and was among the first of the 7th Cavalry Squadron to make contact with the Swords of Justice. The letter, addressed to Annabelle Quincy, his wife, was graciously made available by the last surviving Quincy, Jonathan. He admits to having never read the letter, having heard it mentioned only in passing by his deceased grandfather, Tobias, himself the great-great-grandson of Richard. The letter came in a box of other interesting relics from Unova's past, including Corporal Quincy's battered, through still functioning, percussion-cap revolver. The Quincy family established itself in Lacunosa Town following the Swordsfall, and Jonathan lives there to this day, owner of the venerable Quincy Watchworks.
The letter has been rendered as-is. Irregularities in grammatical conventions and misspellings are purposeful.
Dearest Ann,
It is my hope that I reach you before this letter does, as the news of my survival would sound all the sweeter in person. the fight against those so-called Swords Of Justice as the Anti-Republic folk have come to call them did not go well, but still we have won. the fight was a terrible one, and many Good Men will see the Republic again from with-in their coffins, and not from the marching line. I am stricken with great grief to tell you that Ed will be among them. do not tell Marie about this, as Ed demanded of me with great insistence that she be given the news in person, were the need so. I write to you a recollection of what it was that we saw there on that Plateau, for I feel that I do not have the Will in me to tell you in person, and it is my belief that many of the Men beside me that write to their Wives and Children are of the same mind.
We came upon the Beasts early in the morning. the sounds of the bugles was loud, far away as they were on that Plateau, and when they were heard, we charged. the sun still hung low in the sky, as it was a fresh dawn, but the Dragons blessed us with the cover of clouds to save our vision and when we closed with-in firing distance, the din of all those revolvers firing was like Thunder. that enormous steel Beast, the one they call Cobalion, dove before the other two Beasts and roared with such force and ferocity that it broke the Will of several of our flaming horses, and their scared whinnies filled the air around me along with the shouts of many a Man who could not control them. we could hear the whizzing of the bullets as they bounced off the great shield the Cobalion created. Ann, there is nothing more frightening than to see the bullets bounce back at you, and by the Grace of the Dragons alone I am sure that I was not struck down.
With our revolvers largely spent, we were ordered to draw sabers and close into the Beasts, and that is when the Nature of this Battle became very clear. the men were told that the Objective was to break the will of the Beasts and steer them back to the waiting lines of the Infantry, ready to receive them with rifles and bayonets, but this was not the case. the Beasts fought back with such terrible anger, rageing like nothing I have ever seen in all my Life. we closed on them swinging our sabers and I felt shocks in my arm each time my sword made contact with the Cobalion or the Virizion, but the cuts were surely shallow for the Beasts raged only harder.
The swarming men and the wild neighs of the horses must have worked their Magic on the Beasts because they broke away from our onslaught and stormed across the Plateau at last. but it was surely not a retreat that we brought about easily. I remember as I rode off, following the commander as he raised his saber and urged us to charge forward, there could be heard in the air the screams of men that had fallen. "Help us!" "O Dragons save me!" and all sorts of calls like that were in the air and I pressed my horse onward because I could not bear to dawdle nor hear their calls nor the whinnying of so many horses that were broken by the Wrath of the Beasts.
We gave the Beasts chase until they met our Boys, waiting with their rifles aimed and bayonets mounted and then the chaos began again, greater now with the sound of fire and the air thick with shot from the cannons from our Artillery. I rode into a formation with Ed alongside our commander, who urged us forward shouting "Drive them apart! Break the Terrakion free of the other two Beasts!" and so that is what we did.
Ann, the chase that we gave that Terrakion would have made you red in the face with anger, and I could hear your hollers in my ear about what a fool I was for urging that rageing creature to the Artillery, following close behind it all the while, trying to fire my pistol and dodge its furious kicks. I could hear Ed still screaming at my side, shouting and mocking the Beast, trying to provoke it into a greater rage if such a thing could even be done. we had already succeeded in our objective but the Blood was hot in our veins and we could not see that we had followed the Beast right into the zone of fire for our Artillery. I broke away from Ed to get on the other side of the Terrakion as it seemed its left flank had become too thin with cavalrymen and then I felt my horse buck back as rocks jumped from the ground when the Beast kicked back at me. I kept steady hold of her but then I heard the most curious sound of chain-shot and then the world began to flip about. the horrible scream that horse made was the last I heard before I fell upon the ground.
The Surgeon revived me in the Field Hospital and informed me that we had won, and the Beasts had been put down, and so with great joy I shouted. the Surgeon told me that though I had suffered injuries they were not great and I was free to leave and rejoin my fellow soldiers. the first thought I had was to find Ed, but as I have already made clear, I could not, and it was not until later that I finally learned his Fate.
I stop here to return to my thoughts on how best to tell Marie, and to wish you and the Children well. tell them that their Father is coming home. there have been a great many beautiful sights as we marched to this Plateau that have reminded me time and again of the beauty of those fogged mornings we spent together Ann, and I am grateful that I will enjoy them with you again.
With great love and hope to hold you in my arms again soon,
Richard Quincy
The hard-fought battle against the Swords of Justice saw the Army of the Unovan Republic emerge victorious from the fray, though the men had been savaged in their assault. The estimates given by Colonel Robinson proved to be inaccurate, and were actually worse than expected. Official records claim that all of the units present at the battle suffered a casualty rate of at least 53%, with the 7th Cavalry Squadron suffering the greatest casualty rate at 86% - though it is expected that a fair bit of their losses came as the result of wandering into the path of artillery fire. Though the plan of attack was solid in theory, the complications that arose from cavalry driving the Swords into the waiting musket lines saw Virizion and Cobalion crash into the line with minimal injury while Terrakion soaked up focus from both the artillery and cavalry.
Accounts from the fight against Terrakion in particular indicate that cavalry suffered such tremendous losses as a result of simply becoming lost in the fray. Battle lines had been drawn using men, not landmarks, as the plateau was largely featureless. When Virizion and Cobalion broke through the ranks of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, the primary navigational feature for the cavalry dissipated as the foot soldiers fell back towards the 2nd Rifle Platoon. To make matters worse, the battle took place before the invention of smokeless powder, which assured that the field would be thick with the smoke of musket fire to further complicate navigation (or target acquisition, in the case of the 1st Artillery Battery.) This left the confused cavalry with a limited set of choices, which Sergeant John Davis describes as:
"The cavalry could choose to rush forward, up to the broken lines of the 2nd and attempt to engage the Swords while endeavoring to avoid trampling the men in a field filled with thick smoke. Or they could have turned tail and been branded cowards. Finally, they could simply fight on and attempt to bring down Terrakion and pray to the Dragons that the artillery fire found its target. The heavy attrition the valiant souls of the 7th suffered makes their decisions clear."
Despite the terrible position the 7th found themselves in, they had (unwittingly or otherwise) succeeded in peeling one of the Swords away from its brethren, allowing the 2nd and 3rd to effectively skirmish with Virizion and Cobalion. The might of the two Swords, however, proved to be a nearly overwhelming force for the men, and sources indicate that after as little as two minutes of combat, the commanding officer of the 3rd Infantry Regiment sent a runner towards the 1st Artillery Battery asking for supporting fire. The Battery, understandably skeptical about firing directly on a massed infantry formation, had its reservations about following the order, to which the runner is famously believed to have shouted,
"You blind fools, we are already damned! Fire, that those beasts may join us!"
Though multiple accounts from veterans of the battle recall this quote (or some variation), none place a name to the runner, and several claim the runner was killed in the ensuing artillery fire, though historians are wont to believe that such a detail is likely an embellishment for the sole purpose of making the line all the more impactful.
Costly though the order would prove to be, it successfully drew Cobalion away from the combined ranks of the 2nd and 3rd, directly towards the 1st. Though they were armed with incredible firepower in the form of their cannons, their lengthy reload process, poor ability to be aimed quickly or effectively in close quarters, demand for multiple hands to work a cannon efficiently, and the general lack of rifle fire support left the 1st at the mercy of an enraged, though heavily wounded Cobalion.
By piecing together accounts from the veterans of the battle, it is believed that the Swords of Justice fell in the following order: Terrakion, Virizion, Cobalion. There are conflicting accounts that argue that Virizion fell first, as several accounts have made mention that when the pokemon was finally fatally wounded by massed musket fire, Terrakion and Cobalion both let out ear-splitting roars of rage. Others note that Terrakion's roar at the time of Virizion's death was a death knell, as the pokemon suffered a direct shot from a cannonball to its side that blew the side of the pokemon completely open and finally put an end to the battle the cavalry and artillery had been engaged in.
Cobalion is known to be the final Sword that fell, as it was not killed by the Battery, but instead severely maimed after losing its left fore-leg to a direct hit from chain-shot. It also was noted as having lost the function of its right rear leg after taking the brunt of a spray of grapeshot from a cannon at less than fifteen yards. Accounts of Cobalion's death vary slightly in detail, but a tremendous number of details remain the same in every retelling, particularly given that the affair is seen as nearly ritualistic. This text has selected an account produced by Colonel Robinson's own aide, who assisted in providing the Colonel with the materials for the execution of Cobalion, and reads as follows:
"The Colonel did not wear triumph on his face as he trudged through a field packed with dead and dying men - his men, sent to die by his own hand. The look on his face was almost vindictive, a judging and cold stare that he leveled on the groaning Cobalion as it looked on, too spent from the fight to go on any longer and now waiting for death. He looked to me and held his hand out, and at once I provided him with his musket.
There was a long pause before he asked, "You have loaded it?"
At my confirmation, he sighed and aimed the musket high into the air and fired, then began the process of cleaning and loading the weapon once more. Before he packed the ball into the barrel, however, he reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and removed a small black object and rubbed it with force around the entirety of the ball. The air filled with the smell of smoke, though the tree that produced such a scent was entirely unknown to me.
He finished loading the musket and then leveled it at the Cobalion's head. There was a pause as the Colonel stared the beast in the eyes. At last, with a weary sigh and a flash or something in his eyes, he fired, striking the beast directly in the center of its head. The last Sword slumped lifelessly to the floor of that damned plateau and the Colonel closed his eyes and turned away to leave the beast to its rest eternal.
There were no cheers in the glow of that dawn, though the Swords lay dead, and to this day, even seven years later, the Colonel refuses to speak about the Swordsfall.
Colonel Robinson would resign his position in the Armed Forces of the Republic upon returning to Castelia after declining a promotion to Brigadier General, much to the alarm of his superiors. The affair caused a minor scandal in Castelia and murmurs of concern in the greater Unova region, though Robinson would remain tight-lipped about his reasons for leaving until his final years. He is reported to have declined so many interviews that he eventually stopped answering his front door. Those closest to him explained that the Colonel simply gave keys to his home to those he was close to and instructed them to always enter through the back door.
Upon his death, Colonel Robinson's will included a stipulation that the wood of the musket used to fell Cobalion be incinerated and its ashes spread on the Swordsfall Plateau, and that the iron be melted down into a single ingot, taken seventeen miles out to sea and tossed into the ocean. His surviving family instead donated the musket to the Unovan Frontier History Museum in Opelucid City, where it remains on display to this day alongside an exhibit discussing the Swordsfall and its effects. Several initiatives to see the late Colonel's wishes realized have been put forward over the years, but the item has been classed as a "vital and indispensable part of the Unovan Republic's storied and sometimes grim history." Most recently, an anonymous businessman attempted to acquire the weapon for "its historical significance" but was similarly rebuked.
To this day, the Swordsfall remains a controversial event in Unovan history. Arguments that go beyond the scope of this text concerning boths sides of the debate on the wisdom behind the decision continue to this day among historians. What is certain, however, is that the Swordsfall remains an instrumental part in the development of relations between people and pokemon across the world. Many regions, Johto especially, cite the "nigh unforgivable act" as the turning point in our understanding of the relationship that people and pokemon share. Grim though the event may have been, it is inarguable that Unova (and the rest of the world) have seen great strides in improving the relationship between people and pokemon as a result of it.
For further reading on the Swordsfall or arguments concerning its benefits and detriments, consult:
- 'Ere A Morrow I Shall Not Know - A first hand account of the campaign against the Swords, written from the perspective of Private Joshua Langley who is believed to have been slain in the opening charge on the day of the Swordsfall
- Fanfare, Garlands, Good Beer And Empty Streets- A collection of letters and diary entries from veterans, casualties and the family of the men that fought in the Swordsfall discussing the battle itself and the public response upon the men's return.
- The Last Of Our Hope - A critical examination of the events that led to the Swordsfall by Janet Redford, focusing particularly on the structure of the Unovan Republic at the time as well as the ideals that pushed it into conflict with the Swords in the first place.
- Beyond The Swordsfall: How A Tragedy Reformed Unova - An argument for the importance the Swordsfall had in aligning Unova with a vector that led it to become a rising power, and how it helped to strengthen Unovan society and rewrite the ideals that would guide it, by Nolan Anderson.