[Mkguild] Roman story part 16

[cokane8116 at aol.com]

Here is the next part! 



   The next several days were filled withdefending the fortress. Half the legion stayed in the fortress and defended it fromthe other half’s attempt to take it. The first day the prey cohorts defendedwhile the predator attacked. Second day the predator defended while the preyattacked.    Bitt’s century like all the others spent thenight before building mantlets. Three wagons piled high with precut timber hadarrived before dark. Each beam and board was numbered and it was a matter ofassembling the pieces to form each mantlet. Everyone was a full sized screen. Alittle over four pes high and twice that wide. Enough space for severallegionnaires to stand behind in relative safety. They would be used for protectionfor archers while they loosed arrows at the defenders on the walls.    It was late when they finished and retiredto their tents to get some sleep.    Dawn found the two sides prepared. The preylegionnaires were on the parapet and ready. The predators, their attacks wereoutside of arrow range and also ready.     This was not a true siege. Those lasted formonths and involved constructing massive siege engines like ballista andcatapults. But massive weapons like that tended to smash and kill everythingthey came into contact with. And the idea of this was to train thelegionnaires, not kill or maim them. So the heavy artillery was left back in themain fortress. Under guard of course.    This was what later generations would call ahasty attack. An attempt to overwhelm the defenders quickly and thus avoid along, drawn out siege.    For this fight they got help in the form ofthe 12th Capasonian Sagittari. They were an Auxilia unit of archersstationed at a smaller fortress, a short distance from Gemellae. They too weredivided between predator and prey. So half stood outside the fortress ready tohelp take it and the rest were inside, ready to try and stop them. Each of thearchers was wearing Lorica Squamata. The empire name for scale mail armor whichwas made of bronze and iron scales sewn onto a leather backing. It gave decentprotection but not as good as lorica hamata or lorica segmentata. But it waslighter and easier to move around in. Important requirements for an archer. Forthe bows they used each had one made of a composite of wood, horn and othermaterials glued together. As tall as the person wielding it.    On the east side of the fort Bitt’s entirecentury was concentrated. They were lined up just outside of arrow range. Infront of them were the mantlets they had built last night. Crouching behindeach one was a pair of archers.    There was the loud blaring of trumpets andthe attack commenced.    “Form Testudo!” Came the sharp order fromCenturion Feriolius.    The legion is famous for many things; one isthe gladius – the short sword they used to conquer the known world. Another wasthe Testudo formation.     The legionnaires would form a square withtheir shields facing a specific direction. Those in front with their shieldsinterlocked to the front. Those behind facing the rear or the sides interlockedto their assigned side. Those in the middle held their shields overhead. Whendone right it created a sold block of legionnaires protected on all sides andabove by interlocked shields. It was a very powerfully protective formation.But one more easily described that achieved. It took long training and a lot ofrepetition to do right. And walking was not easy as all the legionnaires hadmove in unison, even more so than normally as one missed step would leave a gapin the shield walls that could be fatal in real battle.    Two full centuries attacked the south gate.They had with them a massive battering ram. It was two pes in diameterand over forty pes long. Suspended on chains it hung from a framework of thick,heavy timbers. The entire thing moved on massive wheels that took a score oflegionnaires to move. They had spent the night before assembling it from thepieces carefully hauled out in wagons.    Bitt found himself standing in the front rowof his contubernium. In addition to carrying his shield he had an axe. The wolfnext to him had a shovel. All those around him had either one of the other.Still others had bundles of sticks and branches tied into thick bundles.    The fortress was a typical Legionnairemarching camp. It was shaped like a playing card. It’s walls were a bank somefour pex high with a palisade of wooden logs another three pes high on top. Infront of that was a shallow ditch that had been dug and the earth used to formthe bank. Neither separately presented a serious threat to an attack but togetherand defended by good troops they were a formidable obstacle to an army.Especially one not used to or equipped for siege warfare. If this was a realsiege in front of the ditch the ground would be littered with a wide field of fiendishlyspikes. Their points waiting to spear the paws of an unwary attacker. But thecommander could only make training realistic to a point. So the ground aroundthe ditch was strewn with small stones and rocks. Annoying but hardlydangerous.    As they moved forward the defenders insidehurled and shot all sorts of missiles at them. If this was a real fight thesewould be pilum, arrows and even rocks. Supplemented by boiling water poureddown on them when the attackers were closer. But this was training so the arrowsand pilum were made of wicker and the rocks were merely balls of dried mud.Painful to get hit by but hardly dangerous. The rule was simple. You get hityou were considered ‘dead’ and had to drop out.    First they had to cross the ditch and then climbthe slope to the palisade. The bundles of sticks were passed forward and dumpedinto the ditch until it was filled at the one spot. Slowly they moved on to thestick filled ditch. The floor squeaked and sagged in many spots but it held asthey marched across it.    Once they got up to the wall Bitt and theothers holding tools filtered forward. His shield was held by Kegan who kept itup over his head. Bitt used the axe and attacked the wood wall of the fortresswith gusto. The idea way to chop down the logs that made up the palisade of thefortress. While that was happening the prey legionnaires continued to rain downall manner of items. Most were stopped by the shields interlocked over theirheads but the occasional spear or mudball got through.    While this was going on off to their leftanother testudo was also attacking the wall some fifty feet away. And to theirright yet another one was doing the same. The rest of the century was in ranksjust outside the ditch throwing pilum, rocks and arrows at the wall. Thearchers behind their mantlets were showering the fortress walls with arrowsthat had no points and were made of reed.    It was very hard work for Bitt. He was intight surroundings and couldn’t really swing the axe fully for fear of hittinganother legionnaire.    One moment he chopping away at the palisadeand WHAM! Something hit him hard in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Hewas too dazed to know what was happening. When he regained his senses onelegionnaire was holding him up while another was splashing water over his face.He had gotten hit in the chest with a training pilum. Just a long, wooden shaftbut thrown with energy and skill. His armor had absorbed most of the blow but everythingseemed to hurt. Just moving was painful.    It was a great relief to Bitt when theLegion commander called a halt. Bitt couldn’t tell who had won and was inenough pain that he didn’t really care.    Getting his armor off was a painfulexperience but he finally managed it. Tossius spent an hour putting a cool ragonto Bitt’s sore chest to ease the pain.    Bitt slept well that night. Worn out fromthe exertions of the assault. He also had several welts and bruises where hehad been hit. Where he had been hit in the chest was a really big bruise andeverything hurt.    The next day was spent in fixing all thedamage they had done the day before. That meant redigging the ditch andrepairing the damaged palisade. It was hard work but a whole lot better thanhaving people throw and toss large, painful objects at him.  *******************     On the third day Bitt and the others in hiscentury found themselves standing on the east parapet. They were defending itwith wooden swords and blunt pilum again the prey species of another century. Theywere carrying the same weapons plus ladders, axes and shovels. The wall itselfwas a line of wooden posts (tree trunks actually) driven into the ground.Behind the wall was a small platform for the legionnaires to stand on. Thisgave them a height advantage over anyone trying to climb over. Mixed in withthe Legionnaires were the archers of the 12thCapasonian Sagittari.   Bitt found himself standing next to a Jackal named Talib. He was a amiablesort and they chatted a little before the battle started. The jackal was amember of the Auxilia for over a decade. He was from the town of Humeima only ashort distance away from the fortress of Betthorus. Where the 12thCapasonian Sagittari was garrisoned. Talib had four children and was hopingthat his oldest son would join the unit like he had and as his own father hadbefore him.    The fox got a good look at the bow thearcher used. It was as tall as Talib and was made of layers of wood, horn andsinew glued together in layers. Complex to make it was a powerful weapon andBitt couldn’t even draw it back. He gained a new respect for the deadliness ofarchery.    When the attack started the prey closedranks and charged at the wall. Some attacked it directly. First they filled inthe ditch with bundles and then crossed over to the wall. The wooden wall wasattacked with axes and shovels trying to tear it down while the rest tried toscale it using the ladders.    Groups hanging back showered the walls with(blunt, easily broken) pilum and arrows. Just behind them was a line ofmantlets with archers behind them. Each showering arrows at the attackers.    One group formed a testudo and when they gotclose some hopped on top of it and then climbed the short distance to the topof the wall. Bitt found himself eye level with a gazelle and a pony. Bothlegionnaires attacked with gusto.  Bittdeflected the blows of the gazelle with his shield while he parried the swordthrusts of the pony.    The fox had a rough time of it for a fewmoments trying to counter both. Then Tossius came to the rescue and startedfighting the gazelle.    There was several intense moments thatseemed to Bitt to last forever as he dueled the pony. Deflecting his opponentsblade with his shield while trying to get past the pony’s shield.    There was a loud CRACK and the wall in frontof him and the platform Bitt was standing on started to shift. He realized thetwo on top of the testudo were not the real threat. They were just thedistraction for the legionnaires working below them. Chopping and hacking atthe wall.    The platform started to collapse and theyjumped down. Bitt and his fellow legionnaires formed ranks in a semicirclearound where the wall was collapsing. The prey species came charging throughthe breach and were met with a solid shield wall. At that point the commandercalled a halt.  ***************     After several days of occupying their fieldcastrum the Legio Legatus decided that it was time to go home. This entailednot just packing and leaving but taking apart the small fortress they had solaboriously built. Pulling down all the banks and filling back in the ditches.Then there was the long march back with Bitt cajoling, leading and cursing atAlbashiea the whole way. But she didn’t put up much resistance understandingthat at the end of this trip was a nice, cool stable.    It was a long march in the stifling heat.Everyone was miserable and the journey was made with frequent breaks.    It was long after dark when they finallyreached the fortress but the day was not over yet. The animals had to beunsaddled, fed, cleaned and put into the stables. All the armor and weapons hadto be cleaned and stored away. Only then were the Legionnaires dismissed forthe night.    All of them gratefully crawled into theirbunks and fell asleep right away.    They weren’t allowed in the bathhouse tillthey washed the worst dirt off outside. Bitt was willing to wait for theprivilege of finally being able to sit in the hot waters of the Calderium. Andto add to the enjoyment he brought a jug of wine and a sack filled with somecheese and bits of cooked meat treats.    There was already a good crowd there. Somewere in the water, others were resting or getting a massage. A dice game ofsome sort was going on in one corner and someone was playing music inanother.  Bitt settled into the hot waterand started to relax. His chest was still sore from that pilum and the hotwater soothed the pain. After a few minutes and several drinks he was feeling alot better.  ******************
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