Not for Glory

[jdd2035]

South we went, to a fortress overlooking a sea separating the Empire from the Land of P'Tah, along the way the wagon was filled with new recruits, then recruits had to walk as more were added. By the time we got to the fortress there were eighty of us or a full centuria. The fortress' name was Fort Giaus, and there the eighty of us were trained to be legionaries, we moved rocks from one part of the fortress to the other to become strong, we ran to condition our bodies, and we were made to swim to become more coordinated. We were taught how to use the gladius, shield, and spear. But more importantly we were trained how to fight and act as one cohesive unit, not individually.

Every day it was the same thing, move rocks, run, swim, fight and repeat. Time went on, days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. My closest comrade in arms became a man from a northern province; he had tattoos on his wrists and neck made of a strange blue ink. His name was Leif, and he didn't believe in Imperial gods. He mentioned this to me to try to get a rise out of me. My reply of "Your peoples gods, or my peoples gods; it doesn't matter. The clergy always get over paid." Must have impressed, because after that we got along well.

His people were conquered and absorbed by the Empire about a century and a half ago. Never the less he was considered a citizen of the Empire by birth and was conscripted like the rest of us. During his youth he was taught by his family to fight in single combat and during what little spare time we had he taught a few tricks, kind of a supplement to the regimented approach to combat the Imperial Army trained us in.

Our training according to the bureaucrats had ended and the centuria's orders were finally ready. We were to march south under the General Caius, the son of the Emperor, and retake a strong hold that was captured the the forces of the land of P'Tah. The centuria that I belonged to was a part of an entire Legion, including three centuria of cavalry, siege engines and the rest being infantry.

We started off in the morning. It would take at least a month to arrive at the strong hold, and who knew how long after that to retake it. The days ground on and on, soldiers began missing their homes, horses got sick then some of the soldiers. Still south and east we marched, all the while the General spoke and shouted about how we will “Retake the Empire’s land for its glory!” At about the third day this grew old and most of the Legion began to ignore his speeches and words of encouragement. By the end of the week rations began to dwindle as well as the Legions morale. To resupply, we made a stop at an outpost near the Antiacus river. This reprieve proved beneficial to the Legions morale. We had food that didn't consist of salted meat, drank wine, and several took women into their tents. Fresh supplies were put into our packs and the supply wagons, and we continued on.

The next outpost which was at the Abasi Oasis on the entrance and exit of a caravan road through the desert; the outpost belonged to the Empire at least on paper. In reality it was too far from any major stronghold belonging to either the Empire or the Land of P'Tah that it really didn't belong to any one. Again we ate food that was not salted, drank wine, and took women into our tents. Those that did, take women into their tents unfortunately had their throats slit. To make matters worse twenty horses were stolen during the night. The morning was hot and we buried our dead in shallow graves and continued on.

The farther south we marched, the hotter it became. The hotter it became, the more uncomfortable our armor became, and the heavier our shields felt. As we got closer to the strong hold we were supposed to retake the desert when from sand, to rocks and sand to a kind of scrub, and hardy grass; the oasis' and water holes were dotted with date palms and even a few orange trees. The land also showed signs of sheep, goats, horses and camels, civilization in some form or fashion was close.

We were about two days from the stronghold when the Legion was attacked. Our scouts never reported back that day, and we had marched to the point of exhaustion on the insistence of the General.

We were crossing a grassy valley when the first wave of about five hundred enemy soldiers appeared.

"Form up!" Commanded the General. "This unorganized rabble cannot defeat us! For the glory of the Empire!" There were five thousand Imperial soldiers in our legion we had them out numbered.

We were forming into ranks when they began their charge, throwing their spears and closing with clubs and hide shields screaming like wild men.

We were barely able form the first rank of the forward cohorts when the main body of the enemy crashed upon our shields like ocean waves crashing on the beach but as they crashed they spit something from their mouths into the faces of our soldiers. Our soldiers recoiled in pain as the enemy continued pushing the ranks back and apart, our archers never had a chance to nock an arrow.

It was about then when the second and third rank had formed and we were finally able to start pushing back. Shields were locked, gladius' were drawn and we began to press forward. That was when we got flanked the lightly armored enemy soldiers had sprinted to either side of the legion and attacked without warning.

The General called this enemy a rabble, unorganized. Nothing could have been further from the truth; they picked their moment to strike when we were beyond tired, they attacked with the sun at their backs, and they struck without flinching.

We were still organizing our numbers counted in-spite of our unpreparedness, of the initial five thousand Imperial soldiers that started off this attack had easily brought our numbers down to closer to three thousand, but time came back to our advantage as our cohorts began to form in earnest, there was hope. The right wing cohort formed up and turned the tide of their attackers as did the left cohort soon after. This bought enough time for the rest of the remaining legion to form up their cohorts and gave us the chance to rally.

Once we began to rally the enemy initiated a retreat which our cavalry pursued. That was when the second wave of enemy soldiers attacked. This was not an enemy cohort; this was a full enemy Legion or their equivalent. Their archers fired off a volley of arrows before their cavalry charged into our already punished flanks. Our Legions ranks were effectively broken. The mission to retake the stronghold ended in a disaster, and our great General who fought for the glory of the Empire jumped on the nearest horse and galloped away with his tail firmly tucked between his legs.

I was one of the soldiers in the middle of the Legion, and when our lines were broke I continued to fight until a cavalry man charged me. Taking up an enemy spear I got lucky and speared the riders leg and horses chest. The horse must have kicked me in the head when it reared back because the last thing I knew my ears were ringing and every thing was fading to black.