The Miracle of Standard XI

In mid-late 2018, a series of mysterious, limited-capacity portals that slowly gained strength began forming outside of The HOTEL. Investigations were made and a drone was sent through the portal to provide reconnaissance, noting unusual temperature swings, fast-moving objects, and pollen similar to that found upon the clothing of the European regulars of the HOTEL. One night, Sakura Xadium Aino, her sentient blade Arataka, Catriona, and Daniel Kakaku followed an one of these uncharted portals in search of a mysterious signal which was more accurate than an atomic clock and incredibly easy to pick up. In fact, it was discovered that there were in fact three transmitters very close together which would allow the direction as well as the location of the signal source to be determined via triangulation as well as the doppler effect. Sakura, knowledgeable as any Time Lord would be, realized that the signals were coming from something the shape of an eagle, and reckoned that if a carved was eagle shaped and of those detected dimensions, they might be dealing with either Romans or Nazis on the other side of the portal. After they made the trip, they found was the former

The heroes found themselves in the year 116 outside of the a heavily defended legionary encampment near the modern border between Austria and the Czech Republic. The signal was coming from the Legionary Standard---the staff topped with an eagle that represented the pride and spirit of all of Legion XI. The full legion was present in their camp which included guard towers, a ditch, and spikes driven into the ground at each of the four entrances. The guards were on high alert, seemingly expecting attack, with alert sentries aggressively challenging anything that could possibly be a sign of intrusion, and recon with the drone suggested that their cavalry forces had left the camp. Noise from the camp strongly suggested hurried construction of *something,* but exactly what the soldiers could be frantically building was unclear. Concerned about timeline contamination, and determined to recover the source of the mysterious signal that originated from technology that had no place in the ancient world, Sakura eventually decided to have D.Kakaku, who was in an Iron Man suit, destroy their scorpion siege engines and distract the soldiers so that they could gain access to the artifact. Rather unfortunately, the Legionary Standard is the subject of fanatical devotion by legionary soldiers, and was located under heavy guard in the center of the camp. During the ensuing battle, the HOTEL regulars steamrolled the soldiers of Legion XI in spite of their determined resistance, wounded a number of them, destroyed their shields, and broke their fortifications. Concerned about the body-count and escalating mess, Sakura attempted the simply destroying the Legionary Standard and with it the source of the trouble, but the Roman Legionaries, known to historians to throw down their weapons and shield to become the new Aquilifer if the prior standard bearer is killed, proved unwilling to allow this, and a man threw himself in front of the attack, saving Standard XI at the cost of his own life.

All the while the wind blew in increasing intensity from the west, eventually bringing with it the smell of pitch and tar. The battle continued, and the Roman general himself, Lucius Vergilius Laurantius, stepped forward to rally his soldiers to fight to the end, and--very notably--drew an Nth Metal gladius on Sakura. He and his soldiers displayed extraordinary courage to challenge a god-like being, and the protagonists did not escape the bite of the pilum, with both Sakura and Catriona taking hits from their iconic Roman javelin, but the conclusion was foregone. Eventually, using their superhuman strength and unanswerable powers, the heroes wrestled Standard XI from a pile of fanatical soldiers trying desperately to prevent their legion's disgrace, and fled away with it toward the portal.

Minutes after the four (plus sword) made their getaway, screams and the sounds of desperate fighting broke out from the direction of the encampment. Warriors as black as night, with even their weapons completely black, swarmed out of the forest upon the weakened and defenseless Romans, and began beating them to death in a merciless slaughter that lasted until Sakura mustered her godly powers and annihilated the battlefield completely. Both the mysterious black warriors and the surviving Romans were completely obliterated, and it was at this time that Lucius Vergilius lost his sword and life.

The smoldering ruins of their base were later discovered when the alares--cavalry forces of the XI Legion, who had been dispatched to bring reinforcements to repel an expected Germanic attack, returned to find their camp burnt and their friends butchered in the night. They escaped the area and reported the horror of what they found, with the Romans quite reasonably assigning blame to the most obvious culprits--the Harii tribe.

Co-Ordinator Kelliphan is of course aware of this suspicious anomaly, but since the events of that night seemed able to mend nearly-seamlessly back into the proper timeline without requiring Time Lord correction, she has not initiated intervention... yet.

Sakura meanwhile, who had ushered her companions back through the portal and stayed behind to investigate, agitatedly pored over the events of the nights of her mind, uncovered a vital clue--the signal was coming from the Legionary Standard---the staff topped with an eagle that represented the pride and spirit of all of Legion XI--was likely unknown to the Romans, and put there by another entity to facilitate tracking them. Reflecting on the matter further, Sakura considered how the Romans were not likely aware of the Nth Metal sword either, because they were not using it at close to its potential. Sakura concluded that she had been part of a set-up, and instead of the scenario being "Romans hoarding future-tech to give themselves martial advantage," it was much more likely "Romans victim of elaborate trans-time robbery."

Later examination of the footage from the helidrone discovered the culprit. This was a female with bright red hair dressed in a full-body armor suit and concealing helmet with glowing blue eyes, a power-pack on her back, and other extremely powerful technology who told Lucius Vergilius "you have something of mine," and then murdered the Roman general at the height of the chaos of the battle. After killing him with a high-powered rifle round, she then obscured the crime by shooting the injury with a ballista bolt to hide her involvement. She stated that this was "all too easy," in a voice that bore alarming similarities when analyzed and implicated Eliza McIntash in a bizarre, complicated, and as-yet-unsolved quagmire known as The Simelizabellahubert Konspiracy regarding Eliza, her hidden personality, Enclave, and her creator, and a devastating attack that occurred on a prison in Africa. Details of the correlation are yet unknown.

Analysis of the Roman Standard, after it was captured, indicated that it was a completely normal historical artifact except in regard to the extremely sophisticated tracking signal it was giving off. Not only were the transmitters made from technology that did not leave tool marks so as as to potentially be telepathic in nature, and even more suspiciously, left E-Particles behind. Whoever created it had formidable technology at their disposal and clearly intended the homing device to be used exclusively in the past, since the signal was set to end in the year 117 AD, meaning that tracing of the artifact using these ultra-tech transmitters could ONLY have been attempted in the past, while the Romans still held it.

This of course raised all kinds of questions about the nature of the attack, the possibility the HOTEL regulars were used as tools to facilitate it, and what in the world the person responsible hoped to gain. Unfortunately, that has so far been limited purely to speculation, for the woman in the powered armor managed to steal the Nth Metal sword, evade Sakura's wrath, and flee the era and crime scene to places unknown.