[JonPop]

The convoy of wagons had no trouble on the remainder of the journey to King ThundersPlace.

The Moderator Knights had supervised the reapplying of the metal so that the soldiers were protected.
The Moderator Knights deleted many spammer snipers on the sides of the hills as the convoy was passing and as they were moving slowly, the Knights were able to range far afield.
The spammers were no match for a lance or Broadsword.

Soon, the castle was in sight and several of the BetterMan Moderator Knights had ridden out to meet them, deleting 2 spammers along the way.
Sir Loki, raised his gauntleted hand in greeting and rode to talk to Sir Uberschwanz.
Sir Uberschwanz said, "I have arrested the Captain of the solders and the leader of this convoy for gross negligence of duty, he is in the first wagon and his horse is tied behind." Sir Loki said, "I shall ride ahead to inform King Arthur and alert the palace guard."
When the wagons crossed the draw bridge and entered the courtyard, the palace guard was waiting to take the now, very fearful Captain into custody. All of the Moderator Knights gathered in the Great Hall to listen to the proceedings.

King Thunder was atop his throne with King Arthur to his right and the Queen and the Princess to his left when the hapless Captain was brought before them. King Thunder looked at King Arthur and said, "Your Highness, this is your soldier and I shall leave his judgement to you."
King Arthur stood and said, "I know of you Captain Kal, you have been with BetterMan for many years. While the charges against you are serious enough to warrant death in the time of war, I shall give you the opportunity to defend yourself.

You have been charged with gross negligence of duty, in the death of many of the soldiers in your command, how do you plead?"
The Captain slowly sank to one knee and looking up, said, "My King , I have been a loyal member of BetterMan and have served you well, the mission to bring the wagons containing the magic metal to you here at King ThundersPlace was of upmost importance. I realize that of the 50 soldiers that were escorting the convoy and that in a fierce battle with the spammers we did indeed lose 18 killed. I do not, in my humble plea, feel that I was in any way, negligent in my duties as the officer in charge.
These men were instructed over and over to keep all coverings securely in place and as we had traveled days and nights, without seeing any sign of the spammers and as the weather was extremely hot, the men, without my knowledge, would pull off pieces of the metal to cool themselves. I realize your Highness, that the ultimate responsibility remains with me as the Officer in charge, but I had two Sergeants that were riding with the soldiers that said nothing to me about this. That it was their bad fortune to be caught at this particular time with parts of their protection removed, when the spammers stuck in a great wave, was beyond my ability to control.
I beg of you my mighty King Arthur to see that we fought gallantly and many, many spammers were deleted and the wagons remained safe."

With this, Captain Kal stood with trembling legs to his full height and looked with as much bravado as he could muster, directly into the eyes of the King.
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