Chapter 88 – Prometheus Cockpit Trap
The robot in Joan's game screen was a tall half-Rhinoceros-beetle, half-humanoid mecha.
It had coated red frames all over its body. The extended shoulder guards covered its collars down to its elbows while two gigantic foldable wings hid the psionic radiators and the boosters behind the mech's back.
The trademark of Prometheus mecha series was their long beetle horn which extended from its head. They seemed useless, but they were the telepathic receptor for the secondary cockpit within its head.
Unlike the mechs from the 23rd-century, this robot could be controlled by two pilots from two different cockpits. One was inside the robot's head while the other one located within its torso.
Prometheus's cockpit armor chest was in a pyramid shape as it was designed to deflect all physical attacks from the critical area, protecting the primary pilot's space.
However, the operating room within the mecha's head did not have protection like the chest. Instead, it was equipped with a detachable device that could transition from a robot head into a flying drone.
Aside from the large upper body part, each leg of Prometheus was almost as big as its torso. It was as if that each leg wore a mantle to cover their bulking muscle.
Under the skirt-like shin-guard frames, two psionic engines hid there.
Its feet were armed with psionic-powered wheel tracks. Not only that Prometheus could walk and jumped, but it could also transform its soles into roller wheels, so it could skate through the battlefields.
As these tracks and chassis were designed to support with over 150,000 horsepower from each of the psionic turbine engines, this 50 tons mech could accelerate from zero to the speed of 150mph on the ground with ease.
Those were the Prometheus Series specs in their early days that Mia knew.
'That doesn't make sense! Psionic Engine technologies are only available in the late 29th-century! The game shouldn't allow anyone to develop these engines yet, and psionic robots shouldn't be available in the game!'
Psionic technology breakthrough happened after mankind discovered a particular mineral from space by chance.
It happened at the time when private companies were allowed to journey into the asteroid belts of the solar system to explore and mined resources. One of the space miner companies found a new mineral, the Titan Arum Ore.
This mineral was named after a corpse flower as not only they smelled like a rotting corpse, but they could grow and multiply on a dead mammal body! It was also harmful to mankind as it emitted poisonous gas.
However, it resonated with human's psychic powers. This alone brought up the ore's value.
As it reacted to esper's abilities, scientists conducted researches on these Titan Arums in an enclosed spaceship.
A decade later, they created a medium device, which could enhance psychic abilities of humans. Many companies and government came up with more tools and gadgets, using these minerals as the foundation. However, the most significant byproduct of these Titan Arum ores were the new sources of energy, the psionic core.
Psionic Technologies breakthrough followed after the psionic core creation, and psionic engines were born.
One standard two-meter turbine engine could generate electricity at the same rate to what a 200MW nuclear reactor power plant produced, and one of them could last 7200 hours at 100% capacity usage.
Thus, this engine became a standard engine for all mechs and heavy factories in the 30th-century, which should not be able to import into the game with the restriction of tech trees.
Although it looked inefficient for using multiple nuclear reactors for supplying a mech, Mia knew why they did that.
It was Prometheus was the first esper mech of mankind, which would change the warfare and the technologies outlook beyond the 30th-century.
Mia stared at Joan with a baffled look, "How did you create a psionic engine here? Did you bring it from the real world?"
Joan smirked, "No. As I said before, they were the pseudo robot, so they aren't using one of those psionic turbines."
"Then, how do you feed the energies to the robot? That thing is an esper mech!"
"You'll understand it once you get in there. I don't need to explain."
"…"
While the APC was on the road, the sounds of a grand battle came from a distance away. Consecutive explosions caused an earthquake and a heat shockwave, which affected all civilians in the town.
Joan and Mia got back to the hangar during the ruckus.
Inside the hangar, most of the robots and military personals had left for combat, but one red mech was still there.
The 50 tons, 25-meter-tall mech stood still behind the bridge. The body size and the beetle wings made it look like a fat giant robot compared to the other mechs in this age.
"Hop in that mech."
Mia peered at Joan with a wry smile, "I've never piloted a mech. Who do you think I am, Amuro Ray!? I can't master the mech with just a manual!"
Joan smirked, "I'll remind you again. This mech is customized for golden generation freaks like you. You'll be able to operate it like how you fapped using your avatar in the barrack back then. Also, take off those exoskeletons. You won't be able to operate the mech with all frames around yourself."
Mia's face reddened. He indeed touched Misha's whole body when he took a bath in the game for the first time, but he did not go as far as masturbating. Joan's words were exaggerating.
Embarrassed and frustrated, Mia gritted his teeth and got on the bridge, climbing into the chest cockpit of the Prototype Prometheus.
He thought to himself, 'Once this raid quest is done, I'll GTA this!'
Joan assisted him by operating the bridges in the hangar, opening the way for Mia.
The cockpit hatch slowly closed by itself once Mia sat, and the light in the room switched on.
The controllers in the cockpit were two arm bracers, two hand grips, leg guards, three pedals, and a keyboard. On the cockpit ceiling, over a hundred switches dazzled Mia.
'That wet banana! How dafuq can I move this thing without prior training!? She said I will be able to once I get in, and now what!?'
The OS of the mech booted up, and several odd symbols appeared on the screen. It froze as if the OS was waiting for instruction.
Mia frowned as he tried to decipher these odd moon runes. He had seen these somewhere before, but he could not recall it.
'It's familiar. I think I can understand this, but I don't. What?'
He had a vague déjà vu feeling about this runes. As if in a trance, Mia placed his hands on the keyboard and started typing.
[BANANA]
…
*BZZ*
Error.
'Of course, it will give me an error. What am I thinking?'
Though he thought that, his fingers did not stop.
[WET BANANA]
…
*BZZ*
Error
Mia leaned back to his seat as he sniggered. As soon as his neck touched the neck rest, he felt something had pricked the back of his neck.
"OUCH!"
He tried to lean forward in reflex, but a collar extended from behind the seat and locked him back to the position. The needle penetrated into his cervical spine, and it injected something inside.
Tama immediately sent her tentacles and her blood cells into Mia's spinal cord, protecting him from the unknown substances.
*Mew* (Misha, let's destroy this and get out of here!)
"Ah, I know."
*Beep*
<
<
"Huh?"
<
"SHIT!"
This was what he feared the most in his life, getting forcefully implanted by an unknown memory.
Mia closed his eyes and shook his head around as he tried to resist.
However, he felt nothing coming from the cockpit, not even a movement or another restraint.
<
'Huh?'
Mia slowly opened his eyes as he peeked the cockpit monitor. Nothing had happened to him.
'What da hack did it do?'
The screen was still flooded with moon runes. The safety lock collar was still binding his neck to his seat, but Mia could not sense any change.
"Tama, did you see or feel anything?"
Tama had been quiet after the warning about memory implant. Mia looked at his chest to see what Tama was doing.
Her only eye on his chest stared straight at the monitor without blinking. Tama was somehow in a trance.
*Meh*
"Tama?"
*Meh-Heh*
"Meh-Heh?"
*Meh-Heh-Heh MEW!*
"???"
*MEW MEW!* (I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING!)
*Meh* (Eh, they sure have a bad taste though.)
*Mew?* (Why did they want me to serve the MWG when I'm stuck with banana Misha?)
Mia's face cramped from listening to Tama's mumbling. He had a theory in his mind.
*Mew?* (Hey, Mish! What's Golden Generation?)
*Mew?* (What's Milky Way Government?)
*Mew?* (Why do they want me to serve them?)
Mia's face turned into a (・_・) meme once more.
'Did the OS just implant a memory into Tama instead of me?'