It was the third cohort's day to use the field of Mars, and siege combat was fast approaching. Percy was currently being squished between Hank and Mia while their line was trying to pivot in formation. He did his best to not nudge them out of formation.
"Decuria! Moveo!" Mia ordered. His line stopped their rotation and began their march. They moved twenty paces when she ordered them to stop once again and draw their sword. They continued marching and changing positions until James finally blew his whistle. Amanda gestured for them to line up in front of her. Percy knelt just to her left. His optio held out a whiteboard with some battle plans drawn up.
"Listen up, kids. This weekend is an important one, so we need to have our strategy down to a tee." Amanda used the whiteboard to explain their strategy for the upcoming siege exercise. It was a solid plan, using their trenches to sneak around the walls., but it would take a lot of setup and cooperation from their teammates. Whichever cohort that ended up being.
"Percy. Focus." Amanda called him out. The boy flushed and returned his attention to her.
"As I was saying, you guys were one of the best groups out there today. For that, you're gonna be placed in the second line. Behind Justan's." Percy's contubernium let out some hollars as they grinned at one another. Being in the second line despite their age was a great accomplishment. Especially considering how intricate the plan was.
"Is this a permanent promotion, ma'am? Hank asked. Amanda looked away in thought for a moment.
"Not yet. Continuation of this promotion will be dependent on your performance during the exercise." Percy was satisfied with that answer. She finished up explaining their responsibilities for the plan and Percy rose from his kneeling position.
"Any idea on which cohort we're teaming with?" Mia asked.
"Not yet. The first or second would be best but Ella and Matthew are refusing to play second fiddle." She answered. Percy rolled his eyes. Ella and Matthew were the Primus Pilus and Pilus Posterior respectively. They weren't as classist as some of the people in their cohorts, but of course, they were too prideful to do the less glorious part of a plan they didn't create. "But we're still talking with Ella. We might negotiate to send a centuria from each cohort through the trenches instead of both of ours."
His linemates grumbled, but detached from the conversation so Amanda could talk to the next contubernium. Percy only made it a few steps before Hank stopped him.
"Hey, Percy." Percy fist-bumped his energetic friend.
"What's up?" Despite just performing marching drills for three hours, the son of Apollo still had a bright energy to him.
"I'm heading to Therm for lunch with Blaise and Colum after we change. You wanna join us?" Percy thought about it for a moment. On the one hand, he was pretty tired, but relaxing in a lounge with some nice food could be just as good as a nap to recharge. In the end, he decided it couldn't hurt to hang out with his linemates a bit more.
"Sure." Percy gave a crooked grin to Hank. "If we're going into the city we should probably take a dip in the bathhouse, though."
-X-
The legion didn't have the same prestige in the city as it did in the days of the Empire. Especially since everyone in New Rome had been a soldier before transferring to NRU. But since they had all participated in training, they still knew how hard it was on a teenager. That's why most places in the city had legion-only sections. Percy found himself in one of these areas, getting to know some of his tent group better. Hank's laughter rippled through the near-empty lounge, much to the annoyance of the NRU students working on their homework. Percy paid them no mind, too enthralled in Colum's story of how he arrived at camp.
"So there I am, hustling down Broadway when the damn shade comes running across the highway again!" Percy found himself leaning in, wondering how this shade kept coming back. "Now I know monsters can reform and everything, but tell me how Medusa ain't been seen since the fifteen hundreds and this random ass Goth is back every five minutes!" Another eruption of laughter from the boys echoes through the room.
"Anyways, I turn to kill this guy, AGAIN, when I see-" His friend was interrupted by the sounds of a large group entering the restaurant. New Rome didn't have too many restaurants, and Thermopolium was nowhere near the most popular of the bunch. So the odds of Percy's cousin being part of the group that entered the store were pretty low. Of course, the fates worked against him, and Jason, who Percy hadn't talked to since the tournament, walked in. The two didn't leave on bad terms, but Percy had heard so many whisperings he wasn't sure what was true. Jason seemed nice enough, but a single conversation wasn't enough to gauge his character yet.
Percy decided to give the group a polite smile and returned to the conversation with his friends, the energy from before no longer there.
"This is kinda awkward, no?" Blaise asked. Jason's group had seated themselves on the opposite side of the restaurant, but they still kept their voices down in case they were trying to eavesdrop.
"Yeah, Have you even talked to the guy since the tournament?" Hank asked him.
"No. He was friendly then but he hasn't made any attempt to talk to me since."
"Have you said anything to him?"
"Yes and no. I've said hi passing each other during rotations but I don't want to always be initiating. I don't want him to think I'm rubbing it in." He explained. Percy knew it was bad to trust rumours, but one had gone around saying that Jason went to his father's temple after the loss and prayed to be blessed with the power to destroy Percy.
"I heard he's been doing extra training in the hills to surprise you with some moves the next time you guys fight," Colum added.
"I don't know. I've only ever heard nice things about him." Hank offered. Percy looked down. He didn't want this…rivalry. But it was being forced upon him anyway. At the same time, people were clearly dismissing him in favour of the son of Jupiter, which annoyed him to no end.
"Who do you think we're gonna ally with for the siege?" Blaise asked. Percy appreciated him changing the subject.
"I hope it's not the first. You just know Bryce and Michael will start saying their cohort created the plan." Percy rolled his eyes. Michael was another that Percy hadn't talked to since the tournament, other than one time when the son of Venus shoved Percy to the side on his way to the city.
"The second isn't much better. If I hear another Bellonulus declare themselves superior I'm gonna snap." Colum wasn't exactly wrong. Percy had his fair share of run-ins with the children of Bellona. But Reyna was the only one from the tournament Percy had talked with since it ended, and she was much kinder than her siblings. He told them his thoughts about it and they began laughing.
"Of course you'd say that, Perce." Hank teased, and Percy scowled at his friend.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Reyna's the meanest one of them all! She threatened to punch me when I said her shoes were untied." Percy frowned. He had never even gotten a whiff of classism from her. It sucked, too. Percy thought of her as his closest friend outside his cohort.
"But she's always nice to me? And I've never heard her talking up her cohort before."
"Yeah well, she's not that type of mean. She couldn't care less about cohorts and lineage, but she's one of the least friendly people at camp. She gets along with you because you're practically in love with each other." Colum and Blaise burst into laughter at the proclamation. Percy on the other hand scoffed.
"That's not true! We're just friends!" He protested. It only made the boys laugh harder.
"Sure, buddy. So were Alexander and Hephaestion." Percy opened his mouth to protest, but Colum loudly cleared his throat and gave him a pointed look, glancing behind Percy's shoulder and back at him again. Blaise and Hank had also stopped laughing, leaving Percy very confused. That was until he felt a presence near the group. Looking over his shoulder, Percy saw Jason, baring an awkward smile, approaching him.
"Hey," he began. Percy held out his hand to fistbump his cousin.
"Hey, what up?" Jason glanced over at his own group for a moment. He looked back at Percy with an open mouth, thinking of what to say.
"Uhhh, me and my friends were wondering if you wanted to come and sit with us. We had a few ideas about the upcoming exercise and wanted to get your opinions." Percy raised an eyebrow but made no other gesture to betray his thoughts. That was mainly because he didn't know what to think. Percy looked over to his friends for help, but only received basic 'we'll follow you' faces in return. Percy turned back to his cousin, whose smile had quite obviously fallen in the silence.
"It's cool, you don't have to. I know you guys came to relax and stuff. Sorry." Now Percy felt bad. He had let rumours and whisperings get in the way of having a true friend in his cousin.
"Jason." The son of Jupiter stopped his movement. "We'll join you. I actually have a few siege ideas I want your opinion on." Percy truly hoped he wasn't making a mistake by trusting his cousin.
-X-
Percy had his doubts about Jason before. That had gone out the window within minutes. The boys from the third were once again cracking up listening to Colum telling his journey to camp, this time joined by a group of fifth cohort soldiers.
"Wait wait wait. You've killed this guy how many times at this point?" Gwen, one of Jason's friends asked.
"Four! And he just keeps. Coming. Back." Percy was once again on the edge of his seat, hoping to hear the end of Colum's story.
"So I just killed him behind the houses, and now I'm running down Broadway when I see this guy again. But this time I got a better look at him. And that's when I noticed-" Colum was once again interrupted at the climax of his story. This time by the restaurant's owner.
"Sorry, kids. I'm closing up in five minutes. So…get out." Julian was an older man, probably in his fifties, but he was one of the only older people in the city who actively engaged with the legion. That's why Percy took no offense at the bluntness of his comment. Instead, he laughed and rose from his seat, sneaking a few denarii to Hank. With Julian being the stubborn man he was, he refused to take money from members of the legion. But Percy was just as stubborn and refused to leave without paying. Hank was a child of Apollo, not Mercury, but his sleight of hand would make you think otherwise. So every time the group came to this lounge Hank snuck a few denarii behind the counter.
"Are you gonna take my money this time?" Jason asked him. Julian said nothing, a devilish grin his only response. Sighing, the teenagers began to clear out of the restaurant. Apparently, the other cafes and lounges had also kicked out their customers. Across the street from Percy and his friends, a group of first and second-cohort members poured onto the street, many sending condescending glares at them. Very west side story-like. Percy rolled his eyes, and Colum spoke his thoughts into existence.
"There's no way I can fight beside those guys," Blaise mumbled his agreement.
"What if you didn't have to?" Percy looked to his left, where Jason stood in front of his friends rather stoically.
"I wasn't lying when I said we asked you over to discuss strategy."
"Sorry, man. Our centurions have already decided on a plan. I think we're gonna cave to the second's demands." Hank explained. Dakota stepped forward.
"I don't know how, but your plan's been leaked around camp. I'm sure the first and second are stalling. They're gonna team with each other and counter it perfectly."
"But we thought of a few altercations to make it work still. And the fifth has no problem playing support for it." Jason finished.
"Why haven't your officers come to our yet? If it's as you say." Percy asked. Jason could easily be playing him right now.
"They don't even have the idea yet. Lavinia here was the one that heard some people from the first talking about your plan. We came to the lounge to spitball those ideas and bring them to our officers after." Percy narrowed his eyes. He couldn't sense any deception from his cousin, or any of the others for that matter. And they seemed nice enough.
"We only have twenty minutes until we have to back for dinner. That enough time for you guys to spitball some ideas?" The son of Jupiter didn't seem to be as prideful as his siblings were said to be, but the smug smirk he gave Percy think otherwise.
"That's enough time to come up with a whole new plan. But we'll stick with yours for now." The boys from the third smiled back. Together, the fifth and third made their way out of the city.
"Before we start talking about ideas though. I believe you need to finish your story, Colum." Percy said.
"Oh yeah! Where was I?"
A/N: I'll get a few references out of the way first.
A decuria wasn't an actual unit in the Roman army but was a term used to call a group of ten people sometimes. Contubernium will be the official name for the 'lines' of the army, while Decuria will be mostly used by characters since it's more natural and flows off the tongue more easily. Plus, in battle, you want information to come out as fast as possible and one syllable can make all the difference.
Thermopolium, or Therm as the legion calls it, is technically a word used to describe any restaurant in Latin. But in this story, it's a singular restaurant/lounge and is the actual name of the establishment.
Blaise and Colum are both actual members of the legion in the story (as is Lavinia), but I'm pretty sure they're only mentioned in a short spin-off story. They might be mentioned in ToA but I haven't read them so I'm not sure. For the most part, all the older members of the story will be OCs. Some will stay in the story, some will retire, and some will die. As for younger characters, pretty much everyone of note will be from the source material. I have OCs here and there because there are, I believe, less than 30 named characters in New Rome. But none of them will be too important (save a few here and there when necessary).
Lastly, 'Alexander and Hephaestion' refers to Alexander III of Macedon (AKA Alexander the Great) and his childhood friend, Hephaestion. Their friendship is regarded as very close and Aristotle refers to them as one soul abiding in two bodies. A lot of people have commented on their relationship and just how close they were, especially nowadays since being gay isn't seen as negatively as it has been in the past. Now were they lovers? Probably not. A lot of their closeness was written about after their time and almost certainly exaggerated to relate them more closely to the likes of Achilles and Patroclus (who have a just as contentious relationship). In this story, their relationship will be just as contentious, and some people will believe they were while some believe they weren't. That will be answered eventually, but not for a very long time. Like, not till the second book later.
Yes second book. This story is long (I actually just revised it and it now comes to 67 chapters, including 16 interludes, a prologue, and an epilogue), but it is more of a precursor to the sequel(s). The second book doesn't have any pen-to-paper writing yet, but most of the plot and ideas have been storyboarded. I think it's gonna end up somewhere close to 60 chapters, and there won't be any interludes. I don't have a third book planned yet, but there's almost certainly going to be one.
Lastly, I wanna talk about the relationship between cohorts. In the original series, the fifth cohort is thought to be cursed until Jason, Percy, Hazel, and Frank turn their opinion around. That spirals into the legion developing a hierarchy system between cohorts. Originally I planned on completely scrapping that idea. The Roman army didn't really have this idea, and it makes sense. Why would you develop this sense that you feel like you can't rely on half of your army? Instead, I decided to tweak it slightly, so it compares more to the first and second being (or at least feeling like) the 'cool kids' in a typical high school. They think they're better than the other cohorts, but it has more to do with status than competence. Also, they hate Jason. Him rejecting them in favour of the 'cursed' fifth was a huge slap in the face to them. But that will come up more later on.
Real quick, actually, I want to discuss the population of New Rome (and the legion for that matter). The thing that bugs me most with the original series is how empty the camps feel. CHB has what? 50? 60 campers by the battle of Manhatten? And the legion has 250ish by BoO? That's insane. These are societies that have lasted for centuries. Even if we say at the end of the civil war New Rome had 100 people. They would have a huge population growth because of the internal births, as well as migration from the gods' (of which there are hundreds) many many many children. So with a population growth of 2% (Honestly still pretty low for a society like that) it gives them almost 2000 by the time the series happens. And 1/8th of that is from the ages 13 - 18? That insane. So I've completely changed the inner workings of the city/legion. From now on, the legio is essentially high school. Every teenager, starting at 13, is placed in the legion for five years. They learn legion stuff, as well as regular high school things, before they 'graduate' and attend NRU. When at NRU, they live in housing in the city, paid for by their legion savings (every soldier has a certain percentage of their pay taken and put to the side so it's impossible for them not to afford housing). After NRU, almost everyone leaves and joins the real world, and only some decide to stay in the city (and the people who stay only do so if they own a business or something). This also solves why a large city would have literal teenage senators. I've also completely overhauled the entire the entirety of Greek society because their shit's even more insane when you look at the numbers (you're telling me not a single Greek camper was like 'Maybe I'll just stay at camp').
So right now, each cohort has 200 soldiers, as well as a centurion and an optio. The population of NRU is also around 1000 (closer to 1500). None of this is too important now, but it does come up eventually. Also, I just really wanted to get it off my chest.
Other than that, I plan on having the next chapter out soon. Since I've added more to the story, I might change the release schedule, but I'll finalize that when the next chapter comes out. The story has gotten a lot of traffic and some decent follows/favourites so far (thank you for that), but no reviews yet. I suppose no news is good news. So thank you for the support guys, and I'll see you soon! Metaphorically of course. You might wanna check your windows just in case, though.