Prologue – 55BC somewhere in Gaul the Biography of Caesar

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Prologue – 55BC somewhere in Gaul the Biography of Caesar.

Gaius Julius Caesar paced around the command room of the marching fort, observing a large map rolled out on the table.  Looking over the folds and creases he eyed over the area of Gaul that had decided to ‘rebel’ to imperial rule.  Walking over to one of the tables on the side of the room, he plucked a grape from the bowl of fruit and placed it into his mouth slowly, wondering what he was going to do about the latest Gaul Warband that was terrorising the land the senate had forced him to govern to keep him out of there way.

   Suddenly a centurion by the name of Vibius Pinarus Lucius strode in seemingly confident at first before bowing low, removing his helmet and then looking up at Julius. . . 

   “Sir, you may want to listen to the reconnaissance report yourself. . ”  Lucius said slowly, looking up at Julius as he continued to stride around the table.
Julius looked over at the centurion for a moment, thinking to himself.

   “Why’s that. . . Lucius” Julius said confidently, knowing every one of his officers by name, he could refer to them easily and also retain the respect of the soldiers on a personal level. 

   “It’s. . . Astounding. . . ” Lucius replied, as if there was nothing else to say.

   “Very well. . .  Bring the scout to me, but ensure it’s interesting otherwise I may have to have someone flogged, we don't have time for fanciful drunkards telling mindless stories when we are quelling this rebellion now do we?” Julius said with a serious tone, although he was only teasing the centurion who retreated rather quickly to find the scout.

As he backed out the door Julius chuckled before walking back to the fruit bowl and taking another grape.

* * *

Sometime later Lucius returned with a scout by his side, coughing to announce his presence to Julius who was staring at the map once again.  Moving small ivory pieces which represented troops around theoretically planning the movements he could make with his troops. 

   “I trust that is you and your scout Lucius?” Julius asked after a long drawn out breath, not looking away from his map.

   “It is indeed sir. ” Lucius said, waiting for a moment before tapping the scout on the shoulder as if to say get on with it.

   “I was scouting the northern area after the encampment was constructed, myself and the ten men from my contubernia, we didn’t find anything of interest until we started heading back.  The small cliff ridge we scaled to get a look of the area, from the otherside when we returned y’see it had a door in it. . .  We tried the door but it wouldn’t open at all. . .  No matter what we did, it was made from some metal that was harder than Iron, my gladius wouldn’t even scratch it’s surface. . . ” The Scout began slowly speeding up as his account of the events continued.  He was very vague and very unclear but none the less he had piqued Julius’ interest.

   “We shall take a look tomorrow, but bear in mind if there is no metal door in the rock of this ridge, then I shall be most displeased. . .  Now I suggest you get some sleep, as you’ll be leading myself and fifty of the Prima to this door tomorrow. ” Julius waved his hand dismissively to tell Lucius and the scout that they should go.  Once they had left the command tent, Julius retired for the night.

* * *

The next day Julius and a number of the men from the Primus cohort travelled with the scout leading them.  After half an hour of hard marching, (or riding in the case of the officers) the mysterious door was spotted and they all observed it for a moment before Julius dismounted and walked up to it.  Placing the palm of his right hand against the metal.

   “Well. . . Any thoughts that you were a drunkard and saw a door where there was none have dissipated rather quickly. . .  Now I suppose a battering ram is the best guess to get in.  So, Vibius you organize the men and get a battering ram sorted out.  Oh one other thing Vibius you should consider yourself promoted to Tribune. . . ” Julius remarked, still with his palm on the door pushing on it lightly trying to get it to open.

After an hour the men returned with a primitive battering ram, they placed the tree trunk against the door and proceeded to slam the wood against the metal repeatedly. . .  This had no effect.
“Well there is time when every plan comes apart and fails. . .  Any ideas?” Julius asked looking around.

“It’s a door, and it doesn’t look like it’s to some camp, or fort so it probably has a handle somewhere. . . . ” Vibius remarked not intentionally answering Julius’ question but just musing aloud.
“It seems you earned that promotion Vibius, right. . .  Search for a door handle or something men. ” Julius gave the order, not quite believing he had given it himself. 

It seemed the troops with him also didn’t believe it as they paused for a moment unsure of what to do, until Julius led by example and pulled various bits of rock beside the door trying to find a way to open it.
Eventually they got lucky, a lowrate legionary leant against the wall and the door slid open, with a hiss.  Every man including Julius’ lost composure and darted back, half of the number drawing they’re swords. . . 

“Right. . . Be careful, and let’s take a look” Julius said as he drew his own gladius and marched into the corridor presented before them.

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The rest of the events of the day are unknown the excerpt From Suetonius’ History of the Formation of the Great Roman Republic can shed some light on the following months and years.   

Ceaser and his men found a cache of weapons made from an advanced Alloy later to be named Duranium.    They found around one hundred Swords that when the hilt was gripped they vibrated slightly and could cut through anything, they also found a number of shields to go with the swords that seemed to be made of the same material and were the only thing that could stop the blade.    Other than the ten suits of armour they found, the metal was lighter than cloth, and once a man was inside the armour it seemed he was stronger, faster, and almost impervious these suits turned the wearer into gods.    It is said that when Caeser saw these suits and there effects that “With a legion wearing these, the world is mine” also amongst the cache where ten bow like weapons, which you could draw with minimal of effort but could do as much damage as a ballista, or more, yet could be wielded by a single man.   

He dispensed the weapons appropriately, taking ten of the blades and the power armour and giving it to the ten best fighters in his Legio, and equipping the remaining to the Century that had seen the most fighting.    Caeser had expected to crush the rebellion in Gaul in three years at the most, that is also what the senate had expected, that he would waste his efforts and coin in Gaul for three to five years until his governor ship ended which would give them time to prepare.    Instead it took him three months.    The power armoured legionaries could leap over the walls of any hill fort, and singlehandedly defeat any and every Gaul or Germanic Warband.   

Once the three months of rebellion where over, he sent every scholar he could find and coerce from Rome, Greece, Macedon and he put them in that cache that he found to unlock the secrets of the building after a year the scholars had came up with three principles that decided what the installation was for, and to explain the minerals they had found.   

-   The Minerals that we have found must be easily accessible otherwise the cache would have been better defended
-   The large construction at the rear of the chamber, is some sort of ruined piece of Divine Engineering that must operate on its own through the God’s will to create more minerals and forge weapons.   
-   With this technology we could outfit the Legions and defeat the only Armies that have ever threatened us, the Parthians.   

Upon receiving this news it was clear Ceaser gave the order to exploit this Divine Machinery as much as possible and to use it to create more weapons.    The scholar in charge of this project was Sextus Tertinius Nonius, within another year they had reactivated the forge but there was one small hitch.    Upon reactivating the machinery five guardians awoke from the statues within the wall.    One of the legionaries that fought against them described them as ‘Beasts from the very depths of hell, they kept attacking us even with their heads removed, they were created from the very metal that our new weapons came from’ after the destruction of the beasts the forge was restarted.   

Ceaser ordered enough pieces of equipment to outfit his Legion’s in their entirety.    When the Senate ordered his return to Rome, without his army he dutifully disobeyed and handed out all of his weapons, armour, and technology to his Legion creating Legio I Germanica.   

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Legio I Germanica (later to be renamed Roma after its glorious victory during the civil wars)

Commanding officer : Caeser (Later given to Vibius Lucius)

Structure

1x Cohorte Prima
-   12x Centuria of 80 men, each containing
o   1x Contubernia Triarri – ten men operating a heavy gauss ballista, armed with Duranium Gladius’ and Bucklers along with Heavy Powerarmour, to enable them to lift and operate the large  Gauss Ballistas.     
o   3 x Contubernia Principe – Principle unit of ten men equipped with heavy power armour, a Duranium Gladius and a Duranium shield, much stronger and faster with the power armour they can run at 15 MPH for as long as four hours before feeling tired, not as fast as the Hastati but far faster, and stronger than any normal man.     The officer of the group also carries a single handed gauss repeating crossbow.     Replacing the pilum for the principe units was a duranium tipped spear, that with the help of the power armour could be thrown almost half a Mile, each man carried a pair of these new throwing spears.   
o   2x Contubernia Hastati – Skirmish and Hit and Run troops equipped with a Duranium Sabre, a Duranium Buckler, and light power armour that improves speed over strength and defence allowing them to run at speeds in excess of 30MPH for as long as four hours.     Still stronger than a Normal man, but nowhere near as strong as the Principe.     Instead of the pair of spears the Principes carried, the Hastati also had a Gauss Bow that they used to support the Principes if required, or they stowed if they needed to fight in Melee combat.     In practise however it was evident that they would nearly never have to use the Bow against conventional soldiers, as they could easily run them down as if they were cavalry.   

8x Cohorte
-   Each of these Cohortes operates with six centuria rather than the primus’ twelve.     However the centuria’s organization is the same.   


Tactically the new style of Legion Caeser created operated in much the same way as before, although more emphasis was placed on the sub units of Contubernia.  Each Cohorte would operate almost individually, with the entire Legio only coming together for major operations.  This new style and equipment allowed a much greater mobility for his units, and also ensured that he could have troops wherever and whenever he needed them.