Sins of the Past Book 1, Chapter 4
Tunnelarmr
By Citadel
The next day.
"Your majesty!" the chancellor called. He ran into the sleeping room and awoke Rene and his wife.
"What is it?" Rene asked.
"Yeah," Rene's wife yawned, "It's barely light outside."
"Something is coming in the distance, it's...well, odd to say the least."
Rene raised one eyebrow, "Odd? What is it?"
"It may be the new vehicle that Vector has been working on."
"Oh, fine, I'll be out in a minute. When will they get here?"
"It was moving pretty fast, no doubt within the half hour."
"Fine, I'll thrown on some regal robes and I'll be down in a second."
***
The chancellor waited at the front gate for the ambassador. The thing was kicking up a lot of sand, so it was hard to see a ground level.
"Here it comes!" he yelled. It closed in, when it came within fifty feet it slowed way down. It went from a brisk pace to more of a crawl. The sand settled and they saw the thing. It looked like a big scorpion. "Get some archers on the roof."
"They're already there. We don't trust them any more than you," a liutenit replied.
"Nice, what the Hell is that thing?"
"Idunno," he replied.
The red wind shield pulled backward and revealed a pilot at the wheel and another man riding passenger. He jumped out of the thing and strolled over to the chancellor and the liutenit.
"Greetings, I am Derrik Stalfos, general first class in the Vector army. I have come to speak with Rene. Where is he?"
"He is running behind, we were expecting you later. What is that thing? A scorpion?"
"No, a tunnelarmr. It is our really secret vehicle."
"Really? It looks like a scorpion," the liutenit commented.
"It's not."
"Hey," one of the gatekeepers voiced, "You SURE it's not a scorpion? It really looks--"
"It's a friggin' TUNNELARMR!" he screamed at the top of his lungs and hopping off the ground a bit. This was met with snickers across the board."
A man stepped out of the castle doors 'make way for the King of Figaro, Rene Figaro!" All the guards stepped out of the door way and put their swords up and made a walkway for the king.
Rene strolled out in his usual relaxed promenade and looked around at the guards, "It's good to be the king," he approved. He gazed over at the tunnelarmr, "Is that a scorpion?"
***
Derrik and Rene talked small talk for about a half an hour until Rene asked to get down to business.
"Why are you here?" Rene asked.
"I am here to ask you for trade relations."
"Why? Tzen is far richer than we?"
"I have come to ask the most prosperous, and powerful nation, in the world for trade relations. We are going to need some iron within the next year or so. The caves to the South have plenty of iron in them. If you allow us to mine the iron we will pay your country handsomely."
"We are very rich."
"You can export whatever you want from our nation, in reason of course."
"Of course," Rene concurred, "What is the tunnelarmr, really? It seems rather unequipped to be something for mining. If it were to hit, uh, gold, as an example, it would drill right through it barely noticing the ore."
"It is for mining," Derrik restated.
"It seems better to destroy large buildings, or maybe even an all around weapon of war. Don't you agree?"
"No, I don't. It is for mining. Do we have an agreement on the iron?"
"On conditions. But first, maybe if Gestahl wouldn't turn the city into a metal wall he wouldn't need our metal. Why don't you tell him that?"
"It is not mine to question."
"I'm sure not. Yes, you can have some of the iron. The restrictions are: No more than four-thousand pounds a year."
"We will go through that in a month," he grumbled.
"And per-pound I demand fifty gold pieces."
"Done," Derrik stood up and shook his hands with Rene.
***
Twelve hours later Derrik arrived, exausted, in front of Devin Gestahl.
"How did it go?"
"We got the iron."
"I don't care about the iron, I mean, did he notice the tunnelarmr?"
"Oh yes, he noticed, but does it look like a scorpion?"
"Yes it does, but that is not the point. Figaro knows the power of Vector, that is the point. They know we command great power now. We command the greatest power now."
"The Tunnelarmr will decimate anything it opposes," Derrik chortled, and then fell into a laughing fit with the young king."
.