Chapter 5: Eye of the Needle

Alnus Hill

Legate Titian calmly walked his lines as was his habit. It was his own granted reward for toiling with the politics he was forced to confront on a nearly constant basis. The inner ring had been completed to his specifications: Sloping embankments of earth dropped off to a nearly sheer thirty-foot drop. At the base, a trench had been dug and partially filled with tar and pitch. He had lit torches placed every ten feet to turn the trench into a veritable Phlegethon on command. A ring of archers stood on constant watch. Parapets lined the only direct route to the Gate and eight spotting towers circled the inner perimeter. Caltrops liberally salted the ground on the other side of the trench.

But as satisfactory as Titian found this portion of his defenses, he was less than pleased with the progress of the successive layers and the main reason for this dissatisfaction was now strolling toward him with a rather smug look.

"Senator." Titian greeted coolly, using Godasen's political title rather than his military rank.

"Legate. I see your troops are being kept busy." The Senator noted mildly, glancing about.

"Insofar as I have men and the materials I need. I have neither adequate stone, nor concrete, nor engineers, nor enough wood. The rations which I requested are not arriving so I am forced to scrounge for provender to keep an adequate enough supply of labor long enough to compensate for all the other commodities to which I am being denied."

"Well, you know I have discussed your requests and your situation at length with the Senate and the Emperor himself. Both the Senate and His Majesty feel you are being a bit alarmist." Godasen informed oily. "By the way." He added as if an afterthought, "How is the morale of your troops? I can only imagine how they must feel: Being made to cower behind earthen works before the Gate that is the doorway to the riches and conquests granted us by the Gods."

Titian ignored the prodding. "You speak as though the Gods themselves entrust you with their plans."

The Senator looked at him curiously. "You sound as if you have no faith in the Gods."

"The Gods will do as they please, our own desires heedless," Titian replied. "I place my faith in the exertions of men and little faith in those save mine own." He pointed toward the Gate. "They will come. Spies, their contraptions, eyes upon us. They will come."

Godasen smiled brightly. "Then let them! The sooner they come! Let them come! I have seen the testimony. Our enemies hide and fight from cover using magic to compensate for their weakness and cowardice in arms; The sooner their armies come, the sooner we will surround them and destroy them in the open. Then we will return to our duty."

"Our duty?"

"To govern the nations in power; to dictate their rule in peace; to raise up the peoples we have conquered and throw down the proud who resist." Godasen paraphrased the ancient work.

"It seems our enemies do not see the need to be raised up, nor for us to dictate their rule."

The pleasantness on the Senator's face faded. "Then we must throw them down. Let them come!"

"When they come," Titian addressed Godasen squarely. "We must destroy them upon this hill. We will defeat them here or we will lose the war."

"I find your attitude rather defeatist. The Senator hissed.

"It is always the prerogative of the Emperor and the Senate to remove me from command here," Titian noted. "Of course, if I am to be relieved then I have no place here. In that happy event, I will need to return to the Capital and in the event that Sacred Alnus falls to the enemy, then it will be my regretful duty to tell His Majesty how my efforts to avert such a disgrace were undermined."

The frustration on Godasen's face was clearly evident. He wished so dearly to send Titian away. The prize of a glorious victory he wished for himself alone but the penalty for failure would equally be his. No, it was best if Titian stayed here. When the enemy was defeated, Godasen would make certain it was his version of events that were reported to the Senate and His Majesty.

And if the unthinkable happened, then Godasen would make certain that the blame was laid on Titian's head and not his own. Perhaps, with luck, the enemy would favor Godasen and remove the Legate permanently.

"I will leave you to your work Legate," Godasen said at last.

Titian watched the Senator leave. He could do the same calculations in his head that Godasen could. The Senator would either claim victory or condemn him for any defeat. Such considerations were immaterial. Titian was a devoted soldier of the Empire and he would do whatever was necessary and possible to protect it.

In the coming days, his ingenuity and skill would be severely tested.

Camp Augustus

Lady Octavia had been granted permission to see her husband the afternoon following making her request of Lieutenant Taylor. In fact, it seemed that the Lieutenant's superiors couldn't leap fast enough for the opportunity such an act of goodwill might provide. The arrangement was quickly made for Lieutenant Taylor to take Lady Octavia and her children aboard USNS Mercy, accompanied by a single unarmed retainer. They would be accompanied by three Marine guards and a driver, with two more sentries posted on Germanicus's door. This was both as a precaution, especially in regard to the Warrior Bunny, whose presence was deemed vital for Octavia in regards to the safety of her children, and to provide maximum safety for the Legate's family.

The carefully monitored visit was a major morale boost to both Germanicus and his relief of his family's safety and their humane treatment did much to improve the legate's health and helped him form a favorable view of his captors that would pay handsome dividends down the line.

"Thank you again, Lieutenant, "Octavia told Taylor the next day. "Being able to see my husband and hear his voice has taken a tremendous weight from my spirit. And the children as well, This morning is the first morning since we arrived that I've seen Antonius and Marcus playing."

"Oh?"

Octavia nodded. "And Lucilla! She's filled with life today! She reminds me of myself at her age."

"Your daughter has already struck me as being very formidable," Taylor noted.

"Yes, but until today much of the fire in her heart had faded. She's much more herself again now!" Octavia chuckled. "She's a very spirited girl"

She's saying that up to now, that girl has been sedate? Heaven help the man she sets a fancy to! Taylor offered up in mental prayer. "It seems your husband certainly appreciated the lunch you brought him," Taylor noted as a means of changing the subject just slightly, "A touch of home. I certainly can't fault him for that. I think they make hospital cooking as bland and tasteless as possible to encourage people to get better just to escape the food."

'Speaking of which," Octavia smirked. "I'm told you have arranged a feast of traditional American foods for this evening?"

"Well, normally we hold the feast of Thanksgiving in November, but by the time November rolls around, it will be almost impossible for me to get five hundred turkeys and the associated fixing. So under the circumstances, I figured we would just hold the feast now and celebrate what your people are thankful for instead." Taylor left unmentioned the rumors circulating that some of the people assigned to Camp Augustus might be reassigned once the invasion went through, they would get to enjoy Thanksgiving with a family, even if not their own.

"And just what is a 'turkey'?" Lady Octavia asked.

"A large fowl, bigger than chickens, ducks, or geese and that goes well with mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce."

"And something about a 'movie'? What is that?"

"Well, imagine if you went to a play and a scribe wrote down everything that happened,"Taylor told her. "Now imagine that instead of writing down words to describe everything, that the scribe could make a record of the sounds and the sight of the performers so that you could see that same performance of that play later. Especially convenient if the play had so many characters that you could only hope to get them to act it out once.."

"I see." Octavia nodded. Admittedly it seemed like more magic but was undoubtedly more of the 'technology' that the people of this world used in place of magic. "And what is this movie about?"

Taylor had given careful consideration to showing these people any sort of contemporary media. Books were easy enough. Many of the noble ladies, especially Lady Octavia and her daughter, devoured almost any books he brought them. He was carefully working music up from classical. But television and movies had been a cultural minefield of epic proportions. Taylor wanted something that would speak to his nation's highest ideals and aspirations, even if those ideals were not always met. He had wanted to show them Gettysburg, but Chief Richardson had respectfully reminded the young officer that their guests would not have the same frame of reference as an American and maybe it would be better to ease them in with something more relatable. After a time, he opted for Richard Harris in 'Camelot'.

"It's about a legendary warrior King named Arthur who tries to rule his lands with a fair and just hand but his kingdom falls because of pride, ambition, and forbidden love."

"An interesting choice."

"Wise man say that young officer who listens to his Chiefs go farther than an officer with ears closed." He replied

"I was right!" Octavia teased gently. "My new son is a warrior and a philosopher."

Taylor blushed a bit at that. "In the meantime, I am told you had an interesting morning?"

"Ah, yes. Lady Agrippina has been in great distress over finding out that rather than dying on the field of battle, her dashing new husband and his entire legion fled for the Gate and abandoned her."

"Ouch!" Taylor winced at that. Then she noticed Octavia smirking.

"She was devastated at first but now she has a very healthy anger burning. For a young lady I expected to be little more than a spoiled and dull bore, she has quite a creative imagination! She now has fire and a purpose and I will provide her with guidance." She noticed a touch of alarm on Taylor's face. "Oh! Don't worry! I can guarantee that the only one who has anything to truly fear is Legate Marius."

"Then before I go check on the preparations for tonight's Thanksgiving feast, allow me to offer up a prayer of thanks that I am not he!"

"By all means, Lieutenant! By all means!" Octavia agreed.

Alnus Hill

A few days later, Janus Theater Command decided it was finally time to move.

On the other side of the Gate, another unremarkable night was passing for the troops still under Titian's command. What had stood at nearly 45,000 men was now 15,000. Most of the other troops were now encamped twenty miles away with Senator Godasen's main body, which now numbered 130,000 strong. But Godasen, much like Earth's General Haig, a century before him, had failed to understand that the relative strength of the opposing armies was not in numbers of men, but in the sheer power and flexibility of those armies. One cannot say that, in fact, Legate Titian fully understood the math involved himself but he had understood enough to conclude that an open field engagement was the last thing he wanted in a confrontation with his other-worldly enemies.

To that end, Titian's men continued to work on expanding the defenses around the Gate. All those men not standing the walls were put to work entrenching, building barricades, and scrounging for resources. But even the most dedicated soldiers simply had to sleep at some time.

This was the case for Titian and 13,000 of his men when the clock ticked down to H-Hour on Operation Jupiter. Most of the remainder were archers, spotters, and torchbearers waiting for dawn to come so they could be relieved after another long and tedious night on the wall. The first inkling of warning any of these men had was a growing rumble coming from the Gate. Senior Centurion Nerva moved with admirable swiftness, not hesitating in the slightest to order an alarm sounded, nor in ordering the torchbearers to fire the trench surrounding the Gate. Any assault by infantry, even one equipped with modern weapons, would have taken significant casualties trying to fight its way out but against armor and motorized infantry, slings and arrows and spears would be little avail.

This is not to say that it was a bloodless battle for the Pacific Allies. The burning pitch surrounding the oncoming invaders played havoc with both low-light vision and infra-red spotting. Also, Sergeant Ieyasu Hashimoto was killed as he attempted to clear Imperial troops from atop their parapets with the 12,7 mm machine gun mounted on his Type 74 tank. Even as a score of Imperials fell torn apart by Hashimoto's bullets, the Sergeant was hit with an arrow in his throat, an unlucky shot in a barrage of arrows fired desperately by the defenders. His fellow tankers avenged his death many times over as M-908 anti-obstacle rounds pounded the earthworks, collapsing large sections and demolishing a ballista as its crew tried futilely to engage the armor behemoths advancing on them. Some tanks then switching to cannister rounds with awful effect as meantime, Legate Titian tried desperately to assemble his men and formulate a response.

Dispatching riders to alert Godasen's main army, Titian dispatched mages to fan the flames of the inner trench line. These auxiliaries were cut down, caught in a conflict, not of their making and their understanding. Knowing that his enemies would surely move toward the only clear access in his defenses, Titian rallied cavalry to meet them only to be killed, sword in hand as he charged headlong into the gap, a hundred riders behind him all wiped out as a Type 10 tank fired cannister shot into their massed ranks.

It was at this point that bereft of its commander, Titian's army broke. Some men fought in suicidal charges, while other men fought from the incomplete secondary and tertiary defenses. Some ran in whatever direction they could and others simply froze and huddled where they were. Some too frightened, some too tired, and others simply broken.

By dawn, the fighting was reduced to infantry squads flushing holdouts out of the smashed fortifications and medics sorting through the human carnage. This phase of operations proved much more dangerous to the Allied troops than the actual battle had been. More than a few wounds and fatalities were incurred in this manner.

Meanwhile, some twenty miles away, Senator Godasen had received word of the battle and news of Titian's demise. Still, Godasen declined to move on Alnus. Convinced of both his numerical and moral superiority, Godasen waited, hoping to draw the enemy out into the open on ground of his choosing, unaware that the Empire had already lost its best chance to stop the Allied invasion.