Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 73 Space Station Guests and Distribution of Benefits
A few days after Chen Ming returned to the space station.

The military personnel returned to the RM-2 star system with the reorganized fleet.

In addition to those ships that ensure combat capability, the fleet also has a large number of engineering ships and transport cargo ships filled with cargo.

Relying on heavy investment in manpower and materials, the military spent less than a week repairing the outpost that was half damaged by the afterglow.

After the outpost was repaired, high-intensity military sensors scanned the entire galaxy.

Soon, an urgent report started from the grassroots level of the military and was passed from bottom to top.

It was finally delivered to the person in charge of the outpost, the captain of the ruler-class ship.

When the report arrived, the deputy who was responsible for conveying instructions to the captain and also responsible for sorting out the report and transferring it to the captain saw a gloomy face that the captain had not seen in many years.

Two more days passed.

An abandoned mining space station in the RM-2 star system.

A small transport ship suddenly appeared near it.

The five people in the cabin are all wearing professional weapons and equipment. They are a special mission combat team.

The captain who was leaning against the cabin door suddenly knocked on the cabin of the spacecraft next to him, attracting the attention of the team members to him, and said, "Confirm the mission one last time."

"We need to enter the abandoned mining space station numbered DG-C-9527 and investigate the reason why the also abandoned civilian mining ship 'Iron Ore' disappeared in the space station."

"any questions?"

"No."

"No."

After receiving sporadic answers from the team members, the captain's voice sounded again: "Let's go."

The small transport ship gradually approached the dock of the space station.

But before the appearance of the space station could be seen with the naked eye, a team member suddenly said: "To be honest, this should have happened 30 years ago, right? Only now do you realize that something went wrong?"

The captain recalled the mission documents that he had read many times and said: "I heard that the person in charge of the detector before did not have to go through the list of spaceships in the system every day, so he saved all the spaceships that had been recorded in the system. All signals are blocked.”

"The sensor will only scan new ships, and the effect is similar. However, the ships that originally have records will not be able to control them at all."

"Now the outpost is rebuilt, the sensors are rescanned, and the problem is cleared out."

"There is a ship missing on the space station, and there are some signs of man-made damage."

The team members asked in surprise: "If foreign ships are always monitoring, does that mean someone has lived on that abandoned space station for 30 years?"

The captain shook his head casually and said: "It may not be 30 years. I remember that the people in charge of the detectors at the outpost seem to come every five years, and they will be replaced with new people next year. It is possible that the ship was gone a few years ago, and it was only discovered now. "

"In short, regardless of how many years ago, we are actually not sure whether it was done by people inside the space station, or whether it was done by someone from outside who sneaked into the galaxy."

"If it is an insider, there is a high probability that this person has been frozen in the cryogenic dormant chamber before. So after we go up, we have to look for clues in the living area containing the dormant chamber."

"Then why are we parked at the dock?"

The captain turned slightly sideways so that the team members could see the increasingly larger space station outside the porthole, and said: "Because it is relatively open here, any danger can be discovered immediately."

"And isn't it written in the mission record? The space station was destroyed by a group of bugs hiding inside the asteroid."

"Even if our spacecraft's scanning equipment doesn't scan out anything, safety still needs to be ensured."

The team members asked curiously: "What kind of insect can destroy a space station?"

"A bug whose average size is about the same size as a human being."

"That's not a big deal, the carapace can still block bullets."

"Tsk, don't ask more questions than you should."

Seeing the captain's attitude, the talkative team member quietly closed his mouth.

The transport ship gradually approached the dock of the space station under the control of the pilot.

After swimming around the dock for a few times and finding that there were no emergencies, the transport ship stopped steadily at the dock.

The cabin door of the spaceship opened, and several team members filed down, cautiously on guard.

Although the dock of the space station is dilapidated and stained in many places, it does not look dangerous in any way.

There was no such big movement as the spacecraft approaching just now, and there were no bugs or anything like that, so the dock should be safe.

After confirming that there was nothing dangerous here at the dock, the captain displayed the map of the space station on the inside of his protective suit helmet.

After confirming the direction for a while, he said to the team members: "Let's go in."

The team members quickly maintained a formation that could respond to various emergencies at any time, and passed through the dock quietly and quickly to the office area.

Just when they entered the junction of the shipyard and the office area, a team member suddenly said in the communication channel: "What is this?"

The others immediately approached the team member who was speaking and saw a round hole on the wall of the office area.

On the other wall of the office area opposite this wall, there is another identical hole.

And deeper into the space station, there are more such holes.

"It's a bit like the weapon of the mechanical tribe."

The captain moved a little closer so that the recorder on his helmet could clearly capture the exact appearance of the bullet hole.

Detailed analysis of bullet holes needs to be left to professionals, who are only responsible for recording.

The team did not linger for too long at the edge of the office area, and soon found the mining space station management office safely under the guidance of the map.

There was no sign of too much chaos in the office, just a white skeleton lying on the desk.

The computer in front of Bones had not been destroyed.

A team member immediately stepped forward, removed the computer's storage device, and began to read the data using the small terminal he carried with him.

After operating for a while, the team member raised his head and said to the captain: "Captain, we have the list of long-term dormant personnel of the space station that you requested. There are ten people in total."

"In addition, I have also compiled the overall personnel list of the space station and will send it to you immediately."

The captain gave him a thumbs up, and after sending the list of personnel, he wrote down the names and appearances of ten people.

After confirming that there were no other valuable things in the office, they came to the monitoring room, which was also in the office area.

But the monitoring room is a bit chaotic.

Not only was there dried filth everywhere, but all the equipment was destroyed in a mess.

The team member responsible for managing the electronic equipment checked it out and finally got only a recording device that was barely completely destroyed and needed to be repaired before it could be read.

However, several members of the team knew that the possibility of recording valuable information in this device was close to zero.

All searches for two valuable locations in the office area have been completed.

The captain continued to look at the map and said to the team members: "Let's go to the living area next. The cryo-sleep chamber is over there."

The team members followed the captain one by one, passed through the office area, and entered the public area in the center of the space station.

At this point, their nerves, which had been somewhat relaxed, suddenly became tense.

Because there are many growths covering the corners of the public area and the passages leading to the lower areas.

However, they soon noticed that the growths had lost their activity and showed no signs of activity.

And there seemed to be many giant egg-shaped objects among the growths.

But now they have all disappeared.

After confirming that the surrounding environment was safe, a team member stepped forward to obtain some samples of growths. While observing the samples carefully, he couldn't help but said, "Are these things left by bugs?"

The talkative team member also came to the sample and took a look at it and said, "It should be that the source of the insect outbreak in the space station is probably down there."

The captain interjected at this time: "Don't worry about whether these are present or not, our mission is to find out where the missing spacecraft went."

The two of them rejoined the team very neatly, but they didn't stop talking.

"Actually, I'm quite curious now where all the bugs have gone."

"It's been 30 years, so he should be dead."

"A bug that could survive on an asteroid died for no reason?"

"Anything can happen in space."

"Too."

The two quickly ended the conversation and continued to follow the captain through the public area and arrived at the living area, which was also covered by a large number of dried-up growths.

The density of growth here is less than that in the public area, and a little attention will not affect movement at all.

The team quickly followed the map and found three cryo-sleep chambers stuck together.

They began their search in the cryo-sleep chamber closest to the common area.

However, the first two cryo-sleep chambers only contained completely destroyed equipment.

Until they entered the third cryo-sleep chamber.

The first time they entered, everyone in the team saw the corpses covered with white coats on the ground, as well as the bodies of insects that died with them next to them.

"It should be doctor Ding He. He is responsible for the daily monitoring of the cryo-dormant personnel on the space station."

After the captain finished speaking, he waved his hand to signal others to start searching.

Soon, everyone gathered next to a freezing dormant chamber.

Because this freezer has very obvious signs of being opened recently.

There is a simple personal information printed next to the freezer.

One of the team members read out the information smoothly: "Maintenance engineer, number 519, Chen Ming."

"is it him?"

The team member in charge of the electronic equipment was connecting his terminal to the sleep chamber at this time. After a brief operation, he said: "There is a high probability that the human body parameter configuration of the cryo-sleep chamber matches his configuration in the system record. , and I also found the record that this dormant warehouse was activated half a year ago."

"Who started it?"

"No one. It should be that the space station had a power outage that caused the dormant cabin to restart, so the people were released. Didn't we see it when we scanned it before? The space station's fuel is already empty."

"That's him."

The captain set the tone directly.

"The question now is, how did he survive and then run away in that shabby civilian ship?"

"Who knows, as long as we find out who it is." "Why do you think the director is looking for this Chen Ming?"

"I guess it is to protect a person who has lived in the mouth of an insect for 30 years as a representative of our indomitable will to survive."

"Are you telling a joke?"

The captain directly interrupted the two team members who were arguing with each other and said: "Stop talking nonsense, it's time to go. Our mission is not over yet. We have to find out this statement."

"Ah? This person may have died somewhere long ago. How can I find him?"

The captain didn't seem to care about this issue at all: "It doesn't matter whether we find it or not. What's important is that we found it."

"The universe is so big, where do we start?"

"The nearest one."

The mining space station welcomes its first guests 30 years after it was abandoned.

At the same time, Chen Ming was carrying a machine cannon that could be installed on a small load-bearing point, standing on the horizontal elevator that could be seen everywhere in the space station, heading towards the space station management office.

A few days after returning to the space station, he had taken the time to test the practical matters that need to be paid attention to in the batch refurbishment of weapons.

It just so happened that it was his turn to be on duty at the maintenance shop today, so he didn't need to go out to do field work.

So Chen Ming directly handed over the task of looking at the maintenance shop gate to a newcomer who stayed with him.

He jumped up, pushed the cart, and ran to the administration building with a brand-new machine gun, ready to go to the factory director.

If it hadn't been for Chen Ming's advance report that the machine gun was needed for testing in the underground workshop of the administration building, and the machine gun only had a bare barrel and no ammunition.

The security was determined to stop Chen Ming.

But at least he got the stuff in successfully.

Taken outside the factory director's office.

Chen Ming knocked on the office door and walked in after getting a response.

The factory director who was sitting behind his desk looked up and found that it was Chen Ming and said with some surprise: "It's Xiao Mu. Why did you suddenly come to see me?"

Chen Ming didn't waste any time. He pulled the cart into the office and said, "Director, take a look at this."

The factory director stared at the machine gun even more surprised and asked: "What is this? Your new weapon? What's wrong?"

"This is one of those second-hand weapons you granted me before."

The factory director stood up and walked to Chen Ming to carefully observe the machine gun.

Looking at it, he couldn't help but squat down on the ground, reached out and touched it, and said while confirming carefully: "Is this really second-hand? Is it not so new?"

"Wait a minute, oh...I remembered. You told Lao Wu before that you had the idea of ​​​​refurbishing weapons, right?"

The factory director said as he saw the hidden corner of the weapon, where the factory serial number of the weapon was recorded.

He just had some impression of this number, which proved that this weapon was indeed a second-hand recycled weapon that he had directly approved to Chen Ming before.

The factory director suddenly smiled helplessly and said, "Old Wu and I didn't understand what you wanted to do before, but in the end it was our technical incompetence."

"So you came to me with this because you want to cooperate with a repair shop and make money by recharging old goods with new ones?"

Chen Ming nodded and said: "Yes, because I know that even if I have the skills, I will definitely not be able to do this kind of thing, so I first found a way to join the repair shop, and then I will tell you this."

"Otherwise I won't even be able to see your face, let alone mention other things."

The factory director suddenly stood up.

He had confirmed that with his technical level, he could not tell any difference between the weapons that Chen Ming had repaired and the new weapons that had just left the factory.

And since Chen Ming has the confidence to do this, there is a high probability that there will be no problem if he deceives others.

"So you were planning to use this method to make money from the beginning?"

"Yes, it's just that there was an accident in the middle."

"Your accident was that you drove a civilian mining ship and blew up four merchant ships, and then brought back half of the Afterglow destroyer, which made you a fortune, right?"

"Pretty much, but it was my captain who did it."

When the factory director heard what Chen Ming said, he suddenly remembered what he had talked with the hardware store owner Lao Wu a few days ago, and echoed: "Oh, yes, he is your captain."

"But the difference is not big. You must have made money anyway. But now that you have made money, do you still need to stay here?"

Chen Ming knew what the factory director meant and said in a very matter-of-fact tone: "There is never too much money. I have already paved the way here. If I don't use it, wouldn't it be a loss?"

The factory director looked Chen Ming up and down and accepted his reason: "Yes, then let's talk about business."

“How much does it cost to renovate this thing?”

"My labor costs, plus the most basic materials needed for repairs, are gone."

"What's the difference between this and no cost?"

Chen Ming shrugged and did not answer the factory director's question.

The factory director knew very well that Chen Ming could not tell such a lie that would cause him to lose money to his grandma's family.

So after a brief thought, he said: "In this case, all your previous tasks will be cancelled, and you will not be required to do tasks such as cleaning the battlefield and bringing in new people."

"You only need to receive the recovered weapons every day and carry out refurbishment of this quality, and you can use the equipment in the repair shop as you wish."

Chen Ming interrupted and said: "I don't need to use the equipment of the repair shop. I have my studio on the ship and I can work on the ship."

"That's it. How efficient are you with your own equipment?"

"For the ones I brought here, I can renovate fifty of them a day."

"How many?!"

"Fifty."

This is not the upper limit of weapon repair speed, nor is it the upper limit of Chen Ming's mental power, but the upper limit of Chen Ming's worry that others will not believe it.

At this time, the factory director simply made a calculation in his mind.

The value of an ordinary civilian small ship weapon ranges from 20 to [-] yuan.

If it is a military weapon, the price can be three to four times more expensive.

Compared with the normal sales price of new weapons, the recycling price is completely negligible.

If Chen Ming could acquire weapons and renovate them, the income would be almost equal to the value of the weapon itself.

Assume that the average value of weapons sold by the repair shop in a day is 20, and [-] weapons can be sold in a day.

Then the net profit is close to tens of millions per day.

In fact, it may even be more.

The pirate space station is highly mobile, and the fringe star field is very dangerous, so spaceships and weapons are urgently needed.

The number of weapons sold every day will only increase, not decrease.

And there was no need for him to let Chen Ming refurbish small, worthless weapons.

Refurbishing military and medium weapons is definitely a better option.

Although the sales of these two are slower, the profits are definitely higher than those of low-level weapons.

You must know that the daily income of the repair shop is usually around 4000 million to 5000 million when the business is at its best, and the daily income is about a few million when it is the most deserted.

It's really an exaggeration that Chen Ming alone can be worth half of the repair shop.

After all, if you buy weapons seriously from suppliers and then sell them, you can earn up to ten percent of the selling price for a weapon.

How can you earn more than 90.00% of the selling price like the refurbished weapons Chen Ming made?

The actual profit rate is ten times higher.

The factory director calmed down his slightly excited mood and said: "So, how about the final profit of [-]%?"

Chen Ming thought about it for a moment.

What the space station has to do is to provide sales and recycling sources for second-hand weapons, and use their relationships to obtain the factory codes of the weapons.

These are things that Chen Ming absolutely cannot do, and [-]% is about the same.

So he agreed directly: "No problem, do I need to sign a contract?"

"No, just treat it as your usual job. When the time comes, I will make a list of your refurbished weapons. You can see the destination and price."

"That's what you do. You must know the price of weapons. Your share of money will definitely not be less."

We've talked about weapons refurbishment.

Chen Ming did not leave in a hurry, but continued to say to the factory director: "One more thing, factory director, I want to get fake identification codes for several spaceships."

"This is easy to handle. Just go to Lao Wu and he will help you get it done."

Chen Ming did not move, but said hesitantly, "It's a bit troublesome for me to get a spaceship with a fake identification code. There's a ship with an afterglow inside."

"Afterglow ship?"

The factory director thought about it and said, "It's not impossible. Some people in other places have done this for collection."

"I'll contact you later. It may take some time to get it, and the cost will definitely be different from other ships."

"I understand this. I'm not short of money for the time being."

The factory director nodded slightly and suddenly asked curiously: "You want to take the ship with Yuhui back to study whether the AI ​​core can be controlled by you and whether it can be used to sail the ship, right?"

"No."

Although Chen Ming denied it, the factory director seemed not to have heard it and said, "If you really want to do something like this, I suggest you do it here."

"If you go back to the prosperous star field and the patrol comes to scan you from time to time, your AI core will definitely be confiscated if it is scanned."

Chen Ming didn't speak, and the factory director didn't care. Seeing that Chen Ming didn't mean to leave yet, he asked again: "Do you have anything else to do?"

"Have."

Chen Ming gave an affirmative reply and said: "In addition to Yu Hui's ship, the spacecraft I want to get the identification code of, there are also two military ships."

"Installed with militarized subsystems?"

"More or less, it's a military ship."

"?"

(End of this chapter)