"I have spent a significant fraction of multiple centuries laying groundwork on the basis of which I now say we could conquer Haven City."

"I don't have a paradisical planet to offer you."

"Likewise, I am sorry to say. Are there deals you would like to consider in the vein of giving us the Precursor stone and a truce?"

"- I would have to talk to the city-dwellers about a truce if I concluded that one was possible, I don't have the authority to offer one on my own recognizance. I... I know why I would rather work something peaceful out than have you conquer, eat, loot, and remake the city. If it would be as doable as you claim, what would you like to be getting out of a deal like that? Not the stone, not an end to the war, you have those things in the bag - what else is there for you."

"I will not provide a full accounting of my motives, but I will say that it would be less convenient to conquer the city than to have everything I want handed to me. And I am... curious what the humans would do, should there be true peace between us. Baron Praxis in particular uses us to justify his abominable governance. 'You are safe inside the walls with me,' he says to people whose water supply he shut off. It will disappoint me if he dies at my hands as a hero of Haven City, and not at the hands of his own people."

"I can try to do something with that but it would be very helpful to have an - admittedly one-sided - armistice for a period of time in which to do so. It seems like it would undermine the idea, if I attempted to rally the city to the cause of peace if it were attacked from the outside during that time."

"There is one difficulty with that plan. ...No, I think I can make that happen. For a while. How long an armistice do you need?"

"I don't know. Not less than a week. I am not a gifted diplomat or preacher and will need to - pray about some ideas all of which are probably bad and see if any can be rescued."

"What exactly will you need from us? For instance, it is not completely unheard-of for a wastelander to make a peaceful trade with a metal head. Suppose someone who was themself trading peacefully with us received weapons or information which they used violently in the city..."

"...I don't think a city-dweller using something they got from you would be as damaging to a - peace-motivated uprising - as would an attack from your forces but perhaps I have the wrong mental image."

"Two weeks, starting tomorrow, during which I will not order or tolerate attacks by my metal heads on the city itself, including infrastructure such as plumbing that is partly outside the walls, or on peaceful travelers who do not come hunting us for our gems or other body parts or otherwise cause problems, or on other settlements associated with Haven City such as country estates which survive only by trading with the city or house or belong to people who spend most or all of their time within the walls of Haven City. As an approximate statement of intent and not a precisely-constructed contract, is that acceptable to you?"

"- yes. Thank you. I will do what I can with that time."

"Anything else you would like to say or ask?"

"It is unlikely but not impossible that I will" by virtue of doing all this HORRIBLE STRESSFUL STUFF HE ISN'T GOOD AT "become more powerful, possibly by enough to traverse planes with passengers. Is that something you would want done for your people, over the course of - however many days, there's a passenger limit."

"That depends, I suppose, on whether there is anywhere better to be. I do not know whether our planet still exists or how to find it if so."

"Oh."

"I appreciate the thought."

"If I become that powerful I should be able to go home and consult with people who know more, at least."

"That sounds very useful." And unless there’s anything else he’ll hang up.

"Thank you."

"No problem," says a metal head. "Welp, guess we’re gonna have a boring few weeks."

"You don't have - downtime occupations?"

"...You mean like hobbies or like jobs? But either way, yeah, just, war's exciting."

"I suppose you aren't the first person I've met with that opinion."

"You just fishing for information about our infrastructure or are you bored or lonely or something?"