The Anatolian Plains
The smoke from the burning Abbasid fortress drifted thick and low across the sun-baked plains of the Anatolian frontier.
The clatter of the Byzantine Cataphracts filled the air as the massive cavalry force continued its methodical advance. At the vanguard sat Strategos Bardas, watching the subjugation of the fortress from the elevated vantage point of his armored warhorse.
Miles of wooden carts groaned under the weight of the morning's plunder. Columns of chained prisoners were being marched out of the city gates, flanked by Byzantine infantrymen. Bardas wiped a layer of pale dust from his breastplate and surveyed the victory.
It had been a brief, brutal siege, and the remaining Abbasid garrisons in the region were collapsing with predictable efficiency.
