Chapter 43 Distress Signal

Deceleration is much faster than acceleration.

Five days later, the speed of the spacecraft had been reduced to the point where it could stop at any time.

The location of the dark cemetery had also appeared within the range of the spacecraft's sensors.

At the same time, the asteroid scanning detector in the work cabin also scanned some asteroids containing ore here.

It can be seen that the quality of the ore in this dark cemetery is indeed not as good as the rings of Ramu, but at least these asteroids are not pure stones.

For Chen Ming, who has not done anything other than modifying the spacecraft and reading books for several months, this is enough.

Chen Ming immediately adjusted the direction of the spacecraft and prepared to go over to collect ore to relieve the psychological fatigue of being able to do only one or two things for so long.

The spacecraft maintained a relatively low speed and slowly approached the dark cemetery to avoid colliding with the asteroids here.

Chen Ming quickly identified an asteroid of moderate size with a decent internal ore content.

Use the traction device to fix it to the side of the spacecraft.

But just when Chen Ming was about to start the mining laser to start collecting, the spacecraft suddenly received a special signal.

This signal is not the meaningless electromagnetic wave that often appears in space, but a regular signal type that Chen Ming knows.

A distress signal.

A distress signal is a special signal set by the Empire.

All spacecraft can send distress signals to the outside world through their own communication systems.

Mark your position in space and guide other passing spacecraft to rescue.

Help those spacecraft that cannot rely on themselves to go to the nearest space station or colony where humans live because of a crash.

After all, there are too many reasons that can cause spacecraft crashes in space, and no one can guarantee that they will not have an accident in a corner of space one day.

If you save someone today, you may be rescued somewhere in the future.

However, although the authorities have given everyone the right to use distress signals, there is no mandatory obligation for those who receive distress signals.

If you are willing to rescue, go, and if you are not willing, no one will force you.

Even after receiving a distress signal, waiting nearby and waiting for the people on the ship to die before receiving the inheritance is not prohibited.

However, the originator of the distress signal may also have bad intentions, using people's sympathy to fish and do some pirate acts.

There is nothing wrong with the distress signal, but people's behavior makes the distress signal lose its meaning.

At least in the marginal star field of the empire.

The distress signal received by Chen Ming's spacecraft now comes from deeper in the dark cemetery.

To be honest, Chen Ming is not sure whether it is a real distress signal or something else.

Because the spacecraft may indeed crash in this area.

After all, no matter how sophisticated the equipment is, it is impossible to guarantee that there will be no accidents forever. It is normal for spacecraft to have accidents in areas with dense asteroids such as the dark cemetery.

But Chen Ming does not want to gamble.

Especially under the premise that there is a pirate space station within two months of the dark cemetery.

Other people's ships may not have a hyperspace channel system like his own, and it does not take much time to come from the pirate space station.

So Chen Ming chose to directly abandon the asteroid towed by his traction equipment.

Turn around immediately and prepare to leave the dark cemetery.

However, before Chen Ming escaped from the asteroid zone, the engine of the Iron Ore suddenly indicated that it was overheating and shutting down, and it could only rely on inertia to fly slowly in space.

And the next moment, the sensor suddenly gave a prompt.

Three spaceships without transponders flew out from various places in the dark cemetery and attacked Chen Ming's position at high speed.

Chen Ming immediately realized that something was wrong.

He knew his own spaceship engine very well. It was absolutely impossible for the engine to overheat at least before the matching emergency cooling system was started.

If everything was normal, it would suddenly overheat and shut down. It could only be that some interference equipment interfered with the temperature reading of the engine.

And the three spaceships that suddenly appeared were definitely the culprits of this situation.

Chen Ming directly forced the safety restriction system of the spaceship to shut down, allowing the engine to ignore the temperature limit and start again.

But in the few seconds when the engine restarted, the three spaceships had already approached.

They would never give the Iron Ore time to speed up and escape.

And even if the Iron Ore was really accelerated, Chen Ming felt that he should not be able to escape.

The controllers of the three spaceships were obviously well prepared.

They had one ship send out a distress signal, while the other ships shut down all the systems of the spacecraft and drifted nearby.

They made it impossible for the passing ships that received the distress signal to detect them, and then took the opportunity to paralyze the ship's engine, leaving the victim completely a lamb to be slaughtered.

This operation was definitely done by professional pirates, and they would definitely be fully prepared for some unexpected situations.

For example, prepare a disposable item called a channel traction device.

The channel traction device itself is a device used when building space stations in some dangerous areas, such as the rings of Ramu.

It can temporarily send low-quality items within an area into the hyperspace channel for rapid transportation.

It can work on asteroids, as well as spacecraft and people.

The hyperspace channel has a special property.

Anything that comes out of the channel, no matter how fast it is in the channel, will definitely reduce its speed to zero after it comes out, and remain relatively still with the position it came out.

As long as it is locked by the channel traction device, it is meaningless no matter how fast it runs.

The hyperspace channel system itself has been popularized in the empire, and the cost of a disposable consumable is nothing compared to the benefits after a successful robbery.

Escape is already impossible, and Chen Ming has few options to make next.

In the case of almost no information about the enemy, he did not choose to fight back directly, but immediately turned the bow and rushed to the other direction of the dark cemetery.

The protective plate of the spacecraft's porthole rose, and Chen Ming no longer avoided those small asteroids. He maintained a certain speed, directly withstood the impact, and rushed into the depths of the dark cemetery.

The three spacecrafts that were following behind did not expect that Chen Ming would not run outside the dark cemetery, which was almost within reach, but run inside the more complex environment.

For a while, they had no way to accurately lock Chen Ming's spacecraft directly across a large number of asteroids, so they could only temporarily follow Chen Ming's buttocks and wait for the opportunity.

Chen Ming took this opportunity to quickly confirm the models of the three spacecraft.

Only by mastering more detailed information can we formulate a more effective counterattack plan later and take the initiative in the battle.