The First Weapon of Many.

[G]

It was cold.

G'nort Dragoon-Talanador was not in the mood to deal with the Gnomes today. Especially not when they urgently requested his presense to unveil some new contraption which would no doubt cause him all sorts of grief and havok over the still struggling Island Nation of Urnst. The Nation which struggled due to the strange and unexplainable occurances of a dark nature which had been happening of recent times.

He travelled along the dark road in a somewhat comfortable carriage along with his ever present assistant, Mai Yasuke, towards a destination that, despite the Summer Season, seemed to get colder the farther they travelled.

"I don't care for the situation." he grumbled. "we've been travelling for hours, and it's getting colder. I didn't exactly dress for the great white North."

"We are all aware of your discomfort, sir." Mai responded a little irritably. The carriage ride seemed to make it difficult for her to jot any notes down in her notepad. "I, too, think this is a little too chilly for skirt wearing."

G'nort frowned, though he did give her an appreciative look over her legs. The pencil skirt, while alluring, did very little to help with cold climate. Then both he and Mai turned their gaze to their other companion, the Gnome named Kari Takko, the project leader for the Steam Works project who was sitting across from them chewing on his fingernails.

"Kari." G'nort said.

"Kari." G'nort said, slightly louder.

"KARI!" he finally bellowed.

The Gnome jumped out of his thoughts, completely taken off guard. "What!? Sorry!"

"How much longer is this going to take?"

"Oh, what? You mean travel time? We're almost there now, yes. Should be soon, sir." He went back to chewing on his nails.

G'nort looked over to Mai and shook his head. "I'm glad I'm not a Gnome. They're nervous little buggers." he then looked back to Kari. "Stop biting your nails! It's a disgusting habit!"

[G]

"We're here, sir." Kari said, opening the carriage door and stepping down.

G'nort immeditately followed, then held his hand out to assist Mai as she exited. She nodded to him and settled her clipboard, notebook and small notepad in her one arm as if she was preparing to inspect a hospital, and settled a pen in her free hand, ready to take notes.

"Right. So take us to this 'Demonstration' you fellows have worked up." G'nort said boredly as Kari gestured forward, falling in step alongside his boss.

"Yes, sir. Right this way, sir. I think you'll like what we have in store for you, tonight." Kari began, if a little nervously as Mai quickly took up position on G'norts opposite side. The Gnome knew that she would be keeping tabs on everything said for an accurate report to be filed later.

"Of course you think that." G'nort said, tugging his suit jacket closer over his chest as his breath clouded before him. "You've said that in Rhydin, when you requested this visit. You said it on the ship as we travelled to Urnst. You said it when we registered at the hotel for the evening and again at lunch. Then again when we got into the carriage and three more times during the trip."

"Five times, sir." Chimed in Mai.

"Five? Really?" G'nort said with a raised brow and look of mild interest to his assistant. She nodded in reassurance and he gave an expression of of interested amusement. "Five then. It had better be worth it for the amount of effort you've gone to get me here. Plus, it's cold."

"Oh, it will be, I assure you." Now Kari grinned as they approached a team of other Gnomes, wearing their long white jackets, goggles and badges which indicated them as being in the Research and Development branch o GnomCorp. They all turned and moved towards Kari, G'nort and Mai with wide smiles and excited expressions.

"Mister Talanador, here's our chief research staff. Tuukka Rask, he was dealing with hydraulics. Hannu Toivonen, in charge of weapons and tactics. Teemu Laasko, defense and systems. Oskar Osala, balance and precision. And finally, Pekka Rinne, propulsion, movement and personal comfort." he said with a smile as G'nort finished shaking each hand. He looked at Kari after the last introduction, a questioning expression on his face. Kari 'ahh'd' "Someone has to drive it, so we wanted to make sure it'd be comfortable enough. You know, for morale."

G'nort smirked and shook his head, nodded to Mai and then looked to the group of gnomes as he placed his hands in his pockets. "Very well, my stunted scientists, show me this great thing." he said with a short sigh and expression of indifference.

[G]

"Ah, yes. Very well then. Pekka?" Kari indicated the last gnome, shorter than the rest with more white hair than the others.

"Hem, hem." he said with a squeaky voice. "Sir. May I present the future of mobile battle armor. The Talanador Industries Three And Nine. Or, T.I.T.A.N. for short!" Then with a grand gesture, he showed them where doors were now beginning to open from the ground.

The doors completely opened and a platform was being raised. Clouds of steam billowed from the aperture, light reflecting off and making the area around brighter. Slowly, a mammoth object came into view. It appeared hunched slightly, with metallic arms and legs. The body was cylindrical with a control station large enough for a person to sit in and giving a full 360 degree of visibility. Attached to the back of this mechanical beast was its engine, including a tall smokestack which gave off a majority of the steam and smoke previously witnessed.

"Sir, it stands at 13.5 feet. Armaments include flamethrower, self loading repeating flintlocks, a small cannon and a rotating bladed claw. The Claw can clench so the arm can be used as a smashing attack. It has a movement rate of Twenty Five to Thirty Kilometers per Hour." Kari was speaking again, describing the various attributes of the new creation.

For his part, G'nort was circling around the machine, and it was difficult for him to hide his amazement and interest in it. He was only half listening to Mister Takko as he continued to rattle off statistics, test results, rates and man-hours. He raised his hand up, caressing the hip of the mechanical beast lovingly as he came around the other side, looking up into the Cockpit. Quickly, he reverted into business only mode. The only one who observed how impressed he was seemed to be Mai, who offered the tiniest of half smiles that even G'nort failed to notice.

"T.I.T.A.N. you say?" G'nort finally spoke.

"Yes sir. For Talanador Industries Three And Nine." Hannu Toivonen finally spoke up.

"Three and Nine? Why not call it Thirty-Nine or.. Twelve." and G'nort groaned inwardly as he saw it just after saying it.

"Well sir, we didn't think you wanted to call it the T.I.T.N. or.. even.. T.I.T. There's some respectability to be done for a creation this good." Oskar chimed in. "She'll take out an entire regiment of enemy troops, she will, without even breaking a sweat. Not only that, her gunshot is accurate up to Four hundred Meters. Most muskets aren't accurate beyond a hundred and fourty. Add into the armor strength and all around power, what you have here is a powerful manned warhulk. I think some respect should be given to it..."

"Don't worry, lads. You've sold me. I like this a lot." G'nort finally allowed them a smile, and they let out a collective sigh of relief. Mai even let herself smile at the result. It truly was an impressive peice of work.

"I can't wait to see them in battle."