Friday, February 4, 2011

March of Cambreadth

Well, it looks like our friend on the East Coast made out alright. Its nice to have a little bit of *good* news now and again.

Jack was... interesting after writeing that last post. I was in the other room reading a book (Starship Troopers - good yarn if you can find it) when suddenly the main room was awash in the sound of bagpipes and a rather angry sounding singer.

The song was The March of Cambreadth - and while it appears Goethe didn't have to do much in the way of the song's tag line I thought I'd share it.

Well, thats not really honest. My homework today was to either transcribe the lyrics, or find them online, and then figure out how to share the song.

So...

Here we go.

Lyric:
Axes flash, broadsword swing,
Shining armour's piercing ring
Horses run with polished shield,
Fight Those Bastards till They Yield
Midnight mare and blood red roan,
Fight to Keep this Land Your Own
Sound the horn and call the cry,
How Many of Them Can We Make Die!

Follow orders as you're told,
Make Their Yellow Blood Run Cold
Fight until you die or drop,
A Force Like Ours is Hard to Stop
Close your mind to stress and pain,
Fight till You're No Longer Sane
Let not one damn cur pass by,
How Many of Them Can We Make Die!

Guard your women and children well,
Send These Bastards Back to Hell
We'll teach them the ways of war,
They Won't Come Here Any More
Use your shield and use your head,
Fight till Every One is Dead
Raise the flag up to the sky,
How Many of Them Can We Make Die!

Dawn has broke, the time has come,
Move Your Feet to a Marching Drum
We'll win the war and pay the toll,
We'll Fight as One in Heart and Soul
Midnight mare and blood red roan,
Fight to Keep this Land Your Own
Sound the horn and call the cry,
How Many of Them Can We Make Die!

(repeat first verse)

The song can be heard at this link: The March of Cambreadth

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Hijack.

Hello world, its Jack again. I just happened to be 'grading' Jon's work when I saw Gothe's comment.

I'm probably too late but I'll try anyway. Girl, you've got a choice. Stand and Fight, or Cut and Run.

Chances are, Standing and Fighting will get you killed. However, Cutting and Running pretty much guarentee's you are leaving your mother behind, and you might just die out in the cold. So its a tough choice. But you make it now.



Ok. I'm going to assume you've made you choice. Now read fast. I bolded the headings so you can skip to the right thing.

CUT AND RUN:

If you cut and run, it sounds like you got things packed up in that little boat of yours. You grab what ammo for the rifle you can. You mom isn't gonna make it to the boat, but I'd bet a lot of money she'll hold em off. You need to get out of the house via some way thats not obvious - and you need to be willing to kill anyone that gets between you and the boat - and do it fast. And preferablly quietly. Thats going to mean work with a knife.

Three spots on a man worth hitting with a knife by a smaller person. Neck works if you can reach it, but its a lot slower then most people realize. Make sure its all the way across, so you cut the wind pipe and reduce the chance of them calling for help.

From the front, you go for the belly, or the groin. In either case, you then pull up to the sternum and in. Its messy and you will get bloody. But it'll do the job. Probably lose the knife along the way - but you're in a hurry. Consider it a worthy loss.

You get to the boat, and you *fly* Don't look back. Time for grief later, when you're safe.



STAND AND FIGHT:

The trick to fighting larger numbers is to funnel them. In a Victorian style house that's hard - and walls don't do much to stop bullets. Neither do couches. More then likely if you put up a good enough fight they'll just try to burn you out. So you if you've got a cellar, thats your best bet. It'll cut down the routes to you to maybe two, and if you clog em up with stuff, and shoot careful you can clog em up with *people* too. Try to put something heavy, and metal up as cover. It can still be shot through, but if you back it with something, you might stop *some* bullets. Sand is best, but I doubt you have sand bags just laying around. Human bodies, work pretty well, piled up in a pinch, but you probably won't have the time to go retrieve em as you make em.

Pick where you're going to fight from and get set. Get every last bit of ammo you have for the shotgun and the rifle, and get a secondary weapon, like some knives or a hatchet at hand.

You're going to have to be fast because you won't have much time. You get *all* that ready, and they still ain't come - you might consider being offensive. Mobs like the one that's running your town are only as strong as your leader. Kill him, and the other 'head honchos' and the town just might rise up and throw off the lot of em.

Not a great chance, but its better then nothing. In this case, the size of your house works for you. Get to high ground, out on the roof, and take your shot. You only get one. Second in command is already dead. Kill the boss, and the mob will probably attack, but if you can wound em enough, they'll back off. Remember. You get *one* shot. Then you hightail it back to the house, and downstairs to cover.

When the fight starts, force yourself to take your time. Sounds backwards but the old saying goes, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. Better five aimed and effective shots then twenty that don't hit the target.



Good luck, and I hope we hear good news. God speed girl.

-Jack

Little things

Temp came up today to a balmy -5F and I got the hell out of the house for about five hours. Did the due diligence with the herd, then shouldered my rifle and took a walk just to get away for abit.

I ain't very good at reading women folk, honestly - but I think Annabell wanted to bend Jack's ear about something, and was just *waiting* for me to get the hell out.

Which was just fine, I needed the space. Didn't spot any game, which isn't surprising out this way, but some of the feed trough's we keep up year round to get em coming round had been well foraged. I refilled em with a little seed corn, then mostly sat and thought.

Been a while since I did that, with nothing but a little wind, and the shelter belt to keep me company. Its... relaxing I think.

I sometimes wonder what I'd be doing now, if the world hadn't gone all to shit - if I'd be fixing comnputers in some store in the mall or maybe tinkering with cars instead of scraping out a living with an Uncle that's not blood.

Not that I'm complaining mind, all things considered I got a good life. Jack's a hard man - but he's just a hard man because thats the kind of man he had to become to survive. I've heard him and the 'Gaard's talking. They all miss the 'good life'. Jack's biggest miss? Delivery food. I can't even imagine what it must be like to call someone up on a phone or radio, and them deliver a hot meal to your door.

I've been trying to decide what I want to do with my life lately, and I'll be honest, I dunno. I don't get a lot of socializing out here - but there ain't much to move too. Jack owns a lot of land out here - most of its not in use - I'm sure if I asked he'd give me a hundred acres or so and help me set up a place.

I'd like that - but as much as I need my space sometimes, I don't really want to be alone.

And its not like there are a bunch of people lining up for the chance to live with me. So I guess I'll stay where I am for a while yet. Something will come along.

Oh - so we've finished Jack's project. I thought he'd set up a still or something - we do brew a little beer in the fall - but its a lot simpler then that. And, actually pretty smart, I think.

I mentioned that we usually go out and haul in big bricks of ice from the mouse river - which we haven't done yet this year on account of all the snow. What we did was build a cauldron which has some copper tubing connected to a form. We put it outside, start a fire under the cauldron - a small one - and then dump snow and ice into the cauldron, which feeds the heated water into a form about the size of the ice blocks we use - and then the ambient air freezes the blocks we need - no need to go get em ten miles away.

Pretty smart really. I don't think I'd have thought of that til much later in the season, if at all. But that's Jack - always two beats ahead.

Battery's getting low again. Time to sign off.