Jones and Ryan sheltered in their foxhole as the world went to hell around them. The Legion had wisened up real quick to their fortifying of positions and were now shelling the hell out of the fortified positions. All they could do is sit in their quickly dug out foxhole and hope no shell landed in or around it. If they tried to charge, they'll only be cut down, and retreat wasn't an option under this heavy of a fire. So they sat and awaited their fate... **** Vidar quickly lead a link up with the other side of forces, downtown Fort Worth was officially cut off. And with the second cohort of reinforcement bringing the number in the cut off to a thousand, enough to render any counter-attack suicidal with the Republic's troops being as green as they were, well trained yes, but the Legion had the experience that truly mattered.
While the positions in Houston were being shelled by the Legion, Marius led a well trained contubernium that tried to sneak around the shelled positions and into a weak point in the Republic's defenses, in which one had already been ripped apart in the south-east. During this time, the last remaining bridge was blown and prevented the Legion from entering the Republic. Until they realized that Marius's contubernium alongside other groups of Legionaries had traveled through the Sewers and appeared out of nowhere from the manholes. By the time the Republic believed that they had stopped the Legion, the army of the Bull was right behind them and over-running several key locations. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rhys wore his suit, with kevlar body-armor tucked in underneath, as him and his rifle were positioned carefully in Republic lines. High enough to maintain a vantage point, but far enough to keep his safety. Nearby was a large platoon of Republic soldiers, whom were reinforcing their current position with multiple sandbags and a machine gun turret. It had been over 40 years since he had last attempted to snipe at a human target, rarely taking times off work through his career as Mayor of Dallas to go hunting. When he believed he had a target, everything felt natural to him. His hands were perfectly still, time seemed to slow down, his vision retained it's focus. And now...he was ready as he took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.
(Also, there there is no river in Houston that could cut off access to the rest of Texas. Houston is down on the coast too) "Sniper get down!" Vidar called as a shot missed him wildly. Quickly getting into cover, the group of soldiers with Vidar, just a small portion of the thousand making the connection cutting off downtown. Turning to one of his soldiers, he demanded their helmet and put it on the butt of his gun, sticking it out just enough to where the sniper would think it's a soldier. ****** Jones and Ryan managed to get a group of Elite Guards together to withdraw to the bridge to Galveston island, which was a few miles off shore. They hadn't quite blown the bridge yet, the charges weren't ready, as they had a large bridge to blow. With only about 185 men manning a sandbag line just enough on the bridge to make sure the Legion didn't use their artillery for fear of destroying the bridge. This was their last stand. Jones watched as a large group of Legion took up positions just off the bridge, not firing, no doubt about to give them a chance for surrender
Rhys aimed down the sights for just long enough to notice the Legion get into cover, and to notice the helmet oddly positioned on a rifle to trick him into firing a round into a solider. Noticing this, he did nothing until a real target had emerged. Noticing that the Centurion was brighter than the rest, he instead focused on his other commanders and could easily tell them apart from the feathers on their helmets. All he had to do was wait... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Legion, numbering at roughly eighty, began to advance towards the Bridge. The Republic was unsure about the secondary wave of Legion that was advancing, numbering over a thousand and was about ten minutes away. Marius led his portion of Legion soldiers as he stood proudly onto the bridge. A nearby Centurion used a microphone from underneath his facewrap to amply his voice. "Men and Women of the Republic of Texas. We are offering you one final chance to surrender yourselves and to relinquish your weaponry. If you are to come forward and do this now, many of you shall be spared. However, if you do not, then we have no other choice but to kill you. You have exactly a minute to decide." The Centurion announced, his voice loud and strong. Marius had the gut feeling of what was going to happen next. Despite that it's only a feeling, he felt that the bridge was going to blow sky high.
Jones turned to see a bright, speeding line going down the bridge, knowing it was the detenation wire. But there was nothing blowing up...Dammit dammit dammit! Sea water mist must have soaked the det charges. Jones looked back just in time time for the Section behind them got blown up, sending a hundred feet of bridge tumbling onto the beach and surf, and the Shockwave slamming them against their sandbags. Jones was blown clean off the bridge, along with several others, onto the beach blowing at the surf line, unconscious, while Ryan and the rest were slammed forward into their sandbags or sent flying into the Legion. The explosion left only 20 in fighting shape, now the tide was much more against them... ****** Using the remains of a glass window to peer around the corner using the reflection, Vidar watched as the sniper fired again, trying to hit someone, he couldn't see any detail, but the flash told him the snipers general vicinity. Quickly getting a squad, he lead them down a few blocks, out of sight, before coming around and surrounding the sniper's position from behind, coming out of sight just in time to.mow down his guards. Vidar and a few of his other men charged Rhys before he could react to the gun fire, picking up the old man by his arms and lifting his feet off the ground for.another Legionary to bind his legs together, essentially removing all leverage. "Now, why would your country send an old man to battle, hm? Are you a general who thought he could get one last grasp at granduer?"
"No...I'm just a man who has been fighting a war everyday of his life." Rhys said before laughing to himself before there was a crunching sound. He had just bitten a suicide pill, although the pre-war version he had bitten removed the foam that would be present in models of Cyanide pills in the 21st century, allowing a more 'pure' death. Rhys had tears on his face as he looked into the sky. Within the next ten seconds, Rhys stopped breathing as the color drained from his face. He was able to close his eyes as well, finally finding peace. After a brief moment, Rhys was dead. ---------------------------------------------- The Centurion looked at Marius. Despite that the Legion was taken back by the sudden explosion, almost all but two were in fighting condition. The Centurion looked at Marius, who was currently his second in command. He wanted to hear what the Decanus wanted to say, but he already knew what was going to be said deep down. "Qui autem resistunt, interficiatur" (Kill any who resist) Marius replied as the Centurion nodded in agreement. All the Legionaries took out their weapons and began to advance forwards, heading outwards onto the beach to check on any survivors. If they fought back, they would be killed without hesitation. While the bridge was now destroyed, it did not mean that those on the island were not truly safe...
(Oh, for future reference, cyanide actually takes something like 5 minutes to kill as it essentially chokes you to death and if vomiting is induced in the first minute, then it's useless) Jones groaned as he woke, noticing the Legion starting to move forward. Blinking as adrenaline filled his veins, he quickly got to his feet, went woozy for a moment, before clumsily running away through the sand before the Legion got to the beach, hiding in the Ruins of a nearby beach house just in time. Collapsing inside a cabinet, he took deep breaths, knowing he had a concussion. If they found him, he was as good as dead, or a prisoner. ****** Vidar shrugged as the man died in front of him and went on his way to further secure the cut off and prepare the area to launch a back-door offensive into downtown Fort Worth
The Legion walked across the beach within the radius of the bridge explosion, making a perimeter to round up any survivors. Marius led the pack as one surviving Republic solider, armor and weaponry ruined from the explosion, tried to use his knife to attack downwards. Marius dodged the attack with ease and stabbed the solider through the neck with his machete before letting him fall to the ground in a pool of blood. In all, only a rare few had fought back, those in able condition either surrendering or attempting to fight back and meet a swift death. Those who survived were being taken away as slaves, and without medical attention, most of them would die. Marius pointed to his northwest, making sure that the Legion heads into the water to drag anyone else into the shore. One small group of three headed north towards the ruins of an old beach-house. They knew that they might not find anything inside, but was still worth a look.
Jones listened to the Legion enter the beachhouse, quieting his breathing and slightly praying they wouldn't find him. As he listened, he slowly faded into unconsciousness, and when he came to again, he felt a slave collar around his neck and that he was being forced to kneel in an enclosure, "Well [censored]"
With a successful Legion victory, Marius and the other Legionaries had taken thirty surviving slaves, the others dying from untreated injuries, drowned, or died in the original blast. While the civilians on the island could wait to be conquered, Marius was expressed promoted to Centurion, and now stood next to another Centurion as the last of the slave collars was fitted around the slaves. After Houston, Marius was required to travel to FW/D to assist in the Legion campaign. Marius received new armor, although his weaponry remained the same. He placed his black hair back into a long ponytail. As he watched the slaves, he was soon ready for a trip to Dallas.
(THAT LOOKS SO WRONG TO ME DX that's like saying dong ding instead of ding dong for a bell! Also, in that shipping game when you responded with shipping me with Eluuna, I am not kidding you when I say it felt like my stomach flipped as soon as I saw that xD) Allen sat listening to the radio from his home in Arlington. Fort Worth, Houston, Little Rock, Denton, the entire forward line of defense had collapsed. No doubt the Legion would be coming to Arlington next as it was the main crossroads of D/FW. "Damn it all.." he muttered before getting up, his old age rendered him useless in a fight, he had spent all that from leading the nation, but he had an idea in mind. Going to his in-home recording station, he flicked the emergency switch which would send a radio signal to each of the nearby radio towers who would to the same and pass the message along the line for a nearly 500 mile radius, the main downside was it could be heard on all frequencies, so it wasn't exactly private. But nevertheless, he step up to the mic and began speaking to his nation for the first time since he left office, "To the citizens of the Republic of Texas, our grand nation is going g through the bleakest moment in its short history. An invader, the so called Caesar's Legion, has overrun the entire western half of the nation and is threatening to move further. I would like to send a message to them. We will fight on the road, we will fight in our homes, we will fight in the hills, we will fight in the forest, we will fight for every inch of ground. We will never surrender. To the citizens listening in the occupied lands, I call upon you to rise up against your oppressors and occupiers, restore the Republic's rule. They have expanded too far! Their supply lines are weak! Hit them wherever you can, hit them on patrol, hit them in their barracks, overrun them. For we are strong and they are cowardly, for they attack without pretense, this is a purely aggressive land grab, and will we let them have our lands?? No! Not without killing as God damn many of the bastard as we can! Make it to where if they want to control this land, they'll have to kill every last one of us. We WILL win. Losing is not a possibility. We will not surrender."
(Damn, I'm really not having a good day today when it comes to typing and ideas. Also, I had the cheekiest smile on my face when I made that post. I laughed when I thought of exactly how your reaction would be XD. I'm also going to make a new character, since only using Marius would be fairly boring.) Captain William Edwards sat down next to a radio set, listening to the speech being given by former president, Allen. After what had been happening to the Republic, he was for certain that he was not going to go down without a fight. William stood at around 6ft 4, and was in exceptional condition. Dressed in an officers uniform, wearing a beret upon his head. He went outside of his quarters to notice the new found spirit that had been given to the soldiers, who had been tortured with nothing but the Legion killing their loved ones or taking them as slaves.He could see the spark of life within the eyes of the soldiers, and William had a smirk on his face as he took his scoped Trail Carbine and walked from the camp. Not long after, more and more soldiers began to surround him until he had gathered a crowd of forty. They were not only going to give the Legion hell, but they were going to throw them into the wind...
(You cheeky bastard xP) Legate Gaius Julius pulled his Gladius out of a final raider before wiping the blood off and sheathing it. He was the commander of the 7th Legio, the final of 10 Legios sent against the Republic, only here, after arriving at Wichita Falls, they went north along I-35 to Oklahoma City. They killed all they came across that resisted, but didn't try to hold the territory, they simply continued on. After reaching I-40, they were to go west. They were going to hit the Republic from behind, opening a second front to pull off troops.
William and three other Sergeant's divided the crowd of 40 into coordinated squads and were focused on destroying Legionary supply lines inside their territory. Finding their way into the Legion territories, their first raid was to hit Brownwood, which had the smallest legion military presence yet was also an important location. Upon arriving, the teams split around to attack from all directions onto an unprepared enemy during the middle of the night, killing plenty of them and wrecking havoc onto the Legion supplies that almost rendered the town useless. Despite losing three men, William was happy with the results as he ordered the surviving legionaries to be crucified to give them a taste of their own medicine. Once the act was done, ninety Legionaries were lined up on Highway 84 on opposite sides, serving as a warning from what was to come. From there, William and his band of soliders continued to hit other locations. The second major raid was to be against Santa Anna to the west, which acted as one of three critical resupply towns inside Legion controlled Texas, the others being Abilene and Lubbock. Santa Anna would be hit during the day however, and losses were expected this time around. If all three towns were hit precisely, it would swing the momentum of the 'war' and begin to show major signs of victory in the Republic's favor.
(Sure) After the successful attack on Brownwood, the spirit seemed to be returning to the Republic. In some areas, slaves old and new were revolting against their Legion masters in bloody uprisings, the Legion mostly unable to contain the threat due to the underwhelming size of Legionary camps. Nearly 50,000 slaves had revolted in Western Texas, but only 33,000 had made it out alive and back into the Republic. Some military attacks had also been successful, with Victoria being liberated with major plans to liberate Austin and Corpus Christi within the next few months. Abilene was the next major supply town to take down, except that William was expecting major reinforcements to take down the camp successfully. If Abilene fell, the Republic only had one major camp left before the odds are to be in their favor. William and his platoon on the other hand, had gained massive support for the actions for taking down Brownwood and across the Republic's military, several similar actions were occurring in all Legion held territories. From Ingleside to Plainview, the supply lines in the Legion were being bombarded by the Republic through guerilla tactics. By now, over a thousand troopers in different areas of the Republic had joined William in smashing the supply lines, and at the moment, the Legion had one of it's legs crippled.
