"Indeed there are." Linette whistled for one of her men. "You, your Machine gun" The soldier gave her a strange look before handing her over the machinegun. It had a round barrel, an intricate piece made of wood, gold and metal. "This is a machine gun. Specifically a CLM-Peacock. It uses 12.7×99mm rounds. Basically, what sets apart a machine gun from a regular gun is it's rate of fire. This one fires faster. Much faster. Some guns also carry bigger rounds, meaning they leave behind bigger holes. You'll notice some of my other men use different rifles, the ones with the blades on them. Those are CLM-Judgements. Bigger rounds, more penetration powers, not as fast of a firing rate." She seemed proud in her descriptions "All of these are some of the most beautiful machines Clathermont has ever crafted. And you're going to need them, most likely"
Both her soldier an lieutennant Arnauld gave her a bewildered look
"Captain, a word." insisted Arnauld in Clathermontisse. She excused herself and conveyed with Arnauld a few paces away, talking in Clathermontisse again.
"With all due respect captain but, are you out of your mind? Do you want to cause a diplomatic incident with Tepror?"
"We can't let them just die, Arnauld, and you know that's most likely what will happen. For the Sun's sake, the'yre using bows and arrows here"
"It is not our problem, Captain. It'll be on your head if Tepror loses their mind over this, and I do not feel like being executed via Solar Cannon once the Count of Irons finds out about this" it'd be clear that Linette needed to appeal to more than humanity.
"Think about this, Arnauld. Tepror attacked them first. If we spin it as a war of Teprorian agression, we'd have the global community on our side and it need not escalate. Once that happens, these people will be under Clathermont's direct sphere of influence. Hell, maybe eventually they'd set up a County here. I could become a Countess, and make you, my friend" she pressed a finger on his chest "A Marquis."
Arnauld clearly did not seem convinced, It was however, going along with this, or mutiny.
"And how do we convince the men?"
"They're Clathermontisse soldiers, Arnie, I could tell them the Duchess wants us to jump off a cliff and they'd throw themselves head first." Arnauld seemed annoyed by the comment. Linette picked up on it "Fine, that was a low blow. However, you know they are unlikely to revolt."
Arnauld took a deep breath. "Fine. If this goes south, I hope you know I'll tell the Count it was all your idea."
"I can live with that."
They turned back to the frogs.
"So, as I was saying, weapons. We have them. A lot of them. Care to make a deal?"
