Wolves and War
Page 59
Stuart MacIntosh was to command the defence of the settlement itself with a liaison unit of Kath Andrews, Matvei and another three unpaired Lind. Matvei’s Rozya and her vadeln James Rybak remained at the domta because her young were too small to be left. The liaison party would be in direct contact telepathically with the communications Lindar. Emily and Ilyei were also allocated to communications and to provide medical assistance. Thomas and Stasya had been sent to be the communications link to one of the Lindars and the girl worried constantly about them both. Young Peter Crawford and Radya were to remain with James and Rozya at the domta. The boy was considered far too young and vulnerable to face the carnage that was a battlefield. Tara however, as Francis had suspected, was not to be so lucky.
Jim had managed to persuade Zanatei that Tara and Kolyei were to go east with the army as the pivot pair of his communications strategy. He needed a vadeln-pair, both halves of which were fluent in both Standard and Lindish and one where the Lind half could maintain a strong multiple telepathic link. Afanasei could have done this but he was not partnered with a human.
In fact, most Susas, ryz leaders and Eldas could multi-link in this way, to a greater or lesser extent. Kolyei was unusual in being as proficient at multi-linking so young. It was not only Kolyei’s telepathic skills that had made Jim choose him and Tara; his linguistic skills were coupled with acumen and experience.
“Good communications is the key to victory,” Jim had told Zanatei. “We must meet the Larg as an army, not as individual Lindars and I won’t be able to see everything from the ledge I have chosen as our command-post.”
“But Tara,” exclaimed Zanatei in distress. “She is not adult. Have you lost whatever senses you have? It is our duty to protect her, not to send her into the many paths of danger.”
“She’ll be behind the lines, well out of danger.”
“Nowhere is safe in battle,” cautioned Zanatei.
“Do you have any better ideas? They are the only choice, unfortunately.”
: I wonder what Janice will say : mused Larya. : I do not think she will be pleased :
Larya’s prediction proved quite correct and Jim had to talk very fast to get her to agree.
“I will hold you personally responsible for her safely,” she warned him, an angry glint in her eye.
Jim was positively sure that, if anything untoward happened to the girl, Janice would personally arrange his painful demise.
A medical section, or Holad, was to be provided to aid both human and Lind. Laura and Winston were in charge of the human contingent with Zhenya, senior healer at Zanatei.
Robert Lutterell commanded the thousand settlers who would march out of the settlement to stand and fight with their allies. Reports from Matvei complimented their preparedness for battle and their determination.
Although Arthur Knott had the knowledge to make duplicates of the old twenty-first century pistols and other firearms, he did not have the time to fabricate the machinery and tools needed. When the colonists set out from Earth, they had never in their wildest dreams expected to find themselves in a war situation. Riga, the planet they had originally been making for, was a peaceful one. High-tech machinery and tools had not been stored in the Argyll’s holds. Weaving looms were the most technologically advanced machinery they possessed. Mustering a large workforce, they had, however, managed to make many swords, helmets, armour and other weapons and Arthur’s crossbows were much in demand.
The infantry swords were short and wide-bladed, resembling, as the more historically minded knew, those used by the Romans on Earth. They were around twenty-two inches in length and the blade just over two inches wide. They were blades designed for short stabbing strokes, for men and women fighting in formation and from behind a shield wall. The infantry’s shield was similar to the Roman model as well, being rectangular, curved and comparatively easy to produce in the numbers required and time available. It was made out of wooden upright slats set together with animal glue and then covered with yet more stout leather.
Robert’s men practised formation fighting, and copying their Lind allies, the infantry fought in three ranks, the second rank carrying wicked, stabbing spears as well as swords. They also practised forming the traditional fighting square, which had proved itself time and again during the battles of the Napoleonic Wars in the nineteenth century. This time however, it would not be horse cavalry that the square would be facing, it would be the Larg – a completely different proposition.
It did not take the settlers long to realise that for the human element of the army to be really effective, they would need to use some form of rapid-fire weapon. The field army’s need for such weapons was the greater because these troops would not have barricades to hide behind, as did those defending the settlement.
The crossbows, although excellent, took far too long to reload after firing. Bows and arrows were an alternative but it took years to train a fast and accurate bowman. The settlers did not have years, they had months. The famous longbowmen of England in the Middle Ages had begun archery training at an extremely young age. Weekly practice at the archery butts had been the law for all able-bodied males.
Stretching his improvisational and technological skills to the limit, Arthur Knott came up with a solution. The army needed to be able to fire volleys of arrows at their foes so he designed, what he himself named, his ‘contraption’ that was able to fire pre-loaded arrows a fair distance and thirty at a time. The arrows were loaded into a wooded frame he called a magazine that was placed on the main frame of the contraption itself. The firing mechanism was spring-loaded and the magazine was drawn back and then loosed. Distance and trajectory could be altered by the manipulation of wheels and cogs. The settlers worked hard to manufacture the contraptions. They would require any number of arrows as well and children as young as eight were to be seen on the arrow production lines. The term contraption was soon shortened to contrap.
Zanatei thought the infantry would turn out to be an invaluable asset to the Lind defensive plans and told Larya so in no uncertain terms. They would form a solid phalanx of support to the Lindars in the centre of the battle line. The Lindars would be placed to either side of the infantry, the more experienced Lindars to the front. Each Lindar consisted of three ranks, the oldest and most battle-experienced in the front rank, the younger Lind forming the rear rank. The Vada Jim would use on the flanks as skirmishers and also as a shock force if things got tight.
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