Thomas and Arya had been spending time with their children. They read them stories, had happy meals together, and spent 4 blissful days of family time before the enemy attacked them. The 19 ships that they had to fight with were spaced in a ring around the shores of the bay. Each ship had a small area so that it could turn and fire from both sides. The Black Hand and the Sovereign were smack in front of the city itself, both dancing on the short choppy waves of the bay. It was going to be a beautiful spring day, workers were headed out to the fields, and a bumper crop was expected. The shipyard was swarming with workers building a replacement flagship for the tree-kin. But this wasn't going to be a normal day for Brandon's Rest; they were under attack.
50 Zonian ships were counted heading towards them: 10 troop ships, 10 slinger ships, 5 mage ships, and 25 top-of-the-line attack vessels. Everything that could be ready was made ready; Arya and her people had seen to that. They were all rested and resupplied, to the last bag of powder.
4 of the Zonian assault ships had gone down to gunfire and fire arrows from the observation balloon or Fort #1, Bear Island, as they all knew it. One idiot Zonian captain, oblivious to his surroundings, hadn't noticed a huge chunk of ice floating just beneath the surface. He rammed it with his sling ship, which sank unceremoniously. The crew members of the ships that survived each sinking were floundering in the cold water, trying to make it to land anyway they could. The other Zonian sling ships set up just inside gun range and began to fire at Fort #1 and the balloon aloft. The balloon crew bravely held their places against incoming fire and kept firing their whole supply of fire arrows at these ships. The Zonian sling ships were having trouble aiming because a strong headwind broke out right in their faces. Their shots would fall short or go awry because the winds caught them. The balloon crew emptied their stocks of fire arrows and were brought down to reload. The telepath was replaced by another soldier adept at firing arrows, and the balloon started rising again. A lucky sling ice shot hit the rope mechanism, killing two of the workers. The mechanism was frozen in place until new workers could throw hot water on the ropes and replace the killed workers. As the balloon rose to it's full height again a lucky fire arrow shot hit another of the sling ships which burst into flame. But the Zonian troops were not there to be picked off one by one; they were there to make a beachhead/port out of Brandon's Rest. A mage ship got close enough to have its mages fire off fire spells at the balloon, and the balloon burst into flame and plummeted to the ground. A huge explosion occurred as the burning balloon hit the ground, and all of its munitions went up at once. Even under attack, the ground crew rolled out a spare balloon and began getting it airborne. Everything depended on everyone doing their utmost, and they all understood it.
The sling ships turned their attention to Fort #1, and the mage ships closed the distance to fire off spells at the solid block of the fort. As they hove into view, the Westeros ships opened fire from their places around the harbor. The bigger guns on the city walls opened up too. They shredded 5 more enemy ships and spilled their surviving crews into the icy spring waters of the Bay of Ice. These Zonians, dumped into the water, were slowly making their way towards land on both sides, under fire from ships and shore batteries.
The 10 troop ships suddenly split and headed for the north side of the Bay of Ice and a small isthmus of land that stuck out from the south shore of the bay. Just then, a small trade ship appeared from that isthmus and slowly made for the center of the bay's opening to the sea. Two Zonian assault ships pounced on it, just as heavy fire from the Black Hand and the Sovereign struck it amidships. A massive wildfire explosion erupted across the bay opening. The Zonian 5 troop ships headed for the south shore burst into flames, and their troops began jumping into the bay, where they were met with a blaze of green fire.
Tyrion, from the deck of the Sovereign, smiled, saying, "That green fire never gets old." 3 of the troop ships that turned north made it to the Lorn Point and began unloading under fire from the island and the ships stationed on the north side of the bay. One was sunk by the fort battery, and one by a ship's gun. Just when it looked like 4000 Zonian troops were going to be unloaded Scot-free on the north shore, several thousand wildlings showed up. And four wildling ships joined the naval fray.
One of the Zonian mage ships had been set afire by the wildfire cauldron in the bay opening; it turned wildly and ran, and came face to face with a wildling ship that boarded her from the non-burning side. 50 mages were "rescued" by the wildlings, and the rest of the crew was dispatched. All of the ships on the north shore shot past the Zonian troop ships into the open sea. The Portsmith was first among them, and it began to rain hell on the few retreating Zonian ships.