Carnelian
Carbonatter"Intriguing. I would like to thank for your positive offer for a quick tour of queen's castle. Also, do you know any national *ahem* sorry I meant, the royal history about this magnificent place?" said the Veilletes Ambassador.
The Lady snaps back
"I'm not at liberty to discuss the history of this place before the Reformation 200 years ago. But up till now, its been under ownership of the royal family, in use by the Trogo Army and my family has overseen and maintained it ever since. Now we go out."
The guard by the door steps out to hold the door, despite it being automatic.
The arrows light up on the transport vehicle, it seems poorly equipped to be travelling on anything other then straight concrete of the port but maybe it can surprise its passengers.
The vehicles speed off, 2 bright luminous police motorbikes join infront of the motorcade. They are flashing their chase lights, but nobody is driving the motorbikes, they are driving themselves!
The group go onto a public motorway. It's freshly tarmac'd and well-lit. The signs above the motorway aren't written in human language though, it's all in computer imagery, black and white squares, thousands of them on each sign.
The drive is 5 minutes, at the turn off on the motorway, they're stopped at a checkpoint. As they stop to a halt, about 3/4 of the soldiers stand to attention to solute. They are wearing dull grey soldier uniforms, the other 1/4 however wear very archaic ceremonial uniforms, almost mocking the modern soldiers. Nonetheless they carry the same rifle on their chest. They just look on with dull expressions.
These strange soldiers are local ceremonial soldiers of the Unified State of Yvantol, a state in the Trogo Kingdom. States are only allowed a tiny percentage of their population to be soldiers, and are usually given token jobs by the Kingdom's army.
The vehicles are scanned by a large white robotic arm that swivels around and under the vehicle with a bright blue light and cameras. Dogs sniff the side of the transports before they are let go.
The castle seems poorly fortified. The dense forest though would be a good defense, although something seems extremly odd and spooky about this whole forest. The iron gate is lifted as the convoy approaches the castle gate. Inside the courtyard, tanks are conducting drills. It is quite noisy, though the soldiers standing nearby on lookout stand rigid without any ear protection. The convoy stops at what seems to be the entrance to the Lady's private area of the castle. A floral emblem adorns the left and right of these large doors, where a man awaits.
"Welcome to Castle Weisswolf. I've prepared several of these moving platforms for your comfort, feel free to ask for any refreshments, we have a dinner prepared after the tour if you so wish to join the Lady and several representatives."
These machines appear to behave like segways, without the leaning. They have a tall handle to hold onto but seem to have a controller stick on top to use with a thumb to operate the device.
