Chapter 417

The Night’s Watch Defense Protocol is divided into three sections: The Great Canyon, The Wall, and The Gift. While it doesn’t cover every possible scenario, it comprehensively addresses the military situations that might occur under the Watch’s jurisdiction, including external invasions and internal unrest, with clear and specific countermeasures.

The Great Canyon stretches over fifty miles. Even with the Watch mustering all available manpower, the garrison could only achieve an average of a few dozen men per mile—more than enough for reconnaissance but woefully inadequate for defense.

Much of the Great Canyon Defense Protocol focuses on solving this issue.

After dividing the canyon into segments and setting up a guard rotation, the protocol emphasizes how to deploy personnel and resources in the ideal scenario—where the enemy attacks from one or several points. It outlines how to maximize defensive strength with limited manpower while ensuring that other segments remain secure and free of vulnerabilities.

Half of the wildfire and dragonglass weapons are distributed to the frontline squads to prevent a sudden assault by the White Walkers in a remote section from breaching the defenses. The other half is stored in the three fortresses along the canyon. These supplies accompany the movement of the reserve forces, ensuring targeted support for the attacked segments.

Despite a twenty-to-one numerical disadvantage, if the battle is confined to narrow fronts, humanity can use careful coordination, specialized weaponry, and terrain advantages to neutralize the wights’ overwhelming numbers. The improved defensive pathways, now wide and smooth after multiple repairs, offer excellent mobility rivaling the Wall itself. No matter where the enemy attacks, they face the combined strength of the entire canyon defense.
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The protocol is meticulous, but the enemy’s commander is a sentient magical being. The newly risen Night King might lack experience in large-scale warfare, but it still knows how to exploit its strengths. A full-scale assault across the entire line maximizes the wights’ numerical advantage while exposing the defenders’ insufficient manpower. This approach avoids wasting troops in piecemeal attacks that achieve nothing.

Exploiting one’s strengths against an opponent’s weaknesses—this is the highest strategy.

In human history, due to the limitations of individual commanders, communication, and battlefield chaos, true full-scale assaults across a vast, out-of-sight battlefield are rare. Even if such a plan is devised, it’s often impossible to execute effectively.

The army of the dead faces no such limitations. Every wight is controlled by the White Walkers who raised them, and the Walkers themselves are telepathically connected to the Night King. The entire force functions more like a single organism composed of hundreds of thousands of "cells." A wight can coordinate with another wight it cannot even see, across hundreds of yards. This army executes orders with near-perfect precision, capable of implementing the supreme commander’s plans flawlessly.

Does the Great Canyon Defense Protocol account for such a scenario? It does, but in only one page, summarized into two key points:Each segment is to hold its position, kill as many enemies as possible, and retreat to the nearest fortress once their wildfire and dragonglass supplies are exhausted.The three fortresses along the canyon are to support the segments in an orderly manner, ensuring that retreat proceeds "from the farthest to the closest" to cover as many defenders as possible.

This is the best plan Aegor could devise under the insurmountable constraints of manpower.

Now, even this simple two-step plan is facing collapse because the westernmost fortress—Icebay Port—has run into trouble.
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According to the protocol, Icebay Port is responsible for deploying reserves to support the western quarter of the canyon during an all-line assault. These reserves are meant to stabilize the defense, ensure an orderly retreat eastward, and ultimately regroup within the fortress walls for a final stand or evacuation. But instead of following the plan, the soldiers assigned to this task are busy repelling an entirely different attack—this one from within humanity’s ranks.
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The protocol accounted for the possibility of an Ironborn raid on Icebay Port. However, the new commander of the port lacks the experience of Cotter Pyke or Denys Mallister. With insufficient time to bond with the troops, panic spread during the raid, and the soldiers failed to follow the prescribed response. Jaime Lannister, who was not adept at commanding a fortress defense, added to the disarray. The inclusion of Northern troops, who operated outside the Night’s Watch chain of command, only worsened the confusion.

These individual issues might not seem catastrophic, but combined—and matched against Euron Greyjoy, a cunning and ruthless adversary—they became a serious problem.

Unlike Eastwatch, Icebay Port lacks a defensive wall on its seaward side. The elite Ironborn raiders, having slipped into the harbor undetected, effectively infiltrated the fortress itself upon landing. They quickly split into three groups: one headed for the fortress center, another for the watchtower, and the last to sabotage the three warships docked at the harbor.

The Ironborn, true to their pirate nature, never excelled at large-scale land battles. With their numbers limited by the need for stealth, their goal was not to seize Icebay Port but to cripple it—especially its shipyard—effectively stifling the North’s nascent navy before it could challenge the Iron Islands.

Northern sailors, anticipating fires from the earlier bombardment, had already removed the gangplanks from their ships, turning the warships into floating fortresses. The watchtower guards abandoned their ranged weapons to defend the tower’s stairs, while a small group of Northern soldiers retreated to the shipyard to protect their craftsmen.

The harbor descended into chaos. While the Ironborn hoped their infiltration would cause the defenders to panic, they found the Night’s Watch and their allies far more resilient. The newly settled Free Folk, hardened by their lives beyond the Wall, had been trained into effective militia. Even women took up arms, fighting alongside the men. Defenders hurled wildfire from the watchtower to hold the stairway, while sailors pushed their ships further from the docks to avoid capture.

Realizing their advantage was slipping, the raiders began setting fire to buildings, attempting to raze Icebay Port.
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“I’m taking men to the harbor!” Jaime Lannister barked, grabbing the panicking commander by the arm.

“You shouldn’t have left the wall undefended to begin with. If we abandon it again and the enemy breaches the gate, Icebay Port will be lost.”

“I’ll go,” Jaime cut him off sharply. “You’re useless out there.”

Before the commander could respond, Jaime rallied his Westerlander troops and a few scattered defenders—over a hundred in total—and led them down the steps toward the harbor. Passing a crate, he paused. “These... these are dragonglass bombs sent from Duskendale. Why are they opened? They’re not meant for humans.”

A nearby soldier stammered, “I... I thought we could use them. If we can’t hold, maybe they’d scare the enemy...”

“Fine. Bring a few. Light them with torches,” Jaime ordered, realizing that with the canyon aflame to the east, the bombs couldn’t be sent to reinforce the front. They might as well be used here.

The sight of Jaime’s torch-lit procession—a glowing serpent of reinforcements—drew the attention of the Ironborn. Two hundred raiders regrouped, forming a crude line to block Jaime’s advance.

Jaime eyed their formation, weighing the odds. Though outnumbered nearly two-to-one, his troops were better trained and equipped. They could break through with minimal casualties—but speed was crucial. Icebay Port was in disarray, and the longer the battle dragged on, the greater the chance of Ironborn reinforcements tipping the scales.

“Throw with me!” Jaime shouted, grabbing a bomb in one hand and a torch in the other. As the Ironborn closed to thirty meters, he lit the fuse and hurled it with all his strength.

“Coward!”

“Craven!”

“Fight fair, Lannister!”

The Ironborn, familiar with the terror of wildfire, scrambled to dodge the incoming spheres. Four bombs landed, rolling to a stop among the raiders. For a moment, nothing happened—then the fuses burned out, igniting the powder inside.