The hamlet of Strasnoes was nestled in the decline carved by the river that passed through it. As they approached, though, they could see that it had been entirely overrun by a military encampment. Tents had been erected between all the outbuildings of the small village. Not enough to be obvious from a far distance, but quite clear close up. And, although evening was approaching, no fires had been lit, as was customary with military camps.

When they were within the confines of the camp, it had a different character than the camps they had seen before. There were fewer troops, and a lot more wagons and equipment. There were quite a few stacks of raw lumber, which looked fresh cut. And other wagons full of digging equipment that looked like they had been scavenged from every farm they passed. Delta and Zipper exchanged meaningful glances.

They were motioned to a halt outside a tent that looked like it was probably the local headquarters. Shortly after one of their escort entered Major Kanni emerged, smiling broadly. “Wight’s Brigade!” she greeted them; arms open. “Good to see you again. Have you come with presents for us again?”

Delta nodded respectfully from the wagon. “We have been charged to deliver a message from the King of Avenio to your General.” She produced a packet of papers with a heavy seal on it. “May I entrust its delivery to you?”

Kanni stepped forward. “As an officer of the reformed army of the Empire of Romitu, I swear to its safe delivery”, she said formally. Delta handed it over, and Kanni handed it off to an attendee with instructions to get a courier to deliver it as soon as possible.

“We are now officially unemployed”, said Delta.

“Splendid”, said Kanni, then winked. “May I offer you a contract?”

“More training and guarding?” asked Delta.

“Not this time”, said Kanni, growing more serious. “We have a mixed unit that I think your addition would do well for rounding out. Regular army duties this time.” She paused, meaningfully. “Wherever that might take us.”

“Is the alternative being a prisoner?” asked Delta, looking around.

“I do not wish to hire you under duress”, said Kanni, carefully. “You cannot rely on troops compelled to work for you. So, no, you are not prisoners. But neither are you at liberty to, say, just go back to Germarnis directly. You understand?”

“You need to protect your military secrets”, said Delta. She looked to her companions. “Do you want to sign up with them, or shall we just drift off, looking for other work.”

Zipper shrugged. “I’m awfully curious on how they are going to pull this off”, she said.

“Are you willing to bet your life on that curiosity?” asked Delta.

“It’s our job”, said Zipper, grinning. “No matter who we sign up for.”

She looked to Gwen. “Other work, hard to find”, said Gwen. “They seem not foolish to waste our life.”

Delta turned back to Major Kanni. “We are prepared to hear your offer”, she said.

“Oh, you know the details”, said Kanni. “One silver piece per person per day. Plus, all the perks of being a soldier of the Imperial army!” She gestured around her, theatrically.

“Fine”, said Delta, with resignation. “Where should we park the wagon? Is our favorite clerk around?”

“Just stick it behind something for now”, said Kanni. She looked at it more broadly. They had whitewashed it and blazoned their arms on it with soot. “I don’t think anyone could mistake it for one of ours”, she muttered. “The clerks are still on the road. Just find somewhere to bunk down and get your dinner for now.” She looked at Zipper and Gwen’s hopeful faces. “Cook’s on the road too. Does that change your mind?”

“Well”, said Zipper, hesitantly, “maybe.”

Kanni laughed. “I’ll send Lieutenant Jamal to see you in the morning. She’ll integrate you into her unit.”

They followed their instructions, parked their wagon, and picked up some grub. There was no formal mess tent. Instead troopers took their plates and sat around the vicinity with their backs up against the walls of the hamlet’s buildings or the wheels of wagons. They nodded to a few faces they recognized, but the conversations were mostly small and close knit.

“No grilling”, said Gwen.

“Just boiled”, said Zipper, with a disappointing look at her stew.

Gwen shook her head and nudged Delta. “No grilling Captain.”

“Yes”, confirmed Delta. “She had a remarkable lack of interest in our message and where we had been. If she’s coordinating scouts, you think she would want the latest info.”

“She was more interested in us, than in the state of mind of the King”, said Zipper. “Which, of course, I can understand. Us, being us. But there’s still a modest spark somewhere down in me that finds that odd.”

“Are they just so well informed that they don’t need to know more?” asked Delta.

“Or not trust what we know”, said Gwen. “Lady did make us see walls.”

Delta nodded. “I’m not sure I can unwind this one. Let’s just get an early night and sleep on it.”

“I look around when late”, said Gwen.

However, when she tried, Gwen was told, politely, to wait in the camp. Only authorized scouting missions were allowed.

“Can’t be helped”, said Delta, over breakfast.

A severe looking woman with dark brown skin came up to them. “Wight’s brigade?” she asked, shortly. They nodded. After a glare they put their food down, got to their feet and saluted.

“Yes, sir”, they chorused.

“Yes”, said the woman. “We’re a bit more formal here. Your cooperation in keeping discipline is appreciated. I don’t want any distinctions in my unit.”

“I take it you are Lieutenant Jamal”, said Delta.

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“Yes, Captain Delta”, she said. “You may retain your title as a brevet, out of respect for your position in your own brigade. But you are all under my command for the duration of your contract. Is that clear?”

“We will follow any legal order you give”, said Delta.

Jamal nodded. “Trooper Gwen. Show me your hood.”

Gwen stood, and pulled out her blinders. She turned them over to show their construction and straps. Then she put it on her head and tightened it in place. She moved her head around to show how it sat in place.

Jamal nodded again. “As you were. I’m told you are an archer. Do you have any experience with the javelin?” Gwen shook her head. “Well, it will be good to stretch yourself. Finish up your breakfast and report to the ford for training in your full gear.” And off she went.

“What javelin?” asked Gwen when she was gone.

“Short throwing spear”, said Zipper. “They like them for some reason.”

“Classically they would equip a whole unit with them”, said Delta. “Everyone would throw them in unison just before you closed. It didn’t matter so much if you were any good. The whole lot raining down on the enemy would break up their unit and demoralize them just before you crashed into them.”

“That sound fun”, said Zipper. “Although I’m not sure she’s going to be much fun.”

“We’re not here to have fun”, said Delta. “Seems we have to work against a ‘slack mercenary’ stereotype here. Let’s see if we can beat the rest there.”

They packed up and prepared. It was something they had drilled. Going from casual clothes to fully armored as quick as they could. They had it all worked out. Who could help whom with which straps to get there in the fastest time. In short order they trooped to the ford so they could stand around and wait.

Other people came by, one at a time, but there wasn’t a lot of talking. It really was a mixed bunch. About half were the standard Imperial trooper with the big, door-like shield and a short stabbing sword. But then there were two large and brawny orcs with great round shields and clubs. A dwarf stood to one side with an axe as tall as he was. Then there was a woman wearing armor made of little tiny plates all strung together. From that, her long, slightly curved sword, and her features they guessed she was from Jokamachi.

When it looked like they might be waiting a while, Delta stepped forward and politely asked a trooper if she could borrow a javelin. She then showed the weapon to Gwen who tried a few casts with it.

Zipper strode over to the orcs and knocked on a shield with the blunt end of her spear and asked if she could tag it. He laughed and invited her to try. Delta glanced up and grinned. She’d seen Zipper do this before. Mostly people assumed because she was small, she was not as effective. But, really, being either small or large could be advantageous. She was able to use their own shields to block her and could crouch to get under them.

After a while someone rattled an alarm on their shield. Lieutenant Jamal was approaching. They got together, formed a line, and came to attention.

She saluted them and had them stand down. “I wondered how long you were just going to sit there wasting time before you decided to start training”, she said. “Let’s see if we can get you into a unit.”

First, she placed the shields in front, with an orc on each side as an anchor. She put the poles, including the dwarf, in the middle, and had Gwen and the Jokamachi woman tie down the flanks. She marched them back and forth through the ford a few times to see if they could keep formation on unstable footing. Then she told them to defend and ran screaming into them.

With a leap, she held her sword in a high guard, turned sideways and, shouldered her way between the shields. The second rank scattered back, each expanding to their preferred range as she came up in a defensive position.

“Terrible”, she said. “The shields are now dead from the people coming up behind me. We’ve got flankers on each side because you didn’t hold the line, you’ve got an arrow on me, but you would be lucky to get off a shot that didn’t get in someone else’s way. Again.”

They tried it a few more times, doing a little better, but it was still awkward. They all had different fighting styles, none of which seemed to mesh well together. Eventually Delta raised her hand. “Sir, may I make a suggestion?”

“No”, said Jamal shortly. “You may take command. Whatever it is you want to suggest, suggest to the rest. I’m going to stand over there with my back turned. When you’re ready, tell me, and then I’ll attack.”

Delta nodded, surprised. But she had a quick conversation with the others, and moved people into different places, and gave them new roles. Then, when she was ready, she called out.

Jamal turned, shouted, and ran at them. Front and center were the two orcs, who shouted back and beat their clubs on their great shields. She ducked low in preparation to drive past their shields. However, to left and right, were Zipper and the Dwarf, their poles positioned where the curved shield left an opening, ready to strike as she closed. And between the two orcs she saw Delta and her glaive, also ready to strike. So, she turned at the last moment and shouldered directly into the orc’s shield on the left. She couldn’t bowl it over, as it was too large. But she waited for the first stab of the poles, and as they recoiled, she sprinted to the right.

The Imperial shields had been split and positioned on the flanks, forming a solid barrier Jamal could not get through. It was a static one, so she kept going. Only to be met by the Jokamaci woman in the pretty plate, charging around the flank and Gwen running outrider, javelin poised.

The Lieutenant dropped her weapon and called out a hold. “Good, good”, she said. “Much better. You can now take on one attacker.” She let them take a short rest, and then split them into smaller groups.

For the rest of the morning she had them face off against each other. Sometimes she split them evenly, other times it was very one sided, or had units that didn’t do well together. She was quick to point out the flaws of their formations, of which there were many. Occasionally they did something that impressed her.

Another unit trooped out later, bringing lunch with them. She had them divide up the food, and she addressed them as they ate. “This lot here is the regular army”, she indicated the ones who had just joined them. “You lot are the irregular army. That lot will be part of planned battle formations, with well-rehearsed moves to establish dominance in the theater of war. You lot are there to deal with the chaos that results after the first ten minutes when things do not go as expected. You will not train in specific battle formations. You will train for chaos. Do I make myself unclear?” A few laughed at this.

She drilled them for the rest of the afternoon against each other. Mostly up and down the shallow river and always with the standard unit in the best position and them with a variety of handicaps. A lot of the troops complained, either out loud, or with their expressions. Delta, however, reveled in it. She thought through each tactical situation and acted or directed as best she could think to meet the challenge of the scenario. In these exercises Lieutenant Jamal fought side by side with them. She favored a style using two swords simultaneously that Delta had not seen before.

“Is that a common weapon’s form in the East?” asked Delta.

“It is not uncommon”, said Jamal. “Your defense is your offense, so it requires great speed, stamina and courage. It is not for everyone.”

“It confuses me”, said Delta. “I’m unclear how to best defend myself once you are inside my range, other than to give ground to get you back into my range.”

Jamal took this as a signal to pick up her swords and close with her. Delta let her in close, and then concentrated on trying to block her moves. She was most familiar with blocking the hilt of an opposing sword with the haft of her glaive. However, in this case, that only took care of one sword. The other one always got her.

After a few sparring matches she changed tactics. She focused on side stepping to get to one extreme side, and blocking that sword with her haft, and using the blocked swords as a shield against the second sword. She could hold her ground better, but Jamal was still quick to recover. In their final match, when so entangled, Jamal slid the blocked blade up the shaft until it hooked the glaive. Then she spun in a full circle bringing the other sword around to strike while keeping the glaive’s blade up high and preventing her from counter striking.

Delta laughed long and hard at that move and clapped Jamal on the back. Then, realized their relative position and stepped back, saluting. “Thank you for the instruction”, she said formally.

Jamal saluted her with one sword. “That is not a move I have used in a long time. Your weapon is also not uncommon back east. But it has been a long time since I have fought against it.”

They cleared out of the way as a horse came through at a gallop. It slowed to splash through the ford, giving no hail or call to the people training. It then thundered towards the headquarters tent.

Lieutenant Jamal called them into formation again and had them fight a fairly staid scenario which she did not join in, keeping one eye in that direction. Only a few minutes later a crier ran about summoning all officers to a meeting. She told them to stand down, clean and stow their weapons and armor, and take an early dinner.