"It won't work!" one of the soldiers called out. "The Celts are on the move. They're going to climb the hill in several places, on various sides of the hill, in open file."
"Interesting," Gaius nodded.
"The rocks will be useless!" Quintus moaned. The Centurion stared at him, and was almost going to strike him, but Gaius held him back.
"Widely spread out open file makes it difficult for us to hit them with rocks," he said slowly, "but it gives us a chance. Everybody, back to your positions. Once the Celts are halfway up the steep hillsides, try to keep them pinned down. Let those on the track get to where they did before, then kill as many as you can. Try to work out how many are left on the track."
"Score keeping?" Quintus said, with a sour, disapproving expression.
"No," Gaius remarked coldly. "We now have a third option. If we can pin enough on the hill-sides, and kill enough on the track, we can break out by charging down the track, fighting our way out, and then we steal their horses."
The soldiers nodded in approval. They knew that taking the initiative away from the enemy usually gave you the best chance, and they also knew their commander had been remarkably successful in the past. Spirits rose with a plan.
"It is important that those climbing on the hill get a little over half-way up and then are pinned down so that once the breakout starts, they become irrelevant," Gaius told each soldier quietly, "but equally we have to kill as many as we can on the track before we move. For the breakout to work, we have to get through the remaining Celts without any appreciable pause."
The soldiers nodded, and went back to their positions. Whether the plan worked or not would not be because of lack of effort on their part.
Gaius stared down the slope. A party was marching up the track, in groups of about five. Each group carried an improvised rock shield above their heads, made of long lengths of wood to which were tied horizontally a number of pickets about a hand's width apart. These were held on a steep angle; any rocks of any size would bounce of the shelter and roll harmlessly down the hill.
"I need help!" Quintus again. Gaius almost exploded with frustration, but when he looked, he suddenly realized what Quintus was trying to do and ordered two other soldiers to help. Quintus was struggling with yet another massive boulder. It was so massive that if it could be timed so that it struck the Celts on the S bend near the top of the track, their makeshift shield would offer no protection. Also, with a little luck, it would roll down the track for a short distance. That chaos would be the correct time to launch the breakout.
Vipsania wandered over to Gaius, and whispered, "I think your creature's sending messages."
"To whom?" Gaius shook his head in disbelief.
"Either that or he likes talking to his sleeve."
"I doubt it matters," Gaius shrugged. "We have more pressing problems than. ."
"He seems very pleased with himself," Vipsania added.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Lucilla added. "Look where it's looking!"
"Up at the moon?" Gaius laughed. "Whatever's there's hardly going to matter."
"The Celts are a third of the way up the track," the Centurion reported, "and the others are about a quarter of the way up the hill."
"There's nothing we can do until they get closer," Gaius said, "but make sure everyone's ready for a rapid charge. Timothy! You will be at the rear of the charge. Your job is to make sure the horses don't panic. Lucilla and Vipsania will help there." He turned towards the Centurion and added, "Make sure everyone's ready, and I want two soldiers to cover the rear."
"Yes sir!"
"Look!" Lucilla stood there, gasping, as she stared up to the sky. In the distance was a silvery object, moving slowly towards them.
"A comet!" one of the soldiers exclaimed. "That's bad luck!"
"Bad luck for the Celts!" the Centurion growled. Some laughed, but most of the soldiers now had their eyes fixed on this object, which was clearly not a comet, and was moving extremely rapidly. It was coming towards them, and the closer it came, the more obvious it was that it was made. There were a number of lights along its side.
Immediately Gaius thought about the weapon he had. He walked towards the horse carrying the sack of his most precious possessions, and slipped the weapon and the two magazines amongst his writings, then placed his metal fittings above those, then he tied the bag tightly. The creature had been staring at the incoming vessel and had not seen him do this.
Over the bank, the Celts stared at this apparition in the air, and immediately many of them began fleeing down the side of the hill as fast as they could. If they retreated to the horses, Gaius noted, that would wreck his planned breakout.
The silvery craft came closer, and the horses suddenly panicked. It was all that Gaius could do to grab his precious sacks as the horse bolted over the bank.
"It's coming here!" Lucilla muttered.
"You were correct," Gaius nodded to Vipsania. "It is going to rescue our creature."
"What do we do?" Vipsania frowned. "Do we let it go?"
"Yes, we do," Gaius shrugged. Slowly and carefully mouthing his words, he said, "It would be wrong to try to keep him. Much as I hate to admit it, he's won."
"We could try to bargain," Vipsania frowned. "I mean if that thing would fly over the Celts, they might flee, and that would let us get away."
"Feel free to try," Gaius shrugged. "Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to speak Latin," he added, knowing this to be at least partly untrue.
The creature, recognizing he was being discussed, and recognizing that he was to be let go, suddenly became more assured. It approached Gaius, and held out its hand, indicating it wanted something.
Gaius looked puzzled, then started to examine the creature's hands. If it wanted something, it should admit it knew Latin, and use it.
Instead the creature made hand gestures as if it were shooting something with the weapon Gaius had taken.
Gaius thought momentarily about playing dumb, but then decided that would be pointless so he nodded as if in defeat, and he reached in under his cloak. Then he paused, frowned, and pulled back the cloak and began feeling. He then began looking everywhere, but, as he knew would be the case, it was not there. He turned and looked sheepishly at the creature and made a gesture that it must have fallen and got lost. The creature seemed furious, but it eventually accepted that it had been lost. Vipsania gave Gaius that look which seemed to be saying, "Just what are you up to?"
The large silvery object, a sort of elongated disc, came to rest in an open space on the top of the hill. The soldiers had backed away. A door opened on the side, a small ladder came down, and the creature tried to go towards the craft. One of the soldiers stepped forward to stop it, but Gaius shook his head. "Let it go," he said.
"That's stupid!" Quintus said. "That demon could be worth. ." He paused when he saw the look of barely controlled anger on Gaius' face.
"Get back to your post!" Gaius roared angrily, then he turned to the other soldiers. "All of you!" He turned back to Quintus, and spat, "Just for once in your miserable life, forget your wretched money!"
Quintus backed away, half wanting to protest, but not knowing what to say. Gaius turned to the creature and waved it towards the craft.
"Celts!" one of the soldiers roared. The soldiers had been staring at the silvery craft, assuming it would terrify the Celts, but they had overlooked the fact that those on the track were totally unaware of the craft's existence. All they could see was that the Romans, for some reason, were not dropping rocks, and hence they had ran as fast as they could up-hill, to cover as much of the track as they could before they were spotted. They had now almost reached the top of the hill.