NationStates Jolt Archive

It didn't bother General Lucius to read the numbers of casualties his forces had inflicted on the city of Veii. He was a man with a single mission, and he was going to pursue it with every drop of his strength. His VIII Army contained some twenty four Infantry Legions, and seven Armored Legions but the dogs of Veii, as Lucius called them, seemed to number in the millions. Behind his desk he took off his officer's cap and strapped on his helmet. He pulled a picture out of one of the drawers, looked at the beautiful young face, and tucked it into his flak jacket.

Lucius was just a Centurion and she was only fourteen years old when the picture was taken. Claudia certainly admired her handsome old dad, especially when he was decked out in his full military regalia. She was the apple of his eye. But on this day, now twelve years later, General Lucius could only imagine what she had grown up to be - or if she had grown up at all. Taken by rebels on her fifteenth birthday, he hadn't seen her since. When the chance was offered him to command VIII Army - and specifically Veii, the city of the rebels, he jumped on the chance.

He patted the pocket where he had placed the picture, rose to his feet, and stepped out into the cool dawn air. There was a plume of smoke rising from the city - but there was always smoke rising from the city. He checked his wrist watch on occasion, and when it clicked to 0730 he pointed to the city with one bony finger. He heard his subordinates command 'commence Operation Malicious Purge', but his mind could only really hear the chuckling of his daughter's high pitched voice. As the 160mm howitzers began to pour into the city and its defenses, he could only go deeper into his memories and remember the pitter patter of her little feet as she ran through the house. Each thud from the big guns was just the light tap of one soft foot after the other.

As the jets and strategic bombers rained hell on the city from above, their engines only sounded like the blow of her hair dryer before she left off for school in the mornings. He didn't see her often as his duties kept him in the field most of the time, but he cherished the little things like that. But now his Claudia had probably been raped and killed. And now with Operation Malicious Purge, they would be raped and killed. The operational details were very short. Level the city, move in, and kill whatever isn't dead yet.

For the next four hours he stared at the city as the dust began to block the sky, and the columns of black smoke reached for the now disappearing sun. He imagined those columns to be the arms of a dying man, perhaps one of the rebels who stole his soul, reaching for the heavens. Promptly, then, at 1130 the first 160mm howitzers were rotated out to give the crews a rest and to bring in the next set. It was a brief pause, only fifteen minutes, but General Lucius didn't take the chance to get a bite to eat. Instead he scanned over data pads. Some crews of the first wave of 160s hadn't fired non-stop. He would have to discipline them.

And then the guns resumed fire.

- - - - - -

The shells stopped falling for a moment. The rebels, who called themselves the Lions of Veii, all cautiously looked out from their entrenched positions and make shift bunkers. The streets were filled with dust - a real health hazard considering a lot of the dust was actually micro-shards of glass, steel, and concrete. They had to don their tell-tale black bandanas to protect their lungs as best they could. One foolish bunch emerged from their positions completely, took to the streets, and fired their automatics in defiance of VIII Army. Aedarich, several blocks down the street, commed them and ordered them to get down. Before they could respond a five hundred pound dumb bomb fell onto them and cratered the already potted street. Aedarich was glad, at least, that it left behind no bodies. They had no more room for the dead. Instead, the only resort they had was the pyre - and that had to be timed right or heat seeking missiles would pour into the ceremony.

But Aedarich and his group, having consolidated all the the resistance fighters of the city, had held out against everything else the Empire had thrown at them. They even had the honor of shooting the late Imperator Cominus. Aedarich was a genius in his own right, both diplomatic and cordial when he needed, and at the same time cold and malicious when prompted. He managed to balance these two polar opposites with a hint of charisma that held much sway over the people of the broken city. He was normally jovial, even in the face of fire, but even Aedarich - only thirty three years old - had not seen this level of punishment from the Empire.

They were used to engaging tanks at point blank, using molotov cocktails and RPGs. APCs were a choice target, but they had been pulled out years before he consolidated the resistance. This new level of abuse, unseen and unthinkable, made even Aedarich doubt his abilities. It was clear to him that the Empire was gearing up to tear the city down forever. He had a chance to read the limited information he could gather about his new enemy. He realized that General Lucius was a strategic virtuoso and that he certainly didn't have qualms with mass murder. The previous commanders of VIII Army all had weak stomachs. Lucius, it seemed, did not.

Aedarich didn't know what to do about Lucius, but as the shelling resumed, he at least knew what he would do for the time being - hide.

- - - - - - -

"Sir, should we cease firing for the night?" Tribune Daelix asked curiously. He was Lucius' top aide, but not well informed on military affairs.

"We have enough shells to keep the 160s running round the clock for a full week. There will be no ceasing, Mr. Daelix. When I look to the mountains west of here, I don't want to see any buildings obstructing my view, do you understand?" Lucius replied coldly.

"Yes sir, hammer the dogs." The inept Daelix responded as he tried to save face. He could tell by the look on Lucius' face that he needed to get out of the way.

General Lucius looked back to Veii. All attempts at returning fire at the low flying aircraft had stopped. If the rebels so much as moved, a swarm of missiles would dispatch them to the eternal beyond. With no resistance, General Lucius' heavy bombers circled the city like buzzards, each deploying its cruise missiles at seemingly random targets. One by one they would fire off their entire load, head home, and immediately be replaced by another. Lucius was going to keep fire pouring into the city without end. Imperator Aelius thought it to be aweful wasteful, but his lack of military training allowed General Lucius to win the argument.

When the week was over four Armored Legions and fifteen Infantry Legions would enter the city from key points while the artillery slowly formed a circle of fire that would shrink as the Legions pushed forward.

Lucius pulled out the picture of Claudia, kissed it, then tucked it back in his pocket. "I miss you Claudia. I miss you terribly."

By the third day of constant bombing and shelling, even General Lucius realized he was wasting good shells and bombs on shelled and bombed out craters. Nonetheless, he, with some disgust for his subordinates, ordered the shelling to continue another day. One tribune denounced Lucius as a madman and promptly requested a transfer. General Lucius pondered the thought for a moment, then granted the transfer - to XVI Armored Legion, one of the lead units in the expected assault.

As the sun dawned on the fourth day, Lucius ordered a stop to the shelling. Everything had become fragmented. Once proud, but burned out buildings were reduced to fragments the size of golf balls. Lucius used the respite in shelling to helo himself from artillery battery to artillery battery and commend the crews on their work. He was surprised to see more than a handful of soldiers who were bleeding from the ears. In setting his tyrannical pace, those unfortunate soldiers happened to lose their ear protection and suffered damaged ear drums. Lucius almost pitied them, for a brief moment, then remembered his picture of sweet Claudia - and all that pity melted into malice.

- - - - - - - - -

Aedarich smoked the sweetest cigarette of his life when the shelling finally broke. They were still at risk from aerial bombardment, but they had always considered it less a risk than pure out shelling. As he flicked the butt into a crater he watched a pack of shell shocked men and women walk by. One man had his rifle shouldered, but Aedarich noticed that it had no clip. The man cried and scanned his environs all to carefully. A pile of debris shifted and sent a loud crack through the air. The poor man collapsed much too like the debris and stuck the muzzle in his mouth. It merely clicked. He curled into a ball and wept openly as his cohorts walked on.

Aedarich took the time to nuture the man enough to get him up and walking again. He took the man to his own living area and gave him a warm meal and let him use his own bed. The man quickly passed out, but in his sleep kept crying for the shelling to stop. Aedarich pitied the man, but he had work to do. He got on the horn with his commanders only to find that a quarter of them had been killed or maimed in the shelling. They had been replaced by their subordinates, but it was still troubling to Aedarich. He ordered them to treat the victims of shell shock with compassion and concern, and to let them have time to gather their nerves. He realized that he would be weakening his force, but thousands of shell shocked men and women didn't fight well anyway. After consulting with his commanders he left things in the hands of his capable XO, a woman named Claudia. He knew little about her, aside from the fact that she had been kidnapped when she was... thirteen or fourteen... he couldn't remember.

Claudia had indeed grown up. She was now the right hand woman for the most powerful armed faction that opposed the Empire. As many as thirty two thousand men and women of the Lions of Veii looked up to her as the Goddess of the city. Bold, fearless, and a tenacious fighter, she had commanded units in combat more than once with her Imperial enemies. Though she enjoyed the added time she got to spend with Aedarich, a man she viewed as dashing and charismatic, she did get annoyed with all the management duties. Sometimes she longed to lead her fighters back into battle.

One look at Aedarich's face told her she might get that chance again, and very soon. Though brillliant, Aedarich's eyes betrayed all. Claudia could see the growing concern in his aged eyes. As he retired for what he hoped would be a quiet evening, she left her duties for a time to cuddle up with him. "They're coming, aren't they?"

"The Empire?" Aedarich asked, somewhat confused by the question.

"Who else?" was her reply.

"It would seem so." Aedarich sighed and rubbed his chin. He needed to shave but he couldn't find a razor to save his life. "My guys in the field tell me that this VIII Army has at least twenty Infantry Legions and five Armored Legions. Half their infantry alone is more than double all our fighters put together. That doesn't include the tanks they could send in, the air cover, and those damned big guns."

"You don't think we can handle it, do you?" She asked as she pulled his hand away from his chin and kissed it.

"We're surrounded. Food is running out, we don't have any hospitals left. The water is going bad from all the debris. Three ammuntion dumps were hit. We'll give them one hell of a fight though." Aedarich said, though his voice conveyed a sense of self resignation.

"We'll beat them." Claudia said confidently. "But you've already been beaten, at least it sounds that way."

Aedarich stood up and rubbed his hands together. "I've been fighting since I was thirteen, you know that. Fighting the Empire is all I know. I also know that we're outnumbered, outgunned, and fighting a man that doesn't take prisoners. Courage, ideals, freedom, those things used to get us through the tough fights. I don't think they'll matter in this next fight."

"Then get as many people out as you can." She said. "The old, the sick, the dying. They can't help us now, it seems. Let them live, even if it is just for a while."

Aedarich looked at Claudia for a long while.

- - - - - - - -

A horde of white flags began to pop up from the debris. Units on the firing line immediately called in the new development and were ordered to allow them approach with caution. When the commanders on the firing line began to see bodies on cots, carried by torn up old men, they let their guard down. They restrained the younger and more healthy of the growing mass, but as it swelled they were forced to let many go on by. It became an expanding nightmare for the soldiers of VIII Army.

General Lucius did not tolerate nightmares.

"Yes, fire on them. Listen Centurion, if you don't fire on them, I'll have you crucified and replaced with someone who will. Carpet bomb the whole horde. Yes I said carpet bomb them." General Lucius slammed the comm down in disgust. In his mind he entertained the thought of decimating one of his units. That hadn't been done in well over a century, but Lucius wasn't hesitant about precedent. After nearly thirty minutes of silence the first bombs began to drop.

General Lucius stepped outside his command bunker for a chance to see carpet bombing in the failing light of day. As the pops and flashes boomed and increased in number and rapidity he took increasing delight in it all. "A million of your dead aren't worth my Claudia."

OOC: Wow, great writing. Is this a story or an RP? Can I join?