The Mech Touch

5804 ATC Series Alloys

Orion Leeds assumed a much more respectful demeanor as he presented the latest consignment to the auction participants.

The charismatic man's shift in attitude was so abrupt that many of the distinguished guests stopped their low conversations to pay more attention to what appeared on stage.

The radiant fish that dragged the transparent box in view did not put in too much effort. The alloy bar that rested in the middle of the container was not large or dense. It definitely was not suitable to be used as the primary material for a powerful mech component.

Even so, Ves did not underestimate it at all. The materials needed to fulfill the Mech Designer System's Supply Missions had already introduced him to transcendent materials that far surpassed the properties of the goods he worked with on a daily basis.

Orion Leeds smiled with pride as he presented the latest item.

"What you see before you is a consignment of the great and generous Resonance Smith."

That simple sentence immediately raised people's interest in the alloy bar by an order of magnitude!

An alloy developed by the foremost material scientist in the Red Ocean definitely merited their full attention!

It was no surprise that Lucky developed such a keen interest in this new artificial material!

The fact that the Resonance Smith led the unruly Unbound Humanity Faction did not even disturb anyone. His political views were definitely controversial, but that had nothing to do with his works!

Even the fleeters were willing to set aside their objections to the Resonance Smith in order to make good use of his inventions. The Star Designer's work was just that good.

Pleased that he managed to attract the full attention of everyone seated in the upper hall, the unnaturally handsome auctioneer did not keep everyone waiting.

"The alloy bar contained within this container is a prototype exotic alloy named ATC-A. It is a product of a research project that is meant to bestow humanity with an effective material that can be used to bypass transphasic energy shields. The Resonance Smith is not the only scientist to work on this problem, but the ATC series alloys that he is trying to develop possess numerous advantages that promise to turn them into the most preferred shield bypassing materials."

The mention of shield bypassing properties caused Kelsey Ampatoch to jerk.

He had recently won the Fey Shaper Contest by developing the incredibly promising shield infiltrator fey. The ATC series alloys could either make his proud product redundant or amplify their effectiveness!

They needed more information in order to determine how this ATC series alloys fit in their respective works.

"All ATC series alloys share a number of common traits. The most important one is that they can all be produced by combining raw materials that are prevalent in human- occupied space. Resource shortages should not be an overwhelming concern as long as red humanity does not lose too many territories. They are all relatively costly, but not to the point of being prohibitive regardless of class. Finally, their properties can also be modified in many different ways by pairing them up with different hyper materials."

These were all highly desirable properties. Ves immediately understood that the Resonance Smith sought to increase red humanity's performance against the native aliens by developing a cost-effective means of bypassing energy shields.

Unlike the shield infiltrator fey developed by Kelsey Ampatoch, the use of ATC series alloys allowed for attacks and maybe mechs to directly pass through transphasic energy shields as if they did not exist!

However, Ves did not dare to get too excited. There had to be limitations to this material. Nothing was perfect. Not even a Star Designer could defy reality to this extent.

"Do note that the ATC series alloys including the best ATC-A version that we have presented before you is only effective up to a certain degree. The materials alone have a high chance of failing to breach absurdly strong transphasic energy shields that are typically produced by alien capital ships or formidable phase whales. The stronger the individual shield, the lower the ability for an ATC weapon to slide through them. ATC-A is generally effective against moderate first-class transphasic energy shields. ATC-B is designed to penetrate the equivalent of typical second-class transphasic energy shields. The much more economical ATC-C can only penetrate the weakest transphasic energy shields."

Three versions, each designed to cater to a different class of customers.

Ves and many other people actually felt a little disappointed at the effectiveness of these three alloys. Orion Leeds chose his words carefully. He made it clear that even the most effective ATC-A alloy was unable to punch through transphasic energy shields of higher strength levels.

Orion smirked. "Do not dismiss the usefulness of ATC series alloys in their ability to pose a threat against powerful alien hulls. Many advanced alien warships are protected by segmented multi-layered transphasic energy shields. The total protection offered by splitting and stacking all of these energy barriers are formidable when taken in their totality, but their common weakness is that every discrete transphasic energy shield is individually weak. The native aliens have developed their transphasic energy shield technology in a direction that allows them to increase their redundancy and reduce the consequences of failure if any individual shield generator fails. This is a prudent and sensible development strategy, but this has inadvertently made most advanced alien warships vulnerable to ATC weapons."

He was right!

A lot of people became buoyed at the thought of employing these so-called ATC weapons against the warships employed by the major races of the Red Ocean.

Their warships were much harder to fell due to their expansive array of transphasic energy shields.

Most of them did not settle for a single layer. They always wrapped themselves up with at least three annoyingly difficult layers.

Combined with segmenting a whole radial energy shield into dozens of different slices, a lot of alien warships possessed so much redundancy that they became outright invincible if their opponents did not bring enough attack power!

It had always been lack of offensive power that held most human forces back from wiping out alien incursion forces with ease. Mechs constantly fought an uphill battle against warships due to the enormous differences in scale.

"Before the bidding can commence, the Resonance Smith has attached a notice that it may take several more years before he is ready to present his ATC series alloys to the public. There are many areas that he needs to improve upon. Reducing the production cost and rare resource requirements while retaining the effectiveness of the alloys are his main concerns. The current ATC-A alloy bar on auction is a relatively early prototype that is notably effective at bypassing transphasic energy shields, but is comprised out of much more expensive composition of high-grade exotics. It is difficult to reproduce, so do not bid on it with the expectation of mass producing this alloy formula in your own production facilities."

The disclosures served to temper the crowd's enthusiasm for the Resonance Smith's work.

The fact that the Resonance Smith would probably publish his vital work and make it possible for many companies to produce ATC-A alloys by themselves meant that the alloy bar put on auction would not remain unique for long.

The fact that its current formula was not even the final version meant that there was a possibility that it could be outshined by a superior variant despite being cheaper.

In other words, the current item was just one of the Resonance Smith's disposable experimental samples. There were still benefits to obtaining it early, but many people had tempered their expectations.

"Meow meow meow!"

Lucky didn't care about that, though! The gem cat couldn't wait three years, let alone three days! He had to obtain this delectable prototype ATC-A and stuff it inside his bottomless stomach as soon as possible!

"Okay, okay! Quiet down! I'll fight for it. You can devour all of it, I promise."

"Meow!" Lucky cutely nuzzled his head against Ves' cheek.

The bids already started to fly, though they were relatively low at this time.

"5 kilograms of phasewater!"

"5.2 kilograms!"

"5.5 kilograms of phasewater!"

"6.7 kilograms of phasewater!

"7.5 kilograms!"

"10 kilograms of phasewater." Ves' voice suddenly cut through the noise.

Again, the Devil Tongue managed to sap the energy from the upper hall. It couldn't be helped as the memories of his latest feats were still fresh on everyone's minds.

Though Ves did not set out to intimidate everyone else into silence, he did utilize a more domineering cadence to express his determination to win this bidding process.

It looked like it succeeded.

Ves had made sure to jump to 10 kilograms of phasewater right away in order to surpass the estimated fair cost of this prototype material.

While ATC-A promised to bypass the transphasic energy shields of formidable alien warships, the quantity put on auction was simply not enough!

There was only enough ATC-A to construct a human-sized sword at best. There was not enough alloy to produce a complete mech, let alone a fey!

All of these factors combined made it so that no one bothered to fight for the ATC-A alloy anymore.

Ves did not relax, though. He briefly swept his gaze towards Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson and a few other identifiable opponents. They could try to mess with him by attempting to drive up the cost.

Fortunately, they did not exhibit any intentions on bidding on the item for the express purpose of forcing him to pay more.

They were more clever than that. Their previous gambits had failed. There was no need to exacerbate hostilities at this point. Any dishonorable and objectionable behavior on their part would only tarnish their damaged reputations even further.

"Going once… going twice… this ATC-A alloy bar is sold to Professor Ves Larkinson for 10 kilograms of phasewater!"

Ves effectively squandered approximately 30,650,000 MTA credits for this expensive snack. It better be worth it. Lucky would pay if it ended up making no difference.

"Meow meow meow."

The gem cat already started to drool as he dreamt about devouring the alloy bar whole.

Ves reached out with his hand and patted Lucky's head.

"Be patient. We won't get the stuff we've won until the grand auction has concluded.

Ves was incredibly eager to see whether ATC-A would allow Lucky to pass through transphasic energy shields more easily than before. This would remove one of his most restrictive constraints and turn him into a much more effective infiltration unit than before!

While a pair of glowing fish dragged Ves' latest prize from the stage, another item took its place.

This one looked highly unusual, but elicited many interested reactions from those in the know.

Ves was one of them. He could feel the extraordinary power infused within the rather old but well-preserved book.

"Estaban Leeds is proud to present the first cultivation tome in this grand auction." Orion Leeds said as he strengthened his handsome demeanor. "This book is of an indeterminate age, but you can expect it to be at least several thousand years old. Its contents are remarkable, but it is penned in an extinct language that you will need to translate yourselves. What is special about this tome is that it features a mystical form of copy protection. Its pages appear blank to anyone but the holder. That is not all. Those who read the book cannot recite its contents, whether they use the book's original language or any translations. It works on intent as well as other criteria according to our tests. This ensures that only those who physically possess the book can ever learn from the methods contained within its pages."

Secrets were very important to ancient cultivators. They hoarded their precious knowledge and methods to such an extreme extent that cultivators failed to progress as quickly as modern humanity due to forgetting so many nifty solutions upon the death of highly renowned experts.

Ves wondered what sort of secrets merited this kind of treatment.

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