It is the year 1529. For the past seven years all of Italy has been a battlefield, as the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Francis I, King of France have waged bloody, brutal warfare over the prize of Milan. The fighting has stopped now, and the Sack of Rome, which scandalized and outraged all of Europe with its ruthlessness and cruelty, is over, with the last of the Imperial troops having been paid to leave the Eternal City. It is a long march home for the soldiers of the Empire, with uncertainty waiting at the end. These are professional soldiers, regiments of well trained men whose only calling is the pike and sword. Peace may be good for farmers and burghers, but not for them. Unexpectedly, word of a new conflict reaches the mercenary troops. An Army is on the march from the East. Sulemain the Magnificent, leader of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, is once again threatening Austria and the Eastern Empire. Charles is calling for troops to go to Vienna, and suddenly the slow march home becomes a race through the Alps...