Steam Legion by Currie Evan

Author:Currie, Evan [Currie, Evan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-04-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

The sun was just beginning to show on the horizon when they had finished setting up the camp positions, and Dyna was happily completing her initial range estimates. She scribbled some quick calculations on her wax tablet then ran those results through the planeteria before calling over a camp runner.

“Yes, my Lady?”

“Inform the cannons, adjust their angles to east twenty-three degrees off due north,” she ordered. “And make their elevation thirty degrees. Have the onagers stand by for orders, but I want them pointing to about…”

She paused, eyeing the terrain below as she tried to guess the route the enemy forces would take in response to the cavalry charge. The onagers didn’t have quite the range of the steam cannon, so she would have to position them in anticipation of how the battle would play out rather than use them for the first strike.

“Have the onagers make their direction…east thirty degrees.”

“Yes, my Lady.” The man saluted and ran off, leaving her to continue to second-guess the battle with far too little time and even less information.

With dawn’s light touching the hill, she knew that they were out of time to prepare, so Dyna offered up a quick prayer to Ares even as the distant thunder of the Cavalry charge began to roll across the land. The tribes of the northeastern edges of the Empire were known for two things they did spectacularly well, and both of those things were done on horseback. If one were to listen to the men of the tribes, they were actually excellent at one more thing, at least, on horseback, but the Legion didn’t have a lot of use for that particular skill.

Their archery from horseback and the strength of their cavalry charge, however, were two skills the Legion desperately needed. While known as nearly unbeatable Heavy Infantry, the armies of Rome traditionally leaned on the specialties of other peoples for the much-needed support roles such as Cavalry.

In Rome, the Legion won wars, but Dyna knew well that it was often the Auxilliaries that won battles.

The enemy was obviously preparing for the continuation of the campaign. They were awake and preparing their positions as she watched from her observation point. Their Infantry wasn’t as on the ball, however. Other than some perimeter guard, Dyna didn’t see any of the enemy Infantry in the open, and they hadn’t prepared much in the way of defensive lines against a Cavalry charge.

Unsurprising, in Dyna’s eyes. The township clearly didn’t have Cavalry, after all, but the misstep was about to cost them dearly.

****

The men preparing the siege weapons honestly mistook the sound in the distance for rolling thunder, and as a response, they cast their eyes skyward to look for any sign of rain. Their reaction could be forgiven since rain would prevent them from using their bows and even some of their siege weapons for fear of having the moisture cause the destruction of valuable equipment. For all that, however, it cost them a few more seconds

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