Written by Mikhail the Tiger
Edited by Cimar
Artwork by CJCO on DA, (AKA aureliano276 on Tumblr)
AN: Hello everyone! WildeHoppsOBS AKA MikhailTheTiger here! First of all, I would like to thank Cimar for allowing me to write for his amazing collection. Second, I would like to say that I have BIG plans for this fic. These 5 "What if...?" chapters are only the beginning. I will be doing a novel-sized fic out of it! Probably start it sometime in the summer, considering how busy I am.
And without further ado, enjoy! I would like to thank Cimar again for beta reading all my chapters and keeping me encouraged through Writer's Blcok."
"Oh crap…." said Nick, looking at the screen. His game of Zootopia Total War had just taken a nasty turn. He was marching some freshly-trained Cohorts through to Gaul in order to reinforce the assault further to their capital, and just as he was getting them further north to finally merge with his main army, he was ambushed….
Outnumbered four to one….
With inexperienced troops….
By elite Gaulic infantry.
He rolled his eyes and was about to hit the auto-resolve key to just finish the pain, but then he remembered that his faction's heir was leading the army. If he lost the battle, which he knew the autoresolve's dice roll would make him do so, his heir died, alongside his six Command stars and level three Management.
He thought for a second to Alt+F4 out of the game, but he was too proud for that.
Damn, he should have sent some Spies into the territorry before bull-rushing the enemy capital. Making the same mistakes in the game he did as a kit…
As he reluctantly pressed the Battle button, he realized he was still at least able to arrange his units beforehand. Maybe he could at least inflict some casualties, kill the Gallic General or get his own General to retreat.
He circled around his archers and Ballistae with Auxiliary Spearmen, knowing they would be able to hold the line, at least enough to cause some damage.
The Gallic Bear infantry was right up the hill, ready to descend on his line of wolf and ram spearmen.
Within the defensive square, he had a Elite Cohort. But just one wouldn't make a difference against multiple Heavy Infantry units.
The ocelots began firing their fire arrows instantly, hitting the extremely close-by Gauls who already began charging down the hill. Wait….
They had no missles.
They were sitting ducks for the archers and ballistae, who slowed down their charge as the flaming missles tore through them. Enough to give him some breathing ground…
His heart hammering, Nick got his Elite Cohorts of Tigers and Lions out of the defensive square and moved to the flank as the artillery was keeping the enemy busy. He moved two units of spearmen to engage the barbarians head on, just to keep them occupied as the elite Infantry was tearing through their flank. One of their units routed….
Then another….
Then he had won the battle.
"YES! TAKE THAT!" he almost screamed, watching the depleted army of ambushers retreating on the campaign map.
"Ahem…" he heard a voice behind him. Turning back, he gulped as he saw Judy with a kit in her arms, nursing him with a baby bottle and a stack of ZPD paperwork held beneath the kit.
"Just one more turn, huh?" she questioned.
Nick felt his shoulders drop in shame. He had let his wife do all the chores in the house as they returned home from work just so he could play a game? There was no more "me" time. He was a father, a husband and a police officer.
"Wait… is that Zootopia Total War!?" asked Judy. Nick smiled back at her as a response.
"I used to play it with my brothers a lot when I was a teen!" she said.
"Yeah, I saw it on a Zteam sale, sooooo…" said Nick.
"Too bad we won't be able to enjoy it much…" she murmured.
Nick let his own shoulders slump as he took the kit from Judy's arms and began feeding their kit himself as Judy was able to focus on the paperwork.
Wait…. weren't they talking about having a night out tonight while his mother took care of the kits?
"Carrots… I think we can enjoy a game or two of that…." he said slyly.
"There we go…" Judica Hoppsen sighed as she loaded the last of the carrots into the cart. The wooden wheels squeaked under the weight as she pulled it toward their food stores.
Tipping the cart over at her destination, she made the carrots fall into the massive pile, the last one for the day.
The log right next to her made for an amazing impromptu bench, allowing her legs to rest after an entire day of working the field. The dusk's sun settled gently behind the city, the statues of gods and goddesses seeming to touch the sun with their spears as it lazily dipped below the tallest building.
She thought for a moment to go for a short walk around the golden wheat fields, or perhaps even around the city, but those thoughts were quickly chased away by her entire body relaxing and her strained muscles thanking her for taking a rest. She grabbed a straw and placed it in between her teeth, wanting nothing more than to spend the rest of the day by watching the city house the sunset until she would finally get back inside for some well-deserved rest.
"Hey, Judica! Hard day, huh sister?" said Albinus, one of her brothers, a completely white hare, save for a black spot around one of his hazel eyes. He was extremely tall for a rabbit, most likely due to their jackrabbit genes which came from the warrior tribes which ruled over them before the Romans came.
He had obviously been working himself on the vineyard, as a fully loaded cart of coloured, fat grapes was right behind him. That, and he was already visibly inebriated, obviously not being able to help himself to steal a "little sip" from the amphorae[0] whenever he went to store the grapes…
He carried a small dagger around his waist, something which he always insisted on having on his person, as despite being a very intelligent and civilized hare, he did tend to go to the more unruly parts of the city quite often, "just for fun" and he was an avid fan of the Arena Games.
No one could have guessed when they saw the daredevil rabbit getting into fights with mammals 3 times his size or chanting with the crowd in the Arena that he was a student at the local Academy in Natural Philosophy, well on his way to follow the teachings of Hippocrates.
In a rabbit family, each of the sometimes hundreds of kits flocked to outpace the other, yet Albinus was her favourite little brother, she had to admit.
Yes, he was a handful. Yes, he got into insane situations which only his grey-furred big sister could get him out of. Yes, right after he would work his paws to the bone at their honourable vineyard and finish his studies for the day at an Academy where only few Citizens of Rome had the wit and privilege to study, he would go inside the city walls to hang out in the Working District, to "prepare himself"…
"Yeah, Albinus. But the best part about these days… is how they end…" she pondered, glancing at the sun setting behind the rolling green hills which hid the rest of the Empire. The last lingering rays of sunlight rested on her fur, offering her the last few moments of heat of the day, combined with the cool soft wind of early dusk, rewarding her efforts of the day.
"I agree, sis. Speaking of which, you wanna go the Forum [1]? I was going there anyway to re-rent our stalls for the next month. Maybe we can stop by the Amphitheatre, or that new Ar-" Albinus stopped before he said the alternative, knowing his sister to not be a fan of the blood sports.
Judica crossed her arms and began thumping her feet at her brother, knowing that he must have once again went to the Arena sometime…
"What? I was just going there to learn some new moves! I am a Town Guard, after all! A soldier of the Legion! Sorta…" Albinius said, scratching the back of his head, looking away from his sister.
Judy continued thumping her foot at her careless brother to the point that it became a blur.
"Well, first of all… you said you had guard duty. Isn't that kinda your job? Once we place the harvest in storage, our brave, strong warriors ought to guard it, right?" she teased.
Albinus's ears fell back as he huffed.
"Hey, you signed up for guard duty! No one else signed you up!" his sister chuckled.
"Alright, alright, you win… But tomorrow promise me we get to watch some Arena games after we finish with the stalls in the Forum. Deal?" he asked.
Judy sighed in defeat. She wiggled her nose at him, scanning him. He stood closer to her, looking down on her with that goddamn smirk…
Just like a certain fox centurion would do…
She shook her head, knowing that her brother could read her like an open book, and she didn't need to be teased once again that she was spending far too much time with the officer…
"Well, you're right, sis. I am every bit as tall and handsome as that fox." He said. Goddammit!
Albinus grunted in pain as his sister jabbed his stomach as swiftly as an Arena pugilist.
Then, he was pulled downward by the collar, being surprised with her strength once again.
"For the last time, Albinus. He was my last customer at the stall, and I chatted him up. I think a Centurion has some interesting stories to say, maybe more than a town guard, hmm?" she lectured, keeping her purple eyes locked onto his.
"Now… how about you run to your post? I think a potential raid is better than facing a pissed off Hoppsen girl, hmm?" she purred.
"After all, what good is a protector of Rome with a broken leg?" she threatened with a smirk.
Her brother gulped, knowing full well not to test his sister's patience.
The pitch-black wolf stood on his hindlegs, scanning the city from his hiding spot in the thick woods nearby. His red eyes flared up with satisfaction as he saw that the houses on the outside of the walls were made up of mostly prey, namely rabbits.
Standing up, Chief Haakon was nearly as tall as a tiger, and every bit as muscular. His horde of wolves, foxes and jackals were waiting behind him, barely containing their warhowls as they gazed at the defenceless outer farms. The barbarians had little in the way of armour, only the richest of them being able to afford anything other than homemade leather armour (true leather, from their enemies' hides). As they didn't have any kind of standardization, the eager warriors took whatever they could get their hands on. Some of the hyenas carried curved swords, while the wolves right next to them, two-handed axes, and spearmen right in the middle of them, without any true unit cohesion.
So much tasty prey…. Just waiting to be taken and for it to fulfil its true purpose…
"Mammals! Predators! Friends! Brothers!" he began saying to his rowdy, eager followers, who nearly began cheering, but stopped upon realising that they would be giving away their position.
"How long have our kind been pushed to the side by feeble prey? How long have we been looked at with hatred and disgust for living out the way Nature had wanted us to live? The way our true Gods have determined that we and no one else should be the masters of the world? Our tribes have been conquered, prey tribes bolstered by cowardly, spineless "predators" such as Rome and The Empire of Zootopia, who have sold their own people to meat, who dare to put laws on how long or claws are allowed to be!" the soldiers already began being rowdy, telling at the top of their lungs, clattering their weapons, roaring and howling, their teeth, longer and sharper from them eating actual meat, snarling at the town below.
All of it created an echoing noise, which went through one's stomach, sounding from a distance like waves crashing on the beach during high winds.
"Today marks the day the proud prey and the traitorous predators of Rome will fear us! Today, they will learn to flee at the sound of our howls once again!" Chief Haakon yelled, drawing his massive axe and raising it above his head as if it were hollow on the inside.
The choir of howls and roars grew to such a degree that it nearly caused some of the soldiers' eardrums to burst. Further away, however, it could be heard properly…
Judy turned her head towards the forest, as did other villagers as their keen, lapine ears picked up the strange noise. It was powerful, and it was getting closer… Soon enough, they also heard the clear sound of footsteps… loud, rhythmic footsteps….
Chatter among the many farmers began emerging, once they had figured out that something was coming from the forest.
Soon after, their next senses were activated. Their noses soon picked up the unmistakable scent of canine predators. But it wasn't just any like that. No, this was not the scent of a civilized predator, who was smiling from behind a counter as he sold them textiles, or one of the brave predators of the Legion who threw flowers at their girls as they returned from victorious campaigns in Barbarian lands.
No, this was something else. Something worse. Something from which the most ancient and primal parts of their brains screamed at them to get away from. For a brief second, flashes of primal wolves carving them up, mercilessly digging through their burrows with their claws….
They had heard stories from Legionaries returning from campaigns about savage Predator tribes who were enslaving and even eating prey, but they always only thought that it was their exaggerated attempts to score love affairs with peasant girls and get more notoriety than the Gladiators who were already beginning to capture the mammals' hearts in the small settlement.
Their third sense to see anything was sight. Dust kicked up from behind trees and smaller trees shaking were seen before the emergence of the Barbarian army.
"BARBARIANS! MAN THE DEFENSES!" The captain of the guards from outside the walls, a local bunny, who was a farmer by day screamed, rallying the few inexperienced outside guards to him.
"Carsus go to the Governor, quickly! Tell him to send a Legion to us, we don't stand a chance against a raiding party this large on our own!" yelled Albinus, trying to keep his young, poorly equipped regiment of half-time guards in order as they began to panic as the sound of marching paws and savage howls approached and the cloud of dust kicked came closer and closer.
The small regiment of barely-trained guards formed a line, with much difficulty, as the younglings were trembling in their crude textile armor.
With what little training they received, they formed a spear wall against the incoming charge, clenching their flat teeth together, waiting for the horde to crash against their shields. . .
"What in Jupiter's name is going on!?" yelled a wild boar in a toga, getting up from his rich meal with two vixen courtesans by his side. The guests lying on the beds alongside the overloaded tables all got up as well, wondering aloud. A leopard courtesan began trying to calm them down.
Centurions Mikhailus and Wildicus wasted no time in getting up and putting their armor back on. The fox Centurion's keen hearing picked up someone running into the palace. Small steps, a rabbit, most likely.
His suspicion was confirmed when a frightened rabbit town watchmammal burst into the dining hall.
Before the frightened lapin could begin, the boar lashed out at him.
"What in Saturn's name are you doing here, you filthy plebeian!? Don't you remember to knock!?" he yelled, approaching the already half-scared to death rabbit, who began to back off.
"Governor Cassius. We are currently under attack and you're more concerned with being shown proper respect?" Mikhailus asked the boar, struggling to not sound disgusted in front of his superior.
"Sir… th-the barbarians are raiding! There's too many of them!" stuttered the rabbit, trying his best to remain standing, his knees wobbling, nearly collapsing on the flawless marble floor.
The tiger Centurion looked at his fox comrade and nodded.
They both rushed through the torchlit halls of the palace, towards the secret tunnel which was linked to the walls. Shouts and orders coming from the legionaries and auxiliaries within the walls reached their ears as soon as they threw open the door. A line of ocelot auxiliaries were firing arrows into the ever-closing crowd of predator barbarians, trying to thin their ranks before they collided with the hapless defenders of the outside farms.
"Sir, they have no siege equipment! I think they only wish to raid the peasants!" reported the ocelot to the two centurions and the Governor.
"Ah good… Centurions! Assemble your men and ready the defences around the city! Place all your available archers on the walls to thin their ranks! Cohorts remain around the gate and in the city centre!" ordered the Governor, seeming relieved that his precious feast with the local nobility could continue unimpeded.
The tiger and fox Centurion looked baffled as the boar continued ascending back to continue his Coena[2].
"Sir… what about the farmers?" asked Wildicus.
The boar sighed, shifting himself on the narrow stairwell, which was rather difficult, considering his sheer bulk, and faced his two commanders.
"What about them? We cannot spare any men now to fight them back. Not while we are still undermanned here, at the borders with the Barbarians! We need to make sacrifices for the greater good! You two as Centurions should know this better than I!" yelled the Governor.
Centurion Nicolaus Wildicus's eye twitched and Mikhailus cornered the cowardly Governor.
"You are willing to sacrifice hundreds of innocent farmers, who work their fingers to the bone every day to bring wealth to the Empire, just to delay the barbarians a bit more? We have more legions coming here as we speak! In just a few weeks, we shall have enough Legionaries to attempt another campaign into their territory! Do you know what they'll do those rabbit farmers!? They will kidnap all their daughters and eat them in front of them! They will make every single one of them their slaves or food! Is that the message you want to transmit!? That Rome is theirs to plunder, that their barbaric ways can simply go on without repercussions!?" Mikhailus snapped, making the boar back up against a wall.
Mikhailus drew his Gladius[3], causing the pig to squirm and hold his toga[4] to his chest like a frightened child would a blanket.
The tiger pointed his weapon to the approaching horde.
"If those bastards can turn our farmers into meat, our sons and daughters into slaves, while our soldiers hide behind walls, what do you think they'll do later!?" Mikhailus snarled.
Centurion Nicolaus suddenly gasped, remembering who was in the village.
"Judica…" he whispered. With how relentless she was, she had probably grabbed a pitchfork to use as an impromptu spear and wanted to hold the barbarians back on her own…
"ENOUGH OF THIS!" snapped Cassius, his tusks flailing upwards in anger. "You dared threaten me with your Gladius, you pelts! You will do as I say, or I shall have you both crucified by the end of the week at the gates of Rome!" the boar threatened. The two centurions and the archers of various species glared at their cowardly leader as he was willing to let his own citizens die and the name of his Empire be smeared just for his own safety.
He would be feasting with the corrupt Patricians[4] , laughing and drinking even as they would hear the screams of the farmers getting slaughtered….
The boar swallowed hard as he saw all the archers momentarily stopped firing and instead glared at him…
"Archers, stay focused on the horde!" ordered Wildicus as he saw that the ocelot auxiliaries momentarily stopped in order to glare at the Governor.
However, it was too late….
Barbarian archers began firing back, having spotted the tower the arrows were coming from. The windows were tiny and the barbarians were hardly expert marksmen, but with hundreds of arrows fired, that mattered very little.
Mikhailus noticed an arrow going straight towards the throat of a young blue-eyed ocelot…
"GET DOWN!" the massive tiger yelled, tackling three of the archers into cover, the rest having done so on their own. Wildicus was shielding himself with the Scutum[5].
Thankfully, only a handful of arrows had managed to get through the thin archer windows, and none had managed to hit anyone.
Or so he thought until he heard flesh being pierced and a sickening gurgling sound, followed by the chilling feeling of warm blood splashing on his cheek from an unknown source.
The tiger turned around, worried that the arrow had claimed Wildicus's life. His friend was still standing, an arrow sticking out of the intact Scutum, the fox Centurion still standing.
Governor Cassius was lying on the ground, the arrow having pierced his thick boar hide and going straight through his neck.
The men watched in horror as the realization finally struck them: time was short. If they were already close enough to fire arrows, they were not far from the village outside the walls…
"With the Governor dead…. I guess that leaves us in charge…" said Wildicus, not feeling the least bit sorry for the untimely death of the merciless Patrician. Sometimes, the gods truly did involve themselves in mortal lives. Not it was time for them to do their part…
"Mikhailus, gather your men. Our two cohorts are enough." Advised the fox Centurion. The tiger nodded, and ran downstairs into the streets and toward the barracks.
Judica ran through the village, making sure everyone was barricaded inside of their villas.
Several of the braver (or more desperate) farmers were assisting with the barricades, tipping over carts and digging makeshift trenches to slow down the incoming onslaught.
The several predators who lived as farmers all joined the defensive line, but they were too few to make any real difference, not to mention completely untrained.
The bellows of the carnivorous predators carved a way of ice down her spine, the charging footsteps making the ground quake.
She saw her father and several of her older brothers firing their hunting bows, which they used in case of eagle attacks, into the approaching horde, thinning their ranks almost as much as the archers from the towers did.
She glanced once more to the defensive line, in which her own brother was taking part. She recognized his snow-white ears instantly, standing just a bit taller than the other spearmen.
"HOLD!" Albinus yelled, trying to steel his men for the collision with the merciless hunting pack.
Suddenly, the massive city gates opened, letting two Cohorts emerge.
One was clearly of a larger type of mammals, the Centurion at the front being a massive tiger, and the soldiers behind him were lions, panthers, deer and other similar-sized soldiers, being able to march in perfect order.
The one which followed had a fox Centurion, foxes, wolves, ocelots, wild cats and even a few jack rabbits could be seen in the "smaller" Legion.
The sound of clattering Lorica Segmentata[6] , the sound of Caligae[7] sandals rhythmically pounding the ground, opposed to the chaotic cacophony of the formation-less barbarians, orders being shouted by the Centurions never brought more peace to her heart.
But could they get here in time?
0- Amphorae= Large clay pottery made for storing wine
1- Forum= The centre of any major Roman city, a combination between massive marketplace and city centre.
2- Coena= Roman supper/dinner
3-Gladius= The standard Roman shortsword wielded by all Legionaries
4- Toga= A Roman garment worn by most middle class or upper class men
5- Patrician= The Roman upper class.
6- Scutum= The Roman large square shield
7- Lorica Segmentata= The armor used by Legionaries since the 1st Century AD. Steel plates bound together by leather strips, it allowed great mobility as well as the best protection of its time
8- SPQR- Abbreviation for "Senatus Populusque Romanum" (Latin for Senate and the People of Rome)
Caligae- Roman military boots/sandals. It had a revolutionary design, its soles covered in steel balls, increasing the traction and grip of the foot, allowing the Legionaries to march great distances, run at quick speeds and be very difficult to knock down
9-Pilum (pl. "Pila")= Roman throwing javelin, each Legionary carried 2. They were thrown before a charge to shock and kill the enemy. The tip was extremely solid, but the shaft was made out of soft steel which bent on impact, making it impossible to yank out and throw back.