My side was aching, the medic, an Aegean had packed my wound with boiled down horse urine, and sewed it up with horse hair. I had been given the impression that if it weren’t for the horse urine I would be suffering from a fever by now. The cut was red, and scabbed over but the redness was not very far away from where the cut was. It felt more irritated rather than infected.

My centuria had parted company with the rest of the legion and started working our way toward the fort in a roundabout way to attack the opposite end of the fort the rest of the legion was going to attack. I looked over my centuria, they had grim, determined faces, and they knew that our goal was drawing near. The siege would begin in the next day or two, the signal for our attack would be when the smoke of the moats fire dissipated.

I was focused on what I had to do, my first task was to lead my centuria, eighty soldiers, and twenty secondaries to the other side of the fort without alerting the P’Tah forces. My next task was to lead my men over a rampart, across the field carrying ladders, and over a the moat and wall into a meat grinder. The thing about it a legion, and especially one that is going to lay siege to a fortress is that there are no surprise attacks; there is just showing up, and even if things go right doing absolutely nothing for weeks on end, if not longer. If things went wrong reinforcements from Kheb would show up a few days later routing the Legion. What the ladder rush would hopefully do, was to end the siege within a day or two after we got there.

I lead the centuria through the old shepherd paths, and canyons that I had learned during my time as a slave. About half a day out from our position we saw the black smoke start bellowing from the fortress; the archers must have done their job, and set off the pitch, and oil in the moat. The smoke rose for miles in the sky, and a roar could be heard from even from where we were. All eyes would be on the spectacle.

We pressed on, I had the last two ranks of my centuria arm themselves with bows, if we were going to be storming a fortress, we would have to fire into the fortress from the wall, or at least that was the plan. We reached our position, scaled the rampart, and watched the moat burn. The flames were red orange, and rose taller than the Forts walls; hundreds of feet away from the fire we could feel the heat. I watched the fire, and sharpened my khopesh as the flames rose, and fell. I didn’t feel hungry, but I knew I had to eat to keep my strength up, what I really wanted though was to attack, and get the siege started, or more specifically end it. Hours went by, I drummed my feet against the sand, and glared at it, and the walls beyond. The fire needed to die down, but no amount of my will would force the fire to die any faster.

Eventually the fire died down enough to perform the ladder rush. We picked up our ladders, and charged, with our shields over our heads. Arrows rained down, and I heard once again the screams, and moans of the injured, dying and dead. I instantly felt sick, I hated it, the sound, the knowing that someone I potentially ate with an hour before dying, and the necessity of it all; but we had a job to do.

Leif was right behind me when our ladders were thrown against the wall of the Fort. I took the lead being first up the ladder, with Leif right behind me. As I climbed it was blind my shield held above me as I head the heavy thud of arrows drilling into it. I mounted the wall, and immediately bashed the nearest P’Tah archer. I drew my khopesh from my back, and slashed, the unarmored portion of his leg above the knee. Leif’s spear rushed passed my head, thrusting into the next Aegean mercenary. He nodded at me, and asked “Where do you need me.”

I nodded back stating “On my left.”

Leif took position to my left, and we started to form a shield wall. To Leif’s left another legionnaire formed up, and we had a shield wall three abreast pressing forward. Behind us formed up another shield wall lead by Decimus. More of the centuria clambered over the wall, some kneeled down, forming a wall to defend the archers which were now coming up the ladders.

The rest of the Legion began the attack shortly after we did, they concentrated on the gate with a battering ram, and on either side of the gatehouse ladders were being thrown against the forts wall. In most fights, let alone a battle you don’t remember the details, there are flash of scenes acting, and reacting, of blocking, and thrusting. Most of it is a blurr...

In the middle of the Fortress, or any settlement there is a trench dug down grade for human waste to flow out of the settlement. The one inside the Fort was filled, absolutely filled to the brim with blood, that was flowing like a creek after a spring rain. The trench was filled with the blood of Aegean, P’Tah, Khart, Imperial, Gallia, and Terah blood, fifteen hundred Imperial legionnaires were dead, or will be soon enough. Leif’s shin, thigh, and arm on his shield side. The wound on my side had reopened, I had a slash along my forearm from a glancing thrust by an enemy. I was hurting again, I was tired, the rush of energy I felt had left me. The smell of sweat, blood, vomit, human waste, and the same thing from animals.

We had won, I was physically, mentally, and emotionally drained, but we had won. Winning costs lives, but losing would have been even more expensive. As I rested against a wall, and contemplated the events leading up to this very moment, I felt contentment, I had accomplished what I was ordered to do so long ago.