Turning, Julius entered one of the hole-in-the-wall shopsthat graced this street. A clothing shop, as it happened. The bell on the doorjingled as he entered. The store appeared deserted. Julius helped himself to amen’s white shirt hanging on a display rack, then dismantled the rack. Amoment’s work left him with a jury-rigged white flag.
Boots crunching on broken glass, Julius ducked low andreturned to Marcus, now crouched behind a nearby cart. The scout was using abit of mirror to try to see inside the window down the street. “No luck,”Marcus said as Julius stopped behind him. He turned and watched the centurion drophis helmet and shrug off his scarlet centurion’s cape.
Julius held the makeshift white flag beyond the cart, thenslowly rose and moved toward the barricade, staying behind cover as much aspossible.
“Halt!” a voice called out in Latin. “Do not move anotherstep.” Julius could detect no trace of accent. It definitely belonged to aBrittenburg man. Whether he was loyalist or rebel, Julius couldn’t tell. “Whoare you?” the voice demanded when Julius stopped.
“I’m a member of the XIII Germania Legion,” Julius stated.He waited for a response, but none came.
Finally, the unknown voice came back with, “And what proofdo we have that you are a loyal Roman? We’ve had far too many imposters.”
Julius thought for a moment. How could he convince them thathe was a loyalist? An idea popped into his head. “You see that airshipoverhead? I can communicate with that. Whatever the rebels have done, theyhaven’t got into our air fleet yet.”
This answer set off a prolonged round of verbal fireworksbehind the barricade. Too many chiefs … Julius thought of their vagueleadership as he inched closer. Finally he was close enough to climb over thebarrels and burnt out motor trolley components forming the barricade. Juliusstopped and glanced back. Marcus had retreated to the rest of the cohort andthey had formed up in the street behind him, shields touching, prepared to backtheir seemingly fearless leader. Julius started climbing the barrier. Hereached the top and found half a dozen repeater crossbows leveled at him.
“What are you doing here?” a dark-skinned man asked, hisbrown eyes bulging in alarm at the sudden appearance of the fully armoredlegionary officer. He wore the blue uniform of the auxilia and a dented brasshelmet.
Julius held up his mailed hand. “Stop. I am Centurion JuliusBrutus Caesar of the XIII Germania. Either you men are traitors, or you areloyal to the Empire. Decide now, before the thousand men of my legion crushyour pitiful force beneath their heels.” He glared at the dozen or so menbefore him. They were a mismatched lot. Without the identical albeit faded blueuniforms, it would have been hard to distinguish these men from a group ofstreet toughs. The dark-skinned man gulped, and hastily ordered his men tolower their weapons.
Hiding his relief, Julius said, “Now, first things first.”He gave the All Clear signal to the force behind him. The cohort switched frombattle lines to loose column. As they began to stream up the street and overthe barricade, Julius turned back to the dark-skinned man. “Are you theremnants of the city garrison that we were sent here to link up with?”
The leader nodded, then pulled off his helmet and ran hishand over his sweaty skull. He was older than Julius, maybe in his earlythirties, but the lines of dirt and grime on his face made him look much older.“I’m Auxilia Centurion Druvic. We’re all that’s left. We held off a wave ofthose rioters a while ago, and I lost three-quarters of my men.” He looked overJulius’s shoulder at the last of the legionnaires coming over the wall. “Isthat all of you? Thought you had a thousand men with you.” He turned bewilderedeyes back to Julius.
Julius gave a weak smile. “Like I said, the legion does.We’re only the 13th Cohort. Now, can you get us onto the wall? We must take theeastern gate to let the rest of the men inside.”
“Of course, sir. Right this way.” Druvic pointed down thestreet.
Off the demi-cohort walked, now joined by the remnants ofthe city garrison. For the first time, Julius felt as though they actually hada chance to save his city.
A shower of bolts thudded into the door of the mechanist’sworkshop. Julius ducked back behind the scant protection it offered. Severalother men crouched in the darkened workshop, out of view. Julius peeked aroundthe door again, this time finally getting a good angle on the tower.
One of many wall towers that had been taken by the rebels,either through assault or through subterfuge, had kept his cohort pinned downfor the last hour. Julius could see that the lowest gate had been blown open,and he knew that was the only way in. The blockhouse defending the eastern gatewas tightly closed, unwilling to open up for anyone. If those idiots wouldstop pretending to be neutral and do their duty, we wouldn’t have to storm thisfricking tower, he grumbled as another bolt leapt from the tower and hit anadjacent shop building. A high-pitched screaming started up, followed by a cryof “Medic!”
A medic with a red caduceus on his breastplate slid upbeside Julius. “S’cuse me, Centurion,” he mumbled as he brusquely pushed pastand sprinted to the next building over. The tower fired several shots at him,but the medic slid into the safety of the building just in time.
Julius turned to the men behind him. “Gwendyrn, I’ve got anidea. We need doors, buckets, metal plates, and as many ropes as you canwrangle up. If we can’t get them to leave the tower, we’ll have to make themleave it.”
A few hours later, the engineering-minded men of thedemi-cohort had created a masterpiece. Without access to a steam engine, theyhad constructed a manual siege caterpillar using wrenches, hammers, and a fewother tools at their disposal. Essentially a movable shed to cover an assaultteam and gate-breaking equipment, this one was made from layered doors andsheet metal. Combined, it was long enough to cover the entire demi-cohort.While about half the men held up the defensive shell, the rest would hold theirshields on the sides, forming the rest of the caterpillar.
“Well, this is the best-looking siege equipment I’ve everseen,” Julius said. He was being honest, as he had never seen a real, activesiege piece in his life. Not unless the ones on the propaganda posters counted.The engineers had constructed the caterpillar in three pieces, so that the fewlight artillery pieces they had could be hidden inside the caterpillar.Whenever a gap formed between the sections, the scorpions and heavy repeaterscould provide covering fire for the advancing cohort.
“Load up!” Julius ordered.
Men rushed to their positions. Artillery crews manhandledtheir gear into their marching slots.
“Gwendyrn, I want you to take charge of the third section.You’ve got the ten-pound ballistae; try to knock out their weaponry. AuxiliaCenturion Druvic will take the second segment. Let’s move fast, gentlemen; wehave to take this tower and retake that gate, and we should have had that doneyesterday!” He yelled as he took his place under the first caterpillar section.The men cheered.
The siege pieces began to move forward toward the shatteredopening at the base of the wall where the door used to be. They had to movearound debris in the street, so it looked as though the segments wereslithering toward the tower.
Up in the tower, the rebel commander was concerned. He hadtaken the tower through first treachery, then assault. A member of the garrisonhad been convinced to disable the tower weapons before opening the door, but aconscientious guard had killed the man before he’d completed his assignment.They’d succeeded in storming the tower, but those blasted loyalists were stilltrying to retake it. And now he was running low on ammunition.
Knowing the importance of the tower, the rebel commandersent half his force down to the main level to deal with the approachingcaterpillar while keeping the rest in reserve. The men tramped down the stairsor took the central elevator down to the first floor. They armed themselveswith captured repeater crossbows and took cover behind positions facing theentrance. There they waited, while the improvised Roman caterpillar movedcloser. When the siege crawler was about fifty feet from their objective, themen hidden inside the tower’s dark interior unleashed their bolts.