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Frank

War games were going to be epic. And for the first time in a long time, the fifth cohort was included in the planning. He and Dakota spoke with legion four (Joan and a girl named Nelly), and three (Brady Johnson and some dude named Fiske).
The big excitement in the fifth cohort was that Jason was back. Seeing as Percy was praetor, Jason was technically legionnaire even if he wasn't training. Tonight he was playing, and everyone was pretty excited. He was being overwhelmed with questions as the cohort waited for instructions.
Piper and Leo were being included in the planning.
"We're on offence again, right?" Brady asked.
"Yes," Joan said. "I say we go to basic plan. We send the fifth cohort in to clear the way for the rest of us."
"You mean as you watch us get creamed?" Frank said. "No; we're not doing that again, and now they know what Hazel can do. They'll watch out more inside, they'll expected it."
"Can I say something?" Piper asked.
"Sure," Nelly said kindly.
"Why don't you use a Greek strategy?" She asked.
"A Greek strategy?" Joan repeated.
"Yes. As in a strategy with which the Greeks took cities…"
"I know what it means!" She said flaring up. Frank would never admitted but he loved when Piper did that. Joan wasn't Frank's favourite person –sister or not- and so seeing her aggravated was like a mini personal victory.
"Why do you think this'd work?" Brady asked.
"Because they won't see it coming," Piper said. "Octavian's in there, he won't even think of it coming. The only person who would possibly have a clue of how to react would have to be Annabeth, and there's no way that he'd listen to her."
"She's got a point," Brady said.
Joan crossed her arms stubbornly.
"What do you suggest?" She asked.
"That depends," Piper said. "Is there a time limit? Is the fort stone?"
"No, it's too hard to take down and rebuild- which is why Roman forts weren't built out of stone unless the location was definite for decades. The engineers have this new material that's solid as stone but lightweight." Joan said.
She looked really unimpressed with all of this, but she was alone. Brady had never hated Leo, Dakota had made friends with Percy (or was too hung over to hate on anybody), Nelly was just sweet, and Fiske just… Didn't have a reason to hate anybody. Everyone seemed onboard with what Piper was saying.
"Then the rams wouldn't work… What do you usually do?"
"They send the fifth in to try and clear the way while they watch us get creamed." Frank said. Piper frowned.
"Okay. One Greek technique was a siege tower."
"A siege tower?"
"Yeah," Piper said. "And they had a dozen other weapons involved. Ever heard of Greek fire?"
Frank liked it already.

Annabeth

She felt a storm coming. She had a feeling these war games weren't games, and they weren't capture-the-flag rivalries. Not even Hunter vs. Camper rivalry.
Octavian had brought her along to the strategy meeting with the second cohort- but Annabeth was pretty sure that it was only because he had no choice.
"Jackson isn't playing, which means we can use the water cannons without a threat," Maya- the main centurion for the second cohort said.
What had he done with the water cannons? Backed up the whole system?
"-And they won't use underground tunnels a second time because they know we'll see it coming." Octavian said. "They'll put Zhang's powers to use, but we can't prepare for that. We'll have to make-do on the battlefield. But defence is going to have to be strong on the door. If they use him as a ram as well as Hannibal…"
Octavian was actually thinking things through. Annabeth was impressed.
"Or we could have people with barrels of boiling arrows on the wall above," someone suggested. "Neither of them would like that, and it would put both Zhang and the elephant out of battle." Maya said.
Yeah, for a week! Annabeth thought.
Maya was okay from what Annabeth heard (okay if you weren't Greek), but she was 4 feet five of pure violence.
As she listened to them talk and negotiate positions, Annabeth started thinking about how the defence was great except for one pretty important factor.
"What if they adopt a Greek siege technique?" She blurted.
"What do you mean?" Octavian asked harshly.
"The defence is great, the fort would be unbreakable if you were fighting only Roman. But there are two people with Greek ideas over there, and judging from what I hear, you wouldn't be able to defend against that."
Octavian crinkled his nose.
"Two people. In a Roman camp. You're not home anymore, people won't fight like it. Our defence is fine," Octavian said. His pride was swelling up and blocking some options, here. Annabeth hoped that Piper and Leo were having better luck.

Frank

The plan was intense, violent, and actually likely to work. Frank felt nearly as confident as he had during the last War Games with Hazel and Percy.
He talked to Hazel as they made their way to the fields of Mars after eating supper early.
"You okay?"
"Yes," she said. "This'll work." Hazel said.
"You look worried. I'm sure you'll do great." He said.
"Thanks but that's not it."
"What is it?" He asked. Hazel looked at the ground and he knew what it was before she even spoke. Sammy.
"Nothing, it'll be okay." She said. Frank wasn't sure that anything was going to be okay, but he was going to take this one battle at a time.
Starting with tonight.
Leo was talking to Brady already. Piper was looking over at the fort already, as if wondering how to breach it.
"Where's Joan?" Frank asked.
"Pouting." Piper said. "Something about not going to let herself get commanded by Greeks."
"Go back and tell her that she'd have to show up and play her part then. Make sure you mention that Zhang said it."
"Don't worry about that, I'm not going to throw myself under the bus for saying that." Piper said with a smile as she headed back to the pavilion. Frank smiled too and turned to Leo.
"You got it?"
"'Course," Leo said. He pulled out a thick rope with a grappling hook tied at the end. The grappling hook was made out of some Imperial gold swords that hadn't survived the giant's attack.
"So that's a ship sinker?" Hazel asked.
"Tonight it's a fort sinker," Leo said. "They used to hook these under the hull of a ship. An ox would pull and the boat would tip out of the water. Then the ropes were cut and the boat just smashed back into the water. That said; we have a layer of bronze platting on the Argo II's hull."
"Cool," Frank said. He really was excited. At the other end of the rope there were two harnesses that looked humongous. Hazel ran her fingers under the leather.
"I can't believe you made that in less than a day." She said with wonder. Leo shrugged.
"I've been building a boat for the last 8 months, power building's a second nature now, and Jacky and Martin helped." He said.
"So where are we going to have the horse pull?" Brady asked. Leo took a second harnass out and gave it to Hazel.
"Clip one end on Arion's saddle, clip the other on the rope when you're ready to pull. If you're needed somewhere else on the battlefield, you just unclip."
"Clip, unclip- got it."
"And the soldiers are going to have to pull with their hands." Leo said. "There are a couple of hand holds like in a subway from the spare leather, but..."
"It's great Leo," Frank said. "This thing is going to kick butt."