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Chapter 2. Day 2.

The First Fight

Arminius & Xena

On leaving Varus's camp Arminius had ridden with his ala of cavalry for most of the rest of that day. Ostensibly he should have been heading in a South-Westerly direction, in order to locate outlying tribes in the area. In fact he swiftly turned North-East, when well out of sight or knowledge of Varus's troops, and set off for a long-planned meeting with a section of the Germanic army hiding in the outskirts of the forest just over a day's journey away.

As had been decided earlier he would join with this group, and Xena and Serilda's troops; then they would all head some way across to the West where a small, but vital, outpost on the forest border was still manned by Roman soldiers guarding that area. Their aim was to destroy this camp in order that it did not give Varus sustenance or safety, if by any chance of Fortune he managed to escape the coming onslaught and retreat in that direction.

Everything went as expected and he quickly found the waiting German tribal warriors in the late morning of the day following his exit from Varus's camp. They amounted in all to around 700 fighters, all ready and eager to play their part in the uprising for their leader and country. So, with his own 500 cavalry, he now commanded a strong force of 1,200 or so warriors. Then, having organised themselves, they cantered on their way through the copses and open grassland.

As midday approached Serilda, with Xena accompanying her, had rallied their troops on a wide heath where they awaited the arrival of Arminius with some excitement. The thousand or so warriors were milling around on their horses in a more or less disciplined manner, and Serilda was describing to Xena some of the complex differences between the various tribes represented by the men and women present in front of them.

This was only a small fraction of the larger army. Among those warriors visible were experienced ex-auxiliaries who knew all there was to know about Roman army tactics and the way they fought. Many of these were heavily bearded, as was the German custom; though many of the younger men were clean-shaven., or at least had shorter beards. Among these the warrior-women stood out quite clearly; for the Germans too had women who went to war in the ranks of the tribal armies as warriors on their own account. As she looked around Serilda saw many of those whom she knew personally, and had great respect for.

What had finally brought them together in this unusual alliance, as she explained to Xena, was a shared belief in Arminius, and the wish to rid German soil of the hated invader. As Serilda looked around she could see elements of tribes such as the Cherusci to which she herself belonged, as did Arminius. They were recognisable by the way the men braided their long hair, and the dark blue woollen leggings they universally wore. A short distance away were a group from the Marcomanni tribe, who wore their hair long and unbraided, while favouring leggings of a lighter blue and jerkins of dark green. The Marcomanni were also generally less tall than the Cherusci. Just in front of Serilda was a detachment of Semnones, members of the old Suebi alliance which had joined forces with Arminius's group. These warriors stood out by the light green woollen capes they wore, and the stocky, fair-haired look of their race. They were some of the most renowned fighters in Germania and Serilda, at least, was glad to have them alongside her. They also braided their long hair, but differently from the Cherusci. In fact, though the massed ranks of warriors looked to an outsider very similar to each other, any Germanic citizen could easily tell the various tribes apart.

Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of a young warrior with flowing brown hair who rode up with some bravado, and a wide grin on his face.

"Arminius is nearby. The scouts have just reported his band approaching!"

Within a few minutes a cloud of dust showed itself among the trees on the edge of the heath; then a group of warriors rode out in steady formation. Arminius had arrived amongst his people!

After a quick greeting with Arminius, whom she had already met secretly several times, Xena wasted no time in setting out her plan of attack. The Roman outpost was actually a way-station guarding a meandering, but often busy, track leading North away from the forest. It now lay only half a parasang further West from their present position. In the usual tradition of Roman military enterprises of this nature it was laid out in a roughly rectangular arrangement; with the regulation low bank and ditch surrounding it. This had however been a hurriedly built camp, and the end result stopped some way short of what might be called the usual level of acceptability. The ditch was not deep, and its slopes were far too shallow; offering no more than a transitory impediment to any assault. The log palisade that topped its far side, running all round the camp, was pitiably low and insecure; being only a spear's length in height and not provided with a continuous rampart where soldiers could stand with bows.

The only side that was reinforced to any extent was on the West where the main entrance lay. This had a double-height palisade made of stronger thicker logs, and the gateway was protected by a rampart and deep tunnel under an overhanging roof where soldiers could look down on the ground immediately in front of the entrance.

Inside the compound were the military buildings of any ordinary Roman camp; several barracks for the soldiers, a cookhouse, a building for the commanding officer, storerooms for equipment and rations, and some stabling for the horses. It was a medium-sized specimen of its kind, but at present was woefully understaffed. There had been some speculation by the German warriors that a Cohort of legionaries from Legion XVII, with an accompanying Cohort of auxiliaries, were also stationed there. But information newly gathered by Serilda's scouts had shown this was not in fact the case.

Though built to hold about 600 men, at the moment no more than a couple of centuria were based there. These two hundred soldiers were mostly made up of time-served men who would be leaving the Army when they returned to Rome from this posting. The camp-commander, a mere centurion also approaching the end of his career, seemed to have developed a somewhat relaxed outlook on discipline after spending many months on this assignment; principally because no-one else wanted the dull routine of such a backwater.

The fort sat in the middle of a wide heath. The nearest tree-cover was over to the East, about two stadia away. The wide earth track (it could hardly be called a road) which gave the way-station its reason for being ran past about one hundred feet from the main entrance. After some thought Xena had decided that, rather than a night attack under cover of darkness, a day assault relying on the speed of her warriors to catch most of the soldiers unawares at their meal would have greater success.

Xena's plan was brilliantly simple: have Serilda attack the main entrance with a show of force and great noise, to draw the majority of the defenders on duty; then she and Arminius would attack the far sides of the camp with the bulk of their warriors. Several ready-made ladders had been prepared and she was certain they could cross the palisade, occupy the camp, and defeat the inmates easily and quickly. Arminius was of the same mind and gave his acceptance with a firm handshake in the Roman fashion, hand to forearm, with Xena.

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Attack

All was peaceful in the camp, as always at this time in the late afternoon when the cookhouse had delivered of its best and the idly chatting ranks were sitting down to their main meal of the day. As usual in the Roman Army at this time of year onions tended to predominate; but as these were today cunningly hidden in a rich venison stew those sitting at the barrack-room tables weren't overly critical. The nearby forest provided a well-stocked source of easily caught fresh meat, if nothing else.

One barrack served as the eating-area for the soldiers; but with room only for about 100 sitters; the rest took their food to their own barracks to eat. So at this time of day almost all the soldiers were either in the dining-room; or elsewhere settled at their food. All was harmony and good humour amongst the groups of men exchanging ribald jokes and criticisms of the food as they did every day; but this happy atmosphere changed in an instant when the door suddenly crashed open to reveal a young excited soldier waving his sword in the air!

"Attack at the main gate! Everybody to Battle-stations!"

Instantly all was noise and confusion. Caught unawares most tried to rush the narrow door, but only succeeded in causing a bottle-neck. Outside there was disorder and uncertainty. At the Gate the unexpected attack had taken the form of a huge onslaught of arrows which had focussed on the rampart and main entrance. So successful had this been that several men manning the defences now lay riddled with arrows; while others on the ground were just as unlucky. The survivors; those that were not wounded, had climbed to the rampart, but were unable to raise their heads over the parapet to catch sight of the enemy as the flights of arrows still rained down mercilessly.

"Where's the Optio Lucius?" Someone shouted for the officer in charge of the on-duty soldiers.

"Dead! On the rampart!"

"Rally to the Tesserarius then! Where's he?"

"Can't find him!"

"Get the Centurion! Get Crassus!"

"There's hundreds of warriors out there! They mean business!"

"Who's leading the men at the gate?"

"No-one!"

"Strife and Discord! Where's Crassus? Get everyone on the West wall and Gate!"

Those soldiers scrambling hurriedly out the dining-room suddenly realised they were still unarmed and would need to fetch their weapons from their barracks. This resulted in further confusion when the only two officers who finally appeared, another Optio and a Tesserarius, started ordering the troops to the walls; only to see them run off in search of their equipment.

When the Centurion Crassus came out of his office building, at the behest of an excited soldier, he found wild disorder and a significant lack of leadership. What he could also see was a cloud of dust and mass of soldiers congregating at the main entrance, where most of the trouble seemed to be focussed.

It was at this point he made the first, and most serious, of his mistakes.

"Find the other officers!" He gave orders harshly to his own Optio now standing by his side. "I want everyone on the main gate at once; never mind the other walls!"

He strode out onto the flat parade-ground; keeping a sharp eye on the fighting going on around the Gate, and taking no notice of anything else. Within a few moments he had crossed the intervening space and started trying to instil some sort of discipline and method into the dishevelled and shocked men by the barricaded entrance.

Then he made his second mistake.

"Get the men off the rampart! I want them assembled on the ground here, with bows! Let's return the fire of these savages!"

At this juncture several dozen soldiers finally arrived, armed with swords and bows. Though there were fewer of the latter than Crassus wished.

"Form up here and send a volley over the wall!" He bustled about waving his arms, and growing red in the face with effort.

The men had barely settled in place; some kneeling and others standing, when another volley of arrows sailed over the palisade in a tight well-aimed cloud. They rained down on the soldiers in vicious sheets, causing havoc. Many were killed outright; many more were wounded and crashed to the ground screaming and thrashing about, getting in the way of their comrades.

Crassus pulled an arrow from the light shield that he held protecting his left side, and was gazing at its sharp iron point in a stupor when a call came from a bloody-faced soldier who ran up through the dust and clamour.

"They're coming over the North wall, sir! Scores of 'em!"

It was here Crassus made his third mistake.

"A decoy! It's a decoy. The main attack is here, at the Gate!" He wiped a suddenly sweat-soaked brow with his hand. "Where are my Optio's? I need more men! Rally everyone here! Send three contubernia to the North wall, no more! I need everyone beside me!"

The soldier ran off with the allotted 24 men, after some wasted time organising them; but he and Crassus were entirely unaware these were far too few to have any effect against the hundreds of warriors now swarming over both the North and the South walls into the nearly defenceless camp.

When the soldier and his men reached the vicinity of the North wall they were met with a scene of catastrophe. In the interval of the soldier's absence a hoard of warriors had somehow breached the palisade; overwhelmed those few soldiers in the vicinity; and were now swarming across the ground between the defensive wall and the various buildings grouped within it. The soldier and his men never made it to the wall; they were blocked instead by a wave of spear-carrying warriors screaming viciously for blood.

The soldiers had their ordinary gladius's, short swords, but these quickly and unexpectedly proved nearly useless against the long sharp-bladed spears wielded by the opposition. Within seconds the soldiers found themselves the centre of a massacre. They had no way to successfully defend against the enemies long spears, which were light and used with expert knowledge by the bearded savages.

The soldier leading this last-ditch defence suddenly heard an ululating scream from the heavens that sent shivers of terror through his disjointed thoughts. Then, in the last seconds of his life, he saw a dark-haired tall woman descend out of the sky in front of him to hit the ground on her feet with a terrific thud. For one instant he saw the snarling expression on her face and the slicing sword; then darkness!

Xena slashed her sword through the air, as a stream of blood-drops scattered from its blade; taking no further notice of the quivering body still gushing blood at her feet, then raised her arm in the air with a loud cry.

"Follow me! Across the parade-ground! Take the Gate defenders from the rear! We've got 'em!"

Still unaware of what was going on across the far side of the camp Crassus had, with some difficulty, organised the soldiers beside him into three ranks close to the gate and under the shadow of the palisade; hoping this would provide some protection from the descending arrows. As he called on the few officers left to follow his orders the constant stream of arrows suddenly stopped. He paused uncertainly for a moment, taking some valuable time to gaze into the air trying to decide what this meant; and to peer indecisively through the heavy dust-clouds now obscuring the view inside the camp-grounds.

At this point Crassus made his fourth and final mistake.

"They've run out of arrows! Now's our chance! Bring some men up behind me onto the rampart. You, Optio, take the rest out the Gate when I order it opened. I mean to drive these savages back into the forest! Now! Open the Gate!"

He turned to dash up the steps leading to the rampart above the Gate and arrived there just in time to meet the first warrior coming over the parapet from the many ladders now leaning against the wall outside. His opponent was a woman-warrior with long braided dark hair, wearing the typical woollen jerkin and leggings of her tribe. Raising his sword above his head he faced the woman, now screaming something in German, then gasped as her sword whipped round under his guard and took him solidly in the belly. For a moment he was aware of a burning pain; then he was lying on the dusty boards of the rampart floor. Through eyes suddenly gushing involuntarily with tears at the unexpected agony he saw her face close to his; a dim glimpse of a long bladed knife: then, thankfully, nothing!

Serilda rose quickly from her crouching position over the body at her feet; the man's blood liberally splashed on her dagger and clothes, even her face: then ran down the steps to the ground inside the camp with crowds of screaming warriors following at her heels. They were in the fort, and the defenders were at their mercy: but there was going to be no mercy!

The throng of unsure and ill-equipped soldiers still gathered at the Gate; some 80 or so, were faced with a horde of German warriors who quickly cut a path of destruction through their weakened ranks. Within seconds; instead of a body of soldiers in military order, perhaps even capable of forming defensive squares, there were instead disordered groups dashing about in futile attempts to evade their attacker's onslaught.

Serilda led her warriors against the soldiers she could see immediately in front of her. These proved ill-disciplined and leaderless: within a couple of minutes she had wreaked bloody havoc amongst them and broken through into the main parade square of the camp.

Here she found the battered remnants of the defenders doing their best to hold off attacks from three sides. Xena's forces were pummelling the weakened ranks on their left hand, while on their other side another group of German warriors had arrived under Arminius's command. As Serilda advanced she caught a glimpse of Arminius himself wielding a sword over his head and bellowing so loudly she could hear him from where she stood a hundred feet away.

With a cry she led her followers into the fray and set-to against the terror-stricken soldiers. These men appeared to be the last defence; the only remaining real group left. But there were now far too few of them, and within minutes the game was lost.

Serilda saw Xena's tall figure beating her way through the last cluster of soldiers, inflicting mayhem on either hand as she advanced uncontrollably. Serilda realised, for the first time, the cold supercilious and terrifying nature of the unleashed demon that resided somewhere in the dark recesses of Xena's soul. The last defenders finally cast down their weapons; only to be quickly overwhelmed by their attackers and mostly dispatched without compunction or mercy, as Serilda reached Xena's side. The German girl saw the harsh stare with which the warrior-woman gazed at the surrounding turmoil; a gaze that clearly boded ill for her enemies. This was obviously, Serilda found herself thinking, a woman who knew how to kill with cold-blooded intent when necessary. Then Serilda drew a deep much-needed breath, as outside sounds seemed to jump back to life all round her after a period of apparent near deafness during the heaviest of the fighting.

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Aftermath

The aftermath was messy. Of some two hundred soldiers in the camp there remained alive only 23 prisoners and 37 wounded, many too seriously to survive. From all directions, through the dust-laden air of the camp, could be heard the groans and screams of these unfortunates, now being given some medical attention. Many of the German warriors had moved on to gleefully ransacking the camp buildings for loot, while Arminius held a Council of War in the centre of the abandoned parade-ground. Xena and an exhausted Serilda stood by his side as he considered the outcome of the bloody engagement.

"A great success!" He nodded at Xena with a smile of relief. "I had not expected such a quick, or overwhelming, victory. You and Serilda have trained the warriors well!"

"Serilda did most of the hard work!" Xena glanced at the young woman beside her. "She has an organisational skill that's worked wonders!"

"Your expertise in the fight helped, Xena!" The German woman gazed at her tall Greek companion with some awe, and a little fear, in her face. "Gods! You went through those soldiers like—like an avenging Demon! I've never seen fighting like that!"

"When you fight—fight to win, nothing else will do!" Xena shrugged her shoulders. "I'm just sorry I wasn't quick enough to stop the slaughter of the wounded our people carried out just now! Too many, across the whole camp!"

"The German warriors—my German warriors—are like that; not without just cause or reason, Xena!" Arminius scowled as he spoke. "The Romans have treated our people ruthlessly, bringing many into disgrace and slavery; now they will reap their just rewards at our spear-points! This is real War, Xena—not some historical recollection written in a scroll with all the bloody bits removed, so that some Matron in Rome reading it doesn't throw up over her plover's eggs in the evening!"

"I know that, Arminius!" Xena wiped a hand over her own sweat-covered forehead. "There'll be a lot more blood spilled, and soldiers screaming for mercy, before this is finished! But I'm with you all the way!"

"What we need to do now is head East back towards Kalkriese to join up with Gabrielle and Otrera again." Arminius gazed round the broken camp. "This is a good omen for the start of our campaign; but, as the Romans say—we must not rest on our laurels!"

"Yeah, this is only the prelude!" Serilda spoke with infinite tiredness after the physical and mental strain of the last hour. "When we hit Varus at Kalkriese it will be so much worse!"

"Varus thinks he has an easy route through the forest to Kalkriese and beyond." Xena's voice, though quiet, carried a tone of immense certainty. "But between your forces, Arminius; and Gabrielle and Otrera's Amazons, it will be his Gotterdammerung!"

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Notes:—

Optio & Tesserarius are ranks under the command of a Centurion; equivalent to 1st & 2nd Lieutenants.

A Contubernium (plural-contubernia) was the smallest organised unit of soldiers in the Roman Army, comprising 8 men.

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