Chapter 25

Ky and Ramirus continued working well into the night, reviewing reports and deciding how best to deal with Romans who had to be relocated to keep the battle location safe, and the possibility of relocating other Romans from areas that weren’t under threat as a way to throw off the Carthaginians.

At first, Ky had been against the idea, since he didn’t want to disrupt civilians any more than they already had been, but eventually caved to Ramirus’s reasoning. Ky was a soldier and thought like one. It allowed him to be sneaky when he needed to, trying to stay one step ahead of the other side, but Ramirus was on a whole different level.

He pointed out that it wasn’t enough to just keep the area where the trap was supposed to be sprung clear, since that created an intelligence blind spot. A smart strategist would notice that blind spot and surmise there was a reason the other side worked so hard to keep intelligence getting out from there. That would make a smart commander wary, and possibly give away the game.

Since they couldn’t help but create an intelligence blind spot, because actual intelligence of the area would be worse than a blind spot, the only solution was to create additional blind spots. This would require quite a bit of manpower, since even after moving out the people who lived in the area, they’d have to do continual sweeps to make sure no one got into the area to investigate. He went on to say that the Carthaginians would probably realize that’s what was happening and that one of the spots would be the real thing that the Romans were hiding, but that also couldn’t be helped.

Ky’s brain reeled at the complex schemes and counter schemes in Ramirus’s brain, but he couldn’t argue with the man’s logic when he laid it out. Besides the chance they were going to make more citizens unhappy, and possibly push them over into the arms of the malcontents still hiding in the shadows, their real problem of making this happen was manpower.

The praetorians had no more reserves or men in training to pull from, and they’d already stretched the men in the field as far as they could, reducing the manpower in patrols and extending the distances those patrols had to cover. Faenius had already been complaining that his men were stretched too thin. Ramirus suggested the idea of using some of the Caledonians, especially the new arrivals who hadn’t had time to train with the Romans, making them only useful in the blocking forces or as reserves, but Ky nixed that idea.

Just as it had been on the other side of the border, the Alliance was still in its infancy and vulnerable. Using Caledonians to disrupt Roman lives would make those Romans even more set against the Alliance. Ky eventually came up with a compromise. He’d talk to Llassar and get some of those Caledonians temporarily assigned to Faenius, who could use them to swap out parts of his existing patrols, especially along the border, and have the Romans freed up from that swap form new units that would go about the unpleasant task of removing civilians from the designated intelligence blackout areas. They could also use Caledonians to help patrol those areas once the deed was done.

Ky had also walked Ramirus through the possible options of what they would do next. If they defeated the Carthaginians, they couldn’t wait while they came up with their next plan, since it would just give their enemy time to build new forces. And there was no use planning if they lost, because that would mean the end of the bulk of Roman and Caledonian forces, which would also mean the end of both of those civilizations.

Ky knew that their next target, when they won, was to take Londinium and clear the country of Carthaginians. If they were successful in doing that, it would mean that the Britannic Empire would be assured of its long-term survival. Because the Empire was based on an island, any invaders would have the added difficulty of landing troops before they could take on the Empire’s armies. That had been doable before, because the Romans were a Mediterranean people who weren’t particularly well suited to patrolling and defending the harsher Atlantic. Ky could change that with the introduction of new methods of boat building, new navigational tools, and new methods of sailing. It wouldn’t take much in the way of new methods, for the Romans to outclass the Carthaginians on the sea, because they were also Mediterranean peoples.

Of course, first, the Romans had to secure the island, which meant dealing with Londinium. Even if they completely destroyed this army, there were still a lot of defenders in Londinium, which was well defended with high curtain walls and heavy catapults. Even with the advancements in siege equipment Ky could supply, it would be costly in men and material to break through the defenses, and the Carthaginians would have time to reinforce again. Ky had some ideas of how to best these challenges, but he needed Ramirus to gather some information before he could be sure, and that would take time, which was something the Romans didn’t have a lot of, even if he wasn’t counting the coming battle.

Overall, he was happy with how his meeting with Ramirus went. The spymaster had brought up good points that would help make sure Ky’s plan for the coming battle succeeded and they were able to get the initial stages of what came next worked out.

Ky had just laid down and closed his eyes when someone started banging on his door. His men were usually pretty good about keeping everyone but Lucilla or the Emperor from bothering him when he needed to rest, unless it was a true emergency, so the urgency of the banging had Ky up and across the room, flinging the door open in seconds.

“There’s a massive fire in the industrial district, my lord,” Carus said as soon as the door opened, looking worried.

In modern times, this would have been something dealt with by local fire brigades and wouldn’t have escalated to the higher levels of government, but in ancient times where the buildings were all built of wood and packed close together, a fire in the city could mean massive devastation and death.

Ky couldn’t help but think of the fire in Rome under Emperor Nero he’d read about in Sophus’s files. Although this reality would never meet Nero or experience his fiddling while Rome burned, it was still a cautionary tale of the dangers a fire like that could pose.

“How bad is it? Are the fire brigades out?”

“They are and the praetorians are rallying now. I sent a man down to find out how the efforts to contain it are, and dispatched some of the palace guards and staff to help fight the blaze, but there is a bigger concern. The fire is at the main warehouse where Hortensius was collecting the arcuballista to be handed out to the citizen militia.”

“Damnit,” Ky said.

This meant the fire wasn’t an accident. Someone, either a Carthaginian agent or one of the malcontents still hiding after the failed insurrection was trying to strike directly at Rome’s ability to defend itself. They might not know of Ky’s plan, but so many citizens had been put through training with the new weapons for everyone to realize how important they are and that they were going to be used to fight the Carthaginians.

“How bad are the losses?” Ky said, pushing through the door and walking quickly through the palace, forcing Carus and his guards to scramble to keep up.

“From what I’m hearing, we are going to lose the entire warehouse and everything inside.”

“Damnit,” Ky said again.

This was very bad and had a chance to completely derail their battle plans. Without the citizen militia and the weight of volleys they could bring to the Carthaginians, it would be all but impossible for the front-line forces to contain the huge mass of Carthaginians for long. He was relying on the damage these new weapons could do both in actual damage to the forces themselves and in psychological damage. If he could get enough Carthaginians to surrender, the entire line would crumble. Rome still had a lot of fighting to do after this battle and could not afford to have large casualties defeating this one army. At least not if they were then going to go on to take Londinium.

Ky didn’t bother getting a horse and ran through the streets, although he kept it at a human pace so his guards could keep up. Lucilla must have been notified at the same time, because he noticed her guards just before she appeared next to him, breathing hard to keep up.

She wasn’t wearing her normal Stola and Palla, with their fine embroidered edging and the Palla’s elegant drape that added an almost toga-like appearance to the simpler Stola, marking her as a higher-class woman. Instead, she wore a simple Tunic that she must have slept it.

Even with the nanites that Sophus had reintroduced into her system, she struggled to keep up with Ky, as were the rest of the guards. He didn’t dare slow down, since even if it was slight, there was a chance that he might be able to help save some of their supplies.

That hope died as soon as they rounded a corner onto the street holding the warehouse and saw the blaze in person. The warehouse was very large, even by Roman standards, and completely engulfed in flames. Several nearby buildings had also caught flame and long bucket lines were throwing water on the flames as fast as they could, barely able to contain it. Already men with axes and sledgehammers were starting to destroy buildings on either side of the blaze, trying to create a fire break to keep the fire at least contained.

“Is there anything we have on us that we could use to get this fire out faster?” Ky asked Sophus internally.

“No, Commander.”

“Is there anything in your records of technical files we could use to extinguish this fire?”

“No, Commander. There are better methods of firefighting using current or achievable technology, all of which would have needed significant preparation and construction beforehand. The most effective method now is to create enough of a fire break to limit the fires spread and keep the nearby buildings wetted to prevent sparks and embers from setting buildings alight.”

“Damnit,” Ky said, out loud.

He’d tried to think of everything he should set up to get Rome ready for industrialization, and he’d somehow overlooked advancing the way ancient people fought fire. He mentally kicked himself. Even without sabotage, industrialization increased the chances for fires as more machinery came into use, so he should have thought about that and set up something. It wouldn’t have taken much technological advancement to set up manually operated pumps connected to wheeled water cisterns, allowing more water to be moved and applied at a time. It was too late for any of that.

“Lucilla, get people together and have them start throwing water on the nearby buildings. Carus, we’re going to help clear a fire break.”

Lucilla nodded and ran off, her guard in tow, to begin her task. Maddeningly, Carus did not follow suit.

“My lord, there are too many people here, it isn’t safe. Whoever set his fire could still be nearby. If they are, they will use this as a distraction to make an attempt on you.”

“I’m not that easy to kill. Keep one man on guard, watching my back. Everyone else pitches in to help. Send someone for the rest of Lucilla and my guard force and any free hands to come and help. Draft civilians to come if you have to. We have to clear a complete fire break around the warehouse.”

“Consul, you can have people do that without being directly involved.”

Ky ignored Carus and went to one of the men with a sledgehammer, taking the tool from the surprised man, who released it and stepped back when he saw who it was.

Stepping back, Ky swung as hard as he could, the metal head of the sledgehammer smashing through the side of a wall in one go. Sophus highlighted a second section of wall, adjusting for the supporting weight and indicating the safest location for Ky to stand. The second swing took out another chunk of the building, which was enough to cause the wall to collapse completely. As soon as it went, the corner and wall next to it also fell as it lost integrity. Thanks to his enhanced muscles and Sophus’s directions, Ky had taken down a third of a building with two swings. Admittedly, large proportions had already been demolished by the men working on the building, but the demonstration was effective nonetheless.