5 THE CALL OF THE PRIMORDIAL MACHINES
A reddish glow among the foliage near the entrance caught his eye. At the same time, he felt a strange sensation within him, which compelled him not to ignore it. As if it were an animal about to die and in need of help, on the edge of the sidewalk.
Besides... A red lamp? What the hell!
Still cautious and in a hurry, he approached just enough to make sure he wasn't being fooled by his senses. As he approached, he realized that, unless there were giant red fireflies in that place, that was really a source of electric light.
'Right…' His heart was beating fast at the thought he could waste precious time checking this out. At the same time, the hope arose that it could be useful in some way, once he found out what it was.
And somehow, he knew it was very important.
Sweeping the vine up, he saw the dim light under a layer of dirt that covered the glass. A red luminescence emanated from a liquid inside the glass window.
Then, as if he had always known that, Glax knew he was in for a wonder. One of the primordial machines.
Pushing away and cutting the vines as fast as he could, he started to free the machine.
Within his mind, each external part he revealed to his eyes seemed to reveal the internal mechanisms as well, as if he had built it himself.
A primordial machine had the *ichor*, inside that glass container. The ichor was its 'liquid soul', capable of giving potentially infinite energy to the mechanism. In the case of that pile of metal, a surveillance unit on the island, the machine also had the reinforcement of a spring mechanism. The scout machine was to be loaded onto a base, which tensioned its extra spring mechanism. This gave him autonomy of movement for about an hour, enough for its task to cover the necessary route.
It was a mixture of magic and mechanics, since the real ignitor was that battery or glass battery with ichor - the heart of the machine - connected by tubes to other parts.
The mysterious liquid was the quintessence of immortality itself.
Anguished at freeing the scout machine from its plant prison, he rejoiced when he realized the machine was at the base.
His feet felt the heat coming from the ground. Someone in the past had channeled the vapors produced under the island to an underground steam engine. It was supposed to power not only that, but other machines. This was possibly the real cause of the strange noise he heard on the island, and not the geysers.
Even before he could free all the scout's 'claws', Glax quickly climbed it up to turn it on. His hands were shaking with anxiety.
The vehicle didn't have a cockpit, but a saddle, seven levers controlling the legs in trios or individually, two joysticks for the claws, and stirrups for the accelerator and brake.
The scout had the hybrid appearance between a crab and a spider, with thin articulated legs that allowed it to climb over the rocks on the beach. When in ideal conditions, The machine's suspension would allow a smooth climb over irregular surfaces with great stability, thanks to its brilliant engineering.
The lever, stick and stirrup mechanism was the most intuitive thing Glax had ever seen. Little more complex than a typical video game controller. Between his legs was the handle that would release the scout from the base, also triggering its autonomous engine.
There was only one problem. The scout had been standing there, and weathered for a long time. Would it really work?
Incredibly, most of the metal wasn't corroded. A special steel with high-quality bronze. Conductors made of a metal that in his mind was called *galion*... Galion had no correlation with the periodic table he knew.
The information in his mind unfolded in a way he could understand intuitively. But when his modern mind questioned knowledge, information seemed to be lost.
'I better just have faith that I know what I'm doing!' He had no idea how this technology, and spears, swords and tournaments by the hand of princesses could exist in the same world.
But they existed, and he was there, about to be torn apart by warriors with serrated teeth.
The machine shook under him as he turned the shaft and released the scout from the base. It was unstable due to both the debris accumulated in its moving parts and the lack of lubrication, but it was still operative!
A cloud of steam came out of the base, for its lack of care, hissing characteristically.
FZZZZZZZZZZZ!
It was a little warmer than it would be comfortable, and he hurried to use the levers and stirrups and leave the base completely.
The mechanical animal swayed and creaked horribly, cracking and loosening a few screws because of the effort to obey the commands. The ichor at the heart of the machine began to swirl and run through a copper tube crossing the monster's engine under the carcass.
"YAY!" Glax exulted when he managed to free the two hind legs that were still attached to the ground and vines, after a great effort.
He only realized that he made an energetic mistake when he heard the loud clinking behind his head where the ichor bulb was. The effort with the gears and controls was forcing the ichor pumping through the tube, revealing some blockages through the system.
He looked straight ahead. He was about two meters high from the ground, riding a monster of gears and magic, shaped like a crustacean.
About 20 meters from him, one of the warriors, who still had all the fingers of his hand, looked at the monstrosity with stunned horror.
Glax imagined this wasn't an everyday sight for the inhabitants of that place, due to the cautious way in which the warrior behaved.
And if those machines were still a surprise to these people, Glax wondered what would have happened, and how the original Glax knew so much about machines.
'Is that my cheat?'
He didn't have that answer now, nor did he know when he would. Nor was he yet able to measure the usefulness of that knowledge. But Glax knew he was really enjoying riding that fantastic mecha prototype!
The warrior positioned himself in a defensive position, raising his spear.
Glax took a deep breath, and hoped the man would be bad at aiming, in case the warrior planned to shoot it at him!
Making his metallic crab walk towards the guy, with its high, unnerving metallic sounds of stinging pieces scraping together, Glax saw the man struggle not to flee.
The warrior howled, and launched the spear with mastery… The weapon hit the lever panel, and slid to the ground.
"HEHEHEHE… EHEHEHEHEHE!" A wonderful feeling washed over Glax. "Heheheh!" He pulled two upper levers, lifting the menacing claws of the metal crustacean!
"CLICK CLICKT! CLICK CLICKT!"
He showed off his toy, threatening the warrior with the scout's powerful claws.
The warrior's feet seemed to want to command the rest of his body by default. He kept his eyes glued to Glax and his mechanical monster, but his body was already turning to escape, from the neck down.
"MWAHAHAHAH! Fear, mortal!" Glax didn't refrain from exclaiming mockingly, madly enjoying himself in this twist of fate.
"FEAR THE POWERFUL METAL CRAB! MWHAHAHA!!!"
