Chapter 5: Brink.

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace."

George Washington

-Fifteenth Mycenae phalanx division, "Nike", Greco-Roman border, sector Seventeen Beta-Commanding officer: Major Clarisse La Rue

The sting of napalm was in the air. Clarisse breathed it all in, relishing the smell of border conflict. Some might call her "crazy" or "battle hungry" for her aggressive tactics. But as long as it worked, Clarisse saw no reason to change her strategy.

Their sector had erected a temporary, military base. For convenience and for logistics sake. It made sense as well, with the border five miles away, it could relay communications and allow for an adjustment of strategy based on what the Romans threw at them.

Her tactics never proved her wrong either. Her battle hardened division of veterans of countless wars were recognizable from all over Greece, the conflicts that they partook in ranging. From uprisings such as the Russia national front, or insurgency operations in the unstable Middle eastern region of Persia and Asia Minor, to the wet jungles of the Dutch East Indies, winning all their battles against savages and inferior, but more numerous enemies. Now, her division had been recalled from foreign tours to join the rising border conflicts between the Greeks and the Romans.

War was brewing. And oddly enough, Clarisse was looking forward to it. She had grown tired of foreign incursions against enemies who were unworthy of her assault rifle and short spear. She had witnessed first hand how brutally effective Rome's legions were, and wanted to go head to head against their best.

She surveyed her men below, working on erecting defensive structures along the base. Their sector had erected a temporary, military base. For convenience and for logistics sake. It made sense as well, with the border five miles away, it could relay communications and allow for an adjustment of strategy based on what the Romans threw at them, and was compact enough that it allowed them to pack their most essential items and retreat, should they have to.

Right now, her division was entrusted with defensive structures. She decided to allow for a flexible, non-static defensive strategy of the military base. With the base spanning two square kilometres, she tasked her men with building a mixture of natural and non-natural obstacles, with tank traps littered among them to render the terrain impassable. The only way in and out of the base would be through the cardinal directions – North, South, East and West -, there machine gun posts and sentry turrets manned with anti tank crews were ordered to fire. Mobile Anti-aircraft missile launchers placed in key locations to maximise mission efficiency.

Over the weeks leading up till now, diplomatic ties between the two nations have been severed, and a general briefing of all commanding officers was held, explaining the fragile peace between them. Any notion of conflict could result in war. The consequences would be dire.

Clarisse shook these thoughts from her head, and went back to work.

-Annabeth-

Embassy of the Roman Empire, Athens.

Among her fellow representatives and police investigators, she stood in the abandoned embassy. Loose pieces of paper littered the floor, cabinets filled with paper hastily emptied. The grand chandelier twinkled with grand in the ambient lighting, the atmosphere ruined by the state of cleanliness it was in.

This was just another step in the breakdown of diplomacy between their two states. This tumble snowballing, with war at the end of the hill. Annabeth shuddered at the thought. In the last war, seventy million souls were lost, and the untold suffering of physical, mental and economic were severe. It took decades for the two nations to recover.

The Romans had hastily vacated from their grand embassy from the boulevard of embassies in Athens, with their diplomats, and their families departing in the early morning from a private airfield. The clerks and other employees in the embassy were left to find some other means of transportation to cross the border.

Annabeth turned to face Odysseus, and started to utter a word. But before she could do so, he turned his back on her to talk to the chief of police

"We need to keep the situation silent from the public, no one must know about this. Only the people in this room are to know the true extent of what is going on, understood?"

The police chief gave a sharp nod, and turned to relay his orders to his adjutants.

Odysseus turned back to Annabeth, and said," We're not done. 1:00 PM, meet me in my office."

He briskly walked out the front door, his assistants keeping pace behind him.

Annabeth sighed in discontent, and turned her wrist to glance at her watch. Five hours. Just five hours to make sense of the Roman's next move.

"Malcolm, lets go". She gestured at her blonde haired secretary. Together they left.

Returning to her office, she laid her various work items on the desk, and slouched in the seat, hands covering her face.

Throughout millenia, whenever the Greeks fought the Romans, or vice versa, it always lead to large amounts of resources, such as men, equipment, production and money into fighting, as well as raw resources such as grain, wood, and more recently, coal and oil. With each war that broke out, the death toll rose in proportion. What started out thousands of years ago with perhaps ten thousand casualties throughout the duration of the war would manifest itself into ten thousand casualties in, perhaps an hour or so. Given improvements in technology and battle tactics, casualties would be horrendous. And oftentimes, after a war, there would be a economic or political crisis of some kind. Recessions could occur and when the suffering of a people becomes too great, or if either government is too incompetent to solve the nation's problems, then extremist groups will pop up. Between the wars of 1796 and 1939, there was a time when Greece was ruled by an Authoritarian Government, to help bring back the country from the brink of economic collapse after the market crash due to the Tulip bubble popping. It helped, for a while. A single figurehead and a fascist regime helped concentrate their efforts into rebuilding the country, albeit in a more war mongering way. During the rapid industrialisation of the 19th century, many factories were set up to cater to the needs of Greece's new war machine. However, the government lost a large percentage of their support from the people, who yearned for the old days of Democracy. A coup was staged, and a Democratic government was put into power.

Some have questioned if this was done by the Roman Empire, who's military capability was much smaller than the Greek's, due to their rapid industrialisation. The fact that the new government policy was more lenient towards Foreign policy was proof of such a conspiracy. This new party stayed in power for over forty years, and saw a thawing in Greco-Roman relations.

This system of government is still in place in Greece's political system, but the winds of war are picking up once again, and perhaps, it will not last.

-Nico-

Epirus, Greece

A large mug of coffee was left unattended on a nearby low lying table. Nico sat on the cushioned wooden chair, intently reading an article on the Athenian Herald.

Epirus sat roughly two thousand kilometres from the Greek Roman Border, tracing the coastline of the Ionian sea between the Balkans and the Roman peninsula. It houses many key administrative buildings for the nation, housing the Headquarters for Trade and Income, and defence. It also maintained a strong military presence, housing multiple dockyards and military bases for defensive and offensive operations.

It also housed the fighter squadron that Nico was posted to. Now, it almost seemed like Major Antonius was laughing at him, posting him to the city where he experienced some of his most fond memories, and most tragic experiences.

Nico sighed, and closed the screen of his laptop computer. He was reading on the headlines of the news. About how Greece and its puppet allies signed a hastily erected armistice with the Russians. They had given up half of their won territory, although much of the resources from the Caucasus and Ural mountains were to be shipped to fuel the Greek economy. The Autumn Armistice, they called it.

There was widespread protest for their Government's decisions. Nico couldn't exactly blame the masses. After winning such vast territories, for the Greeks to just…give up. It wasn't unlike them. And to let the Russians keep their hostile government and let their armies remain intact, it simply didn't bode well with the public.

Nico himself was rather confused by their move as well, and to add to it, his redeployment to Greece raised some questions as well.

Nico rubbed the bridge of his nose, and brought the mug to his lips, savouring the now lukewarm liquid as it ran down his throat, filling his veins with caffeine and energy.

He opened his eyes, grabbed a jacket, and headed out the door.

The weather was rather chilly, and a brief glance towards the sky would indicate that a rainstorm was coming. Nico remained unfazed by it, however. He walked along the sidewalk of Boulevard thirteen, a four lane road that ran parallel to boulevard one, that ran from the city centre to the regional train station that connected to other cities in the Balkans. He passed by his old middle school. A place where he shared many fond memories with Will. He smiled a sad smile when he glanced up to a window, only to be met with the gaze of a blonde haired girl. He averted his gaze and continued, turning a corner…and bumping into a women carrying multiple bags of groceries.

She gave out a sharp yelp of surprise, the shock and force of their collision causing her to drop her groceries. Nico reached down to help her pick up her fallen belongings, gathering them in his hand. He gave a brief "Sorry", and looked up, meeting her eyes.

"Annie?". Nico asked. The red haired beauty before him widened her eyes.

"Nico?, What a surprise." Annie replied. Nico swallowed hard emotions down his throat.

Annie had long been Will's girlfriend. The two had been dating for around two years up till the point of his death. The last that he saw of her was during Will and his parent's funeral, informing her of his plans to join the armed forces.

Her initial shock was overcome, and she grew to accept his choice. If she felt saddened in any way to his imminent departure and deployment, she didn't show it.

"—tea?"

Nico's focus sharpened to her voice, she looked at her, confused, "What?"

She smiled, and repeated," Would you like to join me for some tea?"

"Uhm, sure. Have any nice places opened up?"

She laughed, a smile lighting up her expression. "I was thinking if you would like to come over to my place. I recently bought some of the finest tea leaves from Sri Lanka, I implore you to come have a taste!"

Nico wasn't sure how to feel about that. He didn't really want to follow her, and would have preferred to just…sit out the short peace before the inevitable war. But then again, he was curious to piece together the missing stories in their lives.

He smiled, "Sure".

Author's note: Sorry to leave you guys hanging for so long, despite my promise of a deadline to you. To be honest, after reading so many un-finished fanfictions on this site, I had become…disillusioned with how easily authors could give up on their creations, and I thought that that would unlikely ever happen to me. Well, after just 11,000 words and four chapters, it kinda did happen to me. Seeing as how this is my first real fanfiction (with the other being a one-shot that just…popped into my head one day), I wanted to finish, or at least continue it for some time.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't lost inspiration for this story, I know what direction I want to take this story to, and I have developed suitable character arcs and plot escalation. I haven't been able to find the motivation to really sit down with my laptop, with a cup of Joe and crack on this thing, if you catch my meaning. I apologise for my tardiness in delivering chapters to you, and well, maybe some of you would understand that frustration. It's fun to think about fantasies and stories, and harder to really make it a reality, in the form of a story. I guess that's why the phrase, "easier said than done", exists. I apologise again.

Due to the lack of me keeping to my promises, I won't be issuing a estimation on when the next chapter will be released.

Reviews:

SpartanBoy: In this story, he is. Don't worry, I will expand on his backstory more as the story continues.