Chapter 10 September 406 AD Cuban Archipelago-Raider Tactics (Patreon)

Authors note-I kinda screwed up the timeline. I was so busy I thought the Merchant Guild attack on the Cuban Archipelago was going to take place in September, instead I have set down for a year later, but that is too late, so I am moving it back 6 months. I apologize for that. Right now I am just going to say the last chapter was chapter 20 and this one is chapter 21, but that is defintily likely to change. Can the industrial might of the Merchant Guild build a fleet that large in less than a year? Yes, its why the cubans dont want to attack them in their territory, and one reason why the Cubans are fighting so hard to keep them from getting a foothold in their sea. Again sorry about that.

Chapter 21 March 407 AD Cuban Archipelago-Raider Tactics

            After the sun went down, the Sea Wardens carried their ships down from the hills to the sea. They had plenty of warning about the incoming Merchant Guild ships, and so after a few skirmishes, they brought their ships inland so that liquid fire couldn’t destroy them on shore. Perhaps one of the reasons why the Merchant Guild was so confident in anchoring their ships off of their shore was because they thought there were not any longships around. That just showed the Sea Wardens how lazy the Merchant Guild’s men were.

            Very few of these Sea Wardens were young men, as anyone with youth and vigor went to Hibernia to seek their raiding fortune against the Romans. Guaikan was the leader of one of the longships. He was here because he was comfortable with his life. He had two wives, and like many Sea Wardens, he could make a bit of extra money, alongside his men, by fishing during “training.” This meant that all the men in his crew had wives and children to feed and support. The youngest man in this crew was twenty-eight. That said, they had all been bloodied at one time or another, and all of them had raided ships in the past, and all of them had been part of nighttime raids. They were a very experienced crew, both as sailors and killers, and they were not alone tonight.

            Guaikan’s longship held forty men, which was more than enough men to carry the longship silently in the night to the beach and push it into the sea. Unfortunately, they didn’t know where the Merchant Guild fleet was going, so there were only thirty ships at this particular beach. There would be more in the morning as Sea Warden longship crews made their way to any beach that the Merchant Guild was at, but that was a problem for another day.

            The men did not raise sail, instead they chose to row until the waves started taking them toward the fleet of ships. Each Sea Warden ship was doing the same thing. Fortunately it was a very dark night. That would be a problem, but each Sea Warden ship generally knew where their target ships were. Even if all of them didn’t find the Merchant Guild ships, enough should.

            Each Sea Warden ship was attempting to reach one of the Roman trimaran ships. The reason being that they were slightly lower in the water line to the sea than the Sea Warden longships, so they should be able to invade those ships very quickly, then they could use those ships to get close to the big ships. Both the Sea Wardens and the Merchant Guild used longships, so the hope was that if they could take over a few of the Roman trimarans, they could cause a lot of confusion and a lot of damage.

            As they approached, Guaikan was flabbergasted that he could hear talking on those ships. If he heard his men talking on his ship this close to the enemies at night, he would abort the mission and have his men flayed alive. There was no excuse; any crewman who did this deserved to die. Guaikan was going to help the Merchant Guild get rid of some of their trash.

            One of the issues with talking at night is that it gives away a lot of information; for instance, the sailors aboard the Merchant Guild fleet spoke Johnson. That wasn’t too much of a surprise as John was the father of Bobby, the man who started the Merchant Guild. John was also the father of Trever, the man who started the Cuban Archipelago. So the nations they started both spoke the same language. That said, since the Merchant Guild has hundreds if not thousands of diverse tribes within its borders the men on board could and should speak a different language, as the Merchant Guild is language diverse. The reality was that if the Merchant Guild really wanted to attack a Johnson nation effectively, they should have taught their sailors and soldiers a different language for a variety of reasons. For instance so that Guaikan couldn’t come alongside their ship and give them bad orders.

            With that in mind, Guaikan came alongside the trimaran and said, “We have some new orders for you guys.”

            It was dark, the men on the ship couldn’t see that Guaikan was in sea armor, or that he had a tomahawk or a bowie knife, nor that he had thirty-nine men with him.

            One of the men, presumably the captain, asked, “What is it?”

            “We were told to bring ropes to you to better secure the buffalo to the ship tomorrow. We are to help you secure the rope to the ship right now so that tomorrow, when we are loading your ships again, we load the ships more quickly, and the buffalo won’t go flying off the ship when you hit the beach.”

            The man asked, “We are going to attack again tomorrow?”

            “Of course, do you think we would still be anchored here if we weren't? Do you want me to tell one of the merchants what you just said? You know, if I did, you would be demoted, flogged, have your pay cut, and sent home so fast you would never see another coin in your life.” Guaikan had no idea what he was saying, but it sounded scary.

            “No, no, you're right. Come aboard.”

            “Arn’t your men going to help us?”

            “Oh yeah. “Then he yelled, “Guys, come over here and help the longboat men.”

            Guaikan winced. He wanted to slowly kill this man over three very painful days, but instead, he climbed out of his longboat and onto the trimaran as the trimaran sailors slowly made their way to the longship, expecting to move cargo. As soon as Guaikan was over the other ship, his men began following them.

            Before long, he had ten men on board, and more coming, and the captain asked, “Why are all your men coming aboard?”

            “We have a lot of rope to bring over. You don’t think just fifty feet of cord will be good enough for one buffalo, much less a dozen. Is this all the men you have to help us?”

            “Yes, you should know that.”

            Guaikan said, “Good.” And he pulled out his tomahawk and brought it down on the man before he could react, much less shout a warning. With so much talking on the other ships, it's unlikely anyone would have been able to hear the warning anyway.

            As the other Merchant Guild sailors heard the crack and then the thump, they looked over to see what was going on, but the experienced Sea Wardens knew what it meant and took out their tomahawks and began executing sailors. None of them were able to resist, and only one was able to attempt to shout a warning, but it was ignored due to all the talking on the other ships.

            Once they had the trimaran under their control, Guaikan told his men, “Begin bringing over the coal oil.”

            One of his men asked, “What about theirs?”

            “We are not going to waste time looking for it. Bring over ours, and in five minutes, we are going to set sail for one of their big ships.”

            Nobody said yes, sir, or spoke to acknowledge the order; they just moved to obey. This was the first trimaran to go silent, but not the only one. Oddly enough, as the ships went quiet, they stood out more as the Merchant Guild sailors were undisciplined and talked. It became extremely obvious to the Sea Wardens that quiet ships were the ones they took, and loud ships were the ones they hadn’t taken yet.

            Once Guaikan’s men finished loading the coal oil, twenty men stayed on board the trimaran, and they began making their way to the nearby large ship. They were easy to spot even though the night was dark they were so large they cast a shadow. Once they reached the nearest one, Guaikan put a tremble in his voice and called up, “Are we attacking tomorrow?”

            One of the men on the ship, whether sailor, buffalo rider, merchant, or captain Guaikan had no way to know, said, “Of course we are. If we don’t attack, we won't get paid, and worse, we won't be allowed to work directly for the merchants anymore.”

            “Let me aboard. I need to talk with your captain, or merchant, or at least the buffalo riders, so we can do a better job tomorrow. I do not want to get killed because the buffalo riders lose their nerve again.”

            The man up top sighed and said, “Fine.” Then he let down a rope ladder, and Guaikan began climbing up.

            Once he was on the ship, it was still dark, and nobody could tell he was armed or that he wore sea armor. Instead, he began loudly saying, “We have to do better tomorrow. Come over here. I have a few ideas.” And so he began giving his ideas on how their attack could improve tomorrow. He was an experienced sailor and raider, so his opinions actually had real logic behind them. But what he was saying was simply a distraction so nobody would smell the coal oil as his men began coating the ship in it. Any coal oil that fell from the ship wasn’t a loss since it floated on water and would still burn.

            As Guaikan gave his speech, he was made upset when another big ship began to burn before his men got to light his ship on fire. That said, he knew exactly what to do, and legitimate irritation was in his voice as he yelled, “THE LONGSHIPS ARE ATTACKING! THE LONGSHIPS ARE ATTACKING! THE CUBANS ARE ATTACKING WITH THEIR LONGSHIPS! FIGHT BACK!”

            Before he was done speaking, the men on board ran to their stations, and some of them began yelling out what he said, “THE LONGSHIPS ARE ATTACKING FIGHT THE LONGSHIPS!”

            Guaikan was by no means the only Sea Warden on the big ships at this point, and so across several of the big ships, men began to yell, “THE LONGSHIPS ARE ATTACKING! ATTACK THE LONGSHIPS!”

            Sea Wardens on the trimarans started yelling out, “LONGSHIPS ARE ATTACKING! ATTACK THE LONGSHIPS!”

            And across the undisciplined fleet, full-blown confusion was created as the Merchant Guild sailors started yelling out, “THE CUBANS ARE ATTACKING IN LONGSHIPS!” Not realizing that over half of their little fleet was made up of longships.

            A minute later, Guaikan’s men set fire to the big ship, and Guaikan yelled out, “THE SHIPS ON FIRE! ABANDON SHIP!”

            The Merchant Guild sailors were in full-blown panic and didn’t know what to do. Some ran to the sides, others went down into the ship to warn others about what was going on. As those men entered the ship, Guaikan noticed that the inside of the ship had lanterns on. With all the noise the Merchant Guild sailors were making, they should have put their lanterns on their deck, but then again, if they had done that, the Sea Wardens would have used the ballista and flamebolts on their ships to fire at the Merchant Guild ships all night long.

            As for Guaikan he knew exactly what he was going to do. He ran toward the front of the ship as it was facing the shore and jumped off. His sea armor allowed him to float, and he needed to get into the water before the flames on the ship got too bad. Once he was in the water he began swimming to shore. It wasn’t hard to figure out which way it was because to his back were the burning ships.

            As for the Merchant fleet it was in complete chaos. The trimarans that had not been taken by the Cubans started seeking out all longships, including Merchant Guild longships and attacking them. The Merchant Guild longships had no choice but to defend themselves, and before long the entire fleet was fighting each other.

            By the time the sun came up there were only a dozen ships left out of the mighty Merchant Guild fleet. Even if the Cubans were not significantly better sailors, they seriously outnumbered the remaining ships, and so the Merchant Guild sailors surrendered.

            Their surrender was the last mistake of their lives. With that surrender the Cubans took their prisoners and began skinning them alive one by one in full view of the other prisoners. They gave the prisoners herbs and medicins to help them survive the process longer without having a heart attack from the pain, and afer each death they made the prisoners each the flesh of their fellow prisoners. Those who refused to eat were the first to be tortured to death.

            The Cubans served blood gods that demanded violence. It was just that unlike the Totonac people, their gods did not demand sacrifice from their society, instead their gods demanded sacrifices from their enemies.