The sun shined on the metal Alphian ship.

Legions and legions of fully armored Romans lined up in front of the entrenchment constructed by Decimus’s troops. Some of them just arrived last night. Others have had a day or two to rest. But these troops were stern. All of them knew very well no amount of rest or preparation could keep them safe in the battles to come.

A line of Roman generals lined up in the middle of the army. Emperor Marcus stood in the front, surrounded by his generals, loyal and disloyal alike.

Jean was among them. Beside her were a few familiar faces. Legatus Caius, with 20,000 men under him. Senator Tullus and Legatus Gallio, both of which Caius contacted who were willing to aid Jean in overthrowing the Emperor. By the looks of it, that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. Tullus had 15,000 men and Gallio had 30,000.

There were some other not-so-familiar faces, but only one of them important. Legatus Quintis was a veteran in his sixties. He was already a high ranking general in the military when the Protectors crushed down on this world. He alone commanded 60,000, the second most powerful faction after the Emperor.

As all the units were in position, the Emperor slowly turned to Jean.

“I look forward to your warriors in combat.”

Caius, Tullus, and Gallio were all taken back by surprise. They knew nothing about this. If their ally was going to throw away his troops, they wanted to know in advance. They made gestures for Jean to find an excuse, but the Voyager ignored them.

When she made an alliance with the other three, she was under the impression that she was about to start a Roman civil war. Things have changed and that was no longer true. If things go well, everyone here except her would be dead in a few days. Political manuvers were no longer needed.

She nodded.

“I will not disappoint you.”

Under the shocking eyes of almost every other legatus and senator in the field, Jean turned to her officers.

“Commance the attack.”

Within just minutes, all 35,000 men loyal to Legatus Decimus stepped forward and slowly marched toward the alien ship. Jean didn't even keep any reserves with her. It didn't take a tactician to see she was going all in. The only troops she didn't send in were a handful of household guards, and even the Emperor couldn’t say anything about that.

Lieutenant Cossus commanded the legions.

“Shields up!”

“Crossbows up!”

“Archers, ready!”

“Cavalry, cover the sides! Ready for charge!”

“Maintain your pace!”

The Romans approached slowly. A layer of shields covered the entire march from the front. Lines and lines of legionnaires replaced their shields and swords with crossbows. Archers pointed their bows into the air at a slope so they could shoot over the head of their comrades.

On the two sides of the shield walls, horsemen crept forward. The riders were the only ones who still carried melee weapons. Once the battle begins, they would charge into the enemy lines, and hopefully, there would be enough of them left so that they could still do some damage.

1,000 steps.

800 steps.

600 steps.

The legions got closer and closer, but there was nothing.

All around the ship and a safe distance away, multiple Roman legions watched carefully. Ever since yesterday, a rumor has circled around the camp that just a handful of these aliens ambushed the Emperor’s forces on the way here. They killed tens of thousands of the Emperor’s best, cut off their heads, and simply left.

It wasn’t that hard for the foot soldiers to verify that news with the Emperor’s forces down to a fraction of its former size, which was why at this moment, they were practically mourning for the unfortunate souls marching forward. Then again, they were glad it wasn’t them behind the moving wall of shields.

And then things suddenly went from 0 to 100.

Click.

One of the legionnaires stepped onto something. At first, he thought it was just a tree branch. That changed when that “tree branch” exploded.

A sea of white flames erupted from the ground and quickly engulfed that unfortunate legionnaire and a dozen men around him. Within seconds, the battle-hardened legionnaires were screaming at the top of their lungs. They quickly went on their knees and rolled around on the ground, trying to put the fire out, but the flame stuck to their armor and skin like flies to car windshields.

The Romans in this world were highly enhanced. If it was the Earth military using incendiary rounds, the Romans could totally put the flames out before they were burned to death, but the Alphians have been experimenting with weapons of war for decades. After the Protectors cut their crusade short, that was all they could do.

The Romans were caught by surprise. Even their battle instincts didn't kick in in time. There was simply no warning.

“Oh...in the name of Jupiter!”

Legatus Quintis whispered quietly.

If the generals were disgusted, then the legions of Roman bystanders were terrified. After all, the generals wouldn’t be charging into those mines, but the foot soldiers would! If the sound of their comrades screaming wasn’t enough to made them falter, then when the smell of over-cooked flesh reached their nose, it wasn’t their fault that many Romans turned and vomited.

Even the officers who would usually come over and whip them in circumstances like this made no action. They themselves were shaking. Only certain high-ranking officers could stay back during an all-in charge, and they were far from that level.

Across the Roman battle lines, countless of these fire mines exploded. The near thousand casualties were less important than the fact that the white balls of fear clearly disrupted the shield walls.

Seizing that opportunity, hundreds of Alphians moved out of the ship and started firing.

“Shields! Shields!”

“Ahhhh!”

“Return fire! Use your crossbows! Use your...eah!”

“Stay away from me! Stay...noooooo!”

Before anyone could respond, two lines of Romans were on the ground. Even across a distance, the computers in each Alphian suit made sure the aims were near perfect.

The surviving legionnaires quickly raised their weapons and returned fire. Bows and blaster sang in a symphony of death. Arrows and lasers crossed path, which usually ended with the latter melting the former.

“Charge!”

An Equite captain screamed. The aliens with full body armors and weird ranged weapons were caught up in shooting at the legionnaires. From his experience, powerful ranged units tend to not do well in hand-to-hand combat. If he and his riders could charge into their flanks, then maybe they still had a chance.

Such a fool. Their fate was decided before the battle even started. His efforts were valiant, yet foolish.

But the 5,000 Equites charged nonetheless. The sound of thousands of beasts storming across the field could shake a lot of armies. Unfortunately, the Alphians weren’t one of them.

Mine after mine exploded among the Equites. Everytime, several rides would be immediately consumed, and twice that number of horsemen would come up from behind and run into their burning brothers. The white flames spread like, well, fire, and before long, an entire circle of Equites were down for the count.

The valiant captain led the charge. His teeth clashed against each other tightly as he charged forward. All his fears were tossed aside. All his doubts were dropped. He had one goal and one goal alone: take down those aliens for the glory of Rome.

The cheering words of Legatus Decimus echoed in his mind, helping to ward off cowardly thoughts.

Suddenly, he heard a surge of screams from the left, and immediately, he knew what happened. Without a second thought, the man swung his left leg and hopped off his horse from the right.

The next second, two burning Equites charged into his mount, knocking it over and setting it ablaze.

The captain coughed. All the fire in the battlefield was quickly exhausting the oxygen available, but for the Romans, suffocation was the least of their concerns.

The captain didn't have any time to praise himself for the quick reflex that helped him get through a brush with dead...and an embrace from Jean. That was when he realized one very important thing…

The Equites were charging at full speed...and he was standing still on his feet...in front of the horde…

And then he felt a kick from the back that broke at least one third of the major bones in his body and sent him to the ground.

But that wasn’t it. Rider after rider charged forward. The mines were already bad enough, and as the Alphians shifted their targets, the Roman horsemen who already had no idea if they would be burnt crisp the next second now had to face a storm of lasers. None of them had the time to watch where they were going, and their horses, equally terrified by the fire, were just fine with stepping on an Equite captain on the way forward.

Horse after horse landed on the captain’s back. At this point, the man knew even the Gods couldn’t bring him back to life. Yet, his eyes were still trained on the Alphian lines.

If his brothers could take these aliens out, then all the sacrifice, even his, would be worth it. If that was what it took, he would gladly give his life.

There was no greater glory than dying in service of the Empire.

That was when he faintly heard some commotion. The next thing he knew, hundreds of Equites who were just about to clash with the aliens were ripped to invisible shreds.

One moment they were there, charging. The next moment, an invisible force dragged them into oblivion.

Alpha-Sierra had everything planned out. In fact, he literally knew what the Romans were going to do before the Roman foot soldiers did. When the Equites got too close for comfort, a dozen Gravitational Fields were flung out into their center mass.

The Equites couldn’t stop even if they wanted, not at this speed. All they could do was watch as them and their horses run head on into the Gravitational Fields and get torn to bits and pieces of nothingness.

From fully armed, fully armored, highly trained, and highly experienced warriors to nothingness. The entirety of the transformation was before the eyes of tens of thousands of Romans.

In the back, some of the Romans were already considering deserting. Sure, the punishment for deserting was certain death, but if they were going to die anyways, then might as well die in a way that at least some parts of them would be left. Only the threat to punish the families of the deserters made these men hesitate.

The Emperor frowned. He knew these aliens must be powerful to wipe out 12,000 men in just moments, but he didn't expect anything like this.

He turned and glanced at Legatus Decimus. He expected to see regret and anger, and the reality, or at least the appearance, wasn’t that different.

Jean had a straight face on, but not because of the reasons the Emperor expected. She had a straight face on because what she was doing really hurts! Thousands of souls were sucked into her and processed. That was hardly fun.

After last night, Jean knew the brains whose soul she absorbed could no longer be converted, but she didn't let that stop her. Her plan didn't require the Alphians to have a few thousand more troops here. It wasn’t like the Alphians would have the chance to harvest brains here either, not when there were hundreds of thousands of Romans watching.

Equites collapsed like extras in an action movie. Every Dimensional Field could devour dozens of them. Every blast could find a target. As far as the Romans could see, there were only hundreds of aliens, but they have already killed more than ten times their numbers, and they weren’t slowing down.

“Push forward!” A legionnaire screamed before being put down with a shot to the heart.

In the back, all eyes were on Jean. Even the most loyal warlord was expecting Jean to call for a retreat at this point. No one could criticize her for it, not after she lost at least one fifth of her troops.

But Jean wasn’t ready for this to stop.

What she wanted to do was very simple. She wanted to use the blood of Decimus’s forces to paint a picture in the heart of her fellow Romans so dark and so bloody that they wouldn’t dare launch another attack until they have all the odds on their side. And by the time they do strike, it would be too late.

She turned to Lieutenant Cossus and Tribune Lorus.

“Take your household guards and form a line behind our forces. If anyone takes a step back, remove his head.”

Jean’s words were a bit extreme, but her meaning got through. The two Roman officers exchanged a look before slowly nodding. Their interests were tied to that of Decimus. The Legatus must be doing this for a reason, right? Why else would he be sacrificing his own foundation in the Empire?

They quickly complied.

With nowhere to run to, the Romans pushed forward, despite all the casualties. Countless charged forward and took a shot to the chest just so they could have a chance to let loose a single bolt at the Alphians.

It was a massacre. The Alphians had all sorts of tricks. Incendiary mines. Gravitational Fields. In one case, a dozen Alphighters even came out of the shadows and bombarded the Romans. Against all these things they have never seen before, the Romans could only hold the line with their flesh and blood.

And hold the line they did. Thousands of men stood their ground against the Alphian airpower with their bows and crossbows. The bombardment went on for way too long and half of them never lived to see the brief victory, but the hail of arrows were able to bring down half of the Alphighters. The rest pulled back.

Eventually, all the traps the Alphians had were seemingly exhausted. There were so many arrows going the other way that even the Alphians were forced to pull back. After some casualties, the last of them quickly returned back into their ship.

Many Romans finally let out a breath of relief. At least the aliens were still vincible. They could be beaten back, which meant they could be killed. Good. What was even better was that chances were just Decimus’s troops could seal the deal.

The Emperor glanced at Jean. He knew the Legatus was pretty much maimed. He has lost at least fifteen thousand men in this battle. The rest were pretty much psychologically maimed. But maybe he should be allowed to live. At this point, the Emperor was second guessing on his assumptions of Decimus. Maybe the man wasn’t a conspiracist after all? Maybe he was unrelated to those rumors. Maybe he sent the letters just because it was the best thing for the empire, not because he wanted to force the Emperor into the pit. Maybe…

A lot crossed his mind...until he was woken up by a wave of exclaims.

Already, most of what was left of Decimus’s troops have ventured into the Alphian ship. Normally, that was the first step to seizing the ship...except all of a sudden, the entrance where the men entered through suddenly transformed. A layer of metal wall came out from the side and closed the breach.

A legionnaire happened to be in its path. He was chopped in half.

Though arguably, he probably had one of the most painless deaths among his peers. Jean could testify to that.

With a few days of recovery, Alpha-Sierra regained a lot of control of the ship he has lost during the battle and the crash. These controls allowed him to transform the walls to seal the breach, as well as extract all oxygen from the ship’s halls.

Metal Alphians didn't need to breath, but the Romans did. As strong and fast as they were, they were still human, and without air, any human would collapse.

The fate of those who first went over the breach was as obvious as a black dot on a white sheet.

Within five minutes, the walls transformed once again, revealing the breach once more, but the thousands of Decimus’s troops left at the door made no move forward.

When once the breach stood for a chance to victory, it now looked like a gaping hole into the abyss, ready to devour any Roman that dared step forward.

They turned and ran.

No one stopped them. Even Lorus and Cossus’s household guards stood to the side and let them past.

None of them could blame the defeat on cowardice or weakness. These troops fought better than any other Romans ever could, but the enemies…

Jean’s eyes snapped open. She was stone-faced, and no one thought it odd. In fact, they were surprised he hasn’t snapped in anger already.

The warlords turned to the Emperor. If he wanted them to attack the way he told Decimus to, not a single one of them do it. They would rather go to open rebellion than throw away their troops into the bottomless well.

And Emperor Marcus knew that all too well.

“Fall back and hold the barricades.” He turned to Decimus. His inquiry was quiet. Regardless of who Decimus really was or what he did, he practically gave away everything for the Empire. His Empire. “Do you have any siege weapons?”

For a faction in which the basic archers could shoot arrows at the speed of sound, the power of ballistas and onagers was off the roof.

Jean shook her head.

“Then we will have all our engineers to work on constructing them. Before we have sufficient siege weapons to destroy that vessel, we will not advance.” The Emperor looked around the warlords and reassured.

“You have my word.”