Nova Roma

Chapter 44 - Battle on the beach

In the fort of Cancún a small town that voluntarily joined the empire, Marco was preparing the details about the landing and the process of conquest of the island of Cozumel took very seriously the words of the emperor on the Caribs, therefore prepared shields, firearms, and crossbows for the long-distance attack.

For short distances, the sword is more than enough to deal with tribal without armor and now that they are made of steel they have resistance and edge much greater than the iron swords.

The beaches of the Caribbean have the peculiarity of having clear and turquoise water, an incredible beach ready to swim in it, something that made Flavio was to promote the use of the beaches as a means of entertainment creating the figure of the lifeguard and swimming masters that They taught swimming in a group, all this to have future citizens who know how to swim.

For indoor places, it made the pools that had a very primitive but functional "filtering" system, occupying an air mill and an archimedean water pump could keep the pool water always moving, therefore it does not stagnate , it goes through a filtering of grilles and cloth that trap the dirt and finally an activated carbon filter which eliminates the remaining impurities, which of itself is not enough, therefore chlorine is also used.

Marco left his "barracks" a small wooden shack and looked at his legionnaires enjoying their last day off on the beach, tomorrow they will have to go to Cozumel and found a strong city and port capable of granting support to conquer the region "Americae centralis ".

Two large boats left the port of Cancun in the direction of Cozumel, the journey was small are only 70 km

"Legatus Marco the island of Cozumel is insight you want to do" Said a tribune while pointing to the land insight

"Order the Vi Opus (Special Forces) to create a beachhead to disembark safely, also prepare the cannons in case we find superior tribal forces it is better to kill and then ask"

The tribune nodded and went to the rooms of the Vi Opus where he saw a group of Romans scarred muscles preparing their clothing for the jungle, a cotton clothing painted with motifs that allow them to camouflage themselves perfectly in the jungle.

"Gentlemen prepare their weapons the Legatus Marco upon request to land on the island of Cozumel, has mentioned that those who inhabit that island are Caribs a tribe that is unknown if they are friendly, but the same emperor asked to be careful and have permission to kill"

"Very well Tribuno thanks for informing us we will go immediately" The Vi Opus smiled there is nothing that they love more than the permission to kill.

They prepared their weapons because they would be the spearhead in the invasion, armed with ceramic grenades a type of weapon developed by Flavio allows to clean large areas or full of enemies inside the grenade there is gunpowder with steel shavings, to start the ignition was occupied a rope with retardant effect they only had to turn it on and throw it has 7 seconds to throw it or it could be dangerous for them.

They also had a green and a white flare. If they needed support on the coast, they lit the green and took cover while the boats opened fire with their cannon if the perimeter was sure they used the white one.

They climbed to their boats reinforced with pavés to avoid attacks of arrows of the natives and paddled towards the beach.

On the beach a group of Caribs met while they saw the big ships in the distance, they knew that that was not right so they prepared their weapons to attack the enemy they had been displaced when another tribe of Caribs who took their island, they would fight no matter who they were.

The boats began to arrive at the beach when a rain of arrows fell on them unfortunately for the Caribs their stone arrows bounced on the great Roman shields of steel.

The Vi Opus smiled at this attack since they arrived in the Americas they had not been able to play their strategic role on the orders of the emperor who protected the native Mayans he said very clearly that they were Romans and as Romans had rights, but these Caribs do not seem to be of the Emperor’s grace, yes, there is nothing to worry about.

They prepared their crossbows that had a very primitive but functional look, aimed and fired, each bolt was a death of a Caribbean archer.

The Caribs did not know how many of their companions died when they came to help them also died, they considered it was witchcraft if they thought that their shaman could only attack a few so they went en masse to the beach to attack them with their spears may be that I can go through his armor.

When they saw how the Caribs met on the beach to attack them, the leader of the Vi Opus wasted no time and turned on the green flare. It was necessary to clean the beach, without hurry, all the boats moved away from the beach.

Marco occupying a telescope saw in the distance the green smoke immediately gave the order to bomb the coast, the sailors began to load the bronze cannons and pointed to the coast, after pouring gunpowder and placing the ammunition opened fire.

The Caribs believed that they had won when the boats left but did not understand because there was a green smoke coming out of one of them when they thought they were safe a lot of rumblings sound from the big boats in the distance.

They all looked at each other for a moment, death had arrived and this was their last moment alive, the cannonballs flew through their dismembered bodies completely, nothing stopped them, they even bounced off hitting other Caribs who were behind.

The bombardment lasted only a minute but consumed more than a quarter of the gunpowder of the ship, when the Vi Opus landed they could see corpses cut off all over the place without mentioning that the scent of blood was penetrating, they searched the entire perimeter in search of survivors but they could only find death and destruction in their path.

They lit the white smoke and the troops began to disembark ...