The Art of War, Week #13 [Period 3, Monday]

[atreideslioness]

"Since our time together is rapidly coming to close, I thought we'd try something a little different today," Ghanima said as the class met in the Danger Shop as handwavily ordered. "Today, we take Tzu a bit literally. Today we're playing with fire."


"Fire. The great cleanser, and the great equalizer. A weapon that can turn around and bite the hand that started it just as suddenly as the wind changes."

"Sun Tzu said: There are five ways of attacking with fire," Ghanima lectured, watching them inscrutably. "The first is to burn soldiers in their camp, the second is to burn stores. A third is to burn baggage trains; the fourth is to burn arsenals and magazines; and the fifth is to hurl dropping fire amongst the enemy. A rain of fire, if you will."

"In attacking with fire, one should be prepared to meet five possible developments: First, when fire breaks out inside to enemy's camp, respond at once with an attack from without. However, if there is an outbreak of fire, but the enemy's soldiers remain quiet, bide your time and do not attack."

"When the force of the flames has reached its height, follow it up with an attack, if that is practicable; if not, stay where you are."

"If it is possible to make an assault with fire from without, do not wait for it to break out within, but deliver your attack at a favorable moment. Last, but not least, when you start a fire, be to windward of it. Do not attack from the leeward unless you wish to feel your own flames."

"If we were starting a fire in a business setting, or on an emotional battlefield, perhaps we'd start with some lies, spread carefully where they can do the most damage. Insinuations whispered in corners where they can breed disaster."

"Starting a real fire requires just as much care, if not more. It is a living, breathing entity, and the burns are far more dangerous on a physical level."


[OOC: You know the rules, wait for the OCD is up, and class is in session.]

Comments

Sign-In #13

[atreideslioness]

Like you're on fire!

Re: Sign-In #13

[raspberryturk]

Reno

Re: Sign-In #13

[intraspective]

Yamanaka Ino

Re: Sign-In #13

[yourwhiteknight.livejournal.com]

Harvey Dent

Listen to the Lecture

[atreideslioness]

Wonder what Ghanima has up her sleeve for this week...

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

Lee hadn't ever really considered fire as something besides an element used in cooking and something that destroyed things. It would make a really damaging weapon.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

Savannah was listening and taking notes... and not at all comparing this to the ongoing battles between her and the Nast Cabal. Not at all.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[momslilassassin]

Ben's eyes were sharp as he memorized everything Ghanima had to say today.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[finding-x-dream.livejournal.com]

Agnes took careful notes, although she wasn't sure she liked the topic.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri kept her eyes on her desk, but she was actually taking fairly careful notes this week.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice was setting her chin fiercely and telling herself that she was going to storm in there and defend any thing that was even remotely in danger, when she realized her hands were trembling.

And that, perhaps, the art of war had much to do with knowing when it was wisest to make an expedient retreat.

It felt like admitting failure. It felt like weakness. And yet, Alice found herself convinced that it was the right answer.

She gathered her books, scribbled a small note on her desk, and quietly excused herself. Were Ghanima to peer at the note later, she would see that it read, in its simple entirety, Not yet.

Alice, later, would be sorry that she hadn't apologized more formally. She could do that next class.

(departure cleared with teacher-mun, with my thanks)

Class Participation

[atreideslioness]

Suddenly, the room went dark, and the sound and scent of fire filled the air. "Sietch. A hidden desert warren, a place of safety," Ghanima's voice said from somewhere in the darkness. "Carved into the very bedrock of the planet, and home to the tribes of wandering Fremen."

"Today it has been turned into a battleground."

"Those bootsteps you hear are the Imperial Sardaukar, come to kill everything that moves. The explosions are the sulfate fireballs that they are bombarding the cliff-face with. Atomics were outlawed hundreds of years ago, and trying to use them on Dune would be a disaster anyway. No matter how pesky those Fremen rebels are."

"Fire from without. Fires that have been set within. A full frontal attack from an enemy that shows no mercy. Do you fight, defend your home? Or flee? Can you flee, with nothing but desert outside these walls?" Ghanima's eyes glowed faintly from a corner of the room. "Understand - this is the situation you place your enemy in when you choose to use fire. As Tzu said, 'Do not press a desperate foe too hard.' Even outnumbered, no warrior will go gently, and you should never underestimate a 'civilian', either."

"Make your decision. Understand the ramifications of using fire against a foe. Try not to die."

Then the Danger Shop flared to life, the sounds of people screaming, shots being fired, and fire filling the hallways of the warren.



[OOC: Feel free to handwave your escape/death, or grab a friend and try to escape. Canonically, the Sardaukar are nasty bits of work, and will gun you down without blinking. However, you've got teams of Fremen on your side, and they're even meaner. If they don't knife you for being an interloper.]

Re: Class Participation

[raspberryturk]

Fire. Fireballs that reminded Reno of Firaga spells straight from hell, and his options were to fight or run. He knew what desert looked like. And he'd seen home crumble down before.

And Reno didn't have it in him to run away. Sure, he didn't have his stun baton on him, here. But this seemed like an excellent opportunity to put the training that Ghanima had been giving him to use.

Let them shoot at him. In this situation, it wasn't like he had many other options. And anyhow, he was a fast little bugger.

Re: Class Participation

[atreideslioness]

The Universe, of course, decided to take that as an invitation, and a three-man group of Sardaukar rounded the corner, pulse rifles already coming up as they took aim at Reno.

[and of course, home internet is down. stealing signal from neighbours, but might vanish.]

Re: Class Participation

[ella-obeys.livejournal.com]

Ella ran as fast as she could to escape the enemy. She wanted to be brave, and tears stung at her eyes at the seeming cowardice, but her curse made her too great a liability in any battle.

Re: Class Participation

[atreideslioness]

There was a girl in the hallway, no more than four or five years old, gleefully ducking between combatants and hamstringing the invading warriors.

She halted as she darted past Ella, blue-on-blue eyes flickering over her. "You. Where are you going?"

Re: Class Participation

[momslilassassin]

Ben's eyes were absolutely icy as he stood his ground.

Jacen had made sure Ben wasn't just a teenager any more. The Sardaukar would learn the same lesson.

He ignored how the warrens reminded him of where he'd found his mother as he walked towards the screams, trying to find a weapon as he went along. Not that he really needed one, he told himself.

Ben didn't really care what happened to him today.

Re: Class Participation

[atreideslioness]

Ben would find that these Sardaukar tended to learn slowly, if at all.

One of them rounded the corner in search of new prey, grinning as his eyes fell on Ben.

"What's this?" he sneered, drawing a knife as he gave Ben an appraising look. Red hair, blue eyes...too young to be the old Duke's child, but he looked similar. "An Atreides bastard, hiding in with the desert rats? The Emperor will pay dearly for your head, boy."


[and of course, home internet is down. stealing signal from neighbours, but might vanish.]

Re: Class Participation

[finding-x-dream.livejournal.com]

Right, then. Escape meant the desert, and no one could survive in a desert.

Not that a week in the desert wouldn't do you some good.

But there were screams NOT from her classmates, and that meant the tribes of wandering Fremen were home. Agnes set out to find them. Surely, in a fortress like this, there'd be an easily defendable area where they gathered the women, children, elderly, and injured.

She couldn't fight, she couldn't flee, but she sure as hell could heal burns and wounds so that other people could.

And UNTIL she found them... well, she picked up a piece of still-burning wreckage and wielded it like a club.

Re: Class Participation

[atreideslioness]

There was a girl in the hallway, no more than four or five years old, gleefully ducking between combatants and hamstringing the invading warriors.

She halted as she darted past Agnes, blue-on-blue eyes flickering over her. "Where's your knife?"

Re: Class Participation

[weetuskenraider]

The desert felt like home, and Tahiri was glad she'd had to wear boots to come to class today because not being able to go barefoot in sand this hot was exactly why she tended to shun shoes as much as possible now.

The desert on fire, on the other hand . . . she remembered Luke's stories about what had happened to his childhood home, and how a Tusken tribe had been responsible for it. It made her wince in sudden sympathy, but she'd survived the Jundland Wastes for a week when she was nine, she and Anakin, and she'd grown up in the desert.

She could run. But she was a Jedi, and she was stubborn, and that combination meant she wasn't going to run without putting up a fight first.

Fire, though. They'd had a lesson, she remembered, about using the Force to create a vacuum, and fire couldn't survive without oxygen, could it?

Narrowing her eyes, she focused her attention on one of the smaller fires and concentrated, visualized the air pulling back from the area around the flames. The fire sputtered and began to die down, but untrained in the technique as she was Tahiri staggered and nearly fell over by the time the minor blaze was out.

"Sithspawn, that won't work," she hissed, and drew on the Force again, this time to help her get a second wind. There was a long piece of wood nearby, the splintered end suggesting that it had once been the handle of some implement, and she picked it up before diving into the fray with a group of the Fremen warriors.

If, among the screams and clashing sounds of the fight, a young girl's voice could be heard yelling in some strange and guttural language, well . . . how many people here understood Yuuzhan Vong anyway?

Talk to the TA

[atreideslioness]

If you can find him in the chaos.

Re: Talk to the TA

[raspberryturk]

Chaos! Burning! Battle!

Reno was there, throwing himself into this sim.

... Again, if you can find him in the chaos.

Talk to Ghanima

[atreideslioness]

She's around before and after class, and probably will find you if you need her during the exercise.

OOC

[atreideslioness]

November is fired. I vote for April.

ETA: We have a bit of a work emergency. Feel free to either mod your doom fate or poke me via email if you do want me to NPC for you. I will be slow, but I'll do my best! Now I'm home, but lacking internet for some odd reason. I think the Universe is out to get me.