The Unyielding Stag (Game of Thrones AU/Invincible)
Chapter 53: Lannisport

A/N: Time to check in on the Ironborn… and their victims.

-x-X-x-

The last time the Iron Islands rebelled, Balon Greyjoy's opening move was the burning of the Lannister Fleet. It was both a bold statement and solid tactics, all things considered. Lannisport was the closest major harbor to the Iron Islands after all, and while the Lannister Fleet had never been the biggest in Westeros, it was certainly up there thanks to the leadership and forethought of Tywin Lannister.

In the time since the Greyjoy Rebellion, however, House Lannister had rebuilt and could once again boast a fairly effective navy. They might not have the same numbers as the likes of the Ironborn, House Redwyne, or the Crown, but they were still up there. And really, fourth best wasn't the worst… unless one was up against one of the first three.

"Enemy ships on the horizon!"

Ser Kevan Lannister's jaw clenches as he stands on the walls of Lannisport, looking out across the harbor where Ironborn Galleys were just becoming visible as small spots in the distance. Charged with the city's defense by the Lord of Casterly Rock, his brother Tywin Lannister, Kevan can't help but worry about how this is going to go. Still, at least this time they had forewarning.

After a moment to take a deep breath, he starts shouting orders and men begin scurrying about to make sure his orders all reach the right ears. The Lannister Ships out in the harbor already have their own orders, of course. They know what they're in for and every last cog, carrack, galley, and dromond is crewed by brave men of the Westerlands ready to do their duty.

No one quite knew why Euron Greyjoy hadn't launched a surprise attack this time around. Especially when the entire gambit had been orchestrated by Euron himself during the first Greyjoy Rebellion. Perhaps he knew the same trick wouldn't work twice. Perhaps he even knew that House Lannister had spies on the Iron Islands in place to alert them in advance and decided it was better not try. Or perhaps he had some other trick up his sleeve…

Everyone knew the infamy of the Crow's Eye, after all. Euron Greyjoy, the Ironborn that all the other Ironborn detested so much he was exiled for it. They said he was the most comely and cunning of his brothers, despite the eyepatch he wore over his left eye. However, they also said that his ship, the Silence, was crewed exclusively by mute thralls and mongrels whose tongues Euron tore out himself.

Really, the problem Kevan had with the Crow's Eye's purported reputation was a simple one… if he was really as disliked and hated among the Ironborn as they all claimed, then how was he able to take control of them so damn fast? Balon's death and Euron's ascension… there simply hadn't been enough time between the two events, not really.

It didn't make any sense… but it also wasn't Kevan's place to question such things in the end. His role, as always, was to follow his Lord Brother's commands… and Tywin had been quite clear about his priorities.

Thanks to the overconfidence of the Crow's Eye, the Lannister Fleet had been able to assemble in full ahead of time and was currently arrayed in Lannisport's harbor, ready to defend the port city with support from the walls. However, given the size of the Ironborn Fleet, it was expected that House Lannister's fleet would once again be lost to the savage raiders… eventually.

Kevin's job wasn't to keep the fleet intact forever, but to hold the city and to spend their fleet like currency to do so. They were effectively taking up a defensive position until such time as House Redwyne could reinforce them from the South and the armies of the Westerlands could rally from further inland.

On that front, the news from King's Landing had been… conflicting. Some said that the King was dead. Some said his Small Council was slain by base treachery. Others still said that the King still lived but was grievously wounded.

In the end though, House Lannister could rely on nobody but themselves for the time being. Still, Kevan thought that they had a pretty good chance of holding the city even if they eventually lost the fleet. Lannisport was surrounded by walls on all sides and was the largest settlement in the entirety of the Westerlands.

Just breaking the Lannister Fleet wouldn't be enough to give the Ironborn access. They would then have to scale the walls as well if they wanted to sack the city, something they hadn't even managed during Balon Greyjoy's rebellion. Yes, they'd burned the Lannister Fleet while it was still anchored, but they hadn't quite managed to take the city back then. And Kevan would be damned if he was going to let them do so now.

"Ser! The Silence has been spotted! Euron Greyjoy is with this fleet!"

Kevan jolts at that, before moving to the man who spoke.

"Give me your far-eye."

"Y-Yes ser!"

Taking the far-eye from the scout, Kevan brings it to his face and squints as he peers through it. He'd never rightly understood how the Myrish Lens worked. He just knew how to operate one, allowing him to peer across the massive distance separating him from the encroaching Ironborn Fleet.

There, at the head of the enemy armada… the Crow's Eye. Euron Greyjoy, self-proclaimed King of the Iron Islands, stands at the helm of his ship, the Silence. The man's eyepatch makes him unmistakable, though the armor he wears seems to shimmer oddly through the far-eye in a way that Kevan can't explain.

Behind the Silence comes more Ironborn ships… but not as many as Kevan was expecting. In fact, a quick count in his head and he's pretty sure the Lannister Fleet actually outnumbers Euron Greyjoy's ships at the moment. Not by many, but certainly by enough for him to wonder what's going on.

Where is the rest of the Ironborn Fleet? Surely Euron wasn't so foolish that he was not only attacking a fully prepared Lannisport but also doing so with a fraction of his forces. That… that would be suicide.

And yet, the more Kevan looks about, the more certain he becomes that there are no more ships on the horizon. Disbelief warring with duty, Kevan hesitates for a moment… but in the end, duty wins.

"Send messages to the Captains immediately. Let them know that if the Ironborn Fleet continues to approach, they should let them close in and encircle them so they can't escape. We will crush Euron Greyjoy between our ships and the walls and end this so-called war here and now."

"Yes Ser Kevan!"

As his orders are sent out, Kevan scowls furiously, once again peering through the far-eye. It just didn't make any sense. And yet… over the next while, that's exactly what happens. The Ironborn Fleet, much smaller than it should be, is led deeper and deeper into the harbor by Euron and his ship.

Meanwhile, the Lannister Fleet spreads out and moves to surround them, slowly but surely cutting off any possibility of escape. It's not long before the Ironborn are in a position where they will have to fight their way out if they want to retreat. More than likely, they'll just die. Could this really be happening? Could this farce of a war be about to end before it had even truly begun?

And yet, Kevan sees no panic among the Ironborn ships. Not a single one of the notoriously independent reavers breaks away from the fleet to try and run. They all stay the course even as their capacity to retreat is closed to them. The enemy ships creep closer and closer to the city, until they're almost in range of the scorpions, archers and other siege equipment situated on Lannisport's walls.

They stop just shy of that though, causing Kevan to furrow his brow and frown. Peering through the Myrish Far-Eye, he can make out Euron Greyjoy at the helm of his ship far more clearly now. It's almost as if the man is looking right at him with his one visible eye, staring Kevan down from afar in a way that sends shivers down his spine.

"… Signal the Fleet to begin moving in. Tell them to push the Ironborn towards us so that we can begin firing upon them from the walls."

Even as his orders are given, however, Kevan watches Euron Greyjoy bring a large, ornate horn to his lips. He watches the man blow it… and to his surprise, he even hears the horn clearly on the wind despite the sheer distance between the two of them.

Kevan stiffens, watching carefully to see exactly what would happen next. Did the Ironborn have some secret weapon? Was the horn their signal to deploy it and begin their attack? He wets his lips, his tongue wavering in his mouth as he prepares to shout further orders… only, they never come.

Slowly, the far-eye comes down from Ser Kevan Lannister's face as he finds that he's fully capable of watching what happens next without the aid of the Myrish Contraption. At the blowing of Euron Greyjoy's Horn… something shifts beneath the waves. A dark shadow that Kevan can only make out because the height of Lannisport's walls gives him bird's eye view of the bay.

Abruptly, massive appendages each the size of a galley themselves blast out of the water and come slamming down on Lannister Ships on one side of the Ironborn Fleet. Meanwhile, the Ironborn Fleet immediately turn in the opposite direction, aiming for the other half of the split Lannister Boats.

All of the sudden, it's that half of the Lannister Fleet that's outnumbered. It had seemed like perfect strategic sense in having the fleet encircle the Ironborn so they could assail them from all sides and cut off any chance of escape. However, that's now abruptly turned on its head as its revealed that the Lannisters were the ones who had walked right into a trap.

And Kevan… Kevan just stands there, staring wide eyed at the Kraken that emerges from the depths of the harbor and begins to lay waste to the boats around it.

Sure, everyone knew that the arms of House Greyjoy was that of a Golden Kraken on a black background. Stories of Krakens bringing down ships were relatively commonplace, though most of the time it was lone ships and the krakens were often attracted by something else like excess blood in the water.

This though… this wasn't like those stories. And Kevan had never heard of a kraken of this size coming this close to land. It almost felt like the monster filled half of the harbor with its bulk under the waves. The Lannister Fleet didn't stand a chance.

… Would the city? Kevan swallows thickly as he looks from the swinging appendages of the giant kraken to the walls of the city he'd been tasked with defending from the Ironborn Menace. All of the sudden, he finds himself truly questioning for the first time whether or not he can actually hold the city. The walls of Lannisport go right up to the water, after all…

In the end, all he can do is find his nerve and begin barking out further orders as the Lannister Fleet is steadily sunk… again. Among those orders, he has word sent to his brother in Casterly Rock as hastily as possible. Tywin needs to know what's happening here.

… If Lannisport falls, then his brother needs to be prepared for their House's ancestral seat to potentially come under siege.

-x-X-x-

Euron Greyjoy watches with a faint smile on his lips as the Lannister Fleet crumbles before him.

It would have been nice to have more time, of course. But at this point, Euron was used to the failures of lesser men. First with Renly Baratheon, and now with Petyr Baelish.

The deal he'd made with Renly had been a simple one, perhaps because he knew deep down inside that it wouldn't really pan out. In exchange for one of the Valyrian Steel Swords he'd collected from Valyria, Renly had promised to grant the Iron Islands their independence once Euron took control from his brother.

If Renly had stayed true to his word, it would have been disastrous for the Baratheon King. Never mind that his claim to the throne would have already been tenuous at best. Winning the Throne only to allow one of the Seven Kingdoms to secede would have brought him no end of trouble closer to home… and given Euron all the time he needed to prepare for war.

Of course, Euron had had no intentions of leaving one of his many trophies from Old Valyria in the other man's hands either way. Eventually, once the Iron Islands were properly under his control following a Kingsmoot, he would have declared war on Westeros and they would have swept across the continent like the Hoares of old. Eventually, Euron would have gotten the sword back, likely after taking the Iron Throne for good measure.

In the end though, Renly had lost. As Euron suspected he might. The other man couldn't even turn the tide with a Valyrian Steel Sword of all things. His nephew had defeated his champions, taken the sword for himself, and exiled Renly to the Wall to join the Night's Watch.

That in turn had led to the plan with the treacherous Master of Coin, Petyr Baelish. This time around though, it was the weasel of a man who had been the one to approach Euron. Together, they plotted and schemed to introduce uncertainty and chaos to the Seven Kingdoms.

The original plan was for Baelish to poison Jon Arryn while Euron would make sure his older brother had his accident and a Kingsmoot could be called. They were to be one another's distractions, in the long term.

But then Baelish was very nearly caught and like all weak men, he'd begun to panic. He'd changed their arrangement and forced Euron to move far sooner than he otherwise would have preferred to. Not just sooner… Euron had been forced to show his hand entirely.

The Kraken that even now savages Lannisport at his command was a weapon that Euron would have preferred to keep hidden until such a time as it was truly necessary. His control over it certainly made it all but impossible for any Ironborn to argue against his right to rule the Iron Islands, after all. Even his idiot brother Victarion had been unable to argue in the face of Euron standing framed by the giant sea monster behind him.

But at the same time, revealing it as he'd had to meant that he could not save it for a later date. If only he'd been able to stick to the original plan of winning a Kingsmoot, he could have held the Kraken in reserve until it was most useful.

… No matter. The Crow's Eye knows what he must do. He knows exactly why he's here. Glancing down at his hand, he frowns as he sees it shaking for a moment. Clenching it into a fist calms it… and then he lifts that fist and points it towards the city in front of him.

The Kraken twitches at the wordless command, still busy destroying the last of the Lannister Fleet. However, as the sailors from those ships drown, the Kraken begin to move, pulling itself across the floor of the harbor on its many appendages, heading straight for the city walls.

To their credit, the men on those walls don't hesitate. Scorpion Bolts are fired, as are hundreds of arrows. They pepper Euron's beast, though most don't find purchase in its body.

Reaching land, the Kraken raises an appendage, easily as big around as one of the walled city's towers… and brings it down on the ancient stonework, cracking through a section of the wall in one blow and a truly impressive display of strength. The shouts and screams of panicking men fill the air again and Euron's smile grows into something that's half-snarl, half-grin, even as he signals the rest of his fleet forward to begin taking the city.

Baelish's last missive made it clear that he thought Axel Baratheon would die in his newest scheme, giving them both so much more chaos with which to execute their plans.

But Euron knew better. Nothing that Baelish could do to that… thing could actually succeed in killing it. Axel Baratheon would live… and they would face one another in battle soon enough.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Oh? Now what does Euron think he knows about Axel? Hmm…

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