Author's corner: Like I promised on Clockwork, Nebula chapter and the prologue to the battle with the bandits. These next chapters will have lots of emphasis on poking fun at our third gender and I'm already having fun imagining what i will be doing. Kukuku you will never expect what will happen after the battle is over.
Enjoy~!
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*Hummmmmmmm~*
A soft droning came from the two back rooms of the top floor on our shuttle.
I walk into the second to last room and see the room that had before been normally empty with only small and noisy power generators. Now 80% of the room was filled with the machinery and at its center were two power cores attached to the machines feeding the power to the ship while regenerating the power used.
I leave and go to the last room and what we found there was much noisier. The Engine of the ship was nearly twice as big as the power generator. I can’t really put into words what I was seeing besides a hell of a lot of machinery and at its center were 3 power cores that worked as the battery for the ship. This was needed because the power generator wouldn’t be able to work anything on the ship if it had to power the engine.
I turn to the corridor and see the normally dull lights were now bright and the corridors full brilliance was finally shown. The white corridors finally shined as it should.
I happily walk through the ship as I look at everything and check to make sure all the things were working and as soon as I reach the cargo I find the new air conditioning system was working like a charm keeping the temperature within standard temperatures that dad normally stores that at, which is between 7 and 15 degrees celsius making this separated cargo space rather cold.
I look to one side where the beer was placed standing on two rows of shelves and I count around 30 beer barrels.
On the other side I saw a similar imagine but the wine was laid sideways and because of this it gave more room and so there was 40 barrels.
On the lid and the side of the barrel was the brand my dad had created and propagated.
“Roktar Spirits: Rising the spirits of every Ale lover!”
On the lid was also the date it was produced.
Near the back of the room I spotted the larger brewery that underwent an upgrade thanks to the money I gave my dad.
I walk into the main cargo and see the place was properly lit up with 5 rows of overhead lights and the place had some boxes which was preserved food I had already taken the chance to purchase.
Now the last preparation we needed was to wait for the station to fill the water and oxygen tanks which comes for free when you buy or finish building a ship.
The tanks were very large and the water tank held around 50,000 liters. It was a huge cylinder tank that connected to all the places that needed water. If you're wondering what happens to waste in the ship, it is gathered in a small 50 liter tank at the bottom of the ship, even below the cargo, and when it fills up it is ejected out. We don’t have the space to put any processing plant to remove the water but a small shuttle can only enter hyperspeeds and not light speed.
Unless we recklessly try to travel to another solar systems with such a small ship and no light speed drive then we will definitely face problems.
In hyperspeed it would take about a month to reach the nearest solar system so you can tell there is no reason for us to leave until we can get something bigger or we can try to go to a colony solar system to acquire this but there is no point with the trade ships coming and with them comes their ship selling business.
As I walk back upstairs I find Alex was already in the cockpit. I had sent a message to the entire crew that the ship was finished repairing and Alex came running when she heard that.
I quickly found out what the hacking skill was for. It seems she and her AI have been copying system coding to use on our ship when it was ready.
All around her was tons of hologram screens and she was typing feverishly and her hands were truly a blur making me quickly realize that her hand eye coordination was far beyond anything I ever saw. This was a genius NEET level ability you can’t find anywhere else besides on people that focus their entire beings into doing something.
Since she was so focused I leave her alone since she was setting up the ship's systems but I emphasis Lia to watch the systems and learn what she did to make sure nothing was secretly hidden away that could cause trouble later on.
It’s not like I don’t trust Alex but… with a skill like hacking I just can’t help be a bit cautious even with a friend.
After checking that nothing on the ship was built incorrectly I go to the kitchen and read the information for the mission we will be doing tomorrow.
First off there are 5 player crews joining, ours included. Our level range at the moment is between 9 and 20, 20 being my dad who.
All the crews are run by older men and surprisingly one of these captains dad knows from a different game.
He is a swords master and in this game he started as a human so as not to disrupt his own sense of perspective.
That is something dad and I need to fight when we log in but we adapt quickly.
In terms of skill our crew will probably be the strongest, no other crew has a dwarf fighter but most have more members than us and each has two or three mechanics and a variety in the races. While we number only 6 the others number 10 or more.
Still we are quality over quantity so we are mostly balanced.
These crews seem to split up in groups like we did. They hunt bandits more... uncle's crew seem to specialize in bandit hunting." I mutter as I look at the crew quest logs that I was able to obtain from them.
They are rather good and somewhat lucky. They have been able to hunt a good deal of bandits we believe come from the outpost we will take down today. Not only that they have even towed back a few of the fighter ships and now possess five of them but like us, they have had to go all out to repair them. Still they were lucky that the engines weren't damaged in the fights, well they did fight a large number to gather five with working engines.
Our crew is the only one with such a large ship. Others were only able to get enough to buy the basic level ships. One of them waited longer and was able to get a proper mining ship and then they customized it to be a impromptu fighter but it still did its job since the crew can travel in space while my crew has only just obtained our own personal ship.
That doesn't mean they are better, we simply took the harder route by rebuilding a ship instead of buying a smaller one like most other people.
After reading about the other crews I searched up the information about the guards unit for this mission and then to see what little of the bandit outpost scans were able to obtain without being detected.
A pain in the ass appeared instantly. Put simply I was made an invalid in that place, my robot is too large to enter the interior but the hangar they had enough space.
As for the guards, it says here the ships are built with immobilization shots that have similar effects to emp and cause disorder in the ship controls. The guards themselves have similar weapons but for humans. It's a kind of laser rifle but the bullet is set to non lethal and induces a shock through the body stunning the target unconscious similar to a tazer.
The player crews will be given similar weapons when we land so that we capture the bandits instead of kill them. This is to question them and to make sure no traps lay hidden in the outpost.
My recently added psionic shield will be of great use in scuffle when we land on the station and encounter enemy in there. Lisa is already making sure it's charged and the second floor cargo was customized to have a door big enough for my robot to jump out on one of the sides.obviously it has an energy shield along with the bulkhead cargo doors to keep the air in.
I've been training a lot to grow my fighting style to use the psi coated sword and shotguns it gives a good balance for the most part.
Soon enough I will be able to learn how to make the swords psi gather enough to flow out of the sword and perform a psi flying sword slash.
By then though it would be months. The reason being that using a weapon with my robot is very hard. VERY hard, I needed to remake both hands to have a small attachments on the palm that connects to a plug on the sword to allow the psi to flow.
Also to make my shotguns into psi weapons I needed to wrap part of the chamber in psionic nerve to stabilize the Psi passing through. I removed the handles and outfitted it to fit just above my left wrist. It was a simple arrangement that was made to improvise until I can order proper psi metal in the shape of shotguns. Its also less effective but its more then enough at the moment.
After going over everything I jumped into one of the beds in the mens room. Each room had bunks built into the walls with the bed there. There was six beds on the three walls.
I'm kind of worried about this though since I still don't know what sex Alex really is.
It would be simpler if she told me so I wouldn't be so confused when referring to her. For now I guess it's fine but later it might get to be a pain.
Alex pov
Finally, finally I can go all out to customize my own ship's systems. After copying so many systems secretly then working on them in the tutorials I finally tailored together a really efficient programming form most of the ship's systems and Xeno is helping me set it all up.
Just so you know, all the crews AI's are watching and learning what you are doing. It seems your hacking skill gave them a small sense of insecurity.
"I expected that, I doubt I wouldn't be cautious of someone that has skills in hacking. You can teach them while you set up most of the ship systems. I'll get started on the firewall. Thanks to your basic scans of the security ship firewalls I could make something fun." I reply back.
You and your obsession with air and space crafts. You're so smart and learned so much yet you only focus on this subject.
"Its called love! Love runs the universe and all things should revolve around spacecrafts. Wait... it does without these beauties none of this will have happened." I say as I kick it into overdrive and start to build my own firewall from scratch but it was stored in my head.
Xeno kept remaining anything I typed up wrong and was probably showing the AI's how to bypass the firewall so that they weren't kicked out by it.
From there I worked for half a day to get the ships systems up to date with my own coding. I even improved the engine output without rising the power consumption or increasing any risk of overheating, the same goes for the power generator.
When I finished I messaged the hangar guys and told them I was done and was taking the ship.
After doing a systems check before takeoff I pulled the shuttle out and brought it to its pier and turned the engine off and had the ship hooked up so it didn't float away.
Then I stretched and got up and out of the pilot seat. There was a small drawer behind the seat and inside was a set of bed sheets. With a happy smile I pulled them out and jumped into my pilot seat and threw the sheets over me.
"A pilot's seat truly is the best bed." I mutter after making the seat bend back and become almost horizontal before going to sleep.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Noah PoV
When I returned to the game Lia said that there was no problem with Alex’s system coding. It even improved the ship's performance without going overboard.
Looking out the window of the room I found we were already at the piers and no longer in the hangar.
“So Alex already moved us back here.” I mutter as I look at the neighboring ships. Most were smaller ships but then I noticed movement among the ships and one was coming our way.
I walk to the airlock and put my helmet on, we have our own personal ones now that remain with us or in the ship at all times.
I empty the airlock and open the door as the men each the space in front of the door.
A chat link connected to my internal systems and the men began talking.
???: Greetings, we were sent by Major Snocon to install a scanner disruptor. It is like a stealth technology that will keep long range scans from picking up your ship.
This is really convenient.
“Lia, patch me to Major Snocon in a private chat.” I asked.
On it!
I moment later a new box appeared.
Major: Did you need something from me Noah?Noah: Yes, there are some men that came to my ship as well as other ships on the piers and are installing something called a scanner disruptor. He says you sent them.Major: Noah, stall them as much as possible. These are bandits, the scanner probe was spotted when it did a preliminary scan but escaped. It seems the found a way to breach into the station and are putting up a trap.Noah: Got it.
The chat closed and I move my hand behind my back gripping the Laser pistol.
Noah: Do you have proof that Major Snocon sent you???? (1): Do we need such a thing???? (2): Didn’t hear from major about any of this. Like you can see all the others owners are allowing us.Noah: What I see is you sneaking into others ships and installing it.
They all flinch before the man on the left went for his gun but I already had mine gripped so I just pulled it out and fired at them.
The laser shot hit the man on the left on the right leg backing he yell without sound in this void.
I see blood come out of his leg but it quickly freezes over because of the cold in space. We are currently hidden from the sun on this side of the station so even the little bit of sunlight doesn’t reach us.
I slam the close button and the door starts to close. The leading man pulls out a rifle but I fire back but he dodges by moving when I aimed. This guy has good reflexes.
Suddenly a laser shot comes flying my way from further away as more of the bandits appear and provide backup.
It hits the inside the of the airlock but doesn’t cause too much damage. Before any more come the door finishes closing and looking through the window of the door I suddenly notice a small swarm of drones flying through space.
These drones were black and white and had spotlights in the front like a car but as soon as they identified a threat the light turned red and they split down the middle and open up to reveal a high powered weapon.
The next second the bandits try to run but are rapidly shot down. They return fire but it does little to the robot's since a shield suddenly appears in front of them blocking them. I notice a slightly bigger drone that doesn’t open up. It was clearly the one making the shield.
When I looked at the bandits I do notice that they aren’t dead, no blood appears. That means these are non lethal shots meant to paralyze them.
In no time at all, all the men were beaten and guards appeared on the pier as they capture and put energy shackles on the men before taking them in. Then a drove of mechanics come surging out and begins entering the ships as they start to search all the ships that were invaded for whatever may have been planted inside.
Major Snocon personally comes over to my ship and I met him outside.
Major: Thank you for the warning. It seems they were planning to sabotage all the ships to collect them later and they even know who is taking part in the mission today.Noah: Do you think someone leaked the information?Major: Someone infiltrated the station as a guard. They aimed for all the fighters and ships of the other ships first before going after the random mining ships to try and hide their tracks but once we searched the stations camera’s we saw what their aim was.Noah: Did you find who let them in?Major: Yes but as soon as he let these men in, he escaped in one of their ships that left. He seems to have given them clearance codes so they could approach the station unhindered by the stations shields.Noah: You will probably need to fix that problem and make several codes to bypass the station shields. A single code would be to easy to sell to someone.Major: That is something for us of the stations to resolve. Today I am sure they are on high alert. Your ship doesn’t have many weapons besides lasers and a single empty turret part that your sniper uses. Stay near the back and let the others with fire ships battle and you have your sniper aid them. We will take some time to bypass their systems with long range transmitters so we can open the hangar doors on their outpost.Noah: If you need help, my pilot has some skill in hacking. I don’t know if we have the long range transmitters needed for that but she can definitely help.Major: Transmitters are part of the ship's main systems and appear in everything above shuttle sized ships. Besides that smaller ships only receive the transmission and use that to connect. Get your crew ready because we will be departing in a few hours after we question these men.
I nod and he salutes before walking away.
I turn to the ship and jump inside before closing up and removing my helmet when the air is back inside. I then send the call to all the others.
Sadly only Hilda and Jessica were currently on.
Well Alex was here and I found her in the pilot seat actually sleeping ingame.
“Alex…” I called.
“Mm.” She muttered before turning in the seat and covering her face with the blanket.
“... Hey someone is trying to break into the ship and steal it!” I said in a slightly drastic voice.
“WHAT IS THE FUCKERS!” She shouted was her eyes burst open and a monstrous wave of bloodlust was released from the small frail looking body in baggy armor.
“Where! Are! They!” She said looking at me with bloodshot eyes.
“Good to see your awake. Let's go we are having a meeting. As for the men, the station defense drones already caught them.” I told her nonchalantly.
For a moment she blinks several times and frowns.
“Thats mean~! Don’t wake me up like that, Noah!” She complained while pouting even with her cheeks slightly puffed out making a really cute face. ”Snap out of it! Until I know what she is I need to be careful.” I thought to myself while diverging my eyes as she rolls up the blanket and walks after me.
With at least four of the crew present I can at least pass what is needed. Dad is still off but his body is in the ship and so is Lisa’s.
“So what is going on that you needed to call so urgently.” Hilda asked as she carefully does some maintenance on her sword.
I sit and Alex follows and then I begin to explain what happened and what I heard from Major Snocon.
They were shocked while Alex’s face darkened and that bloodlust began to seep out of her again. Not only that she began to murmur some real ominous stuff.
“Those bastards, they want to hurt my baby… hehehe I'll show them hehehe yeah I'll teach them who is boss hehehe.” She kept murmuring sending a chill down our spins and I had to swallow my saliva out of fear. Let me tell you there isn’t a lot that can scare me because of how much I traveled with dad but I will tell you a crazy person is one of the few remaining things that scare me. The saying “Humans are the enemy of humans” isn’t for show. The scariest thing in the galaxy isn’t a fucking fire breathing dragon but a crazy raging human or humanoid who can cause widespread damage without moving much. I was actually starting to feel pity for the bandits we were going to face because knowing that Alex wouldn’t forgive them I doubt their firewalls will hold her back from hacking their entire systems.
“Er… so how will we be going about the raid?” Hilda asked trying to avoid commenting further.
“Well, our ship has less weapons so we are to remain further back when the space battle starts. A few guard ships will remain with us as they try to hack into the outpost and open the hangar so we can raid the inside.” I explain.
“Worthless… trash hackers from this station can’t do shit without their AI’s help, tell those idiots not to do shit and me and Xeno will deal with this or else they will probably activate some self destruct function in the station by recklessly doing something stupid.” Alex said in a deadly low tone clearly not a suggestion it was an outright order to send this up to the higher ups.
Considering how she was acting at the moment I couldn’t help but not agree and actually did that and had major Snocon forward to Alex’s communicator so that I wouldn’t get the tongue lashing he was starting to give.
In the end Alex ridiculed them to such an extent that the other side was completely silent and then she said that she will show them her skills and ran to the pilot seat and began activating the ship's computers system and in no time at all she completely hacked into the low leveled security areas of the station and commented with the Major if there was any problems with her own skills.
With that done I went to the corner and worried my ass off at what kind of repercussions will come from this idiot's actions but in the end she was put as the main hacker of the mission and Jessica was trying to comfort me with a wry smile on her face not knowing how to actually go about doing that.
After a while Dad and Lisa logged in and they were told our role and how it happened and dad acted just like me but he was almost to the point of shoving his face into the floor trying to bury his face.
Alex remained in the pilot seat closing up all the holes she break in the station lower security areas and with permission from the station she even improved them a bit and reinforced the lower leveled sections of the coding.
I was hoping there weren’t any problems from this but I could only wait and see for now because we were now leaving the station with an escort of a dozen or so guard unit ships and several player fighter ships.
It’s time to get serious and so I push my worries aside as we began getting our things ready for combat.