"Speach"
'Though'
[Writing]
The next day, around noon Robin headed towards the infirmary again the words from Anturia still lingering in his mind… "I think that armor is alive…"
He shook his head. What was he thinking? An armor was an object, it could certainly not be alive. On the other hand, Anturia had been a nurse for years, and certainly knew what she was doing…
He stopped his train of thought as he almost ran headfirst into the door of the infirmary and decided to focus for now, knocking a few times before entering.
The stranger was sitting on his bed, reading something. Now that he was no longer covered by a blanket like a day prior he could see that he was still wearing a good chunk of the armor that Robin had found him in the day he got washed up to shore.
"Oh, hello Robin." he said, finally noticing him. "I think I finally figured out my name…"
"Did you finally get back your memories?" he asked somewhat excited. While Robin wasn't someone to put his nose into everything, he was somewhat curious about the stranger's origin.
He shook his head. "Sadly not, but I found this stored inside the armpiece of my armor…" He lifted the book he had read earlier.
"I think this is my diary or something… There's a lot written in it, including the name „Gamma" on the first page. The rest seems to be blueprints for different types of machinery…"
He showed Robin the book. It was the size of a small notebook barely bigger than a hand and had a cover composed of what looked like leather with copper decoration/reinforcements.
"Can I see it?" Robin asked curiously.
Gamma nodded and handed him the diary which he opened with a spark of excitement. It didn't take long for him to realize that he wasn't dealing with a normal diary.
First of all, there wasn't a single piece of information about his day-to-day life. Secondly, there were the blueprints. The page he currently was on showed some kind of modified crossbow with an equally modified crossbow bolt.
A description beneath it read: [The Thunderstrike is an anti-vehicle weapon that's able to fire a steam-propelled bolt up to a distance of 40m with a speed of 3m/s and can penetrate solid steel armor that's up to 5cm thick with the proper ammunition.
The bolt itself contains an explosive charge that explodes after a short delay to ensure that it doesn't explode before reaching its deepest penetration using a shock-sensitive trigger connected to a mechanical clock.
The tip of the bold is made from hardened titanium to ensure that it can penetrate most materials.]
Robin went to the next page, finding even more blueprints. The diary seemed to be categorized into different parts, such as weapons, industry, equipment, and tools…
The real wonder was however still about to come.
It took Robin a while to understand what he was seeing, and once he did he wasn't sure if he should be in awe, or just write it off as crazy.
It were the vehicles, shells made out of metal and wood using the laws of physics nature has given mankind to create something that shouldn't be possible. These steam-powered machines came in all kinds of forms and sizes with various purposes they were built for.
"Is it actually possible to build anything of this?" Robin asked not sure what to think while reading an entry of a vehicle named Cliff-Crawler that resembled a four-legged spider with a proud size of four meters in height, each leg 2.5m long and ending in sharp claws.
Gamma was quiet for a second or two. "Well…"
He was cut off by a roar that came from the outside followed by a scream.
"DRAGON!"
Robin quickly hurried outside, pulling his sword to join the other guards in defending the town. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Gamma doing the same, although somewhat slower, still a bit unsurely on his feet. He hoped that the stranger wouldn't do anything stupid and stay inside the building.
—000—
Robin was already outside when Gamma got to the window, talking to another guard, both looking quite panicked.
It didn't take long for him to figure out why, and he could only watch in horror what was going on. A Swamp Dragon had landed in the middle of the marketplace and snatched up a little girl who was desperately trying to get out of the dragon's grip, tears streaming down her face.
Gamma had arrived just in time to see how the dragon was taken under fire by a ballista that was positioned on the keep, the largest tower in town. The Swamp Dragon, however, dodged the projectile and shoot a burst of flames at the defenders who quickly scattered a few unfortunates who weren't fast enough getting set aflame, crying in agony.
The Dragon then took off still holding the girl, slowly flying away again.
It was quiet as nobody moved and after what felt like an eternity the first people slowly went on the streets again to clean up the damage caused by the attack.
"Those this happen often?" Gamma slowly asked, when Robin returned to check on him.
Robin took his time before responding. "Unfortunately yes… As our town is a harbor, so we don't profit from cover from trees as we're quite exposed to the sky and the walls around our town don't grant any real protection against dragons as they can fly… We brought a ballista from the Indestructible City, but we could only afford one. While it's able to intimidate some of the dragons, it's almost useless all on its own. I think the dragons are starting to understand that too as the attacks have gotten more frequent recently…"
Gamma had fallen silent his expression unreadable.
"Are you alright?" Robin asked after a few moments of silence.
"Let's go back inside."
Robin nodded heading back to the infirmary, not noticing that Gamma's hands had formed fists.
'This can't, no, this WILL not happen again…' he thought following Robin, while his mind wandered back to the event that had happened earlier, the little girl's cries still haunting his thoughts. 'Not if I can do something about it… I need to check that diary of mine again…'