Dulce Et Decorum Est

[vovan]

Good stuff. Keep the goods coming please.

[cbraund]

Will grinned as the chopper began to plunge, and waved his arm at the troops behind him.

The jeep he was standing in roared forwards, and he grabbed hold of the bar near the machine gun. The troops behind roared after him.

He was with rebellios elements of the Athens Guard, and two rebellious Hoplites.

There was a big commander who had rebelled who was organising the area, and Will only knew him by voice.

Now he was on a direct comms link to the commander, and telling him the first part of the operation was a success.

They neared the crashed helicopter, and Will jumped out and rushed towards the copter.

His men were gunning down the few Hoplites that were escaping, and he neared the main door.

He ripped it open, and saw Nicholas with blood gushing from a head wound.

Unconscious.

************************************

Nicholas woke slowly, to see a pistol pointed at his face.

"Goodbye, murderer." he heard the gunman say, and then blacked out again.

*************************

More to come tomorrow, too tired now lol!

Chris AKA Nemesis

[TheGuitarist]

Nice! Waiting for the next installment.

[vovan]

I sure am hoping to see some more tomorrow.

* Looks at the clock: 00:09 *

Oh, wait, it is today, now. Any ways, keep the goods coming.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

So when does the movie come out ?

[cbraund]

lol I've just seen Gangs of New York, it is one amazing film.

So I've been inspired to write a bit more lol.

It will be up soon

Chris

[cbraund]

Will spoke, then squeezed the trigger.

Just as someone shoulder-charged him out of the way, and sent him flying onto the tarmac.

The shot hit a bottle of water stored in a pocket on the back of the co-pilot's seat, right infront of Nicholas.

The spray of cold water was enough to bring Nicholas round, and he began to rise.

Will cursed, and as he got up glanced at the one who had pushed him aside.

It was Nicholas's lapdog, his Hoplite leader.

Will spat at him, then lunged for his pistol.

Josh kicked it away, and kicked at Will's face.

He spun away in a shower of blood, cursing as he fell once more.

Josh moved in for the kill, and aimed the pistol at the head of the rebel.

But he was concentrating so much on defending his King that he didn't see the rifle butt that slammed into the back of his head.

His pistol flew out of his hand, firing once as it hit the ground. He collapsed forwards, finding himself in the middle of a group of rebels, outnumbered, alone and unarmed.

The beating began, and Nicholas struggled out of the helicopter to hear gunshots too. He reached for his weapons, anger boiling up inside as he saw his best friend dying.

Then they turned to him.

"Ready to die, you murdering scumbag?" Will growled at his King.

"See you in Hell." Nicholas roared as he surged fowards, sword drawn.

He was ready to meet his maker.

He hoped they were too.

********************************

Will saw the man infront of him fall to Nicholas's first swing.

The King was slicing his way through the crowd, towards Will, and Will knew he was coming.

He had a pistol and knife drawn, ready to take on the Royal in his final revenge.

Nicholas parried one stab with a bayonet, and stabbed deep into the soldier's stomach with his sword.

Now was the time.

Will charged forwards, and Nicholas swung the sword up to meet him.

Will knocked it aside with the knife, and brought up the pistol.

He pulled the trigger.

And nothing happened.

The wrong pistol. He had picked up the wrong damned pistol.

He saw the look of victory on Nicholas's face as it dawned on him that Will had picked up Josh's gun, which by the time Josh had reached Will had only had one bullet left in.

And that had been fired hitting the floor.

The sword swung backwards, and Will knelt to go under the swing, and stabbed upwards.

Nicholas lept back, but not quickly enough. The knife stabbed into his shoulder, and he dropped the sword.

************************************

Nicholas was horrified, and saw Will coming in for his final victory, casually throwing the knife from hand to hand.

But APCs came screeching round the corner, and a man in the lead one used it's machine gun to open fire on Will.

The gunfire shredded Will's left hand, the one currently holding the knife, and he screamed in pain.

The knife fell, forgotten, as he stumbled backwards, staring at the bloody pulp that had once been his hand.

The APCs raced closer, and braked quickly, Hoplites already beginning to pour out of them.

Spartacus lept from the first APC, and charged towards the man who was trying to kill his son.

Will turned and ran, stooping only to recover his gun or something from beside Josh. He feared Spartacus more than anyone - he had fought for this man, and knew that even at this age, Spartacus was still probably the most deadly soldier and general in Greece.

Revenge would come another day, he vowed. But first to enact Plan B...

*************************************

Justin knelt over his son, his eyes showing no emotion.

Spartacus knew inside that Justin would be falling apart, but the soldier and Hoplite within him, even at this age still refused to let him break down openly.

"He's dead, there's no pulse." Justin said in a choked voice.

"I'm so sorry." Nicholas and Spartacus said together.

"He died a hero." Spartacus added simply.

"What was that?" Nicholas asked, suddenly looking around, and listening closely.

"What was what? My hearing isn't what it used to be." Spartacus studied his son closely. Was this a ruse to take Justin's mind off his son's death? If it was, it was in bad taste, he decided.

Then he heard it to. The low rumble.

After so many decades on the battlefield, once Spartacus and Justin heard it they knew exactly what it was.

The sound of tanks.

The tanks came round a corner a long way down the road they were on, supporting jeeps that were racing ahead of them now.

The tanks opened fire, the only salvo they would be able to fire before the jeeps got too close.

The remains of the helicopter exploded as one round hit it, and an APC ceased to exist as another slammed into it. Another shell landed in the midst of a group of Hoplites.

"Let's get out of here!" Spartacus yelled.

Justin took one last look at his son, swearing to return after this mess had been sorted out and to recover his son's body, then moved away to protect the King as his son had done.

*************************************

Will, a makeshift bandage around his injured hand, stooped over Josh, injecting the anti-venom.

"It worked sir, it made him look like he was dead. The first stage of Plan B is complete."

"Good, good." came the reply over the radio. "I'll be right there, I want to meet this one in person."

An APC ground to a halt by them one minute later, and Will saluted the person stepping out of it, and Josh groggily stared at the person.

Both gasped, and Josh thought he was still dreaming.

Or just wished he was.

***************************************

Spartacus was in the last APC, racing back along the road towards the Palace with his son.

"Zoom in on the scene, Justin." Spartacus asked gently.

The screen showed the rear-view camera zooming in on the site of the battle.

There was a man emerging from an APC, who was obviously the leader.

The camera zoomed in on that man more, and Spartacus groaned.

Alexander. And not looking a day older than the day he was supposed to have died.

Will I never get rid of him? Spartacus asked himself.

"I believe you now, dad." Nicholas interrupted his thoughts.

"That's good son.

"Now just tell me how the hell he can be alive!"

*************************************

That's all for tonight, more to come tomorrow!

Thanks for reading, and comments are appreciated.

Thanks

Chris AKA Nemesis

[SKILORD]

Chris:

You inspire the pitiful half lit erate goons like myself to write. This is Awesome man. I love it. When I read prose tha is this well done, it truely inspires me to attempt to surpass it, (another story that profoundly affected me here was Cradle of Thorns which probably is responsible for Crusader's Legacy) i doubt that I can beat this out, it's great, i will try though.

[vovan]

Chris, your name already appears in the story contest history more than any other, did you know? And you are still able to come up with great stuff like that? You should consider writing for a living.

Seriously, though, some great stuff this is. And like SKI, I'm firing up Word.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

What I really like about this and your other stuff is its so easy to read, it litterally just flows. Great work

[Centauri18]

Dangerous Games 6... very cool.

[TheGuitarist]

Excellent - the Dangerous Games series has no comparison.

[TheDarkCavalier]

Hi from your big fan!

This is truly GREAT... Now don't take this bad - I'm not trying to insult your story or anything but...

Come ON... Alex was supposed to be dead 5 (FIVE ) times, and Spartacus 4 (FOUR ) , Justin a couple too.... I don't think you can keep resurrecting them forever.. I mean you could put Alex's son, or cousin or... ? Again I must say the story is great ... and I'll prolly regret trying to correct you (lol my only story was pretty bad ... ) but I write what I think ...

Also ... I'm really lost with all those people ... I constantly keep forgetting who Josh is ... and Nick etc... If you have some spare time MAYBE you could make a family tree or just explain the major characters?

Peace,

TDC

[cbraund]

lol read my answer on CFC to someone who said the same thing.

There was DNA evidence that proved the man on the plane was Alexander, and that he was definitely dead.

So as Spartacus said, "Now just tell me how the hell he can be alive!".

Basically, don't expect a great resurrection this time round lol.

Chris

PS: Phillip was the first King of a united Greek Empire. He created it. His first son was Alexander - his son by another woman was Spartacus.

Alexander killed his dad, and was a tyrant, so Spartacus overthrew him. Nicholas is Spartacus's son, and now King of Greece, and Justin Daniels was Spartacus's Hoplite leader, and best friend.

Josh Daniels is the son of Justin, and best friend of Nicholas, while Will is an ex-Hoplite, no relation to anyone else.

[SKILORD]

Wanna hear how this story altered my life (at least a little)

I was looking through the fora, and I saw the title. I got the jist of it but went on.

later i was looking at it again (The title, nit the story) when A literal trenslation came to my mind, it occurred to me that I missed Latin, now i'll take Latin 3 next year, which I honestly didn't think I would do :sob: you've changed my life uk....