The two stood at the table, tensions building as The Operator struggled to explain how his gun worked. "Well, it uses this explosive powder that launches metal down a tube." He said trying to simplify it as best as possible. "Have you come across anything like that? When you heated it up it flashed bright?" He asked hoping Falen would say yes. The look on Falen's face told him a story of its own. "Yes..The King had brought a few chunks of the stuff here, he asked me to experiment on it and to not get fire near it. I took a small piece out of the pile and brought it back to my forge before returning for the rest but..." Falen began, but trailed of with a look of guilt. "The soldiers left it in the open rather than put it in our quartermasters hut..some children were playing nearby and knocked over a torch. We lost a lot that day, and you ask me to bring more here?" The Operator could tell the sadness Falen felt shifted towards anger. "I'm sorry for your loss, but if we do this right it could be the difference in dying ourselves." The Operator said trying to bring Falen back to his side.
"So what do you suggest? I only have a small bit of the spark stone left. I put it away and chose not to work with it after what happened." Falen said with a sigh. He reached into a nearby shelf and pulled out a small bottle with a shiny metallic gleam. The stone was a dark silver color. "It's very fragile, and crumbles easily." Said Falen shaking the bottle gently and showing The Operator how it started to break apart. "That's perfect. It should do the trick just fine." The Operator said. "At the very least it will prove I can do what I said" he thought to himself. "This!" Said the operator leaning over and snatching the gun, while holding both arms up in the air he continued" Is a gun, atleast, that is what we called them where I came from." Once Falen had lowered the weapon he reached for when The Operator had grabbed the pistol he continued." Well, we called this a pistol, but gun was a general term. What we're going to make is a shotgun! I love these! I think you will too, but we're going to need a few things.." The Operator started looking around the room.
Falen looks at The Operator with concern as he rummaged through all his works and materials."what exactly are you looking for?" He asked The Operator. Pausing The Operator wondered if they had the words in this world to describe what he wanted. "Look, your technology is way behind where I come from, you'll have to trust me on a few things." The Operator said pulling a speared off the wall, he grabbed a bucket of metal chunks from beside the forge and turned to Falen. "What are these for?" He asked, and Falen laughed. "They're just waste bits from pouring and casting." He explained as The Operator continued to search through the area. He soon paused and turned toward Falen with a inquisitive look. "DO you have cannons? You know, on the off chance your world has cannons, that would be real helpful." The look of interest was replaced by disappointment quickly as Falen shook his head no and replied. "Don't think so." The Operator sighed and went back to gathering items together.
Soon The Operator had found all he could to begin explaining his plan to Falen. The Blacksmith stood there and listened with intent. He knew that for this man the project meant life or death, and he knew that it could also mean life or death for his people. The Operator grabbed a small thin piece of metal and pushed the slide pin free and disassembled his pistol in front of Falen. Once he laid out the pieces he began pointing to each and explaining to Falen the importance of each piece. When he reached the spring he looked up at Falen and shook his head. "We aren't going to be able to replicate this. That's why we're building a different gun, one that can be loaded after each shot." He explained.
Falen grew irritated upon hearing that they wouldn't be able to replicate The Operators weapon. "What do you mean? You said you could do that!" The Operator shook his head slowly, "You don't have the technology. However we can make molds and create barrels, shape stocks with the trees, and even make a powder chamber! We can make guns! Just not mine, it's useless anyway!" The Operator exclaimed in hopes Falen understood he was serious. "Fine," said the blacksmith looking back at the table. "We will build your 'gun', but if it fails to work it's your life."
The men began working, shaping molds in sands, forging liquid metals to pour. The men spent most of the night attempting to get the molds perfected so the weapon wouldn't explode on its first use. After many hours of trying their prototype was much larger than they'd hoped. "Well, it should fire, but it's no gun. This is more like a cannon!"exclaimed The Operator. "We shall see won't we?" Falen said unsure still. "Let's make a few balls to launch and carefully grind the flash powder shall we?" The Operator was excited to continue. While he knew his life was in the line, he also knew he was going to amaze these people. "I'll grind down the powder, you pour up some balls to shoot!" The Operator exclaimed sitting down with the small rock."I hope you're enough to at the least launch the ball." He carefully shook the stone out into a mortar and pestle and began grinding it down. "I sure hope this doesn't blow up in my face!" He laughed to Falen, who gave him a grim look which silenced his laughter. "Right.." after an few hours The Operator was confident they had what they needed. "Falen, pick a location to do this. A tree to hit, all that. These are your people and I understand you would want to make sure no accidents happen." The blacksmith nodded and left the hut, leaving The Operator to gather everything together. The Operator loaded everything into a cart and waited outside the hut for Falen.
Falen returned moments later and led The Operator to his chosen location. He had already notified the Elder, who brought the Shepherds to watch the display. "Give me some time to set it up and we will be good to go!" The Operator said and began mounting the cannon on the cart facing the tree Falen motioned too. The Operator had loaded several large bits of scrap and stone to keep the cannon from launching out of the cart and harming anyone. Once he was comfortable it would likely stay he began to pour the flash powder slowly into the well they'd made for it. Once the container was empty, Falen brought a metal ball over and loaded it into the cannons front. "Alright everyone! Please stand back!" Yelled The Operator as he bang lowering a torch to the cannons flash well, gasps and mourners quieted as the flame reached its target and a bright light burst out of the well, a massive boom was heard as the cannons round flew out of the barrel and buried itself deep into the tree. "Fuck! Yes!" The Operator exclaimed with relief.