Heavier Than a Mountain (Destiny's Crucible Book 3)

by Olan Thorensen

  “I agree that any opportunity to subjugate the entire island with our existing forces is gone,” he said. “We’ve no choice but to wait on what the High Command decides. If I had to guess, I’d say they will send reinforcements, whether under General Akuyun or another commander is unknown, and the same for whether I remain ground force commander.

  “In the meantime, the question is, how do we maintain the security of Preddi Province, our troops, and the civilians? There’s no way we can be sure what is the best course. I can propose good reasons to stay here within our most defensible positions and just as many reasons to strike at the islanders. What it comes down to is assessing the possible negative consequences.

  “If we sit, we face four risks. First, we give the Caedelli time and inclination to organize themselves to attack us. Second, this also lets them focus on producing weapons. If they’re now producing cannon and there’s no threat to their provinces, then the cannon will be used to attack, whereas if they feared us invading their province, it’s more likely they would place the new cannon in defensive positions at their cities and harbors. Third, it would allow them to concentrate men forward to our borders, instead of protecting their coasts. We can ignore for the moment the land-locked provinces we have no direct access to. And fourth, by sitting here we send the message to our troops and the civilians that the clans have the initiative. While there’s some truth to that, I believe it dangerous to leave all the initiative to an enemy, even in worse situations than we find ourselves. We all know the axiom taught in our military schools, ‘Attack is often the best defense.’ Whether that’s true in this case brings up the negatives.

  “We have to ask about the consequences if we do take actions against the clans that stir them up. However, I suggest they’re probably as stirred up now as they’re going to be. We risk another failure—at least, from our point of view and likely that of our men and the civilians. Such an outcome would cause more deterioration of morale, something that’s already a problem.

  “Another possible negative outcome is further reduction in our fighting force, although I tend to discount this possibility, because we would carefully choose the action we undertake, and if it involved ground forces, we would use our navy as transportation and support. Even under the worst imaginable happenstance and we landed men, say, in Gwillamer Province and found ourselves facing thirty thousand islanders with cannon, we would simply re-embark on ships. Even that would work to our advantage, because we could sail to the other side of the island and attack Pewitt. The islanders would take a sixday to move from Gwillamer, and we’d have achieved our objectives by then and either be too entrenched for them to expel us or have left again by ship.

  “We could envision a strategy of razing the coastal capitals and towns and moving on before they concentrated against us. However, any such plan would leave us open to what I believe is the biggest danger. We’re already stretched thin defending Preddi Province. If we send thousands of our men to attack elsewhere on Caedellium, the clans could launch attacks and raids where we’ve weakened our defenses.”

  Zulfa paused and looked around at the grim faces of the other men. “So there we are. No good choices. Yet we have to make them. After hard thinking, I believe we need to take action to try to tie the clans to their own provinces. I know Assessor Hizer has other options, but I’ve stayed focused on our army and navy, with assurances Admiral Kalcan has given that the navy will support us in every way it can.”

  Kalcan grunted and nodded his head, his normally cheerful expression absent.

  “I propose we attack at least one of the coastal clans with a troop landing,” said Zulfa, “with naval support and the objective not to hold the province, but to burn the capital and pillage as much of the surrounding countryside as possible, before the clans can gather against us. Since we don’t intend to hold the ground, two to three thousand men would be sufficient. As soon as we feel threatened or there’s nothing left to destroy, we’ll re-embark. Depending on the results, we then either return directly to Preddi City or circle the island to attack another province, thereby keeping the clans unsure where we’ll strike next.”

  Administrator Tuzere had listened with set lips and small but noticeable shakes of his head. “What if the clans do as you foresee and they attack here while you’re off with a sizable fraction of our fighting men? What happens to the civilians I’m responsible for and all the farms, ranches, towns, shops, and factories we’ve built up?”

  “It’s a risk,” Zulfa conceded. “One way or another, though, we’ll be taking risks, whether we act or not. In this case, any expedition force will be in regular contact with headquarters here. If a sizable raid or attack on your people occurs, the remaining forces will have to defend you until the others return. It might actually work to our advantage if they send a sizable force near enough to a coast to allow us to land the expedition force in their rear and catch them between us.”

  Tuzere slapped a hand on the table. “That all sounds well and good, but it’s moving pieces on a map. The real result would be people dead and property destroyed!”

  “Everything we do involves risk,” Akuyun said calmly.

  Tuzere flushed. “Sorry. I’m just worried.”

  “As we all are,” said Akuyun, “but Aivacs has laid out the unpalatable options. We’re here to consider those options. We’ve heard the recommendation from the troop commander. Nizam, do you have another option to suggest?”

  Tuzere drummed the fingers of both hands on the tabletop, then splayed his fingers and sighed. “No, not really. I have to cede to Aivacs his logic from a military side and hope it doesn’t backfire on us.”

  “Morefred,” said Akuyun, turning to the navy commander, “any thoughts?”

  “As Nizam says, it’s a troop commander’s decision. Nothing has changed in our control of the waters around Caedellium. With no outside threats, my ships can support any operation, including an attack on one or more coastal clans. As for responding to a hypothetical clan attack, my ships are limited to what we can reach from near shore, besides providing transportation.”

  Akuyun turned to the last man at the table, Assessor Hizer. “Sadek, any thoughts or comments?”

  “No. I appreciate Aivacs’s summary that we have no good options. Neither do I think there is a logical way to determine the best course. It will be using our best judgment and planning contingencies if things go wrong.”

  “All right,” said Akuyun, “you’ve all had your say. I’m afraid I agree with Aivacs and Sadek about the uncertainties, and I’ll have to fall back on the axiom of not giving up all the initiative. Aivacs, go ahead and work with Morefred and Sadek in planning an attack on a coastal clan. Anyone have suggestions for which clan to start with?”

  “Keelan might be an obvious choice,” said Hizer, “but I’ll propose something else for them. They’ve shown the most capabilities, so I’d be disinclined to risk attacking with what I assume would be no more than two or three thousand men. We don’t want anything short of an outright victory, lest we embolden the clans even more. I’m thinking one of the northwestern clans, Pewitt or Swavebroke.”

  “You say you have something else to suggest for Keelan?” said Admiral Kalcan.

  “Yes. General Akuyun asked me for an assessment of all the hetmen and each clan’s influence and the consequences if either a clan or its hetman were no longer a factor.”

  “Assassinations,” stated Zulfa, never one for circumlocutions.

  “A time-honored tactic,” affirmed Hizer. “While the occasion is rare that a single leader is that much of a critical factor, often removing leaders at least makes an enemy pause to anoint a new leader and for that person to take the reins. With the Keelan hetman, all indications are he’s a major player in organizing resistance, very likely the main leader. At worst, we’ll disrupt the Keelan Clan’s thinking, and it might hamper whatever action the clans might be contemplating. I had toyed with the idea of also moving against the Gwillamer and Mittac
k hetmen, the closest clans allied with Keelan, but we don’t have agents in place near enough to the Gwillamese hetman, and the Mittack hetman seems to merely follow Keelan’s lead and is not a factor himself.

  “After careful consideration, I’m recommending in addition to Keelan that we target Skouks and Bevan. We already tried Hewell when we learned their hetman was considering joining the formal alliance with Keelan. We failed, and our agents making the attempt had to flee. Stent would be a target because of their hetman’s influence, but their capital is even farther inland than Keelan’s and, like Hewell, we lost our agents there after a failed attempt on Hetman Stent.”

  Kalcan shifted uneasily in his chair. “But as you mention, the Keelan capital is well inland. Doesn’t that complicate how your agents figure on escaping? I know your men are good, but I don’t imagine they are so fanatical as to be eager for suicide missions.”

  “Hardly,” agreed Hizer. “That’s why I propose we send in strike teams for all three targets. My agent in Caernford, the Keelan capital, is the most advantageously placed of any of my men. He’s too valuable to risk in an assassination attempt, even if aimed at Hetman Keelan. However, he’s so closely connected to the hetman that he can give more information and guidance than agents in other clans.

  “Then there’s the issue of the hetman’s security. Keelan took seriously our previous attempts on the Stent and Hewell hetmen, and my man reports too many guards of too high a quality for one or two men to try an attack on the hetman. And before you ask further, Aivacs, no, I don’t view this as a suicide mission if we use some of your best men. I have another agent in Salford, the Keelan main port. He routinely takes wagons between Salford and Caernford. I envision a strike team landing near Salford at night, then going hidden within a large freight wagon to a secluded location near Caernford. The actual attempt would be coordinated with my Caernford agent. Your men would escape back south by the same wagons or by horseback. The horses are to be arranged beforehand or taken from the hetman’s property. I don’t pretend it’s not dangerous, but I believe it worth the attempt, and we would apprise the men of the risks. Obviously, there are many details to work out, details that Aivacs and Morefred are in better position to deal with.”

  “I’ll have to get my staff to study this,” said Zulfa, “but if we can come up with a plan I believe has a plausible chance of success, I’m sure we can find the men.”

  “And, as before, my ships are no problem,” said Kalcan. “We can just use sloops. The islanders are so used to seeing them off their coast, I doubt they pay them much attention anymore.”

  “All right,” said Akuyun. “Sadek, get together with Aivacs and Morefred and come up with plans by next sixday.”

  “Swavebroke,” said Zulfa five days later, when he met with Akuyun and handed his commander several sheets summarizing proposals. “Hizer points out that Swavebroke and the three clans of the hetmen we’ll try to assassinate are evenly spaced around the island, so if we coordinate the attack on Swavebroke simultaneously with the attempts on the Keelan, Bevans, and Skouks hetmen, it should create maximum confusion and lessen chances of aid coming to Swavebroke.”

  “And the force size you recommend for the Swavebroke assault?” asked Akuyun.

  “Twenty-five hundred men, mainly infantry, and a few 12-pounders. The main objective will be Shullick, the Swavebroke capital. The population is about eighteen to twenty thousand, with another few thousand in farms, ranches, and villages within ten miles.

  “For us, cavalry is a problem. Horses don’t like to be at sea, but the distance is short enough that we think those we take will be in reasonable shape. The problem is how many we can transport by ship, given they take up room, and then getting them quickly ashore. Morefred, of all people, suggested a solution.”

  The admiral detested horses and was an abysmal rider.

  “He had experience as a young ensign when they needed to get horses ashore quickly. The solution was to cut a door in a cargo ship just above the loaded water line. They packed almost a hundred horses into the cargo hold of one ship. It turned out that having them so packed worked better, because they couldn’t move around. We’ll do the same but also have ropes around their necks, pulled up to keep the horses’ heads high and their attention on breathing, and we’ll have them hooded so they can’t see. If possible, we’ll go straight to the docks. Otherwise, the ships will get as close to shore as possible. Then we’ll open the new doors in the sides of the hulls, and the horses will be forced out into the water.

  “Morefred assures me they can arrange it so the hoods come off as the horses exit the ships. Men will wait in longboats to grab the ropes of the first few horses, those picked for being the most docile, and they’ll row for shore. Horses are reasonable swimmers, and we’ll test that as we pick the horses we’ll use. Most of the other horses should follow the leaders and the boats. We’ll lose some, but enough will get to shore to give us a couple hundred cavalry. We hope to capture enough horses to add to those numbers.”

  Akuyun nodded. “There are no plans to bring the horses back?”

  “No, not unless we have enough time to ferry them back to the ships. I assume they’ll be left. We’ll see what happens, but I consider them expendable. Anyway, the infantry will do most of the work. The city doesn’t have strong wall fortifications, so we should be able to sweep through before the Swavebrokers can organize serious resistance. The people themselves won’t be the main goal, and many, possibly even most, will flee inland in front of us. The cavalry we have will encourage them to keep moving. The main purpose is to burn the city to the ground and kill as many clan fighting men as stand against us. Looting and captives will be determined by circumstances, and as long as it doesn’t interfere with the main objective.

  “Assuming we take the city quickly enough and have enough active cavalry, we’ll move outside the city proper to continue destroying what we can, including villages, farms, bridges, and anything else. The cavalry will also put out patrols to warn of organized forces that might threaten us. All of this is contingent, of course, on how things progress. What we won’t do under any circumstances is remain too long and allow other clans to send help. I’m making an estimate of three days on shore, and then we re-embark.”

  “I see you’re taking twenty 12-pounders.” Akuyun perused the summary sheets. “Should be more than enough, since we don’t have reports of Swavebroke having cannon—not yet, anyway,” he added as a caution.

  “I assume the coast-mapping reports are accurate,” said Zulfa, “and Morefred assures me that if necessary, he can bring one or more frigates close enough to shore to provide support from their 30-pounders. Only solid shot will be possible out to a thousand yards onshore and grapeshot to 600 yards, but no canister. Still, that should be enough to discourage any Swavebroke artillery, if they have it. If the ships and our 12-pounders are not enough support, we’ll simply pull back, do what damage we can, and leave.”

  Akuyun scanned the sheets again, while Zulfa waited.

  “I’m sure I’ll have questions, but I need to read this over carefully and give it some thought,” said Akuyun. “What about the attempts on the hetmen? I don’t see anything here.”

  Zulfa frowned. “Hizer and I are still discussing the compositions of the strikes.”

  Akuyun interpreted the discussion to be arguing, but he didn’t interrupt.

  “Hizer originally wanted a thirty-man team to go after Hetman Keelan, while I thought ten was the most that we could expect to remain undetected long enough to get from Salford to Caernford and make the attempt. The problem is balancing getting to Caernford, having enough men to fight through the expected number of guards, killing the hetman, and then escaping. As with too much of what we’re doing, we have no best options. I argued that thirty men were too many to avoid alerting the Keelanders, while Hizer counter-argued that ten men might not get through the security.”

  Zulfa’s mouth formed a grin or a grimace. “I think we’ll end up
with a twenty-man strike team, and neither of us will be satisfied, but the way things are, that seems to be the norm.”

  “And the other two hetmen?”

  “There, the two capitals are on the coast. After considering smaller teams for these two targets, we’ve agreed to go with the same twenty-man teams. Escape afterward is not as complex as with Keelan, and those teams would have support from ships. Hetman Bevans lives on an estate outside the city, and reports are that he keeps six guards on the property. However, they rotate being on duty, so at night there will probably be only two guards awake, if we take them by surprise.

  “Skouks may be the easiest, as long as we launch all the attacks on a specific day. Hetman Skouks routinely goes to a daughter’s house on the same day every month and spends two days. She has six children he dotes on, and he almost never misses a trip. Naturally, nothing is assured, but with no information to the contrary about the Keelan and Bevan hetmen’s schedules, we’ll plan based on Skouks’s schedule and hope to catch the others the same day.”

  “I could argue that Keelan is more important than the others and to concentrate on him,” said Akuyun.

  “True, but whether the attempt on Keelan succeeds or fails, we won’t get another chance at any of the hetmen, because all of them will certainly change their routines and increase their security to make any future attempt impractical.”

  “Do you have a timetable?”

  “It won’t be right away,” said Zulfa. “We’ll pick good men from different units, and they won’t have fought together before. It’s best to give them time to train and become comfortable with one another. The mission will be risky enough without having the men uncertain about other team members.”

  “I’d like to set a tentative window,” ordered Akuyun. “It can always change, but let’s narrow it down.”

  “I think we can set it a month and a half from today,” Zulfa suggested. “That gives us enough time to select the teams and do the necessary training.”