Major Keith Saunders; East of Gagh, Western Pindar, MerinaThe National Liberation Army patrol were spread out along the top of the ridge, overlooking the villa from the north-east. Colonel al-Quirm's
Kandak had moved into the Farsiboka area soon after the cessation of the Katamba offensive and the start of the Gaia talks, though small-scale skirmishes like this continued in an intermittent, tit-for-tat fashion. Keith and the ever-present Sergeant-Major Blackwell had brought this reinforced section up to block the road to Gagh on the suggestion of NLA intelligence, which had suggested a night attack on the outstation there was coming, but it seemed like. a mule train had blundered into the ambush instead. Panicked animals ran back and forth across the valley floor, lit periodically by bursts of tracer and eerie pyrotechnics.
A brief survey of the scene through a set of night-vision goggles showed a handful of figures crouching on the roof of the compound off to their extreme right, another dozen or so men creeping purposefully right-to-left through the wadi bed, and yet more flitting from cover-to-cover, climbing the ridge to their left. It would be time to go soon, they'd made their point, no sense in dragging through the mud over two dozen mules and some bags of rice. He shouted over to Blackwell, who was crouching nearby, merrily dropping rounds down range with the
Dijlei light mortar they'd come across at the NLA depot back in town - an unusual weapon for Merina, but Keith had noticed odds and ends of old Dijeli kit getting about, clearly the Federal Republic was losing its touch. When this failed to produce the desired effect, he picked up a rock from the dusty ground and wanged it off the Sergeant-Major's boot.
"Lads coming up on the left, mate" Keith had to shout to make himself heard, gesturing in the direction where the Pidaris were coming at them up the ridge. Blackwell took one look, remembered his own night optic, took another, then nodded. Keith added: "Send them some love, then form the lads up in marching order if you could please, Sergeant-Major"
One of the men on their right was popping off some shorts towards the compound as it was lit briefly by the glow of a Schermuly. He fired once, twice, three times, aiming deliberately, before a a heavy machine gun replied the favour with a throaty bark. The man cringed back below the skyline as rounds landed around him, tearing chunks off of a nearby limestone outcrop. Keith stepped up to pull the man clear from the line of fire with a violent yank on the back of his webbing: "and lets not play with them" he added, to himself.
Ade Oywali; Villa East of Gagh, Western Pindar, MerinaAde seemed rather taken aback at being grabbed from behind, writhing and pulling out a viciously sharp fighting blade as he rolled out of her grip, before grinning appreciatively as the round ricocheted off the balustrade behind them. Duly concerned, he crouched over her to dress the wound on her arm. One of the other men on the roof had some medical training from civilian life, but could offer little more than the odd expletive and a few words of encouragement as he sheltered from the incoming fire.
The gunner, however, had spotted the muzzle flashes up on the ridge and swung his weapon around to reply. A burst of fire, red tracers in the darkness and the clatter of brass cartridge cases on the rooftop. Another burst, then another. Ade stayed by Hazel, and the pair sheltered behind the low adobe balustrade as the battle washed over them. The rattle of gunfire, the flash of the odd rocket and whistle of the little mortar. But, by now, the NLF men were already going backwards; the Fedayeen kept up their own barrage on the ridge until their own fighters were almost upon it, then an eerie hush fell over the valley.
Somewhere, a bird sang, and the grey light of dawn began to filter over the barren landscape.
It was in this soft light that, a little while later, the convoy came in, corralling their remaining mules into the compound courtyard. Ade led Hazel back down the stairs and into a scene of controlled chaos: wounded men lay on litters inside the main building, and a few in the shade of the trees where Hazel had spent her night as a prisoner, while a somber party were hard at work digging a grave pit by the compound wall, stripped to the waist and already sweating in the mild morning air. Supplies from the compound were being brought out and piled in the courtyard, while anything which could not be removed was being burned in a small fire in another corner.
Sam was there, speaking diffidently with a tall, lithe man in camouflage fatigues under the shade of the fruit trees. As Ade led her closer, Sam made a gesture towards Hazel and the tall stranger turned around to look. His dark face was deeply scarred, with a patch over his left eye, while a fresh dressing covered part of his jaw, though his features were nonetheless sharp and striking. A carbine was slung by his side, and he rested his forearm on the top of the weapon easily as the pair approached.
"Good morning, Ade" He grinned broadly, as if greeting an old friend, and the two embraced. The stranger's command of English sounded far more comfortable than any of the Pindaris from the outpost, an air of sophistication to his voice "So, here is our spy?" He turned to Hazel with a wry smile on his face "The appropriately-named Miss Flare? Samuel, my man, I had rather hoped for a little more, the way you talked her up. No matter. Look, could you take over here for a moment, pal? I'd talk to her for a moment"
Sam deferred without protest, and wandered off in search of a wayward mule handler to victimise. The stranger ushered Hazel to walk through the courtyard with him, angling away from the more busy areas. Ade followed, but at a respectful distance, as watchful as ever.
"So, Madame spy" The stranger chuckled as they walked "Or perhaps that is too presumptive of me, no. I am Captain Cecil Banda, by way of introduction, and this is my country into which you have so... delicately inserted yourself" He paused momentarily for effect, before adding, conspiratorially "They tell me you came here in search of the Prince Ezana?"