Chapter 44 Pirates

Through the camera at the rear of the spacecraft, Chen Ming could see the three spacecrafts behind him that were also experiencing the baptism of asteroids like himself.

Two of them were frigates with standard manufacturing models, called the expedition class.

Chen Ming remembered the standard data of this type of frigate, which was 42 meters long, 25 meters wide, and 11 meters high.

The overall shape was close to a rhombus, and the front end of the spacecraft was more prominent.

It was usually driven by four to eight people, with a total of three small load-bearing points located on the top and left and right sides of the spacecraft.

It was a very outstanding escort ship.

The remaining ship was an armed merchant ship called the Hellhound class, which was larger than the expedition class.

The ship was 65 meters long, 33 meters wide, and 21 meters high.

Although it was also a frigate class, the tonnage of merchant ships was often larger than other frigate class ships because they had to transport goods.

And the Hellhound class had an advantage that most other frigate class ships could not achieve.

It has a legal and compliant medium-sized load-bearing point, protruding from the right front of the spacecraft.

This means that the Hellhound class can carry some large-caliber medium-sized weapons, which is the biggest threat to the Iron Ore.

These two types of spacecraft are very common in the mining space station, and many trade caravans are basically composed of these two types of ships.

So Chen Ming was not surprised at all that the pirates had these two types of ships.

Just as Chen Ming was thinking about the weak points in the design of these two types of ships so that he could find an opportunity to break through.

A communication request was suddenly sent to his spacecraft.

Chen Ming thought about it and connected the communication.

A rough voice sounded from the communication channel.

"Stop the ship, we only want the valuable things on your ship, people and supplies are not needed, cooperate honestly, we will not use force."

This was the first sentence Chen Ming heard from the first group of people he met.

But Chen Ming never thought that the content of the first human words he heard was actually a pirate threatening him.

So Chen Ming deliberately slowed down his speaking speed and said in a very calm tone: "Idiot."

Then he hung up the communication immediately.

Only a fool would believe them.

Instead of listening to their nonsense, it is better to think about what to do next.

The two expedition-class ships are not easy to deal with. After all, they are professional combat ships, and his civilian ships are definitely not as good as them in terms of combat performance.

Even if his spacecraft has a lot of modifications, it should be difficult to find a chance under the siege of the two expeditions if he bites the bullet.

But the Hellhound class is different.

The Hellhound class is a merchant ship. Even though it is equipped with a medium-sized load-bearing point and three small load-bearing points as standard, it has extremely strong firepower output.

But its own ship type limits its combat capability.

Compared to other frigates, the Hellhound class has a larger mass, which makes its acceleration in a short period of time definitely the last of all frigates.

Although its relatively large size provides it with heavy armor, it also means that it is very difficult to move in complex terrain, such as the current asteroid zone.

These are its disadvantages compared to other frigates.

And these disadvantages have begun to manifest themselves.

As Chen Ming controlled the Iron Ore to continue to go deeper into the dark cemetery, the three ships following behind him had already opened up a considerable distance.

The Cerberus class was far behind the two expeditionary classes, and was even almost behind to the point of exceeding the shooting range of the electromagnetic javelin.

At this time, Chen Ming had already seen the opportunity and immediately controlled the weapon system of the spacecraft and aimed the muzzle at the rear.

However, the violent vibrations caused by the continuous collision between the hull of the Iron Ore and the asteroid made it impossible to aim.

At this time, the distance between the Iron Ore and the Cerberus class was more than ten kilometers, and any slight shaking would cause errors in shooting and failure to hit.

Civilian ships do not have special auxiliary aiming equipment, and the automatic locking function of the target positioning system is also difficult to play in this situation.

Although Chen Ming has tried to lock on the hellhound, he has been unable to fire.

This can only be said to be the limitation of civilian work ships, without sufficient buffering and stabilizing devices.

It is difficult to perform at the proper level when encountering extreme situations, such as now, or when it may be attacked soon.

It seems that I must pay attention to this aspect in my future modifications, or even more simply change a ship.

As for now.

Chen Ming tried to fire a few shots, but he didn't know where the bullets went in the end.

And there was another bad news.

The sensor detected an empty area with almost no asteroids in front of the Iron Ore, which is very likely to be left over from mining in the past.

Although Chen Ming was a little uncomfortable due to the vibration caused by the continuous collision with the asteroid, he would definitely be more uncomfortable without the cover of the asteroid.

He had no time to turn around and continue to maneuver in other directions. The two expedition-class ships had already blocked his position.

The Iron Ore could only move forward now.

As soon as the spaceship was forced into the open area,

the two expedition-class ships behind opened fire, and the weapons on the three small bearing points almost simultaneously burst out with strong arcs and flames.

It was completely different from the civilian version of the 22mm machine gun he had used before. The flashing arcs indicated that the speed of the weapon's projectiles would definitely not be low.

Chen Ming's heartbeat began to accelerate with the flashing of the arcs, and the feeling of tension and excitement intertwined entangled in his heart.

Chen Ming immediately let the spaceship start maneuvering and twisted the hull at the same time, so that the relatively fragile engine avoided the firing range of the two expedition-class ships.

A series of bullets hit the top of the spaceship.

Chen Ming's operation did not avoid the shooting from behind.

He immediately locked the trajectory of the bullet that the expedition had just fired through the sensor.

Then Chen Ming found that the crossfire of the two ships almost completely blocked his emergency escape route.

The shooting technique was very professional.

Chen Ming looked at the two expedition-class ships again and found some special places.

Although the appearance of the two expedition-class ships did not look particularly new, it was obvious that they had been maintained for a long time, as if they were particularly caring for the spacecraft.

The weapons loaded on the spacecraft also gave Chen Ming this feeling.

In addition, he also noticed that the expedition-class was also very smooth when shuttling between asteroids.

They were not like Chen Ming who could control the spacecraft with consciousness, but could only control it through the spacecraft computer.

Such a spacecraft, such professional combat and driving level of the spacecraft, did not look like a group of desperate people who only had money and the present in their eyes.

Chen Ming even had a feeling that this group of people were not pirates at all.

They were just a caravan, but they took the initiative to tear off their disguises in some remote places and did pirate activities.

Although this is just Chen Ming's guess, if it is really the same as he thought, then the success rate of his counterattack against them may be...

"Huh?"

Chen Ming was suddenly stunned.

Because he had just opened the panel and was confirming the damage to the top armor of the spacecraft.

However, on the three-dimensional imaging of the spacecraft, there were no bullet holes where the armor was hit, and there were only some slight dents.

Unless they can continue to attack the Iron Ore face to face, so that the effect of each bullet can be achieved.

Otherwise, these bullets have no ability to cause enough damage to the external armor of the Iron Ore, which has been modified by Chen Ming and mixed with Baiyun steel.

Chen Ming stared at the panel for a few seconds and felt the baptism of a round of bullets again.

When he saw that the durability of the armor on the panel was still at 99%, he couldn't help but ask himself a question.

"What was I so nervous about just now?"