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Chapter 9 War Plans

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The Scythian had abandoned her original goal of cleaning and organizing her mess of a new office the moment the gorgon had delivered his mistress’ message. Now she has shifted her focus on planning for the coming revolt that is to come. From the added messages from the Daughters of Nyx she has further learned that she will not be the one leading the revolt rather than the one to put it down. So with that in mind she took to the maps of the city Medea managed to find for her and fell in love with them. In her home land military maps were rough things that denoted little more than cities, rodes, and rivers in any detail with things like mountains and forests only being approximations. Amazon maps were a thing of beauty with their detail that denoted elevation in frightening accuracy.

Remembering her time in her home land and the lesson she overheard on martial matters she began to piece together a retinue of battle plans. They range from a hunt through the city for the revolter's to a long and drawn out battle of attrition. From what she has seen of the Daughters of Athena she preferred the plan to hunt them down rather than a war of stamina, especially since their training with the Huns seems to have been primarily in cavalry.

“Has there been any more information sent to us?” The Scythian asked. “The unknown is the bane of any tactician and I hate to have to redraw all of what I have done after I invest so much effort.”

“Word from the Daughters of Artemis,” Medea said while reading from a page. “They have just received a list of names that will all meet a tragic end during what is to come." She then walked over to look at the map with her. "Like you I am not a native to this city but I have been here for enough years to suspect where a revolt might spark, I recommend planning around the Hippodrome.”

The Scythian looked over the map with a furrowed brow trying to discern which generic shape was this Hippodrome, the Course of Horses. From what Medea had said it is an important, very important or revered. She recognized the Palace and its Augusteum by its strategic position at the end of the peninsula and the massive oval right along its walls was hard to miss. It looked to be as easily defended as the Augusteum.

“So,” the Scythian drawled, “this will either be a raid or a siege upon this Course of Horses for my first true task as the Scythian of the Sisterhood. I will need the measurements in order to properly plan how to assault such a structure.”

She traced her finger along the outline of the Hippodrome, counting the streets that lead to it and the buildings that bordered it. It was attached to the actual walls of the city so it must also fulfill a military purpose as well as whatever the reason it is so beloved.

“So it would seem,” Medea said and plucked a scroll from the chaos of the Scythians shelves. She unrolled it and began reading “The outer walls rise to about fifty feet from base to crown while the seats only rise to forty of the total. The length of the structure was marked at one thousand three hundred feet during construction but it could have changed from planing to stone laying. The width of the structure was marked four hundred fifty feet. Though from being in the Hippodrome I expect these records are not accurate.”

“I don’t need accuracy I need a basic dimensions to work with,” the Scythian said. She pointed to were the wall connects with the structure, “here is where we will mount what ever kind of attack is needed from us. I highly doubt we will be alone in this endeavor if it is to be as public and overt as it would seem. The legions will be more likely than not to assault the structure by the gates on the streets and cut off any rout of retreat. While they march in on the ground we will swarm from the seating and control the battle with our archers as our infantry drop onto the track at the curve here.”

“A rather simple plan,” Medea observed.

“No martial plan survives its encounter with your enemies,” the Scythian chided, “what makes a strategist and commander is the ability to make a new plan every second with the information that comes from an active battle.”

“The Punic Wars were fought and won with predrawn strategies,” Medea challenged.

“Then they were lucky to face predictable opponents back then,” the Scythian said. “However Julius Ceaser conquered Gaulia by having a new strategy a day and Alexander the Bloody marched to the Indus with a new one an hour. Lest you forget my homeland were, in just one generation, there was Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian that maneuvered armies in battle like a bird flies. From the history of the Amazons I find that they have never met an army in direct contact, where did your rigid thinking come from? The Huns?”

“More than likely,” Medea said. “Time changes all things even ourselves and traditions if we do not actively fight against it.”

"Well let this be the begining of a revival of the Amazon Warriors," the Scythian said. "We are on the edge of a great change, let us be ready to controll it."

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