Snippet #2822360

The eerie silence became oppressive, with the wind wafting down into the gully below, and through the crevasse, Livia looked briefly to her own Praefectus Legionis, and then out to the remainder of her cohort. Praefectus Publius Caestus Vale was a stocky man noted by his vibrant nanosteel armor that was adorned with various devices, seals, and emblems of the Emperor. He looked up to Livia, and simply nodded.

The Praefectus turned to his Centurion, and without so much as a word, the Centurion made a hand gesture to one of the legionaries, whom approached one of the donkeys near the rear of the formation. The Legionary returned with a squealing pig, that was screaming, and struggling against his restraint.

The Legionary looked to the Praefectus briefly, before he placed the hog onto the ground, and gave it a hearty kick in the hindquarters, sending the hog running forward through the dirt, into the chasm ahead. The Hog would, with it's rush to distance itself from the formation set off any traps it encountered, getting ensnared, or triggering whatever the Ulfhednar had prepared for it.

"Venemum in aere!" The Praefectus called out, and like clockwork, the Legionaries moved in unison to remove their helmets, and don unusual hoods that covered their heads. These hoods had small round glass eyes, and a long snout that dangled freely in front of them. Livia looked briefly to Reginarus, before she pulled off her helmet, revealing her flowing auburn hair.

"I really wish you had shaved that beard." Livia remarked, before pulling the olive drab hood with the unusual snout over her own face, and eyes.

After a moment, she passed one to Reginarus, as the Praefectus called out.

"Toxicum Sagitarii! Parate!" He called out, while Livia stayed her hand, one by one servants in the same hooded mask pulled masks over each of the horses, checking them, and then double checking them while roughly twelve Sagitarii Legionaries withdrew their carbon fiber compound bows, the arrows holding an unusual canister like object in front of them.

"Accendo Filum!" The Praefectus bellowed, and one by one the archers pulled a small tab on the tips of their arrows, causing smoke to billow lightly from the canisters.

"Dimittere sagittas!" The Praefectus bellowed, and the archers released their arrows high into the mountains, along the crags, and the gulleys, and into the crevasses where there could be potential enemies concealed within.

The Arrows sailed high over them and detonated in brilliant, fluffy grey plumes of smoke, that when inhaled, induced powerful coughs, and caused the eyes to burn, and tear. The unusual gas was powerful, and would cause those exposed to it to cough uncontrollably, and the eyes would burn to the point where they were unable to see. Those with the misfortune of being exposed would find their nose and throat filling with mucus, inducing debilitating episodes of coughing, but otherwise would still be alive. Livia waited in silence as she waited for a response, as the thick clouds of gas began to waft further into the chasm.