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.Jones.“Bring everything you can carry without it affecting your ability to move quickly and silently.Once you’ve been on a few missions, you can decide what things you need to have, and what you can make do without.”Bob pulled out a bladed weapon from a drawer.“You’ll definitely want to bring that,” noted Mr.Jones.“Can I see it?” Bob handed it to his fire team leader.Mr.Jones took it and looked at it critically.In form, it was similar to many of the swamp hatchets and tomahawks he had seen.It was about a foot and a half long, although the grip was modified to fit the therapods’ hands.The blade on top was in the shape of a large, sideways letter “J,” trailing to a thick, wickedly sharp point on the back.Unlike most tomahawks, there was an edge across the top of the weapon that ran from the head of it all the way back to the point.“Interesting,” noted Mr.Jones.“Our tomahawks normally don’t have an edge across the top like that.What is it for?”“Cracking open the shell pods of a crustacean on our home world,” replied Bob.“They’re very tasty.”Doug looked up.“It’s also good for defending yourself from a jusssole, which is a snake-like creature of the swamp,” he added.“The creature’s mouth can open up big enough to get the entire head of the weapon into it.Once you get the jusssole to try to swallow it, the user then drives the point on the back of the axe into a tree or the ground, effectively pinning the snake in place.Then you use a second blade to cut its head off while it flips around.”“Yes,” agreed Bob.“They’re very tasty too.You just have to watch out for their fangs.They’re extremely poisonous.”“Do you carry a bladed weapon?” asked Doug.“Yeah, I do,” replied Mr.Jones, pulling out a knife that was almost long enough to be considered a short sword.The blade alone was over 12 inches in length and almost two inches wide, with a curved point at the end.The knife had an edge cut from both sides at the top and a cross-guard to protect his hand.“If it was good enough for Colonel Bowie,” he continued, “it’s good enough for me.It’s big enough to get the attention of anything I poke with it, as well as to provide a little bit of defense, if needed.”“I’ll just stick with my kris, mon,” noted Sergeant Margaret ‘Witch’ Andrews, drawing the wavy blade from its sheath.“The blade has 13 waves in it for good luck,” the Jamaican woman continued.“Usually, most people start running, just by me pulling it out.” She looked at it and smiled.“The blade has also been infused with poison, so most cuts be fatal.”“Is that legal?” asked Leading Seaman Sigvar Borsheim.“Does it matter to you if it be not?” countered Witch, looking up at him through narrowed eyes.Borsheim shook his head quickly, not wanting to annoy her any further.His luck was bad enough; he didn’t need a witch’s curse too.She held it out where the therapods could see it.“See the way the dark black iron and the silvery nickel layers merge? These patterns are the blade’s pamors.Each has a specific meaning and name which gives it a special magical property.”“Like what?” asked Bob.“Can you draw some on mine?”“They have to be added at the blade’s forging, mon,” explained Andrews.“If you be a believer, I be happy to have one made for you.”“Yes, please!” agreed Bob.He held up his tomahawk.“Can they make them like this?”“I know not,” she replied.“If they cannot, I can work with your weapon makers to at least add this.” She showed Bob the picture inscribed into the weapon’s handle.“Who is that?” asked Bob.“It is Semar the Mysterious,” Witch replied with a touch of awe in her voice.“He is my guardian spirit.”“Is that my guardian spirit too?” asked Bob.“I do not know, mon,” replied Andrews, “but I will help you find your guardian spirit when we get back if you wish.”Bob nodded happily.Doug looked at Vice Sergeant Ismail Al-Sabani standing next to him.“Do you have a kris?”“No,” replied Al-Sabani, “I have a janbiya.”“What is that?” asked Doug.“A janbiya is an Arabian dagger,” answered Al-Sabani holding up the sheathed blade.“It is a short curved blade with a saifani handle made over 100 years ago from a rhinoceros horn.”“Can I see it?” asked Doug.“I am afraid not,” replied the Saudi.“Like the weapon of Sergeant Andrews, my blade is both a weapon and a spiritual object, and there are rules that must be followed to avoid defaming it.My janbiya only leaves its sheath for combat or ceremonial events.” He held up the sheathed blade.“You can see from the sheath,” he continued, “that the blade bends toward my enemy.I do not need to turn my wrist, so it is a better stabbing weapon than a straight-bladed knife.Its blade is heavy, so I can inflict deep wounds or cut through muscle and bone.I can also stick it in sideways and twist so that I can reach internal organs more easily [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]