Diversionary Tactics
2 Months Later – Early 2263
Three days after Caesar arrived at the Long Shadows Fortress, the entire 4th Cohort was marching east into the vast wilderness of Hidebark territory, an open, mountainous land east of Tucson or Two Sun that was always home to those who never backed down from a fight against even the mightiest who invaded it. The land gave birth to the kind of warriors like Geronimo and his raiders over 300 years prior, and by the start of 2263, the land was occupied by an equally if not more formidable foe to its past inhabitants. Descended from the native inhabitants of southeastern Arizona and the scattered survivors from the 2077 armageddon, the land bred people made for conflict, and those who took defeats as motive for further retribution. Whether it was Apaches against Mexicans, lawmen against outlaws, or soldiers against native legends, the sands in this part of the Sonoran Wastes had blood spilled into it for hundreds if not thousands of years. But this was the day of the Legion. Now the land was engulfed in an inferno like never before. The crimson horde moved into the land once again, ready to pick up where the Legate failed and finally put down the land's inhabitants for good.
The Legion marched further east, headed by Caesar himself and seconded by the Elite who dreaded the same fate as the late Legate Marius. With the remnants of the 5th Cohort back in Long Shadows, the hired auxilia of the Interfector largely stayed behind, ready to defend against any potential regional enemies that may try to harm the settlers that swore to Caesar. Though the timing of the Interfector's side project was executed perfectly, the Elite was nervous about the advance into Hidebark territory. After all, Legate Marius was no fool when it came to warfare, although it was believed that pride got the better of him during his failed campaign against the Hidebarks.
Years of warfare up north prepared the Legate for many kinds of tribal enemies, but the Hidebarks' refusal to fight in the open led to a terrible guerrilla campaign that ultimately led to his suicide. The image of what Marius did to himself haunted the Interfector on the march east, but everything the Elite told Caesar about the failures of Marius was taken into consideration, and the adaptations of the Legion were tried in experiment during this second campaign.
Those first days of the march east were slow and uneventful until the Hidebarks that watched Legate Marius return to Long Shadows in humiliation were alerted by the sight of the new force, fully equipped for another war. After those first days, the Hidebark attacks were light and calculated before the savage assaults on the marching column began. Feeling accomplished by what they did to the prior Legion forces, their first victories against the new force were worthy of celebration until the Legion did something the soldiers under Marius didn't. Legate Marius led a nearly continuous march towards Hidebark villages, only for Hidebark scouts to send word to their forces who led diversionary attacks to buy their people more time to pack up and move their settlements to new locations in the region's hills and cliffs. By the time the forces under Marius arrived at these village sites, they'd already moved out while their warriors did everything they could to whittle the Legion's numbers down for weeks at a time. All those advances and continuous marches to nothing destroyed the Legate's forces, and so an altered approach was adopted.
The 4th Cohort under Caesar took those first defeats in stride and developed a simpler but unexpected tactic of setting up shop in the Hidebark lands. Caesar had a fortress constructed in the middle of their enemy's lands as an act of defiance to the Hidebark ambush strategy. As stated previously, the Hidebarks excelled at hitting Legion columns and even camps, but a walled encampment made the weapons of tribal warriors obsolete. Of course, the tribals saw this construction effort and panicked, giving Caesar something that they refused to give Legate Marius: an actual battle.
When the Cohort repelled the Hidebark assault on their construction project, it wasn't more than a few days later that the fortification was operational. Even though the new fort was hastily built and lacking the sort of accommodations of Long Shadows, the thing was built over a great area in the desert with plentiful edible plant life and nearby creatures that made the kind of logistics of Marius' mobile horde unnecessary. With the Cohort establishing a firm foothold in the region, the Hidebark attacks still happened, but the enemy quickly learned to change tactics themselves. Lacking the tools and equipment to take on the fort directly, the Hidebarks knew the Legion well and knew they were only in the area to destroy the tribe. It is because of this that the Legion was no longer just a giant mobile force waiting to be ambushed; their fort allowed them to have an anchored spot in the region where mobile strike forces could be dispersed throughout the territory. Due to this tactic, the Hidebarks had to break up their forces as well in order to hit each Legion formation as they started a "Search and Destroy" campaign against Hidebark settlements.
The dispersal of well-equipped Legion strike forces across the region proved very successful at the start, with 3 Hidebark villages falling in the first weeks of the second month, but the Legion had yet to find the main tribal village, or home of their Chief and Elders. The only downside of these victories was the fact that Hidebark warriors became even more vicious when they watched what happened to their people at the hands of the Legion. Hidebarks from all over the territory got to see many of their people get slaughtered with only few taken back to the Legion's new fort. It was very clear to the enemy with these first victories that the Legion only really intended to have their people destroyed, an act of terror that strengthened resolve on the Hidebarks' side.
Despite this, Caesar knew that the Hidebarks would completely crumble if they managed to find and capture their tribal leadership, which was something that made those previous victories almost irrelevant towards the campaign's progress, and not necessarily indicative of the Legion's motive toward the Hidebarks as a whole. Nearing the end of that second month, the Hidebarks saw their losses, and became even more paranoid that the next village to fall would be the one that ended their people completely.
It is here during the search for the Hidebark Chief and Elders that the story of our duelists picks up. Now this next part of our story is vague, and may not even be accurate, but not a whole lot is known about Legion history at this point, especially given the peculiarity of this particular moment in their rise. It is believed that this campaign against the Hidebarks is shrouded in mystery for a reason, and that is because of how "Legends" in general tend to work. The Legion was very secretive about their history and stories, but some find it curious or at least worth considering the results of this campaign since it appears to be where two separate Legion legends bleed into one another. Consider it true or don't, but some have said that the duelists themselves were almost directly responsible for the emergence of a new legend that would one day overshadow their own.
On one cold morning in early 2263, Caesar was walking the grounds of the territorial fortress with his Elite.
"... I have 34 of my legionaries too wounded to fight, and it's been over a week since the last Hidebark village was razed. I demand to know what you're doing about this, Centurion," said Caesar to his second.
"My Lord, I have all your ready forces out in the wilderness, each accompanied by trackers from Two Sun-"
The Elite was interrupted by Caesar, "I don't want to hear about those scum you hired to serve me! It is because of those dissolute mercenaries that those God Damned stories about some giant are spreading!-"
"My Lord, if I may, those trackers are the reason we're closer than ever to finding the remainder of the enemy leadership. I've focused the bulk of your forces into the south for exactly as you said: the resistance out that way certainly indicates a Hidebark panic about what we'll find in those cliffs."
"Either that or YET ANOTHER DIVERSION!" Shouted the dictator. "You mobilized half of the cohort's legionaries into the south when that's exactly what they want. You better hope that these losses amount to something tangible because now the east and west are almost completely unwatched. For all we know, the chieftains are setting up in the east while the forces you sent south are doing nothing but dying!"
"I understand, Lord Caesar, but I do have the majority of our auxilia filling in the gaps I made when relocating the legionaries southward-"
"As if I can rely on anyone under auxilia, hired or otherwise. So far during this campaign, they've done nothing but talk more about that fictitious Hidebark Monster and flee from Hidebark raiders under the guise of Scouting Operations-"
"I have remedied that, my Lord. I have attached each auxilia unit to veteran or prime detachments of your legionaries. The auxilia groups are supported completely by experienced soldiers to compensate for the relocation of our predominantly lower veterancy based battle groups in the southern hot zone."
"What orders have you given to those 'Gap fillers' in the east and west?" spat the Dictator.
"Well, for example, I have 4 senior officers from the 6th leading one group in the east while Centurion Arman and Lucania lead the effort in the south. If you suspect the chieftain relocation to the east or even west, I do in fact have eyes out that way to monitor for an-"
"And what do you intend to do if your auxilia backed 'Watchers' encounter a village march in places where our forces are too busy in the south?"
"We have to do what we can with the losses and address each situation with tact as they arise, but each auxilia-veteran group is under orders to stay put and send word of any assaults or movements of civilian forces in any of their zones of operation while veteran and prime contuberniae are under the standard pursuit order."
"Do you think they can mobilize the southern relocation legionaries in time if something urgent was seen?" Inquired the dictator, still frustrated by the situation, but choosing to believe his subordinate's competency for the moment.
"I have all the faith in the world in the Twisted Hairs runners to do what's needed, and provided one of the groups from the west or east can back up any section that encounters civilian movements, I see no issue even if we have to rapidly move away from the southern battle zone…"
At the same time, and nearly 15 miles east of the Legion territorial fortification, Aleron marched at the head of the formation, right next to Decanus Gula and the 6th Century's Signifer Decanus Montano. It was unusual for Aleron to be out on the march like that, being part of the Interfector's personal guard, let alone with his rival, but the situation described in the sections above led to unique variations of Legion tactics.
Since the Elite took the head of the Cohort's entire auxilia surplus, the auxilia were split into groups to bolster Legion strike forces across the region while a bulk of the forces were diverted south to confront the heavy resistance out that way. Because of the many mobile strike forces scattered across the region, communication and leadership were key, so Aleron was charged with leading 30 auxilia soldiers, most of whom were Atomic Stalkers alongside the strike group's veteran legionaries. Decanus Gula was leading the 20 veteran legionaries of the strike group, accompanied by Montano whom the 6ths veterans looked up to, especially when the man was bearing the role of a vexillarius.
Marching the endless dirt paths in this land that civilization ignored or time erased, the trek was slow for the past two days, making each soldier auxilia and legionary crave the kind of battle that had been happening in the south for nearly three days at that point. It was late in the morning when it finally happened. The roughly 50 man strike group was marching along a path in the midst of open desert towards a series of cliffs in the east when the first shots came from a sand dune on the unit's left.
Like lightning, the veterans on the outer ranks of the column dropped their packs and fired a spree of retaliatory shots as a volley of spears and rifle fire came from the auxilia making up the center. The dust flared up and began covering the area as more gunshots came and several soldiers collapsed in the ambush. Montano moved towards the center, bearing the flag on his back as Gula ordered the Veterans to storm the sand dune. The veterans swarmed from the ranks past Montano who pointed a pistol at a retreating Hidebark dot in the distance. As the veterans moved up the dune, he almost started sprinting forward to lead and join them in pursuit of the ambushers when he noticed the auxilia's gunfire fading to a stop behind him.
Why weren't the auxilia joining the veterans' pursuit?
When the last of the veterans disappeared over the dune, another series of distant gunshots erupted beneath the noise of a minor brawl. Montano whipped around to see the auxilia troops hadn't left the formation and were treating injuries or collecting themselves while Aleron and Gula were talking to one another. Montano stormed towards Gula and Aleron, still hearing the distant noise of the veteran pursuers.
"What is the meaning of this!? Why aren't these auxilia bolstering the veterans in pursuit!?"
Aleron and Gula turned towards Montano as a Twisted Hairs runner stepped up and Aleron said, "I am under orders to relay message of attacks first before anything and to keep auxilia intact-"
As Aleron turned his attention to the Twisted Hairs scout, Montano interrupted, "Your orders are to bolster our legionaries before anything else! That is the entire point of auxilia!"
Gula had faced Montano with a face that would have said, "Leave this be" if it wasn't for the mask he wore. Aleron had finished giving directive to the Twisted Hairs scout who started running west when he turned back to Montano. "My method of auxilia utilization comes strictly from Lord Interfector."
Still hearing the fighting on the other side of the dune, Gula said, "The situation will be handled approp-" but was interrupted by Aleron who said to Montano murderously;
"Stay in your realm of authority, 'Signifer', I am in charge of this auxilia, Not You. I will lead them according to directive."
As the threat and display of authority entered Montano's ears, Aleron gave a brief order for the auxilia to line the top of the dune and offer sheltered ranged support. When the words of Aleron really sank in, Montano said to Aleron;
"It would be You to shy away from a fight and subvert your True responsibilities when leading an auxilia."
Aleron removed his goggles as the auxilia lined the top of the dune and began helping the veterans with prone ranged fire. Aleron looked to the dune and source of gunshots before looking back at Montano. Gula flashed his gaze between the two before authoritatively stating, "DON'T" but it was too late.
Aleron heard the insult from that man and replied, "And it would be You to shirk your responsibility of leading a veteran charge as a vexillarius, only to obstruct the directives of a centurion."
Memories of the very first duel almost exactly one year prior clouded both men's minds. Aleron was acting under orders, and Montano didn't much care for the order when he felt it got in the way of adequately serving Caesar, and then to be accused of shirking responsibility when his love of Caesar was used against him like a weapon. Still, neither man could or would stand for insult, no matter the situation, especially when there was the implication of cowardice on both sides. This time, Aleron was the first to initiate the action when he drew his gun and aimed it at Montano. In a flash, Montano had done the same, and Gula screamed;
"I'LL HAVE BOTH OF YOU KILLED!"
Neither man heard those words as the guns continued to pop off to the north along that dune, not because of the noise, but because their worlds were lost in their hate for the other yet again. With both men ignoring Gula, the two stated, "You're Dead" simultaneously to one another as they both started walking south from the ambush site and combat zone.
Gula stayed put and drew his weapon, aiming at both of them as they continued to walk south, "CAESAR IS BACK AT CAMP! YOU TWO WILL DIE FOR THIS!"
Neither man said anything, even as Gula put a shot between them to say he was serious. The two disappeared down a small path south of the ambush site and battle zone, not even caring about the lack of witnesses for this upcoming duel, or about the charges Gula was currently preparing in his mind.
Gula knew there was no stopping them unless he killed them outright, but then he'd have to explain why neither of them returned from the ambush honestly. That honesty would likely never even reach Caesar since he'd have to report to Theracos who'd then have to report the situation to the Interfector. If the incident actually went past the Interfector, who'd authorized their conflicts for months, Gula relished the idea of both men being crucified. Though he was unsure if the Interfector would even punish such an event, Gula deemed the situation in the middle of another battle to be enough to get the Elite's attention again, especially if Caesar heard about it. As strange as the Elite was, he would most likely have the two's feud settled on a pair of crosses, especially since it was during a battle, and on a front where Caesar was breathing down the Elite's neck.
If this duel really was the final duel, the victor wouldn't get to celebrate for too long since Gula felt sure that even the Interfector would see to his end when under pressure from Caesar. However, the fates of the duelists were left for another day, because not even 15 minutes after the two disappeared down the southern slopes, the two found themselves with a witness to their mutual combat they didn't expect.
When the two found the 13-year-old Hidebark boy down a set of narrow passes south of the ambush site, all their rage for one another disappeared in an instant as Montano and Aleron gagged and bound him before he could scream. Wondering where they were, they saw the herd of young bighorners around the restrained boy and hauled him to the edge of the southern cliff. From the safety of the hidden sheep trail, the two looked out over a large encampment of Hidebarks, nestled in the bottom of the open ravine. The entire village of what looked to be around 3-400 Hidebark enemies went about their business, quiet as the grave, and seemingly unaware of the duelists on the clifftop.
Before the duel had started, it ended when they found that hidden Hidebark home and the Hidebark tactics made sense to both men as they looked over the scene.
Gula took charge of the auxilia and pursuing veterans, doing his best to balance both the pursuit orders of the veterans and the stay-put orders for Aleron's auxilia, still planning how to have Aleron and Montano killed. 15 minutes after the two departed, the veterans were still tailing the Hidebark force north, not knowing it was only a diversion away from the hidden Hidebark village in their immediate south. Although, between them was Aleron's group of auxilia, ready to relay word of "Civilian movements" and report on any attacks. Though Gula had no idea there was a whole Hidebark village less than 15 minutes south of the ambush site, the legionaries continued to take the bait moving north before Gula called them back to regroup and wait to detain the victor of the duel.
Montano slit the young herder's throat silently as he said, "I'll stay here" and began watching the village from a rocky overlook.
Aleron said plainly, "I'll send word" and began running up the rocks back the way they came.
When Gula saw the lack of blood on Aleron upon returning, he screamed at him for answers, but Aleron instantly ordered the Atomic Stalkers to start pursuing the diversion force so as to not raise suspicion that they found something. Gula still demanded answers, but had the arresting veterans release their grip on him when Aleron gave three separate orders to the auxiliary runners;
"Send word to Dalton the Prime's Force to rally with us here."
"Have Centurion Lucania's force put on standby for relocation from the south."
And lastly, "Find Lord Interfector back at the territorial fortress and tell him we found it."
Gula didn't know what it was exactly that Aleron and apparently Montano found, and neither did they. Although, as the auxilia runners set off, Aleron told Gula that he and his rival discovered a village. It was unknown whether or not the village they found was the campaign's primary target, but those three orders were the ones that meant business. When Aleron, Gula, and the veterans arrived at the scene and regrouped with Montano, they still didn't know if the village they saw was the one that'd end the war against the Hidebarks, but that didn't matter at the time since it was still a settlement of people that needed to be dealt with.
By the end of the day, the auxilia had chased the Hidebark diversionary force far enough and returned to the ambush site where they met with two other nearby strike groups that had moved on the scene after hearing from Aleron's messengers. There, the three strike groups arrived on those cliffs overlooking the hidden camps. Upon arrival, the large force of combined strike groups could hide their presence no more, and all the eyes in that hidden Hidebark camp looked up at those cliffs to find they'd been discovered and surrounded.
As the sun disappeared below the western mountains, the Interfector heard from Aleron's messenger and was on his way east directly behind Caesar himself.
The Hidebarks attacked the duelists' group from the north, feeling that the legion would pursue, thus keeping their village safe in the south. If it wasn't for duelists trying to find privacy for their mutual combat, the Hidebarks' home near the ambush site would've flown completely under the radar, and what happened next probably would have been delayed by months or never even happened at all.