The Pirate of Baserria/The Plan

## The Plan

"**The Plan**" is the third chapter of *The Pirate of Baserria*. Like the entirety of the novelette, this third chapter was released privately on January 2021 and publicly published to the site on May 22, 2022.

## Plot

The morning that followed the arrival of the *Glass Comet* crew was filled with anticipation. The small population of Baserrian farmers desperately wanted to know what an even smaller crew of privateers would do to ward off pirates. Outside of Tornac’s tavern, a large crowd gathered around the crew as they began to discuss their grand plan. Linh deduced that the crowd consisted of the entire town; a sizable several hundred but nothing like the domed city she called home back on Hoanghon.

As the crew had observed just the day before, most of the settlement’s population consisted of humans. Villagers who weren’t human stood out pretty easily, Tornac being a prime example with the purple embers coming off of his head. The few other nonhuman villagers consisted of a green-skinned Proxim man and what appeared to be a small family of yellow-capped Basidians, who stood out the most because of their fungal qualities. Nevertheless, they blended in with the rest of the villagers because of their similar clothing style.

Captain Linh Malina was going to outline the details of the plan she and her crew came up with that night, building from the initial idea of having the town fight the pirates alongside the crew.

“We can’t do this job alone,” the captain explained. “So we’re going to need all the help we can to take down these pirates.”

There were murmurs throughout the crowd of villagers. Most of them sounded concerned. Questions like “how are we going to defeat them?” and “how much help are we going to be?” were thrown around most commonly.

“I was once a student of a United Cassiopeian Republic military academy.” She managed to reassure them by revealing this bit of information to the whole town. “I’m going to teach you what I know to help keep your town safe again.”

Thankfully, this brief statement put most of the townsfolk at ease, at least for now—although some villagers appeared to be unsure about the privateers’ skills. Tedan was one of these villagers, having had a rather skeptical look on his face with his arms crossed. With the big introduction out of the way, Linh began to provide the details of the master plan.

“First, we’re going to teach you all some basic combat.”

The first day was rough for everyone, for the villagers and privateers both. It wasn’t common for the crew of the *Glass Comet* to teach an entire settlement how to fight, small or not. The same could be said for the villagers, who never had the need to learn to fight until now. Linh demonstrated a few motions and stances while the villagers echoed them. Lydia, Mysolus, and Alwyn corrected any mistakes the villagers made—and there were *a lot* of them. Alwyn even ended up with a small bruise on her arm after one of the bigger villagers, Feffis, forgot about his own strength when practicing punches. The Baserrian farmers had spirit; it was a matter of controlling that spirit into actual fighting capabilities, which proved to be a difficult task. At least at first.

“And we’ll keep practicing until we get to a good place.”

A week flew by before anyone realized it. The villagers made quick progress, which was a pleasant surprise to Linh and her team. Each passing day, they practiced harder than the last, which made it much easier for the *Glass Comet* crew. Weak postures became strong stances while missing punches became solid strikes. By the middle of the week, the crew decided to transition into giving the villagers actual weapons. For a town of several hundred, the crew knew that the guns they stored in their ship’s weapons locker could be given to only so many people. Most of the villagers were given makeshift spears, created with the help of Alwyn and some crafty villagers. Linh used her own personal blade to help carve out some of the spears, the blade being attached to the gauntlet she wore on her right wrist.

Training them to use guns and spears proved to be a very different experience than hand-to-hand combat. Linh recognized this. Thankfully, the progress didn’t stop there. Difficulty was natural in the initial learning stages, but the villagers were even faster to adjust to their newfound skills than while learning hand-to-hand. The farmers didn’t become expert sharpshooters, but they were decent with their fingers on the trigger and with spears in their hands. By the end of the week, the Kawalan pirates did not return, but the small town of farmers was prepared to handle them. At least Linh and her team hoped so.

The start of the second preparation week gave the villagers different roles to play for their grand scheme against the distant Kawalan pirates. People were growing uneasy the longer it took for the Kawalans to strike their taro farms again. Nevertheless, the captain and her crew reassured the farmers that the preparations they went through were going to be worthwhile.

“So we’re going to break into teams,” the captain started. “To those who’re good at keeping quiet, Alwyn will be guiding you to get a closer look at the enemy’s base.”

Cydi and Allie decided to accompany Alwyn, along with the Proxim man—Dolun—and a few other villagers as well. The rest of the villagers vouched for them, telling the *Glass Comet* crew brief stories about how quiet they could be. Linh didn’t need to know that Cydi once surprised Tedan so badly by her mere presence that he screamed and shattered Tornac’s beer glasses, but it was nonetheless charming to have the villagers tell the crew their tales. Alwyn took her small team past the western paddy fields of Baserria where the pirates were reported to have been coming in from. A thirty minute walk took them through the forest briefly, then up a golden hill.

Just beyond the hill, Alwyn and the villagers observed what appeared to be their base. There were *certainly* more than two dozen Kawalans based on the planet. The raiding party that Cydi initially described to the crew only seemed to be a fourth or even just a fifth of what they witnessed now. A good number of Kawalans could be seen patrolling the outside of the main tent, which looked surprisingly well built, considering how recent the attacks on the village were said to have happened. Several smaller tents were scattered around the base, with six tiny spaceships bordering the entire encampment.

Alwyn was shocked. They weren’t based too far away from the village, which was both good and bad; good in a sense that they wouldn’t have to travel far to destroy the raider base, bad *because* of their proximity to the settlement. Alwyn quickly skittered back with her small team once they finished their observations, ready to let everyone know what they saw.

“To those who want to defend the town,” the captain continued, “you’ll be joining Lydia in fortifying the city walls.”

“It won’t be the fanciest-looking makeover, but it’ll do for the time being.” Lydia had already planned out how she would strengthen the town’s walls.

With the help of the more well-built villagers, wooden pikes crafted from the bark of surrounding trees were temporarily placed around the town’s walls. While it wouldn’t stop the Kawalans from coming into town completely, Lydia thought, it would at least slow them down. Feffis Bhidran, one of the biggest and strongest out of the Baserrian farmers, was a big help in securing the exterior of the town, carrying many pikes at once to save time. All was going well in terms of fortifications.

“Mysolus will be assisting in making a proper shelter for the old and young.”

And Mysolus did just as the captain said. Within the small town of several hundred, Mera and the villagers recommended a secured spot where the elderly and the children could hide when the more exciting part of the plan would finally be set in motion. Below Tornac’s was a wine cellar big enough to fit several dozen people; perfect for the amount of people that needed to stay hidden during the eventual clash. Containers of wine were moved around in order to make sure there was enough room for the old and young villagers. Tornac himself was more than happy to help out with the moving process. Mysolus helped out the best he could, and the villagers saw this. Though some of the children remained astonished at the sight of a Praeliorian, whom they’ve never seen the likes of before, they were all grateful for his aid.

“And everyone else with me? We’ll be doing more practice.”

Captain Malina’s experience at the republic military academy proved to work wonders. Those who stayed to further their fighting capabilities—Tedan included—were intent on taking the Kawalan raiders head on. Tedan was growing secretly impatient, but excited at the prospect of giving the Kawalan raiders their comeuppance. This sentiment was shared amongst Linh’s fighters, but Linh was smart to keep them in check whenever she feared they’d be too overzealous.

“I want to take these guys down as much as the next guy,” she started. “But if we want to win this, we’re gonna have to stick to the plan. No rash decisions.”

Most of the fighters agreed this was the smart thing to do. Tedan stayed silent, keeping his thoughts to himself as Linh continued to train them up.

## Appearances

### Dramatis Personae

* **Linh Malina** - Human-Penumbrian. Captain of the *Glass Comet*, ready to get the job done.
* **Mysolus Pravo** - Praeliorian. The fellow crewmate with much to teach and with many talents.
* **Alwyn Nimbus** - Culician. An eccentric privateer with a genuine heart of gold.
* **Lydia Jezda** - Makuran. Horror novelist/privateer and long-time friend of Linh.
* **Cydi Thaidero** - Human. The Baserrian farmer who contacted the *Glass Comet* crew for the job.
* **Mera Mishum** - Human. Cydi's loving wife.
* **Allie Lamaand** - Human. Tedan's sister, who often keeps him in check.
* **Tedan Lamaand** - Human. Allie's brother, who doesn't think before he acts.
* **Tornac Rehl** - Coronan. Proprietor of the one of the only taverns on Baserria.

### Other Characters

* Feffis Bhidran
* Dolun Vazi
* Basidian family
* Kawalan bandits

### Locations

* Cassiopeia Galaxy
	+ Central Expanse
		- Gran Axuda Sector
			* Baserrian System
				+ Baserria
					- Baserria settlement
						* Tornac's
					- Baserrian pirate camp
		- Lanh Sector (Mentioned only)
			* Hoanghon System (Mentioned only)
				+ Hoanghon (Mentioned only)

### Organizations and Titles

* *Glass Comet* crew
* United Cassiopeian Republic (Mentioned only)
	+ Cassiopeian Military (Mentioned only)

### Sentient Species

* Basidian
* Culician
* Human
* Kawalan
* Makuran
* Penumbrian
* Praeliorian
* Proxim