Steam Legion (27 page)

They roared in response, gladii shining in the air as they pumped their arms in response.

Across the river, the enemy marched on the bridge, this time an almost unending swarm of men descending toward them. Not two Centuries were coming toward them, but two full Cohorts at least. Dyna watched them come, her heart tightening as she counted up their numbers against the light Century of soldiers she had.

Perhaps tonight we dine in Hades, but if so, I swear to Hephaestus and Ares that we will not be dining
alone.

Chapter 21

The distant roar sent a shiver down Godrian’s back as he guided his horse along the curving road to the west.

“What in Jupiter’s name was that?” his Adjutant asked, looking up and into the distance.

“I’ve never heard anything quite like it,” Gordian admitted as he, too, looked around them for a source. The men hadn’t seemed to notice it, or if they had, it didn’t seem to bother them much as of then. “Thunder?”

“Nothing I’ve ever heard,” Janusi muttered. “It sounded more like a beast than a storm.”

Gordian made a noncommittal sound. “Perhaps. I’ve heard a lion roar from closer than I’d like to remember, but it wasn’t like that.”

“Yes, I know. Almost like a serpent, actually.”

“I don’t know about you, but I would prefer not to meet any serpent that can make
that
sound,” Gordian snorted, his voice kept low enough not to spread
that
thought to the troops.

“No arguments from me, Tribunus,” Janusi chuckled. “Did it come from ahead, do you suppose?”

“Seems like it, but it is difficult to say.”

“Well, if it did, then we’ll find out what it was soon enough, I would say.”

Gordian rolled his eyes. True as that might be, he would prefer to have more information on what he was walking into before he actually walked into it. He was still preoccupied with the sound when they saw one of their scouts racing back along the road in their direction, obviously pushing his pony hard.

“Five Denarii says that this has something to do with that sound,” Janusi offered from his side.

Gordian snorted. “If you’re looking for a sucker, Janusi, look to your mother, not me.”

“Hey!” Janusi called after him as he jogged his horse forward. “There’s no call for that, Tribunus!”

He ignored his subordinate, trotting out ahead of the column as the scout slowed to a halt and turned to match his pace. The pony was sweating and breathing hard, clearly having been pushed to its limits. The scout himself didn’t look much better, to be frank.

“Speak,” he ordered the man as they walked their animals ahead of the column.

“The enemy is less than five mile stones ahead, Tribunus.”

“We’re catching up to them, then,” Gordian said.

“Oh yes, you can say that. They’ve been stopped at the bridge.” The scout grinned. “A small force met and annihilated their first probing assault. Never seen anything like it, Tribunus. Near two Centuries of men dead in moments. As best as I can tell, the defenders didn’t take a casualty.”

“We heard a strange roaring sound here a short while ago,” Gordian offered, his eyebrow raised.

“Aye, that would be the defenders’ weapons,” the scout confirmed. “Don’t ask me to explain it. I’ve never seen the like.”

Gordian pursed his lips as he considered the report. “So, they hold the bridge then? Did the enemy turn aside? I know they can cross the river to the north.”

The scout shook his head. “No, Tribunus. They were marshaling for an all-out assault when I grabbed my pony and tore out of there.”

“I see,” Gordian said. “Very well. Good report, Pedes.”

“Tribunus!” The man saluted.

Gordian let his horse lag to allow the column to catch up, waving to the scout. “Go on ahead. We’ll be coming up shortly.”

The scout nodded and guided his pony back up the road while Gordian rejoined his place in the column.

“So?” Janusi asked.

“So, we increase our pace. The enemy is bottled up at the bridge ahead, and it seems some of our Legion comrades have chosen their ground to make a last stand. I would prefer that they were disappointed,” Gordian said. “See to it that the column is informed, Janusi.”

“As you command, Tribunus.” Janusi saluted with a grin before he turned back to obey.

Slowly, the column increased its pace, not greatly but enough to get them where they were going as quickly as possible without completely wearing themselves out. It would do no good to arrive just to collapse from exhaustion, after all.

As Gordian thought that, there was another roar, as if of some great beast in the distance. This time it was louder and seemed all the more chilling.

The battle had been joined once more.

****

The great gouts of steam hadn’t cleared from the bridge before Dyna had her falcata in the air, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“To the sword!”

The Legionnaires, her men, put their shields to the front and marched forward as Sensus threw the chariot into operation. It was slow to start, but by the time the Legionnaires had stepped forward to the front line, the chariot had begun to push the automatons forward with them.

It was eerie in a way, Dyna noted absently as they pushed forward. The feet of the automatons dragged on the ground since no one had ever designed them to walk exactly, and the effect was to make the figures seem to glide like ghosts of iron and steel and bronze. They bumped over the bloodied bodies of the dead and dying with no care, Sensus himself unable to see what he was actually guiding the mechanism into.

Likely for the best,
she supposed as the big wood and iron chariot wheels rolled over the first fallen body, crushing bone and splitting flesh like overripe fruit.

They pushed into the few of the enemy who had survived the first blast from the steam cannons, men who were now stunned and at least partially boiled by the extreme heat they’d been exposed to at such close range. As the shield line encountered the first of them, Sensus threw a lever and the automatons lunched and stabbed with their spears and blades.

More men died, and those beyond the range of the automatons tried to run, only to slam right into their own advancing line and be pushed back. The line was inexorable, marching into the Legion and automaton line with admirable discipline until they met with a mighty clash of metal on the Israelite’s side of the bridge.

The line shuddered for a moment, automatons and Legionnaires stabbing viciously, then slowly rolled to a halt until Sensus pumped harder on the bellows, and the great chariot of Heron began to move forward again.

The automatons’ arms would slowly crank back under the power of the chariot, tightening the torsion spring that powered them, and then would suddenly stab forward into the mass of men beyond. Sword and spear cleaved through shield and armor, exposing organs to air with single thrusts of nearly unreal power. The motions of the automatons were mechanical, slow by human parameters, but against the massed line of humanity before them, they were like the swords of the Gods, cleaving down all who stood before them.

Where the automatons couldn’t fill the gaps, men would try to rush by, only to fall to the gladii of the Legion as they were stopped in their tracks by locked scutem and stabbing blades. The Legion held ranks with solid discipline, their wall of shield and steel making any attempt to gain a foothold beyond the front line of battle a truly dangerous prospect indeed.

Dyna was standing to the rear of the line, hanging off the chariot as she glowered out over the fighting, eyes searching for anything that might indicate she needed to adjust her tactics on the fly. A horn blew on the enemy’s side of the fighting, and she could see the immediate shift of the weight of battle in response.

Men hammered into the right side of the defending line, the force pushing the Legionnaires back and opening a small channel through which more men could flow. She saw them coming and patted Sensus on the shoulder.

“Time to fall back! I’ll be back shortly!”

Dyna dropped from the side of the chariot as the first of the enemy broke free of the clash and chaos of the battle and cast about to find something other than a Legionnaire to fight. She didn’t give him the chance as she brought her falcata down in an overhand stroke that cleaved his helm and skull.

As he fell, Dyna let out a yell, “Fall back! Shore up the breach! Cannons to the ready!”

Then she waded into the fighting, her falcata hacking through shield and armor as she swung to either side with increasing force. The long, curved blade of the falcata sword was weighted to the front, making it a superb hacking and slicing weapon compared to the more efficient thrusting power of the gladius wielded by her men. For Dyna, it gave her a range of motion denied to those armed with the full body scutem shield, and she made the most of it as she spun and slashed into another man coming through the breach.

She was already ankle-deep in flesh, blood, and things she’d rather not think about at the moment, but the line was beginning to fall back, as she’d ordered. She dropped with the flow of the fight, foot by foot crossing back over the bridge to the side they had begun on.

She could see figures on the ground, men in Lorica Laminata armor, and knew exactly how it was that the breach had been forced open. For the moment, she couldn’t tell how many men had gone down, but she prayed to the Gods that if any of them were still alive, they were smart enough to keep their heads down for what was coming.

The fighting intensified as the enemy felt the line give, and she knew that they thought they were winning.

This is going to hurt them so much more when they realize.
She bared her teeth as she spun and grabbed a spear from the chariot with her off hand, thrusting it into a charging Zealot.

The long shaft went through his light armor with ease, propping him up when she dropped the butt of the weapon to the ground and followed through with a slash across his throat that left his head lolling in place, held to his body only by a shred of flesh and bone as he leaned into the spear holding him upright.

The line of battle passed the macabre signpost as they fell back, men surging around the dead man as each jockeyed for advantage.

Dyna fell back, letting her men step in to take her place as she hooked a foot up onto the chariot and boosted herself up above the fighting. They were almost back to where they had begun, which was exactly where she wanted her forces to be.

She spotted the Immunes cinching the tension plate of the closest cannon as they passed and was shocked that the entire fight so far had taken so little time.
It feels so much longer. Unbelievable.

As her men cleared the firing arc, Dyna signaled the Immune, who nodded and slapped his partner on the shoulder as he signaled the next. She could see the glow of the brazier under the cannon as it was fed more air from the bellows.

“Ware cannon!” she called, ducking her face down against the back-blast of the steam that was about to surround them all.

The rush and roar of the cannons engulfed them then, so close were they to the lethal maws of the powerful weapons. The cannons’ forward plates surrendered to the power of the steam contained within, and the great pressure flung out five heavy ballista bolts and one carved-stone ball apiece into the enemy as they actually pushed all the harder to advance right to their deaths.

As the roar quieted, a silence engulfed the bridge as there was a sudden and unnerving break in the fighting. Without reinforcements, the men in the breach on her right were slaughtered swiftly as Dyna took a moment to evaluate the situation.

The bridge was a slaughterhouse, the dead and dying filling the available space as much as four and five bodies deep in places now. Those few still standing in the kill zone were covered in blood, either their own or that of their closest comrades. As the steam cleared from the bridge, a few of those left standing hit the ground from a seemingly delayed reaction, and the rest turned and ran.

The enemy line was far enough back and not moving now, so these men were able to flee the killing ground. Blood was literally pouring off the bridge into the waters below with a rushing sound of water that seemed so unreal in the silence of the aftermath of the cannon shot.

Dyna found herself staring at the carnage, completely disbelieving.

“By the Gods,” she whispered, face pale white with shock. “How many did we kill?”

****

“In God’s very name,” the Commander whispered. “How many did they kill?”

Of the nearly two full Cohorts he had sent to take the bridge, only a scattered handful had survived to run for their lives.

“I don’t know, Commander. We’re still trying to determine who survived. What
are
those weapons?”

“Magic from the pits.” He scowled, spitting the words. “I don’t know what they call them, but those beasts are surely demons leashed to our enemy’s yoke.”

The small force, having picked its battlefield so carefully, was standing defiantly on the bridge below his position, very nearly untouched by the battle. It was unthinkable, utterly and totally impossible…and yet, here he stood. He could already hear his soldiers muttering in fear of the infidels that dared stand against God’s word.

We must acquire those weapons.

Leashed demons or something else entirely, that power could not be permitted to remain in the hands of the Romans alone. The great rebellion would be ended before it began if that were the case; there would be nothing the faithful could do against power of that nature. However, he didn’t see how he could take them, not as it stood. The bridge was too perfect a battlefield. It let the enemy set all the rules.

It was then that he realized that the weapons were not quite so powerful as he believed. Without the bridge, they would be easily overrun, with losses yes, but overrun nonetheless.

“We cannot take them from here,” he said aloud. “They have chosen the battlefield and it would cripple us to try.”