She put it down on the counter, reaching underneath again and retrieving a downright tiny version of the gun - its barrel and magazine tube both only half the base model’s length, and its stock only long enough to facilitate the slide-action’s operation, forming a lengthened sparklock-esque handle.

Breaking it in half, Collier showed just how compact the shotgun could be made to be, “I’ve made accommodations for situations where every bit of space counts, such as backup weapons inside a First-model tank suit cockpit.”

She omitted the fact that it was the simplest possible way to get an alternate configuration - just chop the barrel and ammo tubes in half, repurpose sparklock furniture, and it’s done. Minimal need for alteration to the manufacturing, and equally minimal extra overhead.

“That’s… Quite impressive, I must admit, but - these incorporate glyphwork?” stuttered the younger senator. “All due respect, Collier - and your work is truly due a great deal of respect - we’re looking for guns to buy en-masse. We can’t afford the materials and skilled man-hours necessary to get glyph weapons for every single militiaman-”

“They’re eight-hundred thirty gelt apiece,” Collier interrupted. “Eight-hundred if you sign a supply contract for two thousand right now, with an option of renewing the contract - at the same price adjusted for economy shifts. Furthermore, I am willing to supply them at a reduced charge sufficient to cover my operational costs, with a delayed payment plan for the full price - that is to say, you lot will be in my debt.”

“That’s… Still quite pricey, we can’t reasonably arm the entire militia at such cost,” sighed the younger senator, genuine regret audible in his voice.

“Now, we do sell something akin to the guns you might be familiar with. One shot per barrel, you press this lever, break it open, empty shell pops out, you put in a new one n’ close her up. Cheaper, simpler, lighter, less intimidating if you gotta travel to or through an occupied region. We have single and double-barrel versions, both side-by-side or over and under. The over-unders are more accurate, but the side-by-side version allows you to do… This!”

She reached under the counter and hoisted up a four-tube monstrosity - two barrels side-by-side, each with a strange tubular device attached on either side. “A more affordable alternative to our Tyrant Muncher line, a single-barrel break-action plus my Type-eighty-four Repeater Conversion Device costs less overall and splits up the cost of repeating firepower to be split up between two purchases. Five extra shots per tube for the long version, three for the short version. Snap ‘er open…”

Collier opened the gun, and the back portions of the two contraptions snapped into place behind its open barrels, pushing in a shell each. She closed it and the contraptions were reset, the back portions refilled by the front tube’s more powerful spring.

“There’s of course the advantage that these-” she reached under the counter, bringing out one of the contraptions on its own, “-don’t really look like anything, or at least they’re not really recognizable. It’s just a series of tubes, you could reasonably send it in parts and include the assembly instructions with it and nobody in the occupied regions would be any wiser.”

Exchanging looks with his senior, the younger of the two politicians seemed to perk up at… Well, everything to do with the Type-84. Conversely, the older man looked part confused, part impressed, and part annoyed.

“Do you have a manufacturing capacity manifest, maybe some paper documentation?” asked the older man, audibly struggling for any way to regain some measure of a feeling of control.

Knowing how important it was to make sure bureaucrats thought they were the ones in control, Collier smiled and said, “Oh, yes of course! I nearly forgot.”

In the end, regardless of the senators’ feigned reluctance, Collier struck the exact deal she had wanted to strike. Soon, she would supply the public at large with affordable repeating firepower, and until her factory became profitable, the city-state would foot the bill through the need to arm its militia. In the same turn, this contract would also act as supreme advertising, since she doubted soldiers would be allowed to keep their service weapons, and she was confident they would prefer them over any alternatives.

At the juxtaposition of the city hall and Collier’s gunsmithy, Zelsys came upon the self-same bright-yellow vending machines that Zefaris had earlier in the day, with two people standing by them - two well-dressed men, one a hard-faced, somewhat gaunt Ikesian perhaps in his late thirties, the other noticeably older, portly Grekurian with a cartoonishly curled mustache. The former had a quite fierce presence about him, but both were… Greasy. Career politicians. She could feel it in her gut, like an unwelcome mouthful of fat and cartilage where one expected meat.

They seemed to be arguing about something while smoking, curiously looking at the machines.

“I understand carrying a single-shot sparklock or two for self defense, but…” the older man began. “Surely these new high-capacity firearms are a little too much. Truly, seven shots? Why would a civilian need something like that? And this whole machine, it’s ridiculous - won’t it make people take the possession of a firearm lightly?”

“The kind of person that one would need to use a gun against rarely has the decency to come alone. Bandits, terrorists, wannabe occupiers - they don’t understand common decency, so it must be taught. And nobody takes owning a gun lightly, least of all Collier. If that were the case, she wouldn’t have gone this far to ensure people could buy a gun even while she’s too busy to sell them personally - as unwilling to hire salesmen as she is.”

“But, the next thing you know there’ll be people going out onto battlefields and dragging artillery pieces into town!” argued the Grekurian senator.

“Good. We could use some more artillery pieces, all that usable equipment just sitting out there is a terrible waste. I see no reason why a private citizen who can prove that they know how to take care of and operate an artillery piece should not be allowed to own one,” said the Ikesian senator, with only a slight undertone of jest.