Island Chain

[The_Oan_Isles]

Oahi and his crew start a trading station on the Asian Pacific Islands

The Asian Pacific Islands was an archipelago located in the south west Pacific Ocean. The islands were inhabited by an ethnically diverse group of people called the Islanders. The Islanders spoke many dialects, some of which were mutually intelligible while some were indecipherable even to people living on the next island. With each island possessing its own culture, language and spiritual beliefs, and lacking the economic or military muscle or political will, to bring about unity among them, they remained a weak dispersed nation. Their country was bountiful and beautiful, abundant in fish, its soil rich and its forests teaming with wildlife and bringing forth fruit in all seasons.

Rangitanga-ta-i-Moana, the ruler of a smaller, less impressive, group of islands called the Oan Isles (or Kōa in their native language), Pahaki, wanted to trade with these people and build up the commerce of Kōa as a result. He ordered mariner Oahi Maraepuru to build a trading station. Oahi left Kōa 300 years ago with a fleet of a hundred large semi-wind-propelled canoes, carrying artisans, warriors, sailors and fishermen, about 2000 strong, people looking to start a new life somewhere else, and various supplies and weapons. They arrived on a faraway island which they named Moto-ro (meaning first island).

When they had Moto-ro within sight, Oahi sent a scouting mission to assess whether they could land and what sort of challenges lay ahead if they tried. After a week or so, the settlers pulled their canoes on shore (largely in tact except for a few that were shipwrecked in the heavy winds). They encountered the natives who lived on the other side of the island. The two groups largely ignored each other, bartering when necessary. Oahi sent Pahaki a letter telling him that the station was up and running and would soon be ready to welcome Oan traders. The settlement, named Oahipa, grew, with a harbour, fortress, mill, water reservoir, armoury, forge and other elements of civilization.

The first Oan traders were welcomed 280 years ago. It had taken Oahi and his people 20 years to complete the foundation of Oan trade in the deep Pacific. The results were worth it. After putting the natives to work as labour in plantations, and mills, and on ships out at sea, they assumed full control of the island, which they renamed Oahimotu. Oahipa became a node of commerce, connecting the Oan Isles to the Asian Pacific Islands, providing a place of rest and rehabilitation for mariners weary from travel, making it easier to transport goods between the two island chains.

[The_Oan_Isles]

Battle of Oahimotu

The maritime trade with the Motu Pahifiki Ahianu was thriving and Oahimotu was a major trading hub. The island had a deep harbour where the biggest ships in the Pacific Ocean moored and a great market where trading happened. There was a great fort that held the islands administration, archives and armoury, built from stone on a high hill with a tall tower which offered unparalleled 360° views of the entire island and surrounding oceans. Using a telescope on the uppermost room, the watchmen kept vigil, ringing the bell at the first sign of trouble. A garrison of 2000 men were stationed to defend the island from attackers. The great warships of Kōa, twin-hulled, canon-mounted, wind propelled vessels, patrolled the surrounding water, escorted merchant ships and defended the islands from attack. There had, prior to the Raid of 1810, been no attack on the island.

On that year, things changed. The Pulabundok Alliance of the northern Motu Pahifiki Ahianu demanded that the Rangitanga of the Oan Isles lower what they considered exhorbitant fees for trading on Oahimotu. The Rangitanga refused and cut trade with that alliance in retribution. The Alliance’s islands began to suffer as they had to smuggle goods from Kōa at even greater human and financial cost. They decided to take Oahimotu for themselves and force the Rangitanga to open trade on more favourable terms once again.

A force of over 100 war-canoes was assembled that sailed toward Oahimotu in squadrons of several ships. They carried 30 to 50 men each, with many powerful crossbows and harpoon guns mounted on their decks with the power to pierce the hull of a ship. They sailed on Oahimotu. Seeing the oncoming attack from the Great Tower, the bell was rung and the emergency beacons were set ablaze. Along a route of over a hundred kilometres, various outposts set on atolls picked up the faint light of the beacon, setting their own beacons ablaze until the light of the last could be seen. The Kōa Navy was called to arms and after two weeks sailed to Oahimotu reaching, it in a week.

By that time, the Pulabundok were startingly close, only several nautical miles from the main harbour. The citizens took shelter in the might walls of the Fortress of Oahipa. The navy engaged with the attackers, forming a line of battle, firing hundreds of rounds from their portholes. The war-canoes began sinking, but swiftest of all, passed between the ships and began setting them on fire. There was chaos, until the line of battle was broken. The war-canoes suffered heavy losses as the canon-fire sank many of them, but many got through and thousands of their soldiers got onto shore. They fought the Kōa soldiers in the market and street leaving fire and destruction in their wake. The Pulabundok overestimated their abilities and were soon overwhelmed by the Kōa army. Many were captured and executed, but even more tried to escape on their war-canoes. They all drowned as the Oan warships came back for a second assault. The Battle of Oahimotu had been a disaster for the Pulabundok who lost a sizeable portion of their expeditionary naval force, and we’re now open for attack.

The a meeting of the Pulabundok Chiefs was summoned and they were distraught, for they knew that the Oan people would come for revenge…

[The_Oan_Isles]

On the way to Pulabundok

The waters receded and rose on the beach of Oahimotu. Rakau, a sailor wet behind the ears and eager for battle, paced excitedly, watching the ships of the mighty Oan Navy return from the Battle of Oahimotu. The signs of battle, burn marks, collapsed buildings and debris in the streets, marked the failed land attack on this island and its people. Rakau walked to the harbour, arriving promptly at the sailor barracks at the time he was instructed. His commanding officer entered the barracks and commanded his troops, Rakau, among them, to prepare the ship for the attack in a few days. Rakau helped moved chests of gunpowder and cannonballs. He prepared the sails, pulling the cables, tying and setting them, preparing for the long journey ahead, with strong winds and currents moving them forward or against them, an untrustworthy ally in the Mariner’s world.

A few days later, Rakau looked at the harbour of Oahipa get smaller and smaller, fading into the distance as the Oan Navy headed for Pulabundok, an island in the Asian Pacific Islands for which an alliance of tribes and traders was named. The strong navy of 20 warships and 30 war-canoes moved forward, its strong and clever sailors using astrolabes and telescopes to measure and calculate the inclination and distance of stars to the horizon, to determine direction and find their way over 120 kilometres to Pulabundok. In the hulls below, prisoners and indentured labourers heaved the gigantic ores, propelling the ships when the wind died down or pushed against them. Sailors worked on the second levels of the hull to prepare their harpoon guns and cannons.

Rakau and his friends would sit in their cabins sharing stories and meals, anticipating the battle ahead - a battle that would mark the first of many attacks by which the Asian Pacific Islands would be brought under Oan rule.

[The_Oan_Isles]

The first signs of trouble

A scouting vessel of the Pulabundok Alliance strayed too close to the fleet. War-canoes were sent after it. The men paddled with all the strength in their muscles, supporting the sails against which the wind blew imwith tremendous force. The streamlined design of the war canoes allowed the ships to move quicker and escape the rising and falling waves with ease as the vessel ahead of them struggled to keep abreast of the water. Harpoons were set at the ready and the scouting vessel was pierced on both sides, flanked by war canoes on the starboard and port sides.

Arrows were fired at the on board. Their bodies were pierced with long shafts sticking out from backs, legs, torsos and sides of heads. Those who survived were captured while some were thrown into the roaring water. Those who were kept as prisoners were tightly bound and transported back to the warships where they would be tortured, interrogated and slain.

The Oans discovered a crucial piece of information. There were various beacons or markers which the Islander watchmen set alight to warn the people of the island which floated on the surface of the sea, kept in place by an anchor. The eastern part of Pulabundok island had the harbour and fortified city. There were smaller towers around the beach, at long but consistent distances from one another to respond to an attempted landing and warn other towers.

The Oans sent swift war canoes to sabotage the beacons and end any chance of an early warning, capturing and killing all scouting vessels as soon as they saw them. Then they sent spies, from rafts dressed as refugees hiding kegs of gunpowder with which they would blow up the towers. Rakau was sent on one of these rafts…

[The_Oan_Isles]

Burning towers…

Rakau and his team arrived on the beach, wet, cold and haggard, at the foot of one of the towers of Pulabundok, closest to the city of the island. They waved a white cloth aloft, symbolic of peace.

“We are refugees. Our ship sank and we need help. We are the only ones who escaped”.

The soldiers came out with their fat uncouth commanding officer in the lead. The laughed and had their legs seized and had them put in chains.

“They will make great slaves!” He pronounced.

Rakau was shocked and exclaimed, “That is against the convention of hospitality. We demand an audience with your superiors”.

The man laughed and ordered his soldiers to put them in the dungeons and throw their property in the vault. Although the dungeons were cold, dark and sealed with metal bars and heavy doors, they were not designed to handled specially trained soldiers. The chains were taken off them when they were ignominiously tossed into their cages.

The soldiers still had their knives, secretly tucked in concealed nooks and crannies. As soon as their hands and feet were free, they drew their weapons and fought back. Using their greater strength and numbers against the few soldiers who had been sent to lock them up, they defeated them and threw them in the cages instead. Luckily, the dungeons were deep beneath the tower, so the commotion could not be heard by anyone from above. Rakau and his men began silently making their way to the vault.

They killed the soldiers on duty, took the keys and opened the vault. They rolled out he kegs, but as they did so, the commander of the tower and his men were standing at the door, a full garrison. There was no way they could escape and there would be no mercy from the commanding officer. They decided to tell him the truth.

Rakau explained, “We have kegs of gunpowder and are willing to bting down this entire tower on all our heads, if you do not let us go”.

The commander was scared, annoyed and angry by this bold threat. He conceded, “We agree, but you must leave the keys behind and we promise to let you go”.

Rakau and his men realised that they would be killed as soon as they stepped out of the door; the commander’s word was not to be trusted. Rakau and his men smashed the kegs, with gunpowder going down dry drains and pipes, remaining as flammable and volatile as ever. They burst jars of some flammable substance open and poured it down the drains and pipes. The tower began shaking as the gunpowder exploded and the foundations of the building failed.

Chunks of stone began falling as trails of fire began rising up. The soldiers ran and so did Rakau an his men. They jumped out of a high window and fell on a net that his fellow soldiers had laid outside. They escaped from the disaster as they watched the tower collapse onto their enemies, removing any military support or early warning from the island’s capital.

Now Pulabundok was ripe for an invasion.