Rescue From Within

A representative party from the gathering wagon trains at the new Mesa Camp assembled, led by Ahlu, to assess the damage from the two mounted hostile attacks. There were no remaining survivors at the site so the party became a burial detail, doing their best to identify remains and assemble the bodies in a mass grave, sending them to meet the Prime with a short prayer.

Ahlu already had the report of survivors that had made it to Prairie Lake Outpost after the battle. He had mixed emotions about the fact that Airam was not among the dead out here on the lonely steppe – she was still alive. The bad news was that, by process of elimination, she must have been one of the ten or so women taken hostage by the hostiles. He was heart-broken and wanted to light out after her right there and then. But his leadership duties called for him to return to Mesa Camp with a full accounting and assessment of what he had found on the battlefield, and, to make sure his original instructions regarding the wagon trains still on the trail were being followed.

 Now, having attended to his leadership duties in camp, he turned his thoughts to Airam and the other hostages. He asked for a group of volunteer commandos to first track down and observe the hostiles in their habitat, then figure out a way to infiltrate the hostiles’ camp and rescue the hostages. Long odds to be sure.

In most history and geography instructionals, as the great northern (Russian) steppe is studied, the term, Mounted Peoples, is used to describe the natives of that area. Probably emanating from China, these peoples were thought to be of Mongolian origin. And though they were nomadic, they traveled in large cohesive groups resulting in one of the Earth’s first organized societies of humans. They eventually became the Sythians, the fierce guardians of the land north of the Black Sea. These peoples further evolved into the Goths of Roman times arriving from the east to sack the capital city in the fifth century of the Christian Era. They were the spine and the gristle of all peoples whom they absorbed including the Germanic tribes skirting the River Danube, Rome’s northern boundry, on the eve of their fateful march on Rome. This, then, was the biological stock of people that Ahlu and his band of commandos were up against. Patience and caution were paramount.

Travelling largely by night and on foot, the thirty-six commandos found the hostiles’ camp in just more than two weeks. The hostiles’ tent city contained an estimated 5,000 men, women and children. The city appeared to be well organized with the public activities at the center and the expansive horse corrals on the periphery. The commandos spent a week studying the camp layout from the foothills just outside the city. They studied the city’s various routines and they especially watched and learned the best they could from observation, horse riding techniques. The horses acquired during their escape would be the humex’ sole source of these new animals for now. The humex would eventually become trading partners with their old enemies, acquiring all their horse requirements peacefully.

Dressed in hostile-like clothing, the commandos infiltrated the city, five at a time, for another week to see if they could locate the hostages. They managed to locate all of the hostages except Airam. They agreed to locate Airam before liberation of the hostages and as many horses as possible was attempted. This would need to take place on the next moonless night and as surreptitiously as possible. The hope was that the commandos, hostages and horses would be far away by the time they were missed. But time was running out. The moonless night was almost upon them.

When they finally found Airam, she was being held by the hostiles’ leader in his private tent. Ahlu slipped into the tent and killed the leader, during the rescue of Airam. His death wouldn’t be immediately discovered, but it was still daylight and the discovery of the leader's death seemed imminent. Just as the dead leader was discovered, a contingent of the mounted hostiles came riding in from the north. The hostiles’ arch enemies were in full attack. As the hostile warriors were running for their horses, the commandos and hostages slipped out of the camp with more than fifty horses in the confusion.

Later a humex reconnaissance troop went back to the hostiles’ tent city, now lying in ruins. Their enemy had caught the hostiles by complete surprise. The humex troop returned to Mesa Camp having found but two dozen hostile survivors of the bloody attack. If there were more survivors, they had been scattered to the four corners of the steppe. The humex had been lucky this time, or, was there something to this Prime existence theory, Ahlu wondered rhetorically. He shrugged, but led the prayer of thanks to The Prime nonetheless.