Tyranny of Steel

Berengar stood at the funeral procession within the cemetery that was established for fallen soldiers and field agents. He had a downcast expression as he stared at the closed coffin which contained the corpse of one of his bravest field agents.

Though he had sent the best soldiers at his command to liberate the captured field agent known as Jürgen Speck, by the time they arrived, the man was on the brink of death and only lasted long enough to inform his comrades that he had never revealed any information to his captors.

Because he had died in service to the fatherland and had resisted his cruel torment at the hands of his captors until the very end, Berengar had set up a massive funeral service for the man. Various heads of state, including the King, the Chancellor, the Director and Deputy Director of Royal Intelligence, and the Director of Covert Operations, were all present to send this man off to the afterlife.

Due to the condition of his corpse, it was a closed casket funeral, and at the moment Ludolf, head of the German Church, was saying Jürgen's last rights as his coffin was interned in the Earth. Berengar felt a hand attach to his own as he listened to the Priest's words; upon looking over, he saw the gloomy expression of his Second Wife and Director of Intelligence Linde von Kufstein as she gazed into Berengar's one good eye.

For this special occassion, Linde wore a uniform that proudly displayed her status as Director of Royal Intelligence, it was a steingrau colored uniform in the style that one might see in use by the Stasi of East Germany during Berengar's past life.

The primary difference was that the collar was downturned in style used by the Wehrmacht, and all communist symbolism was replaced with the Imperial symbols of Berengar's Kingdom of Austria. Berengar felt that his wife was quite attractive in her uniform, and if not for the fact that they were currently at a funeral, he would have pinned her to the ground and ravaged her then and there.

However, now was not the time for such things, and thus as Ludolf closed his speech, Berengar let go of his wife's hand and approached the Podium where he began to address those who had gathered.

"My fellow Austrians, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of a great man, who gave his life in service of his King and Fatherland. I can not go into exact details of the operations that Jürgen Speck had conducted that resulted in his untimely demise, but know that his efforts were not in vain.

Jürgen was a man I did not personally know, as I have little contact with the Department of Intelligence, aside from regular communications with its Director. However, from what the soldiers dispatched to rescue the man has told me, he was a man of great conviction! I know that he has left behind a widow and two young children, and make no mistake for his sacrifice to this Kingdom, his family will be taken care of at the expense of the Crown!

After saying this, a man stood before Berengar with a small wooden case, where Berengar grabbed ahold of it before approaching Jürgen's widow. She struggled to contain her tears as she watched her loving husband be interred into the ground. After standing directly in front of her, Berengar placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort and expressed his sympathy.

"I am sorry for your loss, for your husband's Conspicuous gallantry, extraordinary heroism, and courage in the face of a significant and known risk above and beyond the call of duty I hereby award him the highest honor a man of his position can achieve, the National Intelligence Cross!"

Berengar opened the small wooden case to reveal a solid gold Cross pattée; this Cross had a wreath surrounding its center with a black enamel filling. Inside of this filling was a golden Austrian Double-Headed Eagle. The ribbon attached to the medal and mirrored the pattern of the United State's National Intelligence Cross from his past life, with the difference being the colors were in black, white, and gold.

Berengar handed this award to Jürgen's widow and embraced her in a platonic hug as she cried into his shoulder. It was not every day that Berengar had to fulfill such depressing responsibilities; as such, he kept a stoic facade in the face of the gloomy atmosphere, conducting himself with the dignity that Monarch should have towards his people.

After the funeral procession was over, Berengar returned to the palace, where he locked himself away in his study and began to drink from a bottle of whiskey that he had saved inside his desk for special occasions. Not caring about the possibility of intoxication, Berengar filled his skull chalice to its edges with the amber liquid before slowly drinking from it, reflecting on the cost of his ambitions.

Linde did not return with Berengar; she was needed at the Headquarters of Royal Intelligence to oversee some critical matters regarding the status of the Golden Horde. Luckily for them, the team had managed to retrieve Jürgen's equipment, and body, before his captors could identify him as an Agent of the Austrian Crown.

In fact, after the destruction of the force that chased Andreas and his team at the hands of the Royal Bohemian Army, the Golden Horde had wholly disregarded the loss of the previous Khan. With His death, and that of the man most likely to succeed him, the Golden Horde was in a state of turmoil, as the various warlords among their ranks fought for control, they had gone from rampaging through Teutonic Territory to killing each other in pursuit of power. Thus Berengar was not exaggerating when he said that Jürgen's actions were not in vain.

However, Berengar had a new headache to do with; while his agents continued to hamper the Eastern Coalition; the Pope had done something incredibly foolish and turned the might of his proxies towards the Iberian Front. Desperate for a victory against Austria before he could gather his forces to march on its Kingdom, the man had implored hundreds of thousands of men to go out and die in the Iberian Peninsula.

A single division of Austrian soldiers may be equipped with the most modern weapons available to them. Still, they were not enough to single-handedly fight off hundreds of thousands of hostiles. Thus Berengar would have to push back his plan to annex the Teutonic State and personally lead the Second Division into Granada. After all, a war of this caliber was something that Berengar was compelled to take part in.

The young King of Austria took another sip of his whiskey as he thought about this. While conscription had been introduced into the constitution of Austria and was currently undergoing implementation, it would be months before any of the hundreds of thousands of young men being thrust into the Armed Forces were adequately trained and outfitted for war. Thus he could only rely on his current army of 100,000 Men and the fledgling force he had established in Bohemia, of roughly 15,000.

Of course, Berengar did not plan to send all his soldiers into Iberia and leave the fatherland defended solely by the garrisons. Thus he planned to dispatch the Second Division, alongside the 15,000 Bohemians, for a total of 40,000 additional men to enter the Reconquista. When combined with the First Division and the roughly ten thousand Granadans who remained in its Armed Forces, he would have close to 75,000 Men in the field.

Despite this, they would be heavily outnumbered by their enemies. Thus Berengar was left with one option, to call upon the alliance he had made with the Byzantine Empire and ask for their aid. With this in mind, he took another sip of his whiskey before drafting a formal letter to the Emperor of Byzantium requesting military assistance in Iberia.

By the time Berengar finished all of this, it was well past midnight, and he was both exhausted and heavily intoxicated. Thus when he left his study and entered the hallway searching for his quarters, he stumbled upon a young woman he believed to be his wife, Adela. After all, she looked awfully similar and it wasn't easy to make out her features in the darkness.

This girl had her golden blonde hair tied up in twintails and wore a frilly white nightgown as she gazed at the King of Austria with an embarrassed expression. Berengar instantly stumbled forward and grabbed ahold of the girl before kissing her passionately on the lips. After doing so, he whispered something in her ears, which caused her appearance to flush, followed by a silent nod.

Berengar then led the girl into the penthouse suite where he lay her on the bed; he proceeded to get undressed before pouncing on the girl, who appeared as if she was a frightened little rabbit about to be devoured by a hungry wolf.

Just when the girl was sure that her chastity would be taken, Berengar collapsed on top of her, he was truly and utterly asleep. This girl then began to pout while stuck beneath the weight of her elder brother, with a single phrase escaping from her luscious pink lips.

"Stupid big brother..."

Berengar would never realize how close he came to making a horrible mistake on that night. By the time he awoke, Henrietta would be gone, and he would have no memory of what had transpired.