The Amenia Spaceport in orbit around Earth.
Constructed in the year 6852, the spaceport had undergone renovations over the years and remained the primary port for most starships.
Contrary to common belief, starships were indeed capable of landing on planetary surfaces. Every long-range starship eventually had to land on a planet since uncolonized planets lacked ports for docking. Therefore, starships had to be equipped with the ability to land on high-gravity planets. However, the energy consumption required to resist gravity was immense, the response time to sudden attacks was slow, exposure to natural elements in complex environments was high, and maintenance was inconvenient, leading starships to prefer remaining in space docks whenever possible.
At the maintenance dock of the Amenia Spaceport, a massive starship was docked.
It was the Abrodi.
Since its arrival, it had been undergoing extensive repairs here.
The repairs had been ongoing for nearly two months and were in full swing. The entire ship seemed to have been stripped bare, with exposed components and wiring everywhere. All internal structures were laid bare, resembling a dissected body, with spider-like robots swarming around important areas, busy with their programmed tasks.
They crawled over the ship, searching for issues according to predefined procedures, occasionally emitting sparks from welding needles. Countless mechanical arms danced around, some maintenance workers in suits conducted precise repairs that robots couldn't handle.
Various large cranes shuttle back and forth, their huge arms swinging to and fro.
Some workers operated industrial mechs for larger-scale repairs... It was a bustling scene.
"Raise it a bit more... just a bit more... Alright, prepare for docking!" A man named Amon Palma shouted from an automated command platform.
A young man with a yellow helmet below waved his arms and called out, "Mr. Palma!"
"What's the matter?" Palma leaned over the railing, revealing his ruddy nose.
"Some people are looking for you; they claim to be here to inspect the progress of the Abrodi's repairs."
"Progress inspection?" Amon Palma waved his hand, indicating the platform to descend to the lower deck, "I recall stating in the report that the Abrodi would need at least three months to be repaired. That idiotic yet lucky captain nearly turned this ship into scrap. We've only passed halfway through the time, why are they here for inspection?"
"It's not an inspection, just a check on the progress of repairs," a blond young man walked over, extending a hand, "Mr. Palma, Harbor Maintenance Engineer?"
Palma looked at him suspiciously but didn't shake hands, "Who are you?"
"You can call me Reno, and this is Mr. Hill, Miss Austin, Mr. Stark, and Miss Jia," Reno retracted his hand, gesturing to the people behind him, "We are sent by the military as engineering supervisors."
"Military engineering supervisors?"
Reno gestured again, and Russell Hill handed over his credentials.
Palma took them and looked, "Starship Investigator, seems irrelevant to engineering."
"As long as it's related to the military," Reno took back the credentials and handed them to Hill, "We're here to inspect the Abrodi's repairs."
"Sorry, I don't care who you are, but I haven't received any notification in this regard. According to the rules, I can't let you in without notification," Palma shook his head like a rattle drum, "No notice, no entry."
"Damn!" Reno cursed, turning to the people behind him, "I knew these bureaucrats are never reliable. Look, we're all here, but they didn't even bother to send a notification. Now what? Should we just wait here until that damn notification comes?"
"Don't get agitated, Reno," a tall lady behind him tried to console Reno, "Perhaps Mr. Palma isn't so rigid; maybe he'll let us in..."
"I am that rigid," Amon Palma replied, "No one enters the ship without notification; that's the rule!"
The group looked at each other, stunned.
Palma had returned to the command platform, directing the platform to ascend, leaving them behind completely.
"He just left like that?" Clarice exclaimed, "This doesn't fit the plan at all."
Hill shrugged, "Clearly, we've encountered someone inflexible, stubborn, and lacking in empathy... He's disrupted all our plans."
Stark muttered, "I hate this; my acting career is over before it even began... Why are all those extras in movies so easy to deceive?"
"What now?" Nora looked at Reno.
Reno shrugged, "What else can we do? Use Plan B."
With a wave of his hand, a repair robot working on the Abrodi suddenly twitched its welding needle, causing sparks to fly from a circuit board.
Bang!
Sparks erupted from the circuit board.
Then, a wrench inexplicably dropped from its original position, falling into a set of gears below, creating a clattering sound. Then, the two massive instruments Amon Palma was docking suddenly experienced calibration errors, resulting in a collision that not only produced a deafening noise but also sparked a shower of sparks.
The entire maintenance dock erupted in sharp, strange noises, with sparks flying everywhere.
"What's happening?" Amon Palma shouted from the command platform.
The sudden destruction caught the chief maintenance engineer off guard, leaving him momentarily stunned.
But trouble was only just beginning.
A turbine engine, which should have been stationary, suddenly started spinning.
The huge turbine blades spun, creating a massive gust of wind.
Although the engine itself had been disconnected to prevent energy formation, the gust of wind alone made it difficult for everyone to stand.
A maintenance worker was blown away by the wind, crashing into an iron beam, narrowly avoiding death, while more spider robots were blown into the air and then fell back down with crackling sounds.
Electric sparks flew wildly, currents surged, wires seemed to gain sentience as they ran amok, and some robots, affected by the chaotic currents, wandered aimlessly.
The entire scene was chaos.
"Oh my god, what's happening!" Amon Palma shouted again, the command platform landing on the ground.
Palma was about to rush out but was grabbed by a hand.
Turning around, he saw Reno.
The young man's face remained calm, "This is why you didn't let me in, right? The repair project is a mess; you don't have the ability or conditions to complete it within three months."
"What are you talking about?" Amon Palma shouted in anger.
"I'm talking about your dereliction of duty," Reno replied, "You're just a coward afraid of being discovered as incompetent. I wonder how you think your actions can escape the eyes of the military."
"You're talking nonsense!" Palma was furious, "Everything is going smoothly with the repairs!"
"Then how do you explain this?" Reno pointed to the chaos before them.
Amon Palma was speechless.
He didn't know what was happening or why things suddenly became chaotic. All he could grit his teeth and say was, "It's only chaotic on the surface; the core parts of the Abrodi have been repaired, and major components and hazards have been addressed."
"I haven't seen that," Reno replied.
Palma gritted his teeth and shouted, "Jack, escort them aboard!"
The boy from earlier ran over.
Reno threw
a final remark at Palma, "I'll report everything I've seen truthfully to my superiors."
Then he followed Jack.
Entering the ship, Jack said, "Please follow me; the power chamber is over here..."
But there was no response. Turning back, he saw the people from the military looking at him with strange eyes.
A hand was already on his neck, gently squeezing, and the boy fainted.
Retracting his hand, Reno said calmly, "Thank you, but I think I'm more familiar with the layout of this starship than you are."
He turned and walked towards the mech hall.
The mech hall of the Abrodi was divided into two sections: space combat mechs and ground assault mechs.
Since they were intended for ground use, they naturally went to the mech bay where the ground assault team was stationed.
They quickly arrived at the ground assault bay, looking at rows of mechs. Stark chuckled, "Old buddy, I'm back."
Nora whispered, "Enough talk; find your own mech, install the chip, and leave. These damn maintenance workers have messed up all the mech positions."
"I know," Stark replied as he went to find his mech.
Russell Hill was curious, "Why can't we just choose any mech? Why does it have to be the one we've used before?"
Clarice replied, "Even if they are the same model, every mech has subtle differences. These differences may not matter to novices, but for veterans, they can make a world of difference, affecting their performance in battle. So, each mech pilot has their own dedicated mech, and they won't casually switch even if they are of the same model."
Russell Hill looked at her in surprise, "I didn't expect an environmental investigator to know this."
Clarice replied with pride, "My husband works on starships; proximity breeds familiarity."
She suddenly remembered something and looked back, "Where's Reno? Where did he go?"
Russell Hill looked around, but Reno was nowhere to be seen.
Meanwhile, Nora had already found her own mech.
She climbed up, opened the mech's outer hatch, inserted a small control chip into the mech's AI system, and then manipulated her personal terminal a few times to confirm the connection before jumping down.
On the other side, Stark walked over, obviously having completed his own docking.
The two looked at each other and walked back. As they approached, Clarice hurried over, "Reno is missing."
Nora replied, "He has other matters to attend to; he'll be back soon."
Nora and Stark looked at each other and said together, "Let's wait here for him for a while."
"Do you know where he went?" Clarice asked.
"Not sure, but I don't think he'd get lost on his own starship," Nora smiled slightly in reply.
Stark also smiled, "Don't worry, Miss Austin, on this ship, the boss is in charge, and no one can harm him."
As if predicting it, a few minutes later, Reno appeared.
"Where did you go?" Clarice asked anxiously and concernedly.
Reno replied, "Needed to pee; went to the restroom."