Well… It's not space slop but it's sothing akin to gruel I guess…
When I told Marten that I was feeling a little peckish, he brought to what I assu was the station's ss for to eat.
It honestly looked like so kind of unprocessed at paste dumped on a tray but surprisingly, it did not taste as bad as it looks.
Still, I don't think I want to know how they made this.
Marten was kind enough to sit with and let ask questions about the station, so I found out that the people working on this station was actually really small.
"There's only thirty people here?" I asked.
He nodded, "We've only been in operation for a short while and most of the things here are automated anyway. All the miners need to do is fly out of the station with their mining ships, hover above the planet and drop a gas mining cord down to start gathering the helium gas."
"Sounds simple enough," I noted.
"Looks that way, but get too close to the planet or be unlucky enough to be caught in a storm? Your entire ship is getting sucked down into the planet and you're not coming back up."
Ah. Well that certainly sucks.
He continued, "Anyway, they will return with the gas mined to the station where we will store it and wait for a transporter to co and transport it away to a processing station. They would also be the one to deliver our supplies which I'm hoping the pirates won't touch."
"Right, and when is this transporter coming again?"
"If things are still on schedule, probably anyti tomorrow or the day after in Standard Hours."
"Standard Hours?"
"Ah, that's the ti that everyone follows when we're out in space. It's just Earth's ti or how they count the ti on Earth. Sothing about human beings being sentintal or whatever. There was quite a debate back then about what we should use as the standard ti and we ended up just going with this one. So of the other races weren't too happy but well, we all got used to it."
"Wait, wait… There's other races?" I gasped.
"Oh man… You really got your head ssed up pretty bad I see… I assu you don't even rember the Great Divide? No? Yeah… I'm no historian and I frankly don't give two shits about it so if you want to know, I'd recomnd visiting an archive to learn about all that if you're interested in learning about it."
"And… Err… Where can I find an archive?"
"Most Orbital Habitats should have one. Or any of the established planetary cities at least. Have you checked the map you've downloaded yet?"
I shook my head.
I already downloaded their map data into my Codex just now but I've yet to actually take a look at it yet.
He humd, "Well I think the closest major habitat would be the Theeve Orbital Habitat so if you want to, that could be your first stop if you're leaving after this."
"Right, I'll keep that in mind. So what other races are there?"
"Well… The first one I would tell you about are the Inucanis since even I know that they were the first race that we humans encountered and are, arguably, the ones who get along best with us. Although I suppose the Maochattes would disagree with that statent."
"What do they look like?"
"Well heck, Inucanis basically just look like us except they have lupine shaped ears and tails. It's the sa for Maochattes except theirs are feline shaped."
…
Waaaaaait…
Doesn't this ant they are just cat and dog eared people?!!
I have to make sure of sothing first…
"Their faces… Err… Are they also human shaped? And do they have human hands?"
"Ah, there's so kind of subspecies thing or sothing where a few of them might have paws or a snout, but majority of them have the sa type of face and limbs as us humans."
Oh wow… Do you know what this ans? Cat girls/boys and dog girls/boys exist!!
This is the best universe ever!!
Co on, don't tell you wouldn't co here just for that!! The chance of you eting a cat girl back in the old World is basically zero percent! Over here it's actually more than zero!
"Are there any of them here right now?" I asked, barely hiding my excitent.
"Ah, unfortunately not. This place is UTG territory after all, so it's normal for there to only be humans around here."
Another term ca up that I don't know I see…
He raised an eyebrow at , "Are you going to ask what the UTG is?"
I nodded slowly and he sighed.
"United Terran Governnt, which is just a fancy way of calling Humans if you ask but hey, I'm just a small station master on a Mining Station so what do I know?"
Ok, cool.
"I guess I shouldn't ask you about the whole history of how the United Terran Governnt ca to be?" I joked.
He scoffed, "Like I said, just go to an archive if you're interested. The only thing I can tell you about the UTG is that they are a bunch of assholes."
"Let guess… Taxes?"
"That's just one of them. If you go and read them up in the archive, you might find out what else they have done to make common folk like us hate them."
Now I'm really interested in knowing more but I guess that will have to wait.
There was still one more thing I needed to know.
"So… How does one get a rcenary licence?"
"Oh right, you don't have one. Actually, are you really sure you don't have one? Maybe if you go and check the rcenary Guild, you might find sothing about your past if you were already registered as a rcenary back then. Maybe you might even have so kind of history recorded about you."
I highly doubt that is the case but I guess it was worth a shot?
In the ga, there was no such thing as a rcenary Guild but who knows, maybe my records were brought over from the ga and into this universe?
He continued, "Anyway, for your question about the licence, I can't really say for sure because I never tried to sign up as one. But I doubt it could be that hard considering the fact that there's so many rcenaries around and the ones I've t before aren't really that… Shall we say, quick thinking? Yeah. So I don't think it's that hard to be one."
Well, alright then. Maybe I just need to go to the guild and tell them I want to be one and then I'll beco one.
Just as I was about to ask him where the closest rcenary Guild was, soone ca running into the room in a panic.
"Boss! Boss! We've got a problem!!"
Marten scowled, "What? Did Jerry break the pipe again?!"
"N… No… Err… Actually I think he may have but that's not the problem! Pirates!"
Marten turned to look at and I just stared back at him, doing my best not to say anything about him wishing the pirates wouldn't do anything before the patrol arrived.
He quickly got up from his seat and rushed out of the ss hall, following the first guy out.
Of course, I followed them as well, wondering if the pirates were here because of what I did. Was it because I subdued one of their ships and they're here to take revenge?
We went into what I assu was so kind of communications room and the single wall sized screen was showing a ship that was floating in space. The distinct shape of a skull and crossbones could be seen painted on the side of the ship, leaving no questions as to their affiliation.
"What do they want?" Marten asked the guy who ca to warn us.
He shrugged, "I… I don't know. They did not send a ssage or anything. They're just staying within our sensor range so they should know that we know that they're there."
Marten narrowed his eyes at the screen, "So they're just floating there… nacingly…"
"Boss?"
"It's probably a threat, they're announcing their presence to us and making us fear them."
"But… Why would they do that, boss?"
"I'm going to bet that they're going to return tomorrow or the day after with a larger force and demand our submission or sothing. They most likely want our station intact, maybe to serve as their forward base or sothing…"
"Then… What do we do?"
Marten turned to , "Tera, how confident are you in a dogfight?"
I thought for a mont, "If the pirates' ships are similar to the one that I have captured, then I would say that I can safely engage five of them at the sa ti."
He raised an eyebrow, "That good?"
"I have a good ship."
"Alright, in that case, could I trouble you to wait outside with your ship in case they attack us? I doubt they will attack us outright but just in case they do, we need all the help we can get. I'll even make this a formal request as a station master and pay you for it.."
"A Guild Request?"
"A formal rcenary Request, basically. Yo."
Sounds good to , when do I start?
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