Duke0fWellington
Recruit
Meet Harrison Drake, a merchant from London. He makes his money through shipping various goods around the European continent.
After some negotiations with a Austrian trading company, Drake was contracted with bringing a shipment of Ale and Linen to Vienna. He hired a local company of mercenaries to assist him with loading and transporting the cargo.
Around 30 miles from Vienna, the trading caravan was set upon by a gang of miscreants! Feeling confident about his mercenaries, which certainly weren't cheap, Drake told the bandits to bugger off.
Alas, Drake's confidence faltered a little when it came apparent that one of his mercenaries had forgot where he left his musket. "Oh, bugger."
The fight ended as could be expected, with Harrison being on the receiving end of a club around the skull.
They took his clothes, his money, and most of all, his shipping cargo. They beat him. They did things that will haunt him forever. A few days later he managed to break free of his shackles and escape from the bandit camp under the cover of darkness! Drake wondered into Vienna, bruised and depressed.
He approached the first guard he could find to report the crime, only to be told to eff off.
Harrison Drake was taken aback, he wasn't some vagabond from the streets! How dare this man speak to him like that! He kicked up a huge fuss, screaming and shouting and eventually, for the second time this weak, he found himself being hit over the head with a solid wood object. Drake awoke in a dark, grimy cell, his hands shackled.
The next morning an Austrian infantryman strolled in to the prison. "They're finally letting me out" thought Drake. He couldn't be more wrong. It turns out a war had broken out. Bonaparte and his Italian vassals had broken the Austrian army and were marching on Vienna. The military needed every man they could so they had started conscripting men out of the jails to defend the capital city. Drake was given a rubbish old uniform, an outdated musket, and was thrown onto the front lines.
Drake's only experience with combat involved him being beaten with a bludgeon, he'd never even fired a musket before. The allied army had regrouped and rushed to meet the Italian military, in order to stop them from looting the towns and villages of SE Austria, engaging in battle near the town of Klagenfurt. Drake's militia regiment were placed on the right flank, and had been tasked with charging over the river in order to break the enemy's flank.
So they charged. Cannonballs were exploding everywhere, cavalry were storming forward, men were falling left, right and centre. Drake fired off a few shots, not knowing whether he had killed anyone. He took a musketball to the shoulder, he hardly noticed due to the adrenaline pumping through his veins.
Luckily, a company of lancers managed to take out the enemy cannons, and then attack their line infantry from behind. Their morale was shattered and they fled from the field. Drake would live to see another day after all. He stood there, staring at hundreds of dead corpses. The horror of it all.
The battle was a huge victory for the Austrians. Having broke the backbone of the Italian military, the Italians were forced to accept a peace agreement. Otherwise, they'd face an army storming through the peninsula.
Thus marked the end of Drake's 'career' in the Austrian military, he handed in his uniform and was given 50 francs for his service. Using this money, he managed to hire a carriage to take him to a port in Holland, where he caught a ride on a ferry to Dover. When he got home to his business, Drake found that no company would contract him after losing thousands of francs worth of goods to the bandits. He had to sell up his trading wagons and horses, his company headquarters and lay off his employees. With only the clothes on his back, and a few thousand in the bank, Drake was at a lost of what to do besides get drunk every day at the local inn. That was until it was announced that the truce Britain had with France had fallen into tatters. Harrison Drake went straight to the local military depot and purchased a commission with what money he had left.
Drake was given command a company in the the 27th Scots Guards regiment. He was posted up in New Galloway, where he drilled his men day in and day out, waiting for orders.
Two weeks later, a messenger arrived. It appears that the army is assembling. They're heading to France...
