Last week on Reunion in Legio I: Aeneas rescues his senior Centurion and is put in charge of a raid to sabotage the Celtic ballistae. When he enters the briefing room he finds and old friend and an old enemy.

And now chapter four: “The wall”

Suddenly Aeneas had a flashback to when he had first met Lucius and Claudius. He had been in basic training in Ostia where he had joined up only one week earlier. In that time he had made one good friend and one bitter enemy. It had all happened so unexpectedly. Aeneas was walking to lunch when he came across two other recruits, Claudius and Lucius. Claudius was much bigger and stronger than Lucius and had just stolen some money from the smaller soldier. Aeneas had reported Claudius’s theft to the drill instructor. Had Claudius not been the son of a rich senator he would have been discharged from service. However since he WAS the son of a senator he only lost his first command. But Claudius had never forgiven Aeneas and Lucius for that. 

Aeneas snapped out of the flashback. “Aeneas is that really you?” said Lucius. “Yes,” replied Aeneas. Claudius was equally shocked although he tried to hide it. At that moment the Legate walked in. 

“Are you all familiar with the plan?” asked the Legate.

“Yes sir,” replied Aeneas and Lucius in unison. 

“May I speak sir?” asked Claudius.

“You may,” said the Legate.

“Why do you trust this Legionary with this mission? Its failure could be catastrophic.” “Are you questioning my orders?” said the Legate in a raised tone.

“No sir.” said Claudius. Claudius had the look of a spoiled child who had just been denied candy. 

“You are to cut the torsion spring rope on the ballistae to render them useable.” said the Legate. “Understood sir.” said Aeneas. Claudius sulked in silence.

Later, Aeneas and Lucius were preparing for the raid. 

“So Lucius, how did you get into the praetorian guard?” asked Aeneas. 

“My Centuria was nearly wiped out by the Britons. They were just about to overrun our defenses when the Centurion gave the order to retreat. I held off the Britons single handedly for three hours before reinforcements came and fought them off.” replied Lucius. 

Lucius looked much older as he told the story. When Aeneas had first met Lucius he was always joking around. Although Lucius tried to hide it Aeneas sensed an air of darkness about him. Something about holding that fort for three hours had changed Lucius completely.

It was about 9PM when the squad moved out. It was almost dark out. The nocturnal animals had woken up. An owl swooped over the trees. A few mice scampered over the forest floor. It had rained a few hours before and the smell of fresh rain covered the valley. Wolves howled in the distance. The three Legionarys wore armor that had been painted dark green. They wore leaves as well. They were about to scale the wall when Lucius gave a hand signal to get down. A squad of Celtic raiders was also on the move and advancing towards the legion’s fort. If the legionarys engaged the raiders they would receive fire from archers on both sides. 

“What should we do?” Lucius asked,

“We’ll start a small fire so that our ballistae can see them.” said Claudius 

 Claudius took out a small tinder box. He struck the flint with this steel striker and lit a small piece of charcloth. He then placed the smoldering cloth in a small bunch of dry grass. Finally Claudius threw the bundle at some foliage near the Celtic raiding party. The fire illuminated the clearing with light. The roman ballista batteries opened fire on the Celts. The three legionarys remained unnoticed in the chaos. The three soldiers made their way over to the hundred foot wall under the cover of chaos and began to climb.

It took the legionarys about an hour to scale the massive wall. They were just about to scramble over the ramparts when a Celtic watchman poked his head over the ledge.