Tyranny of Steel

While Berengar feasted and slept within a secluded village, hidden in the frozen wastes of Iceland. The majority of the soldiers which he had taken on this journey were fast at work, investigating the bishopric of Reykjavík. Two teams of Marines worked together to bring down the Bishop and his allies.

Sergeant Wolf Engel, led a squad of Germany's finest Marines to the city's cathedral in the dead of night. By now, nobody was left in the building, which gave them the ability to sneak in unnoticed. After picking the lock, Wolf was first to enter, where he used the flashlight in his hand to search for the church's misdeeds. Upon entry, Sergeant Engel and his squad were quick to notice how luxurious such a backwater cathedral was. Which they were quick to comment about..

"It's one thing for the Grand Cathedral of Kufstein to be filled with gold and silver everywhere you look. After all, we built the damned thing to mock the Papacy and their greed. However, this timber fucking chapel in the middle of goddamn nowhere is still so lavish? Something smells fishy here..."

A corporal nodded his head and looked over at a large golden cross, which had the figure of Jesus Christ carved into its main beam. He couldn't help but break the third commandment upon witnessing such a thing.

"Jesus fucking christ, look at this. How much do you think such a thing is worth? It's got to weigh at least thirty kilos! Now that's a cross to bear!"

The marines continued to flash their lights throughout the building, looking for any possible evidence of wrongdoing. Eventually they made their way to the back, where the Bishop's personal office was. Once inside, they dug through books, letters, and any documents they could get their hands on. It was Sergeant Engel, who was the first to find any real damning piece of evidence.

"Take a look at this? It's a correspondence between Lord Erik and the Bishop of Reykjavík. It's dated roughly four years ago, shortly after the fall of the Papacy. In this document, the Bishop informs Lord Erik of the Pope's demise, and suggests keeping it a secret from the people of Iceland so they can be extorted!"

The next one to speak was the corporal who had previously found the golden cross.

"Over here, I think I've got something! It's the church's ledgers. I see an absurd amount of money coming in and going out. I mean, from what I can see here, the people are clearly being extorted, and a large chunk of that is going back into Erik's pockets. Clearly, this is bigger than we initially thought it was!"

The more the marines dug through the Bishop's documents, the larger this conspiracy became. There were letters of correspondence written to other parts of the Kalmar union, exposing an enormous human trafficking ring of young boys and girls. Many of which were being sold into slavery.

One thing quickly became certain: throughout northern Europe there was a network of former catholic priests, and catholic sympathizers, who were running an illegal slave trade. Most of which were children taken from Iceland and sold throughout Scandinavia, where they suffered god knows what abuse.

Upon learning such a thing, Sergeant Engel could only confiscate the evidence and bring it back to his superior. This was way beyond his paygrade. Once on board the SMS Linde, he handed the documents over to Captain Viktor Weiss, who gazed upon them with a grim expression on his face. After several moments of silence, the Captain spoke to his subordinate with a grave tone in his voice.

"Does anyone other than your squad know about this?"

With a slight shake of the head, Sergeant Engel confirmed that only he and his men knew about this conspiracy. Which allowed the Captain to breathe a sigh of relief, where he then explained in detail what exactly was about to happen.

"Once the other squad reports to me, I will give them the same talk I am now going to give to you. What I am going to do is report this directly to imperial intelligence. I'll allow them to handle this from here on out. As for the rest of you, not a single word about what you have found will ever escape your lips. Do you understand me?"

It slightly surprised Sergeant Engel when he heard this cautious remark. He did not understand why they should not directly inform the Kaiser about this matter when he finally returned from wherever the hell he had gone to, and was quick to voice this concern.

"Shouldn't we alert the Kaiser? If he were to find out about this, then surely he would be able to do something about it!"

With a heavy say Captain Weiss shook his head before informing the lowly Sergeant on why this was a bad idea.

"The Kaiser is a brilliant man, one with the upmost virtuous character. However, he is also a passionate man, and passion leads to impulsiveness. If he were to discover this horrific conspiracy, then it is entirely possible that he gets so enraged that he does something foolish like declare war on his own allies, in some vain attempt to rid the world of these evildoers.

While the Kaiser might succeed in his endeavors, he would likely turn the world against him for doing so. Believe me when I say such matters are best reserved for the spider queen and her myriad of minions."

This cautious response was understandable when one understood Berengar's character. If there was one crime that the Kaiser despised most of all, it was the abuse of children. In fact, the Reich's laws regarding such crimes were brutal, but completely justified.

Once convicted, the offender would be castrated where they would then be sent off to endure the rest of their miserable lives in labor camps that were so atrocious you might as well call them gulags. In the modern world, such a sentence might be considered inhumane, but then again, Berengar didn't consider child abusers to be human beings in the first place.

Naturally, Sergeant Engel understood this and nodded his head in understanding. However, there was just one question on his mind, which he was quick to give voice to.

"Wait... Who is the spider queen?"

In response to this, Captain Weiss simply snorted as he chuckled. It was common knowledge among the higher-ranking officers of the military just who was in charge of Imperial Intelligence, but for the rank and file, such information was relatively unknown. Thus, when he answered the Sergeant's question, the man had trouble believing it.

"The Spider Queen is what most people who are in the know call Kaiserin Linde von Kufstein behind her back. She may appear to be pretty and innocent on the outside, but in reality she is the director of Imperial Intelligence, and is bar none, the most terrifying woman on this planet.

When you get to be my rank, dealing with Imperial Intelligence is a common occurrence. And I assure you, the Kaiserin is the most capable person to track down these conspirators and make them suffer a fate more miserable than death, all without causing an international incident."

Sergeant Engel could hardly believe his ears. The two Kaiserins were practically idols in the Reich. Every man and boy had their own fantasies about the two beauties. Their supporters were in the millions, and generally one was either a rabid fan of Linde or Adela, but rarely both.

For Wolf Engel, who was in Linde's camp, he could hardly believe that the goddess of his heart was such a person. It took him some time to snap out of his stupor, and when he did, he heard Captain Weiss barking commands at him again.

"That is all Sergeant, you are dismissed, and before you go, remember to give my words to your Squad. Not a single word about this incident is to escape their lips, understood? I will only warn you one last time. This has become a classified matter that is up to Imperial Intelligence to solve."

Sergeant Engel was still in disbelief over the fact that Linde was known as the Spider Queen, and simply nodded his head in a daze before walking out the door. As for Captain Weiss, he could not help but curse aloud once he was all alone.

"Fucking catholics!"