So I saw something on Reddit called "Rome, Sweet Rome" and I was kinda pissed off because someone told me about it and it sounded really badass but than I found out it was a really basic skeleton of a story-outline and not actually a book or anything. So I figured "I could do better than that" which may or may not be true but I did write a short little thing to see if anyone would enjoy it.

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Marcus Aurelius had never seen anything like it before. They had rolled into the village only this morning and now they were aiding them and refusing all compensation. They spoke a language wildly different than his own, their equipment was equally strange. Their armor was made of cloth, linens with strange speckled patterns on them. They rode into the village on growling horse-less chariots which caused the women and young ones to flee in terror. After a few hours they had managed to reverse their frightful entrance and instead drawn the citizens out of their homes. Children danced around their chariots while the men standing inside them tossed treats to them. 

The Empire had been stretched thin by the recent war, all able bodied men from the village drafted into her many legions and for the past several weeks the village had been molested by bands of bandits living in the adjacent town. With no way to defend themselves they were free to steal and rape as they pleased. Marcus had believed that these new arrivals were with them but he was soon proven wrong. After a brief meeting of the elders with the leaders of the group whom referred to themselves as “Mah-Reens” they had decided that he would be the one to guide them to the hill overlooking the bandit stronghold where they volunteered their services to rid the village of the barbarians. 

Now he found himself on that same hill with several of these men. Though he could not see barely a stones throw from his eyes in this darkness apparently the Mah-Reens could by using devices they affectionately called “N-Vee-Gees” and with a quick description of the compound the bandit leader called home he heard the Man-Reens recount a strange spell into a metal box which recounted the spell back to them. 

"Rolling Thunder, this is Rick James, over."
"Rick James, this is Rolling Thunder, over."
"Grid to suppress: BW552911. Grid to mark: BW553978, over."
"Rolling Thunder copies all, go ahead."
"Two-Story Structure, Minus 1 to Minus 20, Plus 20 Plus 2; 5 rounds, HEVT. CAS, TOT 62. Request splash, over."
"Message to observer. Alpha, three rounds, HE delay in effect. Three guns. Bravo, two rounds, two guns. CAS, TOT 62. Target number: HN5209. Request Splash, out." 

For a moment all was silent. Marcus was sure that whatever magic they had attempted most certainly failed when an ever increasing noise caught his attention. It was a whistling noise and he frantically craned his head around to find it’s source only to discover it was directly above him and than the most terrible trembling shook the ground under him and a series of giant fireballs enveloped the village at the bottom of the hill, roughly where the bandit stronghold had been, burning debris ejected far from it’s source. 

"Splash. Over."
"Splash. Out."
"Abort this target, end of mission: target suppressed. Over."
"Aborting target, end of mission, target suppressed. Out."

The Mah-Reens began to collect their rucksacks and other instruments. The compound aflame, surely there were no survivors and for the first time Marcus believed the tales of magic from his youth to be true and these Mah-Reens were the most powerful of all mages.