“Alright, javelins… ready!” the decanus called out.
The recruits hefted their javelins up to their shoulders. Artorius picked out a target stake about ten meters to his front.
“Ready…throw!”
With a bit of awkwardness, they threw their javelins at their wooden opponents. Gavius struck his right at the base. Artorius’ javelin skipped off the top of the stake and stuck in the one behind it. Antoninus and Magnus missed entirely.
“Antoninus, Magnus, you owe me two laps around the drill field…move!” Vitruvius shouted.
Immediately, the two young recruits took off at a dead sprint around the field.
“Gavius, you hit your target, however you did not score a fatal hit. Therefore, you owe me one lap around the field.”
Gavius did not even wait for the order to move before he took off running.
“Artorius, I would say that was a good throw were I to believe you meant to strike the target directly behind the one to your front. You also owe me one lap.”
The drill field was quite large, and it took the recruits some time to complete each lap. Once all had finished, Sergeant Vitruvius immediately made them pick up and throw another volley of javelins. This time they fared a little better. Gavius managed to hit his target at knee level before his javelin fell out and landed on the ground. Antoninus and Magnus each hit theirs in the groin, with Antoninus’ javelin falling out with a thud. Artorius struck his target directly in the head. Vitruvius continued to make corrections and assess penalties for each inaccurate throw. Artorius even had to run another lap because the decanus could not believe that he meant to hit his target in the head. On the next volley, he struck his target in the head again, as did Gavius, who seemed to be picking up the skill quickest. This time Vitruvius was convinced it was intentional.
Ingiomerus sat upon his horse, gazing at the river. Scouts were fording the river below, in spite of the extreme cold. It was a risk they had to take since the bridges were now guarded by the Romans. He had a fire going and ushered the scouts over to it as soon as they crossed the Rhine. There were barrels of ale waiting for them as well.
“So what did you find?” the old war chief asked as soon as the scouts had gotten some ale and started to warm themselves by the fire.
“There are eight legions encamped on the other side of the Rhine,” the lead scout answered, shivering as he tried to warm up. “They also have a shit load of auxiliaries. This will not be a series of raids or skirmishes. This will be a full scale invasion.”
Ingiomerus smiled. “At last we will get a chance to finish the fucking Romans once and for all.”
“That is, if Arminius can be convinced to face them in open battle,” one scout remarked as he downed a full bladder of ale.
“Let me handle my nephew,” the old warrior stated.
Training continued for a couple more weeks. Road marches became more frequent. Like all phases of their conditioning, the degree of difficulty was gradually increased. Before he knew it, Artorius found that he could complete the full twenty-five miles in full kit without feeling exhausted. He also realized that he was becoming more and more proficient at weapons drill. He would use his muscular strength to knock his opponents off balance, and he was becoming faster with the gladius with each passing day. His accuracy with the javelin also improved. Eventually, he was able to call a spot where he was aiming and score a precise hit every time. Only Gavius bested him in accuracy with the javelin.
One afternoon, Valgus took them to a different part of the training field. There was a small ballistae set up on a stand. Out in front of it were bales of hay staggered at different ranges. Each bale had a human silhouette painted on it. Standing next to the ballistae was a centurion from the First Cohort and a tribune that Artorius recognized right away. It was Pontius Pilate, his old friend from school. Pilate smiled and nodded at Artorius in acknowledgement. The recruits formed up directly behind the ballistae.
“Recruits,” the centurion began, placing his hand on the weapon, “this is the Scorpion. With me is Tribune Pontius Pilate, Chief of Artillery. I am Centurion Dionysus, Centurion of Artillery. Today we are going to show you men how to operate, maintain, and fire the Scorpion. There are sixty of these in the legion. During a campaign, each century assigns two soldiers to operate a Scorpion. These soldiers then come over and work with our catapult crews when needed. The Scorpion crew consists of a loader and a gunner.”
With that, he stood next to the Scorpion where there was a basket full of bolts. The bolts were about five centimeters in diameter, and about thirty centimeters in length. They had a sharp metal point on one end with four thin wooden guides on the back. There was a hand crank on each side of the Scorpion. Dionysus and Pilate each grabbed one and started to turn them rapidly. This caused the drawstring to pull back. When the cord was at maximum tension, the centurion placed a bolt into the feed tray. Pilate assumed the gunner’s position behind the weapon. At the end of the weapon was a pair of raised stakes. In between the stakes were two sticks laid horizontally. This acted as the sight Pilate was looking through.
“When firing,” he said, “you need to make a quick assessment of the range to your target. The Scorpion is accurate out to about two hundred meters. For close range targets, place the target in the center of your sight.” He then hit the release that fired the weapon.
The bolt flew straight at the nearest bale, hitting precisely in the center of the man silhouette. The recruits were impressed. Dionysus and Pilate quickly cranked the drawstring back again and Dionysus placed another bolt into the feed tray.
“For targets further out, you’ll have to adjust the elevation,” Pilate said. “At maximum range, you should just barely be able to see the top of your target’s head in the sight.” He then looked down the sight and fired again.
The recruits watched as the bolt flew in an arc and impacted right in the center of the farthest target.
“Are there any questions?” Pilate asked.
The recruits had none.
“Alright, Antoninus, Gavius, you’re up first.”
Loading the scorpion was easy enough, but each recruit in turn struggled with hitting even the closest target.
“Don’t worry too much about it. It takes practice to get good at this,” Dionysus said upon seeing the frustration in Gavius’ face. “Pay attention to where the bolts strike and adjust the elevation accordingly.”
Artorius and Magnus had the same difficulties at first. Getting the left to right lateral deviation was easy enough, but inducing just the right amount of elevation was becoming a nightmare. Pilate must have spent hours practicing on this, Artorius mused to himself. Finally, after much frustration and more than a few profane remarks, the recruits were able to hit most of the targets with decent accuracy. Only the farthest target continued to elude them.
“Something to keep in mind,” Pilate told them once he felt they were comfortable with shooting bales of hay, “most of the time your targets will not be stationary. When engaging a moving target, you must remember to induce lead, depending on how fast they are moving. You will also need to induce lead if there is a strong crosswind. Unfortunately, we have no real way of practicing this here, so that is something that will just have to be learned first hand.”
After they finished practicing, and as the other recruits were leaving, Pilate walked over to Artorius, who snapped to attention and saluted.
Pilate smiled, returning the salute. “I see you finally made it over here.”