Music: Art of War by Sabaton

6 years, four months, two weeks, and one day since exile.
Five months and two weeks into Unification Wars

Rainbow once glared down from above on a place that held her contempt. This time, however, she wasn't, or even needed to, fly to get this view. She glared down at the mine from up on a cliff overlooking it.

Backtracking a bit, after clearing out the brigands by Fresi, she and her regiment had resumed the march further into the peninsula. Like before, many of the towns agreed to join the empire without a fight, and even with lots of enthusiasm. She couldn't exactly tell if they were happy to be joining the empire or getting protection from brigands and wild beasts. In addition, they also attacked several smaller brigand groups encamped in small camps. They were taken behind the lines by hired locals, who would take them to special prison camps.

However, beyond brigand captains, they had another, somewhat larger threat to deal with. Warlords, little more than brigand captains with more than a few hundred warriors, staked out claims to large areas of land. They used slaves, either taken from raids or bought in slave markets, to mine for valuable resources or metal to make weapons and armor for their soldiers. In addition to possessing most of the large mines, many of them also controlled most of the fertile, open farmlands in the valleys around the Adamantem, Novus, and Canis rivers. They would by far, besides the potential for foreign interference, be the biggest threat to the Unification.

Rainbows 14th was apart of four Regiments that were involved in the campaign against one of the warlords, Dietrich the Slaver. He held dominion in the Adamantem river valley, controlling a lot of the farmland and several large mines. She was by one of these mines, and was tasked with taking it. From there, she would move up from the south of his territory, meeting up with the 5th Regiment before heading to the south side of his little capital. But, first things first.

The mine was a massive pit, reminiscent of the large quarry Rainbow went to on the Archipelago a few years ago. It was a massive pit carved into the ground, with a large ramp that circled the perimeter, leading down to the bottom of the pit. Multiple caves stuck out from the bottom, leading off into the sides of the grounds. A parapet surrounded the edge of the hole, with a large gatehouse and barracks up at the top of the ramp. Inside the hole, hundreds, if not thousands of slaves toiled, carrying out large baskets and sleds of rocks and ore from the holes under the watchful eyes of various supervisors.

Rainbow lowered the field telescope, then turned back to her officers. "Alright, boys; here's the plan. Secundus, you take your maniple, and head around front. Cause a distraction; get Decius and Cornelia to help you if you need it. Meanwhile, I'll take Cato and the Velites and slip over the walls. We'll get the slaves to help us."

"Help us with what? Pickaxes and rocks?," Apex, another Tribune, said.

Rainbow glared at him. "Look, bud. Just shut up. I've seen a slave fight like a demon and a fully armored soldier run like a scared foal. And if they get enough motivation, then they'll fight like hell. Vexillum, do we have any spare weapons and armor?"

"A bit, yeah," he said. "Mostly some old mail and metal plates from a brigand camp we attacked that the smiths hadn't broken down to repair some broken sets. Why?"

"We'll be taking some of it down with us. Arm some of the slaves to help." Turning to the others, she said, "Ok, everyone got the plan?" A nod, she added, "Ok, good. You get to your positions. Anyone that didn't get a position just surrounds the gatehouse to prevent an escape. Ave, gents; let's do this."

The officers separated to go deal with their own parts of the plan, and she took off to do her typical flyby scouting. The walls did have a few guards on it, but she figured that the distraction would be enough to draw most of them off. Beyond that, it would be just a quick slide down the side of the wall to the ramp. She swooped around and landed by Cato, who had assembled his men. Rainbow grinned, and said, "Give the signal."

One of the Velites pulled up a smaller horn than the typical signal horn, but it still made it to the other maniples. A few seconds later, another loud signal sounded. Inside the pit, everyone stopped, and then loud yelling came up as a bunch of yelling from the overseers as many of them ran off. After a suitable number of them had runoff. She said to Cato, "Let's go."

They scaled the short wall around the edge of the pit, which was a lot easier as it was more designed to keep the slaves in rather than people out. They slid down the dirt sides of the quarry-like outer part, and down onto the hard-packed dirt of the ramp. With several of the velites carrying a large box between them, they ran down the ramp.

Most of the overseers had run off to go help the defense of the gatehouse, so they were almost completely unopposed as they ran down. Most of the remaining overseers, only about three of them, were standing up on a few blocks of stone, watching the slaves and preventing any of them from, in their eyes, 'Doing anything stupid.' As they ran down, Rainbow took off to deal with them.

Pulling out her crossbow pistols, she fired both bolts at them. One of the overseers was hit in the neck, gripping it and falling back as the second hit him in the chest. She slung the crossbow pistols back into her holsters and drew her swords as she got close. The last one threw down his whip and attempted to draw a sword, but she slammed into him at full speed, swords cutting into his neck, sending him flying off the block and into the crowd of slaves.

Rainbow now stood on the block, sheathing one of the swords as the velites caught up to her. One of the slaves stepped forward, saying, "W-who are you? What d-do you want?"

"Names Rainbow," she says. "And I'm here to free you."

They looked skeptical, and Rainbow nodded to Cato. The velites threw down the large box they were carrying, opening up the tarp to reveal the weapons and armor. Several of the slaves began to get close to it, as Rainbow spoke up again. "Listen. I'm a Praetor in the Pryhan army. Help us kill those bastards up top," she said, gesturing up the ramp at the gatehouse. "And I'll help all out you. I swear. You in?"

Many of them again looked at each other, and even more at the pile of weapons and mail. Then, many of them rushed the tarp, grabbing at the weapons and armor. They didn't have enough for everyone, but by the end of the suit up, at least fifteen of them had chainmail, and a few more had swords or axes, or maces. The rest grabbed tools, heavy rocks, or nothing. All of them looked ready to kill however, and Rainbow yelled, "Move!"

They charged up the ramp, whooping and yelling like demons. Rainbow took off as Cato and his men followed them up, flying up to check out the state of the battle up top. Tarquinius and his maniple were pressed up against the gate, using a battering ram to try and knock down the heavy portcullis. Several of the guards on the walls broke off to go attack the slave mob and velites, but they were quickly overrun.

Rainbow knew where to help. She darted down, sailing through a window in the gatehouse. Inside, a pair of the slavers were manning crossbows, which they abandoned when she came to a slamming stop on the floor. Her swords flashed, cutting both down before they had a chance to react. She then sheathed the swords and began to lift up the portcullis. When she heard a loud click, she let it go and bolted out of the gatehouse.

From there, it was a slaughter. The slaves killed any of the slavers they could find, even those that tried to surrender. After the last one lay dead, the slaves looked over at the Pedes. For a second, Rainbow was concerned that they might attack her men. However, they calmed down, and began to cheer, rejoicing in their new freedom. Rainbow couldn't help but smile at the sight.