The Mech Touch novel Chapter 792

Naeduvis and Pirisa slowly led the delegation to a massive palace constructed out of salvaged metal situated in the center of the city. It looked obvious to Ves and the others that the palace emerged much later than the original city.

Irregular plates of metal had been welded together with the crudest of techniques. The irregular pieces likely came from the structures that used to occupy this expansive space. The architecture of the palace accommodated the size of the sacred gods by incorporating a huge hall in the very center where two or three of the beasts might fit in with room to spare for their human subjects.

The hosts held a banquet in the hall. Naeduvis took up the most space in the hall by far, and her proximity to the dining table exacted a lot of pressure on the delegation and the officials invited to attend the gathering.

Servants garbed in basic liveried uniforms served up simple dishes of Earth-derived foodstuffs. Pirisa and the city officials treated the bread, beans, rice along with simple vegetables such as lettuce and broccoli as sumptuous luxuries, and they became extremely delighted when the servants brought in tiny cuts of meats.

Pirisa enjoyed the biggest cut of meat of all, as hers was the size of a hand. The delegation along with the officials only got to enjoy a thumb-sized piece of what appeared to be chicken meat.

Naeduvis on the other hand enjoyed a wildly different treatment. The sacred god lounged in the center of the hall surrounded by tribalistic idols and decorations. Supplicants carted in whole roasted pigs by carts, and the exobeast crunched on them enthusiastically as they came in a fast and practiced pace.

It seemed as if most of the cooks in the employ of the palace were solely there to serve the sacred gods! Providing food for the other humans in the hall obviously became an afterthought. After all, serving food to a god was infinitely more prestigious than serving some mortals!

Despite the plainness of the dishes and the lack of seasoning except for a dash of salt, Dr. Tillman enthusiastically poked and prodded her food. When the hosts weren’t looking at her, she quietly took minute samples and stored them in the storage compartments of her suit.

"What did you learn about the food?" Ves asked. "Are they of normal human stock?"

The exobiologist shook her head. "I’m very certain that they are not. While the CFA possesses a genetic database of almost every baseline earth species, most of them won’t grow at all under heavy gravity. Even if the plants and animals are reared within the city somewhere, the environmental conditions are so different that they won’t be able to yield as much without some genetic tailoring. I’ll have to get back to the lab to be sure, but I’m already certain that the food we are being served with come from fast-growing, nutrient-enhanced stock."

Foodstuffs with added nutritional value became the favored crops of poor and struggling colonies that couldn’t import or cultivate anything better. They often tasted bland and paler than the real thing, but at the very least they were a step up from nutrient packs.

They also demanded a lot less capital to produce. Even the simplest subsistence farms could easily cultivate these kinds of easy-to-deal-with crops. Nutrient packs on the other hand could only be economically produced in massive production complexes that employed a host of advanced machines.

The disparity in the food enjoyed by the sacred god and the humans hit home the status disparity between the two of them. Perhaps half or more of the city’s total food production had been dedicated to feeding these voracious beasts!

During the banquet, the locals cautiously began to engage the delegation in conversation. Pirisa herself invited Captain Byrd and Captain Clarissa at the highest table and began to chat amiably about various matters.

The visitors did not dare to discuss too much serious topics, and neither did they wish to introduce too many strange concepts to the locals. They knew that they were dealing with ignorant people who bore little resemblance to their grand ancestors who once crewed a CFA battleship.

The disparity between their origins and their current existence couldn’t be more stark.

The city officials mostly directed their questioning to the Swordmaidens. In comparison to the Vandals who looked rather plain, the Swordmaidens all looked impressive in their pirate getups. Each of their suits of armor incorporated beast bone trophies, and regaling the natives of their hunts earned them instant kudos.

Still, not every city official neglected the Vandals. Compared to the basic clothes worn by the locals, suits of armor was a distinct rarity to them. The fact that the visitors all wore some form of armor already impressed them a lot.

"How are you able to move under all of that weight? We once attempted to adorn our chosen with metal plates, but they were simply too heavy for them to bear!" A city guard commander asked.

Ves and Chief Dakkon looked at each other before the latter decided to answer. "Our studies into metallurgy is very advanced. We don’t utilize the heavy metal plates that are used in the construction of the ancient city. We blend lighter metals into strong alloys that weighs several times less than the material that you used. In addition, the heavier suits incorporate small servos that act like extra muscles. These servos help us lift most of the weight."

The way the locals within earshot stared at the chief engineer was as if he was a wizard describing the profoundness of one of his magic spells. These yokels truly didn’t know anything!

"What kind of a master craftsman is able to create such a magnificent equipment? This is truly a marvel of craftsmanship!"

The more the guard commander looked at the suits of armor, the more he became enamoured by their bulk and protective ability. Not even Pirisa refrained from throwing an admiring glance or two at their gear.

The Swordmaidens especially drew a lot of attention due to their greatswords. The big weapons made for an imposing sight, and Lieutenant Dise even showed off the considerable technological advancements incorporated in their forging by chopping down a thick metal chair in half with an effortless swing!