Conditional Mechs

The advantage of resorting to nanomachines rather than uncontrollable atoms and molecules was that they could be ordered around to change shapes. This was the principal advantage of smart metal.

Yet for this single property, smart metal gave up a lot.

"The limitations of smart metal tech are many." He reminded himself.

Instead of consisting of solid slabs of metal, they could better be described as a collection of tiny little machines that hold themselves together on the microscopic level.

As Ves had already witnessed beforehand, applying brute force could easily overwhelm those 'active' defenses.

In addition, the forces the nanomachines exert on each other in order to hold themselves together needed to be powered. Once they ran out of juice, they were held together by very weak physical bonds which could easily be snapped after suffering some light hits.