"Speach"

'Thought'

[Writing]

—

Gamma compared the device on the table in front of him with the blueprint in his diary. It had been multiple trials and errors, but he was slowly but surely understanding what he was dealing with.

Initially, he had hoped that working with these things would bring back the memories of his past, but sadly it hadn't worked. He was however slowly regaining the knowledge of how the machines and other contraptions in his diary worked.

By now he was mostly working with this due to how much enjoyment he found in this line of work. He wasn't sure if he originally enjoyed science and clockwork this much in the past, but he wouldn't be surprised. Technology was fascinating!

He picked up a tool that was named a pneumatic saw according to the diary and flipped a switch. The circular blade of the saw started turning with a high-pitched buzz quickly reaching its maximum speed.

While this was the first time Gamma could remember using this tool with his common sense telling him that this probably won't work, he still had the lingering feeling of familiarity in his subconscious. The tool just felt right in his hand neither too heavy nor too light and somehow he was operating the saw in a way as if he had already used it hundreds of times.

He released the trigger, causing the tool to slowly cease spinning, before turning towards a small pile of wooden planks and metal sheets that lay next to his workbench.

"Alright, let's see what this thing can do…" he mumbled, before walking over, the saw springing back to life.

Over the last few days, he had spent multiple hours at the town's blacksmith, forging together metal pipes, tubes, screws, and bolts as well as a few small cauldrons and canisters.

The blacksmith however hadn't been so happy as there was only one anvil and he needed that one to work himself. Since Gamma didn't want to interfere with his work, he had decided to work at night instead, but that was something the entire neighborhood disagreed with as they wanted to sleep in peace.

Overall it hadn't been easy, but in the end, he had somehow managed to make all the materials he needed without getting kicked out. The blacksmith was friendly, but even he had his limits.

After that, he needed to assemble the parts, which wasn't an easy task as he lacked a grinder, forcing him to use a metal saw instead.

All of that then lead to this moment, a fully fletched out power tool to his disposal, powered by steam. This would make things a lot easier, but first, he needed to assemble a welder… and find a way to fuel it. They sadly didn't run on steam pressure or alternatively air pressure but required something to burn instead.

'Maybe the town has oil or something?' Gamma wondered, trying to think of a place that might sell such things.

Talking about fuel, he went over to a water kettle, currently happily boiling some of the said water, sizzling over the fireplace. It wasn't the hot water he was interested in, however, but the steam that came out of the kettle's spout.

Walking over to it, he attached one end of a hose to the spout and the other end to his welder, allowing the steam to flow into his tool's steam accumulator. He hummed a happy melody, waiting for the steam accumulator to fill up, before finally getting back to work.

While he progressed at a decent rate now, the saw making cutting through the materials a bit easier, he still didn't work as fast as he hoped he would. That was however mostly because he lacked a proper way to quickly refill the saw's accumulator.

'Really need to get a pressure generator running sooner than later…' he thought to himself. 'A water kettle simply wasn't fit for the job and can't fill up the accumulator to its maximum capacity. Well, sadly I don't have an alternative right now… I need a welder before I can start working properly.'

With that he continued working, taking five minutes every quarter-hour to refuel his grinder.

It took another 4 hours, but then he was finally done, a freshly constructed welder lying on the workbench in front of him.

"Alright…" Gamma said, looking over the new addition of tools to his equipment. "Now that I have some decent tools to work with, let's see what I can do with these…"

He opened his diary, looking over the page.

"Let's start with a basic steam engine… I need a reliable source of energy, so that should do…"

"First I need to fuel this thing, however, and I don't have gas… what are the alternatives again?" He quickly checked his diary. "Oil… they should have that here."

With that objective in mind, he left his house, both tools still on him, while heading towards a shop where he knew he could find what he needed. He was just in time as it was already getting late and most shops started closing for the day.

But first, he needed to make a stop at Anturia's place.

Politely knocking a few times, the young woman opened, greeting him with a smile.

"Oh, hello Gamma, what are you doing here this late?"

"Heya Anturia, I just wanted to know if I could borrow your water cooker for a while if that's possible?"

"Oh, sure." she replied, surprised, but friendly. "Wait a minute, I'll get it for you…"

A moment later, he was handed the kettle, Anturia giving him a curious look. "I didn't take you for a tea drinker Gamma."

"Oh, I'm not actually. I mainly require the kettle to power my tools."

Her look shifted to one of confusion. "Your tools drink tea now?"

"No hot water, steam to be precise, which they use as a source of energy. It's a simple process."

"Alright, I trust you on that… Just try to bring it back in one piece alright? I like my tea…"

"Don't worry." the mechanic replied with a chuckle. "I promise that I'll bring it back once I got a proper steam generator up and running. For now, I'll need two to keep up a decent working pace."

The nurse simply nodded and Gamma continued his way to the next place on his list.

Geo, the vendor of the store he was heading to looked up when he noticed him approaching.

"Whatever it is that you need Gamma…" he started. "You only get it if you promise that you will let us sleep tonight."

Gamma paused, taken by surprise. "Sure, can do that. I'm not doing that on purpose… Oil is all that I need by the way." he finally said, despite a small part of his brain not wanting to wait until the morning to test his new equipment.

Geo nodded taking the thing he asked for from a shelf. "What are you working on this time? You seemed quite busy today, judging by the noise…"

"Trying to make power tools and a fitting power supply."

"Power tools? What's that?" he asked sounding slightly amused, although he was polite enough to try and hide it.

Gamma showed him both the grinder and welder.

"Those? What are they even supposed to do… you know what, I don't want to know." he quickly added. Gamma was quite famous for rambling on for quite a while when it came to technical explanations.

"Alright…" Gamma replied with a slight hint of disappointment but didn't complain.

After he had paid and stored the oil away, he said goodnight to Geo before handing back home.

The sun was slowly setting by now, and the wind was blowing over the marketplace. There was probably a storm coming up.

Something was strange, however, and Gamma slowly came to a stop, trying to put a finger on it while looking around.

It took him a while, but then he noticed how empty the streets were.

'What's going on?' his mind wondered when all of a sudden a shadow swooped over him.

It was that he noticed something that he should have noticed quite a while ago. The wind that was brushing through the streets… was coming from above him!

As on cue, the alarm bells went off, Gamma still standing in the middle of the marketplace. When he looked up, he saw a Mountain Dragon circling above the town, heading directly toward him.

Before he had time to react he already felt a talon wrapping around him, lifting him into the air.

This was the moment that most people would have panicked, however, Gamma didn't do so for some reason. Instead, he went quiet, unmoving. His mind on the other hand started to race, combining stress and rational thought into a strange mix of calmness, as he took in the situation, analyzing it at lightning speed, to a point that it seemed like time was slowing down.

Somewhere in the subconscious part of his brain it was almost like some form of switch had been flicked, and before he knew it, his armor had turned on, the different devices hidden in it ready to be used. All of it was giving off a buzzing sound he had the feeling of knowing all too well, despite this being the first time it got activated since he arrived on this continent…

[Flashback…]

Gamma was standing on some kind of field he couldn't recognize, unsurely looking around.

To his shook, everywhere he looked he could make out shadows moving all around him, all of them slightly blurry as if they were made out of smoke. Some of them were recognizable as dragons, while others resembled the machines in his diary.

The machines and the dragons seemed to be fighting each other, strange echoing screams, shouts, and sometimes explosions swiping over the field, sending shivers down his spine. Despite all of the noise around him, which would still be hunting his dreams for a few days, he couldn't understand a single word that was said.

He started walking over the field, each step followed by a strangely familiar sound of mechanical buzzing, emitted by his armor. He didn't pay it too much attention, however, instead continuing to observe the battle.

Both sides were having losses, limps of dragons as well as parts of destroyed machines littering the ground around him. He couldn't say who was winning however, the chaos and size of the battle were too great to get a good overview.

Suddenly he heard a strange sound behind him that he couldn't place. He slowly turned his head, coming face to face with a huge machine that was standing right behind him.

Unlike the other machines that were just shadows, he could clearly see this one. It towered at a solid 4m in height, its body being of round shape and sturdy metal which was held up by 3 legs, all of them ending in a long spike.

Two arms were connected to the left and right side of the body, each of them ending in a long sharp blade, made from a material so dark it seemingly absorbed light itself. Finally, it was entirely made out of metal, which he somehow knew was titanium despite never having heard of such kind of material before.

Gamma took a step towards the machine, not afraid at all despite its intimidating appearance. It was quite the opposite in fact, as he felt safe and confident simply looking at it.

Suddenly a sentence came from the machine, the only clear thing he heard so from all the echoing shouts and screams.

It was a sentence that would burn itself into his mind, despite being only six words.

"YOU NEED TO STOP THE SPECTRUM!"