The old man led Tian Xingjian straight into an inconspicuous gray two-story building. Just as they reached the entrance, they saw another soldier wearing only shorts, with a pair of standard Federation mechanical repair auto-arms attached to his hands. The old man grinned and muttered to himself, "Heh, did those damn guys finally come to their senses today? They know I'm short-handed and actually sent two people." He shouted to the soldier, "Hey! You, what are you looking at? I'm talking to you. Follow me!"
The mechanical repair soldier looked extremely reluctant, as if he had been assigned an unbearable task. He followed the old man dejectedly and turned to ask Tian Xingjian in a low voice, "Brother, what did you do to get sent to this monster?" Fatty was stunned, feeling a sense of impending doom. He replied, "I just got here, I don't know anything." Internally, he speculated, "Damn it, it must be about those more than twenty escape attempts recorded by the battlefield recorder." Fatty knew since he joined the military that according to the regulations, deserters would undergo a military trial and be punished depending on the severity of their actions, with the most severe punishment being death! Especially during wartime, almost all deserters were executed. Though he was a mechanical repair soldier, the number of his escape attempts was indeed a bit too high.
In fact, aside from combat units that had specialized combat repair teams, other professional mechanical repair soldiers were not part of the combat sequence. In the military, they belonged to the logistics sequence like field hospitals and should be evacuated first when the battle situation was unfavorable. Except in special circumstances, they would not be sent to the battlefield. Without receiving combat orders, escaping when one's combat unit was defeated could not be considered deserting.
Fatty's escape record was already known by some. In their eyes, he was just seen as a quick-running mechanical repair soldier with no sense of duty to fight to the death for his country, making them somewhat disdainful of his cowardice. However, this only affected his future prospects in the army. The charge of desertion didn't stick to him.
Thinking of this, Fatty felt some anxiety, but what could he do now? If he had known, he would have taken a few more days on the way or simply lived in seclusion in the mountains.
The old man led them around several corners in the hallway, passed through several heavy iron doors, and entered an elevator. He fiddled with the control panel in the elevator, and a panel popped out. The old man placed his hand on the panel, and a green light scanned his palm from top to bottom, then scanned his pupils. After confirming, the elevator began to descend, taking about five or six minutes before finally stopping. Based on Fatty's sense of the elevator speed, they must have descended at least five to six hundred meters underground.
"Where exactly are we going? I'm just a mechanical repair soldier, do I need such tight security?" Fatty lamented in his heart.
When the elevator doors opened, a passageway appeared in front of the three of them. After walking along the passageway for a few dozen meters, they reached a transparent disinfection room. The old man pushed the two of them inside, shouting, "Hurry inside, after disinfection, there's anti-germ clothing on the side. Put it on yourself!"
Hearing that it wasn't a gas chamber, Fatty felt somewhat relieved. He quickly entered the room, cleaned himself under the showerhead, and put on a large-sized anti-germ suit.
Seeing Fatty's quick actions, the old man nodded in satisfaction and said, "Hmm, you're pretty fast." After waiting for a minute, he saw that the other mechanical repair soldier was still slowly putting on his clothes. The old man angrily shouted at him, "You should be shot! Hurry up! Don't waste my time."
Finally, when that mechanical repair soldier finished dressing and came out, the old man led the two of them through the final door. It was an automatic alloy door, and upon entering, a massive hall appeared before Tian Xingjian's eyes. The hall was filled with mechanical parts, mechas, weapons, and various equipment. In the center of the hall, there was a huge central computer flashing with tens of thousands of electronic signal tubes. A group of people in white dust-proof clothing were busy working. There were also some passageways and doors around the hall.
Fatty felt puzzled. This place didn't look like a prison; it more resembled a huge laboratory.
The old man pointed to a corner where a pile of parts that could hardly be identified as a mecha or something else and said to Tian Xingjian and the soldier, "Hurry up and fix it for me. The schematics are in the computer. If you don't know how to do it, look it up yourself! The tools and parts are all here, and food will be delivered on time. Help yourselves. I only have two requirements: speed and quality! We're in wartime, and our experiments have to race against the clock. If you can't keep up with my pace, you'll be shot! If you break any equipment, you'll be shot! If you can't repair it, you'll be shot even more!"
Fatty's face turned pale upon hearing this!
The old man glanced curiously at the pale, sweaty Fatty and continued, "If you understand, start working right away!" With a wave of his hand, he walked straight to a room inside, muttering as he went, "They waste so much of my time! They should all be shot, all of them should be shot!"
It seemed that even without a military trial, he had already been judged guilty. Now was the only chance to redeem himself and save his life. With this thought, Fatty, like a toy rabbit powered by a nuclear battery, rushed to the pile of parts and started working at full speed. He had to perform his best to get his sentence commuted from a death sentence to life imprisonment.
Watching this hardworking mechanical repair soldier, the laboratory staff exchanged glances. They rarely saw such a diligent repair soldier. Usually, those sent here for help were soldiers being punished for mistakes, with the workload being huge and the work devoid of freedom. The things needing repair were also profound and complex, making them all complain incessantly. Such a hardworking person like Fatty was rare indeed.
Two days later, everyone in the laboratory knew they had found a treasure this time. This Fatty worked even longer hours than these frenzied researchers each day, and his actions were absurdly fast. He could almost repair rarely seen mechas or weapons without even looking at the schematics. When another mechanical repair soldier received orders to leave, the mountain of junk had been almost entirely repaired by Fatty alone.
This Fatty is quite something!
********************
Fatty quickly became familiar with the researchers in the lab. This coward who fears death would volunteer for almost anything, especially repairing the damaged Mecha and weapons from research and tests, which was his forte. Adding to that, his sweet talk and temperless personality made everyone in the lab very fond of him.
Since the establishment of this military lab, there had never been a Mechanical Repair Soldier who remained here day and night without being reassigned. Coincidentally, this person was very low-maintenance. This fact made everyone feel fortunate.
Occasionally, they would wonder about what mistakes this Fatty made outside, which resulted in him being kept here for so long.
This lab belonged to the Gallipalan Military Academy. Surrounding the academy, there were military bases responsible for both military training of cadets and the strict protection of the academy. All activities in the academy were related to the military, and all instructors and researchers were soldiers, each with military ranks.
The most feared person in the academy was not the Dean with the Admiral rank, but the head of the academy's seventh lab — the old man who brought Fatty in, Boswell. This eccentric old man was not a soldier and had no military rank but led the academy's largest military lab and was the primary mentor for Mecha and weapon design. Before the war broke out, due to the academy's policies, cadets specializing in mechanics could still be arranged to work on maintenance. However, after the war began, all cadets were transitioned to grassroots commanders, and the academy implemented wartime policies. No cadet would come to help with miscellaneous tasks anymore. This made Boswell very angry! In his eyes, anything other than research was not worth paying attention to.
The severe wartime situation had already left the frontline command set up in the academy in a mess, who had time to bother with an eccentric old man? The old man's bad temper had also offended many mid-level officers in charge of specific tasks, so this place became an indirect punishment ground for delinquent soldiers. Whenever a soldier made a mistake, they would get thrown into the lab to do miscellaneous tasks.
There were few delinquent soldiers, and even fewer who were proficient in mechanical repair. The piles of damaged Mecha and weapons from experiments and research had grown into a small mountain, urgently needing to be addressed. Finally, Boswell put his work aside, rushed to the frontline command, and roared. Only then did the military agree to send someone. Unexpectedly, Fatty, with his automatic mechanical repair arm, was also brought into the lab by accident.
Seeing Fatty looking as if staying here was a given, all the researchers were very curious: Did Fatty make such a big mistake? Or was he specifically assigned here by the command to take care of lab repairs?
They would curiously ask while boasting to Tian Xingjian. But how could Fatty ever confess to something as humiliating as trying to escape twenty-one times! Especially with a few beauties among these curious babies. Fatty's resolute no-confession policy made everyone more convinced of their speculations.
Milan was one of the beauties among these curious babies. This beautiful girl, only twenty years old, had an astounding talent for science, but she had one obvious flaw: her hands-on ability was too weak! Seeing her flustered and clumsy in her experiments gave everyone in the lab a headache. After a few minor accidents that shouldn't have happened, the lab simply assigned her two operators to turn her theoretical discoveries into experiments and her designs into products.
Now, two people were no longer enough for Milan, so she quickly set her sights on Fatty, who was wandering around aimlessly after finishing the repairs.
"Fatty, come here!" Milan shouted in the hall.
Leveraging his sweet-talking skills, Fatty was already very familiar with her.
Fatty immediately put down his work and ran over at top speed. He knew that in this "prison," besides Boswell, the last person he could offend was this woman!
This beauty with a sweet and innocent face was the youngest researcher in the lab, almost unconditionally pampered by the tech madmen. As long as she showed a pitiful look, even the toughest requests would be accepted. This highly gifted tech beauty was the darling of all the eccentric old men and middle-aged uncles.
"Here I come, here I come. What's up? You just say the word. Hehe." Fatty's face wore his usual goofy grin.
"I can't handle it! You come help!" Milan didn't hesitate, pulling Fatty into her exclusive research lab.
As soon as he entered the lab, Fatty was dumbfounded. Although he often visited other researchers' workspaces, he had never seen one like Milan's.
This room, nearly half the size of the outer hall, looked more like an ancient military museum than a workspace. No matter if it was the furnishings or displays, or even the mecha and weapons being assembled, everything was designed in a retro style.
In the gigantic display cabinet by the wall, there were some classic firearms from ancient Earth. Such as the Maxim machine gun, MP38 submachine gun, Mauser 1896 pistol, Browning, Mauser 98, M1 Garand rifle, M16, AK47, and so on.
And right in the center of the room on the ground, there were over a dozen land battle mecha. Most of these mecha designs carried traces of ancient armored vehicles; one short mecha even had a top energy cannon identical to the M1A1 tank turret.
Inside the deepest part of the room, an extremely beautiful humanoid mecha astonished Fatty. This was not a mecha; it was an artwork. The mecha was made of an unknown alloy, and its external armor materials left Fatty clueless. The entire mecha exhibited a light blue flowing light, with streamlined curves and imposing partial designs captivating the eyes. The mecha had folded wings on its back, making one wonder what kind of mecha this was? Land battle mecha? Aviation mecha? Space mecha?
"This is a transformation mecha." Watching Fatty circle around the mecha nonstop, Milan introduced.
"Transformation mecha?" Fatty was somewhat dispirited.
These mecha, supposedly abundant during the New Era of the space age over 2000 years ago, were basically synonymous with junk. Modern advanced private mecha and combat mecha completely discard those design concepts because today's mecha have very specialized functions. Other than partial transformations needed while walking, there's fundamentally no need for full body transformations.
The greatest drawback of full body transformation mecha is their uselessness! For example, even if a heavy land battle mecha with thick armor and a weight of several tons or even hundreds of tons transformed into a land-based aviation combat fighter, it would just be a toy to be easily targeted. Extra parts, extra weight, an overly powerful engine wasting money, a strangely shaped body failing aerodynamics—all are unsolvable issues.
Since land battle mecha can't adapt to aerial combat within the atmosphere, what about aviation mecha?
Space fighter mecha based on space carriers don't need transformations either. In a vacuum environment without gravity, what's the point of transforming? Unlike space fighters aimed at destruction, space fighter mecha are tasked with landing and capturing enemy warships, generally deployed at the battle's end either when victory is almost assured or when fighter losses are too high, needing mecha as supplementary combat force. Humanoid space fighter mecha also adapt to terrestrial combat based on their shape, without needing transformations at all.
Similarly, space mecha are ill-suited for aerial combat within planetary atmospheres. They are even heavier than land battle mecha. Allowed in weightless space, yet they become sitting ducks within atmospheres.
Fatty secretly curled his lips, but this didn't escape Milan's eyes. She grabbed Fatty's ear and scolded angrily, "This is our lab's most advanced mecha, you ignorant fatty! How dare you look down on it!?"
For weeks, the person who bullied Fatty the most was this seemingly gentle, pure, and harmless beauty. Her swift grab and twist were effortless.
Tian Xingjian yelped, his face showing such painful expressions that any sympathetic human couldn't bear to watch without misty eyes!
Milan had seen through Fatty's tricks long ago, giving another fierce twist before letting go. "Come here! I'll show you what a real transformation mecha is!"
She pressed a button on the automatic remote control, the mecha's cockpit cover springing open. Climbing up the mechanical leg into the cockpit, she glared at Fatty just before the door shut. "Country bumpkin, watch carefully."
With Milan's operation, Fatty was truly stunned. The mecha's external armor disintegrated into small thin plates like magic, quickly compressing together like a squeezed sponge, and vanished into a square hole on the mecha's back. Then the mecha began to transform, first its color changing as a strange flowing light flashed over, turning the mecha fully black. Next, its limbs and head quickly folded into the body, starting a complete transformation akin to melting cheese. A few seconds later, the "cheese" solidified into a black meteorite with realistic textures.
"I can't believe this!" Fatty gasped inwardly: "Liquid metal!!!"
"Keep watching!" Milan's voice came through the mecha's electronic amplifier.
With a "pop!" the mecha instantly ejected its limbs, reverting to its original shape. Simultaneously, the external armor burst from the square hole, quickly covering the entire body.
Fatty felt somewhat crushed.
"Oh my God! Memory attribute liquid metal! Using it for this..... she's insane!"
The mecha then simulated forms of land-based aviation fighters, space fighters, small transport ships, and versatile land battle mecha suited for all terrains.
Milan jumped down from the mecha, proudly asking, "Well then! Try curling your lips again."
Tian Xingjian stood speechless for a while, before muttering dumbly, "This toy is quite valuable right? How much can it sell for?"
Milan nearly exploded in anger, snapping back, "Toy? Go try it yourself and see if it's a toy!"
Given Fatty's knowledge in mecha design, metallurgy, and physics, this thing was basically just a toy. Liquid metal sounded impressive, but metals that could freely change shapes all had one issue—softness!
This shape-changing metal was discovered over a thousand years ago. Although it could transform between liquid and solid states within a short time through special resonance frequencies controlled by computers, its hardness had never been improved. If alloyed to increase hardness, its liquification would be incomplete, extending transformation time. Liquid metal alloys reaching steel hardness level might take a week to transform between liquid and solid states. Thus, apart from some special uses, this rare metal was seldom used in military applications.
No matter how versatile, a soft-footed mecha had no practical combat benefits! To Fatty, this mecha was no better than his privately-owned highly realistic ancient Earth rubber doll. These metals' hardness couldn't meet combat requirements! Moreover, such metals were typically very heavy. Pure gold, for instance, is a relatively soft metal, and liquid metal is even heavier, softer, and pricier than gold.
Soon, Fatty realized this was no toy, but a weapon. A weapon arguably the greatest invention in mecha history over the past century!
Milan placed a metallic piece identical to the mecha's into a metal measurement device, its exaggerated readings making Fatty suspect the machine was faulty! The metal's hardness surpassed known superhard alloys by six times, while its weight matched super-light alloys. More importantly, the unique ductility of liquid metal expanded its overall defensive capabilities infinitely!
That wasn't all! Most crucially, this super alloy possessed memory metal properties! Whoever invented this metal was a genius among geniuses! This was a miracle only Gods could create!
"Alright, I admit, this isn't a toy!" Fatty surrendered completely. Faced with this mecha dominating pinnacle technology, even the most shameless person couldn't deny the fact.
Seeing Milan's proud smile, Fatty recklessly asked, "Where did you steal this mecha from?"