Moored along the piers was a fleet unlike anything the world had ever conceived...
These were not the frail, wooden longships of Ragnar Ulfsson's ancestors, but massive, ocean-going ironclads, their riveted steel hulls gleaming menacingly under the overcast sky.
Ragnar stood upon the elevated observation deck of the harbor, his eyes scanning the boarding process.
He was sending nearly 7,000 settlers across the Atlantic to the continent he had definitively named America. These were not mere expendable peasants; they were a curated cross-section of his empire's brightest minds and sturdiest laborers.
Yet, what truly concerned the young king was the military escort accompanying them.
Boarding the transport vessels were 3,500 soldiers, organized into mixed battalions of musketeers and pikemen, supported by several batteries of advanced field cannons.
