The Mech Touch

"Meow meow."

The sample was too soft and only produced a minor shocking effect. It was likely a third-class exotic with properties related to electricity.

"Meow… meow…"

The next sample caused Lucky to gain a heavy crumbling sensation. This caused Ves to guess that it was a resonating material that could be used to destabilize terrain.

"Meow! Meow!"

Lucky almost spat out the green rock that Ves had fed the cat. The presumed resonating exotic only produced a weak reinforcement effect that was so poor that it should only be found on the cheapest third-class expert mechs!

"Meow meow."

The next sample was much more palatable, fortunately. Lucky experienced an odd multiplying sensation that Ves found difficult to interpret. Did it mean that an expert mech could multiply the attacks launched by a ranged weapon?

A few other samples also produced unclear answers, showing that using Lucky as an identifying machine was far from perfect.

After testing a lot of different unknown exotics, Lucky reacted a lot more enthusiastic than usual when biting into two specific samples!

One of the materials that Ves temporarily called 'Substance 14' made Lucky as eager as when he bit into Celestan Cobalt.

"Is it a first-class exotic?"

"Meow." Lucky nodded.

"Tell me what you have experienced. What is so special about this rock?"

"Meow meow meow!"

"It reacts to energy…"

"Meow meow."

"It destabilizes energy…"

"Meow meow meow!"

"You mean that it makes your electrical systems unstable? And it can do more?"

"Meow!"

"Interesting."

Lucky had eaten a lot of different materials throughout the years. His digestion system and other internal systems were quite robust and could resist the effects of many different exotics that passed through his gullet.

However, Substance 14 was able to make his internal parts feel uncomfortable. Alongside Lucky's guess that it was also able to disrupt energy shields, this resonating exotic was likely a nemesis against electrical systems!

"An expert mech that incorporates Substance 14 should be able to collapse energy shields and cripple technological parts!"

Perhaps the effect might not be strong when used on expert mechs that possessed a lot of powerful protection from the expert pilots, but what about other targets?

It was probably overkill to employ it against regular mechs, but what Ves truly valued was its potential use in disabling large and impactful warship modules!

He could already envision the right sort of mech that could make use of this powerful disruptive weapon system.

"The delivery system is vitally important. A rifle is not enough. It has to be a cannon."

He imagined the birth of a formidable expert heavy artillery mech that was armed with massive, powerful energy cannons!

With each shot, the cannon was able to fire an immensely powerful energy beam that might not be accurate enough to hit mechs in flight but should definitely be able to hit distant starships!

If the enemy vessel was unarmed, then the energy beam empowered by the true resonance produced by Substance 14 should quickly be able to tear through any energy shields if there were any present!

"Many formidable human ships built for combat are equipped with shield generators."

While it may be a bit too extravagant to equip every combat carrier with shield generators, they were quite ubiquitous among fleet carriers, especially in a place like the Red Ocean.

Starships were more precious in the new frontier so their owners were definitely willing to invest in proper shield generators to protect their assets.

There were huge differences in performance between a mech-grade shield generator and a ship-grade shield generator.

The former had to be miniaturized and faced large constraints in power supply and heat capacity.

The latter was able to receive an abundant amount of power from large ship-based power reactors. They also had less concerns about melting because they could dump their excess heat energy into enormous hulls!

For this reason, it took quite a lot of concentrated firepower to overcome a ship-grade energy shield.

If that wasn't enough, a good fleet carrier usually carried many of them, each of which was responsible for protecting a different section of the hull. Breaking one shield generator didn't mean the other ones were affected.

Perhaps the mech that broke one of the energy shields had to repeat the feat multiple times because it couldn't get a good angle to exploit the opening it created!

"If I can design an expert mech that can easily wear down these powerful energy shields, then this layer of protection will no longer pose a hindrance!"

The value of Substance 14 was even greater when there were no energy shields hindering the expert heavy artillery mech.

As long as it fired an empowered resonance beam, the strike could slam into a ship and disrupt any electrical systems that were active in the immediate surroundings!

"This attack will be most effective against surface components!"

Weapon mounts, sensor arrays, communication arrays, maneuvering thrusters, bunker mechs and more could all be scrambled to the point of getting knocked out of action!

Ves hoped the attack would also allow the heavy artillery mech to apply this disruptive effect on the interior of a starship!

Repeated hits might spread the disruption effect and slowly cause a starship to lose functionality as more and more of its systems were stressed beyond capacity.

His eyes glinted as he took one last look at the samples of Substance 14. This was a first-class resonating exotic that he did not intend to sell! Its effects were far too useful!

Aside from Substance 14, another unidentified exotic had also caught his attention.

When Lucky ate the sample, the cat reacted a lot more animately than before!

"Meow meow meow!"

"What do you mean? You feel bloated all of a sudden?"

"Meow! Meow!"

"It doesn't calm down? Is it a first-class exotic?"

"Meow meow meow!"

According to Lucky, Substance 19 was not as hard and tough as other first-class materials. However, it was extremely active and produced a sensation that made him feel as if his stomach was being affected by an explosion!

It took a lot of exchanges for Ves to get a decent idea of what Substance 19 was capable of. Even then he wasn't quite certain whether he got it right.

According to his interpretation of Lucky's experiences, Substance 19 was able to amplify the power of explosions to a drastic degree. The increase in explosive firepower multiplied by at least 30 times!

"30 times!"

That was an insane degree of amplification!

If such a measure was ever applied to a missile or an explosive shell, they could turn from regular ordnance into weapons of mass destruction!

If not for the MTA's greater tolerance for high-ranking mechs, any expert mech that was able to leverage Substance 19 to amplify its attacks would definitely be classified as a forbidden weapon!

"Substance 19 is also good for destroying threatening starships!"

This time, its effects were much more direct. Rather than improving a mech's ability to cripple a starship, Substance 19 was able to turn a ranged mech into a powerful siege engine!

"Each serious attack launched by an expert mech integrated with Substance 19 will hit as hard as the main cannon of a destroyer or a cruiser!"

Ves slowly frowned.

From how much Lucky reacted to Substance 19, he suspected that it might even be powerful enough to rival the firepower of a battleship!

"Of course, I'm not talking about the apex battleships of the CFA."

He figured that it might not be out of the realm of possibility that an expert mech augmented with Substance 19 might be able to threaten an alien battleship!

However, Ves found it difficult to imagine that any expert mech could be this powerful.

The Gauss Baron that the Golden Skull Alliance once confronted in battle was the quintessential expert heavy artillery mech in his eyes.

Although it was a dwarven mech, it contained all of the classical elements that defined this mech type.

Yet even the Gauss Baron was unable to fell any of the Larkinson Clan's capital ships. In the end, the expert heavy artillery mech finally met its end at the hands of the Dark Zephyr.

Ves looked at the chunks of minerals that haphazardly rested inside a simple metal box.

"Is this… an ace-mech grade resonating exotic?"

Certain exotics produced effects that were so powerful that ordinary expert pilots weren't able to resonate with them. They were far too powerful and could easily overwhelm a pilot that did not possess the required strength to leverage their power.

There were other exotics that were more gentle towards expert pilots but did not demonstrate their full potential until the individuals were powerful enough!

Whether Substance 19 fell into one of these categories, Ves wasn't sure. He simply didn't possess the right tools and know-how to classify this unidentified material properly.

After he moved on to investigating the remaining unidentified exotics, Ves had gained a clearer impression on what they offered.

He became even more convinced that they were resonating exotics that were just waiting to be used by the right expert pilots.

Substance 14 and Substance 19 were by far the most powerful of this batch of materials. If Ves was able to make use of them in his own work, then the strength of his clan would definitely rise by another notch!

"I can't use them immediately, though."

That was the problem that many people faced when they stumbled upon rare and powerful resonating exotics. Ves might have to wait years if not decades in order to find an opportunity to take advantage of these newly-discovered wonder materials!

He turned to the mining director who had remained by the side as Ves and Lucky examined the different samples.

"It's too abnormal for so many different types of resonating exotics to emerge in a single site. It is especially weird that each of these resonating exotics happen to produce wildly different effects when incorporated into expert mechs. There should be a greater story behind this appearance."

"I agree as well sir, but…"

"Have you mapped out the placement of all of the deposits in and around this mining tunnel? Let me take a look."

The mining director fiddled with his comm and projected a map of all of the mining tunnels underneath Violet Ridge.

The man zoomed in until the map depicted the right tunnel. An overlay soon came into view that showed where all of the exotics were found.

Initially, Ves wasn't able to see any pattern. The exotics were all spread across a vague cube.

Perhaps that might mean that something in the center may have produced all of these resonating exotics, but the mining teams had already excavated the entire middle!

Ves suddenly gained another idea.

"Please filter out the resonating exotics by strength. Remove the weaker ones from the map."

"Okay, sir."

A lot of areas dimmed, but the remaining ones still didn't produce any clear patterns.

"We haven't registered any solid data on the unidentified exotics." The mining director said. "If you can supply us with the basic details, I can update this map to better meet your demand."

"Let's do that, then!" Ves' eyes lit up.

He utilized his implant to make a lot of notes about the unidentified substances that he had previously examined.

Once he conveyed the relevant information, the mining director adjusted the settings so that the projected map only displayed ten or so mineral deposits that contained the stronger and more valuable resonating exotics!

"Jackpot!"

This time, the distribution of exotics followed a clearer pattern!

Ves expected to see a cone that might point straight upwards or downwards.

What he got instead was a diagonal pattern that he could extrapolate into a line that sunk deeper into the crust of Iron Crusher!

"Meow!"

Both Lucky and the mining director were taken aback at this sight.

Ves on the other hand reached out with his finger and traced the line pattern until it passed through unexcavated terrain.

"This… looks as if something has pierced through the surface of this moon!"