With production of machine guns started, I worked first on retrofitting the tanks to utilize them. While some parts were easy, considering the overall size of the machine guns were smaller than the grapeshot cannons, other parts were a bit more tricky. Specifically, changing where spare ammo was stored. The old system stored grape shot rounds in presized cubbies. Now, that entire cubby system has to be reworked to hold drum magazines.

For convenience, shell collection boxes are also attached to the mounted machine guns, but that also meant I had to designate a place for those shells to go. Previously, the main gun and the grapeshot rounds both shared the same space for storing their spent casings. While storing them together can actually save space because the smaller brass can fit between and inside the larger brass, it's still a bit of a headache to have to empty the spent casings, especially during combat, though it probably isn't as much of a headache as the release of the hot casings already is.

Conditions seem to actually be good enough that Kao will be coming here with our approval to come look things over and negotiate for the new weapons. In yet another 30 days of time, they've only experienced one additional swarm attack, and have taken some additional territory. They've started to focus on digging in their defenses in some places, including my advice to focus heavily on fortifying outside their capitol. With all things proceeding well, I think I might bring up the idea of an academy to him.

Having it open to the dwarves initially will possibly go a long way to bringing the other races around to the idea of being friendly with us. Obviously, the academy will focus on non-military applications, however, that doesn't mean that those who learn there won't be able to reverse engineer our weapon technology. It's something that would happen on it's own eventually, so it's better that we use our knowledge to build friendly ties, rather than being seen as enemies.

I have, however, realized that building said academy on Kembora proper is a bad idea. I'd prefer that Kembora City and Kembora the island both are more focused on our own industry and state secrets. By limiting the number of foreign actors on the island, we can reduce the odds of any major secrets leaking, which was one of the main concerns I'd had with having Elora around for years. I did debate a different option for a while, where we'd move our military research and assembly to a different island, and have the academy on Kembora, but with the sheer amount of infrastructure we've already built here towards those goals, doing that would be far harder than building the academy somewhere else.

Everything included, that pushes the academy out by probably a decade. We're already focusing on building out our port city on the mainland next, after all. Not to say that we couldn't work on two locations at once, just that it will restrict exactly how much effort we can put to a project of that scale. The extra dwarven labor force that we have access to now, and should have access to after the war if all the agreements are upheld, will probably be able to assist us in construction and speed that timeline up, though. We'd want their input on a lot of the designs anyway, since this would function as an international academy. I've started discussions with some of the other ministers as to where this would be built, and what role it will play moving forward as well.

Negotiations with Kao went well overall. He came to see the island on the next ship that came back, which was only 11 days later, and while I wouldn't say he was shocked by the amount of things that had changed since he was here last, he did seem to be impressed by everything. The amount of machinery and dwarves operating various tasks seemingly left a good impression on him, though he did bring up that he thought the conditions that the dwarves were living in had him a little concerned.

I assured him that they'd been allowed to build out their own housing as they saw fit, and that it was likely due to their dedication to the war effort that they had chosen to build minimal housing for themselves. I also assured him they were currently welcome to continue building if they felt the need to do so, and that after the war concludes we'll even encourage them to do so.

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That included the potential that some might relocate to another island, where I plan to build out our academy. We bounced some ideas back on forth on the matter, with Kao remarking that the dwarven capitol had had a similar institute, though with a much more narrow scope, and that a few human cities also have institutes of higher learning, though they usually focus on a handful of particular topics, rather than being as broadly scoped as what I have in mind.

Our direct negotiations on the new machine guns was a pretty speedy process, involving a demonstration followed by discussions about what exactly the dwarves would be paying with moving forward. It was nice that the mood was mostly about how they would pay, rather than if they would even win. Part of their payment will be in dwarven coin, with the other part of their payment coming in the form of assisting in the startup of the academy after the war.

My plan for the academy is that, while the initial construction and stages would be focused around the sciences, future expansions or other areas on that island might eventually focus on less scientific endeavors, like statecraft. Kao seemed more than eager to send skilled dwarves to participate in the project, which I can't blame him for the enthusiasm. With how everything has gone, he's essentially become the de facto king of the dwarves, and most of their locations of higher learning have probably been ransacked. Our technology is clearly very different from things currently being operated in the world, and it's very effective. It only makes sense you'd want your best people to come to learn those secrets.

I had talked about the idea prior when I was devising the academy, but I emphasized it to Kao that it isn't a free enterprise, nor is participation something that just money can buy. Individuals who come to the academy to learn or teach are expected to contribute back to it. Failure to do so can result in future applicants being rejected from that region or family, and we'll be actively encouraging other participants to also shun them. After they've adequately contributed back, though, they're welcome to return home and apply what knowledge they have to whatever purpose, military or otherwise, that they wish.

The academy itself is meant to be a place of neutrality dedicated to the furtherance of knowledge. While status from the mainland would still need to be recognized for political reasons, use of political status unfairly could be penalized similar to simply trying to come to gain information and leave.

Kao and I had a long discussion on what exactly that would look like long term, as institutions of all kinds eventually become corrupt and political, even if they still mostly function. He brought up a good point, and I can't predict the future as to what may or may not happen with it, but I can at least institute a charter to try to curb the corruption in a way that is tolerable. We have two things in our favor as far as setting the direction it evolves.

First, given the technology we've shown to the world, it's very likely that most countries would be willing to jump through multiple hoops to participate, meaning we can curb initial corruption from seeping in from the outside for at least a few years, possibly a few decades. Second, if the charter is purposefully designed to allow certain methods of corruption from the start, along with pathways for it to be either removed or channeled, then it should be operable. For example, I fully expect that countries will use the academy as a way to build under the table alliances, and to pay favors under the table to each other. Rather than trying to stamp that out completely, we can simply configure things so that should it happen, it happens discretely, and that only flagrant violations are strictly punished.

If we tried, for example, to completely prevent it, countries might try to bribe staff instead to look the other way. From then on, that staff member could further be blackmailed to commit worse actions against the academy's goals. So, for the most part, it'll be operated as a laissez-faire system, with only the worst corruption being harshly punished. If the academy can go in a good direction for the first decade or two, then a cultural understanding of how it works will become the norm, and it'll be less likely to get corrupted outright.

Of course, all institutions eventually crumble. Sometimes it's lifetimes after the original designer is gone, and sometimes it happens before they're even done building it. Nothing is meant to last, but my hope would be that the spirit of the idea would live on, and others might attempt to create similar, perhaps more resilient, versions in the future with the same goal in mind.

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