Captain Germanicus' report to the Senate of Rome and Emperor Trajan:
I, Germanicus Manius Gaius Flavius Albus, veteran of Dacia and the Germanic frontier, was stationed by request in Britannia. I desired to see the wild land Caesar so long ago had landed on and I thought I might make a life there. I was put in charge of a garrison from Eboracum; we patrolled the city's borders, guarding against intrusions and raids of the Picts and Brittunculi. We did stop a raid of several of the local tribes from reaching the city. It happened on the fourteenth day of Iunius, a warm, gentle day; I was leading six of by best men in a scouting mission to the north of the city. There was Marcus Bubulcus a broad man from Gaul; Quintus Galerius Licinius, the son of a colonist from Londinium; Aelius Scipio and Nerva Naevius, my two lightest scouts, both from Italia; Armendric called Alexander, a Burgundi tribute soldier stationed here; and Tiberius Brutus from Syria. Aelius was ranging ahead when he rushed back, face slick with sweat. He said he had found strange Pictish machine. We were all curious to see this contraption, for as of yet Rome had seen no cleverness in the Britons. We hurried to the fell where he had found it; the thing lay on the grassy side of one of the sloping hills, exposed to the sky, dark trees all around. We circled around it, inspecting it and trying to discern its purpose. The alien thing was made of a dark metal seemingly akin to steel; strange rivulets or strings of blue ran down the center of the monument. It stood easily two men tall and bout three wide, prongs, four of them, reached up in the center of the thing, which was roughly tear drop shaped. Finding no discernible purpose to it, we searched inscription or markings. Though the thing was covered in octagonal designs of foreign origin, we could make nothing of it, but instead we found a hatch to inside the Pictish edifice. I ordered Bubulcus to pry it open; he was just about to give the hatch a great heave when it opened easily before his hand with the hiss of hot water in a pipe. Inside it was dark except for similar blue lighting, like the sun seen through ocean water; Aelius and Nerva were able to fit inside easily. They found many strange Pictish ornaments and odd octagonal pieces of the dark metal. I kept having a growing bad feeling about this whole thing; I began to question where this strange monolith was truly made. Then Aelius and Nerva brought out the corpse. It was shrunken and emaciated as with famine; its veins were of the same azure blue as the rivulets on the monument; its skin was gray like a corpse, and had un-human hands more like claws; and its eyes were large, circular, and black. The tribal creature had a split in its chest that oozed green ichor. I knew this was no Pictish landmark or ritual monument, but something far more foreign and mysterious. We loaded all the artifacts onto our horses, who acted with some suspicion around the pieces of metal. We rode hard all the way down Britannia to Londinium to consult the governor. On the way, as we were camping only several miles north of the city in the forest, Quintus and Aelius were inspecting the ornaments when one of them clamped onto Quintus' arm. In the struggle to get it off, another ornament a little longer than Quintus' clasped onto Aelius' arm. The cuffs caused no pain and were the same coloring as the monument; as we consulted with each other, Quintus' let off a pulse of azure fire that extinguished our fire but also charged his sword with the glow of lightning. One of the octagonal pieces of metal flew into the air, unfolding to cover Quintus in armor that marched the steel armor he had worn. The ornaments then came alive with activity: one flew up and strapped itself around Bubulcus' shoulders and chest, with the armor following soon after; a second cuff wrapped around Quintus' free wrist; an ornament clasped onto Nerva's upper arm; an ornament that turned into a gauntlet folded around Alexander's forearm; Tiberius received one cuff around his wrist; and I too had one of the ornaments wrap around my shoulders. After all was done, we all had new, dark sets of armor to replace our old. And that is what happened the night of the thirtieth day of Iunius; that is how we, the Extraneorum, were made.
I, Germanicus Manius Gaius Flavius Albus, veteran of Dacia and the Germanic frontier, was stationed by request in Britannia. I desired to see the wild land Caesar so long ago had landed on and I thought I might make a life there. I was put in charge of a garrison from Eboracum; we patrolled the city's borders, guarding against intrusions and raids of the Picts and Brittunculi. We did stop a raid of several of the local tribes from reaching the city. It happened on the fourteenth day of Iunius, a warm, gentle day; I was leading six of by best men in a scouting mission to the north of the city. There was Marcus Bubulcus a broad man from Gaul; Quintus Galerius Licinius, the son of a colonist from Londinium; Aelius Scipio and Nerva Naevius, my two lightest scouts, both from Italia; Armendric called Alexander, a Burgundi tribute soldier stationed here; and Tiberius Brutus from Syria. Aelius was ranging ahead when he rushed back, face slick with sweat. He said he had found strange Pictish machine. We were all curious to see this contraption, for as of yet Rome had seen no cleverness in the Britons. We hurried to the fell where he had found it; the thing lay on the grassy side of one of the sloping hills, exposed to the sky, dark trees all around. We circled around it, inspecting it and trying to discern its purpose. The alien thing was made of a dark metal seemingly akin to steel; strange rivulets or strings of blue ran down the center of the monument. It stood easily two men tall and bout three wide, prongs, four of them, reached up in the center of the thing, which was roughly tear drop shaped. Finding no discernible purpose to it, we searched inscription or markings. Though the thing was covered in octagonal designs of foreign origin, we could make nothing of it, but instead we found a hatch to inside the Pictish edifice. I ordered Bubulcus to pry it open; he was just about to give the hatch a great heave when it opened easily before his hand with the hiss of hot water in a pipe. Inside it was dark except for similar blue lighting, like the sun seen through ocean water; Aelius and Nerva were able to fit inside easily. They found many strange Pictish ornaments and odd octagonal pieces of the dark metal. I kept having a growing bad feeling about this whole thing; I began to question where this strange monolith was truly made. Then Aelius and Nerva brought out the corpse. It was shrunken and emaciated as with famine; its veins were of the same azure blue as the rivulets on the monument; its skin was gray like a corpse, and had un-human hands more like claws; and its eyes were large, circular, and black. The tribal creature had a split in its chest that oozed green ichor. I knew this was no Pictish landmark or ritual monument, but something far more foreign and mysterious. We loaded all the artifacts onto our horses, who acted with some suspicion around the pieces of metal. We rode hard all the way down Britannia to Londinium to consult the governor. On the way, as we were camping only several miles north of the city in the forest, Quintus and Aelius were inspecting the ornaments when one of them clamped onto Quintus' arm. In the struggle to get it off, another ornament a little longer than Quintus' clasped onto Aelius' arm. The cuffs caused no pain and were the same coloring as the monument; as we consulted with each other, Quintus' let off a pulse of azure fire that extinguished our fire but also charged his sword with the glow of lightning. One of the octagonal pieces of metal flew into the air, unfolding to cover Quintus in armor that marched the steel armor he had worn. The ornaments then came alive with activity: one flew up and strapped itself around Bubulcus' shoulders and chest, with the armor following soon after; a second cuff wrapped around Quintus' free wrist; an ornament clasped onto Nerva's upper arm; an ornament that turned into a gauntlet folded around Alexander's forearm; Tiberius received one cuff around his wrist; and I too had one of the ornaments wrap around my shoulders. After all was done, we all had new, dark sets of armor to replace our old. And that is what happened the night of the thirtieth day of Iunius; that is how we, the Extraneorum, were made.
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