AFRICUM MARE. ABOARD THE QUINQUIREME HECTOR.

Tiberius Gallus felt the surge of power coursing up through his feet as the rowers below Hector's decks kept up with the hortator's rhythm, propelling her and the other ships of his squadron at Attack Speed directly toward the line of enemy ships. Ahead of his main battle line, two small liburnae, which had been acting as screening ships, were now attempting to maneuver away from the pending collision between these two massive fleets.

Unsuccessfully, as it turned out.

One of his liburnae was coming under heavy fire from the lead ships in the enemy line. Flaming missiles traced graceful but deadly arcs across the sky, all converging in the immediate vicinity of each liburnae. Remembering how unexpectedly accurate the ballista and catapault fire had been from these pirates at Sinus Numidicus, it no longer surprised Gallus, but it still intrigued him.

His musings were interrupted by the sounds of shattering wood, carrying clearly across the two furlongs which separated Hector from the nearest of these two scouts. The enemy had scored one, now two direct hits on the liburnae (he couldn't tell which one she was), but the effects were devastating. She had lost all forward motion and was now engulfed in flames. Gallus had an eerie sense of deja vu. This was exactly the way Sinus Numidicus had begun.

Now, diverting his attention from the stricken liburnae, Gallus followed the arc of missile fire, which was still raining down on the hapless victim, back to its point of origin. Originally assuming that this large ship was one of several triremes in the pirate fleet, Gallus realized that it was large--far too large--to be a mere trireme. Shading his eyes, he narrowed them in an attempt to better resolve the target. Then they widened in disbelief. Ye gods! Could this be possible?

"Andromachos!" Gallus yelled aft, toward the stern and tiller. "Aye, Quaestor?" came the reply from the captain.

"That ship dead ahead...she's no trireme! What in blazes is going on here?" Trotting up to the bow to join Gallus and the boarding party, Andromachos couldn't hide the look of surprise on his face either.

"Poseidon's podex, Quaestor! That ship is a...a quinquireme, sure as I'm standing next to you! Looks to be either Egyptian or Cyprian in design. How in Hades did these louts get their hands on a ship that huge?!"

"We're going to find out, and quickly!" ordered Gallus, his visage darkening. "She's our target. Let's take her intact!"

"Aye, Quaestor!" Andromachos ran back towards the stern, shouting orders to his crew all the way. Almost immediately Hector heeled over to port as she put in a turn which would bring her onto a collision course with this massive target. While this was taking place, Hector's own artillery pieces had been concentrating their fire on an enemy bireme with telling effect. Now disabled, the bireme was dead in the water and presented itself broadside as a gift for the Trireme Aurora, which proceeded to deliver a fatal blow with her ram.

"DOWN MEN! DOWN!" Gallus whipped his attention from Aurora back to his own deck. Centurion Casca had just ordered the boarding party to take cover, and he could see why. The enemy quinquireme, sensing its danger, was now directing its fire at Hector. He stared, fascinated, as a flaming projectile plunged directly toward them.

"Damn you, Gallus!" Casca swung his massive arm across the back of the quaestor's heels, effectively knocking his feet out from under him and bringing him to the deck. Moments later, the missle slammed into the deck amidships. A shower of splinters rained down on Gallus, now on his back next to Casca.

"What is that now, chum?" asked Casca. "Four times I've saved yer sorry arse?" "Three." corrected Gallus, grinning.

Hector was now on fire. Her crew sprang into action, grabbing buckets of sand and water which had been prestaged at various locations about her deck for just such an eventuality. "QUAESTOR! STAND BY!" Andromachos, yelling from the stern, was alerting Gallus that they were about to engage.

"UP, MEN! UP!" bellowed Gallus. Casca, with much shouting and waving, roused the men from their positions of cover, readying them for the cross-deck assault. "STAND BY CORVUS!"

"Aye, Quaestor!" responded several sailors as they readied the boarding device, Rome's secret weapon from the First Punic War, whose use had just recently been revived.

His men, assembled in a testudo on Hector's foredeck, waited patiently. "Men!" Gallus shouted. "Bring me prisoners! Any pirate who looks to be of eastern origin in particular. And one hundred denarii to the man who brings me the captain of this floating brothel!" A mixture of cheers and laughter greeted this last command.

Hector was now less than thirty yards from its quarry (if "quarry" was an appropriate term for a ship every bit as massive as Hector herself). She was approaching the enemy quinquireme head to head in order to minimize missile fire, and now Andromachos ordered a quick turn to port followed by a sudden shifting of the tiller to the opposite direction. This brought Hector on a course which would take her grazing along her own starboard side, the enemy's port.

"STARBOARD SIDE, SHIP OARS!" With that order, the oars on Hector's engaged side withdrew safely into the skin of the ship as Hector sliced along the enemy's port side, shearing off the banks of oars with a force which sent jagged shards flying in all directions. The sounds of the shattered wood was soon joined by the screams of shattered men, rowers torn to shreds by the flying splinters.

"CORVUS AWAY!" roared Gallus. The moveable boarding plank crashed down upon the deck of the enemy quinquireme, embedding its namesake iron beak deep into its victim's planks.

"ROMANS! YOUR VENGENCE IS AT HAND! FOLLOW ME!"

And with that, Tiberius Gallus Augur, Centurion Pullio Casca at his side, led Hector's boarding party charging across the horizontal gangplank which the corvus provided.

TBC...