Centurion Page #2

---

- Are you the relief column?

- Not quite.

I'm Titus Flavius Virilus,

Commander of the Ninth Legion.

We've come here looking for a fight.

Then you'll get one.

- General.

- Centurion Dias.

Ha! Now you look like a Roman.

How do you feel?

Cuts and bruises, sir.

Nothing that won't heal in time.

Well, sometimes there are scars

that cannot be seen.

You escaped the clutches of Gorlacon,

but I must ask you to return with us

into the lion's den.

Best to get back into the fight, General.

- Spoken like a soldier.

- Gladiator.

My father was Scipio Dias.

I saw him win the fight

that earned him his freedom.

He was magnificent.

He taught me how to fight,

when to choose my battles.

Come meet the men.

- Septus.

- Sir?

Get this man a drink.

I think he deserves it.

Come and join us. Be warm.

Have a well-earned drink.

Thank you.

Tomorrow you ride by my side.

Perhaps you can teach me something

about Pict hospitality.

- Thax. Bothos.

- Sir.

- Septus, I'll be doing my rounds.

- Sir.

- Evening, General.

- I can't understand a word of these Picts.

If they ever catch me, I'm f***ed!

I've never seen a general

so beloved of his men.

Well, in training he is our scholar,

at the feast he is our father,

in the ranks he is our brother.

And in battle he is the god we pray

to save our souls.

- Where did you read that?

- It's written on the shithouse wall, sir.

- Probably wrote it himself.

- He's a ruthless, reckless bastard.

And I'd die for him without hesitation.

It's a trap!

Column! Form up! Form up!

Quickly! Come on!

Dismount! Get the horses to the rear!

Tight! Quickly!

Steady, boys. Shields!

Watching!

Whatever comes out

of that mist, lads, you will hold the line.

Quintus, ride to the rear.

Tell Centurion Remus

to pull the column back.

- Make a hole.

- Keep watching!

Get ready!

Watching.

Hold the line!

Stand tall!

- Quintus.

- Bothos.

- You made it.

- Yeah. This man saved my life.

Brick, here.

- The General?

- No.

We've got to move.

- Can you make it?

- Yeah.

Come on.

Let's get moving.

In the chaos of battle,

when the ground beneath your feet

is a slurry of blood, puke, piss,

and the entrails of friends

and enemies alike,

it's easy to turn to the gods for salvation.

But it's soldiers who do the fighting

and soldiers who do the dying.

And the gods never get their feet wet.

- Thax.

- Thank the gods some of us made it.

Only you?

Macros, second cohort.

Leonidas, junior scout and peltast.

- Are we all that's left?

- We were outsmarted.

That's all. Time to go home.

We need to find the General's body.

He deserves a nobler tomb than this.

The General's still alive.

- Are you sure?

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes