Anturia followed Robin into one of the tents, the sun setting behind them signaling the end of the day and the beginning of the night. The worksite was slowly coming to a rest as the workers settled for the night, heading back to their tents.
It had been decided that it would be safer to have a temporary camp at the worksite instead of traveling between it and the town each day. While it wasn't as safe as staying in the town its towers, the site's ballistas still provided more protection than you would have when you travel between the two locations.
He had even recently added a searchlight to each tower, their bright beams of light currently cutting through the darkness of the night, searching for any potential dragons that could pose a threat.
The searchlights were actually nothing more than a brighter than average torch from his production, where all the light it produced was directed into the wanted direction using mirrors. Quite a simple, but brilliant design. She was surprised that nobody had thought of something similar so far.
She shook her head, focusing back on the topic on hand. This strange machine they were currently building.
She looked up and was about to ask Gamma about it, but paused when she found Robin whispering something to Gamma who slowly nodded.
"You're sure we can trust her?" she was able to make out.
"I know her since childhood, it's safe to tell her."
Gamma nodded again. "Alright, Anturia was it, correct?" she nodded. "Robin just convinced me to tell you more about the project, but first I want your assurance that you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you now…"
"Depends on what you tell me. If you intend something malicious I won't keep it a secret."
"Fair enough. I can however assure you that I'm not planning anything bad for anyone… well if you exclude the dragons that attack us."
"Let's start with why I'm so secretive about this whole project… Are you familiar with the invincible lord?"
She nodded carefully. The rivalry between him and the empress was a subject that popped up quite frequently every so often. In fact, the two were at war, keeping each other at a stalemate for a few years already as their armies were of similar strength, and they couldn't start any all-out attacks due to the risk of dragons interference.
"He seems to have grown an interest in me. I know for sure already that he has sent a spy after me. My workshop's security has successfully prevented any breaches so far, but it reported multiple attempts of someone messing with the door and windows of the prototype room in an attempt to get inside. I have been changing the door's code every few days for that reason, as well as adding an airlock as an extra measure of security."
"This project is of high importance, and if he somehow manages to steal the blueprint, we're in big trouble. He can't even be allowed to know what it does before it's completed… The council even suspects that someone might try to kidnap me as a means of getting more information. I'm hoping to be able to put heavy countermeasures in place before he can, and this machine is an important step on the way. It will play an important role in making the entire town safe. It can however easily be used against us in the wrong hands…"
She carefully nodded. "Then what does it do exactly?"
"Careful, the walls tend to have ears." he replied, before starting to shuffle around under his desk. "Give me a moment, I should have it around here somewhere… "
A bit later he reappeared holding pen and paper. "We can't risk talking openly about it, so we have to resort to writing it down instead."
She nodded, taking the pen before starting to look around for an inkpot.
"The ink is stored in a small chamber inside the pen itself and automatically keeps the tip filled with ink." Gamma explained upon noticing what she was doing. "Just a quality of life invention, so you won't need to dip it into a pot every few seconds."
"Neat." she replied, trying it out by writing her name on the paper. "Can I keep it?"
"Sure." he replied with a shrug. "I have more." as to prove his point he took a second pen from his toolbelt to write himself.
{Alright then} she started writing. {What does the machine do?}
{It's an extractor.} came the reply. {It's designed to dig for minerals and scoop ores out of the mountainside.}
{Why not simply invest in a mine? Their easier to create and maintain, bring less attention from local dragons to yourself, and require fewer workers. Why risk lives for a few kilos of metal?}
{We're not talking about kilos here. This machine will be able to produce multiple tons of ground resources, and I'm not just talking about iron. I chose this location for its wide variety of minerals, like sulfur, copper, nickel, lead, coal, and if my calculations are correct, hopefully… also some titanium, the main metal I hope to gain here.}
Anturia was quiet for a moment, processing what he had just revealed to her.
{Titanium, what's that? I never heard of metal like that…} she finally asked, going with the easiest question.
{The strongest metal discovered to date that this planet has to offer. It will play an important factor in standing up against dragonkind. Only the most advanced of my machinery can refine it, and even then it's still a slow process. A blade of this metal can shatter the basic iron and a armor is immune against even the hottest of dragon fire."
{You're saying that it's some kind of super material?}
{There's nothing super about it. It's simply the best material for our current task at hand.}
Anturia gave him a raised eyebrow but didn't question the topic further.
{Alright, but why would you need tons and tons of minerals? That's more than the entire town would have use for.}
{Only as long as we're on the defensive, but I'm planning to go on the offensive.} he wrote as a reply, a smirk on his face.
{Offensive? You want to attack the indestructible city?}
He shook his head. {No, I'm aiming for something bigger… Literally. I'm hoping to send the dragons packing.}
"WHAT?! YOU'RE INSANE!" she shouted in disbelief.
Gamma shook his head. {No, I'm not. I'm planning to drive out all dragons in a 10-kilometer radius around the city. I want to make them afraid of us so that they stay away. Just imagine it, children playing on the streets without the fear of being snatched by predators lurking in the sky. Farmers can create fields outside of the limited spaces of our walls. We could create a dragon free sanctuary!}
Taking a deep breath, she slowly regained her temper. {How the hell do you plan to achieve that?} she wrote. {You better have a good explanation.}
Gamma handed her his diary, having opened it on a specific page.
Anturia took it, handling the object with care despite her anger. Despite his best efforts of secrecy, his diary had quickly become a well-known relict among the town and many spoke highly of it and the secrets it kept.
Looking at the page she saw a strange piece of armor. It was composed out of an internal layer of a full-body suit out of leather, covered by an external layer of plate armor, the plates covering the chest, back upper, lover arms, and legs as well as all of the joints, leaving only small pieces of the leather under visible.
A pair of solid boots and gloves composed of leather, chainmail, and smaller, thinner plates covered hands and feet. To finish it off there was a strange-looking helmet with a rather sleek design composed out of metal formed in a rather roundish shape. The face was protected by a leather covering and a metal mask over it. She tried to understand the complex mechanism which allowed the wearer to breathe but gave up after a while. Finally, the eyes were covered by a visor out of… crystal?
Looking again she realized that she had read correctly. According to the notes he used it's because of the hardness of a specific one he was aiming to use.
{The lack of material was the final obstacle holding me back.} Gamma started explaining.
The entry looked relatively new, but Anturia could see that they seemed to have modifications and technology from earlier entries judging by the notes on the page. Her eyes darted over the different properties and features the armor had. Gamma hadn't been holding back when designing this.
{The assembly line has already been prepared. Now all I need is to finish the excavator and I can set my plan to action.}
Her eyes shifted over to the title: Enforcer armor.
{I'm planning to train an army, the first army to go against dragon kind.}
Now we're slowly getting to the point where Gamma turns the food chain upside down as the summary promised.
If you have any thoughts or ideas feel free to comment, I'm always open for them. :D