Chapter 461 06.0460: ‘The Meaning of Encouragement’

In order to avoid the Epic being discovered, Old Man Joe's youngest son used his body to press the plugging felt against the Epic's coolant drain.

"I feel some kind of movement around me." The Nicasar observer used his psychic power to sense something and reported to the Tau warrior next to him.

"Really?" The Tau warrior observed the outside of the warship for a long time.

Old Man Joe's youngest son was close to the Epic's coolant drain. Through a layer of plugging felt and a layer of hand-made void suit, he could feel the coldness of the coolant vaporization.

But the leaking gap was indeed blocked. Without the interference of the mist refraction sprayed from the hull, the shadow field of the Epic returned to stability again, and a little man in a void suit was almost impossible to be discovered among so many asteroids at a distance of hundreds of kilometers.

"I think you should feel wrong. I didn't observe anything wrong." The Tau warrior observed for a long time and found no movement, and the Nicasar observer who found the movement did not sense the previous fluctuations.

"It's possible. I haven't rested for a long time during the patrol."

"You go and take a rest, leave this to me." The Tau warrior said, taking over the position of the Nikasar.

The Nikasar combing ship resumed patrolling, but remained vigilant and drove away slowly.

The boy took the drill to unscrew the rivet screws, nailed the sealing felt in, and then screwed it back on to fix the sealing felt so that it would not be blown away by the leaking liquid and steam.

However, in the weightless void, it is not an easy task to fix such a large piece of sealing felt.

Wearing a bulky and leaking void suit, the youngest son of old man Joe could clearly feel that the air pressure was not as high as when he just got out of the cabin.

It took him fifteen minutes just to fix the four sides of the sealing felt.

The boy was extremely nervous, but he didn't dare to breathe, for fear that he would consume too much oxygen in the disposable respirator and let him last less than half an hour.

He felt sweating in his limbs, and the sound of leaking air made him nervous. The double burden of physical and psychological made his physical strength deplete quickly.

After completing the damage control, he knocked on the communicator and sent a signal of completion.

In the void, he could not let the people inside hear him by shouting.

"He did it! Let's go and pick him up."

The youngest son of old man Qiao floated in the void, holding on to the wall of the boat, and crawled towards the side shooting hole where he had drilled out.

He had to stay focused. If he was not careful, he would float out without a safety rope and never come back. Wearing this tattered temporary void suit, he could not hold on until the rescue team arrived.

In this way, in the weightless floating feeling like swimming under the water, the thin boy crawled along the hull towards the safety door little by little.

Halfway through, he gradually felt short of breath, and his oxygen reserves were probably running out.

"Hurry up, kid, hurry up!"

Old man Qiao leaned out, lying on the shooting hole and dancing outside. Even though he knew that the kid couldn't hear, he could at least see the movements.

"Dad, I'm almost exhausted."

He squeezed out a word from his teeth with difficulty, but old man Joe couldn't hear what he said.

In the cold, the boy's physical strength was depleted more and more, and his hands could not hold on to the hull.

"Hold on, kid, we're almost there."

"Yi!"

The weak little son felt numbness in his hands and feet, and an oxygen shortage warning popped up on his helmet.

His thin body had reached its limit.

At this moment, a rock floating in space smashed into the nearby hull. Although its speed and size were completely harmless to the Epic itself, old man Joe's little son was so scared that he rushed to the shooting hole. As a result, his hand slipped in panic, not only did he not grab the handle, but he also pushed himself away from the hull.

[Okay! It's over, Dad, I can't go back. ] Seeing that he was falling out of the gravity field covering the shooting hole, the little son's eyes flashed with despair.

At the critical moment, old man Joe threw a noose loop and caught his youngest son's arm!

Fortunately, the boy had not fallen out of the Epic's gravity field, and the rope could still be thrown out like a cowboy's loop.

"Push!" The teammates of the fifth damage control team pulled the boy back from the void.

The patrol ship passing over the battleship was getting farther and farther away, and the Skyhawk No. 1 sneaking in the void also confirmed the departure of the two patrol ships.

Fasha turned off all the power systems and leaned on the driving seat. Veronica squatted in the toilet and had not come out yet. Except for the occasional sound of running water, there was no other movement.

Horatio also used the void command skill to confirm the movement of the two mast ships again from the Skyhawk No. 1.

When they were finally getting farther and farther away from the Skyhawk No. 1, the Epic started the engine again and moved forward slightly.

With the help of the precision control rudder, the micro-motion vector thruster controlled the slender Epic, flexibly and cautiously passing through the asteroid group. After confirming safety, it drove out of the dangerous asteroid belt and resumed normal navigation.

The technical priests on board took the heavy mecha servants to perform sheet metal processing on the sunken parts of the warship, re-installed rivets, and reinforced them again.

"Hiss! Damn, it's so cold. A-choo!" The youngest son of old man Joe was wrapped in a velvet blanket, shivering in front of a heat dissipation vent blowing hot air, and his nose was running due to sneezing.

"Boy, you have done a great job." The damage control team member next to him teased, rubbing his cockscomb-like Mohawk head hard, but it would not be so easy to rub it later.

"Officers are here!"

The sailors shouted, and the damage control team members jumped up from their lazy sitting positions and stood straight along the wall reflexively.

Under the escort of the sailors, Leidos came over with a boatswain.

"I'm here to convey the captain's personal commendation and encouragement."

Ledos took out the data board from his armpit, stared at his youngest son and said: "Although this is just a small damage control operation, in this operation, you dared to risk sacrificing yourself to serve the collective courage and spirit, which is worthy of praise.

Therefore, the captain awarded you a "Iron Courage Sky Eagle" medal as an encouragement. This medal is used to commend an act of daring to sacrifice oneself for the collective. "

Amid the warm applause of the damage control team members, the youngest son of old man Joe looked at the iron Sky Eagle Medal in front of him with his eyes wide open.

He had grown up, and the only memory of the adults above him was that he was caught by the nest police and thrown into prison because of starvation and stealing. He was bullied and insulted. This was the first time in his life that he received official praise.

The thin boy felt a strange excitement in his heart.

"Silly boy, what are you still standing there for! Hurry up and thank the captain and the chief!" Old man Joe gave his youngest son a slap.

"Thank you--"-Thank you, captain and the chief!" He imitated the unstandard military salute, blushed and stammered, and then took the medal from the boatswain.

"The captain said that as long as anyone serves the Imperial Navy wholeheartedly and performs his duties for the warship he serves, the Imperial Navy and the descendants of Speyer will never treat any of you unfairly.

All members of the Fifth Damage Control Team can choose an extra dish tonight, or add an extra glass of Grog wine when they are on duty."

"Oh!! Long live the captain! Long live the chief!" The damage control team members cheered excitedly.

"Hehe, kid, you have made a difference. Keep it. This is a medal. Do you know what the value of a medal is?

Good stuff. In the Empire, if you have one of these, the hive police will salute you when they see you." Old man Joe patted his youngest son on the shoulder and said happily.

The boy's eyes lit up, and he put the medal on the chest of his wide sailor suit that didn't fit him well.

From that day on, he always wore this medal on his chest, even when he slept.

When people saw the youngest son of old man Joe again in the future, they found that he was no longer as timid as before, always feeling inferior to others.

Every time he was not actively cleaning the lower deck of the battleship, he was enthusiastically asking people if there was any work he could help with. He learned the skills more diligently. As long as he could learn to do it, he would try to learn it well.

Like other people of this age, he has endless motivation and enthusiasm.

For him, the Epic has become the most worthwhile group destination in his life to work hard for.