May 26, 2081.

A medium-sized transport ship landed at Mercury Air Harbor No. 2, and when the hatch opened, Robin, dressed in a captain's uniform, exited the civil aviation hatch and entered the second air port alone through the temporary passage connecting the spaceship.

In another temporary passage, countless handcuffed prisoners of war poured out of the transport ship and boarded the large transport maglev that had long been moored around the transport ship.

Yesterday, the second prisoner exchange between the Nine-Star Republic and the Raymond Federation came to an end. After obtaining the list of prisoners of war given by the Republican [***] side, the non-governmental organization raised funds from the families of the prisoners of war to purchase a large number of scarce materials in the Republic of Pluto, and redeemed some of the prisoners of war captured in the Battle of Pluto to the Republic in lieu of ransom.

However, after the second prisoner exchange, the Republic still held nearly 70,000 federal prisoners of war. The 70,000 prisoners of war were either alone or because their families were poor and could not afford to pay the ransom, so there was no possibility of redemption. Therefore, after a reasonable distribution, the Central Computer assigned 40,000 prisoners of war to Mercury for mining work in the harsh natural environment, and promised to give the Republic citizenship after three years of service.

And this time, the transport ship that Robin was on was the first transport ship to arrive at Mercury that was responsible for transporting the first batch of 7,000 prisoners of war, and Robin was the only citizen of the Republic with free status on the entire ship, except for the personnel accompanying the Republic side.

At this moment, Robin, who was dressed in the uniform of a captain of the Republic Air Force, immediately attracted the attention of the pedestrians around him.

Due to Mercury's extremely harsh natural environment, no one wants to come here unless they have to. And the appearance of a young officer like Robin, who has the rank of captain, immediately makes everyone curious.

Carrying his belongings, Robin walked to the computer desk in the airport with his surname, wanting to check Mercury's transportation routes. But this old-fashioned computer desk suddenly malfunctioned, Robin looked around, only a piece of graphic notice on the side of the computer platform painted Mercury traffic line, but the line signs on the graphic bulletin were messy, not only did not annotate, but the route in many places was changed by hand, so Robin, who had never been to Mercury, looked at it for a long time and didn't understand which traffic line he should take.

Helplessly, Robin could only find a Republic soldier wearing a shabby private uniform, and asked politely: "Hello, can you tell me which line of communication to take to the steel grotto?" ”

"Report sir! ~" The young soldier nervously stood up and saluted: "Take Line 3 to Line 7, wait for the maglev transport vehicle to be carried later, and then turn to the mountain cable car......"

“……”

Hearing that the journey was so complicated, Robin's face couldn't help but stiffen. I was a little embarrassed to ask, "I'm sorry, I'm a first-time visitor to Mercury, can you help lead the way?" ”

"Yes! ~Sir! The soldier did not hesitate to stand up and salute, but then he thought of something, scratched his head with an embarrassed face, and whispered: "Sir, I still have to be responsible for transporting this batch of metal onto the transport ship, so ...... Can you wait for me an hour? ”

"Absolutely." Robin smiled softly and unloaded his pouch to wait.

Perhaps because of Robin's gaze, the recruit was so nervous that he felt as if he was being reviewed, and he unconsciously straightened his back and stared at the dozen or so workers with number plates loading and unloading metal blocks.

In fact, it is no wonder that this soldier is so nervous, because on Mercury, the desolate mineral source star, the army stationed is only the lowest level of alert troops in the Republic, so the highest military commander in Mercury is only a major. Moreover, in terms of authority, a major of the alert unit is far inferior to a captain of the main combat unit. So at this moment, in the eyes of this soldier, the pressure generated by Robin's rank of captain was enough to make him nervous and dare not breathe.

And Robin had obviously seen that the soldier was a little overly nervous, in fact, if you think about it carefully, not long ago, when he was a recruit, he would also sweat nervously when he saw the captain officer. But now before I know it, I have been promoted to captain, and I have become an existence that others must look up to.

With a wry smile of remembrance, Robin walked up to the soldier and asked casually, "Are you a recruit in October '80?" ”

"Yes sir!" Hearing Robin ask about his enlistment time, the soldier immediately subconsciously stood up and saluted.

"Me too."

"Huh?" Hearing Robin's words, the soldier's eyes widened suddenly, and he looked incredulously at the three sleek sleek epaulettes on Robin's shoulders.

"We enlisted at the same time, but I was lucky enough to be promoted to officer, so you don't have to be too restrained." Robin patted the soldier on the shoulder, smiled and asked, "What's your name?" ”

"Booker."

"What kind of training camp did you graduate from?"

Hearing Robin ask about his training camp, Booker's face turned slightly red and he whispered in shame, "G-17 training camp." ”

The G-17 training camp is a fairly low training camp in the republic's training camp rankings, except for the Tiger Battalion under the guise of the G-19 training camp, G-17 and G-18 are the real last of all the training camps, and the recruits who graduated from these two training camps are often unable to be reused because of their limited talents, so these recruits are often sent to the harsh environment of the mine source star to join the alert force, Booker is obviously one of them.

“g－17？ Ha ha...... We both started with G, and I graduated from G-19 training camp. Looking at the mountains of various metal blocks in the transportation area of the airport, Robin said casually.

"What? That's impossible! ~"Hearing that Robin, an officer who graduated at the same time as him but had been promoted to captain, had graduated from the G-19 training camp even further back than himself, Booker suddenly cried out in disbelief.

"Really, I really graduated from G-19 training camp. After graduating, I was assigned to serve on Charon, so I participated in the Battle of Charon, and then I was transferred to the Air Force Transport Unit, but I accidentally participated in the Battle of Pluto, so I ...... The epaulettes were changed. Robin smiled wittily.

“……”

Hearing Robin talk about his military career for more than half a year, Booker's eyes suddenly lit up.

Booker knew about Charon, one of the most remote places in the solar system, and before the outbreak of war, there was almost no difference between serving and being exiled. Hearing that Robin was going to serve on Charon after graduation, Booker began to believe that Robin had graduated from G-19 training camp. As for Robin's experience in the war, although he said it lightly, as long as he looked at the silver epaulettes on Robin's shoulders, Booker knew that Robin must have participated in a tragic battle that he couldn't even imagine.

"You are a hero of the republic!" Booker said heartily.

"I just survived......" Robin's gaze darkened, perhaps thinking of Colin who died in battle. But then he shook his head, pointed to the workers wearing black number plates, and asked, "Why are those people's number plates different colors?" ”

"Wearing the white number plate are citizens of the Republic with free status, and they all come to work on Mercury voluntarily. Wearing black number plates are prisoners who have been deprived of citizenship for several years for their crimes and must be reinstated to free status after serving their sentences on Mercury. Newly sent prisoners of war will soon be wearing black number plates. Booker, who had been here for half a year, immediately explained in detail to Robin.

"Prisoner?"

Robin glanced at the hall of the airport and saw that there were only a few privates like Booker supervising their work, and couldn't help but ask, "It seems that you don't have enough manpower, and the usual guard duty should be very heavy." ”

"Actually, it's fine." Booker scratched his head embarrassedly and smiled: "Although Mercury is equivalent to a prison, no one will ever think of escaping from prison." Because with the exception of mines and steel grottoes with protective facilities, any part of Mercury is deadly for humans. And this air port can really only be considered a transport port, only military transport ships will come here, so no one can leave except for those who have completed their sentences. We usually get along well with them, and our job is really just to reconcile personal conflicts for them. ”

Hearing Booker's answer, Robin couldn't help but frown. He came to Mercury this time, in fact, he wanted to use this long vacation to visit his father, whom he hadn't seen for several years, but now it seems that Mercury's living conditions are far worse than he thought, and now as long as he thinks that his elderly father is staying with a group of criminals and prisoners of war all day, Robin is a little relieved. He made up his mind that after meeting his father, he would persuade him to leave this ghost place.

About an hour later, the team supervised by Booker completed the loading and unloading of the metal blocks, and after receiving their share from the supplies unloaded by the transport ship, the miners, who were still serving their sentences, carried large bags of supplies with Booker along the way, and left on the No. 3 communication line in the airport.

Originally, Robin thought that on a planet like Mercury, the long-distance communication line should be a 'vacuum chamber' like the Martian city of Wald. But when Robin followed Booker to the humble traffic station of the second traffic port, Robin discovered that Mercury's underground tunnel was not a high-speed 'vacuum cabin' in a sealed environment at all, but a tunnel road, and the so-called traffic line was just a large maglev transport vehicle with a fixed path.

(To be continued)