I exited from my ship to the applause of several of the miners, Marten included.
"Damn, I didn't think you were serious about taking on multiple pirates at the same time," Marten praised, clapping me on the back.
I shrugged, "I just have a good ship."
"The way you flew though! That was some top tier flying if I ever saw one!"
I'm not sure what he was talking about since I felt that my flying was pretty normal all things considered, especially when I wasn't doing any crazy flips and corkscrews either.
Not that there was any point to do so in the first place since I was fighting them in open space with nothing to hide behind.
Still, I wasn't going to tell him that either and simply accepted his praise by nodding along.
But amidst the praise, it seems like one of the miners wasn't as impressed.
He walked up to me with a scowl, "Now look what you've done!"
Marten turned to frown at him, "What are you talking about, Jerry? She saved our asses! That's what she did! So maybe at least show some appreciation!"
"Like hell! Yeah! She killed some pirates, but those are just the scrubs! They have a base here, don't they?! And if those guys don't return, they're going to send even more of them after us! And once they find out that we are responsible for their deaths, we'll all be slaughtered anyway! At least before this, we could have saved ourselves!"
I can see where he's coming from but come on… Does he really believe that the pirates would really let them go? I'm pretty sure they knew the people on this mining station wouldn't be able to come up with the money they requested in the first place. What they were after must have been the supplies instead.
I'm guessing they needed the supplies either because they got tired of robbing others to get them or their normal means of getting supplies got compromised somehow.
So if they could get control over this mining station and control the miners through fear, they would be able to get all the supplies they want easily.
Marten furrowed his brows, "You fucking idiot! Don't even get me started on you breaking the pipes again! But do you really think we would be let go just because we agreed to their terms?! They were planning to plant a bomb on out station for fuck's sake!"
"It's just to ensure that we cooperate with them, right? We wouldn't have anything to worry about if we choose to cooperate with them!"
Someone from the crowd of miners shouted, "Shut the fuck up, Jerry! You have no idea what you're talking about! Do you think the bomb wouldn't be used against us if the pirates felt like it?! Who is the one to decide whether we are cooperating enough?! Is it you?!"
Another miner also chipped in, "Yeah! They want all our money, you know? My family is depending on my salary to pay the occupation fee in their habitat! If they can't make the payment, they'll be evicted out of the station! Do you want my family to die that badly, Jerry?!"
"And our supplies too! They'll definitely take most of our food, do you want us to live on scraps even after we have to go down to mine the gas everyday?!"
Instead of being intimidated by the shouts from his colleagues, Jerry stood his ground and glared back at them, "Yeah, you can say whatever you want, but this doesn't change the fact that the pirates would definitely kill us once they found those debris outside! Who knows, maybe one of them had already sent a distress message back to base and they're rushing here to finish us off right now!"
That quickly shut everyone else up.
As much as they hated to surrender to the pirates, I suppose they are also aware that what Jerry said was true.
Marten tried to calm everyone down, "I've already contacted someone about the pirate base, they assured me that they will be sending a Merc party down here to deal with it."
Everyone seemed satisfied by Marten's words and turned back to glare at Jerry again.
I raised my hand, "If it makes you feel better, I'll stay here and protect you guys from the pirates until the pirate base is dealt with, how about that?"
Marten smirked at Jerry, "How about it? Are you satisfied now, Jerry?"
"Whatever! Don't come and find me when the pirates come and make more demands that we can't fulfil!" The man clucked his tongue before storming off.
Marten caught him by his collar and pulled him back before he could get very far, "Oh? Where do you think you're going Jerry? Running your mouth is one thing but we still have yet to talk about you breaking the transfer pipes again, have we? How many times does it make it this month alone? Hmm? Let's go get those repair tools, shall we?"
The station master then dragged the miner away, ignoring his screams of protest.
Marten turned back right before he left the hangar to shout at the other miners, "And the rest of you, don't think this is an excuse to take a day off! Get back to work!!"
The other miners groaned before they started to shuffle away unwillingly, a few of them taking the chance to congratulate me again on the good work before walking off.
Now I was standing alone in the hangar and I wondered what the hell can I do now?
I'm on an Orbital Mining Station, not an Orbital Vacation Station… I doubt anyone would appreciate me snooping around and intruding on their work either.
Oh right, speaking of work, Marten did say that he was going to pay me for dealing with the pirates didn't he? I wonder how much I would get from this?
I decided that I should go and find him or at least wait for him in his office since I assume that he should still be busy with Jerry.
I decided to just head to the comms room since I believe that was where his usual workstation was, relying on my memory to bring me back to that specific place.
Finding the room was quite easy since I had to move from there to the hangar not even a few hours before this to set up the ambush for the pirates, so the route was still fresh on my mind.
When I entered, there was only one other person in the room and I recognised him as the same guy who had rushed to warn Marten about the pirates from before.
He looked surprised to see me, "Oh, hello there. Do you need anything?"
"Ah, no. I just wanted to look for Marten. I'm guessing he's still dealing with Jerry?"
"Yeah… He should be back in a while. He's just going to give him a repair tool and a space suit before sending him out to repair the pipes. I swear, that idiot probably flies drunk with how he keeps crashing his ship into the pipes and breaking them."
"Is it serious?"
He waved his hand casually, "Nah, the repair tool will deal with the breach easily enough. It's just that it's a pretty shitty process to put on the suit and get out of the station to deal with it. That's why boss is getting Jerry to do it himself."
As if on cue, the door slid open and Marten walked in, the man heaving out a sigh.
"I swear… If Jerry breaks the pipes because of his stupid flying one more time, I'm going to cut his pay. Oh? Tera? What are you doin-- Ah, it's about the pay for the pirates right?"
I nodded.
He went towards the console, "Right, I won't lie to you, but we can't afford to pay the market price for… What's this?"
He interrupted himself when he noticed one of the lights was blinking on the console.
The station master went to push a button and a panicked voice came through, "Oh thank god! I thought you had already died, Marten!"
I recognised the voice to belong to the same person whom Marten had contacted to inform him about the pirate base.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
"Well… I've got some bad news, corporate is dragging their feet in getting a Merc request, I think they'll only get around to it in the next two weeks or so and the Mercs will only be there in the next month. Do you think you can hold out until then?"
Marten seethed, "Fuck no! They already know we're here and came to make some demands! If it wasn't for the Merc here, we would have already been forced to submit to them!"
"Crap… Can't you get that Merc to deal with the base?"
"It's only one Merc, bro! I'm not sending them to their deaths!"
"... I'm sorry Marten… But there's really nothing else I can do…"
"Hey! Don't you hang up on me! Hey! Hey!! Heyyy!!"
Well… I guess we're fucked aren't we?