The Second Jackson- Piper McLean book 1

War Games

Lani

Once we got out of camp, the Fifth Cohort formed two lines behind Dakota and a girl I recognized from evening muster. I should really learn people's names. Anyway, we marched North, skirting the edge of the city, and headed to what Hazel told us was the Field of Mars- the largest, flattest part of the valley. The grass was cropped short. The earth was pitted with craters and trenches. At the north end of the field stood our target, I think. Before us stood a stone fortress with an iron gate like thing, guard towers, these giant catapult crossbow things, water cannons, and no doubt many other surprises for the defenders to use. Which if I remember correctly included the First Cohort, which I believe Octavian is a part of.

"They did a good job today" Hazel noted. "That's bad for us"

"Wait" Percy said. "You're telling us that fortress was built today?"

Hazel grinned. "Legionnaires are trained to build. If we had to, we could break down the entire camp and rebuild it somewhere else. Take maybe three or four days, but we could do it"

"Let's not" I said. "So you attack a different fort every night?"

"Not every night" Frank explained, "We have different training exercises. Sometimes deathball- um which is like paintball, except with... you know, poison and acid and fire balls. Sometimes we do chariots and gladiator competitions, sometimes war games."

Hazel pointed towards the fort. "Somewhere inside, the First and Second Cohorts are keeping their banners. Our job is to get inside and capture them without getting slaughtered. We do that, we win"

I perked up at that, my brother and I speaking in unison, "Like capture-the-flag. I think we like capture-the-flag"

Frank laughed, "Yeah well... it's harder than it sounds. We have to get past those scorpions and water cannons on the walls, fight though the inside of the fortress, find the banners, and defeat the guards, all while protecting our own banner from capture. And our cohort is in competition with the other two attacking cohorts. We sort of work together but not really. The cohort that captures the banners gets all the glory"

Percy stumbled, trying to keep time with the left-right marching rhythm. I almost twisted my ankle seconds later, quickly correcting my posture as if nothing happened.

"So why are we practicing this anyway?" I asked.

"Do you guys spend a lot of time laying siege to fortified cities?" Percy joked sarcastically.

"Teamwork" Hazel listed, "Quick thinking. Tactics. Battle skills. You'd be surprised what you can learn in the war games."

"Like who will stab you in the back" Frank added.

"Especially that" Hazel agreed.

We marched to the center of the Field of Mars and formed ranks. The Third and Fourth Cohorts assembled as far as possible from the Fifth, which made me roll my eyes. Dakota and the girl who was leading the other fifth cohort line went to meet up with the other line leaders of the attacking side. In the sky above us Reyna circled on her Pegasus, ready to play referee. Half a dozen giant eagles flew in formation behind her. The only person not participating was Nico, who I could barley see in an observation tower in the distance.

Frank began checking Percy's armor so Hazel checked mine.

"You did it right" Frank said in amazement, "Percy you must've done war games before"

"You too Lani, I mean, it's perfect, and you put it on pretty quickly" Hazel nodded.

"I don't know. Maybe" Percy said as I shrugged.