Chereads / Stellar Born / Chapter 10 - Corruption at the Port

Chapter 10 - Corruption at the Port

The external Jump Calibration Mechanism or JCM for short minutely rotated the vessel. The port was essentially a large cylindrical construct called the Docking Port that could be entered in both sides and could rotate at any angle due to the mechanical rotation system which connected it to the port Jump Port Arm. When the Captain inputted the chip into the JCM console and entered the ship, the docking port rotated to move the front of the ship into the general direction of location coordinates. The JCM further finely tuned the direction it was facing to ensure the nose of the vessel precisely faced the correct direction.

As it did Daemon buckled himself up and the Captain sat down at the cockpit. Through the cockpit screen, he could see the tunnel slowly change directions, but it abruptly stopped, causing the Captain and Dae to jolt in their seats.

Checking the nav system, the Captain could see the ship had yet to face the coordinates correctly yet the entire rotating mechanism had stopped.

'Dammit! That receptionist must've been in on it!' The Captain theorized.

He found it suspicious that the receptionist didn't warn or regulate the gang members, even after the shoot-out began. Normally Jump Ports are safe due to being government regulated, even remote Jump Ports like this one are well regulated. This is why the Captain was so perplexed about the situation. The JCM was still attached to the ship so there was no way they could leave.

The Captain opened the walking. Due to the JCM being stopped mid-rotation, the ship was suspended at a high angle, for which the Captain had to jump off the walking platform onto the port arm.

"What are you doing?" Dae asked.

"Stay here I'll be right back"

The Captain continued on through the port-arm back to the sliding door which was still open. He braced the laser pistol as he slowly walked in, checking his surroundings to see if an ambush was present. The entire main hall seemed desolate, the dust was barely settling at the supply store while there was no sight of any living thing. He scanned the reception, not seeing any sign of the receptionist woman from before. Jumping over the reception counter, he notices the reception console blinking red with the center console screen flashing the bright red words 'Local Hostile Measure Initiated.

The Captian frowns, this situation didn't seem good. He couldn't find the reception and he wasn't sure what security measures a remote jump port like here would take.

While he was churning through ideas in his head, he suddenly hears a noise in the distance. A heavy metallic thumping, sounding in rhythm, indicated they were footsteps. Each footstep grows louder, its vibrations growing louder to the point where the Captain could even feel them through his feet.

"Fuck" The Captain mutters as he realizes the only source the footsteps like these could belong to would be a bot.

In this era, bots were incredibly advanced. Their versatility and specializations were incredibly useful while their offensive capabilities only grew as the ages passed.

The footsteps continued to grow louder. The Captain peeked out of the counter for a split second.

BANG.

His head quickly retreated a fraction of a second before a large piece of the counter covering him and blown away.

'Goddam it's a guard bot!' He thought.

Guard bots did exactly as their name indicated, guard assets or locations. This specific guard bot was quite large at 9 meters tall and 2 meters wide and was comprised of reverse jointed legs that carried its enormous cube-shaped body that had two large rifles protruding its sides and aiming ahead. The entire mech was a dirty metallic silver indicating it likely was an old and out-of-commission model, however, that fact didn't reduce its apparent lethality towards the Captain one bit in this situation.

On the center of the main body were several large circulars lens which was cameras to providing a view to whoever was controlling the machine.

'That receptionist must be controlling it, I've gotta find a way to disable it'

"Come out! It doesn't matter how powerful you are, you can't beat a guard bot!"

The Captain gritted his teeth trying to think of ways to get out of this situation. Guard bots were notoriously well armored and difficult for normal people to destroy. While his new laser pistol was quite powerful, it likely would take multiple shots to be able to do any damage to it. All the while, the guard bot's ballistic rifles would blast him and anything in the way to bits.

A burst of deranged laughter rang from within the guard bot and was amplified by the fizzy and static speaker onboard.

"Heheheheehe you thought you could get away?? Those useless snake fiends failed, if you want something done, you have to do it yourself!" The receptionist giggled crazily.

"Why the hell would a lone wanderer come to the Nuemenos system? A desolate remote system like this only has a few small-time mining works, nothing someone like you would come for. But ah! I heard a rumor a long time ago that there were some gravitational disturbances from this system. Some desperate outfits came and went but no one found anything! That is except for you! You came with two, that brat kid following you round like a dog. You left for that planet but came back with someone else! How is that not suspicious! I bet you found something very special, and it's only fair to share isn't it?"

She smiled maniacally as the guard bot stopped ten meters in front of the counter. The Captain was still hiding behind it, trying to come up with a plan that would at least allow him to escape. His body modification wouldn't help him survive a five centimeter wide round coming from the huge rifles on either side of the bot.

The guard bot started shooting, blasting entire pieces off the counter. It was being shredded and could only hold on for a few seconds before it would be completely exposing the Captain to an unsurvivable situation.

Yet before that happened, she heard a loud shout from the sliding door at the Port Arm section entrance.

"Hey over here!"