Chapter 1: The First Imperium

Gaius
Gaius

“Paratus!” Gaius’ voice rang out as he commanded the First Legion Licentia, “et...IGNIS!” Yelled Gaius

One hundred archers, clad in black leather armour, fired at the monster army as they charged toward the First Legion. The enemies’ front lines fell within the first volley. The monster’s roared with rage at Gaius and the First as they continued to charge towards them.

“INFANTRY, AT THE READY!” Yelled Gaius

A few hundred battle cries came from the First as the infantry soldiers lifted their swords high above their heads and advanced, in formation, towards the monster’s.

“Lock shields!” Yelled Gaius

The infantry soldiers held their shields together as they marched, side by side, and left little gaps in between the shields for their spears and their swords. The infantry held together as they broke through the unorganized mass. The enemy army fell within seconds, turning into golden and bronze dust. A hearty victory cry went up from the First. Gaius smiled and looked around at the battlefield. The only sign of a battle were the monster ashes that covered the ground. Gaius looked towards his own soldiers. Not a single one of them has perished.

A job well done, thought Gaius as he ordered his troops to march back to the Imperium. Gaius trailed behind his troops, occasionally yelling commands to the soldiers.

The praetor of the First fell back from the marching troops and saddled up beside Gaius. Gaius attempted to remember her name, but was not successful.

“Is something wrong, Sir?” asked the praetor, looking at him with a concerned expression.

“No, nothing’s wrong, there’s just a few things on my mind...Praetor..?” replied Gaius, minorly distracted, still trying to remember her name.

“If you’re wondering, my name’s Lydia.”

“That’s right, Lydia. Sorry for not paying much attention. I am a bit distracted and worried about some of the things on my mind. For example; I’m worried as to whether we’ll be able to make it back home before dinner.”

The Praetor laughed heartily. “I’m sure we’ll make it back to the dining hall so that you can stuff yourself with meat.” Gaius chuckled.

“Like that’ll happen.”

“Let’s just focus on the task at hand then, shall we?”

“Sounds good to me. Just hope there aren’t anymore monster attacks. That would ruin the march.”

As it turned out, their were multiple monster attacks. On the way home, the First had been attacked twice; once by a hydra that Gaius had slain himself, then by a grotesque creature with six arms which the fourth cohort centurion had slain with help from his first tribune.

When the First had finally reached the Imperium, they were welcomed with hearty cheers from the guards on the walls. The guards opened the gates for them and informed Gaius that roll-call would be taking place in five minutes on the Plains of Bellona. Gaius ordered his troops into place at roll-call and hurried, with Lydia in tow, to where the Praetors and officers stood. One by one, the Praetors ordered their legions to cheer the Roman motto; Senatus Populusque Romanus. Gaius, having four of the legions under his command and being one of the Primis Praetors, had to call out the motto four times.

Once all was said and done, the legions of the New Roman Europaen Coalition made their way to the dining halls. Gaius arrived at the dining hall and sat at the Empress’, his surrogate mother’s, table along with the other Primis Praetors and the Caesar family, which included him. Gaius waited for his mother to take food from the table, then him and his siblings followed. After them, the other Primis Praetors began to take food from the limestone table that stretched the length of the hall. Mother called out for silence as we all prepared to give our daily reports to her. Gaius’ brother, Hadrian, went first.

“The Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Legions encountered no battles while they patrolled. I, at the time, was with the Seventh Legion Munivit. The Praetor’s of the other legions I command delivered me these reports at four o-clock this evening, an hour before roll-call.” Said Hadrian, rushing through his words and not giving many details, as per usual.

Next were Gaius’ twin sisters, dubbed the Silver twins by their hair colour and battlefield prowess. They gave very detailed accounts of the problems that had occurred to the west of the Imperium. They had encountered a small pack of wild Drakons and a force of Gryphons, which they had easily been either captured and tamed, or decimated.

Then, it was time for Gaius.

“We encountered a full army about seven miles from the Northern Imperium Gates. The army was made up of all kinds of monster’s, Cyclope’s, Hellhounds, Gryphons, Shades, and Drakons. Praetor Lydia, The First Legion Licentia, and I were able to completely destroy them. We received one severe injury to the second cohort tribune, and minor wounds for many of the Legion’s Infantry troops. This could prove to be a large problem. If the monster’s are starting to become more organized, what is to say that they cannot attack the Imperium? I’m sorry to say it, but if they are this organized, and we all know how many are out there, then we may be overrun. We know from our scouting parties that their are well over sixty thousand monster’s of all kind that infest this area, more particularly, us, and our neighbour, the city of Rome. If we are overrun, that could mean the end of the Empire that has survived so long in the shadows. Everything we’ve worked for in the past few centuries would be for nothing. And we all know that the Twelfth legion in America would definitely be overrun by these armies. They have less troops than us, less space, less everything. Heck, they don’t even know we exist! We don’t even know of their exact location, all we know is that their camp, Camp Jupiter, is located somewhere in the bay area. For all we know, they could be living under a freakin’ highway! For this, I propose a quest, a quest to welcome the Twelfth and their Allies into our ranks so that they may help up with the oncoming threat of the monster army. Said Gaius, with a tinge of anger in his voice.

Heads started nodding at Gaius’ words. Gaius began to gain confidence in this plan of his. Gaius’ mother glared at him from across the table and Gaius’ smile faded and was replaced by a crease in his brow when he frowned.

The Empress raised her hand for silence and the voices died down to low whispers. She spoke, “What you ask for is close to impossible to grant. These other Roman’s could be primitive and do not know our ways. This monster army idea could just be a single group, they could never perform an organized attack. The only way I could send you is by obeying the ancient laws, you may bring two human companions, that is all. If I were to allow this, you would have to gather your own equipment. I will not support this, the best I could give you is a passport and several plane tickets. This quest would also mean leaving the safety of the Imperium, and of the Coalition. You would be on your own.”

A silence befalls those at the table. Gaius stared forth in shock at the words. What would he do..? He asked himself, and then it came to him.

Gaius mustered up his courage and confidence. He spoke, looking directly at his mother, “Then I shall do just that. I will take two humans and I will gather help from our North American counterparts.”

His mother nodded in respect to him, then she stood and walked towards the acropolis.

Hadrian, once their mother was in the distance, swiveled his head to stare at Gaius in disbelief. The disbelief transitioned to anger in a matter of seconds.

“What in the hells are you thinking?!”yelled Hadrian, “You’re gonna get yourself killed! You idiot!”

Gaius wasn’t surprised, in fact, he had been expecting Hadrian to react in this way as he had done the same before one of Gaius’ other quests.

“Don’t worry. Nothing bad will happen. I think..”

“You THINK?? That’s what you go off of?”

“Well remember my other quests! Like the dark crown of..oh. Nevermind. Bad example..how about the lost aegis of Hades..oh. Another bad example… The Golden Kraken’s head..?” Gaius tried to nod his brother off unsuccessfully.

Hadrian scoffed. “That means nothing. On EVERY, and I mean EVERY, quest you’ve been on, you’ve caused some sort of trouble. For instance, you destroyed the palace of Nyx on the quest for her dark crown in Tartarus and caused her to chase you to the river Lethe? Where you lost your memory and had to be cured by an idiot we tricked into giving us a healing potion? Or during the quest for the Aegis of Hades and where you almost killed the hellhound, Cerberus, and got an undead army to chase you all the way back to the above world? Or when you went on the idiotic quest and tryed to slay a freaking golden kraken where it swallowed you and you had to get out by gutting though it’s literate golden hide, FROM THE INSIDE! If none of that is bad, I ain’t sure what in the hells is.” Said Hadrian heatedly.

“Oh c’mon! That proves nothing! Absolutely nothing! Plus, I succeeded on those quests with few companions! But! You were one of those companions, therefore, you should understand me wanting to go on dangerous quests! I’ve always wanted to do it and I’ve been doing it since my first quest when I was five!” Replied Gaius angrily.

“Well if you think I’ll accompany you on this fool’s errand, then you are dead wrong!” Hadrian yelled and stood up from the table. He then walked away. Sensing the tension at the table, Gaius had guessed, that while him and his brother were fighting, the other Primis Praetors had slipped off. The only people that remained were his two sisters who sat peacefully eating their dinner while occasionally looking at him, looking back down then whispering to each other. Gaius stared at them for a second, curious as to why they hadn’t left the table, then, Gaius spoke, “Why didn’t you two leave like the others?” He asked, perplexed.

“We have not finished our dinners.” Replied the two girls in an odd voice while speaking in unison.

“Neither have I.” Then Gaius’ stomach rumbled, and he was brought back to the task at hand: finishing his dinner.