TNL 51 – Pirate Isles Part Two
Unfortunately, the return journey seems to be much more exciting than the outward journey. Shortly after they passed the first of the pirate islands, three pirate ships appear from behind the tree line of one of the islands.
"Captain," Raidon asks Ryker, "would you say those are pirates?"
"Well, I’ll be darned, I think you're right. Maybe we should treat those thieves to a warm welcome."
"I’d say so, my young friend."
After this get-together between the two captains, Raidon begins to call his orders while Ryker directs the ship towards the pirates.
"Ice, get the men ready to defend this ship. One and a half squads on both sides please. And don't forget the recruits, we have plenty of weapons for them."
The squad leader immediately gets to work and repeats the orders to his men and the other squad leaders. Fortunately, they are already used to defending a ship thanks to all the exercises that Ice had them perform. Within a few moments, not only are the soldiers armed, but additional weapons have been distributed to the new recruits.
Just before squad leader Ice moves to his position, he receives one last order from Raidon.
"Ice, would you also be so kind as to hang our flag in the mast? I think it's been a while since pirates have been afraid of a flag of the legions. It's time to revive that fear."
As the first pirate ship approaches, a cloud of crossbow arrows flies through the air. A large part of these arrows mis because the recruits have not yet been trained, but that does not matter much. Among the pirates, more than twenty men fall dead or wounded.
The attack is answered by the pirates, but because of all the chaos on board, only a few arrows are fired. The pirates are clearly not used to fighting at sea. The only ships they encountered at sea were always fishing boats that could offer virtually no resistance.
"Reload and shoot when you can!" shouts squad leader Ice as soon as the last men have shot their crossbows.
Most recruits don't know how to draw and load a crossbow, but here and there is someone who has used the weapon more often. These few men show how to do it, so that some crossbows are still being loaded.
Meanwhile, the soldiers have already finished reloading and shoot their crossbows in a targeted manner. The captain of the pirate ship is hit by at least three arrows at once, the helmsman is able to duck away just in time to dodge a fourth arrow.
Pirates also fall from the mast and rigging, where one is also shot down by another falling pirate. One pirate has been caught in the rigging during his fall, and his body swings back and forth above the remaining pirates.
The latter turns out to be too much for the crew of the pirate ship, and without a captain to call them to order, the ship turns away.
Ryker immediately sends their ship towards the second pirate ship. The large warship has a huge ram at the front and Ryker points it straight at this ship. Apparently the pirates have seen it, because this ship is also trying to get away. Slowly it turns to go after its sister ship.
Just before this succeeds, Ryker manages to adjust his ship and the ram hits the helm of the pirates. The blow is so great that most of the passengers on both ships fall, including all the pirates in the mast and rigging. When the pirates try to quickly sail on, it turns out that their rudder has broken off in the collision. They can do nothing but sail straight ahead.
"Shouldn't we go after that ship?" asks Raidon to Ryker.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Why? They no longer have a rudder, and they’re sailing straight towards that island. There is little chance that those guys will get into the mast fast enough to slow down."
Raidon laughs at this. "Well, then I don't think we'll have much trouble with that pirate ship."
When the pirates on the last ship see how their comrades have fared and how many 'soldiers' are on board the warship, they too run off as fast as they can. A little later, squad leader Ice reports that not one of the passengers has been injured, apart from a few abrasions from when they rammed the pirate ship.
When they arrive in Centurion, it seems a lot livelier there. While they were gone, the second promised platoon of recruits has arrived from the capital. This means that there are two hundred and thirty recruits present, not counting the latest several hundred that Morris has recruited. Brandon has already brought all the instructors back from Aran to train all these recruits, but even then it's a huge undertaking. This is more than three times the number the instructors were originally supposed to train and Morris hasn't even returned to help yet.
When Raidon arrives with another two hundred and ten recruits, it means that there are now nearly four hundred and fifty recruits in Centurion. In addition, there are a few dozen that are still on their way from Estera.
Raidon decides to leave his thirty soldiers in Centurion. The other locations can of course also use the soldiers, but he desperately needs the extra soldiers to help with all the new recruits. His best thirty men have to help the instructors, while the others take on the other tasks. Since the practice fields are not large enough to train so many recruits at once, there are now enough people to take over all the supporting tasks. Under the guidance of the soldiers on duty, all sleeping quarters are cleaned in no time. Other tasks such as loading and unloading the fishing boats arriving at the port, mapping all the buildings and carrying out the necessary repairs, and numerous other tasks are now done by squads of recruits.
With more than four hundred extra recruits, new squad leaders and some new sergeants are also needed. Raidon hopes the armor will show which soldiers are ready for these tasks. Because at the moment he only has three sergeants: Brandon, Lenn and Indigo.
Luckily he is right, and the day after all the recruits have sworn their oaths, Raidon receives word that soldiers have been promoted in Centurion. A few days later, reports follow from all other posts that soldiers have also been promoted there. The newly promoted sergeants are Ice, Mateo, Mark, Owen and Liam. Together with Brandon, Lenn and Indigo, the New Legion now has eight sergeants. This allows Raidon to leave Lenn and Indigo in Aran and Fort Alpha, because those are pretty important places.
Raidon sends back a message that the newly promoted soldiers must return to the naval base. In Arana this means that Sergeant Mateo has to hand over his task to his replacement, the newly promoted squad leader Floris.
For the most part, those promoted are the soldiers that Raidon had expected it from. Raidon had the feeling with their names that they were ready for this. Probably another feature of the harnesses. The fact that there are now eight sergeants means that some platoons have to be led by squad leaders. Apparently, not enough people are good enough to be promoted multiple ranks.
All in all, it takes a good week before all squad leaders and the six sergeants have taken their new positions. Luckily, unknown to Raidon, Brandon has made a list on which all the squad leaders get a squad of recruits to command, and the sergeants are each put in charge of their own platoon.
This means that there are still about one hundred and forty recruits left. Raidon leaves the command of these recruits to the soldiers on duty in Centurion, with Raidon helping and directing them. This solution is partly because most of these recruits do not yet have armor. Morris has found so many people in his search that they now have to wait for Gareth to learn how to make armor.
With the help of extra strength exercises, these recruits are already prepared for the weight of a harness. In addition, the recruits can do all the other training exercises without armor. As a result, the recruits will only have to get used to the armor later on before they can be promoted to soldier.
The space to practice on the practice fields in Centurion is limited. The important clean-up jobs are also quickly done with such numbers of helping hands. That is why it is decided that practice will also be done outside the walls. Especially practicing with the different formations as a platoon is good to do there, because the open fields around Centurion lend themselves well to this.
Under the leadership of the sergeants, the training quickly takes on a fixed form. Three sergeants practice with their recruits on the practice fields, and three sergeants take their recruits outside Centurion. The rest of the recruits do the other necessary tasks in Centurion, or learn to read and write. The recruits led by the soldiers on duty in Centurion are alternated with the recruits led by the sergeants.
There are other recruits, but these are stationed in Aran and receive their training from the soldiers stationed there. Morris turns out to be a great help. When he returns to Aran, a few days after Raidon arrives with his load of recruits, it turns out that the five deserters he has taken with him have often taken care of training. With Morris himself, this gives Raidon six extra instructors.