Chương 5: Finishing with the south

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With the fall of this nation that had taken control of the area, I managed to acquire some important pieces of technology. However, they will only be useful for repairs because all the radio equipment that could have served me was claimed by the Legion to establish more direct communication with Flagstaff via radio rather than relying on messengers. Additionally, since we are on a campaign, all the livestock has become the property of the Legion, with no possibility of purchasing any.

So far, I haven't been able to take much advantage of supplying a small part of the necessary weaponry for Lanius' cohorts in his grand eastern campaign. This is because the society was a weak enemy and its lands extremely poor, with only about eight thousand inhabitants captured by the Legion.

The children are handed over to the priestesses of the Cult of Mars, where they are taught to worship Caesar. The elderly men are crucified, while those who can still fight and are interested are integrated into the Legion as auxiliaries. If they have no interest, they are captured and eventually turned into slaves.

As for the women, they are only captured and enslaved. Many become trophies for the legionaries who have shown bravery, prowess, or simply become communal property.

However, if an officer gave one to you as a gift at that moment, she would become the personal property of the legionary, and no one else could touch her. This proved useful, as this woman now in my tent could do something useful—guarding the small pile of gold coins in the tent I share with other legionaries.

I know I can trust my life with the legionaries in my cohort, but I have my doubts about trusting them with my possessions because, at one point, I'm certain that some of my food cans went missing.

During the following week, we spread out across the territory in search of more captives, but nothing significant was found.

Our main objective remained the south, as another of Caesar's targets was the Mescalero Nation. The little information we had indicated that they heavily used guerrilla warfare and bolt-action rifles.

The Legion had already acquired substantial weaponry from the previous campaign, but it was also important to increase our numbers.

Even with casualties due to using ancient tactics, the Legion caused many more losses and managed to recruit new tribal recruits still remaining in the area, increasing our number of soldiers by almost a thousand.

Before we departed, I received a gift from Legate Lanius himself.

It was a battle rifle with an adjustable scope. He believed I had earned the right to use higher-quality weaponry. This rifle used different ammunition than the assault rifle I had acquired and kept, but it surely allowed me to stay much farther from the battlefield while still causing many casualties.

So, I gave my assault rifle to a legionary who had been following my lead and was in my cohort, Drusus, who had learned that if he brought me shiny things he found during looting, I would give him food or its value in silver coins.

I considered him trustworthy enough to use the weapon I was relinquishing, as he already knew that as long as I breathed, he would have better food than the rest and good reasons to protect me.

The gift meant that I had at least earned the attention of the champion, the son of Mars, and he expected something from me.

Days passed, and finally, when it was determined that the Legion's time in these lands had ended, we continued marching south. This time, not as far, but we still traveled in these motorized chariots.

The decanus intended to be among the first to face the survivors of these American tribes in the area.

Our arrival by chariot was swift, and almost immediately, our decanus led us to harass the patrols of these Native Americans, who must have been alert to the movements of Lanius' cohorts in the area.

Within the first hour of entering their lands, I found a perfect spot—a lovely hill with several rocks where I could perfectly place my rifle and observe the roads and small village in the area.

For several minutes, we stayed watching the area, where my decanus looked very pleased as I shot at anyone I saw with a weapon more than a kilometer away, until I made a small pile with the .308 cartridges I was using.

Until finally, a shot came very close to me, and I had to reposition because an enemy sniper had revenge in mind.

I quickly removed the scope from the rifle while searching for the source of the shot.

Not seeing anything while exposing myself as little as possible, I used the old trick of a stick with a quick improvisation of a legionary's head.

Moving the fake head, a shot finally hit it directly, and I used it to calculate the trajectory from where the shot came.

Once confident of the possible area where the sniper was, I changed position and quickly scanned the area, noticing a tree and seeing the characteristic glint of a sniper scope.

I aimed and fired.

When I saw something fall from that distant tree, I knew I had won this battle.

"You're doing well, Gaius," said the decanus.

"I'm doing everything," I replied, extending my hand for more ammunition.

''We've got you covered,'' Drusus said, raising his assault rifle.

''Covered from what? These tribals are too scared to even lift their heads,'' he said as he reloaded his rifle.

''Ha, ha, ha! Alright, let's see what we can find among these dead profligates before they send us to another one of your staring contests,'' the decanus said, laughing heartily.

We went through the dozens of bodies I had taken down not long ago, grabbing their weapons and ammunition. When we checked the village, we realized it was empty. It seemed the locals decided to evacuate rather than continue losing men so recklessly.

As we searched the village, I noticed a booby trap.

''Hey…careful…trap…a wire leading directly to a grenade. There are probably more. We better get out of here; it's not worth losing a leg for whatever's in this village,'' I told the decanus before he entered a house.

''The centurion needs to be informed about this before we attack the city of The Pass head-on,'' the decanus said, turning back the way we came.

We returned to camp without any casualties but managed to kill many of Caesar's enemies, which was a good thing.

In the days leading up to the attack, they only sent me on patrols with veteran legionaries to fight against the patrols of these Native Americans who seemed to have caused several casualties among the newly recruited auxiliaries.

We only focused on hunting their heads as a sport since, at the end of the day, we would count how many each of us had killed for a prize, usually a newly forged machete from my tribe. I didn't win much, though I was often among the top.

On the day of the attack, Legate Lanius wanted us to weaken the natives' defenses before launching his triplex acies. So he sent several groups of legionaries to probe the enemy's defenses. Many were novice recruits and newly enlisted auxiliaries, so his plan was to have them waste their ammunition on low-priority targets before unleashing the more seasoned legionaries.

I was among them. As we advanced in separate groups, I focused on taking out anyone whose scope glinted in the sun, indicating they were snipers, eliminating the most dangerous first.

We used the rocky path as our defense against the multiple shots we were drawing.

As we kept moving, one of our comrades was hit in the leg, and we had to leave him hidden among the rocks because he couldn't walk.

As we continued advancing, the closer we got to the natives' defenses, the more shots we received, as fewer groups remained standing.

When we were only a few meters away, the decanus ordered a charge.

''Wait, we shouldn't do that…'' I tried to say to the decanus, but as soon as he stepped out of our cover, he was gunned down by several shots.

My comrades seemed ready to follow the order, regardless.

''Get down, now!'' I shouted at the legionaries preparing to charge.

''Gaius, those are orders from the decanus; we can't disobey,'' Drusus said, pointing at the palisade.

''And we're going to die uselessly, without taking any profligates with us. What would the Son of Mars think of that? A pointless waste. Get your heads down and let them lose focus on us, and we'll return fire,'' I said, signaling them to lower their heads.

Finally, the legionaries grudgingly obeyed, and we stayed down for a while.

Eventually, we got up, and it looked like the defenders had shifted their focus elsewhere.

This time, we charged the palisade, taking advantage of the few eyes on us, and Drusus quickly emptied his magazine, buying us enough time to reach the palisade for cover.

''Come on, come on, this way, it looks like there's no one around,'' I said as we moved south, skirting the front defenses of the city.

We reached an area where the palisade was lower. We climbed up, boosting each other, and entered the city to get behind the interior defenses, climbing the palisade and then some defenses set up in the buildings connected by bridges.

We noticed several defenders searching below, but we continued toward the front palisade, where we encountered several spots from which they could have shot us perfectly.

This time, I didn't stop the legionaries from drawing their machetes and dismembering all the natives with rifles who had no idea that legionaries had infiltrated their defenses.

Taking advantage of our position, I started shooting all the natives on the palisade in the back, causing many casualties. It seemed our actions didn't go unnoticed because the forces formed the triplex acies and began advancing. At the same time, the natives did everything they could to drive us out of their defenses.

While all this was happening, my comrades and I barricaded ourselves in one of the many rooms in the tall buildings, continuing to harass any armed native we could see from the windows.

The rest of the legionaries entered the city, and a massacre seemed imminent, especially since Lanius was leading the vanguard.

But shortly afterward, all the battle noises stopped, leaving only sporadic gunfire. From the heights, I noticed a white flag.

A woman approached Lanius carrying a white flag and knelt before our legate.

The armed natives began surrendering en masse.

All the cohorts were ordered to leave the city. I didn't know much about what had happened, but it seemed an agreement had been reached between the woman leading the natives and the legate. For not surrendering sooner, half the population would be enslaved, and the rest would be treated as subjects of the Legion. Many of the native warriors would join Lanius' cohorts as auxiliaries.

The Legion had conquered another tribe, and our numbers swelled.

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I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.

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