《The Nebula》Chapter 10 Scrapyard Divers

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Author's corner: here is another non edited chapter, remember that it will be edited and posted again later on but for now its will remain unedited.

We get some fun with Gunner this chapter as well so lets get to it! XD

Jessica PoV

“Finally!” I say excited.

What had just happened was me properly making all the parts plans for a handheld scanner as well as the codes for it. I had tons of help from my teacher but I still got it made.

You have leveled up Programmer SkillYou have gained a new skillTool PlanningRarity1Level 1A technician's skill for combining the a number of components to make a tool.

Improves quality of plans by 1%

I make a small smile seeing one skill level up and gaining another.

“Vivi, please bring up my skill list.” I asked.

Sure thing big sis!

Programmer Level 8

Laser Weapon Programming Level 2

Parts Planning Level 7

Weapon Planning level 5

Tool Planning Level 1

Tool Programming Level 3

Dismantling Level 5

Scavenging level 6

I look at my skills and see that I need to work on my secondary programming skills for laser weapons and tools. My Programmer skill is a mastery skill so even fixing random codes made it rise a lot and but I need the specialized skills for an extra stacked boost.

Maybe I should also look for a weapon mastery so that I can be of use on the field as well.

Well for now I call my teacher and ask for lessons on both the specialized programming skills.

With a few hours they both leveled up once after coding some tools and basic laser weapons.

Looking at my status I saw my hp had dropped only to 75% since.

The first durability package was a blessing since I now go into disrepair much slower than before and can last longer.

With the extra time I only need 1 repair per day. With that in mind I head to the scrapyard to try and find anything more useful.

I want to get enough good parts before I head to Noah for repairs and see if he can build the scanners.

Arriving at the scrapyard by ship I go off looking.

Looking around, I notice an increase in smaller ship that had most of their things removed.

I go one by one and search them for anything useful but what they had to offer was taken and only metal husks were left.

I click my tongue as I move on looking around.

When I reached a rather small ship that looked to still have something to offer I went in. I was happy to find that it had some machines left behind something I was happy to find was that this ship had a somewhat damaged life support. Through Vivi who had some knowledge of what it looked like and a check through the inside it seems that it only had some structural damage that could be repaired. The problem was transporting this thing.

I would need to lift and take it to the ship and it went from the floor to the ceiling so that wasn’t an option without Uncle and Noah here together. Problem was that uncle went planetside and he told me noah got promoted to a new station in the hangar to help fabricate parts for the drills. He should still be working so I can’t really disrupt him.

I curse at possibly losing such a valuable find like this.

I started to look around the ship trying to find anything of value but things like cockpit and engines and all the furniture was gone. When I reached the cargo I did spot some floating boxes that hadn’t been removed from the ship which intrigued me so I floated over. They were metal and were firmly locked. The scavengers probably couldn’t unlock it and went to get better tools.

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Big sis! This big box is sealed through super magnet locks. It’s tough but it can be opened if you can stick something in between it and move it far enough away from the magnet field!

Such a good girl, still to do that isn’t an easy thing to accomplish in zero gravity.

I looked around and saw a broken metal sheet that looked like I could work into it so I went and grabbed it before jumping back and sticking myself to the box and began to work the metal into the crack between the lid.

If only I knew how to cancel out magnetic fields and it was simple and didn’t need complex components.

After a while I finally got enough into it to try and pull it but I had noticed that trying to do that made my health decrease significantly if I kept straining my body.

Seeing it was not working and the box was still in mid air… space, I started to think of what to do.

After a while I thought of something.

The box was at an angle and near the ceiling of the cargo bay but with me using the ceiling I got the box to become parallel with the ground. Then with a soft push down the side with the metal shaft on it started to rotate down. When it got to an angle thought was good I canceled out the force I put by pushing gently by on the other side of the box making it stay in place in space.

I carefully got on the edge of the box and making sure the angle was right I finally had Vivi deactivate my metal boots and I jumped causing the box to be pushed down but slowly. So as I reach the ceiling I push on with my hands heading for the box again and again I kicked off making it “fall” faster and with a more satisfying speed.

The metal sheet hit at an angle causing it to distort and curve under a lot of strain since the box had a lot of mass.

Finally the force of the curving metal forced the lid up opening the box.

From inside the box I saw a military crate float out, the kind that holds important and powerful weapons.

I kicked off the ceiling and landed hear the create and grabbed it. It had simple latches at this point since the crate was already heavily secure.

When I opened it I found dismantled parts for what looked like a sniper or a heavy gun.

A quick look over the parts and I found that nearly 70% had some form of damage.

There were three crates.

When I looked through them I found enough parts to able to piece together a gun but there were still 40% of the parts that were too damaged to be used. Seeing as I won’t be able to get a complete gun, no matter what I do I put the best parts in one crate while all the extra parts go in my bag. Then I look again inside the box and find a few ammo cases and opening it if bullets for the snipers. I store the boxes in my inventory.

”If this is really a sniper or some long range weapon, then I really struck lucky. I don’t know if Noah can fix them but if he can then it will make things much simpler and it will save us a lot of money to repair what could possible be military grade weapons. Not to mention he will really be interested in obtaining that Life Support system if it’s still here.” I thought.

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I grab the case that was three times the size of a regular briefcase and started to pull it back to the ship. It’s not safe to keep this in the scrapyard since someone may find and try to kill me for it.

Getting back to the ship I pay the tax for removing whatever I got and left the area.

Back at the docks, I pass the mechanics quickly saying, “Found nothing I want to sell today!” to them and quickly entered the hangar and asked for Noah.

I found him just finishing a large drill arm that was going to be going onto the robot nearby.

“Noah!” I called him.

He looked my way and instantly noticed that large crate.

“Did you need repairs?” He asked.

“That and I need to show you what I found. It needs repairs as well.” I tell him.

“Well, let me finish this, almost done. Just wait at that maintenance area and I’ll be right over.” he says and points at the area nearby.

I nod and go to the area and set the crate down and rest on it.

I look at my stats to see how much I have remaining.

StatusName:JessicaFaction:LiberationRace:AndroidBounty:0Fame:0Health:125/305HP Regeneration:0Psi:0Psi Regeneration0Level:1Extra Stat Points:0Physical Proficiency:17Resilience:22Dexterity:14Agility:15Overclock Potency:5Processor cooling:10Charisma:10Leadership:10

Looking at my health showed it was at 41% already. I had lost considerable health trying to unlock the box with my strength.

I still remember seeing Uncle's stats, so discouraging seeing the massive difference in stats, I did notice that uncle didn't have Overclock Potency and Processor cooling. He said they are two natural stats androids get when they begin the game. Since it was like that I had Vivi tell me what was the functions these two stats have.

Overclock Potency: Capacity of the android's body to increase their processing speed or physical stats at the price of over heating. This stat gets more points depending on the parts the body of the android has. At low quality parts the overclock potency is naturally low since they can’t handle that much strain. There are even parts specialized for overclocking should the android want to improve this stat.

Processor cooling: This stat is in direct contrast to overclock potency. When the overclock has been deactivated the android's body would naturally have heated up, processor cooling works to help cool the systems of the android's body after overclock has been activated to keep the body from melting down. Should the amount of overclock used exceed the amount of processor cooling then the processor cooling will all be used up and excessive heat will still be present in the body and will cause damage and some parts may melt or stick causing damage.

After looking over my stats, I just waiting a bit until I noticed Noah coming over with a box, probably with parts.

"Ready?" He asks.

I nod and get up and move to the metal chair but not before bringing the crate with the gun closer and putting my bag next to it.

He looked at the crate curious but didn't ask.

I let him get busy with repairs.

What he did was much different from before. He didn't replace the parts, we removed them and repaired them by taking apart the small parts he brought in the box. He would dismantle the parts from my body and only replace a few damaged components before returning it.

It went on like this for twenty minutes and he was done.

"You got faster." I stated.

"The androids as a whole have begun to get upgrades so the parts that get damaged are more complex making my skill levels rise." He replied. "Welp, I'm done!" He said and took a step back.

I close up the plates returning my body to a human shape instead of showing off the robot innards.

"Is that all?" He asked.

"No, I found a weapon in some condition for use but there is still a number of damaged parts and was wondering if you can repair it for me?" I asked.

"It's the big crate right?" He asked.

I nod.

"Well then let's check it out." He said and started to move the huge box.

"Can it be somewhere with less people?" I ask.

He thinks a bit confused.

"If it’s a strong weapon then someone might try to steal it." I tell.

He seems to get what I was implying.

"Let’s go to the depot then, but if it's a powerful weapon it would best have someone like Gunner to identify it." He says.

I agree with him on that and he calls Gunner through his communicator and leads me to the depot where we were to meet up.

Walking through the door we found an anxious Gunner waiting and as soon as he saw us and the crate he stuck his hand out, as if grabbing something and yanked it making the crate fly towards him and stopping.

It settled down on the floor in front of him and opened up.

His eyes grew wide and a grin appeared on his face, his hands kept opening and closing and I swear that if this place had gravity there would be a waterfall of saliva dripping.

"Lass! Where did you find this!" He asked desperately.

"In a scrapped ship in the shipyard. The crates were in the cargo and sealed inside a metal box with a super magnet lock." I replied a bit fearful.

"Then I'm sure now! this is a railgun sniper rifle! Without a doubt, the ship you mentioned was probably one of a local merchants that was ambushed. Heard rumors that they were coming to sell some strong weapons! Can' believe scrappers didn't take em." Gunner said.

"Besides not taking that, there were a few other boxes like them. Also, Noah I found a partially damaged Life support system on the ship. It has only structural damage but the main hardware is intact." I tell him.

""What!!"" Both dwarves shout together.

"Bloody hell! Must of been some newbie scraper to not remove the life support! With some structural damage it still sells for at least 1500 credits. A fully functioning one goes nearly 6,000 credits for the most basic model!" Gunner exclaimed.

I saw Noah's body tremble.

"Before you guys run off, can you tell me if you can repair that?" I asked pointing to the railgun.

"Might need to, if there are more boxes then there may be more of them an we can make a complete gun for ya. Aa for the broken parts, I can easily repair them for you for 700 credits." He said making me cringe at the price. "Don't look at me like dat! Railguns are high maintenance weapons. All models have a large cool down time and you still need to be careful on yer second shot cause the first one can damage some part." He explained.

It really was a high maintenance weapon. That is a fact but the benefits of it can outweigh that. The main benefit is that it works in space and because it flies at mach 3 if aimed at a ship and shot properly it will cause super destruction.

"Gunner! I don't think we should waste more time. We can talk later after we get everything but we should move now to get what we need." Noah said urgently.

"Aye, miss! We will be counting on you to lead the way!" Gunner said.

"And my crate?" I asked.

He looked at the crate and kicked the lid shut and pulled a large sash of tape with words saying "Gunners thing's!! Touch and you die!"

Both me and Noah frown after we read that and he put it on a shelf.

"What?" He asked.

"What’s with that!" I asked a bit angry.

"Trust me lass, that box is as safe as if it was in that box you found it in. There are as few people as yer own fingers on this station with the balls to not take that warning seriously. Not unless a foreigner tried and snag it but a railgun won't go far without being noticed especially when that tape has trackers on it." He said with confidence.

Since I can't be sure if that is true or not, not to mention I barely know all the types of technology in this game, I resign to trusting him.

With that we leave the depot and make our way to the scrapyard.

PoV of First android girl Noah repaired.

"Heya! Hua!!"

This is intense! Never would have imagined myself training in a body that gets damaged just by walking. Still the benefits Androids have outway the cons.

I take a look at my stats and skills so since my training has finally won me the skill levels of a more competent fighters.

StatusName:HildaFaction:LiberationRace:AndroidBounty:0Fame:[0[/tds]Health:58/275HP Regeneration:0Psi:0Psi Regeneration0Level:1Extra Stat Points:0Physical Proficiency:13Resilience:20Dexterity:14Agility:13tr]Overclock Potency:5Processor cooling:10[/tr]Charisma:10Leadership:10

Laser Weapon Mastery Level 8

Missile Weapon Mastery Level 1

Sword Mastery Level 10

Martial Arts Level 7

Pistol arms mastery Level 5

I smile at my level 10 swords mastery. Still, when I look at my health it makes me pale since I didn't notice the level of damage I had gained.

I quickly store my stuff and run out the room to the nearest elevator that luckily hadn’t descended so I was able to get in near the front with several other people heading down.

Finally going down I just had to wait a bit cramped but it didn’t last much and once the elevator door open I was able to rush out after my magnet boots were activated but sadly my “rush” didn’t last three steps out.

*Crash*

“Ouch…” I mutter.

Strange part of android's, we feel pain. Not only that we can feel dizzy since I feel that now.

OI BOSS! you o’right! Boss, that was epic, it was just like those animes you uploaded to the capsule for me where the girl crashes into her fated person….blah blah blah

How irritating, if it wasn’t enough I have this annoying little pest that can still bring up some fun stuff. He is a boy with chestnut hair and was around 12 years old in appearance and took to calling me boss like some anime kid calls a strong fighter.

“Shut up Ricky!” I say as I look up and see a dwarf getting up.

“Oh sorry… wait I remember you, you're a regular to get repaired by me.” Noah says.

After a moment I got my bearings and finally figure out who the dwarf is.

“Ah! Your that dwarf with some good skills for repairs! Careful where you’re running!” I shout as I get up once he was off me.

I look at my HP and saw that it had dropped to 30 points (11%)

“DAMN!! I NEED REPAIRS QUICK!!” I shout looking at the numbers only to have it drop to 10% because of my sudden movements.

“How much damage do you have already? Can’t be much right?” Noah asked.

“90%!”

“STUPID GIRL!! Why the bloody hell did you wait to come repair when you almost fallen apart!” Gunner shouted in a fit of rage.

“Wait, calm down Gunner!” He starts.

“CALM DOWN!! WE ARE PRESSED FOR TIME!” He shouts almost desperate.

“I know! Jessica, go with him in front and help Gunner get the things secure. I’ll meet up with you after I repair her.” Noah tells the Jessica.

“Alright, oh and take these, I found them but they aren’t parts I particularly need but it should work better for her.” She says.

“What are those?” I asked her.

I was familiar with Jessica because we study together which is why when she referred me to get repairs from Noah I didn’t question it since we are friends.

“Those are parts I found in the scrapyard. Still in good condition and specialized for fighters.”

The next moment I was hugging her.

“ THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!” I shouted.

“Jessica, please hurry before we attract more attention.” Noah said and looked around noticing how a large number of people were looking our ways.

“All you lazy asses get back to work this instant!” Gunner shouted almost about to jump someone to vent his anger.

“Let’s go Gunner. Noah when you’re done just call and I will forward the location to your AI.” She says and turns to follow the surprisingly agile dwarf that had deactivated his magnet boot and had jumped into the air and was using his wire and psi to control how and where he flew in zero gravity.

“Come on, let’s get this over with quick!” Noah says and walks over to a maintenance and cursed before telling me to wait and ran off and came back with a two boxes filled with parts.

I opened my plates and he grimaced.

“Okay, first off never let your HP drop to 10% unless you are fighting.” He said and started completely remaking nearly 80% of my parts.

I couldn’t do much but look away in shame since I was told that. I should know better but when I get into training I forget things.

I look as he works and notice a few times as he grabs the new parts and completely replaces a few parts.

It took half an hours and I heard him curse as he completely rebuilt my body and how it was taking so long.

“Hey it’s not nice to keep cursing by how I am taking your time!” I said finally having enough.

“I wouldn’t care if it wasn’t something important!” He says as he installs another of the parts Jessica left.

“What exactly are you so worried about?” I asked.

“My dad found a wreck of a ship that was intact enough to rebuild and Jessica encountered a slightly damaged life support system.” He says.

I finally get it, “getting” an important piece of ship equipment really does deserve the worry if you suddenly encounter something like this.

As he finishes I see a message.

The result of added better quality fighter specialized parts had resulted in stats improve.

Physical Proficiency 13 -> 23

Resilience 20 -> 24

Agility 12 -> 19

Dexterity 12 -> 21

Overclock 5 -> 10

Processor Cooling 10 ->20

Whats with this burst of stats! It’s like my body is so light now.

As I was experimenting with my body I notice Noah quickly put everything away place the boxes over in a corner of the maintenance area.

“Lia, call Jessica for the location!” he says and starts running towards the area with the energy shield keeping the air inside.

I hadn’t noticed but looking on several spots there were cat walks that were sticking straight out of the floor. I follow him and when he reaches one he puts on foot and lets the magnet stick before he turns his body and walked through the door that was sideways.

I hadn’t noticed but this was the exit. Seriously I kept myself too stuffed up in the training room.

I follow him and find lots of corridors and a few mechanics that had some strange little markets here with random parts laid out. Ricky couldn’t ID them so I didn’t pay attention.

“So you followed after all.” I suddenly jumped from fright when Noah suddenly appeared behind me with a helmet on and some air tanks on his back.

“Got curious…” I said and looked away.

“Whatever, you have at least 100 credits for the transport and 50 for the return trip since we will be returning and with you coming you will probably be made into a pack mule by Gunner.” He says.

I didn’t know how to reply to that but I did nod to his money question. Dad gave me 30,000 dollars and had me convert it into credits so that I can train without needing to work. I also got my first durability upgrade with part of this money. With the extra 1k I get as starting money I had enough money for a laser sword and several energy packs and a wooden training sword. Yeah, only an idiot would use the energy of an energy weapon to train.

“Then come on.” He says and walks over to a ship that looked about 6 meters wide and two school buses long (27.4 meters).

We pay the tax for the trip and after a bit it left the docks and flew us to the scrapyard.

As we arrive and get off we see another ship already there.

“We have friends here and are from the first ship so we will return with them.” Noah tells the captain who nods.

“Good luck kid.” The old pilot says as we get off and he leaves us.

From there I saw a chat window open up between me, Noah, Jessica and Gunner.

Gunner: OH! You guys finally arrived! Come quick cause this ship is loaded with guns! Gahahahah!!

At this single message I could see Noah shake his head.

Noah: What about the life support system is it safe?Gunner: Huh? What life support?

Yep he facepalmed though from how Gunner was acting I kind of expected that. Maybe the name is a nickname he gave himself cause he is a gun nut.

Jessica: *sigh* I went ahead and trying to unbolt it from the flood but I’m no mechanic to know which to remove.Noah: It’s fine, I had already expected this when I saw Gunner drooling over that railgun. Did you get the remaining parts you needed for it?Hilda: WAIT! Railgun! You FOUND a railgun!Jessica: We will explain in a bit and yes Noah I got them. Gunner just wants enough parts to make a decoration since he has many stronger guns but he hasn’t gotten a single one of these. The remaining parts he will repair them as spares for me if I pay a total 1000 credits. Such a good deal. Still I need to train with the sniper so I don’t waste my ammo but each of the boxes had ammo so I have a good stock of them! ^-^Noah: We will be right over then to get the Life support.

After a moment a map of the scrapyard appeared and a red dot showed the position of the two.

Jumping and walking through the scrap we took little to no time before reaching a ship with Jessica waiting and as she sees us she waves.

Inside it as dark but the flashlights they had helped with that and eventually we reached the room with a Life Support.

It was large, much larger than I expected and looked like a few cylindrical air tanks and lots of openings for what could only be pipes

Noah: We will probably have to dismantle the tanks and separate them from the main machine before trying to remove them.

Suddenly a new light flashed from behind.

Gunner: Good call, there are several dozen bolts you need to remove from behind if you want dat. Anyway that is a tenth generation Shuttle life support system. Good enough for any shuttle but something like a small ship it’s not enough. Has a filter system and with 3,2 meter tall quarter of a meter wide air tanks, with each can hold between 500 to 3000 liters of air, this system can hold enough air to fill and even store extra air for yer ship.Noah: So had your fun with the guns?Gunner: Wish I could spend more time with them but I simply can’t let amateurs take down a complete life support system and expect it to not break further then it is.

His words clearly states he puts his professionalism over his hunger for guns.

Gunner: Ya! Missy, go keep watch! You got no skill in dismantling so keep watch and don’t let others come inside.

This kind of pissed me off but I couldn’t disagree with him especially since I never dismantled anything besides when I beat up scarecrows until they break.

I walk outside and walk on top of the ship.

Boss… that midget just pushed you around…

SO LAME!

“SHUT UP YOU LITTLE BRAT!”

Obviously that was a mental shout which he heard clearly but no sound came out from my mouth.

Anyway I just sat there making sure nothing happened and no one came which I felt was hard since there was only one ship parked at the scrapyard.

After a while of boring waiting I finally got a chat message.

Gunner: Alright! Finally done! We got everything we needed brats so let’s get before some scrapper arrive!

As if jinxing it a ship parked at the scrapyard outpost.

Hilda: Just curious but what does a scrapper ship normally look like?Gunner: Piece of shit ship that looks like it may fall apart. Dirty as hell normally and has several harpoon turrets on both sides.Hilda: Then we should leave… fast. A ship just arrived after your jinxed and called them![tr]

Didn’t take long before they appeared from the ship.

Gunner walked around with six crates floating behind him and then Jessica followed and finally Noah who was walking backwards with his hands stretched out.

From behind came the three tanks and then the main machine body of the life support system.

[tr]Gunner: Bloody hurry up Noah!Noah: THEN YOU PULL THIS THING WHILE I TAKE THE WEAPONS!

Gunner actually did that as he pushed Noah out of the way and with one arm stuck out he took control of the floating equipment what moved with much more speed outside without so much as scratching the hull.

Gunner: Get me bloody guns and hurry up Noah!

With Noah righting himself he did just that and we started walking towards the ship.

It was all calm for a while. We were up higher and hidden by the darkness of space and we were even under the shadow of the station at the moment so it was hard for the scrappers to spot us while we could see them since they were using flashlights.

When we were maybe 200 meters away a sudden laser shot came at us. Just as suddenly an energy extended in front us.

AHAHAH! We got a good catch today boys! Someone was nice enough to open those boxes for us!

The sudden message came from someone around us.

All at once several dozen lights turned on and focused on us.

Did you think you could leave the scrapyard when scrappers are in! Do you know this is our home turf!Gunner: Aye, and we pay to get in, so fuck off!WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!Gunner: No one, but everyone calls me Gunner.

All the scrappers took a step back and raised their weapons to fire.

Gunner… hehehe! So you finally left that safety of that shitty station unarmed even! This is a riot!Gunner: When did I say I was unarmed? Brats close your eyes!

As he shouts he pulls out a black ball about the size of a fist and tosses it up.

I close my eyes only to notice it turn bright through my lids for a second.

Gunner: BRATS RUN TO THE SHIP!

As he said that I opened my eyes and saw all the men holding their hands over their eyes but couldn’t due to the helmets.

When we got to the platform the first of the men were getting up. Sadly it was the one that was on the platform itself. Unfortunately for him Gunner wasn’t nice because he planted his foot in the gut of one of them and a fist in the face of the other.

As we got to the ship we started to move the things into the loading area while gunner tossed two more round balls which created two large shields like the one before blocking off the area completely.

With him taking command to store the things we got everything inside and just as the ship started to leave he walked to the opened door of the ship and raised both middle fingers towards the scrappers.

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