{Fank Wells}
I've been walking for days. They attacked my town in the dead of night. All we heard was screams and the crackleing. They dragged us from our houses and forced us to kneel in the square. All we could hear was their boots on the pavement and the screams of those locked in their burning houses. They walked along the line of kneeling bodies. They dragged us to our feet and forced us to walk. You got 2 strikes fall once and they would drag you to your feet fall again and they slice your throat and dump you. Jeremy fell an hour ago. They killed him and the kicked him into a ditch.
We are approaching a camp. They march us into the camp and a man with white, red and black feathers on his helmet steps forward. The soldiers drag us forward one by one. He assesses them and either gives a thumbs up or thumbs down. A thumbs down has you dragged off a thumbs up gets you dragged into the male or female line. I'm not sure whether receiving a thumbs up is a good thing but at least I'm alive. We are marched a bit further to a station where a bored looking soldier brings out dirty white rags. He has us strip then uses a machete to shave our heads and gives us the rags to wear. We are escorted to a cage where we are left.
Each day we are given some water, bread and broth. Finally a man with brown and black feathers in his helmet approaches the cages. He is accompanied by a soldier with a silver painted helmet with a red stripe. As he walks along the cages he occasionally points at someone and the silver helmeted soldier opens the cage and drags the unfortunate soul out. When he reaches my cage the feathered man points at me and the silver helmeted soldier drags me out and pushes me into the group of 8 men. The feathered man begins walking and the silver helmeted soldier pushes us after him. We reach a table like the one belonging to the guy who gave us our rags. The feathered man steps infront of us. And barks.
"You have been selected to become Initiates. You are worth less than mud and if you fail you will die there will be no compromise. Your first task is to receive your equipment. Form a line."
We shuffle into a line the soldier behind the desk places down a bundle.
"You boys are in luck. We have received the first shipments of the new initiate gear. And believe me, you will be wanting to earn your colour soon if you want something that will actually protect anything."
I collect my bundle and move to the line arrayed in front of him. He marches us to a open area.
"Get those slave rags off your initiates now. Be glad you are now equal to the dirt you stand upon."
We strip and pull on the rough tunic and shorts along with a pair of sandals and a head wrap.
"Good, I am Recruit Decanus Osmodius, I and my Contubernia will break you and rebuild you as legionaries over the next 40 days. NOW DROP AND DO PUSH-UPS UNTIL I TELL YOU TO STOP."
He has us do push ups, pull ups, squats and jumping jack repeat until sun down. Finally he leads us to some wooden pallets draped with tarp and held up by 2 by 4's.
"Sleep you will need it."
The next day we are taken to a different area where wooden swords are layed out.
"You will spar with each other. If you fail or flee the last thing you feel will be these wooden swords as your brothers beat you to death with them."
The training goes on for 20 days. At day 11 he brought in some legionaries who proceeded to beat the shit out of us repeatedly. I shouldn't swear not even in thought. Larry had a rib broken after swearing when a legionary broke his finger. Today is a new day and we are finally being given our machetes, as we exit our shack tents Recruit Decanus Osmodius and his aid are stood before us. Recruit Decanus Osmodius is dressed as usual but Veteran Harvel is wearing fitted steel armour with copper trim and his helmet is encased in metal with a red stripe. New armour has been appearing in patches. I heard that our centurion had authorised several of the veterans to make pilgrimage to a place called flagstaff to receive their new armour. Osmodius stares at us then smirks.
"You may think that receiving your rifle, machete and armour is an honour, that you are moving up in the world. Well I'm here to tell you that that is profligate thinking. Your lives just got harder. You must learn to maintain your rifle, maintain your machete and try to survive the 5 combat missions you must complete in the next 20 days."
We reply in unison.
"Yes Recruit Decanus."
He turns and leads us off however Veteran Harvel begins kicking over our shack tents as if he is looking for something. We walk to an equipment table. The Quarter master looks up.
"Graduating to equipment?" "Correct."
He begins counting out pipe rifles when Veteran Harvel storms over and drags Larry from the line he slams him against the wall and shoves something into his face. As he finally relents as Recruit Decanus Osmodius approaches I can see what is in his hand. It's a copper broach marked with bear.
"WHERE DID YOU GET THIS YOU SNIVELLING PROFLIGATE?" "It's not mine Veteran Harvel." "WHO SAID YOU COULD USE MY NAME PROFLIGATE YOU WILL ADRESS ME AS VETERAN UNTIL SUCH TIME AS I DECIDE YOU ARE NOT THE FILTHY SNIVELLING PROFLIGATE YOU APPEAR TO BE!" "Yes Veteran."
Larry is shaking. He is making a fool of himself, the veteran is scary but showing fear is like waving a sign saying you are weak. Suddenly a man dressed in armour I don't recognise approaches. But the crest I do recognise. From his helmet burst two sprays of red hairs standing straight outwards from his helmet. It's our Centurion.
"Veteran Harvel, why are you making a scene." "Centurion Vares Sir, this broach is a trophy belonging to Veteran Decanus Merces, it went missing 3 days ago after Initiate Larry was taken to the medic tent near his quarters. I found it hidden in his tent."
The Centurion turns and bellows.
"VETERAN DECANUS MERCES, GET HERE NOW."
A man with pure black feathers on his helmet rushes over.
"Yes my Centurion." "Is this your broach."
The Veteran Decanus examines it then nods.
"Yes my Centurion I claimed it from the body of a soldier when on explorations to the west."
Everyone looks at Larry. Under their gazes he cracks.
"I'm sorry, my mother had a broach like that. I just wanted a reminder of home."
By Mars he is an idiot. Veteran Decanus Merces approaches him and grabs him by the throat before slamming him into the wall. Larry chokes and slumps. He receives a kick to the stomach.
"Take him to the slave pens. He is not worthy of continuing."
Two legionaries rush forward but as they lift Larry he gurgles and blood leaks from his lips. The legionaries let him fall and return to their duties, the Centurion and Veteran Decanus leave and the quartermaster removes a piper rifle and machete from the piles then begins counting out squares of metal and lengths of string.
The initiate at the front of the line grabs the pile of rifles, the second the machete's and the third the metal and string. We walk to another area and sit. We pass around the equipment. The machetes are rusty, nothing more than lengths of sharpened metal with a leather handle attached to one end. The pipe rifles are worse, they are single shot rusty abominations. And finally what passes for armour is two pieces of metal with a hole in each corner. The string is threaded through it connecting them. I put mine on and yeah I understand why our lives just got harder. Maintaining this stuff will be next to impossible and we will be lucky of the armour doesn't just fly off. I look up as a legionary approaches. He tosses us a bag each.
"You get bread, cheese and water. You are to march 4 days south to Fort Lex where you will begin the second half of your training. You guys are at a disadvantage, generally you Contuberia of Initiates have 8 men. You guys are going to have to do the work of 8 with only 7. But your in luck Veteran Harvel will be your escort. Good luck."
He chuckles and walked off. Barely 5 minutes later Veteran Harvel approaches.
"On your feet initiates. We will be marching to Fort Lex, we will stop every 2 hours for a rest and bathroom break. You must not eat your rations before we arrive or you will arrive to the first day of the worst 20 days in your life under strength."
He sets off at a brisk march and we fall into formation behind him.
5 days of little sleep and constant marching later we arrive at Fort Lex. Apparently the legionary meant 4 days of uninterrupted travel south. We stumble through the gate into a courtyard and Veteran Harvel marches right up to the Centurion.
"Is this the new batch?" "Yes Centurion." "Why are they under strength?" "One of their number was a snivelling little profligate Centurion." "Very well Veteran you may rest."
Veteran Harvel walks off towards some tents as the Centurion steps forward.
"Now that all 10 squads of Initiates are here we can begin."
I look around out of the 10 squads only one is at full strength.
"Since we have 3 to many Initiates to form proper Contuberia you must kill 3 of your number. Begin."
He steps back as we all stare at each other. If no one does anything then they will begin randomly picking us off if we fight there is a chance to survive. I pull my machete take two steps to the Contuberia to our left and plunge it into a man's chest. The machete doesn't stab well but it is a death sentence either way. I leap back before his fellows can retaliate and in an instant chaos erupts. By killing him I have marked that Contuberia as weak and everyone is going to converge on them as to not lose any of their group. It is a blood bath, I manage to get a few strikes but don't manage to kill anyone finally legionary's swarm in and drag us apart. Punching and kicking us apart. They examine us, two men lay dead and one guy is missing several chunks of his arm, he tries to stand straight and show that he isn't weak but the legionaries slice his throat and let him fall.
"Very well. 3 are dead. We will reform you into 8 Contuberia."
We are randomly sorted into 8 Contuberia.
"Good, now time to train."
For 3 days we relentlessly train. The train us until the sky is far and then on until dawn only then do we eat and sleep on the 4th day a Recruit Decanus approaches my Contuberia.
"With me."
We follow him. He leads us to a quartermaster who hands us a pouch each. Inside are 8 bullets, I tie it to my belt and we walk for 2 hours until we enter a ravine. The Recruit Decanus turns,
"We are scouting for tribal activity. We do not expect combat but be alert. Our lives depend on it."
I remove a bullet from my pouch and chamber it. Over the last 4 days I have done my best to maintain it. Some can't operate their gun and just pull their machete. As we walk along the ravine we examine the walls until I spot it, in the shadows of a crevice is a man. I raise my rifle and lock onto him. A fellow initiate to my left notices where I am aiming as I pull the trigger. The man turns at the sound of my rifle but the bullet plucks at his arm and he screams. The Recruit Decanus snaps onto him and in an instant is upon him beating him to the ground and dragging him into the light.
"Pitiful profligate. If they don't attack soon they will have retreated."
He looks at me.
"Don't waste to many bullets initiate."
I hate that word, they say it like a slur it's an insult disguised as a title. I must succeed, I must prove to these men that I am not a profligate.
We drag the man back to the fort. He is dragged off for interrogation. A fellow member of my Contuberia claps me on my shoulder.
"Well done brother,"
He is cut off by a blow to the jaw a Prime Legionary had materialised as if from the walls. He roared,
"WELL DONE, WELL DONE! HE HAS DONE NOTHING BUT HIS DUTY."
He rounds on me.
"TELL ME INITIATE DO YOU FEEL PROUD FOR CAPTURING THAT PROFLIGATE?"
The answer is simple.
"No Prime Legionary, I am proud of my Contuberia for capturing that profligate."
Every day it was drilled into us again and again we are only as strong as our Contuberia. We win as one and fail as one. I stare at the Initate lay on the flaw clutching his face.
"M-my apologies Prime Legionary I only meant."
He is silenced by a kick to the stomach. The prime legionary glares at me.
"Do not be so quick to use your rifle. Kaiser provides them to you because you must learn to whield all that Mars provides but don't forget guns fail, they jam, misfire and break, a broken blade is just effective at killing as it was before it broke.
The next day we are stood each holding a beam of wood as legionaries watch. The last to keep their beam up would get fish in their broth tonight. As we stand the Centurion appears.
"Today you will be assigned a mentor."
One by one our assigned Legionaries approach standing before their initiate and starring them down. Finally my mentor appears. I try to look at him but the beam blocks my neck. I tilt my body back and see the Prime Legionary from yesterday. He grabs my head and forces it down.
"If you are not the last one standing I will make you stand here all night."
One by one beams fall until it is only me and one other person.
"Your opponent is that profligate initiate who congratulated you. Are you going to lose to a weak snivelling profligate like him." "No Prime Legionary." "Prove it." "Yes prime legionary."
It's amazing what legion training can do. It may be soul crushing and body crushing but if you can survive it you will discover realms of human strength you would never have thought of before, plus the threat of extreme violence makes it easier to draw on strength you didn't know you had. He lasts another 10 minutes before collapsing. I manage about 6 minutes after he collapses before my arms finally give out. The Prime legionary crouches down over me.
"If you thought that you were broken before I will obliterate you."
He walks off. That evening I enjoyed fish in my broth and the next day He took me into the ravine and made me punch the stone wall for hours. If I slowed for a second he made a small cut on my back. Finally once my fists were bloody and raw he let me stop. For 4 days he worked me till I bled. He pushed me past the point of exhaustion every day and dumped my in my tent each night. Finally he took me on patrol of the parimiter this continued. Each morning we went on patrol and each afternoon he pushed me further. My fists were taking longer to bleed and the healing powder was nice even if he did shove it down my throat each night when he dumped me. I've been on 3 more combat patrols and was preparing the final combat patrol when the Centurion strode out his tent.
"It's time. The scouts and frumentari have found the tribal profligates. All Recruit Decanus to me. The location will be marked on your maps. Initiates get ready, you go to war. Succeed here and no one will question your ability's."
Finally we go to war. The recruit decanus rush to the centurions tent and are soon rushing back out examining their maps. Contubaria form up in the prooving grounds. Each consists of 3 legionaries and 4 recruit legionaries. As their Decanus and his veteran legionary arrive they fallout behind him. Our Recruit Decanus appears and checks both us and his normal Contubaria. We quickly begin marching out as Prime Legionaries form into their own squads and two Veteran Decanus appear with Veteran Legionaries wielding long rifles. We vanish into the ravines breaking into a run. Within two hours we are overlooking the tribal settlement. There will be no escape, the tribes scouts were either killed or captured by the scouts. Our recruit Decanus whispers.
"Take aim."
Their is a pause and then the recruit Decanus of every Contubaria shouts in unison.
"Fire"
Bullets tear into the settlement and quickly the tribals are whipped into a frenzy. We quickly send a second round into the settlement. As the tribals are thrown into even more chaos the Centurion shouts.
"CHARGE!"
As one we pull our machetes and charge. The tribals may not have known what was happening especially since every time someone tried to bring order to the chaos they were thrown back by precise sniper fire. The tribals manage to get off a few shots causing an Initiate and a recruit Decanus to stumble but the recruit Decanus recovers and shoves a pouch into his mouth. We crash into the settlement many just cutting their way into the tents rather than slow.
A tribal lunges at me his spear crashing against my chestplate. I turn and the blade of the spear slicing across my chest. I slam my fist into his face and ride him to the ground. I stab at his chest by I have my blade wrong it wedges into his ribs he punches me as I tear it free line it up and slam it down, the spray of hot wet blood hitting me in the face. I have but a second before a burning blade swing as at me. I fold backwards and it just clips my forehead. I punch the hand, it spasms and the burning blade falls free. I scramble for the blade, grab it, and force it into his leg. He screams as I pull it out and begin dragging him to the edge of camp. Once I am free of the churning mass of legionaries and death. A legionary runs up to me and examines him.
"Good work Initiate. You have taken your first slave."
He grabs my arm and uses a pen to draw a line on my wrist. He then pushes me off the guy and wraps his leg with a bandage and drags him off. I turn to reenter the melee and duck into a tent. The side is destroyed letting in a stream of light. I walk around the tent and notice a trap door peaking out from a carpet. I kick back the carpet raise my new sword and open the trapdoor. It's filled with 4 children, I look around, no one has seen me I could close the trap door and no one would know, but no that's not what a legionary would do.
"Out."
The climb out of the hole and stand shaking infront of me one is clutching a bundle. I grab it and open it. Inside is a baby which bursts into tears I shove it back to the girl.
"Shut it up."
She shakingly begins comforting the screaming baby. I point to the ruined hole in the side of the tent with the burning sword.
"Out."
They shuffle out the tent. And I shout.
"Slaves found."
Several legionaries run over and quickly grab the kids before they can run. They count them and the baby and give me 5 lines on my arm before dragging them off. The combat has died down now and any still living tribals are rounded up and put with the already captured ones. I walk through the ruined settlement looking for my Recruit Decanus. I spot him nursing a broken arm with his Veteran Legionary who is caked in blood. Is jog up to them and present the sword I claimed.
"This Initiate presents a trophy he claimed."
My Recruit Decanus takes it and fingers the trigger causing the blade to once again burst into flame.
"Very good anything else?" "This Initiate lost his Machete." "How?" "I left it buried in a profligates chest when I claimed the trophy. I was then to busy claiming a slave for the legion to reclaim it."
He nods.
"Go find your machete Initiate."
I jog bock to where the body was. Luckily it hasn't been dragged off yet and I wrench the blade from his chest and jog back to my recruit Decanus who nods me over to where my Cotumbaria is formed up. We march back to the fort and and form up in the square. I quarter master approaches and grabs our arms counting the lines drawn. He nods when he counts my 6 lines and then walks over to the prime Decanus overseeing. He takes the count and nods.
"Each of you Contumbaria has proven yourselves however."
He looks up and down the row then points to my contumaria.
"You have failed to prove that you are worthy of being legionaries."
We are grabbed and legionaries begin to drag us off to the slave pens when he points at me. No I worked so hard for this, I can't have done all that for nothing.
"This one is the only one of this contumbaria who has succeeded. And he has succeeded with more pristige and ability than any of you profligates."
I am released, thank Mars. The quarter master approaches me.
"I believe you are the one who claimed the Flaming sword as trophy." "Yes Quartemaster."
He wipes my slave tally off and pulls a stamp. He stamps my arm.
"Present that stamp to a quarter master upon reaching the rank of recruit decanus or veteran legionary and you will be returned your trophy."
I nod and fall in among the other successful initiates.
"I congratulate you on climbing the hill at the base of the mountain that is being a member of this legion."
He leads us to a large tent and has us go in one Contubaria at a time finally it is my turn I enter the hot tent to see a woman stood before or portrait of a man with shaved white hair, a strong sharp face and a red tunic under fur.
"Remove your tunic initiate."
I remove my armour and tunic. She pushes me to my knees.
"Repeat after me." "By my life or death, by the strength of my body and mind I give all to Kaiser. In his name I will fight and die, and my death will be for the legion. I swear this under the gaze of Mars." "By my life or death, by the strength of my body and mind I give all to Kaiser. In his name I will fight and die, and my death will be for the legion. I swear this under the gaze of Mars."
As I speak she walks around me and daubs blood onto my body. Once I am done she guides me to my feet.
"Blessed be the legion, recruit." "Blessed be."
She hands me a red tunic which I pull on. Finally I am a member of the legion. I exit through a side flap and fall in with the other new recruit legionaries. We march to the quartermaster who hands us a bundle each. We march to our new tents and are dismissed. I sit in my area of the tent and open my bundle, inside is a collection of pieces of leather armour including a padded leather tunic and some fore arm armour, a steel chestplate and back plate that reach just below my nipples with steel shoulder pads, a black skirt and shorts, leg wraps and some leather shoes, a balaclava, goggles, fingerless gloves and a belt. I quickly get dressed and have a walk around trying out my new equipment. I bask in the glow of the sun.
"Blessed be the legion."