The Mech Touch novel Chapter 796

The hunting party eventually crossed over into prairie terrain. The terrain became a little harder to navigate, and if the Vandals made use of wheeled or tracked vehicles, then they would have slowed down to a crawl.

Fortunately, the legged transports which derived some of their shape from insects possessed enough maneuverability to walk over most irregularities in the terrain. They didn’t even slow down that much when they had to climb uphill.

To speed up their progress, every mech and transport maintained their own antigrav fields. Though costly in terms of energy, sustaining it for a day or two wouldn’t break their energy budget.

Still, if they kept the antigrav modules running at all times, then eventually they would run out of energy after a month or two. That was way too fast and would put them at a huge disadvantage.

How could they compete for the treasures of the Starlight Megalodon if their mechs moved like snails and their melee mechs couldn’t even lift up their weapons without taking seconds to do so?

Besides the occasional supply shipments sent down from the fleet that had begun mining operations on one of the moons, the only other way to supplement their energy was to find a local source.

This was why they put so much emphasis on their entreaties with the ancient city of Mulak. If the natives traded the means of siphoning some of the higher-dimensional energies for their own uses in exchange for something like a water purifier or a basic power reactor, then the Vandals wouldn’t have to worry about this issue so much.

They didn’t even know if it was possible to convert the higher-dimensional energies into electricity or some other form that the Vandals were capable of harnessing. For all they knew, only through the medium of a sacred god would they be able to secure an endless power source.

In any case, one of the reasons why the Flagrant Swordmaidens wanted to dissect a wild god was because they may be able to figure out this energy conversion process on their own. If they manage to obtain the god crystals from somewhere, then they could use the insights they gained to invent a makeshift renewable energy source that would last them for as long as the astral winds dominated the skies!

The hunting party took some time to navigate towards the site of the wild god. Vandals and Swordmaidens positioned scouts at a distance, making sure they remained downwind so that the creature wouldn’t be able to smell their distinctive metallic scents and spook them off.

"Is that it?" Ketis remarked as the fast transports and mechs halted at least ten kilometers away from the big beast. "For a supposed god, it doesn’t look as large as the sacred gods from the footage."

"These creatures grow extremely slow. According to Dr. Tillman, it takes a century or more for them to reach adulthood."

The wild god in question looked smaller and leaner than the fat and bulky sacred gods of Mulak. If Dr. Tillman was right, then this may be a younger adult specimen of its species. Perhaps the reason why it drifted off into the prairie was because it lacked the strength to claim a better territory.

During the time it remained under observation, the wild god mostly slept in the open. Occasionally it woke up to dig a small hole with its formidable rear limbs, only to use it as a makeshift toilet before covering it up with soil.

Other times, it hunted down the herd of animals by moving towards them in an agonizingly slow pace.

Though the wild god appeared to move as fast as a slow turtle, the bison-like creatures didn’t move any faster either!

Looking at the footage of the wild god hunting down its prey was like watching a turtle trying to catch up to a snail. Both were slow creatures in their size category, but the wild god possessed an absolute speed advantage because its body and limbs were bigger!

In fact, the wild god didn’t particularly exert itself too much whenever it wanted to snack. It merely sniffed the air and homed in on the strong smells of the large herds of animals.

The wild god didn’t go too far either. It only nabbed half-a-dozen prey at a time at most, thereby preventing it from driving the animal herds to extinction.

Behavior like this increased everyone’s impression that this animal had been engineered somehow.

Ves and the other expert huddled together with Captain Byrd to go over the final plans. They already formed one with the cooperation of the Swordmaidens but they wanted to look over it to see if they made any oversights.

"Have we detected the presence of a second wild god?" Chief Dakkon wondered. "I don’t want to find out it has a mate that has stumbled upon us attempting to dissect its deceased partner."

"We’re fairly certain the beast is on its own." Dr. Tillman replied. "We’ve analyzed the terrain extensively and the only traces of a giant beast belongs to this yellow wild god."

The creature in question resembled a feathered dinosaur covered with rich yellow feather interspersed with other patterns. It weighed significantly more than a heavy mech, but not as much as one of the sacred gods.

It never showed any signs of sentience or interaction with the elusive wildlings. The Flagrant Swordmaidens kept their eyes and ears peeled out for the dwarves, but so far they hadn’t encountered any. They didn’t adhere to the stereotype of miners who loved to claim mineral-rich deposits.

Mining ores didn’t fill up their stomachs!

"Has the creature shown any sign of extraordinary abilities?"

"None so far, though that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any trump cards." Dr. Tillman cautioned them all. "Our scanners and sensors can’t penetrate past its feathery scales. Just like a sacred god, the wild god is emitting a natural interference field that also has a spacetime distortion component. This alone tells us that they may not be called gods in vain."

In short, they hadn’t figured out more than what they already knew a few days ago. Though Captain Byrd wanted to treat the wild god as a potential opponent on par with a sacred god like Naeduvis, they couldn’t afford to dither all day. Delaying the hunt by a few days wouldn’t improve their chances of success.

They just needed to get on with the hunt.

The fast transports remained at the rear while the mechs stepped forward. The Vandals and Swordmaidens both brought two mech companies again. The Vandals brought more ranged mechs this time as they didn’t anticipate their melee mechs to play any role.

Even if the wild god moved as slow as a snail, none of them underestimated the creature’s burst capabilities! It could perform a quick snap if it wanted to! Taking them out at a distance so far that the mechs would barely be able to remain in visual range sounded like a much safer prospect.

"The Swordmaiden mechs are in position. Our own mechs are in position as well. The wild god is currently asleep and has not shown any indications of detecting our presence. We can commence the attack any any time, captain."