Raptor One – Chapter 110
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After taking a small break from the exertions I did on the forge module I got up and headed to the bridge to give Cold her instructions, she was a little lost at first by the sudden increase of commands, orders and data from her console but with me giving her a tour on how to use her ability she managed to slowly adjust her way of managing the Navigation with the new sharper one while yet being a little clumsy.
With my part done I returned to the living quarters to meditate, by the distance from this solar system to magma tesla solar system is over three hours of travel via slipstream, and another three to reach 4b Luna...
*Brain network limit reached, ceasing growth... Locking user from meditation...*
“White.” I hear a voice calling me, my consciousness returning back after the image of three trees fully grown in my mindscape, opening my eyes I hear Shy calling me, so I open my eyes.
“Da? What time is it?” I ask her in a soft tone.
“It’s 12am, we are about to dock on the orbital station above Luna 4b, Zu also gave out the information data from the mining site we came.” Shy said with a sigh and stretched, a plate of nutrient paste in front of her along with a cup of water.
I groan as I get up, my body a little stiff but the control of my body and mind couldn’t be sharper, to make a test I start to calculate my skippgate coordinates and feel the numbers come to me naturally, the ever changing number don’t stop due to Tenacity moving motion, but it’s clear I can go anywhere I want with no problem... With a cost to neural heat, I better keep my skipgates to my guns at best so I won’t overload myself in just five seconds of use.
While up I give Shy my thanks and head for the bridge, there I see Cold and Zu at work, Zu giving Cold movement arcs and plotting lines while Cold make sharp and precise adjustments to reach the busy space station, weaving through ships, drones, and transport cargo being launched from the moons surface, the ships catching it and hauling it to the station for processing and export.
Sitting on my chair I decide to open my mouth.
“Zu, how was the contact? Give me a briefing on the price for liberating the mining site and bounty.” I ask Zu.
“Cold, you’re on your own for a minute.” Zu say and focus on me.
“Roger.” Cold say and redouble her focus on navigating Tenacity.
It’s clear that accidents occur at a common rate here due to the moving population of ships and drones...
“In brief words, we got payment for liberation of mining site and the bounty was cached out for us, we just need to dock and sell the cargo we got, for the detailed one, the liberation made the mining ships from this solar system return to work and increased the productivity of both stations reducing price of materials bought back to normal, we got 250.000 credits for the liberation, as for the bounty we got 100.000 credits, it’s already on our account.” Zu say and resume helping Cold with navigation as the station is too crowded.
Taking my tricorder out I look at my credits tab.
Credits:(824.912[C])
It’s a good amount, enough to upgrade the ship into nominal status and repair it back to full status.
I know Tenacity was made to be as battle ready as possible but the low amount of credits did not let me make it battle ready, but now I can do it, give this girl a ‘Q(uadruple)’ plating, the upgrade for her ‘D(ual)’ Plating, this will make her less exposed to railgun rounds like this time around.
It took us 10 minutes after reaching Luna 4b to dock into a dry dock, giving the orders to change the entire ship’s plating and upgrade the ship slipstream gravity ring, just the upgrade to the ship gravity ring was 600.000 credits, I tried to get a lower price and they did lower the price by almost half, from 600k to 350k, a helping hand for our help as most of the workers here need the resources mined from the mining site to work and make more ships and modules, and to keep the station running.
As for the plating, the damaged plating was taken off along with the others, we got a return price of 6,7k credits and got to choose the plating used, After some talk with the girls we decided to choose Titanium plates, or Q plate Ti, a total of... 79.680 credits, yeah, it’s expensive as all heck but the protection is guaranted.
With both armor and gravity drives upgraded I had enough to buy some upgrades for the modules the ship already had, so I decided to upgrade the forge module heat system, it’s upgrade was just get the missing heat modules, 60 units in total, for 45.120 credits it was paid and done, leaving us with only 350k credits.
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With enough credits I chose to buy the science module for the ship too for 250k leaving us with 100k.
Despite not looking like it, the Science module came with pristine materials, it was as new as a module out of the fabric, and with the upgrade from the forge the ship is now capable of doing proper crafting too.
After wasting all this money I decided to give one last push, I took my tricorder and called the station port master, our talk was brief but I got what I called for, they had Avali food and their seeds stored, so I bought it immediately.
I just emptied my credit account to almost zero, but it was valid, I got Sporing Kiri, Nakati and Piru minutes later and immediately planted the little guys, the hydroponics had just enough capacity to sustain a crew of six with spices included with no problem just because Tenacity had a better hydroponics, if it was the older one we would need to ration food with nutrient paste.
Finishing my actions I returned the call to the port master to sell the iron ores we had on the cargo hold, selling 6000 units of iron ore got me 60k credits, I tried to get a bonus and got lucky again, the station was in great need of iron ores as they are made into variable of resources including plates to restore, repair or upgrade the station along with maintenances, that got me another 60k a total of 120k credits, we no longer where on the red.
With all the orders sorted out I walked out of the ship and into the station, all the girls followed as we took a tour on Luna 4b station, of course I did not forget to unload my floating guns, with a movement they came in front of me and with another they made a new sound, *Ka-Click* the sound was heard as the bullet on the chamber was devoured by the bullet forge and transformed back into Liquid iron, the crisp sound was clear while I floated the magazines out of the guns and into my pockets before placing both rifles on my holster, the girls did the same when they saw me.
The atmosphere was vivid and happy, we got out of our ship in what felt like a week as the workers flies around our ship changing thick plates into even thicker plates, moving cargo in and out, bringing pieces to upgrade the modules, and even build a new one inside the ship, the ship was alive with workers, we did not mind security because Sigma was surveilling the ship integrity, if they want the ship to operate they need to bypass Sigma first.
Walking through the internals of the station and sightseeing the multitudes of interesting places inside it we decide to stop on a restaurant with Avali specialty.
“How long will it take for Tenacity to leave the dry dock?” Nail ask the group while eating a baked Nakati Ovoid with spicy jerky.
“I’m not sure, but it will take under 12:00 hours to finish all the changes.” Peppy say while eating Avalon Pizza.
“And another 6:00 hours to leave the station as we need to calibrate the empowered gravity ring.” Shy say while eating Spicy noodles.
“Yeah, I’ll have to get used to the new weight of the ship as the thrusters won’t be as jerky as before.” Cold said while eating Avalon muffin.
“That reminds me that we used our entire credit on this, will we be okay?” Zu asked me.
“Da, the selling of the Fe ores was sold at a premium, we got 120k out of it, just eat, when we are done tomorrow we will have better food you all can make.” I said with a nod while drinking kiri juice.
Just like that we pass our time chatting about trivial things, sometimes singing a song they stole from my nexus account, with no worries at all...
Walking through the station I heard Peppy talk to me.
“Hey, White, Nice cloak, what material is it made of?” Peppy ask me, making Shy focus on me with curiosity.
“It’s B fiber, also known as Ballistic Fiber, I had some trouble making it with a non calibrated fabricator, the cape is just a extension of the nanite bank and it’s chip, so I just make a better version of the cloak.” I said while passing a claw over the white n silver fabric, small sparks leaving it as my claw fail to pierce it.
“Whow, I also have a question.” Shy also talked, curiosity on her eyes.
“Da? What’s it?” I asked back taking a sip from the Kiri juice I took with me.
“You where researching something called Herb, was that a plant you where researching? Where is it from? What’s it’s use?” Shy fired off some questions my way.
“Where did you get the data?” I asked back with tilted head.
“Oh! That’s easy, we have the password for your Nexus Account, and I found this data there, what’s was all that technical jargon?” Shy asked me again with shining eyes.
“*Sigh* Da, da, rodzher, the data comes from abandoned planets plagued by mutant zombies, there lies a species of herb called... Herb. Their strain is named by color, not name, and each one have a plethora of uses, the herbs are Red, Blue and Green, those are the base herbs, they can reinforce the immunologic system, cure poisons, and heal the body.” I said while taking another small sip of Kiri juice.
“Let me have some.” Zu ask me while gluing her body on my arm.
“Sure.” I pass the Kiri Juice to Zu but she don’t grab it, just take a sip from my hand.
“So, they are medicinal herbs? What’s their use? You used the broad term on it.” Shy asked back again.
“Hm? But the broad term is the standard for it, it can do literally anything as long as it’s curable, I think a high portion of Green and red herbs can cure genetic damage and radiation damage altogether.” I said with a tilted head.
“That much?” Cold said.
“Whow.” Nail said.
“Is it related to the mutant zombies by any chance?” Zu ask me with a questioning look.
“Da and Niet, Da because the ones that did manage to grab the herbs was infected by the virus rampaging the planet, Niet because the herbs itself cures or lessen the virus altogether.” I said with a chuckle while placing the straw on Zu’s mouth.
Zu softened her gaze while taking some sips of my Kiri Juice before talking.
“Will you enter the planet in search of the herbs?” Zu asked me with a mellowed voice.
“Da, I will, but first I’ll have to get the permission from the blockade fleet first... And make my combat exoskeleton suit too, I don’t want to be ripped apart just yet and I know I’ll need it.” I said with a sigh.
“Well now, let’s stop our roaming, let’s catch some sleep, where do you all want to go? Hotel or ship?” I asked the group as we stop on a reinforced window overlooking the crowded space, ships moving in and out of view in this busy moon.
“Let’s return to the ship.” Zu’s the first to say.
“Yeah, despite all that happened I prefer the ship.” Cold say.
“Of course the Ship.” Nail say with a smirk.
“Heck no, I want my fluffy bed on the ship!” Peppy say.
“I’m in with my sister, I don’t want to stay away from our ship.” Shy said with a shake of her head.
“Da, the ship is now more of a home than anywhere else right now, and with the bad food gone we are living in luxury compared to the station.” I say with a grin. “Let’s go.”
With those words we return to our ship after hours of sightseeing.