81: The Smurfs' Temptation

At this moment, inside a large hall,

1998 people were scattered inside, each holding a personal terminal, watching idiot-proof tutorials from the night lamp, learning how to operate the various weapon systems.

Chaotic discussions filled every corner, making the place an absolute hell for the ears—

"I reckon this thing looks a bit like that stuff I usually maintain, eh?"

"This thing looks very WAAAAAGH! The New Boss definitely wants us to learn this so he can take us to do super WAAAAAGH things!"

"Really? Did you understand what the New Boss was saying?"

"More or less. He was probably saying that the reason we haven't been living WAAAAAGH enough is because some unknown guys stole something from us,

"and now he's going to take us to kick those guys over and create a super WAAAAAGH world!"

"WAAAAAGH!!!!"

Perhaps a certain phrase spoken by someone triggered an unknown keyword again,

and a chorus of “WAAAAGH” sounds rose and fell throughout the hall.

—Because they had been confined to the cracks and the lower levels for years, facing life-and-death crises every day,

these debt workers all had some degree of mental issues:

They were usually numb and indifferent,

but when they released their emotions, they were incredibly intense.

Consequently, these shouts gave Xi Hai the feeling that he had just seen a ghost—

"Are these guys Orks or something?"

Xi Hai heard the strange commotion in the hall through the wall.

Xi Hai admitted he was afraid:

All the things that had happened since he arrived here,

wouldn't it all turn out to be a conspiracy by the Blue Big Birdman?

"Uh... what are Orks?"

Suddenly, Norma's voice entered his ears, interrupting Xi Hai's thoughts.

"That's hard to explain right now,"

Xi Hai thought about it and said speechlessly,

There was no 40K here, so how was he supposed to explain Orks to Norma?

Was he supposed to point at the people in the hall and say, 'Look, those are basically Orks'?

Wait, Norma Transport's Warships seem to be all green?

Damn! They really are Orks! (In a sense)

"Alright,"

Seeing that Xi Hai seemed troubled, Norma immediately dropped the subject.

"Then should we still go check on their progress?"

Xi Hai said:

"Haven't we already confirmed it here?"

"We still have to wait over an hour for them,"

"Just briefly tell me about their—your former debt workers'—roles within the space station."

Norma thought for a moment, finding an angle she felt was appropriate,

and began to elaborate:

Hauling, overhauling, cleaning... all the heavy, miscellaneous tasks within the space station that could have been replaced by AI in the 3K Era were their responsibility.

The bulk of this work was the inspection and maintenance of various machinery.

This resulted in most of them possessing excellent mechanical skills, despite never having received a formal education—

This is why so many people were able to hand-craft electromagnetic rifles directly on the day of the "Uprising."

This Node Space Station is considered small,

If it were a large space station like the Order Seat, even things like "Slave Laborers sharing void energy self-extraction core maintenance techniques with you" could happen.

As for their role?

Their existence led the space station staff to generally accept the established fact that "the space station can fix itself when broken."

As for how it gets fixed? Go ask the wetware built inside.

Xi Hai: ...Impressive.

Two hours quickly passed,

the people selected by Norma had basically finished their training—

At least, operating those idiot-proof Warship systems was no longer an issue.

To be safe, Xi Hai also manufactured 1999 sets of Marine-style powered armor on the joint production line, equipping one set to each operator,

to prevent these crew members from being affected by vacuum exposure if the Warship hull was damaged.

As for why there was an extra set?

Xi Hai stated that he also planned to go along—by controlling a Clones.

Of course, to distinguish these people from the Marine clones,

or perhaps because Xi Hai truly dared not let these guys have anything to do with the color green,

he changed the original dark green coating of this batch of powered armor to blue.

Nearly 2000 people formed neat queues within the Starport,

orderly boarding the modified Warships.

Soon, all combat vessels were ready, and their weapon systems were disengaged from safety locks.

Xi Hai stood on the Bridge of the storm, looking at the fleet before him and nodding in satisfaction—

For this operation, he had assigned personnel to most of the Warships.

Although they were novice crew members,

they were certainly better than the Lung Mist AI that came with the Warship.

The only use of that thing was to ensure that the ultimate control of the Warship remained in his hands, no matter how ridiculous the situation became.

"Give me the communicator,"

"Switch to the all-fleet channel,"

"I'll say a few words."

A soldier in blue powered armor nearby pressed a few keys on the communications console, took down the microphone, and handed it over.

Xi Hai took the microphone and said loudly:

"Attention, all units!"

"We will soon enter the complete control zone of unknown Void Creatures!"

"The target location has massive numbers of small hostile units!"

"All anti-air weapon system teams maintain maximum vigilance at all times!"

"Our objective is to conduct explosive mining of various mineral resources there! Primarily metal!"

"The storm will handle large targets that approach!"

"Engage, collect, and withdraw once finished!"

"Do not prolong the battle!"

As soon as he finished speaking,

the loud "Yes!" of the acting captains echoed through the channel.

Satisfied, Xi Hai put down the communicator and ordered with full vigor:

"Depart!"

Suddenly, a flash of white light crossed the air, and space distorted,

and the fleet vanished in mid-air.

"Activating Warp Drive Module."

...