Tyranny of Steel
chapter-547

Honoria sat within the confines of her ironclad sloop of war. Flanking its sides were four Ironclad Frigates, which carried the military personnel necessary to begin the construction of Austria's second colony in the new world.

For the past couple of weeks, she and her crew had been at sea sailing towards their objective, and by her count, it would not be long before the steep mountains of the Andes revealed themselves above the South American coastline.

Truthfully, she had not even come up with a name for this territory yet, nor had her husband, the King of Austria. While North America was currently being referred to by the ancient term of Vinland, and the area that was once known as New York in Berengar's previous life was now called New Vienna.

The Austrian government still had not created an official name for the New World, let alone a largely undiscovered region in the south. Thus, for now, the Austrians simply referred to this territory as South Vinland until an official name could be approved by the King.

Unlike the last time the byzantine princess visited this place, Honoria now had a proper understanding of the layout of the land, as well as the hostility of the locals, it was because of this that a sizeable force of marines were tasked to follow the privateers to this region, and act as guardians of the settlers who were chosen by the crown to construct the Port Colony.

Currently, Arnulf acted as the Grand Duke of New Vienna, and status reports between the Colony and the Fatherland were a regular occurrence. The land was thriving with the support of Austrian technology, and the labor of the local tribes who surrendered to the strangers from the East.

It was because of this success that Berengar had asked Honoria to return to what was once called Venezuela in his past life, and establish the first Southern Colony. The young woman had a frown on her face as she closely observed the charts they had made from their initial contact with this foreign land.

While Honoria was studying this, a knock resounded on her door before a familiar voice resounded from the other side.

"Captain, we've reached our destination. We are awaiting your orders..."

When Honoria heard this, she hopped out of her seat and opened the door, which revealed the petite figure of her explosives expert Elfrun. The first thing that Honoria noticed was that the cute girl had a grand total of twelve grenades strapped across her torso. Despite this, Honoria was not the slightest bit concerned, as Elfrun had shown repeatedly that she could fully wield such destructive weapons safely.

A single phrase escaped Honoria's lips as she climbed the stairs out of her Captain's Quarters and onto the deck above.

"Very well..."

After standing on the deck of her ship, the Privateer Captain found that her small fleet was in the bay outside the area where they had landed previously. With the Andes in the background, it truly made her feel tiny and insignificant. However, she quickly snapped back to reality as she issued orders to her troops.

"Prepare the landing craft. I want proper fortifications and shelter built by nightfall. Remember, we are in hostile territory, with limited supplies. Make every shot count!"

Soon enough her orders were relayed across the fleet, and the crew lowered the rowboats where Honoria was the first to step aboard. Perhaps she had been around Berengar for too long, but she, too, liked to be the first one into the fray.

After a while, the rowboats which contained the marines, and engineers landed on the shores, where they quickly got to task. As for Honoria and her privateers, they worked alongside the marines to secure the area. Eventually Honoria pulled out her binoculars, where she gazed off into the mountains above.

Though she did not see any of the locals, she suspected they were already aware of her return, and were preparing for conflict. She did not know that the limited contact she had made with the locals had already spread disease throughout the land, and in the last few months since she had journeyed back to the fatherland, pestilence had claimed the lives of thousands of people.

Much like in New Vienna, the crew spent their first Night under primitive lean-to structures. The second day was rather peaceful, as the Marines secured the area and the construction crews worked on establishing a proper camp. Trouble only reared its ugly head when night fell upon the land.

Currently Honoria was standing side by side with her close friends Elfrun and Malissa. In her right hand was her revolver, and in the left was an oil lantern. The three of them acted as sentries around the northern portion of the camp, directly beneath the mountains.

On this particular night, a dense fog filled the air, and seeing five meters in front was a challenge, even with the lantern. It was because of this fog that the Marines had not detected the native war band approaching in silence.

In the minds of these warriors, these pale foreigners from across the great sea were directly responsible for the plague that had struck the land, and they wanted to get their payback for the losses they had suffered these past few months.

No matter how much they prayed to their gods, the sickness would not abate, and claimed the lives of the young and old with each passing day. There was only one way to end it, or so they thought, and that was to spill the blood of those responsible.

Thus, they quietly approached the glowing lights, as they hid in the darkness. Each light represented a squad of Austrians, and though they could not discern this, they recognized them as targets. These warriors raised their bows as they pointed towards the lights and fired blindly, hoping they would hit something.

While this was happening, Honoria and her squad were completely unaware that they had been surrounded, and it wasn't until an arrow pierced through the fog and hit the ground in front of her did she realize they were under attack. She quickly took action and screamed to the other patrols as to what she had encountered.

"We are under attack!'

With this said, she raised her revolver towards the area where the arrow had been fired and pulled the trigger, causing a loud bang to resound in the air as the .38 special projectile tumbled downrange and towards its target. After firing this shot, Honoria and her girls ran to a different location, fearing the retaliation that would surely take place.

However, just like the native warrior, she had utterly missed her target, as she, too, fired blindly into the fog. In response to this gunshot, a rain of arrows fell upon their previous position. If it were not for the fact that Honoria had wisely shifted her unit's location, perhaps she would have been skewered then and there.

Elfrun frowned as she realized there was no reasonable way to hit their targets without expending a pointless amount of ammo. Instead, she slung her rifle over her shoulder and grabbed one of the grenades pinned to her web gear. The girl held the stick grenade in her hand and pulled the pin before tossing it in the general direction of where the arrows had been fired from. The little girl screamed as she did so.

"Frag out!"

Shortly after saying that, an explosive blast tore away the fog, and a giant flame engulfed the area of attack. Evidently, the girl was accurate with her throw, because various screams resounded in the air, and a few chunks of flesh flew in her direction. Although the girl was splashed with blood and bile, she did not frown, instead a vicious smirk filled her face as she pulled out another grenade and tossed it wildly into the night.

Another thunderous explosion rocked the area, as the seemingly innocent girl claimed the lives of the native warriors with her grenades. Despite the fun she was having, Honoria quickly grabbed ahold of the girl and halted her from tossing another. With a stern look in the Princess's mint green eyes, she scolded the girl.

"Don't waste your grenades. Quickly fall back to the camp. We must hold our ground!"

As a response, Elfrun merely pouted as she nodded her head in agreement. Thus Honoria and her squad fell back to the small camp her troops had made, in order to properly defend it from the natives ambush.

Despite the initial shock after witnessing the grenades, the warriors were still determined to make these invaders bleed for their sins, and thus they pursued the privateers and the marines who fought their way back to the camp. Thus, on the second night of Austria's second attempt to colonize the New World, a blood battle had begun. One thing was certain, this conflict was far from over.