Edward Crichton - The Last Roman

As for Nero and Agrippina, I had no idea where they were, and frankly, couldn’t care less. A part of me wished the pair died in the initial artillery strike, but that seemed unfair. After all, young Nero was still technically innocent, and something as beautiful, albeit evilly beautiful, as Agrippina shouldn’t be wasted.

On the thirty seventh day of the siege, I awoke early around four in the morning, and was not feeling well. I’d slept all right, but it must have been that damn beef patty MRE I had again the previous evening that woke me.

I’ve sworn off the stuff since.

With my upset stomach groaning, I got up slowly so I didn’t disturb Helena. She was still fast asleep; the remnants of her clothing strewn about the tent after I’d aggressively removed them earlier. She looked perfect in the dim light from a dying glow stick that softly illuminated her body, so I retrieved my rifle as quietly as I could and left to wander through the trenches. It was still dark, and there were only a few sentries posted and awake. As I passed by them, they offered me friendly, but tired greetings, mostly paying me little attention. I continued on my morning walk until I found a nice spot to watch the sun rise in the East. Since high school, I made it a point to just sit and watch the sun rise whenever I could. My time in the military, and in the Roman army, granted me many opportunities to be awake during the time, but never any to just sit and enjoy.

It had been a beautiful dawn, followed by an even more stunning sunrise. I didn’t move until the entirety of the sun had cleared the horizon, and was floating just a few feet above the tree line, far in the distance. I could never figure out why I felt better after watching the daily event, I just knew that I did. It made me feel whole. I threw the sun a salute, and continued on my trek.

Along the way, I stopped at each fort, and used my rifle’s scope to check out the walls in case trouble was abrewing. At the last fort before my camp, I set my sights just above a gate’s entrance, and saw the last thing I thought I’d see. Agrippina was standing there, and oddly, she seemed to be looking right at me. There was no way she could have recognized me from the distance we were at, but I could have sworn she’d smiled at me.

I lowered my rifle, rubbed my eyes with my hands, and then the lenses of my scope with a rag. Raising my rifle again, I looked back at where I thought I had seen her only ten seconds earlier, but found nothing. Just an empty wall. I shuddered, finally realizing the odd contrasting similarities between Agrippina’s smile, and Helena’s eyes. Not a person in the world could either unnerve me or confuse me like those two women could. I went back to my tent thoroughly creeped out, and wrapped myself around Helena. In seconds I was back asleep with another hour to burn.

By the time the fiftieth day of the siege rolled around, I’d just about given up any thoughts of it lifting. Besides the few moments of excitement and action, there wasn’t much to do. I spent my time running, practicing swordsmanship, cleaning and preparing my gear, spending some quality time with my reconciled lady friend, and working on my tan. I was a solid bronze, practically Helena standards, by the time Caligula called for a meeting of his senior staff. He told Vincent to bring the rest of us along.

All the usual suspects were present and accounted for, so Caligula began promptly.

“I am sure you are all aware of how the siege is progressing, so I’ll get to the point.” He paused, placed his fists on the table and leaned heavily on them. “We’ve just received reports indicating massive unrest in the city. Many of its citizens are calling for an end to the siege and demanding Claudius do something about it.

“Seven months ago, news of my apparent death didn’t go over well with the public, and while Claudius’ ascension was taken in stride, it was not overwhelming popular. Therefore, our arrival, and my apparent rise from the dead, has made the people question what actually happened the night we left. Thanks in part to Vincent and his people, many felt the gods themselves had fought against my Praetorians. Now, however, they are not so sure.

“This works in our favor. Claudius now has no choice but to face us in open combat, or risk the city rising against him. I do not care how unstable he may be, he is not stupid. He’ll come out and face us.”

He looked at each of us present and met each of our gazes. Most wore stone faced expressions, but some, mostly those of us who had never seen a military engagement of this kind, looked worried. He must have noticed our apprehension.

“Vincent. What can I expect from you and your people?”

Vincent shifted his feet, and looked at each of his operators. I gave him a reassuring nod.

“We’ll fight for you, Caesar,” he replied, confidently.

“Good.”

“I think what the emperor meant is how can you help us?” Galba asked, still looking for a reason to keep us around.

“Three things,” Vincent said, ignoring Galba. “First, we can lay a field of explosives on the battlefield the night before the engagement along a path where we expect our enemy to be. They will trigger when passed by. It should cause significant damage to small portions of the army.”

“Wouldn’t that require them to attack us? As it is that we are besieging them, it would seem that the orders of combat would be reversed,” Galba said, continuing his skepticism and sarcasm.

“Not necessarily, sir. We can sneak close enough to the walls to lay them in the area the enemy will use to form their battle lines. We can hit them any time we want.”

I groaned quietly. That would mean we, probably Helena and I, would have to spend hours crawling under the cover of ghilli suits just to get close enough to lay out a field of demo. It wouldn’t be fun, but it would definitely work.

C-4 was very good at blowing up walls and bringing down buildings, but its blast radius and direction was very concentrated, so laying it on the ground to blow at the enemy’s feet wouldn’t work. We did have a few claymores left, provided in our supplies but what would really help were the few dozen antipersonnel mines we discovered. Nearly invisible to those not directly looking for them, the mines were equipped with laser trip wires. Once triggered, the mine would launch a device a few feet in the air, and explode outwards as it spun, tearing through skin and bone in a twenty yard radius. The few dozen of these we had would be very helpful, indeed.

“Second, we can provide rifle fire to help weed out the enemy at a much farther range than your pila volleys. Since we are within our range already, our sustained fire might force their hand, and cause them to charge us. Once both sides are within pila range, no matter who charges who, we will fall back through your lines and fire when targets of opportunity display themselves only.”

“And the third?” Galba asked insistently.

Vincent looked around the room, maybe deciding if he wanted to continue or not. “Before the battle even begins, should Claudius be present on the battlefield, we, and by ‘we,’ I mean her,” he said, pausing for emphasis as he pointed at Helena, “can eliminate him before he takes two steps onto the field.”

Galba opened his mouth to speak, but just as quickly shut it. He had seen her shoot an apple off of a wall from a few hundred yards away, and must have known she could do what Vincent was offering. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, and since she was a better shot than even I was, Helena, not her rifle, was currently the single most effective weapon on the entire planet.

Caligula appeared more thoughtful than his general, as he too realized Helena could perhaps end the war before it even began. Still leaning on his fists, he looked up and for maybe the first time since both had known each other, looked her square in the eye, and spoke to her as a commander would any of his soldiers.