The Mech Touch

There was little reason to think that sticking all of the resonating exotics back together would produce a special result.

It was like throwing in a bunch of random materials in a barrel. Without processing them in a specific manner such as fabricating a new mech, there was no reason to believe that anything desirable would happen.

In fact, the opposite was more likely to happen. A few resonating exotics were quite active and energetic. That was manageable under ordinary circumstances, but if Ves forcefully blended them together, all of them might interact with each other in such a fashion that a destructive amount of energy might get unleashed!

Every manual and instruction on exotic materials always included warnings about recklessly putting different energetic exotics in a single place.

While it was possible to neutralize the negative effects of many of them by blending them into specific alloys whose formulas had been perfected over many years, this was clearly impossible to do for Ves.

Not only did resonating exotics behave differently from normal exotic materials, half of the different types of resonating exotics excavated underneath Violet Ridge were completely new to humanity!

Ves did not know the details of the unfamiliar materials at all. How could he or any other human possibly know how to blend them together in a stable alloy? It was folly to think that he could blend all 49 types of resonating exotics in a way that did not lead to the entire mountain range getting blown to pieces!

"What else can I do, though?"

He did not have many other ideas at hand. While he had already ordered his clan to begin additional digging operations, he had little confidence that tunneling in a handful of other directions would yield any results.

At least there was solid logic behind the decision to dig in the original direction. There was no clear reason why digging in the other direction would allow the Larkinsons to bump into anything remarkable.

Ves didn't care too much, though. The Andrenidae was filled with mining mechs and mining machines. This was the benefit of owning a capital mining ship. The Larkinson Clan had lots of manpower and mining assets to spare!

Aside from that, there was nothing stopping him from putting all of the resonating exotics together and seeing what would happen.

At most, he needed to implement the proper safety precautions and make sure that he nor anyone else was near this potential disaster zone.

In the interest of controlling the environment, Ves instructed a mining team to excavate a large chamber to the side of the key mining tunnel.

Although it would have been safer to conduct this little experiment on the surface of Iron Crusher or in deep space, Ves speculated that he shouldn't go too far away from the original site of the resonating exotics cluster.

If anything important happened but quickly fizzled out due to being at the wrong place, Ves would definitely regret it if the event could only be triggered once!

Although there was a risk that the entire attempt would produce an explosion that might affect the nearby tunnels, the Larkinsons had already made sufficient precautions.

Many mining mechs and mining personnel retreated from the vicinity. More combat mechs were brought over to Violet Ridge, but they mostly remained on standby on the surface.

Ves had also instructed the original mining team to suspend their apparently fruitless attempt to dig all the way to a completely different side of the moon and return to the surface.

The only mechs that remained in the vicinity was their escort. The new Living Sentinel mechs along with the Minerva and the Everchanger ought to be able to handle themselves. They were all sturdy enough to withstand most accidents as long as they kept a respectable distance.

The armored shuttle carrying Ves, Lucky and a team of console operators had retreated as well, though not too far. Ves did not want to miss what might happen. If anything spiritual occurred, then his perception and expertise were crucial to understanding what was happening!

"Will that happen, though?" Ves wondered.

There was no evidence that it should. While he had encountered plenty of evidence that certain alien races in the Milky Way had become proficient in manipulating spiritual energy, he had yet to encounter the same in the Red Ocean.

"Maybe what happens next will surprise me. Or not."

That was the enjoyable part about all of this exploration. He could never guess what he might stumble upon next.

Once he and his men confirmed that everything and everyone was in place, Ves commenced the experiment.

He decided to start small and cautiously press small samples of different resonating exotics together. He did not bother to think too much about matching their sizes, shapes and energy levels or anything.

He just wanted to see whether putting them all together would produce a favorable response. He could figure out his next course of actions from the initial outcome.

"Commence the test." Ves ordered as he observed the data presented by the projected screens.

The method he devised to put all 49 samples together was relatively simple. Ves had brought in a precise gravitic manipulation device that was able to precisely manipulate different objects through manipulating gravity.

At first, nothing happened.

"Most exotics and resonating exotics do not produce violent reactions when put into close proximity with each other." The mining director stated. "However, we should be seeing signs of elevated activity as the active materials subject each other to different effects that will probably alter their states."

Ves nodded in agreement. He knew more than enough about materials science to know that this was an inevitable outcome.

In fact, this was one of the methods in which humanity and other races continually developed stronger warships and other assets over time.

Brilliant scientists continually experimented with combining different exotics together in different proportions and methods. Most alloys that they created through trial and error ended up as flawed and inferior products that had no value.

However, as long as they made enough attempts and figured out a few clues, they would eventually be able to win the jackpot and end up inventing a completely new alloy formula that offered superior toughness or other desirable properties!

What Ves was doing at the moment was far from that. He just pressed different rocks together without any attempt to refine the resonating exotics before alloying them together.

That was an advanced step that he would only think about doing after he obtained an initial result.

"Sir?"

"Yes?"

"We are not measuring any significant rise in energy activity. The resonating exotics that we have put together have all remained stable."

"What?!"

Ves stopped his meandering thoughts and focused on the present. He observed all of the sensor readings and saw that the resonating exotics indeed did not produce any odd reactions.

The fact that over 14 different samples and counting did not produce any notable outcomes was already weird in itself! The situation was too normal!

Everyone slowly began to take this experiment seriously as the odd pattern continued.

Previously, many Larkinsons thought that this little experiment was bound to end up in an explosion as all of the energetic exotic materials couldn't stand each other's presence any longer.

Instead, the valuable and remarkable mineral ore samples obediently pressed together as if they were ordinary rocks when the Larkinsons knew they were clearly not! Perhaps a few instances of no elevated activity was within the realm of possibility, but the chances that so many resonating exotics just happened to get along with each other was no longer a natural result!

This was especially the case when the introduction of each potentially-unstable material reacted differently to all of the other ones that had been added earlier.

The current outcome was as illogical as locking a Fridayman and a Hexer in the same room only for the two to hold a tea party instead of a death match!

It was like flipping a coin and having it land on heads over 500 times!

At this time, no one doubted that they were on the right track now. Perhaps the entire effort to dig a tunnel that stretched on for a hundred kilometers had been an enormous waste of time.

The true solution of the puzzle had been in front of their noses all this time! If Ves had not thought about randomly putting the samples back together, who knew how much time and effort they would have wasted on a useless diversion!

"These puzzles are too troublesome." Ves said in an exasperated tone. "If someone or something deliberately set this up, then I would definitely want to kill this fellow!"

"I imagine that this is how many exploration missions proceed. There are many difficult phenomena that are impossible to crack without figuring the right solution. We are lucky that we have found a direction that may lead us to our goal."

"Let's not get too excited." Ves cautioned. "Nothing has actually happened yet. If this continues, then what will be the point of putting all of the different types of resonating exotics together? No activity is worse than too much activity!"

Though he grew increasingly more worried about the continued lack of disturbances, he suddenly grew more reassured when the final pieces were just about to press onto the amalgamation of different samples.

"Sir! Our sensors are finally detecting signs of instability!"

"Let me see the data!"

Ves carefully glanced at all of the sensor readings and discovered that the situation finally changed when the sample that contained Celestan Cobalt had come close.

He manually took control of the gravitic manipulation device and slowly pulled this particular rock away from the rest.

The sensor readings calmed down to their ordinary levels again. It was as if merging over 40 different resonating exotics was just another tuesday!

Even a fool would be able to recognize that Celestan Cobalt was special in this instance!

"Let's set this piece aside. Proceed with merging the remaining samples."

He had deliberately set an order where the least powerful and reactive materials went first while the more active ones came afterwards.

Powerful materials such as Substance 14 and Substance 19 joined their other brothers, but unlike their potent properties, they completely remained silent and obedient when remaining in close proximity with many other resonating exotics!

"People will hardly be able to believe that we are able to put 48 resonating exotics together without producing a catastrophic explosion."

"We aren't finished yet. The key material still needs to be added."

The final moment arrived when the hand-sized sample of Celestan Cobalt slowly floated over to the 'ball' of other samples.

This giant ball began to shake as they reacted towards the approach of Celestan Cobalt in different ways!

A few exotics heated up. Others vibrated as if they turned into turbines. The entire collection looked as if it turned into a powder keg that was on the verge of exploding!

When the Celestan Cobalt finally inserted itself into a cavity that the gravitic manipulation device had deliberately created, everything seemed to freeze in time.

The people in the armored shuttle held their breaths.

Lucky's glowing eyes shone brighter as the cat grew intensely curious at what might happen.

Ves stiffened his body in case a powerful explosion might occur.

The Rigid Wall and Rigid Spine mechs had all formed a tight shield wall in front of the entrance of the giant testing chamber.

The Minerva and the Everchanger all glowed brightly in case they needed to take action straight away.

After this inexplicable moment passed, the Celestan Cobalt and all of the other samples of resonating exotics suddenly shone and merged together in a completely unexpected fashion!

"What is happening?!"

"We are detecting a huge energy spike!"

"This doesn't make any sense! Why are they melting together when they haven't been subjected to a lot of heat?!"

"Detecting dimensional fluctuations! The space around the site has grown unstable!"

"The gravitic manipulation device has broken apart!"

"Why did it get destroyed!?"

"It… it… the device got torn apart by a spatial anomaly!"

"What spatial anomaly?!"

"It appears… to be a portal, sir!"

A portal!