Leif and I began makinging a makeshift fortification outside of the gate, we toppled over a two wheeled cart, piled barrels, and what ever else we could find on top of that. It is a frightening experience, knowing that you are outnumbered by a capable group of people wanting to kill you. The guards were not bandits looking for an easy robbery, they were trained either as soldiers, or as mercenaries. Soon we would have numbers on our side in the form of slaves, half starved,unarmed, and exhausted slaves.

Decimus arrived, and reported that any one that had been in our legion, and anyone else that had been trained to fight had started waking up. I nodded, and ran through my options. “That’s great” I replied, at least we would have numbers on our side for a while “Hand out shovels, picks, maddocks, anything that can be used as a weapon. To any slave not a trained soldier have them gather rocks and get ready to throw them at the guards. Have someone start pulling the doors off their hinges. We’re going to fight in a testudo formation. Sort of.” The testudo formation was a military formation where shields, in this case barracks doors were raised above the soldiers heads to protect them from arrows, and rocks.

I heard the first splintering, of the guard barracks door, we had no time to escape, the slaves needed time to wake up and move, and if we didn’t fight, and kill all of the guards they would have hunted us down like dogs. The best, most strategic place to fight was where we were at. Decimus returned with a second legionnaire slave, I never caught his name, and i started positioning soldiers. The fortification created two narrow points of entry that could easily be defended by a small number of soldiers. I positioned Decimus, and the other legionnaire armed with the gladius I gave Leif on the right entrance, while Leif with his spear, and I with my khopesh took the left.

The guard broke through the barricade, armed and armored, two of which climbed to the top of the walls, recovered the bows left there and began shooting at us. “Get those doors out here now!” I ordered as the rest of the guards marched in tandem at us. “Hold your positions here!” I ordered, as it was supremely easier to fight a defensive battle than an offensive one. An arrow whizzed by my head, and another one embedded itself into a barrel. The doors came above my head, and I could hear the thwack of the guards arrows on the door. The guards closed in on us, and weapons clashed against weapons as the fight began in earnest.

Leif was first to draw the guards blood by thrusting his hasta into the shoulder of the nearest one. I cut his hand off with my khopesh and slashed at another on. From the sounds behind me I could hear that Decimus, and his partner were faring just as well. After the first attack the guards retreated back to reposition. I took the opportunity to press my advantage ordering “form up! Put a door in front of us, the other above! Leif, Decimus, the third legionnaire and I stepped out with a fifth unarmed legionnaire in the middle holding the door horizontally as a makeshift shield. Several other slaves and legionnaire’s held up the second door to defend against the arrows. We charged the guards under a volley of thrown stones, and crashed into the guards. The effort of five people all pushing one shield had a desired effect of bowling over the guards. When they were knocked down, they were easily dispatched, the walls were swarmed by slaves and legionnaires, and the last two guards were killed with bare hands, and stones. The fight was over in a matter of minutes, all though it felt like hours since the gates opened. But all told it only took minutes.

The feeling of fight, or flight started draining from me, it started draining from all of us. I started to laugh, followed by Leif and the rest, I was laughing uncontrollably with a very tight feeling in my stomach. Nothing was funny, unarmed slaves were killed by arrows, and blades on the wall, a lot of them were half starved, but we all started to laugh. Eventually though one, by one we all quit again, and gasped for air.

There were things that needed to be done, “Gather everyone near the the guards barracks.” I told Leif and Decimus. To two other legionnaires I ordered “Strip the guards, place all their gear in the guards barracks.” I had to prioritize, there were ten guards worth of equipment, and when everyone was gathered together there was fifty five slaves including former members of the legion I was in, fifty seven including Leif, I. When everyone was gathered together I climbed the wall, and thought about what I was going to say. “Leif, Decimus, find armor that fits.” I pointed at the legionnaires that participated in the wall charge. “You all are next, find weapons, and armor that suit you, and hurry back.” When they came back I finally had a sense of what I was going to say.

“In one hour we are leaving this mine! We will not be coming back. Raid the guards barracks, slave barracks, and all other buildings. Find as many supplies as you can, the order preference will go as follows. Legionnaires, volunteers that’ll go with us, and finally anyone not coming with us. We’re going north back to the Empire, we will be marching as hard as we can in the hopes of meeting with any Imperial patrol or legion, or getting so far into friendly territory that it will discourage any pursuit.”

One of the slaves shouted “Who put you in charge?!”

A legionnaire rebuked the slave “He just risked his life in freeing us!” The rest of the remainder of the legion shouted in support of the rebuke.

The slave backed down, and within the hour everyone in the group had at-least a blanket. There were also two other horses which I had Leif, and Decimus ride, and most had a better clothing than what they had on an hour ago. There was just enough time to make swift decisions “We’re about to go, every one who is going north with us form up outside of the mine. Everyone else, wait inside the walls until we’re out of sight and leave on your own accord. I will not take responsibility for what happens after we leave.”

Of the fifty seven of us thirty five, formed up to march back north, twenty legionnaires including Decimus, thirteen untrained slaves, Leif, and myself. Our aim was to make twenty miles by sundown, and as the first rays of the sun broke over the horizon I gave the order of “Forward march!”