The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3766

Chapter 3766 - Strange Rock

Ves and a number of suited figures entered a lab chamber and approached a table.

Among the accompanying figures were General Verle, Venerable Tusa, Venerable Imon. Each of them studied the object placed on the table with wariness and concern.

"Meow."

Lucky flew forward and sniffed the strange rock. His tail hung low as he too found the situation to be suspicious.

"Report." Ves commanded.

"We found this space rock drifting through space." Venerable Tusa replied as his mech was the one to discover it first. "Normally, the operating system of my mech has no reason to pay attention to random junk in space, but then the sensors detected signs of artificial tampering. That was when my mech sounded the alarm."

"Once you secured it and brought it back to our fleet, what have we found out about this rock?"

"The material composition of this specimen is mostly made up of silicate minerals." Ketis explained as she had been the one in charge of scanning the retrieved rock. "While the rock contains trace amounts of heavy metals on the surface, they are negligible. We have not found any trace of exotic materials in the rock."

In other words, the space rock was completely ordinary in terms of composition. It did not contain any materials of value. There were so many different rocks, asteroids, moons and planets that were made out of these materials that there was no reason to value this one in particular!

It wasn't the material composition that interested the Larkinsons, though.

The real reason why they paid attention to this otherwise unremarkable object was because it looked as if it had been sliced in half!

Lucky cautiously floated in front of the smooth and completely flat surface that had oddly cut this rock.

The cat looked confused as he was unable to figure out what could have created such a clean mark.

"Are there any natural processes in the cosmos that can produce this kind of cut on a rock like this?" Ves asked.

"No, sir." An astrophysicist answered. "I cannot think of a process where such a cut could be produced without affecting the integrity of the rest of its structure. If some sort of sharp asteroid collided with this rock with sufficient force, then it should have cracked or disintegrated entirely. If the rock was subjected to a heat spike, then its surface should never look this smooth and flat."

"What about gravity anomalies or space warping?"

"These are anomalies that fall outside the range of normal phenomena, sir. According to our current data, we have developed two possible explanations that could have produced such an effect on this rock. Hazards and anomalies are one possible explanation. There are endless varieties of anomalies in space, and it is not out of the question that they may be present in a star system that is extremely energetic, has captured two foreign planets and is also hosting an abundant quantity of heavy metals. The presence of large quantities of exotics in concentrated form can potentially produce spatial anomalies that may have the effect of 'cutting' rocks like these as they pass through at specific angles. However, it is still difficult to imagine that the rest of the rock does not display any damage."

The suggestion that the Garimel System might be hosting anomalies did not make Ves feel at ease. Some of them might just be small fluctuations in space, but there were many that turned entire regions of space into danger zones!

Ves had encountered his fair share of space anomalies and hazardous regions, though he encountered most of them in the Nyxian Gap, which was in itself a giant pool of anomalies!

If the Garimel System truly hosted a major anomaly, then that implied that a large concentration of energetic exotics may be sitting somewhere. The most likely locations were Garimel I, the moons of Garimel II and some place within the giant dust ring orbiting the massive blue supergiant.

However, even if such a hazardous region existed in the star system, it did not mean that it was responsible for cutting this space rock.

There was another possible explanation.

"Technically, an anomaly might be responsible, but there are so many of them that it is unlikely that any of them have the effect of cutting a rock like this without inflicting further damage." The scientist continued. "If we apply Occam's razor, then the most likely explanation is that this rock was sliced through artificial intervention. In other words, someone or something has made this cut, likely with the help of a technological device."

Everyone grew grimmer and more vigilant as they took this in. The intelligence and the initial observation data on the Garimel System showed no sign of other presences.

The Blinding Banshee had scoured the star system as best she could but failed to detect any hint that suggested human or alien starships.

Of course, that didn't necessarily mean anything. The blinding energies outputted by the blue supergiant, the obscure former rogue planets along with the giant dust ring had frustrated every attempt to peer through them at a distance.

From the perspective of the expeditionary fleet, much of the star system ironically remained in the dark. The only way for the Larkinsons to illuminate these dark areas was to go forward and use their torches to light the surroundings.

They didn't harbor too many concerns before they found this abnormal rock. The fleet had detected no signs of dangerous anomalies or the presence of others in this hot and unforgiving star system.

This was different. Now that they had definite proof that this star system harbored unknowns, the Golden Skull Alliance had to adopt a more guarded posture.

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