Tyranny of Steel

The calm breeze of the salty air kissed the rosy cheeks of the French King. At the moment Aubry stood onboard the bow of of his flagship vessel with a dignified pose as the sturdy carrack approached the shores of the Holy Land. 

A Crusade had been declared, and France was not the only Catholic Kingdom to take up arms to reclaim the holy Land from the unholy alliance of the Eastern Church and its newfound Muslim allies. Aubry was merely the first among many who would soon arrive in the Holy Land in an attempt to enforce the Papacy's claim over the region. 

The French King wore a pretty smile on his effeminate face as sniffed the salty air of the Mediterranean sea with his dainty nose. If one were ignorant of his gender, they might accidentally assume that he was, in fact, a woman. However, despite his feminine appearance, he was one hundred percent a man, or at the very least a male, so to speak. After all, there wasn't an ounce of manliness in the boy King's body. 

It was a striking contrast to see such a feminine male dressed in the armor worn by the French Knights. Steel clad his petite shoulders and dainty arms as if it were a second skin. Over his delicate chest was a hardened steel breastplate that had ironically been forged in the lands of the German Empire. There was simply no substitute for German steel, and the French King knew it. 

Over the steel breastplate was a tabard bearing the colors of the House de Valois. These were the symbols of Aubry's ancestors who would surely be rolling in their graves should they be aware that such a girlish member of their dynasty now ruled over their lands. 

Speaking of the boy's ancestors, it had been since been a tradition for the Kings of France to embark a crusade, and Aubry had decided with this campaign he would fulfill his part. Thus, he had an excited smile on his feminine face as his vessels approached the shores of the Holy Land. 

Because Berengar had established the Holy Land as a Free State protected by both the Byzantine and Timurid Empires, the Papacy had declared a crusade, and currently there was a sizeable gathering of Catholic Warriors on the coastline just outside the borders of Egypt. 

Many of these Catholic Warriors were armed with the newest weapons produced by their kingdoms. Most of which were firearms designed based on the German arkebuse, which had been sold throughout Europe for the past few years. The French Armies were no exception to this rule.

After all, even though Aubry's enemies had agreed to a ceasefire until the German Empire was dismantled. He knew they were manufacturing and buying their own firearms. With Berengar's intervention in the timeline, firearms had become a major focus of development among the European Countries a century earlier than they normally would have been. 

It was because of this that the Kingdom of France found itself in a precarious position. Though France was openly hostile towards their German neighbors, they simply lacked the intelligent minds to replicate the weapons they had purchased. After all, many of its greatest scientists had fled to the rebelling regions of Aquitaine and Burgundy. 

Ultimately, this had left Aubry with no choice but to break the international sanctions placed against Germany and procure his weapons from his greatest enemy. Despite suffering humiliation at the hands of the German Emperor, and enduring the imprisonment of his sister, Aubry had to kneel before the Reich if he wished to compete with the enemies within his own domain. 

However, it was because of this mass procurement of firearms and artillery from Germany that the boy King was confident he and his armies would prevail against those of the Byzantine and Timurid Empire. Thus, the moment the ship landed, the French King disembarked from his vessel as if he were a conquering hero. With an authoritative stride, he led his proud knights into the staging grounds, where the Grandmaster of the Hospitaller Order greeted him with a forced smile. 

"King Aubry, it is good to see you. I am glad that we have the fabled strength of the French Knights at our side as we reclaim the Holy Land for God and his people."

This was obviously a false greeting, however no matter how much the Grandmaster of the Hospitaller Order despised the French King and his sinful lifestyle, he was forced to suppress his spite and greet him as the King he was.

Aubry was either unaware of the disdain this man had for him or just simply didn't care. Instead, he merely nodded and smiled as he proclaimed his reason for personally leading his soldiers into the fray.

"It is good to see you to Grandmaster. Like my ancestors before me, I have taken up the cross for the Crusade. I look forward to proving myself to my ancestors, and to the Lord god almighty himself as we lay waste to the enemies of Christ."

The Grandmaster of the Hospitaller Order had to choke back the urge to scold the boy for such hypocritical statements and instead shifted the subject to something completely unrelated. 

"If you don't mind me asking, with your presence here in the Holy Land, who leads the great Kingdom of France in your absence?"

A smug smirk curved itself upon the French King's lips as he bought into the obvious deflection and proudly announced his choice.

Panda Novel "My sister Sibilla has been named Regent in absence, she has suffered greatly at the hands of the German Empire, and though she refuses to tell me what she has endured, a fire has been lit in her soul, and with it a determination to witness the collapse of the Reich."

With the mentioning of the German Empire, the Grandmaster could no longer contain his fury, and thus vented his frustrations on the Germans, who were conveniently absent and incapable of hearing his slander.

"Bah! Do not speak of those Heretics. In a few years, they will get what they deserve. For now, we must undo their evil acts within Jerusalem. The Holy Land can not be allowed to be tarnished by those sinful Germans!"

Aubry smiled and nodded his head in agreement as he heard this sentiment before voicing his opinion on the matter.

"Indeed, I look forward to the day that I can bring justice to my sister for the crimes that she has endured!"

As the French King and the Hospitaller Grandmaster conversed about their battle strategies, a scout in the distance gazed through a pair of binoculars. This man was a soldier of the Byzantine Army, and if not for the military aid provided by their German allies, he would not have such advanced technology. 

He witnessed the arrival of the French King, and his retinue of knights with a frown on his face. The enemy's numbers were growing, and despite this, the Byzantine and Timurid Emperors had chosen to sit back and wait for them to strike. The scout was furious with such a decision, but he could only bite his tongue.  A second scout who stood nearby immediately asked the question on his mind as he, too, gazed upon the scene with his own pair of binoculars.

"How many of them do you think there are?"

The First scout continued to observe the scene, and the arrival of more ships in the bay before expressing his thoughts.

"Currently, there are about twenty-five thousand, but with all the ships on the horizon, I can guess we will easily be facing a force of twice that amount, perhaps even more."

The Second scout merely chuckled when he heard this before responding with a sadistic grin on his face.

"Boy, are they going to be in for a rude awakening? It is time for the Catholic and Muslim worlds to both bear witness to the military might we have built up these past few years."

When the first scout heard this, he immediately slapped the man over the side of his head before scolding him.

"Idiot! They have muskets too, and though ours have superior range, their numbers will provide a significant problem. This will not be a once sided slaughter like you believe it will!" 

The other Scout merely scoffed before responding with a lax attitude.

"That's none of my concern. I'll leave the fighting to our infantry..."

It was after this statement was made that the first scout packed his binoculars away and walk towards his horse which was hidden nearby.

"Let's go, we have to report this news to the strategos."

After saying this, the two scouts rode off into the distance, heading towards the location of the Strategos who had been tasked with leading the Byzantine Armies against the Catholic forces. As for the French, they were merely the first of the Catholic Kingdoms to arrive. In the coming weeks, more and more kingdoms and their armies would arrive in the Holy Land seeking to challenge the Byzantine and Timurid alliance for control of the Holy Land.