Richard Tuttle - Army of the Dead

“We would have a rout,” frowned the general. “My men would be racing for the next city.”

“They can’t,” Marak pointed out. “The road is clogged with your evacuees.”

“Mercy,” gasped the general. “You are right. If we move faster than the citizens fleeing, we will be blocked. My men and the citizens would be slaughtered.”

“What are you suggesting, Marak?” asked Lyra.

“I don’t know,” admitted Emperor Marak. “I think our planning is deficient because we could not visualize three hundred thousand men. It just meant a large number to us. Seeing that armada from the air today and realizing that each little speck on the water was a thousand warriors sort of brought things into perspective for me. We cannot play this Motangan army as if it were General Didyk opposing us with ten thousand men.”

“Draw them into the Sakova,” suggested HawkShadow as he approached the group. “Let them know exactly where our reserve armies are, and they will try to eradicate us. Their ships will be useless inland. When we get them into the heartland, they will be playing by our rules.”

“But the bulk of your forces are Omungans,” frowned Marak. “They are not used to fighting in the Sakova either.”

“He is right, HawkShadow,” nodded General Manitow. “The Imperial Guards do not use strategy as the Sakovans do.”

“They will have to learn,” shrugged HawkShadow. “My people can slow down the invaders, while the Imperial Guards take up positions that will be dictated to them. It is not a perfect solution, but it eliminates one advantage of the Motangans.”

“Maneuverability along the coast,” nodded Marak. “It also endangers StarCity which should be the last stand of the Sakovans.”

“There will be no last stand this time,” countered HawkShadow. “If we have to lure the Motangans across the Kalatung Mountains and into Khadora, then that is what we will do. StarCity can be rebuilt just as Alamar can.”

“He is right,” interjected Lyra. “This fight is to the death.”

“But you leave your citizens open to attack,” argued the Torak. “The Motangans will be free to raid every coastal city while some of their army chases you across the heartland.”

“And we can’t move the citizens into the Sakova,” sighed General Manitow. “There would be no food to feed them, and we would be placing them in the path of the armies.”

“Unless we can disable their ships after they land,” mused Emperor Marak. “Without their ships, they cannot follow you into the Sakova and still raid the coastline. They will have to choose.”

“They would go for our armies,” asserted HawkShadow. “They can wipe out the citizens at any time, but only after our armies are conquered.”

“I agree,” nodded Marak. “Draw them into the Sakova and turn them northward. My armies can cross the mountains and come to help you.”

“It would be nice if you could get your armies behind them,” suggested Lyra.

“I could,” frowned Marak, “except for one small detail. Vand has another seven hundred thousand men on Motanga with the ships needed to transport them. We don’t know yet where he plans to strike.”

“A third of his armies for a third of our countries,” mused General Manitow. “You could soon have your own war to worry about, Emperor.”

“I do not have an easy answer to this problem,” the Torak responded. “I do think that we have to do something for the residents of the coastal cities. We cannot allow them to fend for themselves while Vand’s forces control the sea.”

“What are we to do for them?” asked Lyra. “If we use our armies to engage the Motangans deep in the heartland, we cannot also guard the cities.”

“I know,” Marak nodded with a frown. “I could use my ships to help transport the citizens away from the war, but who knows where Vand is going to strike?”

“Khadoratung is as far from the east coast as you can get,” suggested HawkShadow. “There was ample land there when I last visited, and your food supplies could handle large amounts of people.”

“We cannot transport the entire population of what was once Omunga to Khadora,” balked General Manitow. “That is impractical.”

“It is impractical,” agreed the Torak, “but there is some wisdom in the suggestion. My ships are continually sailing the west coast of the Sakova to bring food supplies to those cities that have not yet recovered from the famine. It does make sense to carry some citizens back to Khadoratung where food is readily available. Also,” he continued, “all of my armies are between Khadoratung and the eastern coast. It will be the last city in Khadora to be attacked. If Vand gets that far, our cause in Khadora is already lost.”

“Which cities would you take people from?” asked Lyra.

“We should start with the citizens of Alamar,” answered Emperor Marak. “They are already displaced from their homes. It is not safe for my ships to come here any longer, but we can begin picking people up at Tanzaba.”

“It is only women and children fleeing the city,” General Manitow pointed out. “Every man of appropriate age is staying to defend the city. I suspect the citizens of the other cities will react the same. The Omungan people have indeed become Sakovan in spirit as well as name. They will not give up their homes without a fight.”

“We have great need of those citizens,” remarked Emperor Marak. “In fact, I have some suggestions for their use during the war, especially the fishermen and sailors among them.”

“There are many of them in the cities and villages,” responded General Manitow as Temiker walked into the building and joined the group. “Omunga was a country that depended heavily on the sea. What do you have in mind?”

“The first thing they must do is preserve their boats, large and small,” answered the Torak. “They should move them away from the battle or hide them where they will not be discovered. We must never lose the ability to take this war to the seas.”

“Fishing boats cannot battle the behemoths that carry a thousand men,” frowned Temiker. “What are you planning?”

“I don’t have a particular plan in mind,” admitted Marak, “but I can clearly see the need to maintain mobility on the water. Sometime during this war we may be faced with the problem of moving massive amounts of troops from one place to another. My fleet of ships is not large enough to handle that. Even transporting the women and children to Khadora will be a massive undertaking. There is no way that my fleet can transport all of them, but thousands of small ships may be able to.”

“That might work,” mused General Manitow. “One has a tendency to discount a ship that can only carry three or four people, but thousands of them can move quite a few people.”

“If we used the boats from Alamar and Tanzaba to transport the people fleeing this city,” mused Lyra, “the road would be cleared fairly quickly.”

“I don’t know about quickly,” interjected Temiker, “but it could be done. There are also many fishing villages between the two cities.”

“Once the road is cleared,” Emperor Marak added, “start the evacuation of Tanzaba. Move the people to Okata. We will need spotters along the coast to see what the Motangan fleet does. If they find Tanzaba empty, they may not proceed any farther along the coast.”

“And if the spotters see that they are going farther,” nodded Lyra, “we can begin the evacuation of Okata before the enemy arrives.”

“Exactly,” agreed Marak. “In the meantime, my ships will carry some of the refugees to Khadoratung to ease the food supply problem. I think this can work, but some of the small boats must be preserved in this area as well. We do not want to end up with all of our boats in Okata.”