The January winter was relentless and fiendish. The Caudan coast was covered in dense snow up to three feet, and there wasn't a soul outdoors. K'rar's pioneers were encamped on the beach, having arrived against the odds the previous evening. K'rar had started off with more than a thousand eager youthful recruits, but since then, hundreds had been unable to complete the journey, and the camp was harboring only 688, but not all were regiment recruits. Still, just eight of the 140 females he had begun with had departed, and K'rar was more pleased than surprised about it. The rest of the pioneers who weren't trainees were also in this location, Poldesny, with the few equipment that hadn't already been transported to the islands, just under the horizon. All through their journey in these coastal parts of Cauda, the only thing that was on people's mouths were stories of the Nephilim and of the largest ship they had ever seen, the Behemoth Pioneer that Asthenes and his companions had sailed to the beach more than three times to load the supplies and logistics. And on this cold, quiet morning but for the harsh waves of the sea, it is what every single one of the souls here except K'rar was waiting to confirm with their own eyes. Even Bartle Frere, who had seen the Nephilim, was still eager to see them.
The beach that had previously been unused and forlorn was now teeming with life all along its length, although in this early morning all were still under their tents until the later morning hours when Drill Instructor Zeljko and Bartle Frere joined K'rar, where he was standing on the shoreline looking at the vast sea in the direction of the Kaffraria. He was dressed in his official garb this morning, including the garland around his neck and chest that the Nephilim had given to him. He was also clad in his sky blue Commandant's uniform, different from the black that the rest of the regiment would wear. It was the sky blue of the flag of Korazin. On top of this was a woolen winter cloak that fell up to the calves, so from behind he looked like a black hominid creature. There was also a multitude of fishing trawlers that had been hired out to carry equipment to the islands apart from the Behemoth Pioneer, but the boats' stewards would arrive later on in the morning. On the beach, the campers were undergoing another rigorous exercising session supervised by Haller and four other officers, as had been the schedule for the past weeks on the journey. Zeljko said to him,
'So it begins.'
'So it does,' K'rar said, 'and there's the Pioneer to start it. Call an assembly. We'll brief them now.'
The Pioneer was just appearing above the horizon at full sail. Even at that distance the ship was a real sea monster. Bartle Frere and Zeljko stayed put to have a longer look at it before they turned around and joined the frenzy at the beach as the recruits assembled in their lines. This first bunch that had stayed with them was promising, at least in the assessment of the officers. They had trekked on foot the whole way, inspired by K'rar, who himself walked all the way. Every time they camped, K'rar had endeavored to learn and memorize their names and even details about their lives. He had spoken to more than half of them, and all of those whom he spoke to stayed with the team. There were very few from his province though, but that didn't worry him, as they had set off for the Kaffraria within one week of the start, and all the recruits who got to Zadok were from the nearby tribes.
The Pioneer was perhaps even more shocking than magnificent to the sightseers on the beach, and that was before the form of the giant Asthenes appeared to the side of the ship, with eight of his companions. They stood along the side of the ship, about a hundred meters in the deep, and engaged in a minute-long stare down with the group on the beach, who were incessantly murmuring among themselves, some even frightened outright. Then Asthenes tied the frocks of his skirt around his thighs into trousers, buckled under his knees, and jumped over the side. He landed in the water with a huge splash, and the others followed suit. They included Tahwan, Oderlund, Sommer, Tazio, Gulaski, Vielland and Lars. The water that would have submerged the men and women on the beach didn't even touch the waists of many of the Nephilim, who waded through the water with remarkable ease. The crowd on the beach surged back like a water wave when the giants came closer. K'rar, Bartle Frere and Zeljko stayed put, and the giants, with Asthenes at the center, stood in a line in front of them and made their Nephilim bow to greet their human king.
'It's been long, my friends,' K'rar said, and added, 'meet the recruits of the Kaffrarian Knights Regiment, and the non-military staff of this project. With these, and those who will join us in the days and months ahead, we will sail to your new home.'
'We are excited to begin operations right away,' said Asthenes, 'we finished fitting the weapons onto the Pioneer a long time ago, so we began building living chambers from the eucalyptus on the second island.' The Kaffraria was made of 21 clustered islands, eight of them considerably large. They lined up on the sea in a hooked shape in a southeasterly direction, in descending order of size for some reason.
'You did? That's fabulous. How far have you gone with that?'
'So far the dormitories can harbor 200 people. How large is the Regiment?' Asthenes asked.
'With us here are 700,' Bartle Frere said, 'there will be more of course.'
'Well, the first task we had in mind was to build bunkers. So let us go and continue your work,' said K'rar. He then turned and said to Benjoin nearby, 'let's load the supplies onto the boats.' This would be done voluntarily by all those on the beach. The beach was littered with the logistics and equipment, and more was still flowing in from Zadok. At some point in the day a two-mile long caravan of horses and wagons carrying them lined up from the beach. The Poldesny Gendarium was put in charge of overseeing the process of transferring the equipment, including horses, food supplies, tents, weapons and the like, from the mainland to the Kaffraria. The non-military recruits would also work from the Kaffraria in ship-building and weapons manufacture and the like, following K'rar's, and his experts team's, ideas. This would be K'rar's first task, to vet and pick the team of experts who were to work on the manufacture of his devices, and Tanihuchi the Polemian was his choice for captain of this group. He was K'rar's chief engineer. Anything that K'rar could make, Tanny could make better. So far, he had not failed to make any of the items K'rar's brains cooked up.
And so the days became weeks, and those became months. Life at the Kaffraria was harsh and hard in the winter months, but by the time the beautiful spring came along, a lot of work had been done and the place was much more habitable. The Nephilim alone accomplished the work of 150 men in a matter of weeks. Hundreds of petty workers from the mainland apart from the permanent and semi-permanent staff had joined in too for a quick remuneration. At the end of April the recruitment had increased to more than four times the original number, and this time, southern provinces' numbers had surpassed those from the north. In the first week of April, 200 or so recruits had showed up from Alhanan. In this batch K'rar had reunited with many Iscalan colleagues, the foremost being his brother Chio, and even Tuncay and Luuk, Governor Onder's son and nephew. Apothecary Sahar came along too, with the woman Darbe, who was the first person K'rar knew in Xaxanika by name. He remembered her vividly. Chio had also come along as promised with the metalsmith Qallio and his family, as well as his girlfriend, Jen. The Iscalans also came with a bunch of letters, from his family, from the Gendarium and from the Governor himself. Then of all people, Romiel from Zohaltiel valley had also showed up and immediately turned on the style.
The islands had all been renamed after many species of plant and animal, and all but a few were in use, especially for mining chemar, or being explored. The entire regiment bunkered on the first two islands, on which had been constructed most of the facilities using wood and concrete. There were enough facilities to cater even for later recruits. For example, the capacity of the dorms on Calypto, the second island with a forest of eucalyptus trees, was 45,000, the prospective minimum number of the Kaffrarian Knights. The recruits would sleep on double-decker beds planted in the walls, and in some dorms there were three-decker beds. For now, all the other staff members, whether they were cooking or building Stingers or woodworking, also stayed in these dorms. K'rar never expected to reach 45,000 recruits, so he had directed that everyone use the same dormitory facility to avoid unnecessary budget strain. The first island, Sunflower, was the training base, and the third, Wasp, was for weapons manufacture and ship building. On Calypto another building made of logs adjacent to the dormitory facility was raised—the common room. It was the length of one side of the rectangular dormitory facility, and a hallway in its midrib connected it to the dorms. The common room was also the feeding ground for the recruits, mandatorily for the main meals of the day, and at the option of any staff who wished. While staff members got free meals, they had to purchase some of the stuff that was exclusively for the recruits. The common room had quickly become the favorite hangout in the evening hours when no training or drills were going on. Here, the recruits would mingle and goof around and play as much as they liked. At first K'rar had mandated this activity, but with had not needed to supervise it. It was also a place where passions flared and bonding was strengthened, so it was very important to K'rar in his setup of the place. He vigorously inculcated the value of unity and teamwork every day for seven days, and had even required the officers to formulate a detailed plan, to make sure that his knights marked it down in the deepest confines of their heads. Any altercations on the basis of tribe were harshly punished, and sometimes any two recruits who strayed from the principle were forced to do everything together, including eating from the same plate, sharing a cup, doing drills together, and on one occasion, sharing a bunker. More serious offenders were locked in cold rooms together, and on one occasion two had actually gotten along so well that they were found in the middle of sexual intercourse, another serious offence but only if it resulted in pregnancy. K'rar would never allow the termination of a pregnancy by some herbs administered by old Sahar. He would simply expel the offenders with a small fee to find life elsewhere and raise the child. Nonetheless, it wasn't all doom and gloom. K'rar's regiment weren't being trained to be rigid, unfeeling statues. It was important that they became a brotherhood. So on weekends they were free to do as they liked. K'rar left it to their discretion.
In the first months the program was focused on the recruits' fitness levels, so every morning the regiment would wake at the sound of a horn, and run, and K'rar would join them deliberately to encourage them. Sometimes the younger officers like Bartle Frere and Isaki who still had the lungs would also join in these drills. After some time, the recruits began learning the other basics. K'rar required all to learn the same things and not specialize from the start. So there was a program for archery, horses and taking care of the horses, hand-to-hand combat among others, and while all this was being done, the officers, and not K'rar, were keenly assessing each recruit's abilities to make a catalogue of possible leaders. As for Shaniz and Bekka, K'rar was already prepping them for these roles, schooling them in his own unique ways and methods. After many weeks of practice in the basics, the regiment had then moved on to its first drills, and this is where K'rar was especially required, because his army's ways were not the ways of the regular army. K'rar had expertly revolutionized the military. His regiment employed entirely new tricks. For example, whereas the method of colliding with an enemy force on a battlefield with all his men and then cut each other up was inevitable, he relegated it as one of the lesser methods. Rather than lose many men like that, K'rar elevated stealth, ambush and speed like a viper, rather than the brute force and haphazard charging of a bull. To ensure this, new methods of approach needed to be performed. One of these, K'rar had already employed against Kospar Petry, the method of crawling. K'rar also introduced trench warfare, also with the motive of concealment of forces. Then he had also made the trick of using trees a real method, so he had had the uniform and armor of the knights enhanced in many ways. First, the boots were fitted with sharp retractable steel hooks, for climbing. This would reduce the need for ladders to scale walls after throwing a hook over the ramparts of a wall. Then, the uniform was also equipped with mechanisms to allow each knight to have their own rope and hook. Also, each knight had to carry all the essential things they needed with them at all times, so they all had large but light bags to carry for a march from one place to the next. K'rar hated camping all the time, a cumbersome and time wasting system, yet K'rar always taught that speed was the essence of war. He had replaced the large war tents with sleeping bags and much smaller tents that could be folded, unfolded and packed again in the blink of an eye, and that could be stuffed in the army bags of the knights. Also with these, K'rar's knights could march, camp in a small space out of sight, wake up and begin the next march very quickly without the need to disengage tents and pack them on wagons and then ride them slowly. K'rar's knights could reach a distant destination requiring four weeks for a large force in half the time. A camp was also too risky and vulnerable to K'rar's liking, as he had demonstrated himself at Rethrain not too long ago. K'rar also emphasized the import of and improved communications systems. Communication, he taught, was an extremely crucial requirement. This is why he had also included falconers in his list of nonmilitary staff. They were to teach falconry to divisions in his army with the aim of using falcons almost entirely to communicate between distant units. K'rar's chief engineer, Tanny, also suggested an ingenious way of communicating via smoke signals shot in the air. K'rar had immediately adopted this method, and improved it in a way by introducing different color signals to indicate a specific message, by burning different substances to produce the smoke. White meant that the coast was clear. Black spelt the appearance of an enemy, red meant "attack", and green was a call for backup. Different combinations of these also carried specific signals. K'rar theorized that the rate and speed of communication could be the difference between success and failure. That communication could win a war without losing so much as a single man. The knights were also taught in tactics of cutting off enemy communications, for example reconnoiter soldiers, or in tactically feeding the enemy the wrong picture.
K'rar had also required the physicians to train some of his soldiers in that art. Each unit would have a member or two trained in medical. This one would carry the medical supplies of the team and take care of injured teammates. K'rar also had his soldiers learn poison tactics. Winning didn't have to be synonymous with physical combat. Anything would do, K'rar taught. So the army spent some time in classes, both theoretical and practical, with physicians, especially Sahar, learning potions and poisonous plants and smokes and things like these. Xaxanika's flora had an abundance of dangerous plants ranging from the hemlock to deadly nightshade to rye. For some of the less dangerous fumes, K'rar had required the regiment to train their anatomies to get used to them or resist them, for example for hallucinogenic poisons and those that knocked out victims.
K'rar also introduced booby trap techniques, as well as camouflage tactics. Hiding in plain sight, just like a serpent or a chameleon. He trained his men and women to make costumes out of plants, like grass or leaves. With these, his units could be right in the backyard of a completely oblivious enemy camp for days. If battle was to be made in a forest, K'rar's forces would win in record time.
The knights were also a highly mechanized force. K'rar's investment in the great engineering minds paid off with unimaginable dividends. Within the first six months only, they had come up with unique, original weapons, most of which were improved versions or derived versions of K'rar's own concept tools. For example, inspired by the explosive cannon the Nephilim had fitted onto the Pioneer and which was being fitted onto the other ships in manufacture, the engineers had created a land-based mobile version. Then, once Tanny the Polemian had come up with the idea of a pneumatic discharge system, it had been so successful that even the systems fitted onto the Stingers had to be detached and remodeled. So instead of heavy catapults, the Kaffrarian Regiment now had a much lighter, more effective weapon, which Tanny called the whizzgun. It was made of a metal barrel supported by a mobile base. Chemar shells would be placed inside the barrel, ignited from a hole at the other end of it, and set off pneumatically into the air. The length of the barrel determined the range of the whizzgun. They ranged from 80 to 210 meters for the mobile whizzgun. The Nephilim engineering minds, excited with this, managed to manipulate the weapons on the ships to hurl heavy chemar shells up to 520 meters for the Behemoths, and nearly 300 for the Stingers. The ships were also large enough to be fitted with advanced forward-facing trebuchets for bombardment of cities from the sea, as they could hurl larger chemar loads over larger distances and over the tops of defensive walls. K'rar had Tyrne of Goldora in mind when he employed this. He also had the Nephilim turn a massive, hypothetical eight and a half meter whizzgun into reality, for use on land. When they had done, it was so excellent it could fire explosive shells just over mile away. This one could fire three rounds continuously at a time, with an interval of five seconds. The knights called this a bullgun. These weapons' effectiveness spoke for themselves, but K'rar commissioned the creation of only 40 others, because they were too heavy, and K'rar's army was organized and designed on the principle of blistering speed, so the short range whizzguns were preferred. Still, these advancements were very significant to K'rar, and to his knights, that he had to create an Artillery Division alongside the premeditated Hornets, Serpentine, Orca, Hybrid and Cavalry Divisions. The Hornets were made of knights that were more inclined to swift, forceful, rapid assault measures. They were ruthless, unforgiving brutes, and K'rar noticed that many of those who ended up in this division were mostly those he had picked from the streets and given a home, and those who had backgrounds where they were on the receiving end of violence and injustice. The Serpentine Divisions were those who were more like K'rar himself, prone to quieter, systematic approaches, first studying the enemy to catch their weak points, and then causing sudden chaos by burning, poisoning or frustrating the enemy. This division also had the privilege of having canine teammates. Alsatian hounds were in plenty in Xaxanika. The setup of the regiment overall from the start inclined almost the whole army to behave like this. The Orcas made up the navy, K'rar's most important division with his prospects in mind. Many of these were not as excellent as their colleagues in land combat, so they had taken it upon themselves to master the sea. General Morriffere, in charge of teaching the basics of the sea, also had to forget everything from his fishing days on the south coast and in the Devil's Mouth bay of Alhanan. These vessels were almost entirely new species of ship. They didn't require the wind to move or for steering, which disabled all his prior knowledge of the sea. He had had to learn the same things as his students after teaching them the basic sailing rules. The Hybrids were those who belonged to no particular division, so they belonged to all of the divisions, being good at everything. Finally, the Cavalry were the equestrian specialists. Lads who were quite simply one and the same with horses.
As they weathered their second wintertime in late November, the project had flourished with flying colors. The once nondescript islands had been overhauled and transformed into a hotspot teeming with life. The beaches to the south of it, especially on Wasp, the third island, named after the Stingers, were now beating with the constant buzz of working men, and beautiful structures like wharfs and quays, and high structures for shipwrights to climb upon. The Nephilim were mostly employed in this business. As a result of their exceptional work rate, K'rar was now standing on the deck of the seventeenth complete Stinger, the Polemian. Another Behemoth, the Spirit, was also docked here, the second one after the Pioneer. K'rar had finished inspecting the Spirit and the other Stingers, and was now checking out the Polemian even though it was the same design. Stingers had a capacity of at least 80 crew members with an overall of 383, while the Behemoth's crew was up to 350 with an overall of 1025. The Pioneer looked rudimentary after these newest ships, and redesigning it would take a long time, so it had been retired until there was ample time, that is, after the production of the minimum number of warships. Alternatively it would remain a sailing ship just for show. The Stingers' deck comprised of a chimney in its center to let out the fumes from the engine room underneath, and another column for the lookout's watchtower, which was a quite comfortable spot, as it was a small room with a bench and a small cabinet, surrounded by the balcony from which the lookout would carry out their task. Also on the deck was the bridge. State-of-the-art stuff, the bridge. Instead of an elevated platform with the steering wheel in the open, the bridge was a room, semicircular in shape with the entrance behind the wheel. The captain could occupy the bridge with other officers, and could relax by sitting on the benches fitted into the wall to the left and right. These walls were only waist high, held by poles to the roof so the captain could see where he was going. The bridge was also self-contained, with cabinets for food and drink and other things. There was a hatch to the left of the steering through which the steward could access the lower deck and his sleeping chambers directly underneath. This design allowed the steward to remain at his post at all times. In fact, the sides of the bridge also had windows, hinged horizontally, that could be lifted and closed to protect the steward better. Behind the center twin columns, another roofed shed stood, for the immediate supplies for the deck. Along the sides of the ship on the deck were hatches in which heavy whizzguns were concealed. These could be lifted onto the deck when needed, dressed into their holes along the ship's side, and fired. The barrels were of different ranges, and were mobile for a few degrees either side along the rails of the side of the ship. In the space behind the bridge was another hatch that concealed an advanced long-range forward-firing trebuchet. Stingers also had two forward firing whizzguns in their bows. The trebuchets on the Behemoth were even better, and the Behemoths had a couple of them. But the broadside whizzguns on the Behemoths were not fitted on the deck. Rather, they were set in blowholes in the side of the ship below the deck. The handlers would be concealed inside the ship. Each gun would be slid into a cross shaped hatch to enable the mobility of the guns to some degree in four directions. It would then be prodded with a weight behind its wheels to prevent it sliding back, and also to prevent damage from recoil after a load was fired. Each blowhole had a smaller one next to it for the snipers, to pinpoint the target. Now the Behemoths were real sea monsters, because they carried two rows of 21 whizzguns on each side, so they had 42 whizzguns, as well as the two long-range trebuchets sleeping under the deck.
The captains of these ships had already been chosen. The Polemian was under the care of the governor Onder's son, Tuncay. The trend of Hananite ship captains was already clear. Three of the other Stingers, the Ursan, named after the massacre of hundreds of Ursan villagers by Garrera back in Korazin, the Iscalan and the Constellation all had capable redheads for stewards including Jen, Chio's girl. She captained the Constellation. Chio would have loved to be on her ship, but his progress had all the signs of him joining the skilled Cavalry Division. Chio was one of those who could perform tricks on a moving horse, including squatting on the back of a moving horse to shoot arrows. Still, there was no need to be a crew member to make the Constellation his ship. He could board it for any drills or to travel, to be with her. Tuncay's stint with the Knights Regiment had changed his personality greatly. He had learned to humble himself, an improvement that had made the biggest contribution to his credentials before Morriffere had appointed him.
This Monday morning when K'rar was making rounds and visited his Stinger, Tuncay saluted his Commandant with the special Kaffrarian Knights salute, a stamp of the right boot and a right fist across his chest. The few crew members with him did the same.
'At ease,' K'rar said to him. He was with Shaniz and Zeljko. He was looking up at the lookout post on the center column, 'I don't intend to have a tour in the lower decks. The only thing I haven't seen is the lookout post.'
'Go on up, sir.'
K'rar was already walking toward it. Now he could either climb up with the ladder or with a rope on a pulley. The rope was faster. All he had to do was fasten himself well and then release the weight on the rope on the other side with another rope. The rope hurled him up quickly, and then he would use the remaining section of the ladder to climb into the balcony. The height would be very terrifying for a common man, but not for any of his knights, who were all trained in climbing precarious heights like this. Shaniz joined him shortly and found him looking in the southerly direction. K'rar looked her in the face, and took her hand to pull her closer to himself. With his right arm around her, he said,
'We haven't left the Kaffraria for a year now. But I have to say, I have enjoyed our moments here more.'
'Me too,' said Shaniz. She also had her arm around him, 'perhaps it's because of the environment. It's like an extra-large school.' The regiment now had more than 22,000 soldiers, a staggering number, including 3,800 females, and many more were coming in at a regular pace.
'Yeah. Still, we deserve some alone time. We haven't spent a weekend together for some time.'
'I would like that.'
'It's a date.'
They kissed, and spent another minute there before descending, whereupon K'rar immediately said to Zeljko,
'It is time to send for the dogs.'
'The dogs, sir?'
'The last piece in the puzzle. Animal warfare.'
'Right, of course.' The sexagenarian had a playbook, so he knew what K'rar was talking about. K'rar had already sent out men to the northern parts of the mainland to capture as many wolf puppies as they could, as well as Alsatian dogs or pups. These would be given to the Serpentine Divisions first, although all members of the regiment except Orcas could also employ canines. The wolves and Alsatian breeds, K'rar had learned, were excellent military assets, and he required only wolf puppies because it was almost impossible to tame a grown wolf, whereas an adult domestic dog was no problem. The only military dog in this regiment was his own dog, Targa, which had taught him these lessons. Targa's sense of smell and intelligence allowed him to execute simple commands such as delivering a message to a specific person. He was also a fantastic attack dog, a job suitable especially for wolves.
'We will take the Stingers on a trial run in the sea. Orcas also need drills. Starting next week.'
'Yes, sir.'
Tuncay and his few crew members had heard this. They jumped in delight.