The Acenti-- The Fall Of The Tribe
Chapter 1-- Citus Eques
Aero hoped he would be chosen as a 'Citus Eques', a 'Swift Rider'. Basically they were the scouts and raiders of the tribe, but that was not why he wanted to become one of them.
He wanted to become one of them because they were the only ones of the tribe to wield spears as their weapon of choice. Each man in a 'Quinque Ala' or 'Five Squadron' carries a long stout fighting spear and five smaller throwing spears.
The name 'Quinque Ala' is in reference to how many men each unit deployed, five men, as well as to the five smaller throwing spears each Citus Eques carried.
To be in a Qinque Ala you had to be elite. Each year, out of the eight to ten kids to graduate, only one is sent to be in a Qinque Ala, usually the best in his class. Frontus, his mentor during training, entered the training ground where the 9 boys in his class often shed blood, sweat, and tears together.
“You will each step forward as your name is called for your unit assignment. After you receive your assignment you will have the rest of the day to rest before you report to you're unit in the morning.”
As the kids in my class were called off, I waited my turn. Each year, most of the students are sent to the Acenti squadrons. A few get sent to be Sagittarii, and one is sent to be a Citus Eques.
As he calls my name, I step forward as I was asked. “Aero Callahan, Prince of this Tribe, your Father gives you the title 'Genus' and the position of Legatus of the 3rd Citus Eques. You are to report to Maiestus Octavus in the morning.”
A few of the boys smiled and patted me on the back and a few glared daggers at me. Everyone knew that I had wanted to become a Citus Eques, and my Father had not only deemed me worthy of the a Citus Eques rider, but he thought that I was worthy of being an officer. That kind of position wasn't given out, even to Princes. Then Frontus cleared his throat, bringing me out of my silent congratulations. “I accept.” With that he moved on to the next kid.
Because I was one of the last kids in the line, it wasn't long before we were dismissed. As soon as I was dismissed, I made my way to my Fathers tent to thank him.
(A/N)-- If you hadn't already recognized the language I'm using to substitute a sort of tribal language in this, it's Latin. This first chapter is really short because its just a sort of test to see what kind of response this plot line gets, so if you want to see more let me know what you think, and if you want to see more. Also, a couple of things about me because I bet most of you won't go to my profile.
I am a pagan writer from Arizona, I play Clash of Clans and would like to get to know my readers so join my clan 'Eagles Equals'. Follow my Google Plus page RevengeRomanVG if you want to get updates as to when my chapters will be going up and to get to know me a little bit better. I also have a Fanfiction profile under the same username, it has a few stories based off the Percy Jackson characters, so if thats your cup-a-tea, go check that out.
--RR
2: The Acenti- Chapter 2The Acenti- Chapter 2
Important Information
I had been on many scouting missions with my team in my three months with them, but things were about to go bad.
Today was sorta routine, go in, find out what kind of defenses the town had, and get out.
In the morning, after we had mounted up and ridden for a few hours toward a small town called Red River, we ran into a little trouble, Octavus, our squad leader, had gone ahead to check out what he figured would have been a good ambush spot. Boy was he right!
He had just given the 'All Clear" signal when we heard an impossibly loud 'BANG'. Octavus dropped off his horse with a short, cut off cry. We had all heard it, it was a rifle. Since before I was born rifles were rare, but evidently someone had found one, and we were it's target.
Of course we had been trained on what to do if we came under fire by one, but given the fact that rifles were rare and bullets were even more so, no one thought that we would ever have to face one.
Our medic, Trepidus, ran over to Octavus and drug him back behind a rock. Everyone by this point was behind something, trying to put it between him and the sniper.
I looked at Trepidus, already knowing what I was about to ask, he slowly shook his head. Octavus was dead, and there wasn't much left to do about it.
I motioned for one or two man rushes to cover, a tactic that probably has only been used a dozen times over the last two decades. Myself, Vindictus, and Asudis (the last three in the squad, as Trepidus stayed behind with Octavus) made short rushes until we were within 15 yards of the snipers position.
You could occasionally hear the sniper take pot shots at us from his position.
Once we were all in position we each took spots with our throwing spears, then ran up to find a sniper rifle and a girl with one of our spears through her thigh. I knelt next to her.
"Somebody get Trepidus." I turned to her. "You're a pretty good shot with that thing, where did you get it?" She sighed and grimaced a little with the movement. "I got it from Red River, they're one of the few towns that still have guns and ammo, they even have an old M60."
I looked at Vindictus, who had arrived at her position shortly after I had. He caught my meaning and explained. "An M60 is a machine-gun. Very high rate of fire, if we try any kind of frontal assault we'll be slaughtered before we can even get in the town."
The girl nodded, she knew the effect the word 'Machine-gun' had on those who knew of them. Since the collapse nearly twenty years ago, guns had almost become extinct, and there were probably only two or three machine-guns on the entire continent. He had to get this information to his Father before he attacks. If he doesn't know about this, he and all his men will be killed.
He spoke to the girl again. "What's your name?" She answered. " Ara, and if you think you're gonna get any more information out of me, you're wrong." She glared, with a determined look, at me.
"Obviously, you don't understand something. You just shot my squad leader, to my Father, that means your death, so unless you get on my good side. You're gonna be six feet under in about 24 hours."
The determined look disappeared as she realized that she was going to die if she didn't do what he said.
Just as the realization hit her, Trepidus arrived to dress her thigh. " Think about what I said, when Trepidus is done dressing your wound I'll want an answer." With that, he walked away, and made his way to where the others were burying Octavus.
"We already know enough about this town to know that it would be suicidal to attack it" said Asudis. I came up behind him and said. "Not quite Asudis, we don't know that what she's telling us is true, we need to know, first hand what they have, that's what our training taught us, isn't it?" They both nodded their heads slowly. "We wait until dark, and then we do a little scouting like we're suppose to, okay?" Again, they both nodded their heads.
A/N-- Leave support guys, it helps me keep writing!
3: The Acenti- Chapter 3The Acenti- Chapter 3
"Alright, I'll do as you say. But be warned, I'm giving you my trust, and that's something I value almost as much as my life. If you betray me, I will find a way to kill you before I die." Aero nodded, he had expected something of the sort from her. "When we get back to my camp, talk to no one, don't even look at someone the wrong way. For the most part, my people consider themselves superior in every way. If they believe they have some viable reason to kill you, even I can't stop them. Also, let me do the talking in your defense, I might have to say some things you won't like, but don't speak."
She nodded, satisfied that he was being truthful.
"Okay, everyone mount up, we've got a long ride to Red River, and then back home." With that Ara took Octavus' horse as her own, and the rest mounted their own horses.
About three hours later-
Aero glanced back at Ara to see the same frown that had scared her face the last few times as well. "If you look like that when we get back to my camp, you're sure to be killed." She just kept glaring at the horizon, completely ignoring his comment.
After a few more minutes of silence, with the exception of the quiet snickers of Asudis as Aero's face grew red at being ignored. As Prince of the Acenti, being ignored was often punished. Finally Aero gave in and spun his horse so as to be parallel and facing the opposite direction of Ara's horse. "What?"
The sudden change from easy-going to 'you will do what I say' snapped Ara out of her glaring trance at the horizon.
"There's no smoke, Red River isn't a small town, we should have seen it by now, and earlier, while the wind was right, we should have smelled it." Aero realized that she was right. His best guess put them a mile, maybe a mile and a quarter away from their destination. As soon as they reach a local landmark called 'Cemetery Hill' they should be able to see the town.
"Let's get to the top of Cemetery Hill, I'm inclined to agree with her, and I am beginning to dislike this situation." With that, he spun his horse towards the hill, and pulling Ara's horse after his, the troop made their way to the top of the hill.
Once they were there Ara put one of her hands over her mouth as tears formed in her eyes. The entire town was in ruins, she had grown up here and not a single building was unmarred by the destruction that had evidently been caused by fire.
Then her expression changed from sadness to anger as she turned on Aero. "You're people did this, you monsters!" She broke down into another fit of tears. Aero knew the Acenti had had nothing to do with this, his people might raid towns and cities for supplies but they always left something for the people to build back from, if they couldn't build their cities back, then there was nothing for them next time they came to the town. " This is not the work of my people. We raid, but we do not destroy."
She shook her head and tried to calm down for a moment. "If your people didn't do this, then who did? Other scouts, like me, have been all over these hills since you arrived and we saw no more than your camp and a few travelers."
"I don't know, but we're gonna find out. Trepidus, you're in charge, I'm taking Ara and we're going down there to investigate this a bit more."
"Hold on, Aero? Don't you think leaving the prisoner here with us would be wiser than taking her down there with you?" Asudis asked. "No, Asudis, I don't, I have no idea what I'm going to run into down there, but she knows her way around the city, and I don't." Asudis laughed. "And what if she leads you into some sort of trap? You're seriously going to trust her, after she killed our squad leader?"
"Asudis, we both know you cared nothing of Octavus, and yes I am going to trust her. I don't think she will betray me." He said that last bit with a glance at Ara. "And if she does?"
"Then that will be my fault, Trepidus will lead you back home." With that comment Asudis' protests' ceased. "Alright, set up camp here Trepidus, wait for us to come back, if we're not back by the time the sun rises, leave for home and we'll catch up." Trepidus nodded his assent and the duo left for the town's ruins.
(A/N)- Leave support you guys, that keeps me interested in writing. Review, Follow, and Favorite it seriously helps guys and gals, THANKS!
4: The Acenti- Chapter 4The Acenti- Chapter 4
“So where do you want me to take you?” Ara asked. Aero noticed that she kept glancing nervously behind them. “What is it now? You know, if we're gonna work together, you need to start speaking up.”
“I left here two days ago, the ashes of the buildings still have embers in them, they couldn't have burned more than 24 hours ago.” She paused. “My gods Aero, I knew most of the people who lived here, I don't want to even think...” A lump formed in her throat. Aero frowned, his father would kill him for some of the things he thought of this girl, yet he can't help but fall for her, most of the girls in his camp fell for him simply because he was the son of their leader. He couldn't tell with Ara though.
“So whats your point? Obviously they had to have burned over the last couple days regardless.”
“If that happened only a couple days ago, then the people who did it could still be in this area.” As the importance of what she had said sunk in, Aero suddenly became very nervous. He was in the middle of a city he had no knowledge of with nothing but a small unarmed blond girl and all the combat knowledge of a pampered prince (which amounted to quite a bit considering that he was prince in a militaristic society). Brilliant...
“Alright, well, lets get to the town square, if anyone is still here, that's where they'll be.” She seemed to think about for a moment then nodded her head and went to trot her horse forward when Aero stopped her. “Just a moment, we are in some pretty deep stuff right now, and I think it would be best that you were armed, can I trust you?” He looked right into her eyes looking for any sign of deceit, when he saw none, he chose two of his four throwing spears and handed them to her. She nodded her thanks and the duo started through the maze of ruined homes and shops towards the center of the city.
As they got closer to the town square they began to notice the smoke of fires in the center of the square. “If those are survivors they'll be pretty wary of any new comers, if those aren't the survivors, well, we probably don't want to be spotted.”
“If they are the survivors then they will recognize me...” Aero frowned, this could end very badly for me if I'm not careful, he thought. “Well, only one way to find out.” He dismounted his horse, and after seeing that Ara copied his movements, he tied his horses reigns to a charred post.
“Alright, lets continue on foot, don't let anyone see you, assuming there is anyone out there.” They moved silently through the shadows, using the little light that the half-moon and fires provided.
What they didn't know, was that there were other people in the town square, as they had assumed, and they had posted sentries throughout the city, it was just dumb luck that they had avoided detection up to this point. The sentries were at a disadvantage though as well, the light from the camp fire destroyed their natural night vision, making the area the fire didn't light up as dark as the cosmos.
Aero hadn't seen the sentry until he was almost on top of him, it was a wonder the sentry hadn't seen him. Once he realized that he was about to be spotted, he leapt forward, grabbing the sentry in a choke hold, knocking the air out of his lungs and cutting off any cry for help. The struggle ensued for a few moments, but the sentry was off balance and taken by surprise, and Aero had been trained in a hard school. After he fell unconscious, Aero looked at Ara, who had watched the struggle with her mouth slightly agape. “Do you know him?” He said after he regained his breathe from the struggle. She shook her head slowly, she didn't know the man, but had been surprised at the ease of which he had been taken down by the seemingly harmless young man in front of her.
Once she finally broke out of her stunned silence, she asked. “Is he dead?” Aero laughed. “No, he's unconscious, if I'd wanted him dead, that is not how I would have done it. So, we now know that there were few if any survivors of the sack of the town, we also know that these lovely fellows are inhabiting it.” He said, gesturing to the unconscious form of the sentry that lie, tied up, beside him. “I think we are just about done here, the only thing left to do that I can think of, is to find out what this man and his people, are armed with.”
She nodded, she was obviously distraught over the loss of her home town, just like anyone would be. “Well, I guess I'm with you now...” Aero raised an eyebrow. “And you weren't before?” She smirked. “Well, I could hardly tell you I would have sold you out the minute I realized that those were my people.” Aero smiled ruefully. “I suppose, in your situation, I would have done the same thing, regardless of that though. We are in this together now, lets see what we can see. Is there a church tower, or some kind of over-watch we can climb? I doubt there's much else we can find out on ground level.” She nodded. “There is a church in the Northern part of town, we'll have to go all the way around the square, so it'll take us a little while, but it's the tallest building in the city, assuming it hasn't been burned down too...” Aero nodded, he could tell that this weighed heavily on her mind. “Ara, I'm sorry.” She frowned.
“About what?”
“About your family, about your people. I swear, my people may be pretty barbaric at times, believe me, but this is not what we believe in. Whoever did this” He waved his hand vaguely around him. “Will be found, and punished.” She smiled. “Thank you, but, if I'm honest, I don't want them to be wiped out like my people were. In the end that solves nothing, lets just figure out what these guys are up to and where they are going, from there we will head back to your Fathers camp, and see what we can do.”
It was obvious the conversation was going to end there, so Aero motioned for her to lead the way towards the church. “Well, the nights-a-wastin'.” And they set off through the seemingly random twisting of the cities streets.
(A/N)-- Hey guys, show some support! It keeps me writing. Also, I have to admit, the first few chapters really weren't up to my standards, I'm not going to take them down, but they lacked description, like you wondered what Ara looked like and what Aero looked like, and I don't know, I think I failed at setting the scene in those first few chapters so, I'm going to be spending a little more time on each chapter from now on to make sure I get it right, and get the best material out that I can for you guys. Thank You!!!
5: Chapter 5As Aero and Ara rode through town towards the church, they began to realize just how lucky they had been. Coming into the town they had only seen one sentry, the one Aero had struck unconscious, but since then they have seen more than a dozen.
“There's another one.” Aero had said just seconds before the sentry had come in view, barely giving them time to hide from sight. As they waited, Ara noticed that Aero's breathing was as steady as could be, he knew what he was doing, and he had been in situations like this before.
The sentry took his sweet time, but eventually made his way out of sight. “Alright, let's keep moving, it's not a good idea to be hanging around here for too long.” Ara nodded, seeing the wisdom in the statement.
Once they came within sight of what was left of the church, Aero made Ara stay back with the horses while he scouted the church.
Ara watched as he ghosted across the street and down the block. The further he got, the harder it was for her to track his movements.
Aero, for his part, was uneasy about the whole situation, there wasn't much he'd be able to do to protect them if they were discovered. He brought his attention back to his scouting mission, so far he had spotted two guards, and he could hear a third pacing around somewhere inside where he couldn't see him.
He ducked his head as he realized that the third guard wasn't just inside the church, he was in the bell tower, that's where he and Ara needed to be. He doubted he could lure that guard elsewhere without drawing the attention of the other two and making them more alert as a consequence. He would have to take them all out, either by knocking them unconscious or worse, as he started to plan out his attack, he didn't realize that he was being watched, the guard watching didn't know whether he was friendly or not and hence had not attempted to stop him, little did Aero know, the odds were quickly turning against him. The guard, deciding that the best way to find out was to simply ask, approached him from behind and cleared his throat.
When Aero heard the guard the color drained from his face and he turned around quickly, the guard sensing the hostile movement barely had time to throw his shield up, and draw a small dagger to confront the young warrior. Ara seeing what was happening, and knowing that the guard would soon get wise and call for help, took one of the throwing spears Aero had given her and tried to mimic the throwing motion she had seen Aero perform once. The throw was far from perfect, but it served its purpose, knocking the guard off balance just long enough for Aero to draw his dagger and slit his throat.
It didn't seem to matter though, the other guards had heard the actions and started towards the area, there was no way to hide what he had done, they had to be taken out now. Aero rushed forward coming into view of the startled guards, the first guard didn't even have time to think 'ouch!' before he was impaled by one of the short, deadly throwing spears Aero carried. The next guard appeared to be much more experienced than the first, stopping and getting into a solid stance to prepare for the Acenti warrior.
Aero followed his example, using the rage that would have obviously been built up from the death of the previous guard, to goad him into impatiently striking first. The guards strike was horribly off balance and Aero easily took advantage of this, taking one of his spears and flicking the tip of the blade into the ground in front of him, then shifting and thrusting upwards, gutting the unfortunate guard.
The last guard was still in his position above the church and had seen how easily Aero had dispatched his three companions, he raised his bow and loosed three sloppy shots, one of which grazed Aero's calf. Then Aero responded by firmly embedding his last spear into his chest, effectively ending the confrontation with the group.
Ara ran forward bringing the horses. “We should hurry, I don't know how long until the guard changes over, but I don't want to be here to find out.” Aero nodded, he had a similar thought. “Let's find out what we need and get the heck out of here.”
Once they got to the top of the churches bell tower, they could see the real amount of damage these people had done, at least half of one side of town was almost pancaked. Then Aero noticed something he hadn't noticed while they were in the town square. The strange men had vehicles, not just regular cars and trucks either, these were armored vehicles, a few even looked like they had weapons mounted in the rear. These people were easily the most powerful force in North America. They must have needed supplies, and stopped here to get them.
“Aero?” He heard her voice and heard the slight quiver in it made his heart ache. “What's up?” She just nodded and pointed. In the distance Aero could make out a vehicle he had never seen before, it was massive, with a huge barrel on the front and was a tracked vehicle. Aero might not have seen a vehicle like it before, but he knew when something looked dangerous, and this fit the bill. “Time to go, that can't be good.” He scavenged the spear from the dead sentry in the church tower and he and Ara took their horses, they rode in the opposite direction, completely ignoring the startled cry of the sentries as they saw them.
They rode in the general direction of the rest of their party. Aero hoped they could be ready to move out quickly, suddenly he didn't feel half as safe as he did before, and he was nervous to begin with.
(A/N)-- Hey guys, sorry about the delay, I've been busy with my new YouTube channel, and starting The Nova Terra Project with a friend. Check out my Fanfiction profile for more details on that, as well as subscribing to my YouTube channel if you're interested, it would mean a lot to me. THANK YOU!!!
--RR
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