The time machines (otherwise known as chrono dialers) were devices first discovered by Gyro Clypse. The time machines were given to Gyro and his terrorist organization, the Gyro Corporation, by another group calling themselves 'TimeLine X'. Gyro had utilized the time machines to stay in contact with this other group, who warned him of the future and helped Gyro build the three space stations that the Nod would later take over. During an early mission with the FSA, Jerome Star - shortly after taking command of the agency - discovered the time machines on the primary (first) space station the Gyro Corps was operating. When the Nod took over the Gyro Corporation's stations in 2064, the time machines were supposedly destroyed, but all that could be verified by Vinca Union intelligence was that they weren't on the station anymore.

Time machines are a subject of science-fiction to the people on Drakor, who don't believe such a thing to be possible. Still, scientists that have observed the use of these time machines by the Gyro Corps (only one has: Perry Hichi) have theorized and scanned the devices from afar. Perry, the only scientist to have seen a time machine in action, began to come up with ideas of how it could work. He studied what he called the 'temporal wave front' from which time moves in, like waves in the ocean, towards the future. The temporal wave front is everywhere in the galaxy, and different wave fronts can be found in different galaxies, or so Perry theorizes. Inside these fronts are particles called 'chronitons' that seem to be time itself embodied in sub-molecular structures.

The time machines required several other large devices called 'transducers' whose purpose is to hold the subspace ruptures created by time travel. In time travelling, one must phase through something called 'subspace', a part of every universe that is 'phased' out so that it can't be seen, touched, or breathed by people living in normal space. In order to get through that area, a tear of energy must be created in space and the person must be sent through a stream of chroniton particles into the subspace tear and be deposited through a temporary tear on the other side (whenever that person is supposed to appear in time).

Transducers control the subspace rifts so they don't grow uncontrollably and swallow up the universe. Without them, it is dangerous to use a time machine. Gyro Clypse used a miniature time machine without a transducer to travel back in time when Star was chasing him down after the space stations were taken over by the Nod. It created a rupture that miraculously somehow fixed itself, but not before taking the chronitons surrounding Star with Gyro to the past. Every person has a set chroniton structure that exists in subspace as they exist in space. It tells time exactly what timeline each person is from. When the chronitons of the original timeline Star went to the Original Series Star, it was as if the Original Series Star had the ability to time travel to the original timeline just by thinking it... And so Gyro Clypse used Star's chronitons at the beginning of Lost Ages to travel back in time yet again to try and stop the Nod from taking over his corporation and his space stations.

The time machine

A Transducer

Control console of the time machines used by the Circle.