What Do You Mean I'm The Captain Of A Yandere Mercenary Company?

There was a keycard reader beside the door but there isn't any power so even if we used the access card we found on the corpse earlier, I don't think it would work…

So how do we…

Amber floated out of the room and took one look at the door before she waved her hand at it.

I watched as the heavy doors wobbled visibly before they were pried apart, sparks flying out from the sides as the metal grated against each other in protest.

If we weren't in a vacuum right now, I'm pretty sure I would be able to hear ear piercingly loud sounds from the doors.

She forced it open until there was a big enough space for me to walk through with my Power Armour before she gestured towards the gap proudly.

"After you~"

I grabbed onto the door and pulled myself through the gap, shining my light inside the generator room.

Like the security room, it looks like the fire did not reach this part of the station thanks to the door being closed shut.

If I had to guess, the doors might have their own internal power supply so they weren't part of the station's protocol to open up in the event of a power failure. But perhaps the solar flare also knocked them out of commission or the station's crew just never got a chance to open them and they have ran out of power after all these years of neglect.

"Ries? What am I looking at?" I asked, looking at the giant machine in front of me.

Ries's excited voice came through the comms, "Ohh! That looks like a thermal reactor! And it's one of the advanced starter types too! You should be able to start it up assuming there's no damage to the reactor systems!"

"This won't blow up in our faces, right?"

"Mmm… They have a blast shield installed so even if it does, it should be fine?"

Alright then, I trust Ries on this. Only just one other thing…

"Are we sure this thing still works and it would at least power the security room?"

"I believe the power grid is built into the walls and since I don't see any exposed wirings, it should still work. Worst case scenario, you just need to initiate a shutdown of the reactor or just leave it running since it's useless anyway."

Since she said so…

I floated towards the control console in front of the machine and let Ries guide me through restarting the generator.

It was about as easy as the last one I had to do, which was just flipping a few switches and pressing a big red button before there was a rumbling from the machine and lights came on around us.

I'm more surprised that the thing was still working despite having been through several years of neglect.

Just as I was thinking about that, the machine suddenly died and the lights dimmed again, plunging the place back into darkness.

"Errr… Ries?" I called out through the comms.

"Hmm… If you can, could you check the machine? There should be a panel at the side to the right of where you are."

I did as she asked and floated over to the side as she asked and checked the machine for the mentioned panel, finding it easily enough the moment I leaned towards the side.

Ries confirmed that this was what she was looking for and guided me to open it while Amber clung on my back to peek over my shoulder.

Inside the panel, I realised it looked like the interior of a kiln and the fact that there were charred walls around the inside meant this was where fire might have been fed into the space.

"Hmm… Looks like what I feared…" Ries muttered with a solemn voice. "The generator seems to be damaged but… Oh! It looks like the only thing that was damaged was the temperature cycler system! That would prevent the generator from making sure that there is enough heat to keep it running!"

"Right… So what do we need to do?"

"Oh, just tell Amber to shoot her fire in there once the generator starts! It should keep it going as long as she's maintaining the fire! But… Well… That means she has to stay there if we want power. The moment she stops, the power stops as well."

Amber giggled, "Ehehehe~ Leave it to me, Tera! I'll keep it running while you deal with the security room!"

I gave her a look, "Are you sure about this? This sounds dangerous… The generator isn't like… Radioactive or anything?"

Ries giggled through the comms, "Ehehehe~ Boss, you are so cute~ It's a thermal generator, not a nuclear generator~ Don't worry, Boss, Amber will be fine!"

Can't blame me for not knowing what's the difference… I don't deal with these generators on a daily basis…

Since the both of them gave me their assurance that it would definitely be ok…

I went back to the control console and turned the generator on again and flames shot out from the panel which would bathed Amber in flames, causing me to panic for a moment before she pushed the fire back inside, completely unharmed.

Ugh… Am I just worrying too much?

This time, the lights came back on and the generator continued to run, showing no signs of shutting down like earlier.

"Alright, I'll go and grab whatever files are in the security room and I'll see what we can get."

Amber gave me a thumbs up from where she was standing and I floated back into the security room.

The monitors were turned on and I quickly connected my Codex to the computers to start downloading all the files I could find on them.

I wasn't sure if any of it was useful but just to be safe, I might as well just take everything here.

As I was doing that, my eyes drifted towards one of the screens that was showing the live feed from the security cameras around the station.

Most of them were offline since I assume they were connected to the other half of the station but since it's currently split into two, the power from the generator was not reaching that half of the station.

Still, even without a feed, they had names attached at the bottom of each screen to show which part of the station they were supposed to be monitoring so it looks like the half that separated from this half was where they were conducting most of their research. Since I see 'Laboratory 1', 'Laboratory 2' and 'Research Centre' amongst the names of the screens that were showing static.

But as my gaze drifted down further, I found one particular screen that was lit up with the name 'Records Archive' at the bottom.

"Amber…" I called her through the comms.

"What is it? Is there not enough power? Should I increase the fire a bit more?"

"No, er… It seems like there's an Archive located on this side of the station. They might contain more information related to this station and the surrounding space so I was thinking of going there to check it out…"

"Ah… And you need me to keep this generator running while you're there then?"

"Well… I'm not sure if I need power to access the archives but from what I can see through the camera… It seems all of them are digital records… Would the data be wiped without any power, Ries?"

Ries hummed in thought, "Hmm… It looks like they should be using physical storage devices so the data on them should be preserved even if there is no power supply. You should be able to just download the data from the main terminal at least."

I nodded, "That decides it then… I'll just head there and check it out. Once I'm done I think we can just return to the ship. Sorry about this, Amber, but you'll need to stay there for a while more."

Amber giggled, "Ehehehe~ Don't worry about me, Tera! But just in case… Where's this Archive at?"

I tapped on the security terminal to see if they had a map of the station and thankfully, they did.

"Hmm… Seems like it's two floors down from here. Hmm… I guess I can just use the giant hole outside to reach the lower floors instead of using the stairs, it should be faster from there."

"If anything happens, just give me a shout, Tera! I'll come flying straight to you immediately!"

"I'm pretty sure the only things here are just corpses and things left over from the explosion, Amber. Don't worry, I'm even wearing my Power Armour this time so it shouldn't be a problem even if some pirates show up."

A notification then came from my Codex, indicating that it was done transferring the files from the security terminal.

I disconnected from the terminal and floated out of the security room to peek inside the generator room, finding Amber right where I left her.

"You're ok, right?"

She giggled, "Ehehehe~ Of course! Oh! You might as well just take this, just in case~"

She flicked her hand and the security access card flew over to me which I grabbed it out of the air before nodding a thanks at her.

I then headed towards the part of the station that was torn into half, leaving Amber behind in the generator room to keep the power on.

Alright… Just a short drop down and I should be there… Shouldn't be too hard.