After looking at the Magnet boot schematics I found that they were much simpler to make and use then what they look like. To explain how the boots work I need to talk about the space suit first. Both normal and power suits come with an internal battery and life support system in them. The battery with just the basic life support system can last for up to 6 hours before the battery dies. The suit itself is built to have various “attachments” one is the boots. Now the boot, though I call it a boot its more sandal like. You wear the space suit and over the feet tie the metal straps around and behind the feet then plug the cables of the boots into the suit. This creates an electric magnet from the 2cm think metal soles of the boot.

Not only are they easy to use they are easier to build especially when you have access to a junkyard filled with ship plating that is the perfect size.

By the time I had already reached the junkyard my crew had already removed people who didn’t have talent for any of the areas, so I took them for myself and had them work with me making the 100+ pairs of magnet boots. There were 10 people and half were girls who have never seen the inside of a car so I wasn’t too surprised that they didn’t get into the tech, mechanic or soldier divisions. I already knew that not everyone would be up for the task, which was obvious to say the least. Though they sucked at construction of weapons and ships they did seem to have a good handle for clothing and surprisingly for this area they were swiftly out pacing me.

Noah: wow you guys are good.

Boy 1: thanks we played lots as craftsmen in other games so we have a good handle on our hands and the skill to make this.

Girl 1: in one of the older games I was even open to getting both tailor and blacksmith to make custom metal and leather armor that had so much style to them it was fun.

Girl 2: you guys are lucky…I didn’t have that much luck I ended up a cook and alchemist in most games I played.

Her name was Jin, she was Japanese descent black hair and black eyes and even though this is an 18+ game her physical look gave the impression of a small 12 years old. she was very shy and timidly lowered her head looking at her progress, she was much shyer then the others and the slowest with her crafting.

Noah: well I’m happy to hear that we have a cook with us, since we will need someone to prepare the food in grand scale for 120 people.

When I said that she looked up with a blushing face but her eyes were sparkling.

Girl 3: I can help out I was a jack of all trades so I know a bit of everything but food was one of my forte cause obviously you win a guy through his stomach HAHAHA!!!

We all laughed when she said that, her name was Aiko, she is a red head top boy with topaz eyes and seemed to be a great mood maker.

We worked for over 3 hours making the boots until we finished up all 100 pairs, during this time 5 more recruits joined up from the soldier division. The group had become great friends and I learned a lot about their past gaming experiences in some games and simulators they had played. Most of the more talented craftsmen were able to get the skill scrap armor making.

(Remember most fantasy games are 18+ games, simulators were made for younger and yes everything that involved making something starts with scrap until you get good at it just like when blacksmiths start they make crude weapon, here its scrap)

The group had a lot of production job players ranging from blacksmiths, tailors, fishermen and farmers even. The ones like fishermen and farmers I asked to help the cooks because they had experience with food items while the rest I planned to send them to that workshop inside the ship I’m interested in seeing what comes out of there.

By the time the boots were done, the Dingy and 4 out of 7 of Jessica’s fighters were repaired and 2 of my 6 fighters were completely built. As for dads gunship it was…progressing. The thing was large to say the least but that didn’t matter since it wasn’t that much bigger than a Dingy just longer. The problem is that we don’t know what goes were and we don’t know the required systems needed to get it working. Ernest and Adam were working on it personally and had to take apart 4 Dingy engines and made the new engine, the same for the life support, power generator, fuel tank and plating. But the problem was still there the ship had many advanced programs and they didn’t know them, the same for the station droids they didn’t have schematics for this type of ship and they weren’t allowed to give us a gunships schematics of a different type. The ship could get airborne but the potential it once had could amount now to at best twice as strong as a Dingy at best, which is a poor performance since a gunship should be able to take down carrier like mine with fighter swarming it without a problem since they also come equipped with shield generators.

After a while they gave up and just loaded the ship with what they knew and added laser to top it off and have it at least functioning.

With the mostly taken care of I lead the production recruits to the carrier and into the cargo hold. In there we find a large pile of space suits that were on the Reavers.

Aiko: so this is it, this is a BIG cargo hold but these suits are we supposed to use them.

Noah: I was hoping to have them fixed up before handing them out.

They all pick up a suit and examine it stats as well as its physical state, I also do that as well to see what we have to work with.

Old space suit

This old space suit was found on a derelict Reaver ship it has been ripped in several spots and can’t function as a space suit until repaired.

Durability 20/45

Defense 0

Life support (undamaged)

Battery (40%)

Aiko: these suits suck and they are so bland with no flair.

Jin: we need to repair them…so um while we do that lets remodel the design.

Aiko: great idea, boss show us that workshop you mentioned and go buy us some materials for repairs and dyes to paint them better, how do you want them, OH!!! Let’s got with star trek style with the different division having a different color and and…

She continued on for a few minutes before she noticed how eccentric she had gotten

Aiko: *cough cough* sorry about that, as a tailor I was a bit…eccentric

Noah: I noticed but I guess that’s a good thing since it will make for interesting designs. I don’t mind the idea about the star trek thing either I think it is the best way to distinguish who is who but for higher ranks comes better design.

Aiko: I accept your challenge boss.

She returned to her eccentric nature and was talking to herself on what to do. I lead everyone to the workshop and went they saw it they rushed in to check out the area. There were five large work benches and near the back there were large part production machines for basic parts. As I looked around I saw a few people pull out lots of scrap parts onto the tables and using the tools began working. After a bit they had a small pistol. These guys were from the soldier division and they were cheerful since they could make the gun but it seems that only with proper tools they could do it so it wouldn’t help in emergency situations which are what I need them ready for.

(Such as crashes they need to make their own weapons to fight the wildlife on planets)

I see Aiko messing with some of tools herself and I see in her hand a space suit. I could see she was patching the holes but with what I didn’t know and since she was so focused I didn’t find out seeing as she is one of the more experienced designers we have. With all of them so focused, I left the room and headed to the new lab.

In there I found the scientist team already hard at work. What was surprising was what they were working on. at the back of the room a new glass wall had been made, don’t ask me how but it looked new. Inside were Wilson Kinter and a few other older scientists and few young ones hunched over the body of the rock creature my crew killed. I just watched for a little bit and just rested my back on the wall near the door. Though I didn’t make a sound Kinter still spotted me and signaled to the others to continue working and then came over to me.

Kinter: greetings captain is there something you need here?

Noah: I just came to see what the lab was like, how did you get your hands on the rock creature my crew killed.

Kinter: well Mr. Cane came to us and handed him over and asked us to study it, it’s even a D rank mission since he wants as much information in this thing as possible the more we learn the better but this body is badly beaten up all over if we had one more intact we could study it better.

Noah: well we aren’t going to leave port for a few days since we need to get fighter and Dingy ships ready but those creatures were reported appearing all over the place in the asteroid fields.

Kinter: do you think you’re finding this creature has any connections

Noah: probably just as much of a chance as there is for the pirates Jessica fought come and raids the station. So did you find anything important yet?

Kinter: here is the current log of our findings they are quite intriguing creatures.

Research team

Research log 1

Rock Creatures

They are as the tentative name suggests, they are completely made from asteroid rocks found in space. What I find more intriguing is that these creatures contain not only rock but a trace amount of mineral ore within its body. We believe this is so their body becomes stronger the more they hold which might be a reason they have begun attacking the miners who are destroying their food sources. While we are still studying it we know for certain that the more they gain of mineral ore in their body the more powerful they will become

Noah: they will get stronger

Kinter: I don’t want to frighten you but we think this might not even be an adult of this creature or…there may be other variants of these rock creatures.

Noah: I see…well for now continue studying what you can, once we go out we will try to gather as many of them as we can get.

He nods then goes back to work and I leave the lab and head to the armory.

Inside I find a large number of military grade weaponry, laser rifles fitted with scopes, sniper rifles also with even stronger scopes, numerous pistols of different types and to my surprise and joy a single power suit, though it’s similar to gunners which is just looks like bracers used to hold disabled people. I curiously examine it and after a bit I scan it numerous times

Due to scanning a piece of armor numerous times you have acquired enough structural data to make blueprints to construct this model of power suit. The model can also be changed by adding other armor over it and adjusting it to make a new kind of armor.

Old Battle Suit

An old military battle power suit, this model was once known throughout the frontier for its exceptional performance but now this suit has fallen into disrepair and can’t be used anymore except as a display item.

Noah: a very useful display item, I guess it would need a few changes since I scanned a suit that was in disrepair but that can wait.

I look over the blueprints excited and don’t notice the PMs from my crews until Ernest shouts.

Ernest: FOR CRISTS SAKE AWNESER ALREADY!!!!

Noah: what…sorry about that I was just distracted.

Morgan: what could distract you for so long and so deeply that you didn’t hear the pms?

Noah: I was able to get a blueprint for power suit from that old junker inside the armory

Basil: how did you do that? I tried but after 3 scans I gave up.

Noah: I kept scanning it until I got it, I was just making some modifications, or I guess repairs, to the blueprints since it’s a blueprint of a suit in disrepair.

Ernest: well that’s fine and all but let’s get down to business, we have two Dingy and 4 new fighters ready from our side and all of the girls ships are done as well, with this number of fighters and 4 Dingy’s we should be able to start mining

Noah: 4 Dingy’s? Does Jessica want to mine with us?

Ernest: she said something along the lines of wanting to use your carrier as a base or mother ship for the fighters so that she wouldn't need to make a support system on her Dingy’s she said she would pay but it has to be below 10% daily pay.

Noah: tell her 5% and she can use it, also go get the other Dingy and take the Life support out of it so that we get that space back and get all the ships into the hanger. Also get Felix to teach some recruits to fly the ship and do some target practice before coming we will need good shooters to protect the miners.

Ernest: alright we’ll get on it.

The chat was cut and I was left in silence.

Noah: “things sure have gotten more hectic”

I went to the hanger and waited a bit. It was half an hour before the ships started arriving. The first to appear were the Dingys all four came at the same time and with me directing them from the tower on the second floor they landed near the back. About 5 minutes after 11 new fighters appeared, 4 were mine I could tell since they were the larger stealth fighter model while the others were smaller and looked more like jet fighters. In another 10 minutes, about half my crew appeared and started going inside and take their places that the Ernest, Adam and Felix were assigning. Adam and about 3 techs and 2 mechanics came with me to the control room to assist with the controls. The last things to arrive were the 20 droids that were now mine; I saw them from the monitors in the control room.

The began a lengthy check list in the control room as one system at a time was started with the engine and power systems being first, then followed hanger shield, life support, gravity, interior lights and so on. While we were getting ready I saw the players I had given some magnet boots to go on the cat walk next to the ship and hop on to the top and spread out. There were about 15 up there the other 20 were inside as guards. With everything checked I got permission to leave and with a gentle pull backwards on the right handle, the carrier took off. Letting off on the thrusters caused the ship to counter the momentum going up and just float there. Then pulling back the left handle the ship began going backwards as it left the safety of the dock and into space.

Once the ship was completely outside of the station we activated the ships shields then started to turn the ship towards the asteroids fields and went.

To reach the asteroids only took about a minute at 75% of the speed which was around 600 m/h. As we arrive I slow down to 10% (85 m/h) and start to push my way into the field.

Adam: are we going inside with the carrier?

Noah: this will create a corridor into the deeper parts of the asteroid field and will make for faster escapes as well.

Adam: oh I didn’t think of this but be careful with the shields the rocks for now as small but the bigger ones might cause damage.

We slowly push on but unlike he said the shield simply pushes the rocks to the side. When we start to spot the larger rocks which register as B class I pull the ship to a halt and with the ships mic I call out to those at the hangers.

Noah: all flyers we have reached the destination, just a reminder the area has gotten dangerous so be on your guard, each ship is to have one pilot and someone manning their guns to cover as well as 2 fighters each 3 fighters are to stay on the ship to work in shifts between the fighters, we have repaired enough space suits for all personnel going into space.

As I say that part droids come out with a cart full of repair space suits

Noah: these are not power suits just normal space suits that will protect you while you are in space this is a precaution in case of air leaks. The current cargo is of 64t plus each Dingys cargo we will return to unload once all cargo is full please refrain from mining far away asteroids and I would recommend mining the same rock as your fellow miners to have the fighters close by to provide backup.

As I finished the crews began to buzz with activity in the hangers as all those going out went to pick up the suits and the rest go the ships ready. Soon the Dingys took flight and behind them 9 fighters fly out. On the control room monitors images from the 2 Dingy and 5 fighter ships that belong to me are showing a front view while the Dingy has a front and below deck view.

It doesn’t take long for them to choose a B class rock and with all four ships releasing the drones they scan the rock in less than 10 minutes. The mineral was Doxtrite, which is a greyish blue color in its brute form.

We watch as they choose to land about 20 meters away from each other and begin mining. The fighters are all spread and aimed at the rock face as well as the other rocks behind them. Their caution saved their life as other nearby asteroids start braking at the surface just as the miners break the surface of the asteroid and reveal the ore inside. More than 20 rock creatures appear from smaller rocks that I would rate as D or E class and launch themselves at the large rock hoping to crash into one of the open holes of the asteroid. Unfortunately they never reach because they each receive a blast of laser which makes them veer of course and crash into the asteroid painfully out of control. Two of the creatures die on impact and just slam into the asteroid then float back out limp, while most of the rest are critically injured missing arms or legs.

As they get each get up from their crash landing they are welcomed by laser shots from the nearest mining ship. The order was given to aim for the head to end this with minimal damage since the scientists wanted to study them. Obviously Mr. Kinter was in the control room watching the action and seeing their habits with his own eyes.

It doesn’t take long for the mining ship shooters to finish the job which leaves the area in silence. Everyone was on guard waiting to see if anything was out their waiting to ambush them. When nothing pops out after a few minutes I send the order to gather the bodies. Felix stops mining and goes around picking them up and once he grabs all he returns to the carrier.

The hanger was already filled with scientists and the worker droids ready to unload. As soon as the Dingy Landed the cargo hatch opened and the droids invaded the cargo pulling out all the ores the followed by the bodies all of which were taken to the cargo. The scientists followed after them as the Felix left the carrier and headed out again. I call up the monitor in the cargo and see the scientist shifting through the bodies. After a few minutes of looking Mr. Kinter grabs the speaker and activates it in the cargo and starts shouting out orders.

Kinter: grab the fifth from the top he is the most intact specimen.

The team looks up and working together they pull the others off it and find the one Mr. Kinter mentioned. It was one that last its leg from the knee down and died on impact so his body didn’t have many holes in it. They have the droids transport it to the lab and Mr. Kinter leaves with a somewhat satisfied look.

Adam: wonder how mineral rich those are?

Noah: they came out of D and E class rocks it might be low the amount and I defiantly don’t want them to get access to a class B asteroid. We need to be careful we never know what these things will become if they do get it.

After that no other attacks happened and we quickly filled up the cargo leaving half of the B class rock remaining. I had half of the fighters remain there to guard remains so that the creatures don’t get at it.

With all ships equipped with compressors, except the carrier, the total amount of ores we gained in one run was 100.8t. I believe this was the first Doxtrite asteroid mined we will get to see the ores at the highest price of 130 credits a ton but since half the load was Jessica’s since two dingy are hers I only get 6554 for a full load. The second load was a just fit barely fitting but we got it and so we got a full 13104 credits from that.

It took 5 minutes to return to the station and 15 minutes to unload the ores. Those droids are some powerful guys they lift 100kg boulders with their hands. After we cleaned up the Doxtrite we continued mining other B class. We cleared up around 10 B class rocks and each one would always be attacked by the rock creatures when we began mining. We mined through 2 Cesogen $150, 2 Doxtrite $130, 3 Perrius $140, 4 Iron $64. They all have around the same amount of ore in them so we earned a hefty sum today and returned to the base after hours of mining.

Once we finished unloading the final cargo we cashed in. the total sum of all the ores amounted to 249178 credits. Half was mine the other half was Jessica’s but 5% from her share came to me because of the protection which amounted to 12459.35. it was a hell of a lot of money but the obvious consequences happened and this price only lasted today as the price for each of them dropped to a third of their original price.

Now then just for the record the pay for the crew is for the work they do. 75% of the income stays with me because I own the ships and I need repairs, while the rest was used to pay everyone. When I told everyone this no one complained and some even though I needed to stay with more. Anyways I had built a chart for the pay ranges and everyone agreed on.

Ranked pay (Daily)

Captain (me) 75%

Commander $1200

Lieutenant Commander $1100

Lieutenant $1000

Lieutenant Junior Grade $600

Ensign $400

Recruit $250

Though the recruit pay was low it you could call it a temporary position for some. My lieutenants have already spotting the more talented, the moderate ranked that need training to match the talented and the ones that need intensive training to get them to rise.

All in all a wonderful day with the generous amount of cash we got though that amount would only come with hard work from now on since the prices are lower now.

Anyway the objective I aimed for was to show that base how effective our defense is and how well we could protect our ships. So when we returned and finished for the day we had tons of miners waiting. They all asked the same thing, “How can we hire you to protect us?!” I could only grin as I explained that we will start protection when we have enough fighters in a few days and the price is 5% of the daily cash they get. They all had happy faces when they head 5%, like I said 5% doesn’t seem like much but if you get 10 miners who mine the same amount and collect around 20,000 that is 1000 each so that is an easy 10000 per day with the work from others not to mention the ores my crew mines.

Though I wasn’t stupid enough to let them be the judge of the amount they got, I called a worker of the station and asked to have a contract written to which those who had protection during their mining trips would automatically be marked with a devise and 5% would be automatically counted and deposited for me when I collect my money. With that and over 20 signatures we had the thing signed and me and my lieutenants were grinning from ear to ear.

I had quick orders for them they had to finish the remaining ships and make an additional 7 which will fill the carrier with the carrier with enough to supply the needed many power for the contract. Obviously the contract also stated how they should mine in groups for the protection to be at its most effective.

Now the final piece of work of the day, which is equally as important as the contract. 40,000 credits paid to the station to completely refit and repair any structural damage on the carrier as with an additional 2000 going into a XD Compressor to increase cargo space, estimated time to finish 3 days. Ah how good it will be to remove that blood stained scrap metal on the outside of the carrier and put a new plate of armor with a fresh coat of pain.

The next three days were not as eventful but went relatively quick. The new fighters and Dingy were complete finishing our small fleet. With them the three Dingy I owned along with 8 of the 15 of the fighters would go out and mine and the fighters took shifts so as not to risk the pilot’s life we would switch the fighters every 2 hours. No other miners besides me and Jessica were able to leave the station because we couldn't protect everyone without the carrier to refuel the fighters and provide support for repairs and such that might happen.

The attacks were all in the same fashion and ended with few of them actually surviving to reach the surface of the asteroids alive. As such we didn’t need to worry much but the lack of the carriers presence sucked because we needed to return to the station a lot like we did before.

That all changed after the three days were up and in front of me I was walking around at my newly refurbished carrier. It didn’t have a single dent in it; most minor damage to the structure as well as the engine had also been taken care of. The ship now sported a white and black paint job, black on the lower half and white on the uppers. The plates on the inside were also changed for new ones and were painted pure white like it was supposed to be and now it felt like a new ship.

We were all happy to have the ship in better condition because flying on it how it was made if feel more like a ghost ship then a proper one.

The moment we announced that we were going to mine every crew scrambled to get ready. My crew was already prepared and we left soon after we announced it. About 2 minutes later when we were entering the asteroid field a swarm of Dingy’s left the station and headed at high speeds towards us and slowed down after they were near. There were around 30-50 ships and I was sure that more than half of them thought they would take advantage of the protection but they didn’t know about the trackers that would alert us were the miners under the contract was.

We moved deep into the asteroid field until we reached the A class asteroids. The area was sparse of rocks and only had the large asteroids which were at least twice as big as the carrier. We sent the signal for the miners to mine within one of the large asteroids and sent out our own which began the mining. Soon the rock as surrounded by small busy miners. But to our surprise nothing attacked which meant that the small rocks might have something to do with them.

We just watched the mining and it obviously was getting boring since most of the action came from the attacks.

As we waited I noticed Adam and a few other control room techs with worried faces working away at the monitors and computers.

Noah: hey Adam what’s with the worried face and the intense typing?

Adam: well…we are receiving an SOS signal but we can’t get the frequency right.

Noah: put it only loud speaker for the control room

He does so and static starts to sound in the room. Every so often a voice could momentarily be heard.

??? : h…o K…a …d he... c… h..r u.

Noah: can’t you clear that up.

Adam: no it’s the best we can do.

Noah: how’s about tracing that call then?

Adam: we tried but the message is too scattered because of the asteroids.

Noah: can’t we raise the output on the scanners to find it?

Adam: let me try.

He types on the keyboard rapidly while we continue hearing the SOS call. Suddenly it clears up a bit and we can hear enough of the voice to understand him.

??? : he..o can .ny..e here us, we .re on K.lha II from th. .and.ng c.ew, we ..qu.st .xt..cti.n

Noah: …did I hear right, he is ON Kelha II as in the planet

??? : you didn’t hear wrong captain.

I look back and find Ernest and Mr. Kinter behind me.

Kinter: what do you make of this?

Noah: it smells fishy, like a trap.

Ernest: I get the same feeling…I think we should check with the station from what I could piece together I hear landing crew so they must have tried to land and populate the planet.

Noah: Adam open up a channel to Kelha II Station

He works quickly and soon a monitor appears with the image of one of the attendants of the tower.

??? : hello Miner Noah, what is it that you need.

Noah: we just received a weak SOS signal coming from the planet Kelha II request extraction from a landing crew, care to explain, if I remember correctly from scans on of the planet I found in my ship the planet is uninhabited and uninhabitable unless its terraformed why is there an SOS signal coming from it.

The man was visibly shaken and he was sweating a lot. I can tell he mutes the chat and begins talking and soon after Mr. Cane appears.

Mores: Noah!!! What’s this about an SOS from the planet?!

Noah: you heard right Mr. Cane the message was pretty broken up but at one point it cleared up as it repeated itself and we could piece the message together, Adam do a playback of the message.

He does as ordered and plays it again in the channel connected to the station. From the screen I could see many NPC gather around the screen listening and they were all shaken when they were able to decipher the message. Mr. Cane even had to sit down from the shock, I could tell this was leading to something big and we were right at its front door.

Mores: my god, we thought they died.

Noah: who sir?

Mores: the first landing group we sent to Kelha II, I’m sure you can tell it’s a desert planet with a very thin atmosphere so very little organic life can live there. The crew was sent to make this place a mining planet because its rich in precious metals just like the asteroid field up here in space but something happened just as the first freighter ship was lifting off, after that we lost all connections so we though they were dead. I know this might be too much to ask of your crew but can you go down to the planet and search for them we will send you the coordinates of the landing zone.

Mission: SOS rescue

You have discovered an SOS message coming from the desert planet Kelha II. After relaying it to your boss you discovers that a crew was sent down to industrialize the planet for mining goods but something happened. Your boss has asked you to look into it and rescue any survivor you might encounter.

Difficult A

Time Limit: unknown

Reward: ???

Noah: ”should have guessed it was something like this”

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