The Mech Touch novel Chapter 837

The issue concerning the increasing rate of breakdowns and mechanical failures threatened to derail the entire expedition. While the engineers only made an uncertain prediction what might happen if they came close to the elusive battleship, Ves believed that this might very well become a serious problem!

He sought of Chief Dakkon to discuss the issue. They met at the workshop.

"Ves. What did you call me for?"

"Is it true that the rate of breakdowns will increase to such an extent that it’s impossible to operate a mech near the Starlight Megalodon?"

The chief’s face grew serious. "That’s a possible outcome. We’ve extrapolated this possibility from the existing data. It’s not entirely set in stone that mechs won’t work in the vicinity. After all, hasn’t the battleship herself shown signs of life?"

That was true. Otherwise, how could she have been functional enough to detect something going on in orbit and launch an antimatter torpedo straight in the middle of a fleet in the midst of bombarding the surface?

"Still, that’s the Starlight Megalodon you’re talking about." Ves retorted. "As the source of all the unnatural phenomena around Seven, I’m sure she’s an exception to the rule. It would have been a very bad thing if she became affected by the same technology-corroding effects from the astral winds that is spewing out of her leaking FTL drives."

"This is also why I don’t dare to take too much stock in this prediction yet. The situation near the site might be very different from our calculations."

If the Starlight Megalodon became subjected to this very same effect, then how could her FTL drives still be releasing gouts of astral winds? They had to remain somewhat functional, and they did indeed for an extremely lengthy amount of time.

Therefore, the clues pointed out that even if various pieces of technology would stop working if they came close, some people developed a means to circumvent this effect.

Ves hummed in thought. "I wonder how the battleship managed to stay working. There has to be a way for us to shield our mechs and machinery from the breakdown effect."

Both of them brainstormed for a few minutes, but neither Ves or Dakkon could come up with an answer.

However, Ves did come up with a possible alternative. "Only machines are affected, right? So far, none of the doctors or exobiologists ever gave out an alert concerning the dangers to our health. What if this extends to the god species as well?"

"You mean..."

"Maybe this is intentional. Haven’t you ever thought about the absence of any functional technology among the natives? Why did they voluntarily return to the stone age or bronze age? Why haven’t the natives inherited any of the advantaged knowledge of their ancestors?"

"This is still a far-fetched idea, Ves."

"Yet out of all the possibilities, it makes the most sense!" Ves declared with fervor. "Why turn Aeon Corona VII into a giant experiment? Why engineer the god species into organic mechs analogues and why modify the genes of the blessed and cursed people into organic mech pilots? It’s because only non-mechanical entities are able to get close to the Starlight Megalodon!"

"You know what this theory implies, right? Those who terraformed this planet and seeded it with the god species and the natives likely come from a different faction that the one who is still in control of the Starlight Megalodon!"

A great story must be behind this separation, if it existed at all. Ves strongly believed in his intuition, which told him something like this must have happened. This might not have been the only division among the original crew.

So many contradictions must have emerged after the crash. Officers against enlisted. Researchers against soldiers. Those who gave up and wanted to settle against those who wanted to work on towards an escape.

The Flagrant Swordmaidens only gathered fragmented clues during their travels so far, but this revelation may have been the first big secret they might have stumbled upon. It made too much sense to Ves! _{frёeωebɳovel.com}

However, Chief Dakkon didn’t entirely seem willing to abandon everything they brought to complete the mission. "Even if the Starlight Megalodon is hard to get at, I don’t believe it’s impossible for us to develop a solution. Before we go all gung-ho on taming sacred gods and raise a beast rider regiment, we should conduct an extensive investigation."

"I agree." Ves nodded. After all, they couldn’t completely put their faith in the data they gathered so far. "However, we shouldn’t be too complacent either. Now that we know that we might need to depend on taming the god species, we should place more emphasis on the beast rider project. If possible, we should contemplate on adding other sacred gods to our roster."

"Do you think sacred gods are so easy to obtain?" Chief Dakkon snorted. "We’ve traveled very far these last two months. We’ll almost be passing by the last ancient city before we cross into the storm lands. We don’t know what’s hidden there, but the odds of encountering sacred gods for us to subdue is rather low. So if we want to obtain more god beasts, we either have to lower our standards and go for the wild gods, or go attack an ancient city."

Ves grimaced. "I don’t think Captain Byrd or any of the other mech officers will be eager to attack an ancient city. It’s a politically sensitive matter."

No matter how far removed they were from the CFA, the blessed people that inhabited the ancient city still shared an undeniable heritage from the formidable organization. They had the blood of CFA officers running through their veins!

Even if more than a hundred generations went past, the CFA still took care of their own! They were notoriously famous for protecting the families and dependents of their active servicemen.

While the Vandals had the right to protect themselves if the natives came looking for trouble, hence why they dared to defend against Pairixan and his goons, it would be a different matter entirely if they barged into an ancient city!