Even with all the commotion inside Demopolis, the exchange of pilots for the Mechataur had proceeded smoothly. Apart from Luo Bo having hesitated a bit when the time came to leave Mechatur, Shi Zuo had decidedly pulled her away, reminding her that enough was enough.
"I'd rather fight with the Bone Spirit Sea Demons toe to toe than having to read all those vital parameters to keep the Mechataur working properly! That hasty boot up of Mechataur made me nearly go mad." Shi Zuo continued to distance Luo Bo away from the Mechataur while bidding the Supa Robot Veterans duo good luck.
The two pilots nodded their heads in unison and chose their seats instinctively. It was as if this was not the first time they had been piloting a Supa Robot, but this was indeed their maiden voyage on the Mechataur.
As the c.o.c.kpit closed, the duo immediately raised their storage rings up and a set of items immediately came out of it. The very same helmet that Luo Bo had been using to control the Mechataur with her thoughts, a key card that had been engraved with their name and rank used for the Supa Robot Wars as well as a cosmetic inscription charm.
"Two Star Ensign Deng Long, signing in." Deng Long said as he finally found a suitable card slot on the seat where Shi Zuo was controlling the console.
"Three Star Ensign Bu Dong, signing in." Bu Dong subsequently inserted his key card too after he wore his helmet. Unlike the one Luo Bo wore, Bu Dong had a customised helmet made out of carbon fibre and the aesthetic was more pleasant looking compared to the dull looking one Luo Bo had. However, his helmet and the current outfit he was wearing did not match at all and that was where the cosmetic charm came into play.
With a quick chi activation, both Deng Long and Bu Dong changed their current battle outfit into tight skin suits made out of nanofiber material. They even had an insignia of an Astronaut Panda at their shoulder, displaying their affiliations to the Space Pandas, a Supa Robot Wars' guild which Bu Dong and Deng Long had created exclusively for the most skilled space pilots. It was built in hopes to tackle the Supa Robot Wars' future dungeon and raid contents when Jin would finally update the mini game.
Unbeknownst to Shi Zuo, he had made the right decision to pass the piloting to the veteran space pilots mainly because of one thing.
To inexperienced pilots like Shi Zuo and Luo Bo, they had to manually input their options to use Mechataur and that was the restriction that Jin had placed before he was caged into oblivion to do his work. But all of that changed when one had played Supa Robot Wars for a lengthy period of time. The key cards Bu Dong and Deng Long had, were a set of presets they had saved from the various fights they encountered in the Supa Robot Wars.
So, when they inserted their key cards, the control consoles in front of them instantly changed to suit them rather than the pilots adjusting themselves to the control consoles. The buttons, pulleys and joysticks had been reconfigured to the setting that Deng Long and Bu Dong had been playing with. All the parameters of the Supa Robot were automatically regulated without any input from the pilots.
What took Shi Zuo ages to boot up the Mechataur was merely seconds for the space pilot duo. And not only that, the key card had something special which Shi Zuo and Luo Bo would not have been able to utilise.
The ability to summon various attachments and weapons for the Mechataur to use.
And that was actually the bonus that Captain Hei and Bai had prepared to reward Shi Zuo and Luo Bo if they would have managed to get a 12 in their dice game. (Or you know, beat them up until both of them were rendered incapable of fighting if they had actually duelled.)
Usually in the mini game, Bu Dong and Deng Long had to prepare the attachments and weapons in the hangar bay. Once they launched out of the hangar bay, they would either have to work with what they had or return back to the hangar bay for refuelling and reattachment of their weapons. But that caused time and delay, eating up precious seconds of their mission time and possibly their rewards too.
Thus, when they saw the alert where the system control is allowing them to summon any attachments instantly for this entire raid, Bu Dong and Deng Long literally screamed in excitement.
"This Mechataur Mk 3 is a heavy class Supa Robot. We should be able to field the extensive equipment!" Deng Long shouted in excitement as he was checking out all the possible options with lightning fast reflexes. He already knew what weapons both Bu Dong and he would love to use in this current situation and they were solely browsing for those particular options.
"We saw how the missiles were useless when he screeched, lasers might be an option, but what is the battery capacity of Mechataur? How about its heat ventilation threshold?" Bu Dong asked as he did a prep warm up with all the pedals and joysticks to make sure the controls were the same as he was used to.
"There is the railgun cannon option. But that is one of the few things we have yet to unlock. We would need to pay a lot more than usual to use it here." Deng Long mentioned and Bu Dong looked back at him.
"THAT railgun?" Bu Dong queried with his eyes filled with stars.
"Aye, the same one in the mission where we had to protect the base from those super carriers diving down from space and into the atmosphere." Deng Long's comment made them simultaneously recall the one crazy mission.
"How much is it? Do we have enough Supa Medals for it or do we need to top it up with Panda Coins?" Bu Dong asked and Deng Long took his phone out to calculate.
"Seems like we can exchange our current Heavy Weapons discount voucher to top up the remainder without using any Panda Coins."
"Hmmmm but those Heavy Weapon vouchers are hard to come by. We can either exchange it for 10,000 Supa Medals or unlock a new weapon." Bu Dong was in a dilemma since they were one Heavy Weapon voucher short of unlocking the railgun but Bu Dong knew the value of those vouchers since they did not have any expiry date on them.
"Use my Panda Coins. We should save those vouchers for another time." Bu Dong made a snap decision to use his money. "If Jin had introduced a Supa Robot in this raid, I can imagine he will do so for the future raids and dungeon content, making our voucher even more valuable!"
"Understood." Deng Long immediately cashed in the duo's Supa Medals while topping up with Panda Coins. The purchase was made instantly and the current console unlocked that particular option for them.
"Shall we use it now as an opening attack? Or later? Its specs say that we only have one shot since we do not have additional battery packs to spare." Deng Long asked and Bu Dong already knew what to do.
"We will use it after we get close to it. For now, Weapon Set Delta." Bu Dong ordered and Deng Long acknowledged his higher ranked buddy.