Tyranny of Steel

While Berengar and his marines were engaging in a one-sided massacre on the other side of the world, the Austro-Bohemain Army had finally arrived within Marienburg. The current Grandmaster of the Teutonic order was a man named Hennek von Rotenburg and had greeted Eckhard and his soldiers with open arms. After all, the current state of the Teutonic Order was not exactly enviable. 

Immediately upon making contact with the Teutonic Order, Eckhard handed the Grandmaster a list of demands from King Berengar von Kufstein. After a night of intense negotiation, the terms that the Austrian Monarch had presented were agreed to by the Teutonic State and its various leaders.

The first of these conditions was that the Teutonic State, all of its territories, and claims were to be annexed by the Kingdom of Austria starting immediately. This was something that the Teutonic Leaders had already agreed to some time ago.

However, the second condition was far less forgiving. Berengar demanded that the Teutonic Order disband its military component and become a chivalric order within the Austrian state, whose membership would be conferred to those who had served valiantly on the field of battle within Austria's armed forces. 

It would retain its nature as a religious organization. However, it was demanded that they convert to the German Reformation and publically Disvow the Catholic Church and the Pope. This was a stipulation that the members of the Teutonic Order fiercely debated. However, they had no choice but to accept these demands in the end. 

After all, not only could they no longer defend their borders, but they had a hundred thousand Austrian and Bohemian soldiers temporarily settled in their lands; by accepting these soldiers into the Teutonic State during their negotiations with the Field Marshal of Austria, they had essentially given away any power that they had to negotiate for themselves. 

Eckhard's first act as the newly crowned military governor over the Teutonic Region was to send an ultimatum to the forces of the Eastern Coalition. Under the terms presented by Eckhard, they were given three months to remove all military, and political presence from the lands claimed by the Austrian Crown or face a full-scale invasion. 

The Leaders of the Eastern Coalition did not take these demands lightly and responded by immediately invading what remained of the Teutonic State. A bold move, and one that Eckhard had entirely expected. Thus the aging Field Marshal currently stood atop a castle on the Eastern Front. 

This once proud Teutonic fortress was nothing more than an obsolete structure in the eyes of the Austrian Field Marshal, though it, and other castles like it would serve as important cultural icons in the Kingdom of Austria and the future German Empire, its usefulness as an actual military structure was inferior to a star fortress, or even earthen fortifications. 

Currently, as he stood atop this structure, his soldiers were firing their needle rifles and cannons into the Field below where the army of the enemy had gathered. Eckhard had split his army into much smaller units to protect the border from the enemy's invasion effectively. Thus, he merely commanded 5,000 men in defense of the current castle.  <br/><script>ChapterMid();</script>

Despite being vastly outnumbered, the rapid-fire of the needle rifles and the support of the high explosive artillery was more than enough to ensure total victory in this battle against the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As the shells impacted upon the lines of iron-clad warriors, the enemy began to be filled with dread.

Just how were they supposed to siege a city against such a technologically superior foe? While Eckhard watched the ongoing carnage, a crossbow bolt flew by his head, narrowly missing his skull. Despite this threat to his existence, the man did not panic; in fact, not a single sign of excitement was visible from his appearance. Instead, he merely sighed heavily before ducking below the merlons. 

As he sat by his soldiers, who fired their needle rifles into the gathered army below; the Austrian Field Marshal pulled out a pack of hemp cigarettes where he began to light one up and smoke during the ongoing battle. Such senseless slaughter, simply because the Eastern Coalition stubbornly refused to recognize that there was a new power in this world, one greater than their three nations combined. It was all so tiresome...

Gunshots echoed in the air as the Austrian and Bohemian soldiers poked their rifles through the castle's machicolations while they fired their weapons into the gathered mass of enemy soldiers. The .451 caliber bullets spiraled downrange and through the metallic armor plates that protected the enemy as if their expensive armor was completely and utterly worthless. 

Blood spilled, and bones shattered after being impacted by these large lead projectiles, the sound of the bolts of these needle rifles could immediately be overheard as they were racked back in unison, and new rounds were chambered. Now and then, a soldier would place his rifled on the floor and eject a failed paper cartridge with the clearing rod before loading another round and firing into the horde. 

If there weren't so many enemy soldiers, the battle indeed would have been won by now. Yet, the Polish-Lithuanian men at arms desperately struggled to raise their ladders and ascend to the top of the castle's ramparts, where the Austro-Bohemian soldiers continued to rain down their projectiles onto them. If any man got close to the edge, he was either shot down or stabbed to death by the blade bayonets atop the needle rifles. 

The battle continued for several hours before what remained Polish-Lithuanian forces were wholly decimated; any soldier worth their salt had routed long ago and many of them had done so; the rest of them lay piled below, the castle's ramparts, thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of Polish-Lithuanian men lie dead on the ground. Yet, despite their efforts, they had utterly failed to breach the castle's walls or inflict severe casualties on the Austro-Bohemian defenders. 

In the eyes of Eckhard, this was no battle but a synchronized sacrifice of young men at the behest of foolish noblemen who refused to admit that their primitive ways had come to an end. The Austrian Field Marshal was confident that Austrian Hegemony had been secured when Berengar defeated the Holy Roman Empire. Yet, now with an armed force that was deadlier than ever, there was indeed no force in the West that could challenge the Kingdom of Austria and its mighty army. 

Despite this overwhelmingly obvious conclusion, Austria's neighbors continued to resist the winds of change. They would send wave after wave of young men into the guns of Austria, hoping to overwhelm the trained professionals that comprised its forces. In the end, it would always result in this senseless slaughter. Gazing upon the massive loss of life wrought by his command, Eckhard sighed before commenting to himself about his ever-changing views of warfare. 

"Such a pointless waste of lives, here I stand on the field of battle witnessing the death and despair that my decree has caused, and yet I know that I have not seen the end of the war, for only in death can one truly escape the wicked nature of man."

Upon saying this, the man turned away from the gory scene and descended from the castle's walls. If he were going to continue this campaign to the baltic, he would need a stiff drink to calm his nerves. Thus he entered the great hall by his lonesome and served himself a beer from the stockpile within the castle. 

Unfortunately, the Teutonic Order was utterly lacking in the advanced brewing methods that Berengar had introduced to his Kingdom; thus, the veteran Field Marshal was forced to drink from the weak substance which proclaimed itself to be an ale with a disgruntled expression on his face. 

For Eckhard, this war had only just begun, and yet he was already weary of it. Luckily for him, his King had agreed to his demand that this was the end of his military career. Or else he would not know how to face himself in the mirror for the rest of his days. 

While the soldiers of Austria and Bohemia cleaned up the battlefield and prepared to march on Poland-Lithuania to reclaim the lands that once belonged to the Teutonic State. Eckhard drank himself to sleep. With such weak alcohol, it had taken a substantial sum of the substance to achieve this, but by force of sheer will, the man had swallowed enough of the swill to accomplish his goal for the night. 

When he finally woke up the following day, he would be lying faced down in a pool of ale, yet there was no time to sulk; his army had to be on the march and finish this war as quickly as possible. Thus the aging Field Marshal dusted himself off and put on a stern expression, his ever-increasing battle fatigue would have to wait until after he had concluded with conflict.