King of the hill

[Duskling]

I'll do you one better- we'll share it 90-10 and you give us some technology for use.

[Steelfist]

A share of 90-10, and I'll give you most technologies. Some would make you more of a threat than an ally, so I'm keeping those. I'll use my nanobots to enhance your soldiers, but I won't share the secrets of their construction, nor give them to you without circumstances that demand it, and none of your soldiers will be made precognitive. Basically, that's it. All the rest your welcome to use - even the projection machines (I've taken certain precautions about who can be controlled; myself and all my Steel Knights are immune, as are the upper echelons of my mortal troops, and Steel Ersatz Man) and the techniques.

I assume you'll be willing to share some antimatter technology - my Knights are tough as it is, but antimatter weapons would outfit them perfectly.

Of course, I'll also help you in any conflict - my Steel Knights are a force to be reckoned with, and even my less powerful but more numerous troops (And the entire population of the world; who would be willing to fight for me if I needed) are nano-enhanced, and therefore deadly. Not to mention my own capabilities.

Assuming no further negotiation is required, I agree.

[Duskling]

I shall provide you with enough to outfit all of your elite troops and special forces (Or, if the Steel Knights are the sole fighting force of the Steel Empire, as they are warriors of little peer, then one will be appointed to each squad leader), and some personal versions for your commanders, but your regular infantry shall have to live without them. Also, just as a precaution, the weapons have a fail-safe that causes the antimatter stasis field to cease to function, allowing the antimatter to meet with matter, causing an explosion if an attempt to take it apart to learn the schematics of the weapon (This includes scanning the weapon), any part of the weapon that survives the explosion will vaporize. This is not against the Steel Empire personally, it is just something to keep the Proteus Dominion neutral.

If you would like to customize the weapons in any way, however, you can send them back with the instructions, our technicians can handle it.

If you would like anything else, let us know and we will try to meet the demands.

[Steelfist]

At the current time, there are no further requests. Therefore, I accept Proteus as an independent partner of the Steel Empire, and bestow upon them 10% of the Hill, and all agreed upon technology.

As for my portion of the Hill? I simply place it within my battle fortress.

[ArtDrake]

Practicing with the Tesla boomerangs...

Releasing nitric acid into the atmosphere...

Roasting a chicken...

[Steelfist]

Ahem. You were kinda in trouble, last interaction we had. Please respond to that, instead of ignoring it and skipping straight to the devious scheme.

[Xemadus Echina]

Far off in the distance a being of unknown purpose appears.  Following behind him an armada of creatures imbued with purity of essence and purity of form, who themselves control a biological swarm known as the Zerg.  Planets fade into darkness as he approaches the hill... and hell it's about time.

[ArtDrake]

Wait... what trouble? I don't see it. Oh! That trouble!

CAPS LOCK DISABLED.

TESLA BOOMERANGS ENGAGED.

Prepare to fry. 
Oh, and you seem to have failed to remember or circumvent the caustic duckyrodium that my automatons are made of. They are neither feeble nor susceptible to nanobots, and, whether you knew it or not at the time, took out about half of your Steel Knights with the help of the nanobots that were fused to their exteriors from the instant corrosive reaction that took place on contact.

(If you think I'm godmodding by telling you something that already happened, think again before you tell me exactly how a certain battle between my forces and your went without even bothering to circumvent my devious inventions and upgrades.

(In fact, you simply walked in on a training camp (1600 Penn had long since been consolidated into Duck territory) that was 100% battle-ready. There are vast droves of super-dense, caustic, tesla-boomerang-and-gelatinizing-dartgun-armed, duckyrodium automatons ready for deployment on Mars)

The parenthetically aforementioned automatons deploy. Steel conducts electricity nicely.

[Duskling]

I'm being completely ignored, then? That would be preferable.

[Xemadus Echina]

The mysterious entity draws nearer.

[Duskling]

I wave my arms in a crisscross fashion repeatedly, telling the entity to stop and continue Hell Quest 2. I then retreat back to my fortress, antimatter cannons and arcane shields ready in case something goes wrong.

[Steelfist]

I quickly shoot the mysterious entity with a new form of  nanobot bullet. It quickly drains the being, transmitting all arcane power to myself. I use this power to destroy the being, while my Steel Knights use similar weapons to crush it's swarm. The possible threat contained, I turn back to the main game.

Oh, and you seem to have failed to remember or circumvent the caustic duckyrodium that my automatons are made of. They are neither feeble nor susceptible to nanobots, and, whether you knew it or not at the time, took out about half of your Steel Knights with the help of the nanobots that were fused to their exteriors from the instant corrosive reaction that took place on contact.

I didn't forget; my nanobots are not, in fact, corrosive; they use the corrosive material to destroy other things, and can circumvent any reaction with their ability to become non-corporeal, remember? They simply disabled your automatons from the inside out. And my Steel Knights:
 

the Steel Knights, if you have forgotten, are exeedingly vicious weaker versions of myself . . .

They are able to use magic, remember; they simply shielded themselves from any inadvertant reaction.

Perhaps it was a little godmod not to allow you a chance to respond, but I did consider your devious inventions, and it was certainly no more godmod than you clearing my fortress with ease.

Bring it on, Duckling.

[ArtDrake]

Okay, I'll accept that. The way I see it, you seem to be pretty good at disabling mechanisms using magic; two can do that.

My shipments of troops has now also been equipped with arcane arc welders and carrots. The arc welders are for effectively combatting the Steel Knights; any magical energy field that intersects the arc of the welder will in turn result in a feedback bolt of magickonegative potential flowing back to the source of the field (i.e., those with magical shields, repellers, flamethrowers, or dragon shouts -- yes, dragon shouts -- should seriously consider deactivating them at the risk of being heavily shocked in proportion to the energy of the magic used); they are also effective at joining segments of steel plate armor together rapidly and, although this requires some preparation, at a distance.

The carrots are for munching on.

Also, I may be developing a counterweapon against those nanobots. You may want to rethink their programming a bit.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a strategy to devise and chaos butterflies to catch -- it's quite difficult, since they can drum up hurricanes with mere flaps of their wings.

[Duskling]

The only thing I have to worry is getting caught in the crossfire, and I find it highly unlikely to be caught in the crossfire of melee weapons (The arc welders), so I'll leave the shield on. Antimatter cannons still ready to fire due to the mysterious entity (Rainen) presumably still closing in.

[ArtDrake]

Actually, they can be calibrated to weld at long range, say five hundred yards for sniping purposes, one hundred yards for standard stop-'im-in-'is-tracks-before-'e-gets-to-ya usage. Close range, however, is the most common usage.

As such, I would agree that there is a very slight but present chance of being caught in crossfire.