Iron Tiger Compound Wars
Heinrich Braun was a humble man. He did not aspire to much, only to contribute something of worth to his new home and adopted peoples.
Having migrated to Guangchou along with the Institute's staff and their families as a young child, he'd grown to love the island and it's grim but compassionate people. He hoped to prove that welcoming him and his family was not a mistake. To earn his place here, even if no one demanded such a price for their welcome.
Having learned engineering, manufacturing and the design of machines from both fellow German expats and more formal education, he was naturally chosen to become part of the Iron Tiger project.
He'd been ecstatic, more so after learning about the true origins of the prototypes from his father's colleague, Dr. Smith. Not even he knew the full details of how the previous Great Leader acquired the plans, but their originating from Germany itself had been confirmed.
It was an honor, then, that he'd been chosen to help conceptualize then design the final look and technical details of the first native model, the first to be manufactured
en masse, or at least as numerously as feasible. It would both give him a chance to repay his new home, as well as to redeem, at least in small part, a tool that had once been meant to inflict untold suffering and death in the name of genocide. It was an honorable task. A worthy goal.
Heinrich continued to repeat these thoughts as he tried not to go mad with stress.
He'd known the conflicts between the research groups. The conflicting design philosophies. The rivalries.
That there had yet to be a death was a miracle. The Great Leader's efforts to keep the peace a valiant, and ongoing, battle. But now this brewing conflict had nestled at his shores.
He glanced at the pile of notes, sketches and diagrams detailing what the research groups thought he
should include in the design. Something about it being the "smart" and "logical" thing to do. Each and every one of them.
But Heinrich Braun had seen the "prototype" the research teams had created. He knew better than to simply acquiesce.
As he tried to massage his temples and the revitalized headache within, he thought back to the eclectic collection of ridiculous promises, scandalous bribes, and subtle threats hidden within the research teams' missives. While he could not outright agree to all of them, he couldn't just outright tell them no.
One of the teams proposed an all-terrain model. One that could navigate their island home's soil as if it were a native animal perfectly adapted to it. A challenging requirement, but reasonable and worth pursuing.
But then came more ideas. A second team was insisting they mount the heaviest and longest-ranging guns they could on the model. With the most amount of ammunition it could carry, for ranged warfare. Also a reasonable demand. Equally worth pursuing. But not as much if it needed to be combined with the first requirement.
Then another team suggested they make a quadrupedal model. Another headache, that. While the original notes theorized on such a model, it had never reached prototyping stage. It would require a completely new design, a new prototype and further refinement before they could even begin making a mass production model.
It certainly didn't help that yet another team insisted on adding another pair of legs.
Throughout it all, the Great Leader had deigned to remain silent, simply allowing the various teams to verbalize their opinions and insults. And Heinrich had no choice but to field those verbalizations himself as representatives from the teams continued to barge into his corner of the facility at all times of the day. They'd even taken to posting sentries around his little hole so as to ensure the other teams didn't steal a march on them.
Heinrich couldn't even go out anymore. He risked being ambushed and cornered by one of the teams. All the while, he continued going through multiple designs, revisions and crumpled paper, his mind fraying as he lost sleep to worry, stress and the constant, 24-hour "visits" from his so-called colleagues. In the end, he could only hope for one thing.
He dearly hoped the Great Leader would forward his opinion soon. Only he could overrule everyone and insist on his own decision without inciting a civil war within the compound, at least from the research teams. Everyone else was too busy being morbidly enamored by what was currently happening. So really, only the Great Leader could save him from this predicament.
After all, while he would gladly toil and bleed for his new home, he could very well be martyred if this situation continued as it is.
A noble, yet regretful end for Heinrich Braun, indeed.
Note: lol I couldnt help but remember
Pentagon Wars when reading through everyone's opinions on the new model. XD
