[i]The field of Mars[/i]
"Claudius, your farm on Syracuse IV, describe it to me again."
Tribune Quintus spoke with his counterpart who would command the Auxlilia and mercenarius. Three years younger than Quintus Tullius, the boy had inherited a large farm from his family, whenever the man was nervous, Quintus reminded him of it and the boy drew strength from it.
"The wheat, it spans the hills, like a sea of gold. There's a river, I used to play in it as a boy, I built a bridge over it when my father died. He always said he meant to do it but I was never around to help him. My older sister runs it in truth, she always was a stronger person. The workers, they're all different, some eldar, some human, even a tau. They work the fields, day in day out, earning every bit of what they're payed."
The younger tribune fell silent as the two kept walking, straight out of the door and onto the field of Mars. The legionnaires and Auxlilia were all arrayed in formation, they stood in armor, the legionnaires in Lorica Segmentata, and the Auxlilia in lighter flak armor.
The centurions and optio kept order and rendered the salute of the Romans. The tribunes walked to the platform and ascended looking down on the men arrayed there. The sight was impressive, and the tribune was filled with pride.
"My fellow Romans, Auxlilia, and those of you who accept the republic's coin, I am tribune Quintus Tullius, and this is tribune Claudius, we are the men who will fight alongside you, for the glory of the republic. The emperor of man's enemies are ours by honor, and now the vile corrupted eldar hold a vital manufactorium, and hold prisoners. We will go and take them both. They want pain, we shall show them what it feels like to die. We take no prisoners of our own, we cannot risk the corruption spreading to those eldar among the Auxlilia and local population. But the manufactorium held a great deal of loot, loot that if you can carry is yours. Roma Victor!"
The last shout echoed amongst the men and the tribunes went down to inspect their men, and the mercenarius.
[spoiler]open[/spoiler]
English
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[i]Xavier went back to Quintus.[/i]
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He was back in his tent about to see what all the commotion was.
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[i]Xavier made sure that nobody was watching, then he knocked out Quintus and dragged him into the shadows.[/i]
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The tribune slowly came to, quite angry with the current situation. "Well, go on then, kill me if that's your goal, I'll not give up any information."
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"You know... I don't [u]need[/u] to kill you." [i]Xavier placed his hand on Quintus's head, information flowing. He also deleted this moment so that he wouldn't get into any other trouble. In order to fill the blank space of memory, he inserted a new memory of a horse knocking him over, rendering him unconscious.[/i]
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The man's mind was almost split into two, the duality of the soldier's life. There was a wealth of information.
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[i]Xavier made sure that Quintus didn't see him as an enemy, then started helping getting the horses in control.[/i]
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That image would be implanted, and now he could focus on what he wanted to find.
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[i]Xavier started searching through the tribune's memories.[/i]
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There are a lot, of the tribune's home, the time he's spent on campaign, his hopes and dreams, everything the man knew was laid out in front of him, but there was another presence there as well, one that he could not name.
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Edited by Tamedfrog: 7/25/2016 2:30:14 AM[i]To focus on that strange presence, he found a spot where he could sit (chair or something) and immersed himself in a vision of that using his Psionic powers. To put it into detail, energy flowed into his eyes and glasses, making a sub-consciousness of Quintus's brain.[/i]
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The power left, either hiding or simply leaving. He couldn't tell, but whatever it was it was powerful, and very old.
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[i]Xavier went to what Quintus was pondering from before.[/i]
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Battle stratagem and tactics, the man was engrossed in his work, trying to plan the best way to attack the eldar without losing a lot of men unnecessarily.
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[i]Xavier looked through the man's Intellect.[/i]
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He was quite intelligent, having been schooled in a lot in his youth by a private tutor that his family employed.
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[i]He copied the useful parts of Quintus's brain, then he dispersed the entirety of Quintus's memories (Except the copied parts, of course), which went back into him. Invisible distortions could be seen in the air as they went back to Quintus.[/i]
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Edited by Tamedfrog: 7/22/2016 12:35:05 AM[b] [/b]
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"I always like a little loot..." *Shadow stands with the rest of the mercenaries, her custom-made Empire scout-type suit spotless. It covers her like a second skin, from her cosmium-tipped boots to her neck. It is an armor unlike most, for it moves like quicksilver, its cloth-like reactive carbon weave covering its mechanical insides. She wears an old and worn sombrero on her head in place of a helmet, giving her a careless air.*
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The tribunes are soon examining the mercenarius, walking through their ranks and talking to a few of them. The paymaster walks through the lines and hands each of them their promised payment.
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*Shadow nods as she takes hers, her eyes scanning the crowd and the legionaries assembled*
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There were a lot of them, the legionnaires, one thousand men assembled on the field, not so many in the grand scheme of things but for the time and place they were a large force. They stood in their centuries, waiting for the commanders to give the order to March. The two tribunes came down her row and Quintus stopped to speak with her. "A sombrero, that's an interesting choice of head gear."
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"A memento, from a mentor." *Shadow chuckles* "He didn't see a reason for a helmet, oddly enough."
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The tribune shook his head amused. "Aren't you worried about getting a head wound?"
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"Nah. They'll be too busy dying to shoot me."