Lt. Col. Jemimah Shillington-Smythe sat silently looking out over the clearing in front of her platoons hide. They had taken up residence in Hampstead Heath two weeks prior and had been striking out from there, causing an enormous amount of trouble and damage to the Royalist cause. She was a veteran of the civil war, leading three platoons with great success, and with surprisingly few casualties. She had joined the Recon Ghost Battalion six years before after her father rejected her request to join the Royal Marines. He said no Shillington-Smythe lady would lower themselves to fight in the trenches. Jemimah immediately packed her small valise and ran away, and after a few months of very hard travel and some very close calls, she started to see the Royalists for what they were. Murderous, souless rapists.
She had avoided the Sheriff of Nottingham by mere seconds, he was considered one of the most blood thirsty monsters in the employ of the King. She woke with a start and had the worst headache and a feeling of total dread. She forced herself to dress and take a powder for her head, slipping out the window of the Inn just moments before the Sheriff arrived with a full platoon of his louts. She hid in the small forest a few hundred metres from the small building, her heart racing, her gorge barely remaining down. As she watched, the Sheriff's men surrounded the Inn and called and proprietor out into the freezing morning air. It was something she had never believed possible in her land of Gentlemen and Ladies. The thugs tore the clothes from the Inn Keepers wife and daughter, and as the desperate man watched, they were both raped to death. But his pain was short lived as the Sheriff himself ran the man through with his sword when the man couldn't tell him where Jemimah was.
She was frozen to the spot in terror beyond anything she had ever experienced in her nineteen years. To see the poor woman and her daughter screaming in terror and immense pain, was mind breaking in it's horror. Jemimah was so terrified of meeting the same fate that she wet herself when the sheriffs men started towards her hiding place. But the truck stopped, a man leaped down and looked at the ground, his hand reaching out as if to feel the air at ground level. A moment later, he looked about, a look of confusion on his face, he turned and looked back at the inferno that the Inn had become, leapt back up into the cabin of the truck and it reversed, swung back onto the road and drove off. So shocked was Jemimah that she squatted behind the low bushes and just watched the Inn burn to the ground, and as the smoke started to abate some hours later, she could see the naked bodies of the women laying in front of the burned out remains of their home.
Jemimah didn't know how long she had squatted there, but when she finally regained control of her mind, she simply couldn't move. Her legs were frozen in place, she had been there so long her muscles and joints had frozen in place. Every attempt to move was met with searing pain that made her lose her breath. She finally swayed her body enough so that she rolled onto her side, the fact that she had lost her breath as she hit the ground was the only reason she didn't scream in agony. All through that night she relived the horror of the Inn Keeper and his families deaths. Just before the dawn, she thought she would lose her mind, it was too hard to believe that a man of the Sheriff's breeding and responsibilities would behave in such a depraved and inhuman manner. She cried and cried, desperate for the loving embrace of her mother, but she was alone, and many miles from the family estate.
Jemimah lay there for another day and night, her mind struggling to make sense of the world around her and the destruction that was wrought upon the innocent family who ran the Inn. Finally, after two days of terror and desperate mental fighting, she found herself again and sat up. This was not the way that English people behaved, she could not turn away again, she needed to do something to fight back and try and remove these monsters from the world. In her initial journey from her family home she had heard the whispers and stories of a fighting force that was assembling in the north of Scotland. She knew that was where she needed to be, to atone for not trying to save the Inn Keeper and his family. The more she thought about the horrors visited upon them, the more she wished she had given herself over to the Sheriff and his men. Maybe then the Inn Keeper would still be living his simple life with the love and support of his wife and daughter.
When she arrived in the town of Perth, she had no trouble finding the right people to direct her in the direction of the military arm of the Loyalist forces. She immediately enlisted and found herself in Officer training. From there she led a squad of driven and skilled soldiers, fighting numerous battles with the Royalist forces aligned against them. Before long, Jemimah found herself a Captain in charge of several squads, all of whom were desperate to wipe the Royalist forces from the land of theirs births. They didn't consider the enemy countrymen, they were monsters that thrived on fear and violence against the unarmed population. Her troops looked up to her with pride and a little fear as they saw her battle several enemy at once, destroying them as though they were nothing more than an annoyance. She was almost a one woman army that tore a swathe through any that stood before her, no mercy expected or shown.
As the years passed, she increased her skills and knowledge, seeking out anyone that could teach her skills that would help in her quest to kill the Sheriff of Nottingham and his men. Before long she was known as the Black Wraith, her ability to appear, seemingly out of no where became almost legend. Jemimah Shillington-Smythe was driven and committed to the defeat of the Royalist forces, and set about surrounding herself with like minded men and women, equally as committed to the cause. She knew that she had to ensure there was down time where her men could relax and forget about the war and just be normal men and women, this allowed her to weed out those that were beyond committed, obsession was a sure way to die painfully in battle. Her soldiers needed to be able to keep their heads in battle, mainly to ensure they recognised the small things that could be the difference between winning and losing, living and dying.
Now all these years later, she could see the end in sight, the Sheriff had committed suicide when his castle had been surrounded and he heard that the legendary Black Wraith was inside the castle and hunting for him. She was inconsolably angry when she found the weak Sheriff in his office with a hole in his head and his still smoking pistol in the other hand. She lost her legendary composure for a long few minutes after that, her platoon barring entry to the office while she expended the anger on the body and office of the Sheriff. After about fifteen minutes she emerged and the platoon fell in behind her and left the castle, their jobs done.
The hide was well place and she could see over the open area that any force intent of attacking would have to use, but no one knew they were there, so it was simply a watch in case of accidental discovery. It gave her plenty of time to think about her life and what had transpired over the past six years. Now she was faced with an even greater foe, an enemy that could well prove to be the greatest fight of her life. Her Father Cyril Shillington-Smythe was the General in-charge of the Kenwood Household Guardsmen. A regiment that had started life as a group of students from the Estate area looking to continue in the military after their studies were completed. But now was considered the blackest and blood thirstiest regiment in the Royalist ranks. Her father had surrounded himself with the hardest and most skilled soldiers in the Royal Army. Mostly cut throats and murderers given the chance to ply their trade under the guise of service in the Royal Military. All they had to do to be accepted into the regiment was swear fealty to the King and to General Shillington-Smyth. Over the past three years, they had cut a swathe through the population around the northern parts of London and were feared like none other.
Jemimah had almost stumbled when she heard that her father was the commander and driving force behind the Kenwood Estate Household Guard. But, as she sat in her tent trying to reconcile the horror of her father's actions, she saw the faces of the Inn keeper and his family as they were murdered in such a hideous fashion. The memory crystalized the determination in her mind to rid her country of these devils. From there she put forward a plan to send her Wraiths into the north of the city and commit as many hit and run raids on important military targets, with the ultimate goal being to draw out the Kenwood Regiment and wipe them out. So far she and her platoon of elite fighters had destroyed several Military hubs, and crippled many industrial centres that produced hardware and consumables destined for units across the front lines. She was so proud of her people and she never hesitated to let them know she would not trade even one of them for anything, not even peace.
"Milady, we have Intel that the Kenwood Household Guard is sending three squads to try and get a lead on our location." Sgt. Major Hideo Atsuoko reported. He had been the result of an ill advised liaison between a diplomat and a giesha during a posting in Tokyo. The diplomat being a responsible man, married the Geisha and moved them to Scotland to live. He had joined the Loyalist militia when he was old enough, and he was now her right hand man.
"What do we know Sgt. Major?" She responded.
"Three ten man squads, all highly experienced fighters and skilled at tracking and hunting." He answered.
"Your thoughts?"
"I have reservations, Milady. The intel was far too easy to get, someone is trying to lure us into an ambush." He explained.
"Yes, I have to agree, who was the source of the Intel?" She continued.
"The Butchers delivery boy." He said. "He said that he over heard three NCO's chatting over their breakfast. I feel he is compromised and we need to get him out."
"Very well, Hideo. I am of the same thought, send in third squad and get the boy out. But, make sure they are very careful, that could be as big a trap as the Squads." The Japanese Sgt. bowed and spun on his heals. She knew that he would lead the mission to retrieve their source before he was sliced up by some eager Guardsman looking to get on his Generals good side.
Jemimah looked out over the clearing in front of the hide, as she considered the mission to retrieve the young man that had been feeding them Intel. He was a young man that simply wanted a better life than the one he had under the current King and his cronies. Jemimah knew that her troops would do everything they could to get the young man out before he met a violent end. It was going to be an exceptionally dangerous task, but she knew that Atsuoko could do it. She moved out of the hide and slowly made her way back to the small camp they had lived in for the past few weeks. She smiled as she approached, there was absolutely no indication that the Platoon was any where near the bushes in front of her. She had very high expectations of her people, and they always lived up to the standard she expected. After surveying the area for any threats, she moved the branches they had put up that covered the entry to the small clearing where the platoon set up their base.
Atsuoko was talking quietly to a small group of the team, laying out the plan and what he expected of them during the mission. She approached and listened as he covered every detail, and made sure everyone undeerstood their orders. No one even moved as she approached, it was expected that they would maintain focus on the instructions they were receiving.
"The lad doesn't know that the Royalists may be on to him, so we need to make sure that we get him out, quietly and quickly." He explained. "I will go into the butchers and get the boy, I want two up high at the front, Simpson and Decker, take the front. Tally and Gordon, cover at the back door, Mackey and Ando, over watch in the alley." Jemimah suddenly realised that there was a real problem.
"Sgt. Maj. Atsuoko. A moment please." She announced.
"Yes Ma'am." He replied, and moved over to where she stood.
"Hideo, it has just landed on me that they might just be expecting us to try and get the boy out." A sudden realisation crossed the Sergeants face.
"Shit, I hadn't considered that. I was so focused on them looking for us in ambush based on the fake Intel."
"Don't be too harsh on yourself, Hideo, I should have thought of this first." She replied calmly. "We need to adjust out mission, and I think we need to reassess the plan and bring the entire platoon along and ambush the ambushers." She explained with a small smirk.
"Milady, you have a most audacious and sneaky mind." her Sargent said with a similar grin. She slapped him on the shoulder and she signaled for the entire team to gather around.
"Ladies and Gentleman, we have reconsidered our action, and we have decided to set an ambush for the Royalists, who are expecting us to walk into a trap at the butchers." She looked around and she saw the excitement and expectation in her peoples eyes. "We are going in late tonight....." As they listened intently, she laid out the plan.