The World of The Gunny

Caesar looked out his palace window that overlooked the Mare Tyrennium and wondered, What, what will we find?

The Commander in Chief of the Navarcus had reported that the Dido, a Liburnia class scout, had just completed the jump out system and returned safely. The Dido had made a small and premptive calculation of it's position, and during his calculations the Captain of the Dido had realised that they were in all likelyhood in the Alpha Centauri star system. The Dido had then returned to report the finding.

Casca, along with most of the Senate had believed that the finding of the warp point had been an augry from Iuppiter, and was a sign to bring the Pax Romana to the stars. Yet Casca still could not bring himself to order the exploration of the new star system his scout had found. Because like any pious Roman, he considered the stars the playground of the gods. Yet it was also true that Iuppiter himself had shown them the way to the stars.

Casca was still trying to decide when he was disturbed by his attache. The intercom holocube flared with the image of his trusted friend and attache,
"Caesar, pardon my interruption of your musings, but your son, Sempronius, has just arrived back from the academy."
"Junius, that is good news, send him in and bring us a jug of the best Gallic wine we have, so we can celebrate his graduation from the Officer's Academy."
"As you wish Caesar." The holocube then went silent as Junius signed off.

Two minutes later Junius, a balding man in his 40's, was escorting a muscular youth dressed in the ceremonial Lorica of a Legati Legionis. Sempronius strode forward and knelt in front of his father and said,
"Father, I have returned from the Academy awaiting your command."
"Rise my son and give your father a proper greeting, and not this ceremonial garbage." Casca said to his son. With that Sempronius rose and gave his father a bear hug of a greeting that showed his true love for his father, something that sometimes lacked in the halls of power that was Roma.

The two men, one the Emperor of the Pax Romana, and his only surviving son, both sat and poured a glass of Gallic wine that Junius had brought in.
"So tell me Sempronius, do you have a preference for a posting? As you know I cannot post you higher than a Centurion, but I CAN pick the unit you serve in." Casca said.
"Father I have been giving it some thought, and I would like to be posted on a Liburnia class scout. I want to be in on the exploration of the stars."

Casca was startled by his son's choice, he had thought that he would have chosen a posting in the Equities Singulari Augusti. But he also knew his son wanted to be Emperor and Roman tradition required that an heir to the Empire must have first commanded troops and conquered a territory, or by exploration, added to the Empire. Then they had to be a Senator in good standing. So his son's choice was both logical and good. He was proud of his son's choice, as no Roman could fault his son for lack of courage, because all know a Liburnia may have a cloaking device, but it has almost no defenses if the cloak is penetrated.

"Sempronius, I am surprised by your choice, but at the same time pleased. Maybe for the first time in the gods knows how long, a blood relative will take the throne from his father. I approve of your choice, and it also helps me make a decision I have had difficulty making. Sempronius Keep up this line of actions and maybe one day you will also be called Caesar." Casca said with pride in his voice.

"Junius, have the commander of the Navarcus come immediately to my council chambers, and tell him the Primus Princeps has made his decision about the exploration of the stars." Casca said to his loyal servant. He much prefered the civilian title of first citizen over the militaristic Imperator, Emperor.
"As you wish my lord, I will head there post haste." And with that Junius went to fetch the head of the fledgling star navy.
"Sempronius please accompany your father to his council chambers as this also concerns you to."
"As you wish father, I will be right behind you." With that father and son proceeded to an unknown future.


When Casca and his son arrived at his meeting chambers the Chief of the Navarcus, Gaius Marcus Antonius was there waiting for him to arrive.
"Hail Imperator and Primus Princeps, I await your command." Marcus said to his commander. Casca noticed that Antonius was accompanied by one of the new style Lictors, ones who were always present at momentus points in the history of the empire.

For 300 years civil wars had torn the empire asunder as one claimant after another had tried to seize the Imperial purple by force. None of the pretenders had ruled more than a handfull of years before either being assassinated or overthrown in another of the endless coups that occured during this period. It had been the nadr of the Empire, and most Romans did not expect the Empire to survive the continual civil wars.

Then one man Quintus Maximius Aratus, Casca's spiritual forebear, the governor of the province of Nihonii, began his quest for the Laurel leaves and the purple. The difference between Maximius and the other pretenders was he had a plan to end the civil strife tearing the Empire apart. It was nothing less than a total reorganization of the Empire's government and way of life.

One of the critical components was the reorganization of the Lictors. Before Maximius the Lictors were the bearers of the Fasces, the symbol of the Empire. What Maximius had in mind for the Lictors were to evolve them into the bearers of the Empire's honor.

While Maximius was the provincial governor for Nihonii he had seen how the local administrator's, called Shogun's, ran their districts. One thing he had noticed was that the Shogun's had virtually no rebellion's against them and he kept them from killing each other, so Nihonii was a very stable province. What he had noticed was that they had a class of warrior called the Samurai, which means in the local tongue 'to serve' and they enforced the Shogun's word which also was his honor.

The thing that he had found fascinating about this warrior class was that if they considered their Shogun to have lost his honor they would present their grievences to the Shogun for rectification. If the Shogun refused to regain his honor in the eyes of the Samurai, that Samurai and any who agreed with him would commit what they called 'Seppuku' or suicide, to try and chide the Shogun into doing what was right.

To Maximius's Roman eyes, the suicide part was rubbish and a waste of good personnel, but he thought he could turn these 'Samurai' into faithful servants of the Empire. Instead of commiting suicide the Samurai turned Lictor would challenge the person who has failed the Empire to personal combat. If the challenged defeated and killed his challenger, he would have exactly one year to rectify what had set off the challenge in the first place. If the challenged has not fixed the problem, the Commander of the Lictors himself would challenge the person to personal combat. There has never been a survivor of being challenged by the Commander of the Lictors. Even Emperors and Senators were not above the challenge by the Lictors. That was one of the vital changes Maximius felt that was needed to weed out the corruption that was strangling the Empire from within.

The one who challenged the dishonorable subject was always the champion of the Lictors. The Lictors hold hotly contested tournaments to fill that position. The position of Challenger was a very highly prized position in the Lictors, as the honor of the Empire is truly resting on his shoulders. With this in mind, Maximius thought these Samurai would be perfect for the new role of the Lictors. Even though the majority of the Lictors are from the Samurai class in Nihonii, there are other peoples from all over the Empire. All they have to do is prove their dedication to the honor of the Empire above ALL else.

The Lictors never became involved in politics in any way, as they knew that was the path to corruption and dishonor. Any Lictor who even hinted at a political bias was 'urged' to commit Seppuku before an official investigation was launched. Needless to say, there have only been a handfull of Lictor Seppuku's in the 400 years since their new roles were founded. They truly believe that the honor and good health of the Empire rests on their shoulders.

Since the Lictors have taken up their role, the level of corruption in the Empire has dropped to almost nothing. Also Terra has been unified by the new commanders who did not have to worry about a corrupt commander holding them back. The introduction of the Lictors to the Empire by Maximius is thought by most Romans as inspired by Iuppiter himself.

The presence of the Lictor somewhat surprised Casca, as he had not considered the exploration of space that momentus of an occasion. So the presence of a Lictor showed they considered the subject of great portent. Even if the Lictors never showed any emotion while a decision is being made, their presence alone caused all present to ponder their decisions with great care. And that made all the difference for the Empire and it's continued growth and stability.

"Marcus, I have given it great thought, we shall explore the new system and bring the Pax Romana to the stars." Casca could see the slightest relaxation of tension in the Lictor, so he guessed he had made the right decision in their eyes.
"My lord, that is outstanding news! We in the Navarcus had no doubt you would come to that conclusion for we have faith in your guidance of the Empire's foreign affairs."
"Truth be told Marcus, my son Sempronious with his choice of postings helped me make the final decision." You could see the look of surprise in the Commander of the Navarcus and the Lictor's faces at that revelation.

"What was the choice of duty assignments the son of the Emperor chose my lord?"
"He wishes to be posted to a Liburnia Scout, and be in on the exploration of the stars."
"My lord your son has wisdom beyond his years, and that bodes well for a possible future Emperor." Marcus said with genuine respect in his voice. The look that the Lictor was giving Sempronious was also heartening for Casca. For if the Lictors were impressed by Sempronious's decision, then maybe, just maybe he might have a chance at becoming Emperor himself.

Sempronius's hands were tightly clasped to his chairs armrests when the universe reappeared.

Sempronius had unconciously grabbed the armrests just before the Iuppiter made warp transit. No one else on the bridge had noticed the thoroughly unmilitary gesture as the ship began to make its transit. The rest of Survey Flotilla 28 had proceeded the flagship into the unknown. Then it had been the Iuppiter's turn, and it disappeared down a well of infinity and through a hole in the universe.

But then reality stabilized, and they were in a new star system, only Mercurius knew how many light years away in Aristotleian space they were, and reports of successful transit began to arrive from the ships that had proceeded them. Not that the flotilla was of an impressive size, but Sempronius was proud of it none-the-less.

Trajan then ordered the flotilla onward into the system under cloaking ECM, trying to get lost in the immensity of space, just in case there was any hostile forces present in this new system. he sent the Dido class Scout Cruisers ahead to begin surveying the system. They almost immediately reported back that the system wasn't one of those in the Roman databases, and there was no point in searching for any native civilization. This star was a red giant and like Cronos gone insane it had long since devoured any planetary children it might once have possessed. So Trajan ordered the Didos to search for any other warp points other than the one they just transited; warp points they could use to continue their exploration.

Trajan had wanted to pause, but the Emperor had given specific orders, they were to push the exploration out at least 5 jumps from Terra. To give the Empire some room to expand in and to see if their were any hostiles in the local cluster. So there was no time. Instead he called a staff Conference.

Trajan had been glancing around the conference room at his officers. And had noticed that at some point Sempronius had managed to repair the haggard look from the rapid exploration. Trajan gazing across the conference table at him saw that he had even restored his beard to it's neatly sculpted norm, but he detected a salting of grey hairs among the black.

Trajan then began to listen to his second in command's report. Trajan already knew most of the facts that his second in command, Sempronius, was reciting, and they were too painful to bear thinking about.

First, his loss figures. Out of SF 28's original strength of seven battlecruisers, one battleship, two light carriers, nine light cruisers, and two freighters, He'd lost one battlecruiser, one light cruiser, and a freighter, each one of which he felt like a stab wound.

Sempronius voiced his own gloomy thoughts as he summed up.
"The battlecruiser we lost was a Martiobarbulus class, out of the four we originally had. The impact on our firepower..."
"Yes yes," Trajan interrupted. The Martiobarbulus were rated as BCG's: ships that combined a very respectable battery of capital ship class missile launchers with a battlecruiser's speed and nimbleness at the expense of sacrificing everything else. They were formidible missile platforms, especially when knitted into datalinked firing groups by Iuppiter and the two other Aegis class command battlecruisers. All three ships had survived.
"But," his lips curled into what could have been mistaken for a smile, "still just as many chiefs, but not as many indians," he said aloud.

Sempronius looked puzzled for a moment, the joke belonged to Praefectus Classis Trajan's culture group. Trajan was a Nova Terran from the province of Medialantica in Nova Terra, and Sempronius had heard of the red skinned warriors on that continent. But then he caught on to what the Praefectus Classis was trying to say, and he responded with a smile as humorless as his. It was a mistake, for their eyes met in a more direct contact, and Sempronius hurried on with the report.

"Furthermore, all of our depletable munitions are in short supply due to the loss of the freighter Columbinus."
"That loss concerns me more than the loss of the Martiobarbulus, and not just, or even principally, because of the missiles she was carrying," Navarchus Livius Valens, the logistics officer, added to the report.

Trajan was inclined to agree with his logistics officer's observation. Still he wished Valens had not brought it up, because there was nothing they could do about it, and just thinking about it was giving him the beginnings of a migraine.

"What happened?" Valens was continuing, as much to himself as to the other officers. Trajan felt no inclination to slap down his logistics officer; he was just voicing the question that had been on everyone's mind since the ships had exploded in the expanse of a starless nexus.

"Thats clear enough," the electronic holo image of Trierachus Vedius Agrippa commander of the Light Carrier Aquila, who wasn't a member of the staff, but he would always be present as commander of SF 28's "Pila Throwers", the term for the Explorers' Battle Fleet escort that continued to be used even though the distinction between the Survey And Battle Fleets had begun to fade.

"They broke distance protocol, the Columbinus had drifted too close to the Aeneas and when the Aeneas began a crazy barbarian turn, the ion trail from the Aeneas burned the Columbinus in two and detonated her munitions, which then destroyed the Aeneas and her escort the Sylvanus."

Nobody showed any inclination to dispute the carrier commander's analysis.
"Trierachus Agrippa is correct," Trajan stated with finality, reasserting control of the meeting. "We can't allow ourselves to dwell on speculative possibilities. All that can accomplish is to crush our will. Our sole concern must be the accomplishment of our mission and our return to safety the people entrusted to our command. To that end we must locate the other warp points in this system, if they exist."

He felt no useful purpose would be served to mention that this might be one of the occasional "dead end" systems with only one warp point. Instead, he decided to attend to what he had been putting off.
"In the meantime, it's necessary for us to restrict our consumption of non-renewable supplies, especially in light of the loss of the Columbinus. Therefore effective immediately, all personnel will go on half rations. Dismissed."

Sempronius wondered as he left the conference room, if the ominus loss of three ships, and half of their foodstuffs was a warning from Iuppiter himself.