Vengeance of the Last Roman Legion
Vengeance of the Last Roman Legion, 4-part novel
Book I: Out of the Darkness
Sunbury Press, March 2022
ISBN:9781620066805
“While much is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have actually happened.” –Thomas Hardy
Vengeance of the Last Roman Legion
Book I: Out of the Darkness
By Mark Carlson
Deep in the blackness of a long-forgotten crypt in rural France and ancient and deadly nightmare has awakened from a long slumber. It seeks only vengeance.
In AD 9, during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus, three legions of soldiers were trapped and massacred in the Teutoberg Forest by an army of ruthless German tribes led by a traitor named Arminius. Of the twenty thousand legionaries, civilian men, women and children, only a few hundred survived.
Centurion Lucius Cassius Aquilius, the senior surviving officer returned to Rome consumed with a lust for vengeance. With the help of an aged alchemist Lucius forms and leads an elite Roman legion into a cold and sealed crypt where they will enter a deathlike slumber, waiting for the day they would emerge to find and kill their enemies.
But they have overslept. The year is 2021, more than two thousand years since the Teutoberg Massacre. The world has changed into something that Legatus Lucius Cassius Aquilius and his loyal legionaries cannot comprehend. Even though Arminius and his brutal band have long since died the Romans will still march into Germania to seek their long-awaited vengeance.
Meanwhile in Brussels a NATO legal investigator named Alex Braden begins to uncover a series of strange and fatal events in France and Belgium. At first he is at a loss to explain them as they lead to an inescapable solution. But it is a solution that is totally impossible.
A living Roman legion has arisen from the past, marching into modern-day Germany. The greatest and most dangerous army history has ever known is out for revenge.
And no one knows they are coming.
Book II: Legionary
Sunbury Press, May 2022
ISBN:9781620066805
Ex communi Periculo Fraternitas
From common peril, Brotherhood
Vengeance of the Last Roman Legion
Book II: Legionary
By Mark Carlson
After the mighty Roman Legion Vindicta emerged out of the darkness from a 2,000 year hibernation in Gaul, Legatus Lucius Cassius Aquilius has at last returned to the land of his enemies, seeking revenge. But the world has changed. They are now the hunted and time is their deadliest enemy. His past has led him to face a very dark future.
The saga of Lucius Cassius begins on an olive orchard on the banks of the Tiber River. While his parents hope their only son will remain on the land, Lucius has only one ambition: He wants to be a legionary in the army of Emperor Augustus.
Leaving his home and the only life he has known, Lucius travels to Rome where he is formally inducted into the army. From there he is taken to northern Gaul where he begins the four months’ brutal training to become a legionary. When Lucius is finally permitted to don the armor of a legionary in the Eighteenth Legion, he joins his friends Marcus and Septimus on campaigns and in battles across the region. In less than ten years Lucius has reached the rank of centurion.
Falling in love with Livia Romania, the beautiful daughter of a senior officer, Lucius has all he could want. He and Livia are the parents of a strong and bright boy named Cornelius Cassius.
The legion receives orders to move across the Rhenus River into Roman-occupied Germania to join an army commanded by a ruthless Praetor named Quinctillius Varus. The army will march east into barbarian Germania to collect taxes and quell revolts among the tribes. Lucius leads his centuria in the huge column while his family follows in the baggage train. But Varus’s mighty army is being led into a deadly trap set by a German prince named Arminius. Against the counsel of his generals, Varus orders them into a dense forest. There the three legions and thousands of civilians are attacked and Massacred. For three bloody days Lucius and his men fight to survive and escape the slaughter. Among the slain are Livia and little Cornelius.
As the senior living officer Lucius leads the ragtag band of survivors to safety. Deep in his heart grows an intense ember of hatred. Somehow Lucius will find a way to return to Germania and kill the barbarians that slaughtered so many. He will not rest until he has had his revenge.
Book III: Hunters and Hunted
Sunbury Press, September 2022
ISBN: 162006684X
“Beware the fury of a patient Man’ — John Dryden
Vengeance of the Last Roman Legion
Book III: Hunters and Hunted
By Mark Carlson
The trail of blood and death that begin in the dark sealed cellar in Gaul has brought the last Roman legion on Earth deep into Germany determined to reach their long-awaited vengeance before they all die. From there awakening, Legatus Lucius Cassius Aquilius led the remnants of his steadfast legionaries deep into the enemy’s homeland to seek revenge for a battle their comrades lost more than two thousand years before. One bloody day in AD 9, Lucius vowed revenge on the Germans. No one knows they are coming.
Except for Alex Braden, a NATO investigator, who has to convince skeptical German police and military officials that their country has been invaded by a long-dead army from the past.
Braden is desperate to prevent a mass slaughter of innocent civilians. But he fears they are too late.
He fears a huge pro-NATO rally in a nature park presents a perfect target for the merciless Romans. Thousands of innocent people and senior government officials are directly in the path of the legion. He must try to prevent a mass slaughter.
An intensive air and ground search by elite German troops scours the land to find the Romans, who are equally determined to reach their target without hinderance.
For Lucius Cassius and his loyal legion, only the act of their final revenge remains in their future. Braden is bent on stopping the Romans before they massacre thousands.
Yet a third ruthless adversary, determined to change the course of Germany’s history is about to make its move. A terrorist group secretly calling itself the New Order of Germany will stop at nothing in its quest for power. Roman past and German future are converging for a final battle to the death.
Book IV: Vindicta
Sunbury Press, December 2022
ISBN: 10-1620066807
“Where there is unity, there is the victory.” — Syrus
Vengeance of the Last Roman Legion
Book IV: Vindicta
By Mark Carlson
The most impossible invasion in history has begun. Two armies, one modern and armed with advanced weapons, and another, carrying only swords and spears, are about to clash in a battle to the death. From their awakening in a black cellar in Gaul as related in the first three books of this gripping series, Legatus Lucius Cassius has led the remnants of his steadfast legionaries deep into Germania to seek revenge for a battle their comrades lost more than two thousand years before. Alex Braden of NATO and his colleagues fly to Germany to prevent a mass slaughter of innocent civilians at a huge pro-NATO rally. But he fears they are too late. The last Roman Legion on Earth is far ahead and determined to reach their long-awaited goal before they die. They have found a target. Thousands of innocent civilians, senior government officials, and two elite battalions of German and American soldiers are directly in their sights. After twenty centuries they will have their bloody revenge.
But unknown to either the Romans or their pursuers, there is another major threat to the rally and the peace of Europe. The New Order of Germany, a highly-trained and dangerous terrorist group, plans to attack the masses at the rally and seize control of the German government.
No one can stop them. Deep in a German forest, three armies, each intent on their goal, will fight for a final Armageddon that began two thousand years ago.
Only one will survive.
