Volume 2: The Undersea City Chapter 49: Aurora Group Advance Team

Ten thirty-five, Ark, the sixth airport in East District 11.
"Layton, is that the transport ship?" Ke Lan asked.
The Sixth Airport has a total of three large berths and twelve small berths, but most of the berths are empty at this moment. Only one small berth near the corner has a 200-meter-long high-speed transport ship parked in it. Several ground crew members are standing on a floating platform nearby and carrying the final inspection.
"It should be." Layton glanced at the "Aurora Consortium" logo on the transport ship and nodded.
The sound of friction between rubber tires and metal ground came from behind the crowd. They turned around and saw a heavy forklift carrying a three-meter square "metal box" slowly approaching. The surface of the metal box was wrapped with a thick layer of flame-retardant foam, and wing-shaped solar photovoltaic panels were folded on both sides. Eight sets of rocket thrusters were fixed to the bottom of the box with detachable brackets.
"This thing...could it be an artificial satellite?" A strange look appeared on Liao Zilang's face.
"It seems that some people are still insisting on this thing... It's such a damn waste of time and money..." The Hound couldn't help but curse in a low voice.
The artificial satellite was quickly loaded onto a transport ship by workers - in order to save resources, humans have abandoned disposable space launch vehicles and instead used spaceships to launch satellites. The spaceship will take the artificial satellite out of the Alpha Star's atmosphere and then throw it out. The satellite's own thrusters will self-regulate and eventually send the satellite into the predetermined orbit.
However, in the past fifty years, humans have launched hundreds of artificial satellites on Alpha, but none of them have been successfully put into use...
The Earth, the home of mankind, was once a planet surrounded by artificial celestial bodies. Hundreds of thousands of artificial satellites, space stations, and various space platforms operate in their respective orbits. Communications, positioning, meteorological observations... and even wars on Earth are inseparable from these artificial celestial bodies. Although most people living on the ground cannot see these things, they are closely related to and inseparable from human life.
But on Alpha Centauri, the situation is completely different.
In the outermost layer of Alpha's atmosphere, there is a circle of "ionized turbulence" that is hundreds of kilometers thick. Although this ionized turbulence layer can weaken the radiation from the star and protect the ecology of Alpha, the electromagnetic waves emitted by artificial satellites cannot penetrate this turbulence at all, unless the power of the electromagnetic waves is increased to weapon level...
Then people have to solve two more difficult problems: the energy supply of artificial satellites and the safety performance of electromagnetic launch devices...
At present, the main means of communication used by humans on Alpha are various portable radio equipment, and long-distance communication is achieved with the help of "quasi-base stations" such as relay stations, airships or high-altitude communication hot air balloons.
"You, a bunch of garbage collectors, are qualified to discuss our Aurora Group's satellite plan?" A somewhat sarcastic female voice sounded not far away - Hound was stunned for a moment, his voice was already very low, but it was still heard by others. It seems that the other party either has the ability of hearing, or is equipped with some kind of monitoring equipment.
The person who spoke was a young woman with a shaved head. She was wearing a lead-gray one-piece field training suit and a combat vest full of pockets . On the front of the vest was a very conspicuous Aurora Group logo.
"A garbage collector? I see you are also a hunter? Be careful next time and don't insult yourself when you insult others." Ke Lan glanced at the woman's equipment and said in a very calm tone.
“Haha…” The woman sneered twice. “Don’t compare us professional ruins hunters with scavengers who make a living by picking up scraps. If I’m not mistaken, you are the ones who want to hitchhike, right? Just think about it and you will know that poor guys like you definitely can’t afford to buy a flying machine.”
"See? This is the so-called sense of superiority of direct cannon fodder. After all, they are dogs raised by rich people. They eat more and have more strength when they bark." Ke Lan ignored the woman, but turned around and said to his companions with a smile.
"That's true. Hey, look at that guy's face getting so red - ha, he's anxious, anxious, anxious!" When it comes to the ability to be weird, the old ruffian, the Hound, is no less capable.
(P.S. I originally wanted to use the word "不承多让" here, but the more I typed it out, the more I looked at it, the more I felt something was wrong. Later, I looked up information and found that "不承多让" had always been a wrong way of writing. The correct way to write it should be "不遑多让", and the meaning is completely different.)
"It seems that you don't want to get on the transport ship, right?" Ke Lan and Hound had only said two sentences, and the female hunter from the Aurora Group was already on the verge of getting angry. She pointed at Ke Lan and the others with one hand and pressed the holster on her waist with the other hand, almost drawing her gun to fight back.
"We didn't pay you, and you have no right to refuse us. I don't think your master would lose a lot of shipping fees for a dog, right?" The hound thought for a moment, and suddenly added, "Sorry, maybe I shouldn't call you a dog... After all, the status of cheap cannon fodder may not be as good as that of a dog."
"You--!!" The woman finally couldn't hold back the anger in her heart and pulled out her pistol!
"Sharon! Don't use a gun in the airport!" A tall man wearing the same training uniform just happened to catch a glimpse of this scene. He strode over, grabbed the woman named Sharon, and forcibly pressed down her hand holding the gun.
"I'm Benson, the captain of the ninth hunter team of the Aurora Group, and also the person in charge of this advance team. Are you the independent hunters who contacted us before?" He glanced at Ke Lan and others standing opposite him with an extremely unfriendly look.
Benson was extremely tall, even as tall as Layton who had undergone level 4 biochemical transformation. With his strong and powerful arms, he lifted up Sharon, who was 1.75 meters tall, and threw her to the back of the team.
"Yes, the credit points have been transferred to the account you provided." Leighton nodded. He was basically in charge of the handover matters between the Aurora Group and the Consortium.
"We did receive the money...but you said at the beginning that there were four people, how come it has become seven now?" Benson narrowed his eyes, with a somewhat unhappy expression on his face. Of course, these emotions may have more come from the brief conflict just now.
In addition to Zhuo Ligetu and Liao Zilang, Natasha also came along. Under her strong request, Ke Lan and the others had to bring along this girl who had won the Women's Free Fighting Championship three times in a row - even though from the outside, she didn't look like a good fighter at all.
"We've paid half the money, so it shouldn't be a big deal to bring three more people, right?" Ke Lan looked at the advance team members behind Benson. They were all wearing uniforms with the Aurora Group's logo. There were a total of twenty-nine people, including Sharon, and there were four women in total. However, the other three were wearing orange logistics uniforms. Only Sharon was a real relic hunter.
"There may have been some misunderstandings in the information exchange before. As you can see, this transport ship is not leased by us, but an asset of our Aurora Group." Benson's tone was filled with a hint of arrogance. It was obvious that he wanted to take this opportunity to raise the price and rip off Ke Lan and the others.
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