Match 15652 Julius Caesar vs. King Leonidas

[Culwych1]

 

 

Atlantic Ocean, Year 2048

 

The Joint Naval Research Vessel Nagoya was a purpose-built leviathan, constructed around the frame of an eighty-thousand-tonne liquid natural gas carrier. Fitted together from tungsten steel, and with a core reactor built around schorl tourmaline, a black semi-precious stone, which lent its colour to the entire ship. Sitting out in the ocean with its sleek contours, it could easily remind someone of a huge black shark sitting and waiting for its prey. 

 

Surrounding the research vessel was the Joint Naval force, a 100-strong fleet compromised of the most powerful ships in world. It was an international venture which brought together most of the advanced nations towards a common goal. Their military weaponry was the latest available, and they boasted some of the most cutting edge technology ever seen. 

 

But the Nagoya was a science vessel, and it was about to launch an experiment that was the culmination of billions of dollars of research and 20 years of blood, sweat and tears. The science at its most basic level related to heat; specifically the ten-trillion-degree environment that had existed roughly one microsecond after the Big Bang, but surrounding that were a multitude of other experiments that would leach off that temperature and give an insight not just into the environment aeons ago, but also the very fabric of space and time. 

 

And so, with the push of a button, the experiment began. 

 

The sound the heavy-ion accelerator made was something akin to the tearing of paper, a scratching and ripping, but louder than ten exploding atomic warheads. Within the core of the Nagoya, protons and neutrons were annihilated, breaking down into a superenergised blob of quark-gluon plasma. 

 

Unfortunately, as is the way of things, the experiment started going wrong from there. 

 

The process went native, swallowing the containing chamber that was meant to contain it, spaghettifying everything within its path and distorting, stretching and eating the world around it. Scientists and sailors were pulled into the vortex and swirled through the maelstrom of dissonance, and then it blew outwards - expending from a singularity of no more than three microns in diameter to a three thousand kilometer event horizon, taking the Nagoya and the entire Joint Naval force with it. 

 

And it wasn't done. 

 

The event kept expanding, and as it did, it punched straight through the very fabric of time. 

 

Some of the scientists and sailors were killed instantly as they were compressed into nothingness. Others weren't so lucky. Those further away were picked up and carried with the event through to other time reality points; some friendly, some not. 

 

Second lieutenant Henry Chen reappeared in what is now western North America during the late Cretaceous period, where he managed to survive in the wilderness successfully, albeit terrified and half mad, for three days before he was eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex. 

 

Colonel Harry Jones found himself teetering atop the edge of a mountain in AD 79, desperately waving his arms to keep him swaying away from the steep drop. Seconds later the deadly heated ash of the volcano Vesuvius exploded outwards and burnt him to a crisp. 

 

Captain Don Lovelace rediscovered the Chinese city of Shicheng, only 71 years before the starting point of his journey. The room he was in would been a delightful and spacious room, but for the fact that in 1959 the city had been purposely flooded to make way for a dam and hydroelectric station. In minutes, Lovelace drowned 40 meters underwater in a 600 year old living room. 

 

Ensign Suzan Canmore found herself in the bottom of a ship, but certainly not the advanced military research vessel she had been on a moment before. This damp wooden boat pitched and shifted underfoot in a way she had not experienced since her training days. Before long she was discovered by the 17th century pirate crew, who dragged her kicking and screaming to the deck. Her pain and misery lasted long after that moment, before she mercifully succumbed to gangrene three weeks later. 

 

First Lieutenant Veni Armanno had always dreamed of seeing the Statue of Liberty. The event flung him over one billion years into the future, when the Earth had long since been shattered and broken up by a high impact asteroid. He died screaming soundlessly in the vacuum of space, approximately 50 meters away from where the Statue of Liberty had once stood.

 

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But not all of the sailors died. Some crafted lives for themselves wherever they landed, relying on their wits and whatever gadgets they had managed to salvage. Some of them had solar powered tablets which contained the Joint Forces entire knowledge database, which essentially made them gods among men. Comm implants which could translate any language, even ancient ones such as Latin, allowed them to crudely communicate with the people they met and they not only survived, but thrived. 

 

And only they knew that the strange Occurrences were linked to their distant future or past. The Occurrences were fractures in time itself caused by the Event, where different time zones would suddenly coalesce into one. Lifeforms caught in the Occurrence other than the sailors would immediately believe that this was perfectly normal and that nothing was different, but the sailors knew. 

 

Admiral Luke Cazarez, of the military ship HMS Liberty found himself in ancient Rome, in 35 BC at the height of Julius Caesar's power. It wasn't long before his reputation as a 'magus' became known to the ruler himself and when the two met, both men realized that they could benefit from the other. Luke lived like a king, in rich surroundings with more servants than he knew what to do with, whilst Caesar, now warned of his impending assassination, made the Senate run with blood. The Roman Empire went from strength to strength, and within 10 years had conquered all of north and west Europe. 

 

Then came the Occurrence; two times merged and suddenly Rome was facing an enemy of the past at its doorstep. 

 

Captain Trent Bullock's own story had played out very similarly to Admiral Cazerz's. His solar powered tablet had saved his life as he adjusted to a life in ancient Greece, in a city where warriors were forged from a young age. His path had taken him straight to King Leonidas I of the Greek city-state of Sparta. Instantly recognizing the potential of the mysterious and silent 'soothsayer', Leonidas had watched and learned. The Persian invaders in 480BC faced not 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae, but the united force of the entire Greek nation under the new Dictator of Greece; Leonidas, and had been crushed in the ensuing battle. From there Greece became a military force, expanding its reach far beyond its borders. 

 

The Occurrence brought the two ancient superpowers smoothly together in one timeline; the mighty Roman Empire against the Spartan led Greek Empire; led by two leaders who had lived long past their foretold death. Armed with the knowledge and science of the future, they went to war and would forever transform the fate of the world. 

 

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Summary

 

Ancient Rome led by Julius Caesar, vs Ancient Greece led by Leonidas I. For the sake of the battle we will assume the armies are roughly similar in size, but obviously their training and militarily knowledge is their own. The new tech and knowledge of the sailors is there as a factor, but essentially cancels out. 

 

 

[Callisto]

Learn More About
Julius Caesar
Read more about Julius Caesar at Wikipedia
Official Site: Public Domain Links: Wikipedia BBC VRoma

King Leonidas
Read more about King Leonidas at Wikipedia
Official Site: Warner Bros. Links: Wikipedia Entry IMDB Profile Official Site

[Culwych1]

If anyone is curious, the story bit of the setup is loosely based on the novel Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham, where a modern day quantum experiment goes wrong and a multinational taskforce is sent back in time to 1942, right into the path of the US naval battle group bound for Midway. A highly recommended read!

[Pizza Guy]

Very impressive set up. Hmmm, this is a tough one. Both groups are certainly badass in their own rights, but momma taught me to always choose brain over brawn, so I’m gonna role with Caesar and Rome. They conquered a much larger sized territory, have had to defeat much larger and more diverse enemies, and because Julius Caesar was probably one of the best military minds the world has ever seen.

[Culwych1]

2 hours ago, Pizza Guy said:

Very impressive set up. Hmmm, this is a tough one. Both groups are certainly badass in their own rights, but momma taught me to always choose brain over brawn, so I’m gonna role with Caesar and Rome. They conquered a much larger sized territory, have had to defeat much larger and more diverse enemies, and because Julius Caesar was probably one of the best military minds the world has ever seen.

Thanks! 

That's the way I was originally leaning as well and then read some more about Leonidas; a pretty shrewd politician and general in his own right which made this a bit of a closer call. 

Definitely one I'd love to see on the big screen!

 

[Boratz]

Awesome set up!

While I think that Leonidas is a great warrior and even tactician, I think Caesar is more intelligent from what we know. It would be close. I think it would be fun to see!

[DSkillz]

Yet another great set-up, Culwych! As usual, you really laid out the story here.

As for the match, like the others I think I like the more accomplished Caesar in this war.

[Callisto]

Match Final Results

RATINGS SCORE: 5.00
1 regular members rated the match.
2 CBUB Match Judges rated the match.

MATCH SCORE
Julius Caesar: 6
King Leonidas: 1

[SSJRuss]

I actually did get the chance to vote and rate this before it ended. I'm the only one who voted for Leonidas, it seems. Lol

This was a great story you told. I was really engaged and interested the whole time. One of the best ones you've written, in my book. 5 stars.

 

[Culwych1]

8 hours ago, SSJRuss said:

I actually did get the chance to vote and rate this before it ended. I'm the only one who voted for Leonidas, it seems. Lol

This was a great story you told. I was really engaged and interested the whole time. One of the best ones you've written, in my book. 5 stars.

 

Wow, thanks! Means a lot; glad you enjoyed.