Chapter 6

The situation was explained to the local AI and to CC, and the two of them did a search of the Ceethree territory to locate malefactors. Their scrutiny was meticulous and took three days because none of us wanted any mistakes. We were going to put the Arlo on a war footing, and we wanted to be damned certain that we would not accuse the wrong people of being the troublemakers.

There were four groups that could best be described as active or nascent bullies. There was no problem in visiting the active bullies first. The closest group was only about 10 klicks away, and that put them in convenient walking distance. In fact, they were so close that we were sure they were the ones who had caused the recent trouble.

We Wolfians agreed that it would be better if the Arlo did the actual punishment of the bullies. We would go along to back them up if they got in over their heads. A meeting of the whole Arlo community was held and a division of responsibilities was organized. All of the Arlo men and most of the women wanted to be in on the punishment detail. It took some persuasion, but I finally convinced them to split up into two equal groups. One group was to go after the bullies while the other group stayed behind to protect the village and, most particularly, the children.

There were several adults too old to take an active part in the fighting, so we wound up with 14 men and 14 women in the attackers and the same number to defend the village. I had AI furnish each person with a staff about two meters long. One end of the staff had a metal blade about 15 cm long with a sharp point. The other end of the staff had a metal knob weighing the same as the blade for balance. Our plan was to use the end of the staff with the metal knob as our main weapon and save the blade for situations when the fighting turned nasty. I had to trust each combatant's judgment as to when either end was appropriate. They were to wear their pugil stick armor for the attack. They were used to it, and it would provide a measure of protection.

The attacking force was split into three squads of 10, 10, and 8 fighters. Each of the squads had an equal number of men and women. The two larger squads were the active force and the smaller squad was the reserve. That pissed off the ones stuck in the smaller squad, but they did not bitch too much. The Wolfians from my fighter went with the attackers and the rest stayed with the village defenders.

We set off early one "morning" to march to the village of the Hankers. We Wolfians rode our scooters so that we would have the maximum in independent mobility. We had to accept some teasing because we were not marching, but we did not take that seriously. We knew that it was meant to be good natured, and we tried to answer in kind. The marchers kept up a steady pace and arrived at the Hanker village in less than three hours.

Leso, the squad leader of 1^st Squad, took two soldiers with him and marched into the center of the Hanker village. The rest of the Arlo squads deployed according to plan to surround the village while we Wolfians hung in the background, but close enough to provide protection for Leso and his bodyguards. Our guns would provide all of the protection that he would need, and we were alert to provide the coverage.

Leso said loud enough to be heard all over the village, "I am Leso from the Arlo village. We are here to punish those men who raped and murdered one of our women a few weeks ago. We believe that incident was not the first the you have done, but it is the first we have proof that your people are guilty.

"Turn them over to us, and no one else will be hurt. Refuse to do so, and we will attack your village. Believe me when I say that this is no idle threat. We can do what I claim.

"You have 10 minutes to comply with my demand. I will wait here while you find the guilty parties."

A man stood up from where he was reclining in the shade and said, "I am Sarlton, and I am the war leader of the Hankers. Get your people away from here right away, or we will attack. We are experienced warriors, and we are good fighters. You will be sorry if you do not leave right away." He ended his little speech by spitting in Leso's face. That produced a laugh among the Hankers and a growl of rage among the Arlos.

Leso wiped the spittle from his face, but he did nothing else. Sarlton was carrying a club at his waist, and he took it in his hand after about two minutes. As Sarlton raised the club to strike Leso, Leso swept his staff into position and jammed the metal ball forcefully into Sarlton's solar plexus. The result was exactly what Leso expected. Sarlton collapsed to the ground unable to recover his breath, but we were all surprised when Sarlton began to bleed from his mouth. Apparently, the blow to his solar plexus had been more effective than Leso had expected. The combination of no padding on the staff and no armor to protect Sarlton had resulted in a serious injury. I doubted that Sarlton would survive.

It looked like the Hankers had come to the same conclusion. The women ran into the huts while the men charged at Leso waving clubs and a few knives. The Arlo squads shouted meaningless war cries to distract the Hankers who were charging Leso and ran toward him with their staffs ready for action. I was pleased to see that every one of the Arlos had the ball end of the staff ready to punch or pound the first Hanker they came to.

The Arlos were outnumbered approximately two to one, but the enthusiasm and skill the Arlos showed in utilizing their staffs more than made up for this numerical bias. It turned out that the metal ball on the end of the 2 meter staff was all that was needed to carry the day. Furthermore, the reserve was not needed, much to their disgust.

The serious fighting lasted only about two or three minutes, and the full conflict lasted less than 10 minutes. Every one of the Hanker men had at least one broken bone and multiple bruises. Their skin was torn in places, but not from a blade at the end of a staff. Most of those skin tears came from falls to the ground. We had only two casualties: one was a broken finger from the impact with a club, and the other was a broken collar bone that came from a fall into a ditch. The armor the Arlos wore was very effective in protecting them from wounds.

After the battle, Leso sent detachments of the women soldiers into the huts to question the Hanker women. It took about an hour before we had a list of the five men who had raped and murdered the Arlo woman. Those men were rounded up and taken to stand under a convenient tree limb. A rope was fashioned into a hangman's noose for each man. The gravity was reduced to 0.01 g under each man, and he was hoisted to about 1.5 m off the ground. At my command, the gravity was suddenly raised to 10 g under each man, and he was snatched down so hard that his neck was broken.

A hanging always looks like a terrible punishment to the spectators, but it is really quite humane when done correctly. The neck is snapped by the fall and death is almost instantaneous. I makes little difference to the people being hanged, but it does make a significant impression on the average spectator. Note that key phrase "when done correctly." We hoped that the hanging would be enough to quell the bullying tendencies of the Hankers. If not, we would be back with a more painful execution in mind.

After the hanging demonstration, Leso lectured the Hankers about cleaning up their act and treating their neighbors with common decency. It was impossible to know just how much difference Leso's speech really made, but we hoped for the best. Our people reassembled for the march home, and that took about three hours—everybody was tired and still feeling the emotional effects of the hangings. We pulled into the village just before supper time, so our arrival was convenient for all concerned.

We ate supper with the rest of the village before retiring to some temporary huts that had been constructed for our benefit. It certainly was more comfortable "sleeping" in the huts where we had some privacy. That gave us a chance to relax with some sexercise while the Arlos slept. Yes, it certainly was convenient not to need to sleep.