Subj: [ffml] [MW] War Council Date: 00-07-04 23:28:02 EDT From: skyhall@hotmail.com (Sky Hall) Reply-to: ffml@egroups.com To: ffml@egroups.com Tim sat in the assembly room of Hiel Keep at the of a long table. Before him sat his officers, chatting with each other as they waited. Tim studied his war council. Ricca, fast and viscious; Jayel, skilled and adept; and Evan, strong and astute. Tim considered himself an experienced and worthy leader of these fine men. With a shock, Tim realized how like the stories of old his men seemed to represent. The old tales told of the party of good going off to fight the evil leader. But Tim had always wondered how a small group could sneak into the fortress of the enemy, slay all the defenders, and then finish off the leader in a cataclysmic battle. The thing Tim remembered was that this party was usually multi-national, comprising the leaders or important figures from several different countries. These individuals faced off against the army of the evil ruler and defeated them all. But how? Tim thought that these people must have been the leaders of armies. That is what the tales and stories left out. In the beginning, an army was raging across the land and these leaders came together upon the quest to defeat the one responsible for all this mischief. They must have led their own armies and allied together and thus defeated the enemy. But why were the leaders mentioned as heroes, and not the soldiers? It must have been nationalism, Tim conceded. A leader, a hero, is easier to conceive and follow. Also, it was better to tell tall tales of great men and women to little children then to speak of bloody battles. Even the tales of Bacca blurred. The history books and sages said he was a great general, but the stories passed among folk was of him, his Lady Paladin, and other heroes who made up his party that fought Mog so long ago. Tim’s reverie was broken by the entrance of Nighthawk. “Good, we may begin,” said Tim. Nighthawk took a seat at the end of the table. “As you all know, we will be stationed here till reinforcements come. In that time, I have spoken to you all privately and given assignments. Jayel, how goes your project?” Jayel cleared his throat. “Well sir, I have one company of Doman and two Norlandese cavalry in the mountains to the east, collecting chocobos. They should be returning soon with enough mounts. And the blacksmith has more then enough material to make weapons and armor, but says he lacks the manpower.” “Okay,” said Tim. “Go through the ranks and collect all those men with experience in forging, and even pick up some volunteers who want to learn something.” “Aye sir.” “And how about the training?” “It goes very well,” said Jayel. “Though we have no formal instructor, Ricca’s supervision and the knowledge that we have all come upon is allowing for the cavalry to be upgraded to dragoons with very little difficulty. We should be fully ready by the time reinforcements arrive.” “Good,” said Tim. “I knew you could do it, Jayel.” Tim grinned at the man. Having realized that he was not under such close scrutiny this far into the front and away from headquarters, Tim could lead his men with little worry about superiors looking down upon him, or commenting on his style. Also, Tim needed more capable men. Men who were bettered armed, equipped, and trained. Though General Wang might throw a fit at seeing what Tim was doing to his soldiers, Tim would be too far into the heat of battle to be brought back to headquarters. “And Evan? Your report?” The burly man was not wearing his armor this time, but his barrel chest and muscled frame still could be seen through the fabric of his uniform. “It goes well, sir,” replied the lieutenant in his deep, almost melodic voice. “The armorer was having the problems that Jayel mentioned, but that should be cleared up soon. The training I’m sending the lads through is confusing some of them, but they are getting the handle of things. We should be ready when reinforcements arrive.” “Excellent,” said Tim. He would know have a brigade of dragoons and two of knights. “Which reminds me,” said Tim. He stood up and looked at Jayel. “I am promoting Jayel to acting Captain.” Everyone present was stunned for a moment, then applauded. Tim and Jayel smiled at each other. “I know it may be hard for Evan to now take orders from Jayel, but I hope you understand the circumstances,” said Tim. “He’ll be the forward element of attack, with the knights as our strong arm.” “I understand sir,” said Evan. “Besides,” said Tim, “the two of you make a good team.” There was a soft chuckle. “I need to re-organize my command is why the promotion,” continued Tim. “General Wang will be sending either a few brigades or even a battalion to add to my command and I want to be ready to move, not spend time getting these new men into shape. Therefore when the reinforcements arrive, we will strip them of necessary men and add them to our units. I find placing lesser experienced men with veterans is the best method. I hope you all agree. And in this way, we can not be hampered by a slower unit. “Now, Captain Nighthawk, I hope that your people have settled into the top floor well enough.” “Well enough,” replied Nighthawk. “Though having to share the roof with the dragons is a little unsettling to my people.” “I understand,” said Tim. “But although your people hold the feeling of dragon’s as rivals and even prey, you must understand the need they have for taking flight from the roof.” “I understand that,” replied Nighthawk. “Very good,” said Tim. “Now about how to use the avariel effectively, we’ll employ them as scouts for our units. And since they are good hunters, that will also supplement our men having to scavenge. “And since I cannot combine the dragons and avariel, Ricca, I was thinking that I’ll place them back in your command and allow you to use them as a single unit, no longer as messengers, since Nighthawk’s people will take over that aspect. I am sure that become best since they will be able to take on larger units of moogles.” Tim paused a moment. “I want to thank you all for the great work you have all done lately, and hope that you enjoy this rest. Although we are still active, make sure to take the time to rest your men, train them as necessary, and prepare for our continued assault. I plan on overwhelming the moogles and devastating them with our new units and attacks. “Until then, dismissed.” All rose and saluted Tim. “Now, I have my own training to go through,” muttered Tim to himself. --Sky ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Accurate impartial advice on everything from laptops to table saws. http://click.egroups.com/1/4634/1/_/175046/_/962767617/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Final Fantasy Mailing List: Now available in Cherry, Strawberry or Tofu ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- Return-Path: <.sentto-5708-60198-962767617-raumkatze2=aol.com@returns.onelist.com> Received: from rly-yh04.mx.aol.com (rly-yh04.mail.aol.com [172.18.147.36]) by air-yh03.mail.aol.com (v75.18) with ESMTP; Tue, 04 Jul 2000 23:28:02 -0400 Received: from mq.egroups.com (mq.egroups.com [208.50.144.79]) by rly-yh04.mx.aol.com (v75.18) with ESMTP; Tue, 04 Jul 2000 23:27:26 -0400 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-5708-60198-962767617-raumkatze2=aol.com@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.10.36] by mq.egroups.com with NNFMP; 05 Jul 2000 03:26:59 -0000 Received: (qmail 17591 invoked from network); 5 Jul 2000 03:26:56 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by m2.onelist.org with QMQP; 5 Jul 2000 03:26:56 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO hotmail.com) (216.32.181.5) by mta1 with SMTP; 5 Jul 2000 03:26:56 -0000 Received: (qmail 47391 invoked by uid 0); 5 Jul 2000 03:26:56 -0000 Message-ID: <20000705032656.47390.qmail@hotmail.com> Received: from 206.173.199.165 by www.hotmail.com with HTTP; Tue, 04 Jul 2000 20:26:56 PDT X-Originating-IP: [206.173.199.165] To: ffml@egroups.com From: "Sky Hall" <.skyhall@hotmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list ffml@egroups.com; contact ffml-owner@egroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list ffml@egroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <.mailto:ffml-unsubscribe@egroups.com> Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 20:26:56 PDT Reply-To: ffml@egroups.com Subject: [ffml] [MW] War Council Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit