“I don’t like it, Cap’n,” Mr. Bowcott said, stabbing a finger down on the map. “This takes us directly into the lagoon in plain view of the raider hostage compound and any guards. They’ll see us coming as soon as we enter the inlet. It makes more sense to land a shore party quietly over here and cross this stretch of desert and make the rescue from the landward side.”
Cari shook her head. “That will take an extra day. Even if we arrive at sundown and the shore party marches inland all night, they’ll arrive just before dawn and still have to make the trek back to where we’re anchored. We don’t have time to be fancy with our plans. The Sultanate officials knew our cover story for coming here. They have to figure we still have to deliver our message from the Duke. They’ve got to at least try and look for us here. Our only chance is to strike fast and hard and get away just as quickly.”
“It’s risky,” Helen said as her finger traced the coastline on the map. “Still —”
Cari had come to trust the woman and asked her to come join the rescue planning. She wanted the healer’s opinion on the proposed plan.
“Go on, Helen. I asked you here because I want to hear what you have to say.”
Helen cleared her throat before continuing.
“I was going to say, yes it’s risky. It’s also our best plan if speed is our biggest concern. Cari is right. If we anchor where you propose Mr. Bowcott, and then send more than half the ship’s crew ashore, we’ll likely return to a ship captured by the naval vessels which must be chasing after us by now. There won’t be enough of the crew left to both man the guns and sail the ship in a running fight. They’ll have no choice but to surrender or abandon the Vengeance and take their chances ashore in a strange land.”
She paused, and Cari nodded for her to continue.
“If we plan our attack for the middle of the night, we can enter the lagoon after we send our two longboats ashore first. They’ll land with enough crew on board to remove any guards who might be watching the sea approach. Once they signal the all clear, we sail in, and the rest of the crew disembarks and proceeds with the rescue.”
Stefan smiled and said. “I like it. It has the best elements of both plans, and we’ll be in and out fast enough we won’t get trapped up against the coastline if any pursuers arrive earlier than expected.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Cari said. “Well done, Helen. Your plan is a lot better than the one I came up with.”
“Thank you, ma’am. It seemed like a compromise approach was needed.”
“Agreed,” Cari replied. She turned to her other officers. “If we can rescue these families and return them to the Cairn Islands, we pull the teeth from the Duke of Charon’s whole western strategy. That means we can’t afford to fail here. Our biggest problem is we have no idea what kind of resistance to expect. There have to be some guards, but there’s no reference about how many. I tried to trick the Governor and Captain Rashesh into letting something slip, but they either didn’t know or opted not to share it with me.”
“It can’t be that many,” Rodrigo suggested. “How many guards do you need to watch over a group of women and children?”
“Raider women and children, Rod,” Stefan corrected. “That and the risk the raiders would find them would lead me to station a large contingent of guards here. We should be cautious.”
“There’s a certain caution in boldness,” Cari said. “What I mean is if we strike hard and fast in the middle of the night, they won’t be able to coordinate a response in time to stop us. We’ll be long gone by the time they even know we were there.”
“What plan of attack did you have in mind, ma’am?” Mr. Dawkins asked.
“First, I’ll have you prepare more of those small casks of gunpowder with fuses so they can be used to open any gates or blow a hole in the compound wall if needed. Plus, I have an idea for something from back home called a grenade. I think I can craft at least a few of them from the stores we have on the ship. We’ll also distribute the few flintlock muskets and pistols we have to help hold the harbor against our return. Mr. Bowcott, you will take command of the contingent holding the harbor. The rest of the shore party, led by me, will storm the compound, blowing open any gates or obstacles we encounter. Once we gather the captives, we’ll return to the harbor by the fastest possible route. If we’re lucky, we’ll be back at sea before sunrise.”
“There’s a lot of places for something to go wrong, Cap’n,” Mr. Bowcott said. “Overall, though, I agree with Helen. It’s the best option available given our circumstances.”
“Good,” Cari said. “It’s settled then. By my calculations, we’ll arrive tomorrow after midnight. There should be only a thin crescent moon so we’ll be able to remain hidden until we’re almost to the docks. Everyone set to preparations. Mr. Bowcott, you have the pick of the crew to hold the harbor against our return. After that, Stefan and Rod, you’ll both split the remainder of the shore party into two groups. Stefan, you will engage any guards when we arrive at the compound. Rod, you will be responsible for finding the hostages, rounding them all up, and starting them back to the Vengeance.”
She waited for nods of ascent all around and then stood and clapped her hands together.
“Let’s get to it, then.”
Quest accepted — rescue the Raider hostages
———
“There’re a few more troops here than expected, eh, Cari?” Stefan said as he kicked the Sultanate trooper from his sword blade.
Cari didn’t bother correcting him for using her first name in public like that. She was too busy finishing off another guard with a slashing sweep of her rapier across his throat.
2,500 experience
“Let’s fall back again and regroup at that small market square we passed on the way here. Pass the word.”
Stefan ran off to gather the rest of his team, and Cari turned and rushed down the street towards the harbor. She rounded a corner and cursed. Rodrigo was at the back of the group of women and children, hustling them along. They were moving too slow.
The rippling crack of gunfire sounded from the harbor ahead.
“Damn,” Cari said. “Rodrigo, hurry them up. You hear those guns? That means the first mate is already fighting to hold the harbor for us. We’re running out of time.”
“They’re all in poor health, Cap’n. Most of them can barely walk.”
“Then have your team carry the weakest of them and run if you have to. None of us are getting out of here if we don’t get moving.”
“I’ll do the best I can, ma’am.”
Two sultanate soldiers ran from an alley across the square with swords raised to attack the defenseless hostages.
Cari drew the last of her two of pistols, leveled it at the leading guard, and fired. He fell backward and dropped to the cobblestones.
2,500 experience
She flipped the pistol around in her hand so she could wield it as a club with her off hand and charged at the remaining guard with her sword held high. Behind her, Rodrigo worked to move the hostages faster behind her.
She parried the heavier scimitar to one side with her blade and delivered a crushing blow to the side of the man’s head with the brass-capped base of her pistol stock. His eyes rolled up in his head as his skull caved in under the blow and he crumpled to the ground.
2,500 experience
Stefan and his men and women joined her and formed a thin defensive line across the square. Cari noted the gaps in the line left from the dead crew members left behind on the street between here and the compound. Stefan was down to half of the thirty with whom he’d started.
“We’re almost there, folks,” Cari said. “Then we get aboard the Vengeance and sail away from this place. I figure we need to hold off one more charge then we can make a run for it.”
The glances shared between the remaining crew in the square told her they didn’t think much of their chances to survive another charge.
She tried to think of something else inspiring to say and then she ran out of time.
At the far side of the square, barely fifty yards away a double line of Sultanate troopers stepped out of the darkness of the main avenue. The first line of ten stopped and brought muskets to their shoulders.
“Take cover!” Cari yelled.
The muskets went off as one when the officer yelled fire.
Bullets ripped across the square. When the smoke cleared, three more of Cari’s crew were down, leaking out their life’s blood all over the cobblestones.
The second rank of the troopers moved forward. These were all armed with scimitars and small metal buckler shields, each the size of a dinner plate with a handle attached to the back.
They advanced forward at a quick march, maintaining their line, then the turban-wearing officer beside them shouted something that must mean charge in the language of the southern empire.
With a battle cry, the line surged forward to meet Cari’s rear guard.
Rodrigo pulled out the last two grenades Cari used her crafting skill to create. He pitched them at the charging enemy line, the sizzling fuses leaving a thin gray trail in the air. They each bounced once before exploding in a flash of fire and skin-tearing shrapnel right in front of the charging sultanate troopers.
Four went down right away and two more kept going a short distance, clearly injured, before slowing to drop out of the line of charging troops.
Then the remainder of the Sultanate charge crashed into the ragged line of sailors and Cari found herself too busy fighting to stay alive to care much about what went on around her.
She ducked under a swipe at her head and spun in place, launching a roundhouse kick at the chest of the trooper in front of her. She felt a crunch resonate up her leg all the way to her head as her booted heel caved in the man’s chest with the force of her kick. He fell back gasping for air from lungs that would no longer expand.
2,500 experience
A flash of burning pain came from her back as another trooper slashed at her with his scimitar.
Health damage — health -8
Cari dove forward, tucking and rolling to one knee facing the opposite direction. She brought her rapier up just in time to parry the attacker’s follow-up blow.
The mustached guard growled at her and leaned into the parry, trapping her blade against his as he pressed downward at his kneeling opponent.
Cari used her free hand holding the pistol barrel to swing the brass-capped butt at the guard’s left knee.
The leg buckled inward from the blow as the ligaments tore under the mighty swing.
The guard grimaced and lost his leverage, falling over as his leg ceased to bear his weight.
Cari pressed back knocking him over backward until she lay atop him their swords trapped between them. She raised her free arm and brought it down on his head once, twice, three times, until the man stopped moving.
2,500 experience
She rolled off the body and looked around. Stefan stood over the twitching corpse of the guard officer. The lieutenant’s left arm hung limply at his side. Despite the injury, he gave her a broad grin.
It looked like they were down to eight crewmen still on their feet.
“Let’s pull back while we can still disengage, Stefan. Gather the wounded and head for the harbor. If we wait here and get hit like that again, we’ll never get out of here.”
“What about the hostages?”
“Hopefully they’ve made it by now. All I know is we won’t be able to stop the next charge so it won’t matter anyhow. Pull back.”
Stefan shouted orders and his crew helped the few of their crew lying on the street still alive back to their feet, draping their arms across able-bodied shoulders to help support injured comrades during their escape back to the ship.
Cari brought up the rear, checking to make sure they weren’t caught by surprise from behind. It seemed as though they’d succeeded in fighting off the attack from the compound.
Another ripple of gunfire came from behind her and Cari knew Mr. Bowcott was engaged with another force of some kind. She hoped it was only a small unit set to guard the harbor.
Cari’s hopes were dashed when she reached the small harbor. The gap between the buildings opened up to a pair of wharves bordering the lagoon.
There was a pitched battle going on there. Both Stefan and Rodrigo were struggling to maintain order and keep the sailors of the shore party organized and fighting as a unit. The big surprise though was seeing Helen standing next to the line of sailors armed with muskets.
The healer had a musket herself and put the butt of the stock to her shoulder while she barked an order at the rest of the line.
All the muskets came up, and a second later, they all fired as one into a mass of sultanate soldiers surging forward, trying to get past them to the ship.
The hail of musket fire forced them backward and Helen turned. She barked an order to a line of men standing behind her, also armed with muskets.
They’d just finished loading, and they brought their guns up to fire as the first line filtered back between them to stand about ten feet back where they started reloading.
Again, Helen barked a command and the second line fired into the surging Sultanate troops forcing them back once again.
Cari ran towards the Vengeance with the remainder of Stefan’s troops. She wondered where her first mate had gone.
Helen and her musketeers performed their maneuver twice more until they were back even with the bow of the Vengeance.
Helen turned and pointed to the ship, yelling at the top of her lungs as the angry sultanate troops howled and surged forward again, determined to catch the enemy who’d inflicted such damage on them.
“Fire.”
Cari didn’t understand what Helen planned at first. Then she saw the activity on the bow of the ship.
Gun crews on board had angled the two bow chasers to point down the wharf. As soon as Helen called out her order, smoke and fire belched from the two guns.
Instead of cannon balls, Cari realized they’d loaded a few of the canister shells, basically tin cans filled with musket balls, turning the two big cannons into giant shotguns.
The blast tore into the charging men of the harbor guard garrison. When the smoke cleared, not a one was left standing. The devastation was complete.
Cari shook herself and looked away from the carnage at the end of the wharf.
“Get everyone aboard. Now! Cast off, Mr. Dawkins. Let’s get this ship out to sea.”
“Aye, ma’am,” the bosun called back to her.
Helen joined Cari at the bottom of the gangplank while the remaining crew members ran up it and onto the deck.
“The first mate?” Cari asked, knowing the answer before she asked.
Helen shook her head. “He went down in the first assault on the barricade he’d built at the edge of the harbor square. The crew almost lost the position until I got there and rallied them again. Otherwise, they would have overrun us and taken the ship.”
“You did very well. Where did you learn to do that?”
“My father was an archer with the local militia when I grew up. They trained to move and shoot the same way. I figured it could work for muskets, too.”
“Good work. Get the wounded situated as soon as you can and then come see me on the quarterdeck.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be back up on deck shortly. Do you want to meet in your cabin instead? That wound on your back’s gonna need stitches I fear.”
“That can wait until we’re safely out of this lagoon and back in open water. Just come see me when you’re done.”
Helen nodded and started to coordinate getting the wounded crew members, scattered all around the main deck, down to the infirmary below. Her assistants were already at work, so Helen started below to begin the hard work of putting some of her shipmates back together.
Cari climbed up to the quarterdeck. The helmsman had a bandage tied across his forehead and down over one eye. Blood seeped through the linen to stain the fabric over his wound.
He smiled at Cari when she arrived and nodded as if to tell her he was fine to remain at his post.
Cari smiled back and noticed everyone on the quarterdeck was injured in one way or another. The rescue had been a good deal bloodier than they’d expected.
They’d managed to get the hostages free, though, and all of those who’d survived were safely aboard. It would have been a hard pill to swallow if they’d taken the losses they did and didn’t manage to pull off the rescue.
“Rodrigo, get me a final count of the hostages we rescued. Stefan, I want a list of casualties among the crew, dead and wounded alike. Mr. Dawkins, make sure anyone we send aloft is in a proper condition to do the work. I don’t want an injured sailor trying to do work up there and get injured or killed because we didn’t know they were hurt.”
A chorus of nods and “Ayes” sounded as they all rushed off to fulfill their orders.
Cari returned to her position standing next to the helmsman and watched as she steered the ship back out to sea through the lagoon’s narrow inlet.
“Where to once we’re clear, ma’am?” she asked as she spun the wheel to bring the ship through the final turn.
“Set our heading North-Northwest. We’re heading back home to the Empire.”
Quest completed — rescue the raider hostages
8,000 experience