The Legarthan Saga

Chapter 5

Axton was sitting at a desk in his private quarters, the only light illuminating the room being two small candles on either corner of his desk, looking over the recent reports of rations and supplies. Looking at another paper, which showed the proposed changes to help supplement the fort when the reinforcements arrive, Axton sighed. "Everything seems to be in order. All the contracts with the suppliers have been signed, and I can't find any errors in their calculation of the new supplies. Schedules for the troops and their duties have also already been handled. Looks like he wasn't lying when he stated he already did the hard work for me."

Axton put the papers down and looked at another paper detailing the reinforcements. "Two archer regiment as well as two newly formed infantry regiments from new recruits. At least the archers will have some degree of experience. Maybe I should do some war games to help the infantry regiments gain some much-needed experience..."

Axton chuckled to himself, realizing the irony of his statement. "Here I am talking about getting them experience where here I am, the first day of being the commander fresh out of the academy. Really wish I was given more time to just...get used to things before being given such an important role. Nepotism at its finest I suppose..."

Setting the paper aside, Axton looked at a half-written speech that he had started for the next day. This speech is what he was supposed to say in front of all the troops, essentially letting them know who he was. He had heard rumors some others with more ambitious goals used these speeches to parade their world view. Try to convince others to join in what they believe in, whether it was politics or even religion. Axton chuckled as he remembered watching a high ranking military officer be arrested after he was proven to have been a leader of an anarchist, zealous cult.

As he reread the half written speech, which was mainly filled with nothing but boring introductions, he figured that was good enough, as he didn't want to keep the troops gathered in one place too long, nor did he want to risk getting an earful from his second in command about dragging on a speech. "I've really got to do something about her. I know we need to have at least a civil relationship, but it looks like so far she has no inclinations to agree." Axton leaned back and let his mind wander back to one of his first interactions with Jaylee at the academy.

"And that's the battle! In a comeback fashion, team two is the winner!" An older colonel spoke over a loud intercom as he stood on an observation tower over a large field. "Both teams, I expect you both to be ready for debriefing in two minutes. Get a move on!"

Axton breathed a sigh of relief as he began to jog towards the entrance to the training facility. I can't believe they didn't even consider that the forest could be used to launch a surprise attack against their positions. Using the terrain to your advantage was Instructor Gonzalez's first lesson when teaching us about tactics.

As Axton reached the entrance, the felt someone pat his shoulder. "Good call there Axton! They didn't see it coming!" Axton turned and saw Gage standing to his right, a grin on his face. Axton couldn't hold a smile back and nodded. "I couldn't believe it when I saw that their defensive positioning didn't take the forest into account."

As the others began quickly streaming in from the field, the two teams naturally separated into their respective teams. Soon, the colonel was standing in front of them, judging whether or not they were all standing at attention. Satisfied that they were, the colonel nodded. "Impressive work for team two! Not only did you come back from what looked like a certain defeat, you used what your instructors have taught you to your advantage. Team one...after it seemed like you had the victory, you let up. You assumed that there was nothing they could do to overturn the result. You got sloppy and complacent. You deserved the loss."