The Beast Inside

by M E Wolf

  CHAPTER SIXTY

  Heavy lancers were equipped with plate armour, a medium steel shield, a heavy horse lance, a longsword and a dagger. Horse archers were equipped with leather armour, a buckler on the shield arm, a short sword, a dagger and a horse crossbow. Each unit consisted of fifty persons and fifty horses fully armoured with ring-mail barding. An archery unit consisted of a unit of light crossbowmen and a unit of longbowmen.

  Light crossbowmen were equipped with a light chain mail shirt, a dagger, a short sword and a light crossbow. Longbowmen were equipped with a leather tunic, a buckler on the left shoulder, a dagger, a long sword and a longbow. The size of the light crossbowmen and the longbowmen were one hundred and one hundred and fifty, respectively.

  A cavalry unit consisted of heavy plated warriors on heavy warhorses. By far, they were the most heavily armed and armoured unit of an army unit. They were equipped with field plate armour, a helm specifically designed for each warrior, gauntlets made of the finest steel, steel boots fit for a king, a horseman’s flail, a battle axe, a dagger, a longsword and a hand crossbow. Their numbers were no less than two hundred.

  Footman units consisted of pikemen and warriors. The pikemen were equipped with studded armour, spiked gauntlets, small bucklers at the joints that had one two inch spike on each of them, thick leather boots, a short sword, a dagger and either a longspear or another polearm. They consisted of one hundred persons. Warriors were equipped with ringmail armour, leather gauntlets, a body shield, a short spear, a dagger, a short sword, a sling and a war hammer. They consisted of one hundred and fifty persons.

  Medical units were very important in the success of the army. They consisted of a repairer unit and a gatherer unit. Repairer units were stationary units that stayed behind the command unit. They were healers and doctors that worked on the wounded. Repairer units consisted of fifty doctors and fifty nurses. Gatherer units went out into the field searching for the wounded and taking the wounded back to the repairer units. These units consisted of paramedical warriors.

  Paramedical warriors were trained in basic first aide and basic combat and were equipped with light leather armour, a first aide kit, a long sword, a dagger and a shortbow. There were two hundred men in each Gatherer unit. A command unit consisted of the foot guard, the command center and one elite unit. The foot guard consisted of two scout units, two longbowmen units and two footman units. Scout units consisted of two runner units and one rider unit.

  Runner units consisted of fast runners that could scout out an area without getting caught and a rider unit relayed messages to and from the command centers of each army unit. The runners were equipped with a scroll case, paper, quills, an ink bottle, light tunics, four daggers and two pairs of good boots. Riders were equipped with a good horse, leather armour, a shortsword, two daggers and a leather satchel to carry messages in. A runner unit consisted of two hundred persons and a rider unit consisted of one hundred persons.

  An Elite Unit consisted of an Assassin unit, a Forerunner unit, an Armsman unit and a Military Surgery unit. An Assassin unit consisted of two units of Ambushers, two units of Stealth Recons, three units of Special Operations (SpecOps) and one Master Assassin.

  The Ambushers were equipped with various hidden weapons, mainly daggers and darts and wore light leather armour on their chests, light leather greaves, light leather boots, light leather gloves, light leather helm all dyed black and their weapons were dipped in metal black and poison and carried a light leather satchel. There were ten persons in each unit. Stealth Recons are an elevated form of a scout with some assassination and subterfuge training. These had the same equipment as the Ambushers but each unit consisted of fifteen instead of ten.

  The Special Operations unit or SpecOps are assassins and their equipment varies depending on their target, thus they are trained in every and any weapon known and have been known to come from all of the other units of the Grand Reach’s army at any given time depending on what is needed, thus there is no real number to how many each unit consists of as they come from the rest of the army and may even stay with their regular units until called upon.

  They are the secret service of the army and thus no one truly knows who is a part of this Special Operations except the Master Assassin. The Master Assassin could be anyone and everyone, so everyone in the army is on their toes. Due to his or her nature only a select few of the governing council of the Assassin unit, which I might add don’t come with the unit and are voted upon from the SpecOps, know of his or her existence as the king or general talks to them as he does not want to deal with someone that is that close to death dealings in his or her life.

  A Forerunner unit consisted of a Tracker unit and a Spotter unit. The Tracker unit contained various levels of skilled trackers with at least one Master Tracker in the unit, sometimes more than three Master Trackers might be in the unit depending on the job at hand. They wore any numerous types of armour up to and including Elvin mail and knew how to use various types of weapons especially bows and crossbows and the odd two weapon style or two handed axe or sword.

  Some might have shields, but usually nothing larger than a buckler as it might hamper movement being any larger. There usually were twenty men or women in this unit. Spotter unit is actually what its name suggests. They would follow the trackers closely and were trained in sharp shooting with a longbow and would search the trees while the trackers would be looking for different signs of passing people or animals upon the ground and about four feet above the ground.

  Without the spotters they would not be able to notice sentries or whatnot far up in the trees. Likewise, the spotters don’t normally notice ground traps, so these two units must work together in order to work at all. There usually were twenty men or women in this unit as it usually matched the Tracker unit in numbers, including number of Master Spotters available.

  Armsmen unit consisted of heavy plate wearers that specialized in mainly polearms, but were masters in all types of weapons even ones that other units never heard of. They knew how to exploit armour of all types and were blacksmiths that had many years of training as warriors and blacksmiths, but mainly they knew how to make weapons and armour. This unit preferred extremely heavy plate and massive warhorses.

  Some women joined this unit, but it was rare to see this as to be part of the armsmen you had to be tougher than the toughest and ornerier than the orneriest. These men or women tended to get into fights a lot and very rarely you found one that could control their temper enough, but that was so rare to find considering what you had to do and go through to be one.

  There was usually anywhere from one hundred to three hundred of these, it depended on whether they could find enough horses to field them or not as the horses that they needed were rarer than the men or women in the unit. Military Surgery unit were tough and quick men and women that were able to mend anything and everything on the field in the most awkward of situations. It was said that they could even fix vein, artery and nerve damage. They came from the regular populous and sometimes other units of the army, as the ability to heal someone with more than medical tools was rare if at all possible.

  These men or women usually had a staff and tattered clothing as their job was tough, their clothing got a nasty beating. Sleep sometimes was not gotten much if at all unless you consider them passing out in the field and waking up later sleeping. There were usually around one hundred of these in the army. Lastly and most importantly the command center consisted of a General, a General’s aide, a unit of the General’s knights, a unit of squires and a medical unit.

  The General’s knights were equipped with fine steel plate armour over a long sleeved chain mail shirt, steel gauntlets, steel boots, a medium war horse with chain mail barding, a horseman’s flail, a longsword, a dagger, a light crossbow and a medium war lance. They consisted of twenty knights that are the personal guard of the General and his aide.

  Squires are squired to the General’s knights and were equipped with studded leather a
rmour over a light chain mail shirt, a light war horse with studded leather barding, a horseman’s flail, a longsword, a dagger, a light crossbow and a light war lance. Thus an entire army unit consisted of five thousand, one hundred and eighty-two persons.

  CHAPTER SIXTY ONE

  SilverFox was brought out of his reverie as the captain of the first elite command approached him. A captain was in command of both Heavy Lancers and Horse Archers of his elite command unit, a sergeant was in command of the Heavy Lancers and a sergeant was in command of the Horse Archers. Each elite command had one captain and two sergeants.

  “Lieutenant, Sir,” SilverFox looked up from the enemy ciphers that he was working on translating into The Grand Reach ciphers and caught the ending of a salute,

  “We should be moving out. The enemy is pressing on us and we are afraid that you may not make it back to your father in one piece. We have discussed it among us that you should be sent out in a group disguised as bandits. Us being close behind you, it is hoped, should keep any of the enemy from following you and a small party.

  “Many possible plans were put forward, but the most plausible was to have you leave at the break of dusk. With the night sky shielding your departure from the enemy you would arrive at your father’s command tent within six days. This would be ten days before reinforcements arrive at the same location.

  “It is imperative that you get the information to your father. We all depend on this for this to be a successful campaign.”

  The captain stood still while he waited for SilverFox’s response. He wiped mud and sweat from his brow with a handkerchief that he kept in his pocket. Captain Greenwood would always sweat profusely when he had approached his superiors especially when he was put up to a task like this and the nature of its impact on his superior. SilverFox felt that his men presumed too much of him and he was really getting tired of it.

  Before the war had begun he had most of them as acquaintances more than friends, but he expected them to treat him like any other superior officer. After all he did earn his status, even though most figured that he had gotten it because of his relationship with his father, the general and high ruler.

  This Greenwood guy was most likely sour because it took SilverFox less than a third of the time to get to his post as a Lieutenant than it took him to get to his captainhood.

  He decided to find out why his men were so afraid. Fear, as he knew fairly well, hindered the fighting of his men,

  “Presumptions, presumptions. Presuming or assuming something about someone should be against the law. What has gotten you and your men all riled up? What happens to be the situation out there today that would make you talk amongst yourselves and suggest such a thing to me? You know very well that I don’t turn coat and run.” SilverFox waited for an explanation from Captain Greenwood.

  Greenwood gulped down the pride that he struggled against that wanted him to reach down and strangle the Lieutenant. He worked hard and hated when people got promoted above him when they had not done as much work for the kingdom as he did. Taking a moment to gather what he should say without being sarcastic was not easy, but he knew that that is what he had to do for the good of the kingdom.

  It would take convincing to have the Lieutenant leave the protection of the compound considering the intelligence that he was reported to have,

  “Half of our men have been taken or killed by the enemy. The few of us left realized that, with so many of the enemy fighting against us and that they are numbered in upwards of five hundred, you and all of your ciphers may be taken by dawn. If this were to happen the kingdom would fall.

  “Of course you would prefer to stay here and fight till the end, but we will be surrounded by morning. Every hour the enemy’s forces increase by twenty-five, by morning they will have massed about seven hundred men. I am not afraid of dying for the kingdom and will remain loyal to it.

  “Even though I have never liked you, I respect your father and his reasons for appointing you in the position that you are in and trust that the kingdom will fall without your aide.

  “Your death would be a grave mistake that I could not have on my conscience. That is why I have proposed this ruse to play on the enemy.”

  Greenwood noticed the smile on SilverFox’s face and SilverFox knew that Greenwood had seen his smile,

  “Greenwood, this is what will happen. Your sergeants will lead most of your first elite command. Let me finish speaking, I am not demoting you, I need you at my side.

  “My father has always told me to keep someone at my side that I know values my life and will make sure that I survive, even if they are only doing it for the good of the kingdom.

  “You are right, the information that I have is so important that I have not told anyone, my message is for the king alone.

  “Now for the plan, bandits do not wear the clothes or the armour that we happen to be wearing. We must exchange it with one of our other men. It may be disheartening to do this, but it is only temporary and will change in the near future.

  “I still carry my former robes from my monastic life that I had discarded not so long ago, when this war had started and I have one extra one that would even fit one of your size.

  “From the puzzled look on your face I can tell that you did not know this. Not many know this of me, not even my father. To them, I just disappeared and then reappeared.

  “I was gone for more than ten years and learned many things that I have not used for the last five years of my military career. Now, I feel that I must use those skills to serve the military.

  “We will not be able to take anything heavier than chain mail and our weapons must be limited to what will be necessary for our survival.

  “That being what must be done, us two will be dressed as monks with light chain mail beneath our robes. It is possible to wear a chain mail coif, but it is better not to. You have your choice of sword, a dagger, numerous hidden weapons and your choice of a shortbow or a crossbow.

  “I will be carrying my broadsword, dagger, two boot knives, four throwing knives and a light crossbow. We will be riding on light warhorses dressed in monastery fashion with light barding that covers the neck, head and chest of the horse only.

  “The monks of the monastery normally are accompanied by an escort of armed guards. Our guards will consist of five members of our force. The captain of the second elite force will be our captain of the guards.

  “Two of the guards will come from the first elite force and the other two will come from the second elite force. We will choose the best horse archer from each elite force and the best heavy lancer will be chosen from each elite force.

  “This will give us two horse archers and two heavy lancers for our guard. They will have the usual weapons and armour that they would normally have in the elite command unit. Unfortunately, we only have a few hours till dusk to get ready.

  “It must be done discretely in order not to raise any suspicions amongst our enemies. I will be done with the ciphers in an hour, which means we will discuss more of the plans at that time.

  “You need to contact Captain McOrton and both of you must pick the most loyal and skilled men for our guard.

  “Come back here with him and those other men in one hour and also bring the four sergeants. All of us have to discuss our plans,”

  SilverFox reached down behind his desk and pulled out his extra monk’s robe and tossed it to Captain Greenwood.

  “and this should be placed over your light chain mail and weapons. Tell me what weapons you have chosen when you return so that I can organize our attacks later.”

  As the captain was heading out after his salute, SilverFox realized that they would need pack horses,

  “...captain we also need four pack horses for our main provisions and two days of provisions on each horse in the event that we are separated from our pack horses.”

  The captain nodded and finally left to get things ready. SilverFox went back to his work on the cipher.

  CHAPTER SIXT
Y TWO

  An hour had passed and SilverFox had finished working on translating the enemy cipher to the Grand Reach’s cipher. He was now in his monastic robes, a rope was tied at his waist with the twelve knots that represented the amount of years he had spent in the monastery. His robe was purple, which was the colour of a senior’s robe and also meant that he had taken certain vows that he was impelled not to break.

  A monk started with the rank of zero and the status of Accolade or what is better known as an initiate. An initiate is one who had not declared any vows and the colour of their robe was red, which happened to be the colour of the robe that he had given Captain Greenwood to wear. It was appropriate considering that a senior monk always had an initiate monk at his side. Every three years a monk went up one rank and took on another vow.

  SilverFox was rank four when he had left and took on four vows. Even though he was no longer a friar in the eyes of the other monks, he was still bound by the laws of the brotherhood of the warrior monks called Robes of Justice. Once a monk reached the rank of nine, which meant that they were a monk for a minimum of twenty-seven years and took on nine vows, they would become an elder of the Robes of Justice.

  Only one monk could hold the rank of nine, which made them the leader and high monk. The vows that a monk would have to take in order of rank from rank one to rank nine was Loyalty, Law, Brotherhood, Justice, Peace, Love, Chastity, Faithfulness and Priest. SilverFox was sworn to uphold the first four vows. Robes of Justice were the only monks allowed to use edged weapons.

  Not much, if anything, was known of the other monasteries. All that was known was the names of a few orders, the weapons that they used and the general philosophy that they lived by. It was estimated that there was at least fifty different orders in the kingdom, of which only four were known.

  The Robes of Justice were the most well known of those four orders and the other three that were not so popular were the Crimson Tigers, the Tree Frogs and the Vicious Wolves. All three were sworn enemies of the Robes of Justice and this also made them enemies of the Grand Reach. Hopefully, SilverFox and his men would reach his father with the translated ciphers.