[h2][b][center]The Men of the Tarikhate stand Tall[/center][/b][/h2]

[center][img]http://histclo.com/imagef/date/2008/02/eth35-03s.jpg[/img][/center]

"Yes suh'!" 

The tide of roaring replies filled the air, the sound carrying across the flat ground to make the very earth shudder. In an instant the cry was halted, silenced by the raised hand of the individual before them. The Officer stood with his legs parallel to his shoulders, about a foot apart as he kept at ease while surveying the several ranks worth of infantrymen before him. Fresh troops, every single one, whom had recently enlisted. All across the Tarikhate were similar shows, of fresh regiments being organized under the watchful eye of veteran officers and those who had been educated outside the homeland in the Great Nations of the world. It was the will of the Tarik that his loyal army be a match for those from the Varian continent and meeting his expectations meant there was much work to be done. The recruits before him now, boys mostly, were all enlistees from the Rakka tribes, the earliest supporters of the Tarik outside the Akir world when the conquests began nearly one hundred and fifty years ago. These youths came from the tribal villages and towns in the arid parts of the nation, born to the semi-nomadic herdsmen that their ethnic group was famed for; and now they were to be soldiers. Their accents spoke volumes to the officer.

"You men, all of you, have come to serve our Tarik and Homeland!" cried the Officer, uniform fitting smartly to him as the traditional patterned senay garment flapped gently in the wind, "I am Captain Asla Kebidech and from here on out I am to be your drill instructor."

Standing behind the Officer, arrayed similarly to the raw recruits but dressed in the proper uniforms of their commanding officer, stood the men of the 21st Artillery Contingent. Each stood with well trimmed beard, perfectly angled artilleryman cap, and tautly fitting artillery-frock pulled from torsos to be wrapped around their bodies. They had been broken into teams of four with each holding the tools of their trade, with Commander, Gunner, Loader and Swabber all tightly packed together before their guns. Just behind them, of course, sat the unmoving forms of their cannons; each had been forged into being in the factories of Mulu Alem and well represented the leaps and bounds being made by Akur in terms of industrialization. Indeed, twenty years ago it would have been unheard of that foreign-designed weaponry could be manufactured effectively and rapidly in the Tarikhate but now, with the rapid industrialization of the arid nation, it seemed ever more likely that soon the Akir themselves would be designing the very weapons they used to keep their homeland free of foreign powers. 

[center][img]https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar///UN/Belgium/Ethiopia/img/Ethiopia-p20a.jpg[/img][/center]