5093 The Taste of Archemetal
A cat was quietly thrown out of a mech and tumbled into empty space.
Lucky already started to have second thoughts about this dubious mission.
Humanity at least managed to collect a large amount of information about the traits, competences and technological capabilities of the more prevalent alien races such as the orvens and the puelmers.
The arche on the other hand remained so elusive that humans barely understood how their unique archeships worked!
What if a handsome cat like Lucky wasn't able to phase through archemetal?
That would pretty much end the infiltration attempt in its infancy!
Not only that, but Lucky would also remain stuck outside of an invisible hull with no way to return to safe harbor on his own power!
As powerful as the gem cat had grown over the years, interstellar travel was still far beyond his capabilities. Getting lost in space was a real possibility.
Even so, Lucky couldn't help but develop a strong desire to take a bite out of an archeship.
According to what little humanity knew about the homeships of the arche race, they were constructed as massively scaled up versions of shells.
The thickness of the exterior layers and the density of the archeships were exceptionally high compared to the typical starships constructed by other races.
The cost of producing them was just as exaggerated, which meant that they largely became as large as capital ships.
According to Ves' investigations, the current archeship was only about as big as a frigate. She was crewed by less than a hundred arche as far as he was able to detect, which meant that the ship was not as strong and threatening as the larger vessels of her kind.
Lucky still maintained his vigilance as his invisible form slowly drifted towards the archeship's suspected coordinates.
It was not until his intuitive sense for metal detected a crazy amount of higher grade exotics that his control began to slip a little!
The cat had to suppress his urges and make sure that the personal stealth generator of his Misfortune Harness still worked well enough to hide his presence from enemy sensors.
Confrontations between opposing units in stealth always centered around detection.
The side that detected the hidden enemy first always enjoyed a great advantage!
Unless the detection tech of the arche race was more effective than expected, it was unlikely for the archeship to notice that a gem cat was secretly drifting closer to her hull.
This was because the archeship could not employ her most effective suite of sensors and scanners!
Any form of active sensors inevitably generated signals of varying intensity that were much easier to detect.
If the crew of the archeship strongly suspected that a hidden enemy already discovered her presence and was attempting to sneak closer, then that might be a reason for engaging in active scanning.
However, as long as the arche thought that they maintained the element of surprise, they had no reason to expose themselves on their own initiative and lose the opportunity to catch the humans off-guard!
Lucky successfully took advantage of the mentality of the unsuspecting aliens and softly bumped against the solid hull of the archeship.
This was the most definite confirmation yet that a hidden alien ship had sneaked into the Corellix System in advance!
As Lucky's armor-clad form briefly touched the surface of the hull of the hidden archeship, the cat did not dare to stand on the surface.
Who knew whether the archeship's sensors would trip if they detected contact with a solid metal object like a certain mechanical cat.
The most important moment had come for Secret Agent Lucky.
Was he able to phase through the thick layer of archemetal and enter the interior of the alien vessel?
The cat had no choice but to take a risk and make a plunge.
After staring at the seemingly empty space in front of him for a few more seconds, Lucky boldly attempted to phase through the alien metal.
The cat immediately wanted to meow out in pain as the outer layer archemetal appeared to be at least slightly charged with energy as it was being used to produce a constant stealth effect.
Lucky's abrupt intrusion not only caused him to get shocked by a moderate amount of current, but also caused the archeship's stealth systems to produce small fluctuations as its energy distribution encountered slight disturbances.
The arche crew members responsible for the crucial stealth systems grew slightly panicked and tried to compensate for the disruptions as quickly as possible.
Lucky tried to get through the outer layers as quickly as possible without giving his presence away.
This was not easy as he couldn't move too fast for fear of producing strong traces. The cat continued to endure the current running through his Misfortune Harness and his metallic body before he finally reached a layer that was not under as much power.
It appeared that much of the power produced by the archeship went towards maintaining her active stealth system.
The layers of archemetal underneath were a lot denser and tougher. They also contained higher concentrations of phasewater, which made it a lot more challenging for Lucky to phase through.
It was not as painful and risky as trying to phase through powered metal, so the cat eventually managed to reach a free and open space without getting detected.
The cat first inspected whether the stealth system and other electronic systems of the Misfortune Harness were still operational.
The little stealth outfit was a lot tougher than it looked. Ves had designed it with dangerous conditions in mind. Shielding its electronic systems from excess current and EMP attacks was a simple matter with the use of enough high-quality materials!
Once Lucky became satisfied that his suit remained operational, he took a good look at his surroundings.
The breathable air consisted of a strange and slightly misty mixture of gasses that was toxic to humans.
The gravity level was a lot higher as well at 1.7 g. This gravity had a profound effect on the evolution and development of the arche race as they always emphasized defense over mobility.
The relatively small compartment was dimly lit. Though that did not hinder Lucky's artificial sensors in the slightest, an ordinary human wouldn't be able to see too far at this luminosity level.
No arche crew members were in the vicinity, which made Lucky a little less tense.
He had little idea about the capabilities of the arche race. He learned that their shells could not only function as armor, but also possess many other functions depending on how extensively they had been developed.
The stronger members of the arche race essentially wore a permanent version of a powerful and multifaceted suit of combat armor!
Lucky did not know whether he could keep himself hidden from these tricky aliens, so he wanted to stay away from them as much as possible.
He soon recalled his main goal.
Before he could do anything else, he needed to cripple the warp drives of the archeship.
The cat still did not have a clear idea of the layout of this hidden vessel, but he could make vague guesses about where they might be located based on the patterns of other alien homeships.
The cat steadily phased through the deck and continued to make his way to the lower levels of the alien ship.
He came across various weird-looking compartments and corridors that were covered by strange and constantly changing mixtures of archemetal.
Though Lucky occasionally encountered archemetal that smelled incredibly enticing to his nose, he resisted the urge to take a bite in order to maintain his secrecy as much as possible.
It did not take long before the gem cat caught sight of the first alien serving on this ship.
The arche was apparently preoccupied with controlling one of the systems of the archeship.
The method of control was much different from the methods employed by humans.
Instead of manning a traditional work station, the arche backed up his shell into an alcove that molded to the shape of his hard and colorful shell.
This created an interface between the archemetal and the organic archeshell that somehow allowed the alien to operate this part of the alien vessel with the least amount of barriers!
To Lucky, this unusual control method reminded him of the man-machine connections produced by neural interfaces.
The gem cat inwardly meowed before he proceeded further downwards.
The homeships of many alien races of the Red Ocean possessed a vertical layout, so they could stand like towers when landing on planets.
The archeship possessed a horizontal layout as her overall shape was basically derived from the quadruped form of her builders.
Lucky made a guess that the warp drives were located in the lower center of the hull. This was where the amount of protection from the surrounding compartments was the thickest.
He eventually phased into a large compartment that vaguely resembled an engineering bay but lacked any obvious power generators.
Instead, the space held two solid metal constructs that somewhat resembled warp drives but looked a lot more alien!
From the way that an alien was interfacing with each metal device, they definitely played an important role in the functioning of the hidden vessel!
If Lucky was visible, people would have been able to notice a devious grin on his feline face.
The cat slowly floated closer to the nearest archemetal construct.
His impressive sensitivity towards all things metal told him that this device incorporated a lot of exotic materials that were typically used to construct alien warp drives!
Not only that, it incorporated higher concentrations of phasewater than normal!
This was definitely the arche version of a warp drive. It was completely solid and looked a lot tougher than any warp drive that Lucky had encountered up until this point!
This presented the cat with a problem. How could he sabotage it without exposing his presence too soon and risk getting captured?
Lucky put his mind to use and tried to identify the most critical pieces of solid archemetal that were necessary to make the warp drive work.
If he ended up eating less important pieces of archemetal, then he wouldn't be able to complete his goal.
If the arche became alerted to his intrusion and activated powerful defensive measures that prevented the cat from engaging in any further sabotage, then that would be extremely bad for Lucky!
The worst-case scenario would be if the arche got cold feet and decided to warp away from the Corellix System.
If that happened, then Lucky would turn into a stowaway on an alien ship that was traveling all the way back to alien-occupied space!
Trying to find his way back to the expeditionary fleet or human space would be almost impossible!
To prevent that from happening, Lucky had to take out the warp drives!
His invisible eyes eventually grew more determined.
His limited technical understanding did not give him much of a clue on how to effectively sabotage this weird warp drive, but the cat made a rough guess that the phasewater-rich pieces of archemetal at the center were crucial to its functioning!
The cat quietly dove inside the complicated metal construct and felt glad that it wasn't currently used at this time.
Once Lucky reached the center, he began to take solid bites at whatever phasewater-enriched archemetal reached his maw!
Meow!
The taste of archemetal was indescribable. It was like entering into a completely foreign country and trying out the local dishes for the first time.
Many of the exotics that comprised of archemetal were fairly familiar to a connoisseur like Lucky, but the way the arche processed the materials and combined them into unique biometal alloys capable of producing electronic resonance was both novel and tasty!
Meow meow meow!
Lucky almost went mad with desire and hunger as he bit through the abnormally tough metals with ease.
Alarms began to sound inside the alien warp drive chamber.
The arche engineers began to show signs of distress and alarms. They used the connections between their archeshells and the archemetal to perform scans and activate a few emergency safety measures, but none of their actions were able to stop Lucky from creating a hollow space inside what used to be a solid and reliable alien warp drive!
Meow!
As the arche engineers continued to remain bewildered, the gem cat phased into the deck and sneakily made his way over to the other suspected warp drive and began to repeat his earlier feat.
Meow meow meow!
Archemetal was so tasty to Lucky that he didn't want to stop. Once he finished off the second warp drive, he fully intended to gnaw at the other parts of the archeship.
Perhaps he might even try to take a bite out of the colorful archeshells of the funny looking turtle aliens!
