The Mech Touch novel Chapter 285

Lucky could take care of himself. Ves had no doubt about that. The gem cat gifted by the System possessed a keen mind and a lively personality. His bronze-like mechanical body also hid a number of cutting-edge technologies that should have been exclusive to the first-rate superstates.

Still, his cat worked like any other animated pet and ran on an extremely compact high-capacity energy source. Ves suspected that his shield generator, which was another source of consternation right now, utilized the same type of energy storage as well.

All of that energy pressed into a tiny battery made for a very volatile package. Who knew how much overcharge these super-advanced could actually take.

"The regular batteries haven’t blown up yet so far. That should be a good sign."

Ves didn’t want to contemplate the sight of scattered bronze-like parts. He quickly activated his comm and activated the tracker, only to come up with an error message that stated that it couldn’t find a signal.

"Damn this interference!"

He ran around asking people if they saw his cat. Lucky became a known figure during their stay with the Whalers, so everyone recognized him on sight. _{freёwebnoѵel.com}

"Your fancy cat? Oh yeah, he just raced towards the right an hour ago."

"Lucky dug up something near the mining drill over there before turning around to go the other way."

"That little critter stole my shiny ore! I was holding on to it when he swiped it from my fingers and ran off over the hill over there!"

Hearing the stories about Lucky made it clear his cat didn’t suffer any ill effects as of yet. In fact, he seemed downright exuberant. That could be good or bad. Good in that Lucky thought he wasn’t in danger. Bad in that he continued to take in more energy, thereby ratcheting up his energy density to a catastrophic level.

"Where are you, Lucky?"

After spending more than an hour chasing spurious leads, Ves finally tracked Lucky down in a craggy obsidian valley. Ves found a little mound where Lucky had dug into the rocky ground until he reached a deposit of glowing green chunks.

As if he had no care in the world, Lucky lazily munched the pieces he dislodged with his claws. The cat winked his eyes and swished his tails like he enjoyed the best buffet in his entire life.

"Lucky! There you are!"

His cat turned around and gazed at him for a second before turning back to resume his never-ending eating spree. To Lucky, Ves didn’t appear to be as important as highly energetic exotic minerals.

The lack of air on the Glowing Planet prevented any sounds from being propagated, but Lucky somehow found a way to transmit his voice through the local comm channel.

"Let me take a look at you. I need to see whether you’re about to burst from all of your consumption."

Ves carefully took out a portable scanner and tried to look inside Lucky’s innards. Unfortunately, Lucky’s extraordinary exterior blocked any scans, not that Ves understood how Lucky worked in the first place.

He could only judge his cat’s exterior for signs of any danger. Last Ves saw him, his cat featured glowing blue lines in the gaps between his outer plates. The stronger the glow, the more energy his cat had accumulated.

Right now, the glow had turned into a shade of green, the same shade emitted by the Glowing Planet in fact. Lucky might have acquired some of the traits endemic to the planet.

"What’s going on with you? Why are you glowing green all of a sudden?"

Typical for Lucky, the cat ignored him entirely. Ves had already learned he wouldn’t be able to get his pet to respond. Lucky also wouldn’t appreciate being taken away from this treasure of a planet.

"Alright, I give up. Just continue to much if you wish. Just don’t go too far and stop when you feel bloated."

"Meow!"

Even though the overcharge phenomenon concerned Ves a lot, he slowly started to suspect that the energy cells might not be as unstable as he thought. He returned to the camp of the Whaler and approached the boss.

"Ves." Walter gruffed at him over a private comm. "Did you figure out what’s going on yet?"

"Not really. I think the planet or a particular combination of exotics are to blame for the overcharged energy cells. It’s able to affect any kind of cell that works on energy, and I don’t think it’s limited to mech-sized energy cells. The batteries that power our comm and other equipment should be susceptible to the phenomenon as well, although we haven’t seen any smaller gear being affected as of yet."

"So what does this all mean for us?"

Ves paused for a moment. He was about to make a very dangerous suggestion. "I think we should continue to work with the overcharged energy cells. We should test them as well, but we can’t wait for the results."

The biggest issue right now was that the Vesians, pirates and other opportunistic scum would move in eventually. When that happened, the Mech Corps shifted to phase 2, retracting most of its mining operations around the planet to fortify one single red zone.

The Blood Claws and Walter’s Whalers would also have to abandon this promising mineral-rich area and move towards the edge of the perimeter set by the military.

As expected, Walter gave in to the suggestion. "You’re right. This is the best time to be mining exotics. We can’t afford to sit around and wait for a miracle to save us."

They announced their decision to the Whalers, which stunned them into a stupor.

"I ain’t gonna work with these bombs! It’s suicide!"

"It’s not safe to pilot any mech!"