Res Publica Christiana - 6. Quid hoc ad aeternitatem?

Maurice, Duke and Elector of Saxony, had been mulling over the latest message from the Imperial envoy of Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a final demand for the surrender of his Schmalkaldic League, consisting of Protestant princes in the Holy Roman Empire's component regions. The emperor and his ally Pope Peter II had significant advantages in terms of advanced equipment such as horseless iron carriages, flying machines that could circumvent city walls and drop bombs, cannons that could reach ranges of a mile, and rapid-firing guns that could eliminate an entire line of knights. However, these advantages only made battles easy to win, but wars of faith cannot be won with force of arms alone. In the last few years, Maurice and his allies had organized local militias throughout the Empire to successfully ambush and even recapture territories that Imperial forces had gained through overwhelming force. He was able to achieve these results through a pamphlet, translated into Latin, that had been smuggled into his court by foreigners with dark hair and silk robes. The pamphlet referred to a book called, "On Guerilla Warfare", for its principles that Maurice used in how he organized the Protestant opposition. Gunpowder was stockpiled and crossroads were used as ambush points by farmers and townspeople. Weapons from these locations were gathered until there was sufficient quantity, and then they made larger strikes against their foes' military bases and urban centers. These tactics had lengthened the war to the year 1555, which historically should have ended in 1552.

Duke Maurice loudly read the demands of Charles V and Pope Peter II to his war council in Dresden, Saxony's Capital:

"The Emperor commands that you must immediately withdraw from all the fortresses, castles, strongholds, and towns which you have unlawfully taken and occupied in the past eight years, and return to the Emperor and Holy See all the peoples, lands, and properties which you have stolen; you must furthermore abandon your alliance with the Lutheran heretics, and restore all possessions of the Church which you have taken. Otherwise, the Emperor will show you and your subjects no mercy. He and the Pope will release the fires of heaven on your city."

Maurice snorted and asked his allies, "How should we answer this threat?"

One of his fellow princes spoke up, "Your Grace, I suggest that we do not respond and let them wonder. They will see if their threats have worked, but we are not the type to be intimidated."

A boisterous prince said, "No, I think we should just tell them to stick it up their arses and keep our campaign going."

"And why is that?" Maurice asked with a smirk at his comrade.

"We have an advantage they can never dream of a leader who knows what to do and has the balls to do it! In the past five years, Dreden's residents have built many earthen bunkers and low-sloping walls to your wishes. We have repelled thousands of invading enemy troops and survived numerous aerial bombardments from their air fleets. In exchange for our continued resistance, we have decimated enemy forces through the faithful free landholders. We have nothing to fear from them."

A few more voices joined in, "Hear! Hear!"

As such, Maurice replied to the final demand of surrender with the following:

"Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire:

In response to the threats against Dresden, I, the Elector and Duke of Saxony, shall answer the Emperor's demands with my own. I have been elected by the free people of the Schmalkaldic League to protect the rights of their families, their property, their homes, their churches, and their way of life. I will defend the freedoms they hold dear until my last dying breath. If you wish to threaten my people, then know this, your army shall never be strong enough, nor your treasury rich enough, nor your allies powerful enough, nor your air fleet powerful enough, nor your spies cunning enough to break us.

So long as our cities stand and our children live, we will defend the lands and freedom of the people of the Empire, from the tyranny of Emperor and Pope alike.

Maurice, The Duke and Elector of Saxony."

---------------

Several weeks after receiving the reply from Maurice, the Emperor and the Pope met outside the city of Aachen, the former capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne. They were boarding a massive aircraft, known as the Sky Fortress, that had landed in a hastily cleared field. The flying vehicle was built with the most advanced technology and refined material that the Church and Empire could acquire across their joint Empire in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. The Sky Fortress was the size of a mountain and looked like a flying cross, which could carry thousands of soldiers and tons of cargo, as well as being armed with the most powerful artillery weapon ever created, the 1.5-mile-long railgun. Due to the poor quality of its material design, the weapon had a 1.5-mile-long magnetic accelerator to fire a single shell.

Charles shook his head as he stared at the weapon, "Peter, we need to start producing higher-grade alloys. The Sky Fortress requires far too many of our people to operate and too much manual integration between the two cores to balance fire control, power output for flight, and weapons."

Pope Peter II nodded, "I agree, but improving medieval technology to 21st-century standards is not going to be easily achieved. Industrial output in Italy is only starting to see some semblance of improvement with an increase in steel production. Plastic and aluminum production is falling behind schedule due to the need for aircraft in these German wars. I might have been an innovator in our timeline, but I can't make miracles. These factors have seriously undermined our ability to quickly industrialize and fully utilize the resources at our disposal despite our good temporal insertion point."

"True, my influence and economic strength in the Far East is also incomplete as well," said the Emperor, as he boarded the massive vehicle with the Pope, "The Spanish and Portuguese territories have managed to thrive in the last few decades since our appearance, despite pressure from Indian and Chinese forces."

Pope Peter II said, "Luckily for us, Oda Nobunaga's assistance through the invasion and conquest of Korea, Manchuria, and Liaodong province have been enough to slow down Chinese advances. By cutting off their rich northeastern coal mines, their industrial capacity has been greatly reduced. Still, China has a much more centralized nation under the pre-existing Ming Dynasty's bureaucratic infrastructure, and its intelligence network, Dong Chong, has become a major global threat. On the other hand, the internecine battle between Indian princes loyal to us in Goa versus the Calcutta Congress has restricted Indian factions from unifying, but their marauders are inhibiting activities at our Indonesian rubber plantations. At the moment, the appeal of missionaries with new trinkets, medicines, and foods seem to be winning converts. We've also incited Persian and Ottoman hostilities to break the Silk Road land route for Chinese influence to Europe. The last Chinese agents in the Holy Roman Empire were captured last year by Papal agents."

"That will change when the Russians appear in 1560 and begin their invasion of the Ottoman Empire for Ukraine and Black Sea territories," said the Emperor, as they entered a viewing room on the aircraft filled with two rows of seats.

Pope Peter II asked the Emperor, as they sat, "We are lucky that Russian temporal insertion was haphazardly funded and staffed. Their insertion point was decades after us, Chinese, and Indians as a result."

The Emperor laughed, "Of course, none of us were as early as the Corporate Consortium," bowing to Pope Peter II, "It allowed you to gain control of the Papacy through the largest financial and political family in Europe."

The Pope waved dismissively, "The Consortium is a loose confederation of varying interests, we possess only a quarter of the cores. Unlike nations, which monopolized most of the 20,000 or so cores after Hume's discovery. I was lucky to have the most cores out of my corporate competitors and the right genetic markers to insert into a prominent medieval family. Still, I can't deny that life is good, I have a line of altar boys offering their services to me in the name of God. These people are willing to do anything for just a pat on the head or a kiss of my feet, stuff that was illegal in our time is just another Sunday service here. If you want, I know a few all-female convents with untouched orphan girls that would probably suit your needs, old friends."

"Speaking of, how is the Church's research of the historical anomaly in England coming along?" asked the Emperor, as he poured a glass of wine. While he enjoyed indulging in lust and his brand of taboo pleasure, he preferred focusing on issues first.

Pope Peter II responded, "Our agents have not confirmed anything new concerning Elias Tudor, the individual who seems to have replaced Elizabeth I. Despite Reginald Pole's unfounded assertions, there is still no clear proof that the individual is from our time. The core had indicated Elias Tudor is an individual of this timeline."

The Emperor frowned, "Elias Tudor is an inconvenience, but it may just be our over-caution to suspect something more nefarious. Our temporal insertions and agents have granted us control over the English throne through Mary I. Scotland is under the control of Mary of Guise and her daughter. If only Mary I's male pregnancy was successful, we could have married the future king of England with the future queen of Scotland, creating a combined house and personal union. Too bad, she lost the baby."

"At least the Church has full control over the spread of doctrine, through the creation of the Royal Council of the Realm and Mary's Heresy laws," said the Pope, taking a sip of his wine.

"Indeed, the English people have been pacified and the church properties have returned to their proper state," said the Emperor, as he raised his cup and laughed, "To the end of the Protestant uprising and the continued elevation of the Church. Deus Vult!"

The Pope raised his glass and laughed as well, "Deus Vult!"

Both took a long drink.

The Pope spoke up, "Now, back to the matter at hand, how do we break the will of these princes?"

Charles smirked, "The Sky Fortress can produce far more destructive power, I think it's time we perform a show of force."

The Pope frowned, "Are you sure Charles? A blast like that will use a sizable amount of a core's power due to the inefficient power transmission systems for the railgun. We may have the largest stockpile of cores, but we need to preserve them as we're at least two centuries away from developing basic infrastructure for nuclear weapons."

"We'll limit it to twenty kiloton level of explosive force to reduce the strain on our limited power supplies. The German Princes currently believe they can resist our forces with their guerilla tactics. That kind of strategy might have worked in Vietnam or Afghanistan in our timeline when weak and passive leaders emphasized "human rights" and "human dignity" in warfare. Superpowers like the United States, Russia, and China had to fight with their hands tied due to these quaint notions of civilized warfare. However, every military commander knew the best way to deal with guerilla fighters wasn't through limitations, it was through aggressive scourge campaigns of decimation or elimination. Genocide is the price of disobedience," Charles mused to his ally.

The Pope joked, "Did they teach you that in the CIA, Mike?"

Without answering his colleague, Emperor Charles V just stared at the passing clouds as the Sky Fortress made its way to Dresden.

--------

The sentry posts of the league saw the Sky Fortress descending from the clouds about two miles from Dresden. The sentry reported to their commanders and within minutes, all the city's inhabitants went into bunkers, trenches, or the earthen ramparts that were dug throughout the city.

Maurice organized the League's troops and positioned them in various bunkers. He did not want a repeat of the disaster that was the Battle of Frankfurt, where his forces were garrisoned inside the city's buildings and suffered horrendous losses due to aerial bombardment.

Duke Maurice was sitting inside his headquarters when he was informed the fortress was approaching the city, "Your Grace, the skyship is approaching."

"Thank you. Make sure everyone has their assignments and is prepared for bombardment," he commanded, "Have we sighted their armies on approach?"

"Not yet, Your Grace," his aide-de-camp responded, "Do you believe their threat was genuine?"

Maurice looked at the sky, "We have seen the Emperor's mighty Sky Fortress before. It bombarded our cities, then his armies moved in to capture the ruins. We would emerge from our bunkers and fight them for each ruined granary, each partial wall, and even the crypts of our fathers. In the end, they win very little from victory and if they withdraw out of exhaustion, it invigorates our men to fight that much harder. This tactic has not failed us for the last four years, and it will not fail us now. The Emperor must know this, so why does he continue to waste his time?"

The aide-de-camp, "Perhaps Your Grace, they have a new tactic to surprise us with?"

"Perhaps, but it is more likely they intend to bombard the city and use their army in some way in any case," Duke Maurice said, "I am prepared for them. We shall remain here and see what the Emperor intends."

At this moment, a metal projectile was loaded into the railgun, which began its five-minute charge. While the projectile is only slightly different than others used in urban bombardment, the real secret behind the power of this weapon is the magnetic energy used to accelerate the projectile. To produce a 20-kiloton explosive potential, the minimum energy required is 22 gigawatts. However, due to the inefficiency of the power systems and low-quality material used in the Sky Fortress, the energy being transferred in those five minutes was equivalent 100 Zettaawatts.

When the projectile was ready, the Sky Fortress fired at a 45-degree angle. It passed the sound barrier after one second and continued to increase speed until it hit the ground in less than three seconds. After the projectile was released, a blue bolt of light shot out of the barrel, illuminating the air, before fading.

The Sky Fortress was too far away from the city for the inhabitants of Dresden to hear the roar of the gun, but the city felt its impact as the projectile reached the city center. The blast ripped apart the stone streets, throwing buildings and the bodies of people into the air. The shockwave of the explosion leveled the buildings, causing bunkers and other underground safe havens to collapse.

In a bunker below his stronghold, Maurice was knocked out of his chair immediately when the projectile hit the earth, "What the hell was that?"

However, the ceiling of his bunker had begun to collapse due to the seismic stress that the explosion had placed on the surrounding land. It was too late for Duke Maurice to escape his bunker as he, his family, and trusted troops were buried alive.

------------

Two days later, the Emperor's army was marching on the city. There were no signs of life within the smoldering ruins. It seemed like the projectile had caused an earthquake, leveling the entire city and killing every man, woman, and child in a radius of several miles.

Emperor Charles and Pope Peter had brought a contingent of German princes and nobles, some allies, and some captives from lands as far east as Brandenburg on board the Sky Fortress to witness a demonstration of their destructive power. They walked among the smoldering rubble, the emperor and the pope wearing gas masks to protect their lungs from the toxic fumes.

"Look at these ruins," the Emperor told the captive nobles, "this was the great city of Dresden, capital of the Electorate of Saxony. It is nothing more than rubble and ruin. I have destroyed cities of the Orient and the Americas with fire and cannons, but their destruction was a small thing compared to the devastation that you see here. This is the power the Church holds. This is the power that will destroy all enemies of the Empire and the Holy See. This is the power we will use to restore peace to the world. We will cleanse the world of the disease of heresy. Those who resist the Word of God and the will of His divine representatives on Earth will be obliterated."

Pope Peter added, "The people who reside within the German regions are under our protection, as their lords. Anyone who dares to oppose the Church or the will of the Emperor will suffer the fate of Dresden."

Upon re-entering the Sky Fortress, the Emperor and Pope removed their gas masks and smiled as they looked down upon the defeated faces of the captive nobles, who were released to return home with this devastating news.

"Let's return to Aachen," said the Emperor, as he return to his seat by the window, "and prepare an announcement to proclaim a new world order."