Praetorian

Cades glared at the Roman, a scowl across his face as they made eye contact from across the room. A look of shock hung on Eversor’s face, his eyes wide before his face changing from shock to anger. Pushing off the table he bolted towards Cades lunging and tackling him out of the armor. Rolling onto the floor Eversor began slamming his fist into Cades’ face. 

Cades’ head whipped to the side but his jaw remained firmly locked. Spitting blood onto the floor Cades seemed barely fazed, “I know what you are praetorian.” He chuckled with a smile across his face.

Eversor grabbed Cades lifting him up before pulling his arm back to punch him once more. His fist collided with Cades’ stomach, “I don’t know what you're talking about.” Eversor said before throwing him to the ground.

“You gave it away too easily…that technique you used to lock up armor's joints. I could barely even move, it was like being trapped in my own armor…I’ve only met one other man who’s ever done anything like that…a praetorian that I was sent to hunt down.” Cades’ words were met with another punch to the face that didn’t draw blood. Grabbing onto Eversor by the collar he turned Eversor around before slamming him against the wall, “That was personal.”

Eversor’s eyes locked onto Cades as he gripped the man’s forearms. He wasn’t much larger than him, having a similar height but the sinew of his thick forearms felt like metal as Eversor bashed them with his fists, “I’m no Praetorian.” Eversor spat out with much less confidence than before as he thought over all the ways he may have given himself away.

The click of two guns cut through the silence as Ajax pointed his machine gun at the head of Cades while Ayla did the same with her pistol, “They don’t know do they?” Cades asked before Ajax grabbed Cades and threw him back to the floor, his body colliding with the tables and chairs nearby, “Deny it all you want…you look just like him…Domitian.” Cades said as he raised his head and tried to get up slowly.

Ajax glanced between the two while pointing his gun at their enemy. Ayla had moved over to her suit to enter it before grabbing her pistol and holstering it, leaving only the Eversor and Cades armorless. “Eversor, what's he talking about?” Ajax asked.

Under the helmet, his brow furrowed as he put together what his last name must have been,  “Your friend here is a praetorian guard…house Ranius...the fallen house.” Cades said as he shakily stood up, “The last I’m guessing.” Slumping back against the wall Eversor’s arms went limp at his side.

“Uncle,” Eversor muttered softly with a defeated look on his face. The four watched on as Eversor stared blankly at Cades, “You hunted him?” The Roman asked

“I was one of a small legion sent to hunt down what was left of house Ranius during my training years ago.” Cades said as he wiped the blood from his lip, sending two droplets to the floor, “We were meant to capture them but your uncle wouldn’t be taken alive so we dealt with him. We found five others with him. They ordered the children to be…dealt with…and the adults to be executed. With that house Ranius was eradicated…or so we thought..”

Cades spoke with a cold voice but not one that seemed enthusiastic about telling the story. “Who are you? The Emperor was thorough in his search and it only ended a few years ago. I’m surprised one slipped through.” Cades asked. He’s probably some small branch on the family tree, Cades thought to himself.

Eversor slowly began to push himself up. “I am Eversor Marcellus Ranius son of Valerius Atticus Ranius.” He finished his words as he locked eyes’ with Cades. In just a few moments he had gone from cowering on the floor to standing tall face to face with Cades.

The defeated look he had held was gone from his face replaced with a stern gaze. Stepping closer toward Cades the two men stood in front of each other. Ayla and Ajax kept their guns trained on Cades while Elswyth stood near the door.

“The…the prefect’s son? We thought he was killed during the initial coup.” Cades looked upon Eversor with a shocked, nearly fearful expression. His foot shifted as if he was preparing to turn and run.

“I escaped…along with the praetorians in training and my uncle Domition Lucilla Ranius.” Eversor's heart raced within his chest, thumping so hard it hurt, “We all escaped…and now they’re all dead and I’m the only one left.” he said as if he had to remind himself of what had happened.

Ajax looked at Eversor, his mouth slightly agape and his eyes wide, “You were a praetorian and you never told any of us?” Ajax asked his look of shock turned to anger as the man he could call brother nodded.

Eversors fist clenched until his knuckles turned white, “We all fled to Praesidium, my uncle Domitian was going to meet with the senators and inform them of what happened. The senator's forces were there and then the Germanics arrived. They attacked at the worst time possible…I think the Emperor caused it trying to eradicate the senators as well.” The image of his his fellow praetorians in training screaming at him for falling to carry his weight, and their bodies strewn about the floor as he stumbled by with an injured arm flooded his mind.

More images came to him as he remembered lagging behind the group, failing his weapons checks, getting thrown to the ground in hand to hand training, and missing every shot at target practice, “They all died, the senators escaped on their ships and the new Emperor was there to deal with the Germanics just as they left.

Ajax’s eyes went wide as he looked down upon his friend, “That's why you were in Preasadium?”

“Yes,” Eversor said bluntly as he looked at his friend. The two stood beside each other as Ajax lowered the gun he had pointed at Cades.

“You’ve lied to us this entire time?” Ajax said, beneath the helmet his breath was shaky and his eyes were wide.

“Yes…I did my best to keep it from coming out. I didn’t know who to trust, I guessed that if it got out somebody would rat me out. The Emperor isn’t one to leave loose ends and if he even got the slightest hint I was alive he would have come for me.

“He isn’t wrong.” Cades laughed, “You must have known him well.”

“We grew up together. How could I not?” Eversor asked as his gaze turned to Cades, “He’s established a new guard to take my family's place?”

“He has. It’s made up of veterans from the legions and some specialized forces brought to defend him. If you ask me it’s weak. Those who worked with him in the coup apparently promised the Emperor certain information about your family to help train the replacements Turns out they didn't know half of what they claimed to know.” Cades clarified, causing Eversor’s expression to darken. 

 

“One of the families worked with him?” Eversor muttered out.

Cades shrugged his shoulder, “One of your people sold you out.” His look was unimpressed, “Doesn’t surprise me knowing the praetorian’s history.” Eversor turned to stand in front of Cades himself and looked into the man's eyes. His fists clenched painfully as he looked at Cades with a scowl of fury. Cades ’ eyes went wide in shock as the expression unnerved him.

“The Emperor...Ioannis…who did he work with?” Eversor asked calmly.

 With how tight his fist was clenched Cades knew that Eversor's rage could be directed towards himself at any moment. Glancing between the others in the room Cades spoke again, “House Fidus.” He watched Eversor closely waiting for his reaction. Eversor’s breathing changed from the previous calm deep breaths to ragged quick exhales. Ajax and Ayla looked on with confusion and weariness.

“Fidus,” Evesor repeated as the image of the crest of house Fidus flashed in his mind. The crest of a sword covered in blood with the flag of Rome behind it imprinted itself into his brain as he relived the old memory of looking upon it as a child.  He recalled one of his oldest memories, two men clad in Thorakai yelling at each other in front of the Emperor as he watched on from behind a pillar, “My…family…I’m going to…kill them…destroy their house…burn their crest… eradicate them His voice turned raspy.

“Eversor!” Ayla called out sounding almost scared not for herself but for Eversor. Her armored hand grabbed his. With her armor, they were of the same height as they looked into each other's eyes. Through the slits in the armor, he could see her green eye’s that even through the glass pulled him in. His gaze turned away back to Cades.

“How do you know this?” He spoke, his raspy voice returning to normal

“I’m a Roman myself.” Everybody else in the room had their eyes pulled towards him after hearing his words. Elswyth looked between them all. She had barely met her new allies an hour before and she looked on at them wearily.

“What is going on here?” Elswyth mumbled to herself.

Ajax looked between them all his anger flaring to the surface, “What is going on here? All of this right now! We haven’t even accomplished anything and now you're telling me we have a praetorian, a Greek scientist, a Germanic colonel, and another Roman? Answer me! What the hell is going on?”

The door behind him was thrown abruptly open. A loud bang echoed through the room from the door, “Erbach! Are you in here? I’ve come to find you Pankraz has summoned you back!” Entering the room the Germanic soldier turned to see the five standing around each other, “What is going on here?” The soldier asked softly.

Cades looked towards the soldier as he stood unarmored. Ayla and Ajax pointed their weapons at the soldier as the Germanic did the same. The door behind the soldier shut as the three stood at a standoff. Cades reached down before pulling his shirt up and revealing a pistol with a large six inch long barrel and an equally large frame. 

Pulling the trigger the gun fired off its one shot. The recoil jerked the gun up making the barrel point straight toward the ceiling and causing Cades' to stumble back from. The bullet slammed into the Germanic's chest plate, and craps and chunks of armor flew off as the man tumbled to the ground.

Ayla’s gaze alternated between Cades and the dead German who lay motionless on the floor. Her eyes finally stuck to Cades as she clenched her pistol and glared at him before her gaze softened. She looked over at Eversor’s rifle and the grip on her pistol loosened as if she was catching herself.

“I’m a war slave.” Cades said as if the man entering was nothing but a minor interruption, “I was captured by the Germans during a battle before my training was complete. Pankraz himself took me captive and I’ve been on a tight leash ever since.” Turning back towards them Cades looked at the four, “You four must be here to destroy the facility…and I want to help.”

The four looked at him skeptically then at the corpse on the ground, “You want us to just trust you?” Ajax asked.

“If you trust me I can get you to Pankraz. I want him dead as the rest of you, I’m a slave after all. If he dies I’m free.”Cades said, “Or was killing that man not enough? I had this gun on me the entire time I could have killed any one of you but I didn't." Cades tossed the large hand canon onto the table, the barrel still smoking as he rolled his sore shoulder that felt weak.

Eversor looked between Cades and the dead man and gestured to follow him with the tilt of his head. Stepping forward Eversor entered his Thorakai before Cades did the same. Standing back up he reached out offering his hand to Cades, “Join us and you will be free by day's end.” He spoke confidently as they looked into each other’s eyes through the visors in their helmets.

“My name is Cades Erbach, son of Hunfrid Gaius Erbach of the pratorian guard.” Cades said with a confident tone as if he had secured a one sided deal, “As the head of my house I declare an allegiance to house Ranius.” Cades’ arm reached out gripping Eversor’s forearm. Both men gripped each other's armored forearms with their gauntlets in a handshake, “Together house Fidus will burn as you said.” Beneath the helmet, Cades stared at Eversor with a smile and a determined expression.

Eversor under the helmet looked at him with a shocked expression, “What?”

“You heard me Eversor…we can talk about it later. We’ve spent enough time talking.” Ajax and Ayla looked on their expressions not even shifting as if they’d been desensitized to the revelations. The two only slightly furrowed their brows as they gazed at them.

Behind them, Elswyth sat at the large computer that had been turned on. On each of the dozen screens was an image of a different part of the facility, “Everybody get over here.” She called as her fingers rapidly tapped each key of the computer that had enlarged buttons for their Thorakai's use. Coming up behind her the four looked over the screens.

“If you guys are looking to reach Pankraz you’ll have to get to level 14. The elevator gives access to 14 with clearance which I’m assuming you have, Cades?”

“I do.” Cades nodded.

“Then all you’ll need when you're up there is eyes and some backup. From here I can lock down certain sections of the facility by myself but that can be overridden by the main security team on level nine. I’ll be more of a nuisance than anything unless I can get into the system but that's not a guarantee.”

The screen showed several hallways, doorways, and different rooms. Most of the facility was a darkened grey metal, old, and worn down but operational. Troops rushed across the screens as they began moving to reinforce the walls leaving guard rooms empty and several doors completely unguarded.

“How are we going to communicate?” Ajax asked as he looked over Elswyth’s shoulder.

“Here take these, it’ll allow us to communicate wherever you are within the Hephaisteion.” Throwing open one of the desk drawers she retrieved four rectangular shaped devices. Each with a blinking red light. Holding it over her forearm the magnet attached itself to her forearm, “Each of you take one. Use frequency 108.54.”

“So what's the plan?” Ajax asked as he looked towards Ayla and Eversor.

“Kill Panrkaz, find out what's going on here, destroy it, get out, and pray that we can make a deal for our allies here.” Eversor said as he attached the radio to the left side of his upper chest, “It’s not the best but it's what we got.” 

Cades curled his arm reloading his shotgun, “Good enough for me. I’ve waited too long for this.”

“I don’t have much of a choice..” Or belief in it, Ayla thought to herself.

“I trust you two to handle it,” Elswyth said as she looked back at the group.

The four looked down at her, standing tall in their Thorakai, “Let's get this over with.” Ayla said, being the first to turn towards the exit.

“Stay safe Elswyth and I’ll let you examine my armor all you when we’re out of here,” Ajax said with a soft chuckle as he walked away. Elswyth nodded and smiled happily beneath her helmet.

Eversor grabbed his rifle from the nearby table before opening the door to the room, “We’re counting on you.” Eversor said before walking out with his four allies. I won’t let them down. Even if I can’t fire one bullet I can still aid them, Elswyth thought to herself. On one of the screens, she began flipping through the systems to gain access to more of the facility's security.

Eversor strode forward before breaking out into a sprint, “In this chaos, there’s an opportunity and I’m not going to let it slip by! House Ranius will rise again…I'm coming for you Ioannis!" He yelled out under the helmet as the four broke out deeper into the hallways of the Hephaisteion.