Chapter 7

Night had fallen over the Legionaries. During the day they helped set up some surprises for any enemy that followed the SF Cont. The terrain around here allowed small wadis capable of hiding them for an ambush. Behind them lied the border between Mesopotamia and Arabia. Apollinarius directed Imhotep with the placement of the Tribulus. They could be detonated by hand or with a trip wire. Now came the waiting. Apollinarius allowed the Cont. to sleep in shifts, to rest up. Since they had been on the go since this morning, they welcomed the chance to get some sleep.

In the wee small hours of the morning, the radios came alive. It was the SF Cont. coming in with two "packages". At the same time, the Marksmen radioed in an enemy Centuria following the SF. It did not appear the SF Cont. knew about the enemy Centuria. Apollinarius sent a request to the SF leader to double time it and gave him the direction.

The SF Cont. got to them with time to spare. They set up firing positions and waited. The Legionaries were now outnumbered 5:1, but they had the element of surprise. The SF leader told the Marksmen, both his and Ninian's, to open fire when they got within rifle range. They were to take out the leaders and work themselves down the list. The rest of the two Cont. would take care of the rest with the Tribulus.

It took a few minutes before all hell broke loose. The battle raged, but the Roman held their own. Ninian fired and moved to avoid being hit. He made the mistake of heading towards the top of a hill when a grenade went off below him, fortunately not close enough to cause damage, but close enough to throw him over the top of the hill and down a wadi. His last thought before darkness took him was he could join his friends.

Ninian woke with the sun in his eyes and the heat beating down on him. Looking at his watch, he saw it was late afternoon the same day as the mission. He took a quick pull from his hydration bladder to get the cottonmouth effect out of his mouth. Ninian tried his radio to see if his Cont. was out there, but all he got back was silence. He turned it off, both to preserve his batteries and so that the enemy could not triangulate him.

He took stock of what he had. It was a good thing he resupplied before leaving for the mission, or he would have been trouble. He figured he had 1/2 a C-drum left on his rifle and one in his current pouch. He still had all of his grenades, three Fragments and one smoke. His Gladius and Pugio still hung from his Balteus, along with his extra Gladius mags. A bullet hit his GPS at some point but he still had his map and compass. Both binoculars and NV goggles were OK. In his Sarcina Morbi, he had his other Assault pouches, all full, and two FAMs. His Hydration bladder was half-full and he still had his four canteens. Four blocks of AP-5 with detonators, and his two spare barrels rounded out his equipment.

In the distance, he heard trucks passing by. Crawling to the top of the wadis, he took his binoculars and looked towards the sound of the trucks. He saw them in the distance moving away. The thing is they were enemy trucks. He decided to wait until dark to follow them and climbs back down to the floor of the wadis. He took out a FAM and ate the sandwich portion of the meal, waiting for full dark.