Tyranny of Steel

Berengar returned from his journey to South Africa with a new pet and a suntan. Like normal, he was greeted by his family the moment he stepped foot inside his Palace's gates. After spending a considerable amount of time reuniting with his loved ones, and introducing the leopard cub Genseric to the family, Berengar trapped himself within his office.

Though Linde appeared as if she had something she wanted to talk about, Berengar had desired to get some much needed work out of the way before he spoke with her. Thus, he was hard at work designing three critical pieces of technology for the coming years.

The First among these designs was a simple bicycle. With the introduction of rubber and synthetic materials, he now had the means to produce rubber tires and inflatable inner tubes. The bicycle was a simple invention, where one used the steering bar to change direction and the force of their feet to pedal the device into motion. Attached to these pedals was a loop chain, which connected the chainwheel to a sprocket on the rear wheel.

Bicycles weren't just a device used for fitness or transit, they could also be used in a limited towing capacity for the sake of cargo. The introduction of bicycles, and the accompanying bike lanes, would allow people in the cities to arrive at their destinations without a long walk, and could even allow farmers outside of the main cities to transport their goods to the market.

While Bicycles were intended to become a primary means of transit for the people to make use of as they saw fit, Berengar had another device in mind for use by the government. Thus, after concluding on a basic bicycle design, he was quick to design something that would revolutionize his society as a whole.

Berengar quickly got to work designing a functional diesel engine. A diesel engine was an internal combustion engine that used diesel as its means of activation rather than standard fuel. Why diesel instead of a standard gasoline engine? Because Berengar had an ungodly amount of hemp growing in his Empire, and he already had the means process the hemp oil that his industry produced into biodiesel.

Whereas he may have land that had access to crude oil, but he would need to devise the means to extract it, and process it from scratch. Something that would take years to fully embrace across his Empire. With a diesel powered engine, he could start manufacturing trucks for use in the military and commercial sectors sooner rather than later.

In Berengar's past life, a man known as Rudolf Diesel invented the engine that initially replaced steam power. He also experimented greatly on the best fuel to be used with the engine, hence both were named after him.

At the time, Rudolf Diesel and several other inventors were focused on replacing the steam engine with a more efficient thermal engine. The steam engine's lack of efficiency came from the constant temperature difference between the boiler and the pistons.

In contrast to this, combustion engines create a large temperature difference in concentrated bursts, allowing the engine's pistons to create more power from less energy. As both a civil and mechanical engineer in his past life, Berengar knew how to device a functioning diesel engine from scratch. However, he had one particular design already in mind.

Diesel engines were not only capable of being used in trucks, they could be used in aircraft, submarines, naval vessels, power plants, etc. However, for the time being, Berengar only desired to manufacture a functioning truck for use in his military as not only a means of logistics, but also troop transports. He could not rely wholly on trains for such a task after all.

A diesel powered truck would also be useful in the towing of artillery. Currently, his army relied on horses for the job, but horses were vulnerable, far more so than a truck, and he did not enjoy seeing the mighty beasts lose their lives in combat. Hence, Berengar's first objective with the invention of the diesel engine would be to design a truck capable of enduring such needs for his armed forces.

During one of his past deployments in his previous life, Julian, despite being an engineering officer, had become quite intimate with the diesel engine used by the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. This behemoth of an engine was also deployed in different variations on other military vehicles, such as cargo trucks.

Why did his unit leave the task of fixing such a thing to him? Because the mechanic who was supposed to work on the device got fragged in his port o potty, and the only person left on the FOB that week who had an intimate knowledge of mechanical engineering was Julian. So after an IFV suffered numerous IED attacks and was dragged back to base, Julian was the lucky man who had to spend his time fixing the engine.

Because he was so accustomed to this workhorse of an engine, Berengar designed his new engine to become his primary workhorse in the military. The engine in question was known as the V903 in his past life. The V903 was an eight-cylinder 'V' configuration with a 903 cubic inch (14.8-litre) displacement. It had four valves per cylinder, which was turbocharged and air-to-water after-cooled, and had a low pressure common rail fuel system. It could produce a whopping 660 Horsepower and a maximum torque 1930 nm.

To Berengar, this diesel powered engine was not just the answer to his nation's transport needs, it was the answer to his future armored vehicles. Though the likelihood of him needing such things within the next few decades was slim. Thus, for the time being, he would be focused on adding critical pieces of technology, such as mechanized vehicles to his army for the purpose of logistics, not combat.

After designing the diesel engine, Berengar moved on to the next most important invention he needed to create, and that was the truck. With his new diesel engine developed, he now would focus on a transport vehicle before anything else. He decided to make the standard for his military to be a five ton 6x6 truck. Though it was the size of a modern military truck, it was created in an appearance that mimicked the design style of German trucks from the Second World War.

He spent a considerable amount of time and effort designing this truck before setting down his pen and paper. With these three inventions, Germany would be entering a new era, one that he looked forward to seeing with his very eyes. Having finished these blueprints, he stamped them with his seal of approval and sent them off to the proper R&D departments to see their refinement and production.

Just when he broke out the hard liqour he had stashed away in his desk, a knock appeared on his door. He did not know who it was that was bothering his moment of relaxation but he sighed before answering the mysterious intruder.

"It is open..."

Upon hearing this, the door opened to reveal Yasmin, with their son Ghazi, in her hands. The boy was dressed up in his usual Sultan's attire, and had an excited expression on his face when he saw his father, and the pet leopard that lay by his side. Berengar continued to sip from his drink as he questioned the woman's motives for interrupting him.

"Is there anything you need, Yas?"

The woman stared at him with a hint of concern in her eyes as she questioned whether he was already informed about the most recent incident in the Iberian Peninsula.

"Have you not heard the latest news from my homeland?"

Berengar instantly stopped drinking as he heard this, and put his bottle away before addressing his wife with a grave expression.

"What now?"

Yasmin was immediately flustered when she heard that Berengar was ignorant of what had recently transpired. She did not know why Linde had not informed him of what happened in his absence, or if it was right for her to be the one to tell him. After a few moments of questioning herself, she sighed before revealing something that Berengar had not expected.

"There was a terrorist attack in Iberia..."