The Eternal Empire (27 page)

"The other part of their
legislation states that a foreign vessel will be considered exempt from the new
tariff if it is carrying goods for sale within the Empire. They argue that the
new waterways tariff is aimed at those vessels that use the waters around the
empire but contribute nothing to the upkeep of the forces and facilities that
make them safe to use."

"Like the ships going directly
from Scandia to the United Provinces'" said Sextus.

"Exactly," said Philokates,
"so, their argument continues, it's unfair to tax a ship coming into an
imperial port to deliver goods since their cargo is to be taxed as well."

Sextus thought about this for a while
before shaking his head. "The tax procurator will never buy that," he
said glumly, "for a start, a provincial assembly has no power to interpret
imperial tax laws."

"I have to agree with you there
Sextus," said Philokates. "If Britannia could get away with that,
every province in the empire would follow our example." He gave Sextus a
grin, "and I don't think that chief minister Exanzenus would be terribly
pleased, do you?"

"No governor," agreed Sextus
smiling, "I'm sure he wouldn't."

"However," said Philokates,
"I think that the assembly will be satisfied with the Free Trade Areas for
the moment while I try and work out something on the waterways issue."

"You're going to approve the first
part of the legislation."

"Yes I am. It's within my power
and I believe it's the right thing to do. It will defuse a lot of the tension
in the province at the moment and will give us all some breathing space. I'm
going to meet with the leaders of the Radical and Federal parties at my country
villa this evening and I expect that they'll agree with my compromise. They
don't want any more riots - it's bad for business."

12th
May 1920

Outside
Londinium, Britannia

The leader of the group walked over to
the men preparing the explosives. He watched as they worked by torch light,
carefully setting up the charges by the side of the road and then laying the
wires up the steep slope of the embankment. Four times they had had to stop
their work and take cover as the lookout signalled the approach of a vehicle,
but now they were ready.

The man responsible for the explosives
came over to the leader and reported that all was ready. In reply the leader
slapped him hard across the face, knocking the man back several paces.

"Latin!" hissed the leader,
"we only use Latin. Do not forget!"

The man nodded an apology, in Latin,
and returned to his position. The leader took out his watch and checked the
time using his torch. Good, he thought, there is time for one more inspection
before the target was due.

Going from position to position the
leader was pleased to see that the men were all well camouflaged and waiting
patiently, their weapons by their side, ready for use. They were dressed in
civilian clothing in brown, black or dark green, and their faces were blackened
with soot or mud. Their weapons, ammunition and explosives were standard
imperial army issue, as was the short sword that the leader wore in a scabbard
at his side.

The leader took up his position next to
a tree on the embankment. He could see all the way down the road to where the
lookout was located. He stared at the spot where he knew his man was waiting,
hoping that he was alert. Eventually the signal came - a series of light
flashes - only a few minutes later than their agent had told them to expect
their target. He shouted one clear command and there was the metallic click of
weapons being loaded and readied.

The sound of the motor carriages grew
louder and he could see their headlights loom larger as they approached the
ambush. This was the worst part for him, too late to do anything he could only
wait. He watched the two vehicles move closer to the explosives.

There was a brilliant flash that
temporarily blinded the leader, as the explosives were set off. It caught the
lead vehicle at the rear and not directly side-on as planned, but the effect
was the same. The vehicle spun round out of control before slamming into a tree
on the other side of the road. The second motor carriage slowed down to avoid
hitting the first vehicle skidding in front of it and was raked by rifle fire
from the men hidden along the embankment. It also crashed into a tree a short
distance beyond the first, its driver dead.

Even before the second vehicle came to
a stop, the attackers were running towards the wrecked motor carriages. Three
of the passengers managed to get out. Two were gunned down before they could
draw their weapons. The third managed to use the vehicle to shield himself and
calmly opened fire, hitting two of the assailants before being overwhelmed.

The leader made his way to where the
second motor vehicle had come to rest. His men were checking the bodies of the
occupants for signs of life. Provided they were unable to resist they were to
be left alive. They wanted witnesses. His men were shouting orders in Latin and
even his two wounded men, the leader was proud to notice, were screaming for
the medic in Latin.

The rear door of the motor carriage was
open and the body of an auxiliary was lying half in, half out of the vehicle.
One of his men was standing by the open door, his rifle pointing inside. As the
leader came up to him, he came to attention, brought his rifle down and with
his other hand gave an imperial army salute.

The leader stepped over the body of the
auxiliary into the interior of the luxury motor carriage. Philokates, Governor
of Britannia was lying up against the other door, a gash across his head and a
bullet wound in his shoulder. He was covered in blood, but most of it had come
from his driver whose head, or what was left of it, lay on the seat in front of
him.

The governor was dazed and only
semi-conscious, and probably did not notice as the leader drew his short Roman
sword. He spoke loudly and clearly, "Death to those who would betray the
Empire!" He then thrust the sword deep into Philokates chest. The governor
doubled forward clawing at the sword for a few seconds before collapsing onto
the floor of the carriage.

The leader got out and ordered his men
to withdraw. The diversion at each end of the road would only hold up traffic
for a short while and he planned to be as far away as possible before daylight.
They gathered up their wounded and made off in the direction of the nearest
imperial army base for a few miles, making sure that their route could be
identified before splitting up and heading north. The leader watched his men
move out. The governor would not be meeting the leaders of the Radicals and
Federals now. He shouted at a group of men who had stopped to loot a body. The
order was in Latin, but his thoughts as always were in German.

15th
May 1920

Isca,
Britannia

The assassination of Romanus Philokates
came as a shock to the entire province. The survivors of the ambush reported
that the attackers had appeared to be legionaries, and the gladius found in the
governors chest gave weight to the rumour that the killing had been the work of
extremists from the traditionalist party. Throughout Britannia, crowds of
provincials began attacking known traditionalists and members of the imperial
army.

A large mob stormed an office building
in Isca that housed the Traditionalist party head quarters, murdered its
occupants and set fire to the building. The mob then turned its attention on
the airfield just outside the city.

There were two centuries of legionaries
on guard at the airfield under the command of Virius Primus. He had heard about
the attack in the city and could see the smoke rising from Isca. As a
precaution he had issued weapons to all ground personnel and ordered the
perimeter air defence guns to be prepared for action. His men had just finished
stringing a line of barbed wire across the road from the city when the mob
arrived.

Although he had faced rioters before,
Virius shuddered with fear as he watched the mob come into sight. There were thousands
of them, ten thousand at least the young tribune estimated, all of them
screaming their hatred of the men at the airfield. Half a century were deployed
fifty yards behind the barbed wire, front ranks with shields, second rank with
rifles. As the crowd got closer and stones began to bounce off the shields,
Virius nodded to the centurion in charge. An order rang out and the second rank
raised their rifles and fired a volley into the air. The mob halted its advance
for a few moments but then continued moving again as the pressure from the rear
propelled the front forwards. The barbed wire proved more of a hindrance than a
barrier and barely slowed them down.

Another order was given and the men
retreated, the rear ranks doubling back to the main guard. The front rank
marched steadily backwards, their shields fending off the increasing hail of
missiles. The crowd seeing the soldiers retire, gave a roar of triumph and
surged forward. They spread out off the road and formed a wide front
approaching the perimeter wire as well as the main gate. Virius tried one more
volley over the heads of the mob once his men had rejoined him but seeing the
blood lust of the crowd bearing down on his men, he gave the order to shoot to
kill.

The imperial army had never believed in
half measures, and if the lives of his men are in danger, an officer is
expected and authorised to use any means at his disposal to protect them. If
that meant civilian casualties, then that was regarded as unfortunate, even
tragic, but necessary.

The pair of machine rifles from the
heavy weapons section were the first to respond, shooting hundreds of bullets
into the densely packed mob. The rest of the legionaries and the armed
mechanics and aircraft technicians soon joined in.

As the people at the rear to realised
what was happening they ceased the pressure on those at the front. They began
to stream away from the airfield allowing those nearest the murderous fire to
turn and run, but in those few moments hundreds of rounds were fired including
some explosive shells from one of the anti-aircraft guns.

As soon as he saw the crowd break and
run, Virius ordered his men to cease fire. He did not enjoy killing for the
sake of it.

In the wake of the Isca massacre, the
senior army general in the province declared martial law. As he was also the
most senior imperial official after the governor this flamed the rumours of a
conspiracy by the army and the traditionalists to replace Philokates with
someone more in tune with the wishes of Constantinople who would veto the
planned Free Trade Areas. The general met with the leaders of the provincial
assembly and managed to calm their fears of a military coup. They agreed to
postpone the next assembly meeting until the arrival of a new governor and to
appeal to the populace for calm. However they made it clear to the general that
with the death of Romanus Philokates what little trust the people had had in
the imperial authorities had died with him.

19th
May 1920

The
Upper Rhine

The imposition of the waterways tariff
had led to less trouble than had been expected. The patrol boats of the Rhine
fleet had developed a good working relationship with the cargo vessels that
sailed the river and they had come to an understanding.

When a patrol boat came along side a
non-Roman vessel to demand payment of the new tax, the ship’s captain would
sign a piece of paper which the patrol boat would send to the local tax
procurator. As far as the patrol boat commander and the ship’s captain were
concerned that was the end of the matter. It was up to the tax collectors to
try and get Saxony to pay up. This kept those on both sides of the river happy
and postponed any confrontation for the time being.

However, towards the end of May the
Thuringian barge 'Saint Jerome' refused to stop when hailed. This came as a
surprise to the crew of the patrol boat because until now all Thuringian ships
had actually been paying the tax. The Saint Jerome kept ignoring the demands of
the patrol boat to stop and every time they approached the barge the captain
would make obscene gestures and shout curses at the sailors onboard the
imperial vessel. Finally the exasperated commander of the patrol boat put a
shot across the bow. When that had no effect he ordered his crew to fire their
rifles at the funnel and superstructure, taking care not to hit anybody.

The Saint Jerome stopped and a party
from the patrol boat boarded her. The captain subjected the imperial sailors to
another stream of verbal abuse and refused to pay any imperial taxes or even to
show his documents of registration. The commander of the patrol boat ordered
the Saint Jerome to be impounded and taken to their base at Moguntiacum.

How news of the Saint Jerome got to
Thuringia, nobody is quite certain, but that evening crowds began to gather in
the capital of the Duchy. Someone would stand up and denounce first the Empire,
and then the Duke for being a Roman puppet. The crowd would cheer and then
someone would shout that there were some Roman owned stores nearby. The crowd
quickly transformed into a mob and soon every property that was owned by Romans
or which sold Roman goods was being ransacked and set alight. Appeals to the
police and local militia to restore order went unheeded and the fire vigiles
only came out when there was a danger of the fire getting out of control or
spreading to neighbouring, locally owned properties.