Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 16: Chapter 16 Jellyfish

In the dimmer regions of the morning twilight line on Rimu Star, in this area before dawn.

Chen Ming’s spaceship deliberately chose this time to plunge into the atmosphere.

As orange-red flames generated by high temperatures gradually appeared in Chen Ming’s view.

The surface of the spaceship’s porthole gradually rose with retractable metal panels to isolate the heat.

The temperature inside the spaceship slightly increased but remained generally stable.

During this period, all Chen Ming could do was wait.

But soon, the ship’s body suddenly trembled slightly.

This was the landing module’s cushioning system at work, indicating the spaceship was about to approach the surface.

Shortly after, the metal panels protecting the porthole retracted, and the most dangerous time before landing was over.

The light of the star refracted from one end of Rimu Star’s horizon, introducing a scene Chen Ming had never seen before into his eyes.

A forest of green plants with patterns resembling snail shells.

Chen Ming was full of curiosity, unable to resist wanting to go over and see these novel plants.

But Chen Ming quickly restrained himself, not forgetting the important task at hand.

Finding a specific landing location.

In space, only a general terrain can be seen, and the maps in the terminal cannot be accurately depicted in meters.

So the final landing spot had to be confirmed on-site.

Chen Ming’s idea was to find a river to ensure his water supply first.

However, one could not land directly beside the river to prevent floods or other possible dangerous creatures.

Aside from that, Chen Ming didn’t have high requirements for the landing spot.

So he quickly found a suitable place.

A hilltop, with a certain curvature beside it, but it’s quite flat on top, very suitable for the spaceship to dock.

And as long as one walks a short distance to another small hill nearby, a river not far away can be seen.

After confirming the position, Chen Ming prepared to land.

Just as the spaceship passed a forest, a swarm of things suddenly flew out of the forest, rushing toward the spaceship.

A group of creatures the size of basketballs, looking like blue balloons.

Chen Ming’s spaceship was slowing down, preparing to land, and didn’t have time to shake them off.

Almost instantly, these balloon creatures covered the entire porthole, completely blocking the view from Chen Ming’s captain’s room.

At the same time, Chen Ming felt a noticeable vibration on the spaceship.

It was these strange creatures colliding against his spaceship.

Chen Ming immediately gave up landing and quickly accelerated the spaceship, planning to reconsider after shaking them off.

But the main engine at the tail of the spaceship was turned off after entering the atmosphere, with only the secondary engines running, it couldn’t get much faster.

It could only barely push aside the balloon creatures in front, the distance between the spaceship and them still couldn’t be extended.

Moreover, the spaceship’s main engine wasn’t meant for atmospheric operation, starting it could have worse consequences than being chased by these balloons.

This was the meticulously chosen landing site; Chen Ming didn’t want to give up easily.

He could only let the spaceship fly upwards for a distance and hover in the sky.

Reluctantly distancing himself a little from the balloon swarm.

Watching the increasing number of balloons behind the spaceship, Chen Ming frowned and pulled out a terminal, photographing them.

He then performed a picture search in those planet introduction e-books.

Chen Ming wasn’t very hopeful, but unexpectedly the terminal quickly identified the corresponding creature.

A page full of densely packed text appeared on the terminal.

But Chen Ming’s attention was all on controlling the spaceship and couldn’t be distracted to read, so he pressed the voice playback button.

”Airborne jellyfish, also known as balloon jellyfish, gentle in nature, living in plains, hills, and other areas...”

”Gentle? Doesn’t seem like it.”

Chen Ming’s mind ignored the irrelevant content of the terminal’s narration, focusing on the main point.

Their earlier behavior, and the current content captured by the external camera on the spaceship, clearly showed that these airborne jellyfish looked like they wanted to devour him, extremely aggressive.

Could it be that he had intruded into their territory?

As this thought crossed Chen Ming’s mind, the voice broadcast reached this segment.

”...Main movement by drifting with the wind, no territorial awareness...”

”?”

Chen Ming maneuvered the spaceship around a few airborne jellyfish and glanced at the terminal’s content during this interval.

While he couldn’t make out the text, Chen Ming could see the illustrations accompanying the text.

It was clear that the airborne jellyfish in the pictures and those now pursuing behind the spaceship were the same species, with no mention of any other subspecies having aggressive temperaments.

Chen Ming glanced again at the large group of airborne jellyfish chasing behind the spaceship and shook his head slightly.

Nothing could be done about it.

Chen Ming connected with the cameras of the two machine guns without any psychological burden.

The machine guns rotated and fired directly at the rear.

The large-caliber bullets only needed a slight touch to make these balloon-like airborne jellyfish deflate, losing their ability to float in the air.

If a bullet hit directly, it could even shatter the airborne jellyfish, bursting into a mass of shattered light blue gel and slightly darker body fluid.

Seeing the machine guns were effective against the airborne jellyfish, Chen Ming began to shorten his circular hovering distance, gradually guiding the not-so-intelligent airborne jellyfish into a cluster.

Every shot fired by the machine guns pierced through the giant bundle of airborne jellyfish, extremely efficient.

But as time ticked by, the bullets of the machine guns were being consumed rapidly, and yet the number of airborne jellyfish behind the spaceship did not reduce.

Even other airborne jellyfish were flying toward Chen Ming’s spaceship from various places, carried by the wind.

They were not only replenishing the numbers of airborne jellyfish but also blocking the direction of Chen Ming’s flight.

Several times Chen Ming couldn’t avoid a massive group of airborne jellyfish and had to crash into them, smashing them to bits.

Only to leave behind those jelly-like substances and their light blue body fluid.

With the bullet count dwindling and the number of airborne jellyfish colliding with the spaceship increasing.

Chen Ming was even considering how he might escape.

Just when these airborne jellyfish became too numerous for Chen Ming to handle.

One airborne jellyfish approached the left side of the spaceship, sticking closely near the machine gun, the sparks from the continuously flickering arc at the muzzle touched it ever so slightly.

The next moment, this airborne jellyfish.

Exploded.

At the same time, the terminal on Chen Ming’s leg happened to broadcast this segment.

”...Filled with flammable gas and fluid inside, prone to explosion...”

The explosion of the airborne jellyfish ignited by the machine gun’s sparks acted like a chain reaction.

Directly detonating other airborne jellyfish’s fluids and gels clinging to the spaceship armor.

The spaceship was violently shaking.

The terminal abruptly fell to the ground, cutting off the voice broadcast.

”Damn.”

Chen Ming barely maintained his posture amid the violent shaking and hurriedly fastened his seatbelt.

Glancing at the terminal on the floor, unsure whether it was broken or just accidentally touched a button that stopped its operation, the increasing number of airborne jellyfish outside, the dwindling bullets.

And the machine gun’s firing rate couldn’t keep up with the airborne jellyfish’s growth.

Chen Ming knew very well that relying only on Iron Ore No.’s two machine guns, he couldn’t clear out these airborne jellyfish while ensuring the spaceship’s safety.

If they were to be bombed again, the spaceship might even crash.

Without much hesitation, Chen Ming stabilized the spaceship’s posture, tilted the bow directly perpendicular to the ground, and ascended again, flying toward high altitude.