A/N: This second chapter of two shows the ground assault on what remains of the Japanese empire. Remember to please leave a review telling me what you liked or didn't like and what could be improved. Thank you.
Julius was concerned, so far their war against the Japanese had been raging for years, they had barely lost any men, but the they had barely gained any ground either. The emperor was all for pushing forward and destroying the Japanese, but the support of the senate and the people for the war was waning, to them it was becoming just a place to send their children to die for no gain. The Japanese empire seemed to have an almost inexhaustible supply of men and women willing to die for their leader, willing to be thrown against the pikes and shields of the Roman army. This was not why he was concerned however.
As commander of the southern forces, he was privy to intelligence reports from around the empire, and occasionally beyond. These reports were deeply concerning. Roman spies in the Japanese empire reported that an Arabian-Russian naval coalition had obliterated the Japanese navy, paving the way for the Arabian conquest of Tokyo. The Japanese were allegedly raising armies inland of Kyoto, beyond the range of the Russian warships, armies of samurai and bowmen, of pikes and armoured knights.
The reports from back west were not much better, rioting in some of the smaller cities as their resources were diverted to the war effort, barbarian attacks in the North tying up troops that could more effectively used in the east, and apparently the Russians had approached the senate for the first time in centuries to ask permission to move their troops through the empires borders. The senate had allowed them this on the basis that the Russian could probably march straight across the Roman Empire, obliterating everything in their way if even half the rumours were true. Already, metal Russian beasts had been seen on the imperial roads.
Julius shivered at the thought that the great beasts of destruction could possibly be driving through his city even now, passing within metres of his home, knowing that there would be nothing that the guards could do should the Russians decided to drive through his home, rather than past it.
"Sir, sir!" A shouting soldier drew him out of his tent.
"What is it?" He demanded, "You'd better have a damn good reason for dragging me out here boy."
"Sir, it's the Russians, they've been sighted on the other side of demon's pass."
"What? Impossible! The Japanese have that pass sealed up tighter than a senator's coin purse."
"I'm just telling you what I've been told sir, according to the forward scouts the fort at the pass now bears the Russian arms."
Julius swore under his breath, it seemed as though the Russians truly were capable of great sorcery with their 'machines'.
Late the next day, when the Roman column reached the demon's pass, Julius saw that his scout had indeed spoken true, the wall-fort that spanned the entire width of demon's pass flew the yellow and black banner of the Russian empire. As they drew nearer, they saw a series of metal boxes arrayed on the ground around the fort. It seemed that whatever sorcery the Russians had employed to create these things also made them confident enough to allow the Roman army to approach unchallenged.
Julius drew his man to a halt at what he considered to be a respectable distance from the Russians and began to prepare a message for his Russian equivalent. He dressed himself in what little ceremonial finery he had brought with him and set out to meet with the leader of the Russian forces. As he approached the Russian machines, a hatch on the top of one opened up, and a man clad in the grey greatcoat of the Russian forces, decorated with the gold braid of an officer clambered out and advanced across the ground towards him. The man hailed Julius in broken Latin, and Julius replied in equally broken Russian. Julius explained to the man that he simply wished to move his troops through the pass, towards Kyoto and Osaka. The Russian nodded and claimed that his men would not be staying in the fort for much longer, they were merely waiting on some slower moving siege units that, unfortunately, could not cover ground as effectively as his 'modern armour' could. The man turned towards the fort and bellowed a command in Russian, apparently a command to open the gates, as the winches creaked into action, raising the great iron portcullis of the Japanese, allowing the roman column to advance through the pass, into the plains beyond.
The other side of the fort also held Russian forces arrayed outside it, but here, the ground was decorated with shattered Japanese flagpoles and armour, the remains of a large pyre smouldered to Julius' right, apparently burning the remains of the Japanese that had given their lives in a futile attempt to fend off the Russian advance. Julius was suddenly very glad that Rome and Russia had not gone to war in millennia, and that the Russians seemed quite content to wage war upon the Japanese and to ignore the Romans.
Three days later, Julius stood on the plains between Osaka and the Japanese capital Kyoto. To the west, lay the forbidding city of Osaka, atop its rise in the plains, Roman and Japanese soldiers spread out beneath the gaze of its watchtower. To the east, Russian machines of war tore up the ground beneath them as they advanced upon the crippled city of Kyoto. The Russian siege engines had arrived at demon's pass less than a day behind Julius and had joined up with the Russian 'modern armour' to bring war to Kyoto. Russian warships in the bay, no longer needed to obliterate the Japanese navy, or put pressure upon Tokyo, sat just outside the range of Kyoto's defence mechanisms, raining metal, fire and death down upon the defenders. The Russian siege engines did much the same, rolling around the battlefield, always one step ahead of the remaining Japanese foot soldiers, assaulting the Japanese walls with an alarming regularity. On the rare occasion that the Japanese came near to a siege engine, 'modern armour' units would quickly encircle the Japanese troops and annihilate them in a roar of smoke and metal.
Oda Nobunaga had apparently fled Kyoto to a newly-founded city named Satsuma to the south. If he sought safety there however, he would be sorely disappointed, neither Japan nor Rome nor Arabia, had predicted Russia's alliance with the nearby city-state of Vienna, or the Russian tendency to offload their surplus Naval vessels onto their allies. Russian-built, Viennese-crewed destroyers had completely obliterated the new Japanese navy shortly after it left the harbour in an attempt to assist Kyoto. Roman naval units had moved in to mop up the mess and disgorge troops onto the land surrounding the city.
For their part, the Roman empire had forged an alliance with Lhasa, whose troops were drawing the attention of the defenders of Osaka to the west, away from the fast-moving Russian troops. The roaring sound that accompanied a Russian siege barrage drew Julius' attention back towards Kyoto just in time to see a large section of the city's curtain wall collapse under the Russian assault, as Russian frontline units rolled forward into the city. Shortly afterwards, yellow and black rockets soared into the sky, indicating the Russian conquest of the Japanese capital .Banners across the city bearing the red and white flower of Japan were being replaced by those bearing the black and yellow eagle of Russia. Julius turned away from the smoking city as columns of Russian tanks poured in to secure the city. He commanded his troops to turn their attention towards Osaka, to claim a part of the dying empire for the glory of Rome.