Romulus
Julia's efforts had borne fruit. Operation Remus compiled data on thousands of Legionaries. Although the records the Legion kept varied greatly from centurion to centurion, Remus gathered the histories from Legionaries' induction to the ranks to their current postings (and in many cases, their deaths).
Due to the expansion of the Legion and the enslavement of more and more Hecate-worshipping tribes, the Daughters had plenty of resources to spare for Remus. There was already a well-established network of Maenads infiltrating the higher echelons of the Legion who (not through any sort of respect afforded them, but rather through the narrow doorway trivialization provided) had unlimited access to Legion records. Using small spy cameras they page by page collected each and every written record the Legion had. Once developed, the photos were given to Sibyls and the numerous Harpies who had lost their tribes, including Athena, who was desperate to know what had become of her own brother Raven. The Sibyls and Harpies recorded every page into a computer algorithm designed by Tiegan to compile the data by Legionary. Tiegan's algorithm was so advanced it would track Legionaries not just by name but also by Contubernia and Centuriae. Print-outs were available on request.
Athena was excited for the assignment, even though it was the brainchild of the woman she feared and hated above all others. She had been taught to read and write when she joined the Daughters of Hecate, but lacked the aptitude with either to become a Sibyl. Although her reports on the Crazy Horns contained some creative spelling, Athena had always carried a few select books close to her heart. Chief among them was a handwritten diary of a teenage girl who lived before the war. She kept it close at all times. Since leaving it behind with the Crazy Horns she was interested in keeping her own diary, but her literacy had deteriorated in the three years she'd spent in hedonist bliss. Transcribing Legion records was a good way to re-familiarize herself with written language. It would get her back into the habit of writing.
Athena wasn't the only one enthused about Remus. Almost all of Hecate's Daughters had lost someone to the Legion, and all had been carrying a secret hurt in their hearts. Many came to the Sibyls of Operation Remus demanding printouts, but many went away unhappy. Some Legionaries had been given new names by Caesar, their old names found only in the memories of their sisters. Many more Daughters were given a link to the family they had lost only to lose them all over again. Life in the Legion was hard, and many men had maybe two entries in the official records, their induction and their death. The loss of life that resulted from total war was astonishing when a clear overview was compiled, and the Legion only recorded the deaths of their own. Surely for the Legion to have the grasp they had on the southwest wasteland meant that their enemies totaled even more dead. Sometimes Athena wondered how there could be anyone left in the former four corners at all. Desperate families had struggled for so long to regain a foothold in such a dangerous place and now it seemed like all that effort was being wiped away by Caesar. What was left in place of all those dead? Fertilizer for the soil, Athena thought bitterly, not that anything worth harvesting ever grows here. Just death and ruin.
Unlike many of her friends, though, Athena received good or at least not bad news from Operation Remus. Her brother was alive and stationed way the hell out of harm's way in Phoenix. Raven had apparently disobeyed an order (the records didn't say what the order was) and as punishment was relocated away from the front lines. Somehow, judging by the records, Raven considered it a punishment, too. He had more and more discipline problems in Phoenix, and although Athena secretly hoped that his 'discipline problems' were defiance of some of the Legion's more repulsive rules, she knew deep down that was probably not the case. In any case he was safe, and that was more than most Daughters could say of their family. Poor Soledad had lost all three of her brothers and a sister. Athena's roommate Sunflower's father had been killed by the Legion when they conquered her tribe (she wasn't there but the Legion's records stated they killed all the men older than thirty) and one of her brothers had been killed in an arena fight by another member of his own contubernia. Sunflower's other brother wasn't mentioned at all, presumably another tribal whose name had been changed by the whims of Caesar.
Atia already knew the fates of her sisters. She had tried to use her influence to make their slavery in the Legion better, but eventually the wasteland ground them down to nothing. They were dead or nearly just by the time she had been sold to Aurelius. So she didn't have much interest in Operation Remus.
Julia also knew the fate of her sibling without Remus. She knew her brother was dead. She even knew Caesar had changed his name. Out of all the Daughters in Ouroboros she was probably the only one who had seen her brother since his forced induction into the Legion. She hadn't started Remus for her, she told herself. She had created Remus for the Daughters. So they could know about their family. So they could have some of the privilege Julia had enjoyed when she spent those scant few days with Heart. With the dead soul.
Yet all the same Julia had secretly printed out a copy of her brother's records with the Legion. She was in the tin shack on the outskirts of Ouroboros. The records sat on the table in front of her. She played with her hair nervously, injected a hit of med-x between her toes. After thirty minutes of staring at the small stack of papers and feeling the opiates slink through her veins, she picked up the first page.