The Eternal Empire (54 page)

Cornelius and his men arrived outside
the offices as the last defenders were making their way onto the concourse.
About twenty yards from the building there were a series of small kiosks that
sold refreshments and newspapers to passengers on their way to catch their
train. Cornelius deployed his men there and rallied the dozen or so survivors
from the offices. The first Saxons to make their way onto the concourse from
the offices were swiftly cut down and the attackers found themselves hemmed
inside by the fire from Cornelius's men. The tunnel was the only practical
place of access into the station and it was here that Cornelius deployed over
half of his small force.

The Saxons had managed to remove the
sleepers and break the door open, giving the hundreds still outside access.
They made their way along the tunnel only to be met by regular volleys of rifle
fire from the other end. 

Although rarely used in combat, the
imperial army still trained its infantry to fire by volley. When used against
mass targets such as rioting mobs or tribal warriors, volley fire had a
tremendous psychological effect and for this reason had been retained by the
Romans long after it had been abandoned by most other armies. In the narrow
confines of the tunnel, it was horribly effective.

Every few seconds a volley of half a
dozen high velocity bullets would tear their way through the ranks of the Saxon
soldiers in the tunnel. Each bullet would rip through two or three bodies that
would then be trampled over by those behind. After a couple of minutes the
tunnel was piled almost waist high with bodies and the Saxons had stopped
advancing taking cover behind the human barricade to return the Roman fire.

Cornelius stopped the volley firing and
ordered his men to keep the tunnel and doors onto the concourse covered. He was
just beginning to feel in control of the situation when a tremendous explosion
occurred at the front of the station, shattering the roof of the concourse and
raining pieces of glass down upon them. A cloud of smoke and dust was billowing
out from either side of the grand staircase which Cornelius had come down a few
minutes earlier. The explosion had dulled his hearing but he could hear shouts
and cries amidst the gunfire and scores of Saxons came out of the smoke led by
a sword-waving officer.

He also heard a train whistle......

Franz had noticed that the fire from
the station had slackened and correctly deduced that the Romans had shifted men
to counter Edwin's attack. The original plan called for Franz and his force to
keep the Romans occupied while Edwin got his men into position and set-up his
machine rifles to support the attack. However Franz was not one to forgo an
opportunity when one offered itself and decided to attack as well. He ordered
up a squad of assault engineers and while half of his men continued to lay down
a suppressing fire the others charged the Romans defending the station
entrance.

Dozens of Saxons were shot down by the
legionaries from behind their barricade of furniture, carts and sandbags that
blocked the ornate archways into the station, but enough reached them to keep
the defenders occupied whilst the engineers placed a series of demolition
charges. As soon as their work was finished, Franz ordered a bugler to sound
retreat and the Saxons turned and ran. A few of them were caught in the blast
that flung pieces of barricade and station facade in all directions, but it
cleared the entrance of defenders and much of the barricade itself.

The bugle blew again, and all the
Saxons still in front of the station rose to their feet. Franz drew his sword
and ordered the standard bearer to unfurl the regimental colours. The
legionaries on the upper level continued to fire but were unable to stem the
tide that swept over the wreckage of the barricade through the cloud of smoke
and dust, around the staircase and onto the station concourse.

"Fall back!" cried Cornelius.
"Head for the rail yard!"

They fired off a quick volley at the
rapidly approaching Saxons and then started running towards the platforms that
would give them access to the marshalling yards. They reloaded their rifles as
they ran, stopping briefly to lose off a shot at their pursuers. Their only
hope was to join up with whatever was left of the 2nd cohort and retreat across
the river. The town was lost to the Saxons.

They turned the corner at the end of
the concourse where the office building joined the wall that separated the
marshalling yard from the town. The first platform ran the length of the wall
and connected with the concourse. Emerging out of the gloom and smoke of the
enclosed station area into the outdoors caused Cornelius to close his eyes
against the bright sunlight and he had to blink several times to clear them. He
blinked again as he saw hundreds of soldiers disembarking from trains in the
yard. Some were already taking up firing positions and were shooting at the
Saxons as they began to appear.

The new arrivals were not dressed in
the same green-brown uniform as Cornelius and his men, but wore a lighter, dust
coloured battledress yet from the equipment they wore, the shape of their
helmets and the way they deployed for battle it was clear that they were
legionaries. Then he heard orders shouted in Greek and he knew that the Army of
Asia Minor had arrived.

When they saw the Roman reinforcements
in the rail yard, the Saxons came to a halt, not due to any weight of fire but
by the realisation that this was as far as they would ever get. They fired off
a few shots and slowly began to retire.

Franz, seeing his men faltering,
grabbed the regimental flag from its bearer and began to wave it. "Hold
fast! Rally on me! We can hold them here!"  He tore off his helmet and
flung it to the ground. "Halt! Take up defensive positions!" he
screamed. A few men stopped, found what cover they could around Franz and began
to fire at the ever-increasing number of Romans in the yard, but most continued
to make their way towards the rear.

Cornelius saw the Saxon officer take
off his helmet and raised his rifle. He had only met Franz at the lodge once,
but the family resemblance to Katherine was very strong and his finger froze on
the trigger. As a soldier it was his duty to shoot an enemy commander who was rallying
his men, but could he kill the brother of the woman he loved, even if that man
hated him?

Cornelius lowered his rifle. He could
not do it. He watched, feeling detached from all around him, as Franz
desperately tried to form a defence line, but his men no longer had their
hearts in it.

Then it was all over. The small group of
Saxons around Franz was raked by machine rifles. Franz was lifted by a burst
and slammed against one of the pillars that supported the concourse roof. He
fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, still grasping the flag, which now
covered him like a funeral shroud.

The last Saxon offensive was over.

September
1920

Within a couple of days of the ceasefire
Saxon troops had begun their withdrawal back across the Rhine. Although there
were calls for reparations and punitive measures against Saxony from elements
of the Senatorial and Traditionalist parties the regency council agreed a
return to the status quo between the two states before the introduction of Exanzenus’s
Trade Law. The status of the Duchies would be resolved following a joint summit
but Constantinople gave assurances that no settlement would be imposed that
were against the views of the people.

The granting of a general amnesty to
those who had rebelled in Britannia removed any hint of legitimacy from the
Caledonian and Hibernian intervention and after a few days of confused fighting
a ceasefire was arranged in the Island province as well. All foreign forces
were allowed to leave and the provincial administration re-established itself.

The damage done by the fighting in
Britannia and along the Rhine would take many years to repair. The lives lost
and the grief inflicted on families would never be completely healed.  

October
1920

Constantinople

The Church of the Holy Wisdom - Saint
Sophia - was crowded for the coronation of General Strategicus as Emperor
Manual V. The murder of Alexander by Monomachus and the usurpers subsequent
death at the hands of the Pannonian troops had left a vacuum that needed to be
filled and filled quickly before the Empire descended into a series of civil
wars. There were no close relatives to Alexander in the House of Ducas so the
senate and assembly offered the throne to General Strategicus, who only
accepted after Gregory had spent days persuading him that it was his duty to
the Empire to do so.

Cornelius sat towards the back of the
church, well behind the members of the great noble houses of the Empire,
senators, other politicians, top military officers and foreign representatives.
He could just make out Count Maleric in the midst of the Saxon contingent.

When he had learnt that Frederick was
attending the coronation, Cornelius had left Milan where he had returned after
the cease-fire, and travelled to Constantinople. He did not know what
Frederick's reaction would be when he came face to face with the man who had
'betrayed his sisters’ feelings' but he had to have news of Katherine. He had
written a dozen letters but the postal service between the two countries was
still erratic in the wake of the war and he had not received a reply.

He had gone to the newly re-opened
Saxon embassy and requested a meeting with Count Maleric at the earliest
opportunity and to his surprise had been granted an immediate audience. As he
followed one of the embassy staff along the corridors, Cornelius could feel his
stomach churning and a bilious taste in his mouth. He was more afraid of
meeting this one Saxon than he had been facing their entire army.

Count Maleric was standing, staring out
of the window with his back to the door when Cornelius was ushered in. It
reminded him of that day during the trade talks when Frederick had questioned
Cornelius about his feelings towards Katherine and he had promised never to do
anything to hurt her. He began to feel even worse.

Frederick turned around, transferring
his stare from the Sea of Marmara, to Cornelius. His face was impassive, giving
no indication of what was going on in his mind. For what seemed to Cornelius to
be like hours, but in reality was only six seconds, Count Maleric said nothing.
Then he smiled.

"Katherine has told me
everything," he said simply as he walked over to a door connecting his
office to another and opened it. Katherine walked in.

"I'll leave you two alone,"
he said with a broad grin and left the room closing the door behind him.

Cornelius was speechless. His lips
moved but his brain had not yet caught up with this sudden turn of events.
Katherine smiled, amused at his predicament and moved towards him. The next moment
they were holding each other.

"I thought I would never see you
again," she said, her voice choked with emotion. "I was so scared you
would be killed."

"Everyday I wondered what was
happening to you," he replied, "hoping that your part in the theft of
the plans would not be discovered. I wrote as soon as the war was over but
never heard from you."

"I got one of your letters the day
before Frederick was due to leave for the coronation and insisted on coming
with him. Saxony will never let you back in, neither as a diplomat nor as a
tourist so I had to come to you."

"How did you know I would be in
Constantinople?"

"I didn't," she replied with
a satisfied smile, "I hoped you might be but if you weren't I planned to
travel to Milan to find you."

"Will you marry me?" The
words were blurted out before he realised that he had said them. He had decided
to ask her weeks before whilst he was writing to her. He had practised it in
his mind over and over, visualising a quiet romantic dinner leading up to the
big question, but now he had her in his arms again, he simply could not wait.

Now it was Katherine's turn to be
speechless.

"I love you, Katherine," said
Cornelius. "Leaving you behind was the hardest thing that I've ever done.
I want you to be my wife and I never want to have to say goodbye to you without
knowing that you'll be there waiting for me on my return."

She stared into his eyes and her mouth
tightened into a thin line. Cornelius broke out into a cold sweat and as he saw
tears form in her eyes, he feared the worse. Then she flung her arms around his
neck and kissed him.

"Yes, Cornelius, I'll marry
you."

The day before the coronation,
Cornelius had hosted a private dinner party at one of the best restaurants in
the capital to officially announce his engagement to Katherine.

It was a small party; Frederick
Maleric, Gregory Nicerites, Marcus Metellus and Fulvia Antoninus as well as
Cornelius and Katherine were present. He would have liked his brother Titus and
Sextus Capito to have been there as well but they were still in Britannia
bringing order to that devastated province.