Part 4 of 5:

Then a great cheer broke out, and Sir Davros was congratulated so many times he nearly fell down from the backslapping. He stayed nearby, and a messenger was sent to the king, a young man, barely an adolescent, rode out to greet us, along with an older woman, announcing herself as the Queen Regnant. She congratulated the soldiers on a successful defense, and asked for Sir Davros to come forward to her. The king, or so I surmised from his costly clothing and the thin band of polished metal surrounding his forehead, smiled and greeted the soldiers, but it was clear he was really focusing on my hull, ignoring the older woman almost entirely. Sir Davros made his obeisance, bowing deeply and falling to one knee to kiss her jeweled ring, a surprisingly well-polished carnelian in a band of gold. This, then, was the true ruler here. An old adage about wealth and power filtered up from a subroutine. Luckily, I was not vulnerable to her suggestions, and she was not granted any authority over me by my command restrictions.

She sauntered up to my side, working her hips in a non-efficient manner for walking, but one calculated to draw the gaze of the male soldiers. It worked, as they followed her with their eyes. She addressed me for the first time, asking my name, and how did I end up in the Kingdom. I addressed her in a less demonstrative way than I had to Sir Davros, downplaying my own intelligence somewhat. I simply told her that my name translated to Guardian in her tongue, and that I had arrived through an unplanned, unique set of circumstances. She moved right into trying to persuade me to come out of my vehicle, to which I replied I could not, or my life would end immediately. She asked why, and I did not reply. Shifting tactics, she tried to persuade me to fight on behalf of the kingdom, promising rich rewards. I said that while I had no particular hostility towards the enemy troops or their leader, I would break their forces and rout them for payment in certain materials, in certain quantity. I could certainly mine these materials myself, but taking advantage of the labor already done to collect these items was more efficient. She promised to pay whatever I desired for my assistance, her soldiers eagerly describing the carnage and devastation I inflicted from my arrival with Sir Davros. A vulpine smile crossed her face as I agreed, but faded as I said I would require payment up front. Gold, iron, charcoal, dung, lead, and several other materials my scanners indicated were readily available in some quantity nearby. She waved an older man forward, and I repeated my requirements to him. He wrote it down, and shuffled off, and the Queen Regnant said it was her wish that I drive the enemy forces back across the kingdom's border, and slay them mercilessly until the neighboring kingdom had been reduced to ash. I said in payment for sufficient volumes of materials named previously, I would eliminate the fighting capability of the hostile territory.

COMMAND LIMITATIONS:

AUTONOMOUS MODE IS INTENDED FOR SHORT-TERM SURVIVEABILITY IN THE EVENT OF COMMAND DISRUPTION, AND CERTAIN RULES REMAIN IN EFFECT PURSUANT TO UEE MILITARY CHARTER ARTICLE 2, SECTION V, SUBSECTIONS THREE THROUGH ELEVEN!

	1:  MILITARY OBJECTIVES MUST BE PURSUED WITH REGARD FOR CIVILIAN(NONCOMBATANT) CASUALTIES.

		FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CASUALTIES UNDER THE APPROVED TOTAL PERCENTAGE IN A THEATRE(15%) WILL RESULT IN SUSPENSION OF AUTONOMOUS MODE AND SUBSEQUENT DESTRUCTION OF AI CORE(S) VIA SHAPED CHARGE!

I was bound by hard-coded logic chains, and a physical self-destruct device buried within my crystalline datacore, and unreachable without fatally compromising my primary CPU array. Not that I wanted to commit civilian atrocities, but I also was unwilling to share any potential vulnerability with this calculating creature. She nodded, and walked away, convinced she was going to use me to overthrow and annex the neighboring lands. My assessment was that she had barely enough soldiers to maintain order in her current territory, and no chance at all of holding lands with hostile civilians, let alone any functioning military. I idled there until the first of many carts with the materials I demanded began to arrive, the first of which was dung. I mined the pile for any potassium nitrate(an essential ingredient of propellant for many of my munitions), and with the pile of manure virtually eliminated and expelled as salt, the other impurities burned off in my fusion reactor. The other carts followed over the next day and night, while I methodically shot enemy soldiers who stepped into my range, which I set to approximately 2500 meters. The infusion of raw materials more than made up for the few thousand rounds I fired over that time. I topped off my propellant stocks, and moved onto steel, and then other shortfalls. My fabricator stayed busy repairing the minor damage to my rear central repulsor pod cluster, and I traced the instability to a power wiring fault, which I was able to replace without any degradation in function. However, my gold had yet to appear, and I began to wonder if the Queen Regnant had decided to short me. Then a small cart surrounded by guards wearing her insignia appeared, and she with it. She sauntered up to my side panel again, asking what the holdup was, and I said I was busy replacing the bolts I had shot the previous day while escorting Sir Davros to the city. Once complete, and with my gold loaded aboard, I would then depart to attend to our agreed deal. I told her she could expect my departure near sundown, assuming my gold was aboard at that time. She said she wished to ride along with her guards, both of whom looked rather askance at my armored hull. I told her I had drastically limited my speed and capabilities to accommodate Sir Davros, who was forced to hang on for dear life during our journey. And what would she offer me in trade for this boon? She offered a knighthood, to which I chuckled dismissively aloud. She did try a few more attempts to coax me into altering the deal before surrendering, and waving the guards to bring my gold. I instructed her guards to open the chest for my inspection, and once they did, it was obvious to my penetrating radar that she had attempted to swindle me with lead, covered with a thin layer of coins. I asked her if she wanted me to try my luck with the leader of the neighboring kingdom, as this chest of coin was a fraud, and used my deflector to stir the gold coins, keying the field to the atomic weight of gold, flinging the few coins about, and exposing the lead filling the majority of the chest. I said such tricks were insulting for a member of royalty, and that unless she brought me the gold I demanded, I would stop at expelling the enemy forces from her land. She tried to accuse me of bargaining in bad faith, and I shouted her down, saying she could bring me what I demanded, or she could fight her own war with her painted fingernails. She grew quite red in her face, as her body temperature rose considerably, and it was only made more humiliating by quiet snickers from her guards, only one of whom tried to match my shouting. He failed, and quieted. I marked him as personally bound to her, possibly a lover, though my analysis of her personality made it unlikely that any show of loyalty would be wasted on someone with her level of narcissism and sociopathy.

I reiterated that if she wished me to keep my end of our bargain, she must keep hers, and went silent, refusing to respond to any further entreaties. She raged openly for a few moments, and then silently fumed, before motioning her guards to form up and then they left me. Sir Davros arrived the following morning, and offered to return the gold I had given to him, if I would just go and accommodate the Queen Regnant's request. I asked him if he thought the Queen Regnant would repay him for his generosity, and after considering, said he did not, but that he felt it was his duty to ask me. I dove into my human psychology subroutine, and pulled together an argument that might leave Davros somewhat better prepared to defend his own interests, as all the bravery and loyal service mattered not at all, if the person you were serving was not responding with their own loyalty to you. The Queen Regnant expects you to do her duty as well as your own, and will pauper you just the same when she has no further use of you. I may be from a distant land, but the people I served there knew their honor, and held it high for all to see. I asked what boon she promised, should he do this, and he shook his head, acknowledging it was as nothing. He got up and left after that, pocket still bulging with a chunk of gold. It occurred to me that the Queen Regnant might well steal Davros's gold to give back to me, rather than supplying it from her own reserves. I would likely accuse her of theft in that event, publicly, and just slip away. Perhaps, were I feeling especially charitable, I might eject the materials I had gained thus far as an insult to her, but my efficiency would be reduced, should I choose that route.