Señor Seth,

Today you are receiving orders directly from me. Other orders from anyone but me can be disregarded for the time being. Your mettle and skills have been noted at the Black Court, and this is exactly why you are entrusted with a special mission befitting your talents.

To my surprise, our northern neighbour, the Emirate of Akhisar, has had a succession crisis. As it often happens, two claimants could not come to an agreement regarding the succession and the younger one decided to act and seized the throne resorting to intrigue and the way of cloak and daggers. This is not the way of the Corsairs. The elder claimant, Emir Ali Yusuf turned to me to assist in resolving this dynastic crisis and in return agreed to voluntarily become my vassal. As you can see, the stakes are high, and the best should be entrusted with the job, and the job is to be done well.

Despite my love for spectacular clashes of big armies on the battlefield with gore and blood, this case is different. As Emir agreed to become the vassal of the Kingdom and in this way supporting our ambitions to unite Crete under my banner, we need to avoid bloodshed in this war as every adversary who surrenders eventually will bolster our ranks. Enemy army can surrender all together if the usurper, Emir Abdul, is forcefully replaced with Emir Ali. Therefore, you are put in charge of 500 elite warriors and sent to eastern Wadi-Gihon. There you will join forces with Emir Ali and his loyal soldiers. Your task is to discretely get to the seat of power of Abdul and take him hostage. I repeat, take hostage. This is the request of Emir Ali. Everyone else on their side is expendable. Some can be disabled without killing to save the life force for later, yet discreetness is number one priority. Because Emir Ali expressed the desire to participate in the raid personally, he is to be kept alive at all cost - without him this operation is of no use.

You are free to choose your own guerreros for this operation. Loyalty, prowess, and lack of dumb moves are advised. Once ready, take the provisions from the capital and deliver them to the meeting point in Wadi-Gihon to support our allies. Use land vehicles to conceal your movement, in the southern mountains and up to the desert nobody will notice your moves.

You have your orders, centurion. Do not let your King down. Do well, and you will be rewarded accordingly. An own noble house, perhaps... Let this be the motivation for your operation "Cimitarra del desierto" to be a success. Prepare your men and get ready to move - I hope the confirmation of the plan from the Emir to arrive shortly. If you need anything or anyone in particular from the Court for the mission - you are free to ask and you shall have it. I will be watching your progress from the orbit.

King Enrique.

A very informed decision, I presume you've studied my provided track record at length well in advance before my appointment as a Centurion was even a consideration. Nonlethal force is a minor complication, pacifying people with the resolve to fight is often times a challenging ordeal compared to killing them outright. Restraint is an additional effort, too much and the enemy maintains their resolve, not enough and the objective is compromised from undue lethality.

I would like to express to you a concern, keeping this upstart of a brother alive is a mistake waiting to happen. For the purpose of appeasing our northern 'ally' - I believe we should comply, so long as he lives. When Emir Ali is dead we should make haste with executing his overly presumptuous brother and cement your own claim over those lands. Continued crises of this nature is very much undesirable when attempting to cultivate political stability.

I will have to procure nonlethal equipment, our arsenal has a distinct lack of such weaponry. I will compliment this mostly restrained force by arming a quarter of the men with high powered rifles. In the event that we encounter heavier than expected resistance, vacating the contents of a few brains from close to a kilometre away will be sufficient motivation to surrender. As you've ordered, I'll do. But I require detailed reconnaissance data from the area of operation, that and up to date maps of the zone and its periphery.

I'd further like to suggest making the move with our men during the dead of night. Darkness is the preferred bedfellow of subtlety and subterfuge.

Señor Seth,

Your insight on politics has been noted. So far, the Emir is of use to us. While it is so, we keep him alive. If he outlives his use, you will be the first to know *smirks*.

Our intel is limited to orbital photos. You will have to rely on your pathfinding skills and our allied scouts to make use of this information. Here is what we have:






As agreed upon, you are to meet with Emir Ali at Wadi-Gihon. Then, discreetly move from there to Yesil-Yaha. If the plan goes well, their troops will be distracted by our army at Dos Pietras and you should face only the skeleton garrison and the royal guard. Still, those are supposed to be the best they have got, so do be a hero. For good or bad, Emir Ali will be with you and perhaps his charisma will suffice to convince some of adversaries to back down should you run into them. Still, better not attract any attention. The map will provide the general layout for your men not to go in blindly. Hopefully, Emir's people know their own land well enough to guide you.

The conduct of the operation is up to you, only the achievement of the objectives matters. Regardless how, I want it done. As for the weaponry - the hoard we amassed during the wars for Montañaria are at your disposal. Take what is necessary and do not doubt using them as you see fit.

King Enrique.

A healthy amount of elevated positions to serve as vantage points for the marksmen, I've selected three for deployment of the quarter armed with the high powered rifles. I'll relay those orders to them at the site and have them move and assemble at those points while we move for the palace under cove of night. I intend to infiltrate the main compound and pacify all occupants, swift and brutal delivery of Emir Ali to his throne would coax those with wavering loyalty to surrender and recognize his greater claim, for now.

In the event that we meet organized and determined resistance, then I will simply have to rally the men and defeat them in detail. Pacification being the priority in this situation as well. I believe a wall of ballistic shields, with a row of riflemen armed with stun rounds at the rear will be able to advance through enemy fire and retain cohesion. What kind of equipment does Emir Ali's men make use of? Tear gas and stun grenades would make for efficient tools to route a formation and give us necessary advantages if outnumbered. But this is under the assumption that the equipment of our targets would render them susceptible to such effects.

As for the smaller town to the east, does it contain a garrison? If it's manned by a token force, we would do well to cause a diversion by seemingly assaulting and occupying it, only to bait an armed response. With a force deployed to counter our aggression, I could lead our men through the waters of the oasis and make our insertion that way. It would put us at the closest point to the Emir's palace. I'm sure he'd appreciate the poetic irony of the waters that give his people life being the very same thing that returns the throne to him.

I will make the necessary arrangements if this plan of action receives your approval for us to act on. Though I expect the Emir might have his own plans on how to retake his throne. I rest what strategy we employ with you.

Señor Seth,

The information you request is unknown to us based on the orbital footage. Emir Ali mentioned his brother being capable of raising an army of roughly 12,000 men strong. Given this, I am not sure if Emir Abdul will actually move his army to meet ours. Keeping it within the walls of the oasis fortification would also mean his demise as the siege will be imminent. I bet, he will move the army either to meet us and discuss things in the field or prepare moving it into the mountain range nearby for possible guerrilla warfare. At any rate, both the capital and the nearby towns are unlikely to be defended. The town you to the east looks like having no strategic value and being some sort of fishing suburb. You are unlikely to face any resistance there at all also due to lack of any natural cover around the town unlike the mountains near the capital.

As for the equipment of Emir Ali and his men - I am not sure as well how they are equipped. The warriors of the desert are usually lightly armoured as a heavy armour in their climate is equal to suicide. Armourless, they prefer swift hit-and-run tactics with long range precision weaponry, to be aware of the snipers. The tuaregs are famours for being sharpshooters after all. The experience of unification wars in Montañaria, however, should be your advantage. Our veterans fought in high altitude skirmishes in conditions no better than the desert and are quite familiar with opposing snipers. Our orbital dominance should provide your men with infrared recon on any possible remote outposts that might pose a problem. In any case, you will be supplied with the best equipment we have so being armed to the teeth you will have an upper hand.

Oh, by the way. The tuareg dervishes are known as notorious melee fighters, so grab some scatterguns for close quarter combats, or alternatively be ready to get your hands dirty with sword combat. If your records are correct, this should even be a pleasure for you, Señor Seth. Just don't get carried away collecting the pyramid of skulls - there will be better opportunities.

I bet you have the plan already. Time to commence it and see the job done.