Chapter 1: Downpour

“By late spring, two years after the great tremor, the Hassian people found themselves in the depths of disparity. Though their city had been rebuilt with admirable speed and their ports continued to bring them wealth, the near constant torrential downpour that was matched only by the seemingly constant stream of bad news in varying severity had brought all of society down into a slump.”

-the Chronicler Usibeos, Epics of Last Free City

-May, 68BCE-

“Put your backs into it you wretched dogs!” Severinus Primus hollard through the rain. for miles in either direction all one could see was good honest labour done by a Hassian Field Army. “The Roman Army builds roads that will used for generations and forts that become the hearts of thriving cities on a regular basis, and you’re telling me that a little rain is going to stop you from building a wall?!”

From horseback, Legatus Kelly and General Rin Galeil watched the men work. “So you Romans use your army for civil works?” Rin questioned. “I was under the impression that this was just to improve the army’s work ethic.”

“Well you can have the army do it for free, or you can pay for some private business to subcontract it out to the lowest bidder.” Kelly replied. “It also is important as armies should be expected to build their own field works.” Rin nodded his head in understanding. “Now if you'll excuse me, that officer sounds a tad too Latin for my comfort.” he said and rode over towards where Severinus was directing construction.

Severinus scowled as the Roman Legatus rode towards him on his pompous purebred horse, proudly wearing his pompous red cape and pompous bronze chest piece. “Oh Jupiter give me patience…”

“You there.” Kelly called out. “You sound awfully Latin, and you know quite a bit about the Roman Army.”

“Yes. I was a Centurion before I realized that Pompey didn’t pay, and that the fine city of Has did.” Severinus replied.

“You are aware of the punishment for desertion?”

“Yes, I will be publicly beat to death by my peers.” He said. “I am also aware of the fact that this isn’t Rome.” He said, and as if on cue, a very large Briton wielding a wooden mallet walked up behind him and stood there imposingly.

“Very well then.” Kelly said through gritted teeth. Then, feeling the need to exert some of his authority shouted out for all to hear, “Any man caught shirking work will spend the night in stocks on the bad side of the wall, with is trousers down and his busem bared to that forest full of Atrebates!” He said and rode off to inspect construction further down the line.

At the Council building a meeting was in session. Chlotharius Alban a Belgian, and proud member of the Hassian Council, addressed the council’s guest. “Admiral Ardghal, today’s council session has been called to discuss your reluctance to deploy the fleet. The summer trade season will soon be upon us and we need the seas to be pirate free. Your response.”

Ardghal took a deep breath to help compose himself, his dad did this every day, surely he could do this, “A fair concern. Unfortunately the weather has been highly unseasonable, the wind and rain has created a fierce and choppy body of water that would be suicidal to patrol. When the weather finally clears I will personally lead a campaign to pacify the tribes of the Celtic coasts and those of the Germanic Sea.”

“Big words for a man who’s afraid of a little rain!” One councilor called out.

“Ardghal is the man who circumnavigated the island of the Milesians, clearly if he is uncomfortable with the conditions then they must be truly dangerous.” Another, who Ardghal recognised as one of his father’s former friends called out.

Chlotharius gave a sigh of exasperation, “People, we are not here to point fingers! We are here for solutions!”

“I propose a combined land and sea assault on Suebia, the Germans are the worst pirates and unlike the Celts they aren’t even civilised enough to trade!” One man proposed.

“Riddiculous! Landing an entire army on the south shore of the Germanic Sea would be an amazing feat even by Alexander’s standards!” Another yelled back.

The room exploded into bickering over logistics, cost, potential gain, and something about elephants. Ardghal could only sigh as the council became a shouting match.

In a small tavern within the city an extremely drunk Agon was ranting on about his problems to one of the establishment’s regulars. “So… soo… this Roman prick comes up here  to tell me how to to my… my… my job. BUT! He like d-doesn’t do that! He just spends all his time getting the field army to build this stupidly large wall from Caerloyw all the way to Rughenor. I tell you it’s a *hic* conspiracy made by the Councilors and the Romans to stunt the growth of Has!”

“Please sit somewhere else.” Morgan asked kindly. and watched as the tall Illyrian lumbered off and passed out on the floor a few feet away. He heard the tavern door swing open and he watched as a large Italian and a tall Balt entered the Tavern. “Richis! Julius! Wonderful to see you all!”

“As it is wonderful to see you!” Richis Dropbearis Vindictus replied. “Now where are the wenches at, it’s time for a celebration!” He said as he looked around the room expectantly.

“Now now those lovely ladies only come out during the later hours. Come sit down let us talk.” Morgan said and turned to Julius, “So I heard that you have been off exploring? Do tell.”

“Oh yes!” Julius began, “Normally I explore by sea, obviously not in this weather. So I resolved to walk around the entire Hassian Peninsula!” He said, beaming with pride. “My feet hurt now…”

“Oh wow that’s a long journey!” Morgan said in amazement.

“If your feet hurt you can walk it off later. Come on tell us what you saw!” Richis urged.

“Well I was surprised to see  that Britons farm the same way as the people of my homeland. I saw the wall construction, it seems to be coming along nicely. I tried to visit an Illyrian village, but they threw axes at me. I saw a giant Celtic rock circle, that was nice. There were a lot of cliffs and forests. I was chased by some crazy Briton who wanted to drive me back to Greece. It was good, and horrifying.” Julius explained.

“Now one of these days I just must take you guys to see what really should be my kingdom.” Morgan said, and momentarily day dreamed about a triumphant return to his tribal kingdom in central Britain. “So Richis, what have you been up to?”

“Well, shortly after the fall harvest I bought a few stores of grain with my immeasurable riches, and right now I’m debating whether I should sell it to the starving masses at an exorbitant price, or if I shall give it away and hope to use this act of kindness as a means to get favours from the people.” He said and took a swing of his mead.

“I’d suggest-” Morgan was cut off when the door of the tavern was thrown wide open and a dozen city guards marched in, picked their passed out commander off the floor, then marched over to where the three of them sat and grabbed Julius.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Richis demanded as he and Morgan gave chase to the group of guards who were hauling off their friend.

-Central England, lands of the Atrebates-

The Atrebates were among the most powerful tribes of Britain. They were also entirely unsurpassed in their aggression towards the city of Has. They were the main reason why the wall was being built.

However, while building that wall, the field army of General Rin was vulnerable to attack. That’s where General Sheogorath and his army of irregulars came in. He had been tasked with leading an army of Hassian Britons and mercenaries in the lands beyond the wall to intercept any large Atrebate force that ventured too close.

Three days ago he had heard news, a force of nearly 2 thousand Atrebates and an unknown number of allied Britons were marching on the wall. After a night of studying his maps  he decided that his best course of action would be to deploy his forces in the area in and around a clearing that cut through the forest foot path that the enemy would most likely take. Thus he stood within his chariot and looked out upon the path.  conditions were perfect as a dense fog had begun to settle over the land. Then he heard it. The call of the black bird his forward forces were giving him a warning.

Within a few minutes he heard footsteps, thousands of them. His hand tightened on his long sword and he awaited for them to come into view. When they did it had the expected result, they abruptly stopped and confusion set in amongst the ranks. They hadn’t expected to see anyone on this path, and the chariot was the greatest symbol of authority amongst the Britons. Shegorath smiled when he noticed the mood of the enemy force change from confusion to outright panic, his forward forces were doing their job.

“Well what are you waiting for? Kill them!” he ordered and felt the ripple of air as the chariot mounted scorpion ballista hurled it’s massive steel tipped bolt at the enemy, disrupting their attempt to form a shield wall. From the flanks came mercenary cavalry from Cantabria, throwing their soliferrum javelins as they rode into direct melee with the disorganised enemy, and his axe-wielding war band  charged in to support. As the enemy broke and tried to retreat he  committed his chariots to the fight. When he neared a retreating enemy he swung his sword as the small bit of exposed flesh allowed by the warrior’s armour and helmet. The blow struck its target and cut into its victim’s spinal cord. He repeated the process for each retreating foe that his chariot caught up with. Within a matter of moments the engagement in the clearing had been decided, he took the reins of the chariot from the driver and cautiously moved down the forest path.

The path was lined with woad-painted bodies. These men, the ones who had tried to stand and fight had at least met a proper warrior’s fate against his Hassian Briton warbands. As his chariot bumped over the bodies he saw some of the last fights in the forest wrapping up decisively in his favour. Sheogorath allowed himself a smile, and soon the mad general of Has was laughing maniacally as he rode down the path.

Upon reaching the part of the path that  that would have had the column's rear guard he brought his chariot to a halt. The retreating enemy had been driven here, to a V-shaped formation of pikes that would have acted as a collection point for the fleeing enemy. This was the coward’s fate, a literal meat grinder as roughly two hundred pikes struck at the lightly armoured Atrebate soldiers from three sides, and the rest of Sheogorath’s army moved into seal the exit. He stepped out of his chariot and found a suitably nimble looking horseman. “Go tell Rin that he need not worry about attack in the next few months, it will take the Atrebates nearly a year to recover from a defeat this severe.” The man nodded and  rode off to deliver the message. Sheogorath then turned his attention the the growing body count generated by his pikes. “Excellent.” He said and returned to his chariot.

Back in the Council Chamber, Chlotharius was trying to bury his head in his hands. The debate over whether or not to invade Germania had escalated greatly. At the moment the City Guard was doing its best to enforce order in the chamber, Admiral Ardghal spoke of current ship construction, a tinkerer (who had been brought out of house arrest for just this occasion) was trying to explain how his invention of a spring loaded wheel would allow for better movement of supply wagons through the vast forests of Germania, and a Priestess of the Greco-Roman faith had started giving predictions of this storm finally breaking in three weeks’ time. The doors of a the chamber flew open again and more guards entered, this time dragging along their drunk leader, and a Balt with worn out shoes. They were followed by an angry looking Celt and a rich looking Roman.

“Here this is the man I’ve told you about, the one who explored the Germanic Sea and landed on its coast!” one of the council members from before exclaimed. “Surely he can enlighten us as to the true possibility for an invasion of Germania.”

All eyes in the room fell on Julius. “I… I… Ugh… I guess it’s possible. You would have to put a large focus on securing the Jutland Peninsula first, that way you won’t have to worry about them cutting off your supply lines. Then after that you’d have the ever painful job of differentiating between pirate Germanic tribes and trading Germanic tribes. Then after that it’s a matter of finding a good beach to land on and hoping that your punitive raid doesn’t get you wrapped up in Germania’s complicated web of alliances and blood feuds.” He finished and nervously looked around the room.

Chlotharius had really had enough of this. He stood up, and spoke loudly for all to hear, “Ok I think we’ve all heard enough. Can we please just vote on whether or not we shall pursue this invasion plan so that we can move on to some other matter?” He waited and the room settled down. “Ok now all for it?” The room exploded with cheers and he eyeballed what appeared to be a two thirds majority. “All against?” Very few hands went up, it appeared that most people in the room would rather abstain than appear unpatriotic. “Then the matter is settled, plans will be drawn up by the military, and we will move on to our next topic, increased punishment for tax evasion.”

“Kelly’s Wall, a massive stone faced earth work stretching across the border of Southwest England, appears often in British folklore. When the Romans found the wall during their conquest of Britain, the Emperor himself refused to venture near it for fear of incurring the wrath of the builder. Supposedly it was one of King Arthur’s last holdouts against the Saxons. The Saxons believed the wall to have been built by giants. Napoleon planned on using the wall to help him establish a defensible beachhead in Britain. In the 1870 Hienrich Schliemann proposed that the wall could be Hassian in origin, this theory has since been confirmed by radiocarbon dating and formal archeological digs.”

-The script for an on site tour guide

A/N:

I hope to get chapter 2 out as soon as possible.