TNL 26 – The First Command Part Two

A little later they arrive at the garrison. The garrison consists of seven buildings, surrounded by a wall that shows signs of age. Once through the gate, Raidon and his men see the buildings. That higher building will be the headquarters, that low building the canteen with the storage space behind it and those longer buildings the barracks, Raidon thinks. After letting the soldiers stay at ease on the square, Raidon immediately goes in search of the commander. The guards at the door show him to the office.

On the door of the office it says that the commander of the garrison is Major Craig. Next to the door to the office is a desk with a clerk. As soon as Raidon reports who he is here, the clerk gets up and walks to the door of the office.

There he knocks before he announces Raidon.

"Sir, the captain of the relief is here."

The major gets up when Raidon enters.

"It is good that you are here, but the intention is that the relief is present a few days before taking over," the commander begins.

"That’s possible," Raidon interrupts him, "unfortunately we didn't get the order until mid-morning today. We had to walk quickly to get here on time."

The major looks at Raidon for a moment.

"That sounds unlikely, sergeant, but at least you are here now. You and your men can use the rear barracks for tonight. Tomorrow you can choose where you sleep."

The next day the major leaves with his garrison of just under a thousand men. Without a word to Raidon, the major leaves at the head of the column. A lieutenant is the last one to stay and send the men after the major. The major did not provide any further information about the garrison's duties. Raidon has to figure that out for himself. The departure takes half the morning. Apparently, the departure of a larger group of men is not that easy with the regular army.

"That lieutenant seems to think that it looks impressive if everyone looks to be crawling all over each other," private Lenn remarks to Raidon. Raidon looks at him but wisely doesn’t respond.

When the old garrison has finally left, Raidon hands out his orders.

"Lenn, you and your two squads are going to check out the surroundings of the city. See what's nearby, but make sure you don't go too far. I want you to be back before lunch."

"Yes, sir," Lenn replies.

Raidon then turns to the first platoon.

"First and second squad, you're going to make some rounds through the city. Make sure you get a little familiar with the streets. Fourth squad, you are on guard today. There are only two gates, so divide yourselves. I want three men at both the gates. The other four stand guard here at the barracks. Fifth squad, you look at what is here in the barracks. I want to know everything from food to materials to sleeping places. You know what to look at. Third squad, you can stay with me."

A few minutes later Raidon is on the road with the third squad. Their first stop is the mayor of the city. Once there, they are told that he is not yet present and that they can come by in an hour.

Then they go to the port.

"I only see small fishing boats," Raidon says.

"People don't seem very happy to see us either," one of the soldiers remarks.

An old woman speaks to Raidon. "When will the warriors return? Without warriors, it will be one big chaos here!"

"They're not coming back, ma'am," Raidon replies. "We are the new garrison and we will take over their tasks."

The woman does not seem happy. "But you look like porcelain dolls," she remarks, then retreats.

After the port, they go back to the mayor by the market. It seems quiet on the market, but it is not a market day. Here they also meet second squad.

"Anything worth reporting?" asks Raidon to the soldier in the front.

"Not yet, sir. Nothing that can't wait."

"Good, then I'll hear it later." After this short conversation, both squads continue their way.

When he arrives at the mayor's office, the man finally has time for Raidon. It turns out that the old garrison did little for the surrounding area.

"Most of the time, the warriors stayed around here. The city and everything that was in sight of the walls was good enough for them. As far as they were concerned, the rest of the province didn’t even exist."

"So they were only protecting the city? But I am sure that the previous garrison consisted of about a thousand men. What were all these warriors doing all day?"

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"Ha! You're right that we had to feed a thousand greedy warriors." The mayor is clearly not impressed with the previous garrison. "The commander of the garrison thought it was more important that his men looked good than that they actually did their job. Usually there were about a hundred or so who guarded the gates and walls and did patrols through the city. The rest were either organizing competition games, or holding parades. The rest of the time they were eating and drinking at the expense of the city."

Over the course of his speech, the mayor started to talk more and more animatedly. It is clear to Raidon that the situation was very annoying for the man. However, before he can even respond, the mayor continues.

"And that's not even the worst thing! Even though it cost us a lot to pay for all that beer and food and the damage they caused in the pubs, that's nothing compared to what it has cost the rest of the province. While we have become accustomed to the dozens of patrols that ran throughout the city, almost every other village in the province has been almost wiped out by bandits and other scum. I myself know of more than a dozen raids on trade convoys and villages in the past six months."

"You can be sure that things are going to change about that. Not only are we with fewer people, we are also instructed to protect the entire province."

"Yes, I have to talk to you about that. How many warriors does your garrison have? From what I have been able to gather from the rumors, it seems as if you only have a handful. I have already had several residents at my door who are afraid that there will be a real crime wave if there is no more patrolling."

"I don't have many warriors, mayor. I do have seventy soldiers here."

"Seventy but? For the whole province? That's far too little!" exclaims the mayor, before continuing in a bit of surprise: "Soldiers? What are soldiers?"

"Soldiers are actually warriors, only we are trained to work together. Warriors are individually strong, we are strong together." Raidon shakes his head for a moment. It is almost impossible to explain the difference to this man without showing what he means. "I think you should come and have a look at our training. Our trainer, Morris, can show you exactly how we differ from the normal warriors. As far as your safety is concerned, you don't have to worry."

"Still, it’s only seventy men. How do you intend to ensure safety in Aran, not to speak about the rest of the province?"

"I have seventy soldiers indeed. My adjutant has stationed another thirty in a fortress in the wilderness. As soon as we know what it's like here, I will send twenty men back to Fort Alpha, that's what we called our fort."

"But then we only have fifty men here to defend us! I want you to bring everyone here, or at least ask for extra men at another garrison."

"I'm sorry, Mayor. Unfortunately, that will not happen. Soldiers like us can't just be taken away from somewhere. We have found equipment for ten more soldiers, but we have only found three recruits. Furthermore, we have not yet found a priest who can help us with the inauguration of the soldiers."

"Equipment? Priest? Is all that necessary? We just want to be able to feel safe in our own city and not be afraid that we will be robbed in the middle of the street."

"Robbed? You also have your own city guards, don't you? They should be concerned with the criminals in the city. We are about safety. We will support your city guard where necessary, but you do not have to expect us to take over the work of your city guards."

The mayor then tells that the city itself is very poor, and that the city guard is not even half as large as it should be. In the past, the garrison was smaller, half the size it was in recent years. Because of this, and because of the many demands of the major, the city could not maintain the garrison without suffering itself. This also means that there will be little support for a new garrison.

"As I have already told you, we are with far fewer people than the previous garrison. It will cost you a lot less to maintain us, less even than that smaller garrison you were talking about. But let’s help each other. You get us seven recruits, and a priest. Then I will make sure that we support your city guards until they are back to full strength."

The mayor insists that there is nothing he can do. In the end, Raidon leaves it for what it is. First he needs to know what’s what. That's why he goes back to the garrison.

At the garrison, he gives third squad free time to maintain their equipment until lunch. Raidon himself visits fifth squad to see what they have found. They tell that there is still enough food available, but otherwise few materials. The old garrison took almost everything with them that they could get their hands on. Also, there is no support staff. All the staff have been laid off.

"There are not even cooks present!" reports the soldier. "Furthermore, the garrison is in poor condition. The walls have not been maintained and the barracks do not look very good either."

Raidon goes to the office to sort through the papers. Perhaps they’ll shed light on the state of the garrison. It turns out to be a lot of searching and there appear to be quite a few papers missing. There is virtually no information about the inhabitants of the city, let alone from the rest of the province. It is also not known how much tax comes in, or how much the garrison has available to spend. What Raidon does find after some searching is a map of the area. This appears to be different from the map he has received himself. On this map, the area is almost twice as large. He decides that he should consult with the mayor again. The mayor probably has a lot of the information he needs. But that is something to be done later. First, he must try to make sense of these papers.

There is also a chest full of reports and complaints. It turns out that there are indeed a lot of robberies. Just as if the bandits control the entire province except the city itself.

"That's easy if the garrison doesn't go outside the city," Raidon mumbles to himself.

By the time Raidon begins to understand the organization of the papers, it's already so late that the patrols start to come back. That's why Raidon leaves the papers and goes outside to receive their reports. A little later he is standing in the courtyard with soldiers from the different squads.

"The outer walls are poorly maintained but still solid, sergeant," reports Soldier Lenn of the second platoon. "With some repairs, they will be back in order in no time. What is missing is a ditch to stop siege equipment. The walls are fine, but apparently not made to withstand a siege."

"The same applies to the inside of the walls. The walls show considerable damage and some stairs are simply dangerous. I would not like to go up these walls in a hurry," reports the soldier of fourth squad.

"Fortunately, we don't expect an attack," Raidon replies. "The rest of the city is more important now."

Then he looks at the soldiers of the first two squads.

"Not much to add, sergeant. It is a big city and for now everything seems quiet. But it doesn't seem like people are very wealthy," says one.

"People also seem to expect dozens of soldiers to be walking around all the time to keep order," says another.

"Hmm, I noticed that too," Raidon agrees with the observations of the two squads.

That afternoon, the soldiers eat a simple meal of nuts, cheese and other food that they do not have to prepare. After lunch, Raidon redistributes the tasks. The tasks remain the same, but the shifts are changed. This time Raidon takes second squad with him and two other squads will look outside the city.