The sun was at its zenith that day blazing down on us on the steep hillside and the hated Hittites were coming. Just recently they�d been harassing our caravans on their way north stealing their loads and making slaves of the people traveling with them and it had been decided it was about time to teach them a lesson.. The Babylonian army had mobilized and stood at a strength of more than ten thousand. They were well armed and protected by armour and archers and they had the blessing of the priests. But more than that they had us the Marduk�s .We were just about the best troops ever seen in the world at the time. We were bred for battle and loved it.
Most citizens had a vocation, be it farmer, scribe or priest. But their profession was chosen for them generally by their parents at a young age. Not that young though, they were allowed to develop normally in their family until they came of age. If a father thought that his son would make a good farmer he went before the council of elders and rented a piece of land. The son would then farm that land paying for the rent with a percentage of his crop each year. If a mother thought that her daughter would make a good temple whore then she was sent to the temple and the mother received a financial reward for assisting the temple. But the Marduk�s were different. We were chosen at birth initially for our size. If a baby was born that was exceptionally large then a senior would visit the family and assess it. The baby would be sent to the temple of marduk as soon as it was weaned. Some were sent earlier than that and were weaned by special whores who visited from a nearby temple. Nutrition was very important and we had all the best foods and drinks to choose from, even in years of drought. We had as much meat as we could shovel down our throats and that was something rare in that day and age. Not that many animals were raised to be butchered the majority being dairy or textile creatures And from that time onwards we were trained in the arts of war. Swordmanship and wrestling, these were all the domain of a trainee Marduk. And we had the best tutors too. How much better than to be trained by someone whose life it was to survive in battle to fight another day, who had done so time and time again, and whose peacetime duties was to hunt down and execute religious transgressors. Be they a murderer or a thief or a blasphemer, they were all dealt with the same. A sword thrust through the head was the only accepted style. It ensured the individual would not be reborn and so would not get the opportunity to transgress again. Death was a common sentence handed down for most civil crimes but those who broke the religious laws were treated more seriously. Call it an early eugenics program if you will. By the time a Marduk was fifteen years old he was considered a man and went into battle. By the time a Marduk was fifteen years old he was anything up to thirty per cent bigger than his contempories. By the time a Marduk was fifteen years old he was trained so well he could personally give odds of five to one to the regular Babylonian army and come through it all with a big grin on his face. We didn�t ride at all, that was considered unworthy we weren�t cavalry. There was not considered a beast honorable enough to hold us, priests were allowed to ride donkeys and the royal household had horses and camels but as the tutors used to say �the great Bel Marduk gave you those legs so that you may use them�. That and the fact that we were arrogant as hell and knew it ! Power was everything and we Marduks had most of it. We were the living embodiment of the God. We were named each after the original fifty names of the god. And the compliment for each city was fifty. No more no less. But it was enough. Imagine what a thousand could do.
So there we were on the hillside waiting. The Hittites were advancing from the north and there were initially about fifteen thousand of them, but they�d been whittled down by small skirmishes on their way south. Their aim was to capture Babylon and they�d almost got there when we assembled to meet them. The regular army had outflanked them and pushed them south towards where we waited on one side of a valley. They had allowed themselves to be pushed keeping a couple of miles between themselves and the regulars in the mistaken belief that the way to Babylon was open to them. They thought all they had to do was smash the gates and they�d be in. It was a fatal error
The first sign we had of the Hittites was a cloud of dust. It was early afternoon and the heat from the sun bore down on me and my brothers while we waited. We stood on the hillside motionless just under the crest holding our swords with both hands and praying to our God. We had no shields like the regulars, we didn�t need them, we had the protection of our god and he was there with us in person. The statue of Marduk accompanied us on battles like this and had been placed on the hill top where his rainment shone and glittered in the sunlight. We all believed that Marduk was with us and would watch over us in the coming battle and keep us from harm. We had absolute faith in this and it made us totally fearless. There wasn�t one among us who wasn�t looking forward to the slaughter with a great deal of enthusiasm and pleasure. We were all painted white with a mixture of chalk and oil and had the emblem of our god painted in black upon our faces so that our eyes glittered brightly from their dark sockets. This gave us the appearance of statues from a distance and was an essential part of our strategy.
The Hittites advanced quite slowly along the valley, this was my first battle and to say I was happy was an understatement. I was sixteen years old and had never killed a man before. In fact when I saw my first Hittite I was disappointed. They were so small, little brown men with shields and armour vastly inferior to ours made from platted reeds. They had iron swords and spears though but nowhere near the quality of ours which were made from bronze and had been handed down through ages past. And their training was laughable. They were a conscript army and I realized as I watched them approach that we could easily kill them all. They didn�t see us at first and then one of them shouted and they all looked up. They thought we were statues put there by the priests to frighten them. Some even started to laugh out loud saying things like �what is this pointless trick that these people defend themselves with�.
And then their relief turned to horror as at a signal from our captain we charged at them screaming �Marduk Marduk Marduk� at the top of our lungs and waving our swords in the air. There was about two stones throws between us but we made up that ground very quickly and then we were on them. Our front line met theirs with a crash and from my position about halfway through our ranks I saw a huge spray of blood shooting into the air as the front line mowed them down so very, very easily. It was pink in the air diffused by the sun and felt like warm rain on our faces. The smell of it was overpowering and we became like animals intoxicated with its odour. Factors like fatigue and strength were no longer an issue. We all had a blood fury on. It wasn�t our blood and from ahead I could see row upon row of bronze swords painted red now, rising and falling in unison like a great engine of death. The plough was working well as usual and the front ranks of the Hittites died very quickly screams of terror still on their silenced lips. Of course the Hittites broke and ran at once in total confusion. They had never faced an enemy so large in stature and so ferocious in appearance. They ran screaming in all directions their discipline completely gone and our formation broke to finish them. I approached an enemy soldier cowering behind his shield and stabbing futilely with his small sword as if to keep us all away from him. I swung my own sword at him in an arc and it went through his shield, through his arm and halfway through his quivering body before coming to rest. Of course I got showered with blood and it ran off me and joined other puddles on the ground. Some went into my mouth and I could taste the life of this enemy and I decided I liked it. I looked to my left and saw an older brother wink at me with his left eye, it was a sign that signaled he approved of my skill and I winked back at him. I exploded in a blood rage and launched myself at the enemy slashing and hacking until all that remained were a pile of twisted, mutilated corpses lying in the dust. We were without mercy and the enemy who had thrown down their arms and prostrated themselves were also dispatched with ruthless enthusiasm. And all the time Marduk watched approvingly from his hilltop protected by his retinue of guards. The Hittites lay dead at our feet. The battle seemed to have lasted only seconds but in reality was only minutes. Ten thousand lay dead at our feet, I personally had dispatched seven, our training was that good. It had taken little effort on my part, a sure sign that the God was there. When we had finished with the wounded we overran the Hittites supply caravan and killed all their beasts of burden and burned their goods. We wanted their leaders to think this area was cursed and had sent merchants into their cities to spread stories about evil spirits which guarded these passes. This just left the handful of women who had accompanied the soldiers. They were all very beautiful so typical of the dark skinned Hittite stock but we couldn't leave any to tell their leaders what had happened, so we made frames of their tent poles and strapped them to them. We spent the next couple of hours happily cutting them ever so slowly open and studying their blood flow in that sadistic way that only true sadists in the midst of a blood rage could. We quenched our sexual lust on them over and over again as they screamed and pleaded with us for their lives blood streaming from their bodies. Finally one by one they weakened from the loss of blood and died, sometimes while we were still using them. It didn't matter to us in this heightened state of savagery as we were still very much affected by all the blood. One of them was recognised as one of the whores who used to be at an Inanna temple. We spared her for a little while, for her treachery we saved her end until later when we would be feasting back in Babylon. One of the other brothers had known her well and was disgusted when he saw her with the enemy. To him was given the right to beat her and kill her at a public spectacle later when we feasted. She would be the entertainment. I didn't really like that idea as I wanted to carry on killing but as a junior I had no real power to veto the idea and I discovered that the feeling in me was actually prolongued by the idea that I would get to watch her suffer later on. So she was knocked unconscious by a blow to the head and saved for later. When the Babylonian regular army arrived a few minutes later they were dumbfounded at the slaughter, and quite fearfull at our appearance. We were all covered with blood and our eyes flashed out from the gore covering us. Our movements had become exaggerated from our blood lust and the smell from the blood sickened them. Still they sang our praises all the way back to Babylon where on our arrival blue flowers were thrown at our feet. Its not everyday the regular army won a great battle without drawing their swords We had a grand procession through the gate of Inanna following our God back to the temple. And do you know we didn�t have one fatality amongst us. We feasted well that night knowing that it would be a long time before the caravans were raided again. But knowing all the same that at some time they would be back and we would be waiting. The next day I was granted honour status and accepted as a man into the ranks of my brethren. I was given a diamond and a piece of cloth rolled and sealed with wax with an imprint of the Great God on it, containing my oath. The diamond was to remind me to be pure of deed and hard in body. It was also payment for my entire life of service. As a devotee of Marduk I would never have a use for money again. This was the start of my official duties as only a man that has tasted blood in combat was allowed to serve Marduk in an official capacity. I was given new quarters at the temple and slaves to assist my needs. It wasn�t very long before I killed again.