[ RF ] A Free Trip To Any Military Conflict

`` not significantly impact your timeline'' Where's the fun in that? Nevertheless, I'll give it a whack. 
 
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 The smoke rose from the campfire of the barbarians, mingling with the scent burning houses and bodies. The smoke rose up to the highest walls in Christendom, obscuring the visions of the guards atop the spires. Two sat on boxes that they had lugged up there, drinking from skins of wine. They knew that they could not defend the city from this, and were waiting out the inevitable. 
 
 In the camp of the barbarians, tension as two barbarian kings discussed the siege, how long they would have to camp outside the walls, and how long they could stay before supplies ran out. 
 
 In all history books, the answer to their question was ten years. Ten years before the gates of Rome were opened and the Goths sacked the city. 
 
 Then there was a whoosh, and one of the barbarians, Alaric, fell down. A hole in his head, he lay dead on the ground. The other barbarian, Ataulf, leaned in to inspect his brother-in-law. Another whoosh, and he too was dead. 
 
 Over the next few days, panic swept the Gothic camp. Leaderless, the Goths slowly dispersed as anyone foolish enough to take up the Gothic reins died. 
 
 Within the month, the siege was over. Rome had beaten back the Goths. Pope Innocent christened it a miracle. 
 
 On the day that those first two, Alaric and Ataulf, died miraculous deaths, something was seen on the walls. In a brief time when the smoke had cleared, two half-drunk sentries spotted a figure down the wall which some remember as the Guardian Angel of Rome. He was in the process of rising up from a prayerful crouch, and in his hand he held a long spear with no spear-head, which he pointed at the Gothic camp. Then, just as the sentries had made out his image, he vanished in a flash of light.
