Author Topic: The Seige of Seitch  (Read 15125 times)

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Offline Libby

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The Seige of Seitch
« on: August 31, 2017, 12:13:22 AM »

As the sun came up across the rocky highlands that fringed the desert the city of Seitch began to stir. It had been "locked down" by the Kaitaine Defence Force for the last three weeks, however the Truthsayers here had mostly grown up in the dusty city, and as they liked to tell any other Truthsayer "We are a desert creature", this intimate knowledge of the sandstone city, its narrow winding allies and the desert beyond its small retaining walls meant they were far from locked in. Every night two or three Truthsayers sneaked out to make contact with their allies in other cells or to collect water and food. On a few occasions they'd even sneaked into the KDF camps and slit a few throats, the warm blood of young conscripts turning the women's beloved Crystknife red until they wiped it on their victimes sleeves. As the warmth of the desert sun began to heat the areas used by the Truthsayers those who had been permitted to sleep rose from their slumber.

"Corporal McHarte" Joanna McNeill, commander of the Truthsayers for the whole of Kaitaine walked into the basement that had been their make shift barracks for the last week. "You're to grab your gear head over to Charlie Sector, relieve Sergeant McArthur" the young girl strecthed and grabbed her boot, she tapped them making sure no creepy crawlies awaited her before plunging a foot in. She laced them up and then headed for the door where her rifle and pack were waiting hanging on a hook. "Let me know if you see anything, word is the KDF were jumping around a bit last night."

"Yes Ma'am" Ruth McHarte disappeared through the door and walked up the stone steps as she fastened her webbings waist band, as she emerged into the street outside tiny dust tornados could already be seen. She checked the street each way, it was as expected empty and began her walk over to the roof that served as Charlie Sectors snipers nest, none of them had fired from there in days, but the roof garden on one of the blocks of homes made perfect cover, and gave some slight shade, it also gave a perfect view of the KDF a few miles beyond the walls.

"Hey, where we going" a small voice called from behind her and she turned to see 12 year old Imogen O'Lone scurrying along zipping up a tactical waistcoat far too big for her.

"I'm going to my job, you need to get back to HQ and stay out of trouble" Ruth pointed back the way they'd come. Imogen was the youngest person in Seitch since the KDF had evacuated most people weeks ago, many more had wanted to stay but Joanna had insisted they leave, Seitch didn't need many people to hold it and the Seitch Cell of the Truthsayers were the most committed and best trained, there was no point throwing them away needlessly when they could slip into Kaitaine society and bide their time. Imogen however was an orphan, and as such had been raised by a Bene Gesserit Missionara Protectiva foster mother, that hadn't stopped the girl sneaking away and staying in the city when people pulled out. Now she was, at least in her mind, a Truthsayer, she ran errands for the officers, mainly fetching and carrying water, taking people food while on guard and occasionally carrying extra ammo.

"I'm coming with you, its sooo boring at HQ" Imogen insisted and even when Ruth pushed her away she kept walking after her, it was then Ruth saw it sticking out of the vest pocket.

"Where did you get this?" Ruth took the pistol. "She checked it, the safety was off and the piece looked like it hadn't been cleaned in days, a thick layer of dust on it." The older girl shook her head, a Truthsayer, a real one that is, would have been in deep trouble with McNeill for even thinking of a gun like this one. 

"I found it in a cellar the Colonel had me look in for food supplies, I thought I might need it. Can I have it back" Ruth put the safety on, removed the magazine and then handed it back.

"Tonight I'm going to show you how to clean it, and then.....and only if the Colonel says yes, I'll give you this back" she held the magazine up before placing it in one of her pouches. "Now piss off" she pointed and this time Imogen did as she was told. Ruth smiled to herself as she carried on walking towards her post, when she reached one of the old market squares she stopped, the square gave people beyond the wall who were elevated an area of open ground, one of the few you could see outside the city. They'd heard talk of a sniper working in the KDF targetting this square, but so far no one had seen any evidence of that, but that didn't mean you got careless. Ruth glanced round the corner using her mirror and satisfied nothing major lurked she spotted her next piece of cover in the ally about fifteen meters opposite, she took a deep breath and sprinted. She'd done this many times and like everyone else nothing, today though just as she scurried into the safety of the narrow alley a "crack" rang out, she felt the whizz of the bullet as it passed close to her right arm. Now in the safety of the alley she pressed her back to the wall and took a few deep breaths. Taking her radio out she called it in before making her way into the block of appartments two streets down. From there she climbed the fifteen floors that took her to the roof garden and slid into the shade of a bush alongside Tasha McArthur, considered the units best shot. "Anything?" she asked as she took hold of the spotters scope.

"Nope, they moved some armour around a few hours ago, but I think it was just to make sure they still work or something, drove them about half a mile North, turned round came back." she shrugged as she gathered her water bottle and gear together. "Heard the sniper crack" she kept her focus on her gear as she spoke. "I reckon he'll be there somewhere" there was a rocky outcrop about a mile and a half beyond the wall, it gave shade and a perfect elevation for the square. "Keep your eyes peeled. However check with the Colonel before taking a shot ok?"

"Yes Sergeant" Ruth was now settling in behind the scope and scanning the desert, here and there small rocks were visible sticking clear of the sand, she checked each on, there on them were little marks indicating in Bene Gesserit glyphs a distance, they'd been there months in preparation for this. Ruth familiarised herself once more with their spots and settled in for her shift.

"I'm going back the longer way, don't fancy getting shot" Tasha carefully stepped over Ruth and headed out the garden. "There's some boiled sweets in the tin next to the radio. Help yourself, Imogen found them yesterday." The tiny wannabe Truthsayer idolised Tasha, she wanted to be a sniper like her and so any choice finds in the houses were brought to the Sergeant, who always did her best to share.

"Thanks" Tasha kept her eyes on the desert before her as she heard Tasha make her way into the block and down the steps. It would be a six hour shift until she was relieved, she may get some company in that time but for the most part it would be her, the rifle, binoculars and coming up with silly nicknames for the KDF troops she was monitoring. "Come on Patch, where are you today" she said to herself scanning the troops for the aging Corporal with three bizarre bald patches in his otherwise jet black hair.

Offline Malson

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2017, 12:57:26 AM »
Dimitry Kaminsky


A journalist approached Kaminsky, a casual jacket with a lanyard in the center of his jacket, an MNN reporter, Dimitry looked at him, a face of expectations of a good question to be asked upon him...
"Sir, what are your opinions on the seige in Seitch?"

"For the few months during this siege, and the neutral opinions by Svenska, but, this transition of our government and overhaul in leadership, our government fully supports the KDF's decisions, the communist ideology must be preserved, and the truthsayers are trying to combat Kaitaine in overthrowing their government, this must be a problem to nations that support Kaitaine, which I will not be as surprised as to no one support Kaitaine, and they must have a nation to back up in a crisis like this. Though we may not know almost to nothing about this group, all we know is that these are a bunch of terrorists, thinking of overthrowing a government over religion and government."

"Do you think there will be international backlash over your statement?" The journalist followed

"Obviously, that won't happen, these people are terrorists, which being deemed as a terrorist organization, you are not to be liked by most or even all of Mundus.  We do not know this organizations goals or the extent of their operations, but we will assume that is will be an organization attempting to compromise the government of Kaitaine, and to take over to create a government of their own. Terrorists are now making a large threat to military around the world, and we will not be afraid to try and combat this unknown government trying to overthrow a government that basically do nothing but try and create it's own laws based on the government's opinions..."

Offline Libby

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #2 on: September 13, 2017, 08:07:29 PM »
Corporal Niall "Patch" Hulme hated Seitch, it was far too warm to be sitting around beseiging a desert city, and the fact that he was a member of the KDF Special Forces unit meant he was constantly expected to be ready, his weapon, body armour and gear worn at all times, as such he was sweating like a pig. He had been woken pretty much at sun rise for his turn on duty, he much prefered it when he took the nightshifts, that way it was at least cool and occasionally something happened when they spotted Truthsayers in the darkness. There would be a brief exchange of gunfire but the small groups of Bene Gesserit soldiers didn't want to really engage and would disappear like ghosts into the night leaving a panicing and confused KDF behind. He'd been in four of these exchanges now and each time no one had sustained more than a scratch. He had no idea how they could do it, the women would literally appear out of nowhere and often spotting them was a pure accident, one night someone had as they'd headed towards a choice looking rock for a shit, suddenly as they were about to drop trouser they'd spotted a dark, caped figure crouched nearby, at first the soldier thought it was someone having the same idea as him but then the figure had slashed at him with a white bladed knife before hurrying off leaving a staggering soldier with his trousers round his ankles yelling to his comrades. The memory of that soldiers pale butt cheeks in the moon light made him chuckle as he settled into his position in a small scrape they'd dug a few days ago, it was covered with cammo net which at least gave a small amount of relief from the sun.

"Morning Corporal" the Private on duty handed him the logs from the nights guard, some false alarms as usual but nothing else.

"Thank you Private" he responded as he picked up the spotters scope and scanned the city. It was, in his mind, a shit hole, a place full of dusty narrow streets that you'd struggle to get two people to pass in without turning sideways. It was a soldiers nightmare, the streets twisted and turned and everynow and again a walkway cut above giving a perfect chance for ambushes and traps, add to that these little white marks they'd spotted painted everywhere, marks they'd worked out the Truthsayers used to gauge distance. When they'd first gone into the city around two months ago they'd taken days to work it out but after that they tried removing them, it didn't matter because the next day they'd be back replaced during the night by the caped ghosts. Hulme had no idea why they were even here, the Truthsayers had no answer to artillery and air power yet they sat here, he'd voiced his observations up the chain of command several times.

"But Corporal, who knows what intelligence on the bitches could be destroyed, beside McPherson wants to turn the place into a prison, it'll save billions and imagine being put in their and left to rot, it'd make me think twice before I committed a crime." he'd been told and it seemed most agreed with their esteemed President. The President had even come up one day in the first few days of the siege and spoke to them, one phrase stuck with Hulme, "Seitch must be taken in one piece to show the world we are not the violent vandals the Bene Gesserit try and persuade the world we are. We shall therefore one day invite the whole of Mundus to a great meeting there and say, if we're so bad why does our enemies greatest city still stand?" It seemed at odds with the prison idea but at the end of the day his was not to reason why. He laughed at the idea of the President switching the use for the city back and forth, his laugh was however stiffled as a Truthsayer patrol hidden in the desert launched a mortar shell into the foxhole guided by Truthsayer Corporal Ruth McHeart.

From Ruth's position on the roof top she watched as the first mortar round landed exactly where they thought it would, "Confirmed OP kill" Ruth told the mortar team who already had the tube packed on high tailing it away across the desert to secret caverns only the Bene Gesserit knew. Ruth smiled as the KDF fired hundreds, if not thousands of rounds off into the desert, she even spotted a helicopter take off sweeping the desert looking for the mortar team who were now safely away.

"We're back at Desert Alpha" an out of breath voice came over the radio, "No casualties"

"Roger that, will look for more easy targets" Ruth began scanning the seige lines once more as the sound of gunfire still poured into the desert.

Offline Libby

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2017, 10:19:42 PM »
Lucy McKinnon sat peering from a dune a few miles away, her binoculars wrapped in a pair of womens tights to stop the tell tale glint from the lense. Her black cape was weighed down around her by stones and she had crawled under it, the makeshift shelter creating its own shade and a kind of bellows windtrap. It was a tell tale sign of the Truthsayers in the open desert, their hooded capes which gave them in the darkness of night, when they prefered to move, a ghostly look. The Truthsayers were as they liked to say "a desert creature" this was their home and while the KDF she watched struggled to maintain themselves a Seitch trained Truthsayer was totally at home. She reached onto her webbing and slipped the drinking pouchs straw into her mouth letting the cool liquid refresh her. She placed the glasses down for a moment allowing herself a moment or two to relax, a tiny noise to her left made her peer around the corner of her little shade. A spiky little lizard sat in the tiny shade that extended beyond that Lucy was enjoying. It seemed to be shifting its feet into the sand back and forth. Lucy recognised it as a Thorny Devil, its body covered in sharp looking barbs and tight mouth. It was a beautiful creature for this environment and much admired by the sisterhood, it was a master of finding water, even able to absorb moisture through its feet. "Hi Buddy" she whispered, even though the KDF siege lines were well beyond her audiable range. The lizard seemed to look at her for a moment considering whether she was a threat, after a moment he clearly determined she wasn't and settled back to his water gathering shuffle. She watched him for a few more moments and then picked up her glasses once more.

It was a busy day down at the seige lines, a few vehicles were being tinkered with, clearly the fine desert sand was not their friend and the sight of mechanics emptying filters indicated they hadn't the greatest amount of spare parts. Further down the line on the South East corner of the seige lines she could see movement, a group of ATV's were being fuelled up from a tanker, Lucy marked its position, denying the KDF fuel was a top priority, they used it for everything, be it moving supplies around the edges of the city to running generators to light up their lines during the night. That was a new addition, previously they'd had little light once the sun went down, but the constant Truthsayer coming and going coupled with the odd strike had made them jumpy. Lucy began searching for more targets, each one marked on her map and the co-ordinates relayed back to teams within the city. Lucy spent most of the day with her new lizard buddy doing this before the sun began sinking. She slid backwards away from the ridge, the lizard scurrying off away from the movement. "See you buddy" she smiled as she got to her feet and walked away to find one of the caverns they used as a safe haven. It was a three mile hike across the dunes, and she was careful to leave as few tracks as possible, the wind however would make them disappear in a matter of minutes. As she reached the cool subterranian hide she'd picked three more Truthsayers lay dozing while one other simply waved a greeting while on guard. Lucy took her pack off, drained her water into a large container, her water once more becoming property of the Sisterhood. She pulled the cape tight around her and waited for sleep.

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2017, 10:56:41 PM »
Joanna McNeill may have been the Commanding Officer of the Truthsayers in Kaitaine, and more importantly in Seitch, but that didn't mean she flew a desk. That was unheard of in the Truthsayers, your first duty was to fight and defend the Sisterhood against any enemy that may present itself, and after almost 25 years doing that she was damn good at it. As the clouds obscured the moon the desert became cool, and the darkness like a protective shell around the Truthsayers. They'd gone out this evening without their cloaks they often wore in the desert, the sound could alert the KDF and that wasn't something the four person team wanted. They slipped out of the city using one of the secret tunnels and with all the stealth of cat sneaked into the KDF lines. Tents were neatly arranged in rows and every now and again a kind of open square existed in the centre of which an old oil drum had a fire burning in it. The flames were reassuring to the KDF as they gathered and chatted, shared some sneaked in whiskey or vodka and sometimes sang. It all made McNeill's job the much easier as the flames would hurt their night vision while the sounds they made masked the fient noises made by the team.

They'd split up once inside the perimeter, each being given their own sectors to cover. The brief was easy, try and kill as many of the KDF as possible while at the same time sabotage as much as possible. Joanna made her way down a line of tents, torches hanging from roofs showed her where people were sat in their tents relaxing and she gave these a wide berth, it was the silent and dark tents she had an interest in. She passed close to one such tent and listened carefully, her mouth slightly open to help her focus her sense of hearing. Inside the tent she could make out the sound of snoring and after a minute waiting she reasoned there was only one person inside, the flapping tent entance probably meaning the persons's tent mate was out somewhere. She carefully looked around and made sure no one was coming, she slipped inside the tent, her white bone knife at the ready. She slowly made her way to where the man's head was sticking out of the sleeping bag and after kneeling down beside him she placed a hand over his mouth, in a quick deep movement she slit his throat using her weight to stop him thrashing about. Once his blood had stopped flowing she wiped the knife on his sleeping bag and replaced it in her belt before retracing her steps.

She made her way further down the rows looking for other victims and came across a couple of of KDF quad bikes, she slashed their tyres before removing the keys that had been left in and threw them into the desert. She'd have loved to have had some C4 with her but they had to improvise the best they could. She continued her stalk and soon found another tent in which a lone soldier snoozed, once more a throat was cut and she continued on her way. As she reached the last tent in the row she heard a noise in the tent and stopped as her ears tried to work out if a startled soldier was about to emerge, what she heard amazed her.

"Bless the Maker and His water.
Bless the coming and going of Him.
May His passage cleanse the world.
May He keep the world for His people."

A Bene Gesserit prayer in this place, she could have laughed out loud at the thought but instead remained crouched listening.

"May Shai Hulud spare me, may he grant me a chance to return my people to their homeland and should I die in that goal may he take me to the here after where my Sisters shall know me by my efforts." the womans voice was trembling, Joanna had to admire her, this was clearly a member of the faithful who in the middle of a camp that would have killed any Bene Gesserit was praying. For a moment Joanna wondered if she should speak with her, perhaps she could tell them of the KDF plans, but then again it was probably a lowly NCO and therefore little use in the grand scheme of things and therefore not worth the risk. Joanna made a mental note of the tents location, she would ask future patrols here to check on the tent. It was reassuring to know however that when the fighting started properly that not everyone in the siege lines would be trying to kill them, at that point who knew what could happen. Joanna spent another hour using her knife to damage equipment, slit throats and make a nuisance of herself before she made her way back to the tunnels entrance, she was relieved to see two others already back.

"How did it go?" Joanna asked her eyes hoping to catch the last Truthsayer returning home.

"Good" a grinning Truthsayer Sergeant replied, "Got four of the KDF, including a Major.....and he had this" she handed over a map which had various positions within the KDF lines marked.

"Nice" Joanna patted the girl on the shoulder, it would certainly come in useful and she tucked it into her jackets map pocket ready to examine it back home "I got three, did a few tyres on vehicles, even found a water bowser and left the tap running, should waste some 100litres or so, maybe even flood a few tents if lucky."

"I got two, but did manage to put sand into a generator or two." All in all it had been a good night, the three swapped stories while checking the time, the final member was five minutes overdue, they wouldn't worry until it hit 15, after all moving through enemy lines wasn't always straight forward. With five minutes to spare the sight of a fourth Truthsayer was reassuring and Joanna was pleased everyone was going home, that was until the forth girl collapsed. "Oh shit" Joanna muttered as she hurried over, it was clear the girl had been in a scrap and a wound in her stomach was bleeding badly. "You two make sure there is no blood trial" Joanna ordered and the two Truthsayers began tracing the steps and shifting the sand to hide any tell tale signs of blood. Joanna meanwhile lifted the girl into a hoist and began moving back down through the tunnels to get aid.

Offline Libby

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2017, 11:33:38 PM »
The siege was entering its third week now and a pattern had emerged, every few nights the Truthsayers would sneak out in a small group, never any bigger than five women, they'd gone on a killing spree that included as much sabotage as they could get away with. The results were always the same, around ten dead soldiers and a path of chaos around the siege lines. Occasionally a fighter wouldn't make it back and the tell tale sound and flash of gunfire gave that away making those who slunk away into the hidden caverns hearts sink. In response the next day a few probing attacks would come and the Truthsayers would shut them down by blockading a way in, picking off people amonst the narrow twisting streets that meant a few determined and well equipped fighters could hold off many more than their own numbers, and the Truthsayers had filled Seitch with enough ammunition to take on any foe.

Tonight though that pattern was broken, the Truthsayers had been out on their rampage last night and so had stood too most of the day expecting an attack, none had come. They'd witnessed from the walls and high rises of the city little if any movement within the enemies lines, the tell tale give away of what was to come. Guards had been doubled and the best heavy weapons prepared for rapid deployment just in case they were foolish enough to try using tanks again. That hadn't ended well, with the tight streets being only just wide enough for the rumbling metal beasts the Truthsayers had managed to bottleneck the advance by disabling one vehicle in the middle of a five tank column, all hell had broke loose as KDF soldiers had tried to avoid being caught in the cross fire between three Truthsayer units.  Now however in the darkness there was the sound of five generators starting. "Hello, that's new" Joanna McNeill pointed to a metal pylon raising above the camp to Tasha McArthur who was lying next to her on the top of what had once been a block of flats. A giant metal spike appeared to be raising in each corner of the camp and one in the centre, once perfectly vertical a second arm extended from a giant hinge at the top most point, a second arm now swinging into place above the first, Joanna could see it now a truck at the base of each raising a giant arm topped by a large round disc towards the evening sky. There was the sound of a metallic "clank" and suddenly Joanna and Tasha had to close their eyes, beams of light illuminated the darkness bathing Seitch in light as bright as the middle of the day. "Holy shit" Joanna muttered as she shielded her eyes.

"Bastards sneaked them in" Tasha had admiration for how the KDF had managed to get the mobile lighting pylons in and set up without them noticing. "It's like daylight out there" she mused as their eyes began to adjust, it was painful to look directly at the beams and the whole desert for a good kilometer around the camp was lit up giving no cover, in one swift move they'd effectively blown the Bene Gesserit sneak attacks. "I can get a shot off at it if I shadow the scope" Tasha suggested to her commanding officer. Clearly someone else had a similar idea and the sound of a rifle being fired pierced the still night, a fient sound of it ricocheting off toughened lenses could be heard followed by a second shot that pinged off something metal.

"All stations cease fire" Joanna picked up the radio. She did her best to look out at the situation before them, they couldn't risk going out, their shadows had gone, but if they did nothing the KDF would grow in confidence. "We need to think how the hell we get rid of them." she said out loud. "Tasha this post is yours" the ace marksman nodded and settled into a new position trying to avoid the glare. Joanna kept low as she left the roof and headed down the stair well, as she walked along the internal corridor the light poured in through every window, illuminating the corridor in a white glow. She made her way into the main stairwell and headed down to street level, as she exited the block the main street of Seitch looked bright. The main street was no more than a few meters across and with the inactivity of the last month or so sand now covered the tarmac road used by goods vehiciles, the only ones allowed in the city. Half way down the main street was an old tavern style bar and that had become a kind of HQ. Already section commanders were running in from across the city.

"Ma'am we've got to get those lights off, we've a patrol coming in tomorrow evening and there is no way they can cross the sands with those things on the Northern approach.

"I'm aware of that" Joanna said grimly. "We've 18 hours to formulate a plan, if not those girls will just have to sit tight" she began looking at maps wondering if they had a route through underground that would bring them up clear of the lights, it would be tight and she didn't want to risk losing the tunnel system. "We sit tight for now, no one shoots at them, it only gives our OP's away. We know those gennies use petrol, so we cut the flow if we can and then they have to choose between air con, their vehicles or the lights, but thats a long term strategy." she glanced at her watch. "I want a meeting here in six hours and then...." suddenly the air was filled with the sound of AC/DC so loud they had to yell, "What the fuck!!!" Joanna exclaimed as she hurried up to a room with a view over the perimeter wall, three large armoured vehicles were driving around the cities perimeter wall with large speakers mounted, clearly the KDF were going for sleep deprivation. Joanna made her way back down to the meeting. "If its keeping us awake it'll keep them awake" she yelled over the din.

"Yeah, but they can rotate back to some township a few klicks away, we're stuck here" Megan Kenna a young officer interjected, "We can't keep up with them if we're knackered"

"At least they've got good taste in music" Rachel McVeigh, one of the cities engineering officers smiled bringing a ripple of laughter from the women.

"We meet in six hours, I want suggestions on what to do.....and pray they don't find their Rick Astley CD....dismissed" the women saluted and each went their own way to consider their options.

Offline Libby

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #6 on: October 02, 2017, 09:12:22 AM »
Kirstin Skeates and the three Truthsayers with her had walked across the desert from the mountains. They had made the difficult trek several times in their lives, back and forth between their desert home of Seitch and the Truthsayers who dwelt in the mountains and maintained secret hideouts, a place of final fallback should the Holy City ever fall. The women would move during the night and during the day take whatever shelter they could at oasis' or the many desert caverns the Truthsayers knew of, non marked on maps. Tonight's journey however was different, they'd been walking for about three hours, each taking turns to go first as they walked in single file attempting to walk in each others footsteps, up and down dunes their legs were sore from the days of effort walking on sand but they knew home was only another hours march.

As they neared the city they expected to see the usual fient glow, the city largely in darkness but the KDF lines lit up to deter the blades of the Truthsayers, but tonight something was different, the horizon was lit up brighter than any light Kirsten had ever seen. They made their way to the nearest dune and the red headed Kirsten pulled her hood up close about her as she peered over the lip. It was insane, a bath of blinding white light stretching in a circle around the KDF camp and that music, some heavy metal blurring out. She was sure this was depriving the KDF of sleep as much as those within the city, but is showed how desperate they were becoming. As she lay there watching she tried to see what movement was going on within the city, but the lights were too distracting and created an almost wall of impenetrable light She slid backwards and rejoined the other three who had been checking their gear. "Good news is we're home, bad news is we've no way in" she crouched down and began checking her own equipment having first took a sip of water from one of her two water pouches.

"What we going to do?" Eloise, the oldest of the four asked.

"I'm not sure" Kirsten replied, "But I'd like to get those lights off, we could do with getting some kind of word to McNeill." she was thinking quickly, her mind drawing on her Pranu Bindu[1] training she examined her mental map of the caverns that edged the city, many having secret routes in and out. "We'll head to the West, there should be a cavern on a small cliff we can shelter in during the day, with luck it may also have a few ration packs, otherwise its back to snake." the group groaned, it wasn't like they couldn't live off the land, even in the barren desert, it was just the idea of once more having that constant feint hunger, and snake wasn't the tastiest of dishes even with Eloise's cooking skills.
 1. a Bene Gesserit discipline to focus the mind and muscles, think a little like Buddhist meditation techniques

Offline Libby

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2017, 10:33:00 PM »
The lights had been on three days and it had turned Seitch into a nightmare, those inside struggled to know whether it was night or day and the constant noise made sleep impossible for all but the heaviest of sleepers. Joanna McNeill had spent hours staring at maps, studying the system of tunnels but it was clear that there was no approach that would allow them an advantage, it was actually a master stroke by the KDF, they knew the Truthsayers excelled in the shadows of the desert nights and now they had gone. They'd observed how the KDF were busing in troops on a daily basis as they took others out, they must have some kind of secondary base somewhere around the area, otherwise their own soldiers would be going through what the Truthsayers were.

Little Imogen O'Lone the youngest person inside Seitch had done her best to find somewhere dark, a cellar of a old house, a thin crack of light sneaked in through a ventalation gap but what stopped her sleeping was the loud music. She'd even tried wrapping up rags and stuffing them around her ears but it was no good. As she wandered the street making her rounds of checking houses for supplies and other gear they could use she found her head drooping before snapping bolt up right. "Imogen you need to sleep". Lucy McKinnon suggested as the youngster returned to their HQ with an arm full of bandages she'd found in someones kitchen. "You find any food?"

Imogen shook her head and slumped in the corner of the room, she was exhausted but even at this young age knew that they had to keep going, Joanna had told them that no doubt somehow the KDF would be watching them and that if they appeared to be slowing down then they'd get noticed and that would probably be the signal for an assault. "I'm so tired" she whined to no one in particular. The music seemed to fade momentarily and the fient hope of it coming to an end filled the young girls mind, only for a new track to begin blaring out once more, she began to cry. "Just let me sleep." Lucy walked over and knelt down craddling the 12 year olds head against her shoulder, it wasn't fair she was just a child and was now in the middle of combat, by all rights she should have been smuggled out but the child was stubbon and had hidden to make sure she stayed behind, and now it was too late. They'd contemplated sending her out across the desert to safety but there was no way she'd make the tough trek that was even a challenge to experienced Truthsayers. At one point they'd even contemplated handing her over to the KDF but Joanna had rethougt that quick, in her mind it would be betrayal of a fellow Sister, beside she was a tough kid who was doing a great job scavenging for the Truthsayers. If only she'd gone to Chapterhouse she'd have been a star pupil, but instead of learning war from books and drills she was witnessing it first hand.

"It's ok sweetie" Lucy rocked her as the little girl wept, the seasoned Truthsayer watched the small girls eyes close, perhaps she'd be blessed with just a few moments sleep. Lucy just sat not wanting to disturb Imogen if she had managed to get the much valued sleep, it would have been like a robbery to deny it her when she needed it so much. Lucy sat her arm still pulling the girl close. Suddenly the ground shook and the sound of metal on metal could be heard.

"What the hell was that?" a Truthsayer corporal ran into the street outside, their little section HQ was just inside the cities wall inside a six story appartment block that, like all buildings in Seitch, was made out of the red sandstone that dominated the city. A second distant boom could be heard followed seconds later by the Corporals screams. Lucy literally dropped Imogen as she darted for the door just as the Corporal staggered back inside, covered in blood. Lucy lowered her to the floor and began checking her over, it was amazing because as Lucy cut the camoflauge fatigues free Imogen was straight there a medics kit being unzipped, the girl may be 12 but she'd seen her fair share of carnage in her life. The Corporal was still screaming and Imogen gave her one of the pre-prepared dose of pain killers, she began pulling out powders and bandages laying them ready for Lucy to use, it seemed like hundreds of little holes had pierced the Corporal who was beginning to lose conciousness.

"They've got small airburst rounds going off, some kind of grenade launcher" Lucy told Imogen as she worked to begin plugging holes and using QuikClot to try and stem the red tide. "Let McNeill know." as Imogen radioed in a few more explosions and yells could be heard as rounds picked off Truthsayers out in the open. Lucy had more or less got ahead of the problem now as she heard Imogen relaying the news and the voice of McNeill cursing, it seemed the tide of the Seige was turning.

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #8 on: October 15, 2017, 10:59:38 PM »
The bombardment went on for several hours adding to the lack of sleep, the Truthsayers now had to block up windows and doorways to stop the random air bursts sending shrapnal flying through them. It had made moving from one area of the city to the other a real lottery and in the flurry of the first few minutes five of the Truthsayers had been killed, several others would be lucky to see out the night. "We use the tunnels under the city" Joanna McNeill explained to the teams around her, "There are gaps of about a minute between bursts, so we time it right and we should be ok." she was pointing to various positions on the map. "Before the rooftop came under fire Tasha spotted their positions" Joanna placed a map on the table, "You can see these points are where they've got their positions throwing stuff in here. If we stick a morter crew here, here and here" she drew crosses on the laminated map, "We have positions close by pre-marked so it should be simple enough to get some fire of our own back on them. So what we do is move morter teams in, set the stuff up and then between air bursts throw some of our own back."

"But we've no spotters" one of the teams commanders replied.

"Doesn't matter, the fact we're returning fire will hopefully get their heads down, at which point Tasha and her rifle can get into action. The teams nodded and headed down into the tunnel system.

One of the units was headed by Vitaliya, normally she was an engineer but she'd been selected for this task for her ability to be calm under fire, there was a chance they'd be taking fire between running in and out of cover to avoid the airbursts. The tunnels of Seitch where small and narrow, just wide enough for a soldier in webbing to crouch along them but with their webbing scraping the sandstone walls the whole way. There were several cursed words as heads banged on the roof, the tunnels had been carved about 80 years earlier during a similar siege and the women here were only too aware of the fact of that particular siege ending in tragedy. They reached their position, a white post knocked into the old market square ground showing where they'd pre-positioned mortars and had ranging charts. Vitaliya checked their target and set the mortar up to the required settings. "We wait for the next airburst then we go, we set up, then back to cover ok. Thirty seconds." the four person team sat waiting in the cover of the old market managers office, a low sandstone building into which the tunnel had come out in. They heard the pop of the round bursting in mid air and then the tell tale pings and thuds of the metalic pieces hitting the city. "GO" she lifted her piece of mortar and sprinted out to the wooden post, "30 elephant, 29 elephant" Vitaliya began counting in her head as the team got the weapon set up, it was a well practiced  operation and the team were smooth. "8 elephant" Vitaliya checked the settings and satisfied the team ran back for cover, "two elephant" she shut the door, about ten seconds later the familiar sound of the airburst round. "GO" Vitaliya yelled to the team and the first woman ran over thrusting the round into the tube and running back to cover, as soon as she had fired her round the next woman went, they got three down the tube before Vitaliya stopped and closed the door again.

"Team Bravo shift fire slight west" the sound came over the radio, Tasha having found somewhere to get a view from a rooftop.

"Roger that" Vitaliya responded and made some mental calculations. As the sound of the pings and thuds disappeared she hurried out alone and shifted the weapon what she hoped would be the correct amount, she had time to double check all the other settings before returning to the safety of their shelter. Two more rounds came and went before the team began their next round of firing, three mortar rounds flew out the tube in quick succession before an airburst came ahead of schedule, the women dived for whatever cover they could find and the youngest girl had a strip of metal graze her thigh. Vitaliya had feared it would be much worse but after an inspection of the wound it was just a light flesh wound. "Pass me your round" Vitaliya picked up the next shell for the tube and as they figured the last round had been fired she hurried out and flung the round down the tube immediately sprinting back for cover, she slid into the room with two others behind her mere seconds later. They sat and waited for the round in return to comeback but a minute later nothing, two minutes and still no airburst.

"Team Bravo target destroyed" Tasha come over the radio.

"Roger that" Vitaliya breathed a sigh of relief that the frantic shuttle runs were over. She smiled as the team around her high fived each other. "Don't get too excited" she brought them back down to earth, "We've got about four more of these so lets hope the other teams have more luck, then we've got the lights and the bloody speakers" she had blocked out the music during their mad dashes but now the sound could be heard drifting between explosions.

At the opposite side of the city little Imogen was busy, she'd managed to sneak into one of the cities small stores, it was one she hadn't been in since the siege began, but then at the end of the day it wasn't selling food or any other equipment, she tried the door but not surprisingly it was locked. That wasn't a problem, Joanna had literally given her permission to break into anywhere and using the butt end of her acquired rifle made short work of the window. She clambered in and began her search, she put her backpack near the door and began searching, she was sure they had them here, she'd seen them when she'd been in buying some fidget spinner a month before the siege began, it had been something everyone at school had and she wondered what the fascination was. The toy shop was full of teddy bears, pieces of lego, everything a child could want and then she found them, the remote controlled cars, planes and more importantly drones. She found two, both small ones equipped with cameras and unboxed them, taking care she wrapped them in spare jackets and stuffed them into the backpack. Next she lept over the counter and began checking for batteries and hit a goldmine. Her theft for the day done she made her way back to the tunnel nearby and with more ease than the adults made her way back to HQ.

Joanna was peering over a map which now had some red crosses on where the enemy firing positions had been, while the air burst rounds were still audiable it was noticably quieter and the occassional rifle crack from rooftops suggested Tasha and her snipers were back in the fight. "Commander McNeill" Imogen interupted.

"Give me a minute Imogen, we're working out what's out there" she continued looking at the map while looking at written notes aides had passed her. Imogen knew better than to push the point but she simply unzipped her rucksack, unwrapped the first Drone

"Maybe this will help" she put the drone on the table and McNeill looked up and smiled slightly. "I figure its small enough they'll not spot it but we can see over the wall without going on the rooftops." Joanna stood up fully and had a large smile on her face.

"Imogen, you've just created the Truthsayer Air Force........now anyone know how to fly these bloody things"

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #9 on: October 30, 2017, 10:57:15 PM »
Imogen sat on the second to top floor of one of the larger towers and watched the video screen of the drones camera as she flew it high over the city wall, her nimble little fingers guiding it over the KDF camp unseen and unheard thanks to both its relatively small size and the great noise they'd created to try and deprive them of sleep. She had McNeill watching over her shoulder directing her as they made a good twenty minute flight over the camp, the Truthsayer commander adding to the map they'd already got of the camp. A steady beep indicated that they were running out of battery and as such Imogen directed the drone back to rooftop above them where it was retrieved and put onto one of the generators to recharge. "Imogen that was good work" McNeill patted her on the shoulder as she folded up the map. ""I think I may have a few targets for the first air sortie by a Truthsayer"."

"But I'm not a Truthsayer" Imogen smiled, "Its my own private Air Force" she put the aerial of the remote down and placed it back in the box before putting it carefully away.

"Well report downstairs in ten minutes ok" Joanna patted her on the shoulder and made her way down the block of flats internal staircase and down into the basement that served as her HQ, several of the other senior officers were there all them intrigued by the map and what was to follow. "We've got the location of the lamps, of the speakers and of two fuel dumps, add to that I believe this here is a Command Post" McNeill pointed to a circle she'd drawn on the map. "If Vitaliya has got things sorted we're in with a shout at hitting them."

As if on cue Vitaliya MacEanraig entered the basement carrying a larger drone than the one Imogen had used for scouting. It carried a brick shape object beneath it and a mass of wires. "We've done it, I found ten of these, how many do we need?" she asked putting the converted drone bomber onto the table which it practically filled.

"Seven" McNeill examined the object and seemed to approve. "And of the second matter we are agreed?" she looked round her fellow officers faces and they all nodded.

"She's been through exactly what we have, she's kept some of us going being a little nurse maid and cook. When the time comes I know she'll pick up a rifle given half a chance." Liz EastwoodThe Truthsayers Quartermaster spoke on behalf of the rest of the group, "I mean chances are we ain't getting out of here anyway, so what the hell" she said with a morbid grin.

The sound of tiny feet scurrying down the steps alerted them and the room went quiet, a few grins still visible. "O'Lone reporting as ordered Ma'am" she said as she stood at the basements door way. McNeill waved her in and to her side where the 12 year old examined the drone. "Does it fly?" she asked eagerly.

"Just about, its a struggle with the improvised bomb but it gets over the wall and should get you on target." MacEanraig said rather more confidently than she actually was. "Then we just flick this" she produced a small box from her pocket, "and the bomb should fall, we're probably getting one shot so no pressure." she shrugged.

"If I get low enough it'll not be a problem, if we lose them they'll have done their job but I'll try and get them back" Imogen licked her lips which were dry through nerves. "So do I get them ready Ma'am" she turned to McNeill rather excitedly.

"Not yet" McNeill put a reassuring hand on Imogen's shoulder. "You see I'm not fond of ordering someone who isn't a Truthsayer to launch attacks on the KDF."

"No....you can't give this to someone, they can't fly them as good as me" Imogen protested loudly taking the other by surprise.

"Woah" McNeill held up a leather gloved hand, "I'm not stopping you. I'm making you a Truthsayer" she reached into her pocket and produced a crystknife, it was smooth unlike those that the other carried, "I'll expect you to personalise it later, but Blair made it before she left" she turned the blade away from the girl and handed it hilt first. "Imogen O'Lone, for dedication to the Sisterhood, bravery beyond your years and never forsaking your duty to the Bene Gesserit I am field promoting you to the rank of Truthsayer Graduate" she pressed her thumb against the blade Imogen was holding til it drew blood, without a word she stepped aside and Liz took her place doing the same , each of the officers repeated the process as Imogen stood in shock. She knew the Truthsayers had in the past pressed cadets into service but never someone her age. "May that be the first of much blood"

Imogen pricked her own finger and then wiped the blade using her sleeve before putting it away, "I swear to serve honourably until Shai Halud claims my water." she had a tear rolling down her cheek and McNeill wiped it off.

"I know you will" the commander turned and took a black object off the Quartermaster. "This is your beret, I expect you in uniform before your mission." she gave the newly bereted Truthsayer her first salute and Imogen quickly donned the headwear, which was too big for her tiny head but she didn't care she snapped a salute back. "Get ready Imogen" McNeill said as she turned back to her map.

Imogen headed for the door and then stopped having took the beret off to get her first look at the cap badge she'd drawn so many times in her notebooks, all she'd ever wanted was to be a Truthsayer and now her dream was fulfilled. She looked something was amiss but she couldn't place it, she turned back to the room but no one was paying her any mind, she looked at their cap badges and then back at her own before opening her mouth. "Ma'am" she said nervously unsure if she was saying something out of place. "My Jerboa is different" she held it so that the badge was visible and the Jerboa had spread wings, added on by Tasha McArthur and her artistic skills.

"Yes that's right" McNeill said, "You're the first Truthsayer in our Air Force, if your going to carry out the Truthsayers first ever air-strike it means we now have an Air Force." the room began lauging and Imogen stood there a large smile on her face.

The young girl waited for the room to go quiet, "Well Ma'am, if I'm the most senior person in the Air Force shouldn't I be higher than a Private, maybe like a Grand Air Chief Marshall or something." The room began laughing again.

"Get out and go sort your bombers out before I change my mind" McNeill flung the beret back at her newest Truthsayer who gladly scurried back upstairs to begin her pre-flight checks.

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #10 on: December 03, 2017, 08:40:55 PM »
The newly promoted Imogen had taken her time checking her make shift air-force, ten large drones found in a toy store, each capable of carrying a charge that could be dropped on various targets. The explosive charges weren't huge, but they'd certainly make a hole in the targets they had in mind. She'd taught a few of the others how to fly them and was satisfied they could pull this off. "We'll take off from the alley behind the HQ building, they'll not spot them leaving the roof top which I bet their watching" Imogen had guessed rightly that a few sets of eyes would be trained on that building and several others, the objects would be hard to pick out against the buildings once in the air and the sounds of the beseiging lines would drown out the sound of the electric motors.

"India this is Juliet, we have targets sighted as expected, you have a go." the voice of Joanna McNeill crackled through the radio.

"Lets go" Imogen said nervoulsy as the first five of the drones lifted into the sky, loaded down with the explosive charges they were harder to fly but more than capable, it just took some getting used to. This would be the most dangerous part of the operation, getting the drones clear of the city itself, if they crashed no doubt they'd cause some damage. The four elder Truthsayers kept their eyes on Imogen watching as she guided the crafts towards the primary targets, they'd been selected in case they only got one shot, they didn't know what would happen once the first explosions were heard and God/Gods only knew if they'd get to use the second wave which sat beside them ready to go. Imogen watched the drones feed on the screen and was satisfied that it seemed so far no one had spotted them, after all who would expect an aerial bombardment from the Truthsayers. The large white disk came into view, her target, she watched as the others moved into position and checked in. "Three, two, one, go!" she said nervously as the Truthsayer next to her pressed the button to release the bomb, watching it fall Imogen sent the drone racing vertically ensuring it was well clear, once at a safe height she watched the camp rather than the drone, a satisfying boom was heard followed shortly by others and across the camp alarms began sounding as the various sound and light systems exploded from the charges. "Get them back if you can" the operators began the process of bringing the drones home, some swearing to the left of her indicated they'd probably lost one but they'd achieved their primary aim, everything else was a bonus. As she flew her own vehicle back she noted the camp spring into activity, believing a large attack or sabotage team were around the KDF forces were running to pre prepared positions, if she could she'd map them on the way back with the second drone.

Four of the five drones touched back on the roof, one lost following a loss of control, the second wave were already set to go and a quick switch over of controllers they swung into action, this time each had their own target dotted around the camp, commanders tents, what was believed to be a fuel tank and an armoury among them. This time it wasn't so easy, the men on the ground spotted one of the drones and began to fire at it, "Go higher" Imogen barked at the operator who duly did as the youngest Truthsayer advised, the girls began trying to avoid the worst, but two were lost, their explosives detonating on parts of the camp, a fire could be seen starting. Imogen's however seemingly had escaped detection and found the commanders tent with ease, several guardsman had taken position around it, indicating the man was likely still inside, Imogen held the drone high over the target for a full minute trying to spot the camps defenses, noting a man come to the tents entrance, his shoulder a mass of gold lanyards she gave her bomber the nod and watched as the device fell to earth, a satisfying "BOOM!" echoing over the camp, she'd lost one of the four rotars in the blast and now the drone was struggling to stay airborne but somehow she got it back, along with two others. They'd managed to hit their targets and the mission hadn't gone badly at all, the systems that had kept them awake using a combination of light and sound had gone, so had the commander and the large plume of smoke indicated they'd hit the fuel depot. Imogen checked the remaining vehicles over and made her way back to report to Joanna.

"Good work Imogen" Joanne McNeill the Truthsayer commander in Seitch said proudly, "We might be able to get some sleep, we're going to need it." she was smiling.

"They going to come now?" Imogen asked.

"They aren't, but someone will.....someone will" Joanna picked up her webbing and proceeded to leave for her guard duty, the cryptic message leaving Imogen confused.

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #11 on: April 02, 2018, 12:57:05 AM »
The evening after the first Truthsayer "Air Strike" was a quiet one, the chaos in the KDF camp had meant that once more a handful of experienced soldiers could sneak through enemy lines, among them this time was Kirsten Skeates a Corporal among the Truthsayers, her path to the Sisterhood was a little different to many others but she was as respected as any. She was a "Homegrown Truthsayer" a term given over to one who had not been graduated from a Chapterhouse but had been deemed worthy of the Jeboah badge by the leadership of the Truthsayers. Brought up a Bene Gesserit Kirsten had to hide her faith and had even served in the KDF at the age of 18, that was five years ago, and when out on a routine training operation with her unit she had simply walked off and hiked her way to Seitch where she handed the future of her soul over to McNeill. Skeates had proved to be a natural, growing up in the thin woodland of the east of the country among the olive groves she had learned to hunt rabbits with a slingshot, cross bow and compound bow, skills that made her both sneaky and a dead eyed shot, both things highly prized by the Truthsayers.

She had taken cover behind an out crop of rocks having emerged from one of the hidden tunnels, her flame red hair now covered by a combination of camo cream and a black hat she scanned the open area beneath her. She was waiting for her eyes to adjust to the cloudy night as she tried to make out the movements within the KDF camp. It was clear that they were trying to fix some of the damage caused by the days action, that wasn't Kirsten's concern though she knew that two more teams had been dispatched to create mayhem in the night among the conscript majority of the KDF. Kirsten and the five girls with her had an altogether different mission, first they would cross the desert, a journey of two nights walking, taking shelter during the day. They had two camps highlighted if all went well, both in the rocky outcrops that pocked the sands but should that go wrong each carried a small spade and their cloak, a make shift shelter if they needed them and all six of the girls had spent time in the uncomfortable shade it created. The journey was not an easy one but it was simple enough for the skills of a Truthsayer especially one trained in Seitch a place where the inhabitants took pride in calling themselves "desert creatures" Kirsten's eyes had adjusted now and she took a compass bearing, satisfied with her direction she motioned for the first girl to set off, having let her travel a good hundred meters or so she sent the next girl, fifty meters later the next and so on guiding each towards the bearing she had taken. Some 500meters ahead the first girl stopped sunk to a knee and waited as she took her own compass and took a bearing. The others reached her and simply carried on walking silently in the dark towards the point on the featureless horizon as they strayed from their course a series of whistles designed to mimic the call of desert animals guided them back on track. This process was mind numbing but it was the safest way to cross a featureless expanse of desert, of course a GPS would have been useful but such equipment was a luxury that the Truthsayers didn't have and so as the sun came up Kirsten began praying to Shai Halud that he would grant them the safety of rock. As she took her turn to lead she crested a dune and there before her were the rocks, she waved the others to join her and just as the sun had fully climbed over the horizon they slipped into their light sleeping bags and made themselves as comfortable as they could while taking it in turns to keep watch with their flame haired Corporal taking the first shift.

Kirsten woke just as the sun took to its descent, she dragged herself out of her sleeping bag and looked around, the rest where already packing their gear away and checking their weapons. She did likewise her final act to be checking the small scrubby bush that she'd tied a bag around, the others had slept near similar bushes that ecked out a harsh existance in the rocky outcrop, each bag had a small pool of water in and Kirsten tipped this into her waterbottle. She took a sip of the slightly warm water, a sensation you never got used to, and then securing her bottle hefted her pack and took the first of several hundred bearings they'd take that night. The evening passed much as it had the one before, the sound of a distant helicopter and a chance encounter with a Fennec Fox and its cub being the only thing to break up the tedius trek. Kirsten had marvelled at the foxes which seemed to almost follow them for a time, she loved the creatures and thought they were a much better emblemn that the weird Jeboah she wore with pride, she saw their companionship for the short time as a good omen. They made good time this second night and had got themselves concealed long before the sun came up.

One more uncomfortable day in the rock over they headed the relatively short distance to the road that ran the edge of the desert, the sandy wasteland made an island a concrete river. The usual culvet designed to allow Fennec Foxes and other creatures under the seldom used road provided perfect cover and just as expected a cache of water and food was waiting. The team sat enjoying the coolness of the bottled water while Kirsten kept watch along the road in a small scrape she'd made and covered by her cloak. A van came down the road and then its hazard lights came on pulling over, the driver got out and lifted the bonnet banging a spanner three times on the metalic bodywork. It was the signal and Kirsten whistled for the others who gathered themselves together in double quick time, the team hurried down to the van, piled into the back and held on as the transport pulled away.

It took a good three hours for them to reach their destination, a small village called Maudib just a few hundred meters from the boarder with Rodinha. The team spent the day resting and bathing before the next morning donning the civilian clothing provided and checking the fake documents the Missionara had provided them. Dressed as a group of young girls going to Rodinha for a mountain holiday they were waved across the guards thinking the youngsters just one of the many Kaitainites who enjoyed taking advantage of the nice mountain spa's their communist neighbours possesed, a world away from the stuffy desert of their homeland. The crossing took a good thirty minutes before the guards where satisfied, a bit of flirting from Kirsten and her comrades cutting the procedure down and leaving some cheerful guards behind them.

Once in Rodinha they headed for the small airfield at a place called Cheronska, a village of exiles of Bene Gesserits who had hidden themselves in what was then the USR as a potential support network for those still in Kaitaine, the community had set themselves up as a Co-Operative farm and as such could to some extent control who came and lived and worked there. It was the perfect cover and much of the Truthsayers equipment came through the place. "Kirsten, great to see you, come in" a 40 year old woman called Abigal MacKenneth who was the Mother of the Village embraced her, "You bring your fife?" she asked knowing the Corporal went very few places without it.

"Indeed, wouldn't miss out on a jam" Kirsten produced it from the outside of her backpack. "What news you got?" she asked Abigail.

"Good and Bad, Hannah McKey is dead, but we have a Reverned Mother, but then the KGB got the other three Chapterhouse Mother's as they visited Claith" Kirsten shook her head, this was bad news for the Sisterhood, effectively the leadership of the Order gone in one week. "The new Mother is a 19 year old called Erin MacGregor" MacKenneth added.

"THE Erin MacGregor? The mad kid who sneaked onto the original Chapterhouse" Kirsten had been a Private then and had been part of the group that had somehow had their Sergeant convinced that this MacGregor kid was Holier than any other Mother, they'd avoided military patrols, naval searches and sneaked onto Chapterhouse island, the most Holy of holies for a Bene Gesserit, there this crazy 14 year old had ground her own spice before leaving for Ui Cenneslaig through this exact village having first crossed the desert. It had become something of a legend among the people of Seitch and now it seemed the legend was gaining in stature.

"Indeed" Abigail smiled, "She's the reason you're here, she has a mission for you, your to go to Claith. Your team are to go back to Seitch on the supply run you thought you were on."

"What the hell am I supposed to do in Claith, the actions in Seitch and we need all the help we can." Kirsten felt like disobeying the order but this was a Reverned Mother, the choosen leader of their Sisterhood and to do so was to break every oath a Truthsayer could take, if she didn't go to Claith a curse would be put on her Crystknife and the next time she used it the blade would shatter and break, the sign of a Sister losing the favour of Shai Halud.

"I think that's the point, rumours are of a Homecoming" the news lifted Kirsten's spirits, a Homecoming meant the Holy Houses returning to Kaitaine but how could that be, the nation wasn't free and to risk the Holy Houses safety would be to risk the safety of all mankind, this was a mystery Kirsten was now keen to solve and as the small light aircraft took off that evening, making its low below RADAR flight out of Rodinha and into Mountjoy following an airliner at a slightly higher altitude she had plenty of time to think what Claith may have in store.




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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #12 on: April 21, 2018, 11:31:02 PM »
Kirsten had landed in Claith and having passed through customs with ease she jumped in a taxi headed for Chapterhouse. It was a place she hadn't seen in her life before but upon seeing it she somehow felt it was a part of her, if what they said about the faith, that those who departed with Shai Halud passed their knowledge and experience on to those who stayed behind then she shouldn't be surprised. She walked up to the large oak door and knocked, waiting for a little hatch to open and reveal a womans face. "Yes, what can we help you with today?" a voice asked as the eyes looked her up and down.

Kirsten reached to the rear of her belt and removed a white crystknife holding it up to be viewed, "Truthsayer Corporal Skeates. I believe I am expected?" she announced herself waited as the hatch slammed shut and she heard bolts being pulled back. Soon the great door swung open and two women in Truthsayer uniform motioned for her to step forward and once inside shut the door behind her. One of them instructed her to follow and Kirsten did. She crossed a great green lawn, much more vegetation here than she'd seen in months in the desert of Kaitaine. She saw young girls sat on the grass, some studying, some chatting and some playing frisbee, a far distant world from what girls their age were doing in Seitch. Her mind thought back to Little Imogen, not to dissimilar an age to those carefree girls she saw here yet the 13 year old was already a combat veteran, and of course commander of the Truthsayers Air Force. Kirsten smiled at the thought of how happy the young girl had been to get her field promotion to Truthsayer, but the sadness come over her, what if they never got her out? That steeled her for the meeting she was about to have.

They reached a fancy carved door and the guide knocked and then pushed it open as a voice called from inside. The Truthsayer stepped aside allowing Kirsten to enter, she came face to face with a smooth headed young woman, no more than 20 years old and dressed as the Reverned Mother, it had the feeling as a poor attempt at fancy dress but Kirsten knew instantly this must be Erin McGregor. "Reverened Mother" Kirsten first began to salute, then realised she was not in uniform and so instead settled on a swift bow and then stood at attention. Erin kissed her on the cheek.

"Stand easy Corporal" Erin smiled as she returned to the other side of the desk, "Please take a seat" as Kirsten turned to sit herself down in the leather backed chair she spotted two others sat in the corner. "Oh, don't mind them, they are my advisors on this matter. Please say hello to Nathanial Corrino and Major Krystina Garner." The three exchanged pleasantries before returning to business. "I've brought you here as you're going to be a guide for them....well for Nathanial."

"A gude? I don't understand" Kirsten turned to look at Nathanial who simply stood and walked over laying a series of maps out.

"There is a weekly flight from Mountjoy to Iberia, it over flies Kaitaine. What I propose is slightly bonkers, but it should work. We've acquired a cargo plane, it's going to essentially replace the flight. We've the flights ID, transponder codes and flight plan, we'll create a delay on the ground in Mountjoy, and fly the route instead, to ATC we should appear to be the original flight. Once we're over Kaitaine we get out." Nathanial said it as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

"We get out?" Kirsten looked puzzled.

"Yeah, we're essentially paratrooping this. My brother brought a cargo plane for some business venture three years ago, a conveniant cover for this operation. We can get 280 troops in, plus equipment. What I need to know though is if its worth going, how many Truthsayers and Bene Gesserit fighters like me can you mobilise." Kirsten hadn't expected to be part of some high profile planning mission but it seemed Nathanial was serious.

"I'd guess we have around 300 in Seitch, about another 300 in Rodina, something like a further 1,500 spread across Kaitaine, some in the KDF too. Then add in about a further 1,000 men who would fight if there was something major, maybe more" she shrugged, a force of some 3000 or so to stand up to the KDF wouldn't be enough, but it could perhaps lift the seige of Seitch, but then what, she asked the question.

"Then we hope Erin here can work some magic, or we hope me and Sarah McPherson can get within a mile of their President, we bring him down then we can probably guess they'll be infighting buying time." Nathanial wasn't sure, he'd pulled off pretty impressive raids with Red Legion but he'd never sewn insurrection on a national, or potentially global scale.



Nathanial's plan had come together well two weeks after meeting Kirsten the 279 Truthsayers plus Nathanial had infiltrated Mountjoy, it hadn't been difficult, after all their was a Chapterhouse there and some 60 or so of the Truthsayers embarking on this task had been based there preparing already. They arrived at the airfield in the North of Mountjoy and began loading up the aircraft, it was going to be a tight squeeze but that was the least of their worries. Some 50km south of them at St.John International Airport a team of Truthsayers lead by Krystina Garner had managed to infiltrate the airport and managed to set off the fire alarm, as hundreds of people flooded out onto the car parks it grounded the various aircraft giving the old C-5 Galaxy, the second aircraft in the Turthsayer Air Force, a chance to take its spot.

It stayed low over the nations it passed making sure it hit all the beacons neccessary to trick the Kaitaine Air Traffic Network that it was the right aircraft. "Drop Zone in five minutes" Nathanial prowled up and down the aisles, he noted many of the women where sat their eyes closed, crystknife in hand mouthing prayers. He too was nervous and found himself instintively reached onto his back to find the sword strapped there. He may be a Bene Gesserit soldier now but at heart he was still a Red Legionnaire. His shadow, Sarah McPherson a young Truthsayer who he'd kind of adopted as his aide, was sat on the first row of the seats her head bowed in prayer as she rocked nervously back and forth. "You ok" Nathanial had to practically yell to be heard over the engine and cabin noise.

"No" Sarah looked up and smiled, "I've knots in my stomach and I think I'm going to throw up" she confessed making Nathanial smile, he took the seat next to her and moved his mouth close to her ear.

"I remember my first op, I was older than you by a few years, it was an ambush in the Alps by the Borlanders and they got two of my mates, I remembered that once the shooting started I felt unnaturally calm but then after, once it all finished I threw up like a dog. You know that prayer, "Fear is the mind killer" well I don't truly agree, its how you react to fear that kills your mind, let it take over you and it will freeze you, let it drive you and well it sharpens you. You'll do fine" Nathanial recieved word it was time and flicked the rear lights from red to amber. Without much word everyone stood and began checking their gear, most had assault rifles and small arms, they weren't a heavily armed group at all, but it was hoped Kirsten's friends in Rodinha could have helped with that, and Seitch had some decent stockpiles.

The Truthsayers lined by the door and Nathanial walked down the lines checking each person was good to go, as he reached the front the rear ramp opened and the cold gust of air came in. He walked to the edge of the ramp and his heart skipped, not through nerves, he'd lost track of how many times he'd jumped, but beneath them was not the green and grey he was used to seeing in East Moreland but instead there was an ocean of yellow. "Home" he mouthed to himself, he looked to his right and saw Sarah taking deep breaths, to his left was Kirsten, strands of her flame red hair flapping in the slipstream. "Here we go" he said to no one in particular and ran down the ramp launching himself into the aircrafts slipstream. The aircraft itself was set to fly out to the ocean, and the aircrew joined the Truthsayers on their descent down to the sandy desert beneath them.

Sarah landed with a thud, ungracefully she got a mouth full of warm sand, she was in the desert. The 280 Truthsayers quickly gathered in the parachutes, repacking them as they could prove useful on the trek across the sands. Nathanial checked his GPS system, "We're 1km off course, not bad" he grinned as he pulled his Boonie Hat tight, around him he spotted Truthsayers pulling black cloaks from their packs, and to his amusement some where scooping sand into small metal tins, he just hoped they'd have a chance to take them home. "Skeates, you're on point, McPherson, stick with me, everyone else I want single fire, minimum of ten meters between each. Lets roll" he pointed towards Seitch, some 36 hours of hiking away and already he could feel a heat unlike that he'd every experienced back home in East Moreland, it was his turn to take a deep breath, Sarah spotted the expression on his face.

"It's ok....we are a desert people" she chuckled as she fell into step beside him to begin their journey home.


Offline Libby

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #13 on: April 29, 2018, 01:21:40 AM »
Nathanial cast his eyes skywards as Kirsten stopped to take a bearing, despite years of elite soldiering he'd found out pretty early on that the Truthsayers were experts at this type of navigation and he was happy to let them take the lead. He knelt on one knee as he heard the women setting up the next leg, his eyes wandered to the heavens the lack of city lights and a cloudless night meant the stars were bright. It was similar in parts of the Alps back in East Moreland, a place he considered home, there however the cloud often never gave a view like this. He chuckled to himself as he thought of "home" yet here he was in Kaitaine, a place all Bene Gesserit considered home and yet he hadn't felt that way at all in the slightest. "Time to go" Kirsten whispered and the column was on the move again. It was as the sun came up that he found himself settling into a rocky crevice, something he'd become accustomed to in the Alps, but the temperature here was much different. He caught some sleep for a few hours before finding himself being shook awake. "Your turn on stag" Kirsten informed him before getting into some shade to take a sleep.

Nathanial made his way up to the top of the outcrop and settled into cover, the spotting scope left over from the previous look outs position. He scanned the horizon, in every direction there was nothing but sand dunes and it made him realise just how skilled these Seitch Truthsayers must be to survive out here and be an effective fighting force. As he watched through the scope he saw a pair of Jeboah, the same creature on the Truthsayers patches, they were darting around each other as though playing. It was the first time he'd ever seen one in the wild and he had to agree they were the perfect desert creatures. Once the dark began to fall the force made set to begin their march so that by the time the red glow of the sunset had begun to fade they were on their way again.

The 2nd evenings march was slower, some of the younger Truthsayers were beginning to find it hard going, but not Sarah McPherson, she kept up with Nathanial through the night, the pair walking in silence side by side as the temperature began to drop to something more comfortable. It was as they slipped over yet another sand dune ridge that the group stopped and clustered together, many instinctively started hugging tears in their eyes. There in the darkness was twinkling lights, the outline of buildings above the flat desert horizon. "Seitch" Nathanial heard Sarah whisper as she sat down on the dune. "I've seen the Holy City" Nathanial slipped his pack off and sat on it he could see a single tear roll down Sarah's face. "I never thought I'd see it." she turned to her mentor, "No matter what happens now I can say I've seen the Holy City, I can die happy"

"The aim isn't to die happy Sarah" Nathanial placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "The aim is to live happy, but to do that we're going to have to fight, and its going to be one hell of a fight, so get your head out of the thoughts of dying OK."

Sarah simply laughed "Well whatever happens thank you for getting me here" she got to her feet swinging her pack onto her back as she did. The group was ushered into shape by the Truthsayers who had seen Seitch before and began their march now in two columns, one of around 150 Truthsayers who were heading towards the rocky outcrops around Seitch, the others towards positions overlooking the KDF camp. Nathanial, Sarah and Kirsten all headed to the rocks, and from there through the twisting turning maze that was the secret passages that lead into Seitch itself.

"Corporal Skeates reporting in Ma'am"  Kirsten announced herself as they exited the tunnel to find a group of the Seitch resistance waiting for them outside the HQ building. Joanna McNeill The Kaitaine Truthsayers commanding officer hugged her, "and I've brought friends" Nathanial stepped forward and shook Joanna's hand finding himself pulled into a hug.

"Thank you for coming sir" the officer said as she released him, it was the first time she'd meet a member of the Holy Houses and never dreamed a Corrino would be in Seitch. "You have no idea what this means."

"Please, its Nathanial, or Nate. I haven't been called sir in a long time." Ever since leaving the East Moreland Royal Engineers he'd never had the word "sir" used by the Red's, "Boss", "Rupert", "Pongo" and "Idiot" certainly, but never "sir". He looked around, McNeill had around 20 or so Truthsayers with her, all of them looked ragged and scruffy, something that reminded him of the days back in the Red's, he guessed these ladies could fight to, they'd held a city against a professional army for a good two months, the fact the Kaitaine President wanted the city in tact as a trophy had helped but still it had been some great soldiering to keep the city in their hands. "So what do we do now?" Nathanial asked.

"Now we put you out to the world. We get word out that a Corrino is in the Holy City, and we watch Truthsayers and Bene Gesserit across the country set Kaitaine on fire" McNeill said bodly, "There are some 10,000 or so people expected to raise up the moment they knew help had come from abroad, and for a Duke's brother to be here, with an army of Truthsayers, it'll light a fire in their hearts. We've people in positions you'd never imagine, do this right and we stand a chance." she lead them inside, already a group where setting up a video camera.

"Welcome to Kaitaine sir" a young girl proudly said to Nathanial as she came in with some plastic cups and a jug of water. Nathanial took one thanking the young girl. He noticed she had Truthsayer patches on, no doubt to make her feel like part of the effort. "Major McNeill" she addressed Joanna, "Drones are recharged awaiting tasking." Nathanial looked puzzled much to McNeill's amusement.

"Meet the officer commanding the Truthsayer Air Force, our Flying Jeboah" McNeill said invoking the name given to those women who had voulentered to fight alomst 70 years ago in the air war around the Horn of Ardia. "Imogen here is piloting some drones we found in a hobby shop, carried out an air raid last week and helped us destroy some big lights they'd aimed at the city, future Truthsayer commander here" McNeill placed a motherly hand on the youngsters shoulder before  returning her attention to Nathanial, "We get this video done quick, at last light tommorrow we light up that camp out there"

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #14 on: May 07, 2018, 01:40:53 AM »
Nathanial had spent the last 24 hours preparing the Truthsayers in Seitch for the fight ahead, it hadn't been long enough but he'd seen in that short time that these women were hard. They'd suffered much already shut up in this city which was designed just for this purpose, that it be held by a small force outnumbered and isolated, back in ancient times a relief force would have arrived but today Nathanial was that relief force. The Sister's had prepared brilliantly, the narrow tight streets had been turned into death traps for any invading force and stockpiles in almost every cellar meant they had plenty of military equipment. Nathanial had spent much of the day working, draining barrels of diesal designated usually for the generators that kept the water purification systems, lights, heating, radio systems and the like working. He'd had to improvise with a lot of it but he was pretty confident they'd work, after all he'd seen something similar used by the Borlanders back in East Moreland and they'd been aiming at prescision targets, meanwhile the Truthsayers had an encampment beyond their walls to nail.

"Five minutes to go" sniper Tasha McArthur called in from her roof top vantage point. She'd seen the shift for guard begin to change as the usual areas of the camp sprang to life as those soon to go on duty headed for a wake up piss and then to grab a coffee or something before starting their own shift watching for Bene Gesserit attacks. Tasha looked down the sights of her rifle and spotted a few familiar faces among the rows of tents, people she'd seen everyday for weeks and dreamt about squeezing the trigger on but hadn't been permitted to.

"Roger that, all units call in." Elizabeth Eastwood was manning the radio and ticked off each of the call signs, units both inside the wall and those in the rocky outcrops that were in the distance around the city, their height and the open desert giving easy shots for skilled marksman.

In the HQ basement Joanna McNeill the leader of the Truthsayers in Kaitaine, which in effect meant the commanding officer of the whole organisation was sat cross legged on the floor, her eyes closed. "I shall not fear" she began reciting the litany against fear using its familiar words to focus her thoughts, ten women sat around her each copying her motions and words. After a minute she finished and stood. "We need to get to our positions, trust in your skills, trust in your friends and we'll get through this. Shai Halud will today find us fierce in battle and will not dare take us. Today our corner of Kaitaine becomes free. May you go with strength" she turned and left heading for her own position.

McNeill found Nathanial and Sarah already there, a patch of bare sand on concrete, the old market place. "Drop....twist...lift....twist....drop....twist...lift....twist...drop" Sarah was stood next to the metallic tube rehearsing her actions, "Drop...twist" she continued oblivious to Joanna's approach.

"One minute" Joanna said quietly not wanting to interupt Sarah's own more militaristic literny.

Elizabeth's voice came over the radio. "STANDBY! STANDBY!" it said and along the wall, in the twisting streets and on the highlands deep breath were taken to steady aims. "GO!GO!GO!" The world exploded, hundreds of rifles in the rocks opened fire, some expert marksman dispatched targets with ease while the less well equipped or more nervous pumped round after round towards the camp avoiding only two areas. Sarah had continued her words as she picked up the first mortar round and checked the attached bundle was in one piece, she twisted dropped it in the barrel and ducked as the tube almost instantly spat it out into the air and over the wall. They were all set for air bursts and as it descended over the KDF camp it exploded as the rifles opened fire. It spread metallic fragments and the thick white gel spread over the camp, five more mortars exploded in an identical fashion and the next round was antiquited white phospherous igniting the gel, an improvised napalm. Smoke was already raising from the camp as tents caught fire one after the other as more mortar shells flew towards the camp. The mortars had been set up perfectly and the operators like Sarah began almost robotic fire and reload routines.

Meanwhile the KDF ran here and there, cohesion in the camp all but gone, officers tried to rally their men but most were simply trying to get out of the fire and smoke rather than retain any true soldiarly discipline. One officer, a tall blonde haired man with dark blue eyes yelled at his men to grab their rifles and return fire but even if they'd all saved their rifle from the flames the smoke obscured the deadshots in the rocks. As he told his men just how he'd punish them he failed to notice the black shape behind him, Kirsten moved like cat hunting, silent and softly, her cloak enveloping her like some kind of wild banshee from myth come to life. She leapt at the officer her bone white crystknife in her hand it went straight into the officers neck, unarmed men stood around shocked as two more Truthsayers stepped from behind a tent and opened fire with rifles. Throughout the less hit parts of the camp, the parts they'd agreed wouldn't be mortared or fired upon teams of Truthsayers mingled among the KDF causing greater chaos.

One small group of about twenty KDF soldiers had been rallied by their officer who was urging his men towards a long ditch that had been dug as a latrine, it provided perfect if disgusting cover, but at this point the men where just pleased to have a way out of the hail of metal. As the officer pointed towards the rocks to point out targets his men were comforted by his bravery, he was stood behind them yelling orders in full view of the enemy. "For Major Collins" one man yelled as he began to return fire blindly like the others, their gunfire hiding the sound of Collins removing two grenade pins and casually tossing them into the latrines, it was only Collins own yell of "Long live the Sisterhood" that alerted them to the betrayal. Kirsten had been closing in on the officer when she heard his yell and as one of her comrades took aim to cut down the officer she slapped down the rifle barrel instead she took his legs out from beneath him.

"Stay down" Kirsten placed her knife against his cheek. "Recite the Literny" she demanded and the man realising it was a Truthsayer relaxed himself closed his eyes and recited the Literny Against Fear perfectly, just as he had done a thousand times in his life.

"My life is the Reverned Mothers, set me to work or leave me for Shai Halud" he kept his eyes closed half expecting to feel the bone knife end his life.

"Get the fuck up" Kirsten said, as she swirled her cloak off and handed it to him "Put in on quickly" she demanded and then helped him up as he joined her little death squad in the fight. Around the camp similar acts of betrayal took place as those with, in some cases decade old hidden loyalties, switched sides to drive home the Truthsayer attack. One such example saw Lt.Col Uma Elainov hurry into General McCaul's tent.

"What the hell is going on?" the General asked still fumbling around for his boots.

"We're taking back Kaitaine" the Lt.Col said calmly as she removed her handgun from its holster, aimed it between the widening eyes of the senior officer of the Siege of Seitch and squeezed the trigger. The back wall of his tent changed instantly from white to red as she turned just as his two guards entered the tent, she shot the first killing him instantly, the second man dived for cover behind a metallic locker and blindly fired over it hitting Elainov in the stomach. She felt nothing as she fell backwards, thinking she was dead the guard left cover and the hidden Truthsayer shot him in the head. She staggered to her feet as more soldiers entered the tent wondering why the senior officers tent was now a volley of gunfire, Elainov emptied her handguns magazine and reached down for another as she felt her life beginning to fade even before the hail of fire from four rifles hastened her meeting with Shai Halud.

The camp infiltrated and many senior officers dead the second phase began, Sarah and Nathanial had left their mortar, things would be danger close now as in fire teams the Truthsayers closed on the camp. As expected a fighter jet appeared overhead, the fact McPherson had no desire to destroy Seitch, wanting it for his own trophy meant he'd not permitted bombing of the ancient sandstone dwellings. The pilot aimed in to overfly the camp but the smoke and chaos meant he had no clear target, it also meant he was low to the ground and unable to react as Nathanial pressed the trigger on the MANPADS unit and sent the missile to turn the plane into a fireball. They had to work quick now, there would be more aircraft at some point and they had few MANPADS. As the KDF ran teams of Truthsayers followed. Nathanial and Sarah however began scanning the camp, searching for intelligence and finding the tent where Elainov had made her stand they found the senior officers orders, maps showing positions throughout the nation, radio frequencies, codes and a treasure trove of information. "She was one of us" Sarah said looking down at the bloody corpse of the officer.

"How do you know?" Nathanial asked looking down unable to work it out. Sarah knelt and picked up the crystknife she'd spotted tucked into the woman's boot. "Ah" Nathanial wanted to get back to the walls of Seitch quickly, they had to keep advancing now, first down the gully that Seitch dominated the entrance too, and then to the less harsh territory of the arid grasslands that dominated the march to the coast. Seitch would need to become something more than just a city unsurrounded, it needed to be the start of something. "Sarah, they'll be time to bury the dead later. Now we need to make sure." he rolled her slightly so he could read the name on the jacket, "We need to make sure Truthsayer Elainov didn't die for nothing" Sarah nodded, removed the officers velcro name badge and took the Crystknife.

"Oh mighty Shai-hulud
Keeper of balance
Bless the Maker and His water
Bless the coming and going of Him
May His passage cleanse the world."

Sarah recited a quick prayer and headed back out along with Nathanial, the gun fire was dying down now and a handful of Truthsayers were mounting vehicles left in the blind panic by the KDF, several tens of whom where under guard. Vitalya was already clambering in and out of the various pieces of armour that had been abandoned, vehicles completly useless for Seitch's streets but something that could become useful. She picked three and motioned for their drivers to follow her in a brand new shiny tank that trundled across the sands towards the city wall, what exactly she had in mind Nathanial didn't know but it felt good to see the victory completed, at least for today, as he, Sarah, Kirsten and Lucy McKinnon jumped into a BPM-97 Nathanial sat in the passenger seat with Kirsten driving, they pulled off racing towards their allocated pass through the hills that isolated the desert from the grasslands beyond, each pass would now become the front line and as the flame haired Truthsayer sped across the ever hardening desert floor Nathanial was reminded of his days in Meche with Red Legion, only this time there was no gear grinding from Olly Thomas. He found himself laughing at that thought and wondering what his old unit would have made of this day's action, he believed they would have approved and he hoped one day he could face them once more without dishonour. "Once a Red, Always a Red" he found himself saying the familiar words.

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #15 on: July 31, 2018, 10:15:58 PM »
It had been almost a week since Seitch had been liberated and news filtered in everyday of pockets of fighting around the nation. While many of the Truthsayers celebrated each confirmed uprising Nathanial Corrino shook his head. "We've had a group attack Geidi today, lots of dead, we had a group yesterday try and take over the Congress building in Secundas, 24 dead. That's dead soldiers for objectives we had no chance of holding. Dead bodies for symbolic bullshit" he snapped as Joanna McNeill, the commander of Truthsayers in Kaitaine, read out the news from Geidi. "You sit here and call them heroes, you say it shows we're not alone. First they ain't heroes, getting killed isn't what makes you a hero, doing something that gets shit done does. Second if these small attacks continue we may as well be. What we need is every Truthsayer, every wannabe Truthsayer and every guy in the faith to grab a gun, preferrably two guns, as much ammo as they can and head here. We need an army not acts of defiance."

Joanna grudgingly nodded, she'd come to rely on the Red Legionnaire turncoat for his insightful even if bluntly delievered insights. He'd fought in full scale wars before while the Truthsayers had at best only fought ambushes in the hills that seperated the desert from the scrub land beyond. "So what do we no Corrino?" she asked as she took her seat in what had become the command centre of Seitch, a former banquet hall in the Corrino family residence.

"Simple we hold the passes from the scrub, if neccessary blow the passes. They'll start to bring armour up, heavy artillary. If that gets here they'll find a way in and then our Theocracy falls before it even gets off the ground. If I was you....Ma'am" he remembered the Truthsayers maintained strict military discipline and while he could never be counted among their ranks properly he knew the importance of showing the younger Truthsayers the neccesity of a rank structure, even if he'd spent his time in Red Legion largely paying it little heed. "Let me take a few groups down into the three main passes, we'll set them up as killing zones. Sniper fire, tank mines, C4, mortars. We'll make them tighter than a ducks arsehole." he looked at the puzzled faces of those around him as he uttered a common metaphor used in Red Legion, "Never mind" he shook his head, not only where the Truthsayers not the well oiled military machine he'd come from but their banter also was sub par.

"Very well Corrino" Joanna said, "Take whoever you need and make those passes a Ducks ass....whatever that means" she threw her hands in the air as though it was of little concern anyway. "Meanwhile I'm going to get Kirsten to lead a group through before you set up, they'll split up and make contact with forces in the cities and get them to hold off attacks." McNeill turned to the red headed stealthy hunter. "You'll find ways through even if the KDF don't, I want you back here in four days. That understood."

"Yes Ma'am" the youngster nodded at the responsibility she'd been given. She knew the mountains almost as well as she knew the desert and many of her comrades believed she was on first name terms with each grain of sand such was her knowledge of the sands.

"You'll take some Melange with you, it'll let the commanders know your from Seitch and it'll help raise morale some as well." The spice production had begun the day after the liberation and now groups of Turthsayers spent their off duty time working the tanks, sifting the sand, extracting the worms and returning them to a new tank while keeping the crispy shed skins to one side. These were then collected and ground up to produce the rich red powder, McNeill had issued strict instructions for the growing stockpile to be guarded, the last thing she needed was some Truthsayers on a religious high taking the stuff and tripping out. In reality Melange had no proven narcotic effect however almost all the Bene Gesserit had witnessed people having visions or hearing voices thanks to the stuff. While in truth it was probably some psychological trick the mind of the devoted faithful played it was still a chance McNeill didn't want to take and so the stuff was already being rationed to a half teaspoon a week, a further quarter to any Bene Gesserit Mothers in the city. It had become a symbol of hope for the Sisterhood, "Those who control the spice control the Universe" was a popular saying among the faithful and now it had taken on a new meaning because to those who until a short time ago had been practically prisoners in Sietch the city was their Universe.


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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #16 on: November 01, 2018, 05:40:54 PM »


"Well they didn't bloody hang around did they" Checkpoint Alpha busied themselves. They'd been sat on the Hameran Road for a month now expecting a KDF counter attack any day but non had ever come, they'd seen the occasional aircraft overhead but being dug in to the rocks and cliff sides kept them largely hidden. The Mundus Games were now 24 hours finished and the sound of an armoured column trundling up the mountain road filled the air as the Truthsayers manning the checkpoint hurried into life. This was the main road that lead to Seitch and one of the few that avoided going directly through the mountains. As such they'd guess this would be the route they'd take and a sledgehammer like blow would be sent their way. The girls who had been manning the Checkpoint for a week now knew what to do and got on the radio.

"Move....grab that MILAN unit" Nathanial Corrino one of the few men fighting with the Truthsayers and a former East Moreland Red Legionnaire jumped into the passenger side of a vehicle. "Lets go people" he yelled as the Truthsayers streamed out of their accomodation and into the vehicles. There were eight of them half sat half hanging onto the old jeep as Corporal Bradshaw pulled off like a Formula Mundus driver. She knew exactly where she was heading, she was one of the people who rotated to Alpha and so put her vehicle in the lead of the convoy that was now streaming out of Seitch. It'd take them almost an hour to reach the checkpoint and he knew fire teams from other roads in the area would be making their own way to lend support.

"We wait for the first tank to get on that" Sarah McPherson pointed to a bridge that crossed a narrow but deep river channel it wouldn't be a challenge to bridge for a military unit but it would take time and time was good. They'd prepared for this and knew what to expect. Over the next twenty minutes the KDF cautiously advanced up the slight hill the humming of rotar blades in the sky showing they had some air support. It wouldn't really matter however as once the shooting began the Truthsayers would have access to the rock shelter behind them and a hundres caverns would give them safe passage through to point several miles away if need be. As the first tank reached the bridge a group of soldiers cautiously appeared from behind it and pain stakingly scanned the area ahead before moving forward to take cover in a shallow ditch close to the ramp to the bridge. Sarah watched through net covered binoculars. Either side of her members of her unit checked their weapon making sure everything was set perfectly. "Let them cross" Sarah muttered more to herself than anyone else and watched as four men crossed leaving another eight behind them.

"Fennec incoming from the West" a voice crackled on the radio, Sarah recognised it as Nathanials. "Watch your fire, ETA 10 minutes." It was good news the extra fire power was arriving and not too soon as the next wave of four men crossed, found cover on the Truthsayer side of the bridge and then waited for the final four to join. The 12 man fire team began making their way up the sides of the steep red rocky slopes.

"Let them come, only fire if you need to" Sarah reassured the others. They held their breath as seemingly satisfied that all was clear the patrol took up overwatch positions as the tank roared back into life lurching forward its tracks clanking against the road as it clambered up the ever so small incline and onto the bridge. A helicopter hovered overhead from the tank surveying the scene. A sound of movement from further back in the cave spun her round but the way in was guarded so she knew it wasn't trouble, in fact it was the opposite, Nathanial and the back up had arrived.

"That bird's going to be a problem." Nathanial unslung the large rifle from off his back and assessed a rock to his left, he set up the weapon and began squinting down the barrel. "You carry on as planned, I'll deal with that." he settled down behind the weapon as Sarah turned her attention back to the tank which was now a quarter of the way across the bridge.

"A little further" she whispered to the Truthsayer sat to her left, "Five more meters.....four....three.....two....." the tank stopped its turret beginning to spin. There was the muffled crack of a silenced sniper rifle to her left and the helicopter was spinning, its pilot having a bullet lodged in his chest.

"They've made us, blow it" Nathanial yelled as he switched his aim to the men who had crossed the bridge, one of whom was about to yell a warning to his friends still the other side of the river. He never got past his first word as the bullet ripped his brain into tiny pieces. Around the caves and crags small arms opened up as a mortar could be heard launching two rounds in quick succession. Each round had been dispatched at a pre-determined setting ensuring it would land nearly perfectly on the rest of the convoy the IDF advanced party was bringing. Satisfying explosions filled the air as a APC and another tank took direct hits, not enough to totally destroy them but enough to render them out the fight in any meaningful way. Next a stream of white smoke as the MILAN unit fired obilitarating an as yet untouched tank that was doing its best to get shots off. Only two tanks remaind and they were turning their barrels towards the cliffs. "Get ready to move people" Nathanial yelled as he quickly unscrewed the silencer, it was loud now and so pointless, the trade off between stealth and accuracy no longer relevant. He began scanning the rocks, picking of what remained of the advanced patrol as a Truthsayer heavy machine gun began doing anyone in who tried to cross the bridge. Nathanial watched as the tank fired a shell at an opening in the cliff, he wasn't sure what damage it did and he didn't wait to see, he was moving now and he called for Bradshaw to follow him. They hurried down the cliff side, scurried across the road and into a ditch the other side. KDF mortars were now putting up fire of their own but with the cover afforded by the caves it was largely irrelevant other than to keep heads down. Natahnial and Bradshaw moved forward crawling on their bellies down a narrow ditch. They reached to within 40 meters of the wounded tank on the bridge and began putting fire down on those further back in the column, the less brave cowering behind twisted metal of a tank.

A group of KDF had taken shelter behind the MILAN hit carcass of the tank and were busy peering at a map. "Artillery support" Nathanial suspected and placed a bullet into the speakers face hopefully before he could finish sending what he wanted, the next round went into the radio itself as Bradshaw just gave suppresing fire. The KDF were struggling now, their armour gone, their force mainly conscripts who didn't care much to be killed by the Bene Gesserit, who according to Pravda used the blood of their enemies in ceremonies to summon evil spirts. The regulars had been at the vanguard and now they were exchanging fire with Truthsayers who held elevated positions. It was a waste of time the advanced patrol was never going to get across the river this way and so they began to retreat. Nathanial meanwhile was pursuing. He had crossed the river and was using the twisted metal of the destroyed and damaged vehicles as cover, grenades were tossed into the paralysed tanks and his sniper rifle cut down conscript and regulars as they ran. After another thirty minutes of stop start exchanges of fire the KDF had vanished. "They'll no doubt have the bad news passed on by now expect incoming air support" he watched as Bradshaw barked at the group to get set up for that, hide deep in the caves and give them no target. Meanwhile he merrily picked his way through the dead bodies looking for intelligance and pocketing everything he could. He was rummaging through a pocket of a dead Sergeant when a single gunshot to his left made him grab his rifle. It was Sarah dispatching a wounded KDF soldier. "Fucking hell Sarah" Nathanial yelled at her. "What you doing?"

"They'd execute us, just returning the favour. If the bastards know if they fight us they'll die then most of the conscripts will shit their pants" Sarah poked another body with her foot and seemed disappointed it was already dead. "We leave the wounded we don't execute them ok?" Nathanial said sternly, he technically had no authority over Sarah or any of the Truthsayers but his family name and his military record spoke rather loudly. Sarah shrugged holstered her pistol and began removing magazines from the dead, they'd scrounge what they could. True enough five minutes later the sound of fast jets filled the air as two fighters came in low, most of the Truthsayers were now sat in caves waiting for the next wave but canon fire could be heard as a few hadn't hidden themselves quiet well enough. After another ten minutes everything was quiet again as Nathanial went to check on those positions they'd heard being hit.

One was a group of three girls, they'd clearly not got deep enough into the crevices of the cliffs and been exposed, they now lay dead. "Grab their knives, WP the bodies" Nathanial ordered.

"Wait" A Truthsayer Sergeant the most senior of the women there called back. "We take the bodies back to Seitch."

"We don't have the transport to spare and the next time the KDF come back it'll be in bigger numbers and we'll be moving fast. We can't take bodies with us, beside we've another six up there" he pointed to a cave where they'd taken the wounded and dead after the fire fight. "Get their knives, pile the bodies, take two WP grenades and put them underneath, pour on some petrol, pull the pin and run." He said, "Infact do it in the middle of the bloody road" he pointed, "That way when the KDF come up they'll see what we do to our own dead and they'll shit themselves even more" It sounded ruthless and many of the Truthsayers looked shocked, they'd trained as soldiers but many had never been around so much death, if any at all, meanwhile Nathanial was an out and out killer, Red Legion operations across Mundus had meant his eyes had seen enough death for several lifetimes and he knew the way most average people thought about it. "Where the fuck is Blair" he yelled and a dusty looking Truthsayer appeared, only she had no beret and the badges on her uniform bore no Jeboah. "Your the scholar, the clever one right?" Nathanial asked, she was indeed, she was a Missionara who had wanted to be a Truthsayer, it meant she'd made it her hobby to learn the Truthsayers skills, she joined shooting clubs, had done airsoft and all manner of other things to gain an insight, and after leaving the Chapterhouse in Cenneslaig she'd signed up on her University military reserves. She was seen as the "Warrior Scholar" by many in the Bene Gesserit and her knowledge was invaluable at moments like this. "Anything in any scripture say I can't burn these bodies?" he knew why the women were reluctant.

Blair stood thoughfully for a moment or two. "In many cultures the burning of a body symbolises the release of the spirit. Either way what happens to their souls now is up to Shai Halud, the only ritual we need is their knives. The body is now just meat." she said coldly, "I think if what Nathanials suggesting is going to scare the shit out the KDF conscripts then its something the Truthsayers who died today would be happy to sacrfice meat for as long as their knives get back to Seitch." There were grim nods around the group.

"OK, but I'm not pulling the pin" the Sergeant said still not sure it was morally the right thing to do.

Five minutes later Nathanial pulled the pin and ran just as he had described and the makeshift funeral pyre illuminated the falling darkness as the group went back to their positions ready for the next probe. 

Offline Libby

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #17 on: November 13, 2018, 10:47:39 PM »


The five aircraft took off in quick succession, their mission was simple they were to fly West and there locate the Bene Gesserit forces in the mountain passes and make sure they got hammered. Each of the aircraft carried several guided bombs designed to release napalm to burn the terrorist scum out of the hillside. The flight climbed to cruising altitude and fell into formation in a V their lead pilot taking them towards the combat zone. It was a forty minute flight to the area of operations and the flight was largely uneventful mainly thanks to the terrorists having no access to any Anti-Air weaponary something that reassured the aircrew. "Red Flight take up positions for the attack runs, we'll go one at a time just like in practice. I'll go in first drop my ordenance where the ground teams say and then head off 90 degrees to the run on bearing 1-3-2 all aircraft confirm."

"Red Two Confirmed"

"Red Three Confirmed"

"Red Four Confirmed

"Red Five Confirmed"

"Follow me in Red's" the lead pilot began his descent and picked up the confirmation of the laser designator being shone from the ground, a few flashes indicated where small arms fire was going on in the area. He listened intently to the forward air controller guiding him towards the drop point to ensure perfect delivery probably into one of the caves.

"Release on my mark" the voice of a soldier on the ground came in, "Mark". The lead pilot counted mentally in his head 1-2-release and the bomb fell towards the ground it flew harmlessly over the entrance to the cave expolding in a pretty fireball behind the cave having been unable to pick up the laser beam to ride to its target. "Red One, negative impact, seemed to release late. Check your comms"

"Roger that" the lead pilot had pulled away onto his new heading to form up and come in with their second run, already Red Two was swinging into action and the pilot concentrating on following the directions being directed their way, as a result they were completly oblivious to the fact that Red One had turned much sharper and longer than intended and that as Red One squeezed their trigger a burst of 30mm rounds flying through Red Two's cockpitt. Almost simultanousely Red Five pulled their trigger sending a burst of their own canons straight through the engines of the aircraft in front of them. All hell broke loose as Red Three, sandwiched between the now spinning Red Two infront and the burning Red Four behind went almost vertical. Screams of confusion came over the radio on the ground as the Forward Air Controllers thought ground fire had hit the aircraft. Red One had anticipated the climb and a second squeeze of the trigger sent gunfire ripping through the body of Red Three almost cutting the aircraft in half. In the two rouge aircraft there were switches of frequency.

"Truthsayer One, this is Jeboah One requesting tasking" Squadron Leader Simon Tavangah, the eldest son of a Seitch born Truthsayer radioed in to those holding the caves.

"Jeboah One you have targets at your twelve o'clock, just south of the wall. Engage at will." A womans voice came from the ground.

"Roger that" this time there was no missing a bomb released spiralled perfectly towards its target the explosion taking out a squad of KDF infantry that moments ago had been waiting for the destruction of the Truthsayers. The groups of KDF that had anticipated pushing the women out of the caves were now running as the two members of the Flying Jeboahs hit target after target, first with their napalm and then with the canon. It was only the sound of silence as Tavangah pulled his trigger that stopped him continuing the slaughter that left burnt bodies of the KDF littering the hillsides. His partner in crime was Flight Liuetenant James Hirovska, by birth James Spart a orphaned Bene Gesserit taken in by a former Truthsayer and raised in Arrakken foor just this kind of purpose.

"Jeboah's excellent work. Get your asses out of here." their Truthsayer ground contact called them

"Roger that, get the beers in" both aircraft dropped to just fifty feet from the desert and gunned their throttles, the wake they created forming little sandstorms as they went. It would take the KDF Air Force a few days to work out what the hell had just happened and even longer to work out what to do about it. Meanwhile the two aircraft headed towards Seitch. The long grey highway designed to bring tanks to the city should they ever be needed had been blown months ago around 25km east of the city, but the pair of aircraft didn't need that much runway at all and so touched down some 5km away. There was a large crowd to great them and as they shut the aircraft down they were literally mobbed by the fifty or so Truthsayers sent to bring them home. The two men smiled as the girls hugged them and kissed them on the cheek welcoming them to their new family.

"You two, follow me" Nathanial Corrino forced his way through the crowd, "We need you debriefed" he turned to Vitaliya MacEanraig, the defacto head of transport for the Truthsayers here, "Get those things moved and hidden. The KDF will be looking for them and we may need them." she nodded her understanding of his orders and barked at several of the girls to go and get the low loaders from the city. "I'm Nathanial" the brother of Duke Niklaus began as the two men began the short hike back to the city. "You're now under my command, we've two forces here. The Truthsayers answer to Joanna McNeill"

"And the other force?" Spart asked.

"We're calling them the Pangolins" Nathanial smiled as he often did thinking of the silly scaled mammals.

"They the armoured ant eaters?" Tavanagh asked only vaguely aware of them.

"Yeah, we see a few over in the South of Seitch, funny little things but tough as nails." Nathanial handed them a canteen of water each. "Pangolin forces are still directed by McNeill but she doesn't have day to day command of them as they may be a little rusty and undisciplined compared to the Truthsayers."

"So how many of them do we have and who commands them?" Tavanagh was keen to get his own position sorted, not that he wanted to be top dog, or even a middle dog if it came to it, he just wanted to do what he could to defend his people and free what he saw as his homeland.

"Well as of now?" Nathanial asked rhetorically, "Three of us, me, you, him......and I'm the Commanding Officer." Tavanagh spotted Captain rank slides on Corrino's uniform.

"With respect I'm the equivalent of a Major that would make me more senior." Tavanagh stopped walking and paused.

"Yeah, good spot, but you're a KDF fly boy......I spent three years in Red Legion of East Moreland, and before that six years in the East Moreland Royal Engineers. I've fought in Safraen and kicked the USR arse that you boys once licked. I then crossed the boarder into Meche and kicked me arse, before helping shit on the Catholic Church in Seaforth. You know who Charles Ofdensen is?" Nathanial had anticipated some issue like this before long and knew now was the time to determine his dominance.

"Yeah, Rokkenjiman government guy, arrested when his boat got into trouble or something." Spart shrugged, he wanted nothing other than a chance to get revenege for his dead family, something he'd waited 25 of his 27 years for.

"Well I'm his something" Corrino stopped and imposed himself in Tavanagh's personal space, "So I'm hell of a lot more experienced than you in fucking up Communists, I'm more experienced than you in getting shit done and I'm a Corrino.....who do you think the Truthsayers will back?" he didn't blink just stared up at the taller man.

"Pangolins we are then Sir." Tavanagh said extending a hand. Nathanial smiled, took a step back removed a glove and shook Tavanagh's hand warmly.

"Thank you for your work today. You guys did good" he patted both men on the shoulders as they entered the city of Seitch.


"I'm his

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #18 on: December 02, 2018, 11:52:23 PM »
The city of Secundas was a sprawling mass of brick buildings on the edge of the desert. It was an old fashioned city largely overlooked by an old fort which was now a KGB base and a tempting target for the cities Truthsayers. There weren't many of them, all those who could had made their way to Seitch and that meant Major Jessica Odams was furious, her forces had largely been depleated to McNeill who at least to Odams shouldn't be commander of the Truthsayers in Kaitaine at all, infact she felt strongly she should. The mood in the city had been bubbling for a few days as particularly younger people began feeling that the time to remove the KDF was soon at hand. Odams utilised that and using her handful of Missionara she spread word through the city and now as the sun came up the first mortar round flew from the city to KDF base in the old fort. Soon a force of around 800 began assaulting the bases perimeter armed with a variety of small arms. The majority of the 800 were made up of willing youngsters, a mixture of wannabe Truthsayers and young men, even a handful of the KDF on the base where in on it and turned their weapons against their own comrades.

The fighting around the fort was soon pushed back as attack helicopters took to the air, narrowly avoided a shoulder fired SAM and then opened up on the crowd, it was then that the KDF counter attack began and before midday the fighting in Secundas was going street to street. Things were different here to Seitch, while both had twisting and turning roads built informally over hundreds of years the streets of Secundas were wide thanks to the city having had a thriving industry in the early 1800's for textiles, it meant the horse and carts used to draw the loads to warehouses and mills needed to pass and therefore tanks could take to the streets. The amour meant that the lack of Truthsayer fire-power was shown up and gradually street by street the rebels were pushed back until by nightfall only the odd gunshot could be heard and a smouldering plume of smoke marked the various locations intense fighting had took place.

A young Truthsayer who had stayed loyal to Odams had gathered together around 50 fighters and realising all was lost she hefted her backpack and lead them out into the desert leaving the KDF and the failed uprising behind her. The group were mainly cadets, girls aged between 12-16 who had been training in secret, some of them were limping from injuries from the fighting and so the pace was slow, Private Kenna McDavies had never been to Seitch but had spent enough time in the desert to be certain she could make the hike she just prayed Shai Halud wouldn't take any of the youngesters.

As midnight hit the KDF gathered together around 100 prisoners in the fort and began sorting them into groups, around 15 of them were wearing Truthsayer insignia, 20 or so seemed to be teenage girls while the rest were men in all manner of attire. Among them were three members of the KDF who had rebelled against their comrades. "Ladies and Gentleman" Lt-Col Pieter Trowlowski appeared before them. "You have all rebelled against the lawful authority of the Soviet Republic of Kaitaine, as such you must now face the consequences." He nodded to some soldiers standing nearby, they each picked up one of the men and ushered them towards the walls of the fort and without any ceremony threw them off the walls sat high on the cliff their bodies ending up lifeless on the roofs of the city below. "They've been returned to the city" Trowlowski began laughing, "Those in Truthsayer uniform you will be given a military tribunal in the morning, I suspect you will be found guilty and shot, those children among you will be sent to Arrakeen and there placed in protective custody." He watched as the soldiers dragged the two groups away with the children screaming to be allowed to stay with the Truthsayers. One young girl who looked about 14 managed to break free and made a run for the gate of the base, it was futile as it was locked and secured, Trowlowski motioned for his men to let the girl be and approached her himself, he removed the pistol from his holster and considered for a moment shooting the sobbing child and instead smacked her hard across the face knocking her unconcious. "Get them locked up" he ordered replacing his handgun.

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #19 on: December 27, 2018, 09:54:48 PM »
Nathanial and his squad where out on the usual daily patrol in the foothills of the desert mountains, it had become the routine thing to have a wander over climb onto some peaks and spend the day observing the roads looking for incoming KDF forces. There had been a few incursions but nothing that had worried the Truthsayers of Seitch too much, the war was passing slowly. Today though as Bradshaw took point she held up her hand breaking the spread out patrol squad to a halt. Nathanial scanned the area and moved up to kneel next to the Truthsayer. "What you got Corporal?" he asked as he watched her eyes darting about between the sand and the rocks they'd intended to climb.

"Not sure, something just doesn't feel right" She replied and then held up a hand silencing any reply from the former Special Forces officer. Her eyes took in the curve of the rocks and the shadows beyond. "There" She pointed to a gap between the rocks about 50meters ahead, "Something flapping" she pointed and Nathanial hefted his rifle and peered through the scope, she was right there was something flapping around in the breeze something that naturally wouldn't be in the desert and for sure wouldn't have been left by a Truthsayer.

"Good spot" Nathanial patted her on the shoulder, "We'll go take a look, run up the gulley parrallel." he motioned slightly to the left and the column headed off once more. As they swung to the left it was Nathanial who headed towards what they'd seen, he approachec cautiously with his rifle at the aim. He silently moved round the corner and nothing appeared except for a piece of plastic wedged under a rock, he examined it and found it was clearly some sort of cheap roll mat. He picked it up  folded it and put it into a pocket before heading back to meet up with the rest of them. "Someone was camping here" he said, "We got any Truthsayers out and about?" he asked.

"Nah" Bradshaw seemed surprised he'd even suggest that, the girls weren't dumb enough to leave things behind and even less dumb to have used the plastic Nathanial handed over. "KDF?" she asked him

"I'd not have thought so, I mean its suicide them coming up into the hills." It was obvious to everyone that had the KDF tried taking the Truthsayers on in the desert hills they'd get cut to pieces, they were conscripts more accustomed to garrison duties in the towns and cities, meanwhile the Truthsayers had a mantra, "I am a desert creature" they'd repeatedly say and deep down in their soul they believed it. In the last few months the KDF had essentially surrendered the hills and desert to the Truthsayers and now they'd become a base of observation over the roads that skirted the desert linking Seitch to Secundas. "We keep moving" Nathanial nodded the way ahead and Bradshaw began her advance once more. They reached the top of a hill and took up positions under the shelter of their dark cloaks. The sun was reaching a height now and the cloaks gave a shade from where they could watch for the enemy, it was then Nathanial spotted something. "There, due East" he pointed and Bradshaw scanned the scene below, "We've footsteps, a lot of them." he added. True enough what they estimated to be 30 sets of footprints heading across the desert towards Seitch. "Bring four Truthsayers and follow me." Nathanial ordered and moved down among the rocks to get a better view. It took them a good thirty minutes to get their view and true enough was a straggling looking group heading across the desert. "Fuck sake" Nathanial muttered, "Their insane" he added realising they were not KDF but also didn't look like Truthsayers. He grabbed the spotting scope to get a better look than his rifle optics allowed. "We've armed civvies, looks like a few wounded." He began heading off down towards the sand. "You wait here, keep me covered, I'll go get them." He dropped his heavier kit leaving just his ammo pouches and his camelpak on before running off towards them. It was clear they weren't in great shape and probably wouldn't all make the day out the way they were going.

It took Nathanial a good twenty minutes to catch them up and no one challenged him as he approached them from the rear, clearly a KDF unit would have slaughtered them with little effort, however as he surveyed the group before him he could see they were not soldiers, only about ten rifles were present, a few handguns and they all looked like they'd seen better days. Very few had servicable rucksacks or appropriate footwear, a lot of makeshift bandages adorned legs. "Whose in charge?" Nathanial asked once the group had overcome the panic.

"That would be be Kenna" a young woman pointed to a girl being carried on a makeshift stretcher. Nathanial headed over and could see she was in a bad way, she was wearing a Truthsayer uniform, the only on present in the group. He checked for a rank, private and she looked no older than 20. "She's been refusing to drink, letting the children have her water.....oh and she's been shot" the woman pointed to her arm. Nathanial carefully removed the bandage but Kenna barely moved, the wound needed looking at or it would get infected.

"What the hell is going on?" Nathanial asked as he redressed her wounds and poured some water from his camalpak into her mouth, she lapped greedily at the drops on her lips but Nathanial knew not to give her too much.

"We've come from Secundas, someone tried to take on the garrison there and we got slaughtered" Nathanial had heard reports of this but only from the Kaitaine state media and that was notiriously untrustworthy. "The Truthsayers were only half involved, some didn't know the attack was coming and so we had to scramble some kind of defence. I just grabbed a rifle from a dead soldier and helped but we couldn't hold out. When it was lost Kenna gathered us together." Nathanial could see the group was mainly young children, "She tried getting us to Seitch but we got ambushed, about fifteen got killed" the woman continued to explain and Nathanial noticed Kenna trying to talk.

"Sleep" Nathanial told her, "You're not too far but you'll not make it like this" He looked back at the rocks, at their pace it would take about an hour to get there and a few would struggle. "We're heading for the rocks, each goes as fast as they can, Truthsayers are keeping an overwatch, whoever gets there first tells them we're coming. Now lets go" he ignored the stretcher and hefted Kenna across his shoulders, she was as light as a feather, probably lighter than his kit he'd left behind and so he was able to keep going fairly easy as they retraced his steps. He noticed a young girl, about 14 years old striding ahead following his footsteps and soon she was well ahead and the first to reach the rocks. He made a mental note to find her later and speak to her. In the meantime the Truthsayers in the rocks came down and helped the group in, each carrying canteens of water. Soon everyone was in the shade and first aid was being administered as the Truthsayers began sharing their rations. "This will be the plan" Nathanial began briefing them. "We'll rest here the remainder of the day, get your water kits out" the girls each removed what looked like plastic bags from their kit and found any small trees or shrubs within the foothills, they tied the bag around them knowing it'd collect some fresh water. "When it gets dark we move back to Seitch" Nathanial ordered before heading off to find the girl. "What's your name?" he asked

"Michelle Spart" she sipped some water from a canteen.

"You did good out there" he sat and broke one of his biscuits in half and gave it her. "You a member of the Sisterhood?"

"No" she said glumly, "I didn't get a chance, my cousin is though" she said proudly, "She lives in Ui Cenneslaig." Nathanial looked shocked.

"Niveden?" he knew the surname was unusual and most Bene Gesserit, even those not from the Sisterhood knew their family tree well, Michelle nodded rather surprised, she'd never meet Niveden but her parents had been proud of their niece. "Well Michelle it seems were family" he extended a hand and she shook it. "Your cousins my brothers Honored Matres" she smiled. "I'm Nathanial Corrino" her eyes widened at the name Corrino. "You want to be a Truthsayer, cos I reckon I can fix it."

"Oh yes please" she said eagerly hugging him.

"Well I'll have a word when we get back. Hopefully by the time I get back from Secundas they'll have you beginning training."

"You can't go to Secundas" she looked worried.

"Well their high command isn't going to kill itself is it."

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #20 on: February 06, 2019, 11:54:01 PM »
"Fuck sake Mac" Nathanial cursed as he once more twisted the dails on the scope of his sniper rifle. "Didn't they teach you maths at that fancy school." He added.

"Which one of us two are you talking too" Sarah MacPherson the young Truthsayer asked him from his position on his right. He glanced left and Tasha McArthur simply waved. "Cos you aren't exactly being clear."

"Neither are both of you." he shook his head, "Too many bloody Mac's" he was looking from their vantage point half way up a cliff face on a ledge overlooking the town of Secundas. They'd been there 48 hours cramped up on the ledge they'd abseiled down onto in the dark. It was a great spot for what they had planned and the small expolsive they'd left on the top of the cliff would give the impression the shot had come from there. Time was getting close and so Sarah and Tasha had been using various range finders and wind speed detectors to give him information to make the perfect shot. Tasha was more experienced at this kind of thing and it was Sarah who wasn't exactly on the ball, "Just give me one set of numbers at a time." Nathanial stretched his neck before settling back once more. "Showtime." a series of vehicles came into sight winding their way through the old part of town here in Secundas. Here the modern homes of the city gave way to the wide streets between sandstone buildings, every few hundred meters a kind of square giving the street a place for a market and where old water pumps still stood for those parched on a hot day. Nathanial felt a trickle of sweat down his face but he didn't move, they were all about the business at hand now.

Brigadier Kuznetsovich had a pretty regular routine, head into the new town and check the defensive positions they'd set up following the uprising there. He randomly changed his tour so that hadn't presented an oppurtunity but everyday at just gone 2:30pm he headed back, had his Secretary meet him from his armoured car and hand him an ice cold drink and take his briefcase. For approximately six seconds he was an open target and that moment was now just seconds away. "Winds dropping" Tasha whispered, "Same direction, 2knots" Nathanial quickly compensated

"Target is static" Sarah was watching the vehicle come to a halt, one eye on a video feed of Nathanial's scope the other on the view through her own telescope. "He's out the car, secretaries on her way." Nathanial could now just about see the man as he began to move into view. "We're on" Sarah confirmed to him it was the correct person about to appear in his scope. Nathanial lead the man by a tiny amount, and halting his breathing squeezed the trigger as Tasha pressed a button setting off the charge above them. Sarah meanwhile enjoyed seeing the "Red mist" as blood sprayed out of the KDF Brigadiers head as the bullet ripped through his brain. Without saying anything to the two Truthsayers Nathanial shifted his aim a little, squeezed again and this time the Secretary went down her heart destroyed by the round. The bases alarm blared out across the city as people ran for cover, Nathanial quickly picking off three more soldiers before realising his mag was empty.

"If we're killing one might as well kill a few more" He said as he nontalantly packed the rifle up as the Truthsayers packed their own gear. Within a minute they'd hooked up to ropes and descended to the foot of the cliff. The base was on alert now, the sound of the first shot had alerted everyone and the consequent shots attracting attention towards the cliff, but the drifting smoke indicating the shots had come from the top. A helicopter flew overhead as the three Bene Gesserit assasins took cover at the base of the cliff. They skirted the old town, slipped into a side street hefted a manhole cover and then disappeared not to be seen again.



6th Feb 2019- Diary of Stacy Bradshaw. Published on Social Media

Last night marked the six month anniversary of the liberation of Seitch, which means today marks the six month anniversary of the Theocracy of Free Kaitaine. Last night despite being in a warzone we partied. It was the first time in my 24 years of life that I have tasted Spice Beer, the ancient brew of Seitch. The stuff doesn't taste the greatest if I'm honest but that didn't matter, it could have tasted of vomit and we'd all of shared in it willingly. It symbolises everything we are fighting for, the freedom to celebrate our faith, the return of its rituals, the kinship of our peers and the love of our land. To sit out under a full moon in a city in the desert, a cold beer, the spice giving it a slight red tinge and with your friends, some of whom I've only known a few weeks but would gladly face any enemy with, dance the dances of the Sisterhood while our voices filled what was until recently Communist air with words of hope and love.

The beer leaves a feint red stain on your teeth, a few of the girls even said they saw visions, but I think that had more to do with the makeshift bars homemade "whiskey" than anything else. It was at midnight however that the most beautiful moment occured. Little Imogen O'Lone the youngest Truthsayer in Seitch appeared with a drum and our glorious leader, but not in a Stalin way, Joanne McNeill appeared with her bagpipes. There in the centre of Seitch we sang, an old song and a glorious one. "Land of My Mothers" the old song of a free Kaitaine. A land devoid of the Communist horde, a land dedicated to bettering ourselves and mankind and under the full moon the voices of several hundred free Kaitainites echoed through the old streets. That dream is not lost and just as our voices did as more and more people came from their homes to join us in the moonlight the sound of that dream shall grow until it becomes a thunderous chorus across all this land, from the desert of Seicth to the blue waters of Chapterhouse. The Bene Gesserits are coming and in this desert cathedral let our standards bear joining together with on dream to share."

Tonight the people of Seitch made it clear that this shall be the song of Freedom, our national anthem.

Land of my Mothers
we will always be Faithful and loyal to our own country.
In times of danger we will set you free,
Lead you to glory and to victory.

 (Gone is the past let us start anew,
Let this hope of peace always remain
Spirit of Seitch, be strong and true,
 Then your children will smile again.

Hail, Arrakeen to our ancient pray’r,
In this desert Cathedral,
 let our standards bear,
Joining together with on dream to share,

Hope bless the people of this land so fair.
Rise, Kaitaine let your voices ring In this desert Cathedral of our wandering
Who joy and liberty to all will bring,
Come, let your heart with love and courage sing. 



Offline Libby

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #21 on: March 07, 2019, 02:48:31 PM »
Secundas had been reinforced by an armoured unit, now tanks patrolled the streets, people had been turfed out of their homes and moved into either abandoned ones on the edge of town or makeshift container homes. The net result was a "Green Zone" that was around the military base, it was a relatively safe haven for the KDF and while the armour patrolled the town the foot soldiers swept the hillsides and cliffs that separated the settlement of around 200,000 people from the desert. It was almost as if the city was built within an oasis a giant depression that stretched on for tens of miles either side of the city. Some believed that it had been caused by a giant meteor that had once hit Mundus, the Bene Gesserit however knew the real truth, the giant depression was where the first sandworm, the mighty Shai Halud had clambered free from the desert and brought his knowledge and destiny to the world. That made it a place the Bene Gesserit desperately wanted, the KDF knew that too and now almost all day everyday the sound of jets overhead, the chopping rotors of helicopters and the gentle rumble of tracked vechicles filled the air.

Brigadier McCulloch had ben tasked by the President to personally bring security to the region and he had arrived just twelve hours after his predecessors head had been blown off, the fient outline of the blood splatter still visible on the wall outside his office. McCulloch had a plan however. "Sergeant Maximov" he ordered one of his senior NCO's into his office. "I believe that we need to take the fight to the Bene Gesserit beyond this place. I want you to go and tell the Air Force gentleman down on the Air Strip to ready one of the Tu-160's" he refereneced the strategic bomber, "Tell the crew to prep for a run to Seitch."


"Yes sir...but..." the Sergeant thought better of it, snapped a salute and left. He was about to explain to his commander the huge coal field that Seitch sat on and the worry McPherson had that any air strike would ignite the seam making the vast plain on the edge of the desert worthless land, and more importantly destroy the potentially valuable natural resource. Surely their hadn't been a change in strategy? Dutifully the men did as they were instructed, the Air Force tehnicians patiently waiting for the necessary ordinance for the operation to arrive. When it did they were a little puzzled. Eighty large cylinders, or the kind you might find used for blowing up balloons at a fun fayre and around each one explosive charges.

"Sir what are they?" the Flt.Lt in charge of the aircraft asked.

"Those are Endosulfan containers. We are getting rid of those bloody desert worms" the commander smiled, "They are a species that shouldn't exist and as such need to be wiped out.....which is probably why the Bene Gesserit love them so much." The aircrew chuckled and helped load the devices onto the bomb bay before setting off. The flight was short and soon the tiny dot of the city beneath them came into view.

The people of Seitch had been expecting this, but not a massive bomber, they nervously made their way into the basements of the houses as the siren rang out hoping they'd be deep enough. Nathanial Corrino trained his sniper rifles scope at the aircraft and a nearby Turthsayer Private asked if he was going to shoot it down, he shook his head in exasperation at the stupidity of the question. He was merely seeing what they were dealing with, at the height it was at and the speed it was going it would have been a miracle to even hit the plane yet alone stop it. He left the rooftop and found the basement where several of the leading Truthsayers sat waiting expecting the explosions. He pulled McNeill to oneside, "it going to be bad" he explained, "we should start maybe using the tunnels to get out the city." Seitch was criss crossed by hundreds of them, most not even marked on maps but they lead in some cases tens of miles away from the city.

It was too late they heard explosions above but felt nothing, Nathanial sensed he knew what this was and rummaged in his kit before heading back unpstairs, he pulled the NBC shroud over his head and donned his gas mask. He clambered up the stairs to the roof and watched as the bomber was flying away, its bomb bay open and several seconds later it dropped another canister, Nathanial watched it explode as he began feeling the descending mist from the ones dropped over the city which had exploded in mid air. He quickly ran back inside and got a packet which looked like a wet wipe out of his webbing on his belt and began wiping himself down with it. He watched as a fient spray settled and radioed in what he was watching. It sent panic through the Truthsayers, they knew there was always a chance the KDF would use chemical weapons on them , however they'd been slightly buoyed by the fact East Moreland was keeping an eye on the conflict and Nathanial had assured them the Morelander may be against them and siding with the KDF but should chemical weapons be used then that would change, that had been enough to convince them that they would be safe from this horror until now. Nathanial waited for an hour and then having watched the bomber finish dropping its load around the city he made his way back outside. He removed the small plastic tube from his webbing and carefully removed the plastic cap, he found a few droplets of the mist and sucked them into the tube before turning it upside down and breaking the seal on another chemical already inside. He shook it and waited nervously, ten seconds later the change began, it went blue. He walked back inside, used the wipe to clean himself off again and carefully put his gear away. He made his way back to the basement. "Well good news and bad news" he addressed Joanne McNeill. "Good news is this stuff is only slightly harmful." he held up the tube, "Blue means it can make you feel ill but isn't deadly, the fact its this pale too means its probably bottom end." McNeill looked visibly relieved, "Bad news is it's everywhere, if we don't somehow get the thing cleaned up we'll have sick people and I don't know what it is."

"If its not really going to harm us then why do it?" McNeill, like everyone else in the room was puzzled. Surely the KDF could know the Bene Gesserit could spin this out to be a chemical weapons attack.

"I know" a voice came from the back as Ruth Gillies, a 24 year old Missionara Protectiva who had been acting as a intelligence agent for the Sisterhood in Arrakeen. "Water" she said confidently, "They'll likely know we have to clean up this place now and that'll take a lot of water. We're on the edge of a desert and they know the people of Seitch have always had to manage their water carefully. That's the reason they did it, they'd probably not expect us to have the chem kit Nathanials got so they'd expect us to probably just carry on once no one died, the long term exposure then makes us sick probably, and sick people need more water. Either way they know we're about to go into our water stores in a big way and that causes us problems."

"Genius" Nathanial said admiring the KDF's work.

"But we don't use water" the Missionara continued making everyone turn back to her. "We don't need to. Think about what happens in a factory when you spill chemicals, you go get some sawdust, or some sand put it down on the chemicals and then wait a bit before sweeping it up and the disposing of it. We're surrounded by sand, keep everyone indoors as much as possible, give the wind a chance to blow the top sand away and then we go out and use spades to get rid of the sand that will cover everything in the city." It was true most days groups of Truthsayers were tasked with patrols not just for security but for keeping the sand out of places, it got everywhere. "We let nature do our cleaning."

"Worth a go" Nathanial looked at Joanne, it was her command but he liked the idea and McNeill nodded, it was good having some Missionara around, they brought a knowledge beyond the military aspects and that was useful.

"Good work Ruth" Joanne said patting her on the shoulder. "We still need to get word out of this chemical attack" she said. "I suspect or resident blogger can get onto that when she'd back from patrol." Joanne figured it was another job for Stacey whose social media was becoming a hot topic on the web, the propaganda could do wonders.   

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #22 on: April 21, 2019, 10:19:00 PM »
The runway was more than a little makeshift, the Truthsayers having only finished removing the last street light that morning and Private McPherson's jumping and kicking about 200 meters away followed by a thumbs up indicated that the potholes seemed to be filled in. Along the length of the repurposed highway Truthsayers called in their readiness as Nathanial did a last visual check of the aircrafts exterior. He may not have worked with aircraft for over four years now but the general principles were the same and nothing looked out of place or in bad shape. He walked up to stand beside Sqd.Leader Tavanaghs cockpit and gave the thumbs up. The Kaitaine Air Force deserter returned the thumbs up and then set about the last few checks, once satisfied everything was in place he ensured the area around them was clear and flicked a few swticthes which ignited the engines. The Su-35 roared into life and two minutes later he pulled back on the column executing a combat take off on a very bumpy runway.

The first part of the mission should be relatively simple, he kept low flying through the mountain passes keeping below radar. He watched his own panels and displays and switched his radio to that of the airport at Arrakken. Right on schedule the scheduled flight from Rodinha to Arrakken called in and Tavanagh checked his navigation unit, everything was lining up. He moved into a position that would merge his and the airliners. He would have no idea that in Arrakken they would only be seeing the airliner and as long as he kept underneath it a respectable distance he'd not trigger anything inside the airliner. Now it was a case of sit back and mimic the movements of the airliner above, simple formation flying. He got a heads up of each turn, climb and descent as he listened to the radio calls between the tower and the passenger plane and smoothly copied them. He waited for them to call finals and then for the first time since he'd joined with the airliner turned on his electronics suite. Almost immediately he got read outs of planes on the ground of civilian and military types, the tower came into view and knowing he had a limited amount of time he began assigning targets. He flicked a switch on the column first to air to ground missiles and fired several away targetting what their insiders had told them were fuel dumps and the tower itself. Those targets done for he next switched to gravity bombs and flew the centre line of the runway dropping them to damage the tarmac. The afterburners on he climbed, performed a half loop and then launched several more missiles taking out two buildings belonging to the military administration at the airfield. All that was left now was to switch to guns and fire bursts into the grounded aircraft. He knew now that the Kaitaine Air Force would be scrambling from other bases and even patrols in the air, but the KAF were set up to defend against invaders from outside the country, not a rouge fighter pilot from within. He pushed his throttle lever forward, dropped to the nap of the earth and heard and felt the satisfying sound of a sonic boom. Across Arrakken windows broke and alarms began to ring out as Tavanagh screamed away. Soon the lush strip of green that was hugged between the sea and the coastal foothills were behind him as the more arid interior of the nation rocketed past some 50 meters below him. Ahead loomed the highlands that lead to the homeland, the desert of the Theocracy and he gently pulled back on his controls almost skimming the peaks. He listend on the radio to the KAF scrambling into search patterns and hazarding guesses as to where the plane had come from, all squadrons airborne began having to call in and organised chaos soon erupted into the real thing as fighter squadrons challenged each other for being the traitor almost leading to two squadrons launching missiles against each other. Tavanah switched briefly to the radio frequency being used in Seitch. "Jeboah One inbound" he said before switching the radio off. Soon the highway he'd taken off from slipped into view and he could see vehicles either side. He slowly reduced speed and set up to touch down, it was one of the hardest landings he'd ever made and he struggled to stop the aircraft crabbing off to one side.

As the recovery team arrived Tavanagh had already shut down the aircraft and was scrambling down from the cockpit, he knew without looking that the right landing wheel had been damaged and watched as three Truthsayers and Nathanial looked it over. "It'll move" Nathanial informed him, "Just not sure if it'll fly again, at least not without new parts." the former Red Legionnaire said sadly. Having the two aircraft was useful, what they didn't have was the fuel or extra ordenance and now spare parts. The mission had been needed to eliminate the air ability of some of the KAF for at least a while, as well as send a message of the ability of the Truthsayers to cause meaninful damage anytime anyplace. It was a rather side sight as the girls wrapped towing straps around sturdy parts of the aircraft and towed it back into the under city caverns that they'd been using as a hanger. As the aircraft was being towed in teams of Truthsayers were already hurrying out with the street lights for the highway, at least this way should any recon flight overlook the city they wouldn't spot the makeshift runway so clearly.

That night the Truthsayers watched on TV as the local news showed footage of a "freak fuel explosion" it caused chuckles of laughter around the TV sets and in the makeshift bars. It was there the "Pangolins" Nathanial Corrino, Tavanagh and the yet to be utilised pilot  Flight Liuetenant James Sprat raised glasses of Spiced Beer to each other. "To the first success of the Pangolins" Corrino said as they toasted the days work and the men of the Bene Gesserits first solo operation.

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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #23 on: May 11, 2019, 10:01:37 PM »


The group of thirty Truthsayers and Nathanial Corrino had hiked through the last two nights to sit overlooking the tiny outpost of Harko. Word had come a week ago from a woman called Ruth McSheffrey, a woman well known to Joanna McNeill. The pair had at one time been neighbours in Seitch and while McNeill had been almost handpicked to be groomed as a Truthsayer officer Ruth had been sent off to work her way into Kaitaine society, even going so far as marrying a member of the KDF and bringing up his child thankfully a son who was now eight years old. She kept passing information back to those in Seicth and now the time was right. With the constant raids and probing by the Truthsayers the small garrison in Harko was now deployed closer to Secundas. It was this window that presented an oppurtunity to those now approaching the town.

Harko was home to just over 10,000 people, they lived in housing built largely in the 1950's when the city had been a profitable coal mining community, since then however the coal was gone and the city had become home to a small manufacturing plant for glass bottles utilising the surronding sands. The area sat on the main road between Seitch and Secundas and it was the old fort that overlooked the road that connected the two cities. The fort was home to the military garrison that would have at one time held a few thousand men and their equipment. It was now reduced down to just a few hundred and all their heavy armour had trundled into Secundas ten days ago.

Nathanial looked through his rifle scope watching the fort, the people here were pretty lax, the town hadn't had any action since the war started and frankly the soldiers left were the least soldierly the area commander had. The former Red Legionnaire watched the man on guard smoking a cigarette as he wandered back and forth with his rifle slung over the shoulder. Things were very quiet as the sun began its climb into the early morning sky. He checked his watch, a few minutes left. He glanced to the side of him where Sarah MacPherson lay squinting down her own scope. The young Truthsayer could see her comrades moving into positions around the fort ready for the sign. The sound of a motor car coming down the road towards the fort broke the morning quiet, its exhaust blowing and music blaring out from the open windows. The smoking patrolman waved casually to the occupier who stopped the car at the metalic gate and got out.

"Left my badge in the bloody boot" the driver said as he made his way round to the rear of the car. He popped the trunk open and picked up a sports bag before heading back towards the guardsman who was standing by an electronic post that would scan the ID and open the gate. As the ID card touched the panel he was thrown forward as the car burst into flames, it had been much bigger than he had expected and as he found himself flat on the ground he was certain his ribs were broken. As he lay motionless the sound of gunfire erupted across the approach to the base and alarms began ringing. The guardsman was slowly regaining his senses as Sarah's first shot slammed through his heart. Inside the base startled conscripts began searching for boots and weapons and families cowered under tables. Husbands ran into married quarters and grabbed gear, as Sergeant McSheffrey slung his pack onto his back he felt it uncomfortably pinch, then a wetness spread across his back.

"Commie bastard" his wife whispered into his ear as she withdrew the Crystknife and slashed it hard across his throat. Six other woman were doing similar things and quickly stripped the weapons and equipment off their now deceased husbands before heading out. The base was already being hit by intense heavy machine gun fire and morters as around 150 fighters from the town joined the Truthsayers in a well co-ordinated attack. Soon the fort was under control of the Truthsayers and a rather shocked, but happy town came out. They lived on the edge of the desert, the heartland of the Bene Gesserit faith and there was no surprise the place had welcomed the band of fighters. They gathered people together and informed everyone they were now part of the Theocracy a few people called out in protest and they were soon packed off down the road minus weapons and packed into a small number of cars. The majority of people elected to stay in the town and people went house to house removing KDF logos, emblemns and the nations flag. There was one more reminder of the past Sarah had to deal with. She had expected to find more emotion in this final act of definance towards the KDF and its Communist leaders, but as she slit her own son's throat she felt nothing. He had merely been yet another piece of her lie to become one of the enemy, a neccessary disguise and one she had no need of any more. Not now the Theoracies flag flew above her home



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Re: The Seige of Seitch
« Reply #24 on: July 05, 2019, 09:01:32 PM »
Over the last few weeks there had been numerous raids and counter-raids against Harko. The Truthsayers sought to fortify the small frontier town while the KDF tried desperately to get the place back. The KDF however hadn't really counted on those in the surronding villages acting as look outs and spotters for the Truthsayers who were now armed with the captured equipment they'd taken from the garrison at Harko. The ranks of the Sisterhood were swelling everyday, tens of Kaitaine bred Truthsayers had made their way west through whatever means they could, some hiking hundreds of kilometers to avoid roadblocks and checkpoints, others driving off-road while six even narrowly avoided being shot down as the light aircraft they had stolen landed in a field close to Harko. The men of the faith had arrived to, not as numerous as the women but the Pangolins now had close to 400 men under arms, Nathanial Corrino felt like he had his own Regiment now and spent less and less time with the Truthsayers. The majority of the men were not as well trained naturally as the Truthsayers but they served brilliantly as garrison troops allowing the trained and seasoned Truthsayers to conduct the real business of the conflict.

The road that lead to Secundas was the next objective. Nathanial and about 20 Pangolins had accompanied a force of some 30 Truthsayers on a brief sortie but they'd turned back without pushing too close to their objective. A heavily armoured unit had entered the city and tanks sat monitoring every major intersection. They had planned to covertly enter the city and carry out a few hit and run attacks but the heavy military prescence had made that an insane move and so they'd confined themselves to taking some photos, making some notes and looking for any routine patrols before heading back to Harko. It had been rather disappointing. It was only when the group were within a few kilometers of the newly captured town that things got frantic. It was a sound that first attracted Nathanial's attention. It was like the sound of a thousand bees and he began to scan the scrub bushes and wild flowers that lined the sides of the track for signs of the creatures. The sound grew and grew and then he recalled it. "DOWN!" Nathanial yelled dropping into what cover he could. The buzz passed literally overhead but he couldn't see anything. The others found what cover they could as they fell into a defensive posture weapons pointing outwards in a circle as if expecting an attack.

"What you seen?" Sarah McPherson crawled over to him radio in hand.

"Not seen heard." Nathanial's eyes were swivelling back and forth as he scanned the sky for something, anything that would explain the buzz that everyone was now hearing. It was only then that he spotted it, a pencil thin black shape moving rapidly in the sky. It was flying upwards higher into the clear blue sky, it then seemed to momentarily hover before picking up speed as it headed downward. He could tell by the profile on the small shape it was heading his way. "MOVE!" He pushed Sarah to her feet before following, he glanced over his shoulder expecting to see the shape impact the ground and explode and braced for the shower of earth that was sure to come his way. The buzz got louder and louder and he felt the wind of something passing just over head. He ducked instinctively and watched as they object flew vertically upwards, performed a stall turn and came almost vertically racing towards him. "GO!" he yelled at Sarah who kept running as Nathanial dived towards a boulder, his ribs bouncing off the hard stone surface as the heat from the fireball of the ground impact singhed his nose hairs.

He scanned the sky once more as he felt a pain in his side, he may have broken a rib. The buzz had gone. "You OK Sir?" A young Truthsayer medic had hurried over and was already running her hand this way and that under his webbing checking for blood. He put his hand on hers as she began heading for his ribs.

"I'm OK....maybe a broken rib but all good." He got back to his feet and and gave an exploratary twist and could have yelped but knew he was being watched. "We need to move now. They'll be heading our way." Without a word he began trekking back towards Harko.

"Who?" Sarah McPherson asked. The KDF were nowhere near them, they didn't come this far away from Secundas without support and there was no visible aircraft, the constant desertion by the Air Force officers was making them a hinderance to the KDF not an asset. "Sir" she hurried after him. "No one's coming for us." She said confidently, he'd even said so a few times as they'd patrolled this exact area. "Nathanial" she whispered dropping protocol, she'd not seen him like this before. "What's happening."

As Nathanial walked past the impact crater he saw a single piece of metal, kicked it and then picked it up putting it into a webbing pouch. "You've just meet the Mini-Dragon" was all he said as he checked everyone was following him. His eyes kept darting back to a rocky outcrop, "That's where I'd be" he thought to himself, "In my previous life that's where me and my comrades would have done this from. Saxby's slipping" he chuckled to himself and without thinking stopped turned to face the distant lump of rock and flicked the V's.

"Cocky bastard" Thomas Barks said as he looked down the lens of the huge spotting scope.