Third Sanitary Section

During the Covrin Wars, there were many tales told of the great deeds done by the Duchy's forces, with the triumphs of Connor Tarra-Caddick famed wherever the importance of logistics is recognised as at least the equal of courage. Even within those groups the story of the Third Sanitary Section is little known, but to those who have penetrated the secrecy surrounding them, they stand out as one of the most important units in that conflict. Much of this secrecy centres around their having been drawn from the Morton Drakiss and particularly those experienced in tunnelling and the management of water systems. The drakiss are not well known in Morton, other than to the Gongsters (with whom they manage the water and sewage systems of the town) and a few of the Ducal staff - so their involvement was never likely to be well known. The Gongsters were the backbone of the First Sanitary Section - dealing with the camp latrines of the army on campaign; the Second Section was a disciplinary detail given the nastier jobs that such business entails. Nobody wanted to know who the Third Section was, travelling in windowless covered wagons.

Their role was tunnelling and subterranean fighting during the sieges that characterised the second half of the conflict. Undermining walls, collapsing tunnels and cellars, blocking and diverting sewers and aquaducts were their main duties but they would also use those routes to infiltrate fortresses to gain intelligence, disrupt or sabotage supplies and equipment and spread chaos wherever the enemy sought order.

Composition

Manpower

The Third Sanitary Section numbered 30 drakiss, two thirds of whom were tunnellers and engineers with the remainder drawn from other specialities useful for the intelligence work - mainly Writkiss and Alkiss (who had some experience in explosives and such like). For the most part they avoided direct combat but, being armed for tunnelling with short picks and shovels were very handy in any fighting they did get in to in the confines of the tunnels and sewers they operated in.

Structure

Although often used en masse, they were three separate squads - each with its own wagon and lead by the most appropriate drakiss for the mission. The closest they had to an overall leader was Smerolst "Ironclaw" who had run one of the tunnelling gangs before the wars; Smerolst conducted most of his business via the Gongster Arrick Amry Carron and was considered the equal of any of the captains of the Duchy forces. Smerolst also played a major part in the recruitment and selection of volunteers to join the unit targetting those drakiss able to handle pressure and respond to the unexpected.

The Siege of Sarimon

As an example of their activities the siege of Fortress of Sarimon is a good one - one squad was involved for three months with a second squad present in the final 2 weeks of the siege. From the siege works, they tunnelled under the moat and walls, gaining access to the cellars. Here they were able to confirm the extent of the supplies available to the garrison (informing the wider plans for the siege), to sabotage the entire reserve of bow strings and gained access into the fortresses cess pit, from which they could covertly access many parts of the fortress.

Although discovered in the latter stages of this they killed three of their discoverers and captured the fourth alive, who turned out to be the steward of the garrison commander - a very useful source of information. This allowed them to gain access to the commanders quarters via the garderobe, where they set up a listening post gathering further information to aid the campaign. In the final stage, the second squad opened the postern gate allowing the Duchy forces an uncontested entry into the fortress and bringing a successful end to the siege several months earlier than had been expected.