The Mech Touch

armor.
A single attack at an unprotected opening could prove devastating.

Joshua decisively shed the three mechs and instead dove in deeper and came up on the entrance of the temple.
He had to move carefully now that he came so close.
Destroying the temple was an automatic loss condition.

A mech suddenly came into his view.
The mediumweight looked terrible.
Fractured armor was all that was left of its armor, and it had lost its entire right shoulder and arm.
Despite the extensive damage, the mech still held on to an intact flamethrower in its other hand.

”A striker! ”

One of the ways striker-type mechs distinguished themselves from others was their capability to damage a wide area.
Accuracy was less of a concern for them as they ’d always hit something in their attacks if they came into range.
The particle mist unintentionally provided the striker with the perfect hunting environment.

Joshua chose to push his mech down into a forward roll.
The limber mech performed the desperate action with a lot of worrying creaking.
Despite the Mist Prowler ’s limberness, mechs simply weren ’t designed to roll.
Tons of pressure fell onto several vulnerable spots, causing the mech to run on its final legs.

”I still have enough juice to take you down with me! ”

As the striker adjusted his flamethrower downwards, Joshua swiped his sword at the weapon.
The strike sliced the weapon apart, causing its hot and unstable internals to explode in a splash of flame that engulfed the both of them.
The striker was clearly worse off from the attack, having lost its remaining arm to fire.

Unfortunately, Joshua wasn ’t feeling all that good.
Plenty of flames had gone right past his non-existent armor and savaged his beaten-up internals.
He instantly lost 80% of his engine power.

”Come on.
Get up! ”

With his mech ’s final strength, Joshua poured all of his will into pushing the Mist Prowler to get on its knees, hold up the sword, and push its battered feet just enough to slash at the opposing mech for one last time.

The attack landed solidly in the enemy ’s waist.
It tore apart the striker ’s engines, immobilizing it on the ground right next to the Mist Prowler which just breathed its last.

Within the simulation pod, Joshua breathed out as he pulled himself out the intensity of combat.
He paid little attention to the remainder of the match.
He recalled his previous encounters and relished the stunts he pulled off with the Mist Prowler.
His mouth never lost its grin.

”The Mist Prowler is a worthy mech.
I wasn ’t wrong in trusting that designer. ”

Joshua eventually found out that his team lost the match.
In the end, they stayed back too long and let the enemy team run out the clock.
It left a bad taste in his mouth, but he quickly regained his composure.

”There ’s plenty of other opportunities to make up for my loss. ”

Meanwhile, somewhere else on the planet, Ves looked down at Lucky in concern.

”What ’s the matter, buddy? ”

The cat tugged at his pants and yowled at him to follow him outside.
The mechanical cat usually longed about on his sofa.
Something must have stirred him up really good for him to act so panicked.

Ves ran after the cat when it bolted out the doors.
He stopped when his feet encountered a metal box.

”Ouch! ”

After soothing his stubbed foot, he looked down to see Lucky frantically scratching the exterior of the metal box.

”Hey now, be careful with that. ” He said as he picked up the head-sized box.
”Let ’s head inside. ”

After sinking back down the couch, Ves studied the strange box that appeared at his doorstep.
He hadn ’t expected any deliveries to arrive today, and certainly not something that warranted a small but heavy metal box.
After knocking his hands over the matte surface, Ves realized the box was not as simple as it looked.
His knowledge in metallurgy suggested that the box was a piece of reformed mech armor plating.

He turned it around and touched all over its cold surface, only to come up with no way of opening the box.
He knew there was something inside because he could feel something clank when he gently shook the container.

”This isn ’t meant to be opened with a simple cutter. ” Ves realized with fascination.
Who would go through the trouble of refashioning mech armor into a box that could only be opened with specialized tools?

Fortunately, his workshop ’s tool shed possessed a few tools meant to help with repairs.
One of them was a high-intensity thermal cutter that could slowly melt through most mech armor.
The only problem was that handling such a tool inexpertly might damage the contents of the box.

”Maybe I should use a saw instead? ”

But when Ves studied the box further, he realized that using saws came with its own risks.
The armor plates weren ’t simply stacked on top of each other, but were placed in a particular pattern that could cause the entire box to implode and funnel excess kinetic energy to the middle.
It was an ingenious security feature that spoke of a great amount of effort in keeping the contents of the box secure.

”I can ’t use a saw or a thermal cutter alone.
I have to use both. ”

Though there were more advanced tools that could open the box without risk, they were all in the hands of large or rich manufacturers.
A nobody like Ves wouldn ’t be able to afford such extravagance.

Therefore, Ves simply prepared his tools and carefully worked on the box with Lucky watching on with hungry eyes.

First, he melted the outer portion of the box in a careful pattern.
He did not cut a straight line nor did he follow a random route.
No, he meticulously followed the optimal routes suggested by the armor pattern and slowly peeled off the top armor layer by layer.
He continued his work for two whole hours before he came upon the final layer.
It consisted of a different material that was significantly tougher.
If Ves recklessly tried to burn through the last layer, he ’d risk scorching the contents.

Instead, he left the box in place and let it cool down for a couple of hours.
Ves took the time to analyze the samples of the armor plating and scoured the galactic net for any matches.

”Nothing.
This alloy is not publically available. ”

While the armor was nothing special in terms of its damage resistance, Ves was intrigued by the strange patterns the box used.
The maker of the box was either a mech designer or a professional armorer.

While Ves made plenty of scans and other observations, he had no starting point in understanding its features.
The tech was too advanced or exotic.
It might even have alien roots, seeing that the patterns incorporated many strange patterns that resembled alien scripts.

After the box had sufficiently cooled down, Ves took up the powered saw and carefully guided it to cut a tiny groove at the edge of the box.
He then followed up with a couple of other minor cuts that caused the final layer of the box to suffer a crisscross of narrow indentations.
Once Ves applied the final cut, he turned off the saw and put it on the table.
With his free hand, he held his hand over the top, and firmly pushed against the surface.

A series of clicks sounded as the top disintegrated into a mish-mash of weird non-Euclidian shapes.
It strained his mind when he looked at the many shapes.
Somehow, the remnants of the last layer didn ’t fall down, but instead fell into a series of grooves that turned out to be a sophisticated lock.

When the metal pieces all fell into place, the strange lock turned transparent and changed into a fluid!

”What the?! ”

Ves suddenly got knocked aside when Lucky climbed on top of the box.
The cat quickly craned down his neck and lapped at the transparent liquid.

”What are you doing, Lucky!? It might be dangerous! ”

It took a lot of effort for Ves to use his meager strength to pull his deranged cat from the box.
The cat yowled excruciatingly and used all of the power packed in its slim body to slip out of his owner ’s grip and dive right back into the box.

When Ves tried to pry off his disobedient cat from the box, he failed to make any progress.
The cat practically dug in its claws.

”Lucky, don ’t make me upgrade my strength. ”

Apparently, the gem cat didn ’t care.
By the time Ves managed to pull his cat off, it already closed its eyes in lazy contentment.
Ves looked speechlessly at the empty interior of the box before turning his gaze at his selfish cat.
Lucky looked so full of himself right now.
He even had the audacity to nap in his irate owner ’s grasp!

Ves sighed.
With the strange liquid alloy slurped away, he could find no other clue to the providence of the box.
While he still had the rest of the opened box to play with, it paled in comparison to the strange and magical alloy.
It almost seemed as if the alloy moved by itself.

”I hope you ’re happy with your latest meal, because I ’m not going to feed you anything until you completely emptied your bowels. ”

Lucky graced the admonishment with a lazy meow before finally falling asleep.
Ves sighed, not having the heart to scold his cat any longer.
Instead, he put the cat down onto the couch and turned his attention back to the opened box.

”Does it have any other secrets? ”