Chapter 15 - Valmax 6

It's been a month since Gordon and Adam said goodbye to each other. On the same day, Gordon left the planet and went into a week-long quarantine.

Fortunately, everything went without problems and he was calmly released. At the moment, Gordon's ship is located outside the border territory of the Republic.

It is an actively explored area, with many adventurers flocking here in search of wealth and opportunity. Gordon is no exception.

His target is the newly colonized planet Valmax 6, in the Valmax system. The reason for this was that in this system, in addition to Valmax 6, there are 5 more uninhabited planets, as well as a large asteroid belt.

This means that the planet Valmax 6 will be provided with a continuous supply of materials. There will definitely be fierce money wars for such a tidbit, so Gordon needs to get to the planet as soon as possible in order to buy some space on the cheap.

The planet's only downside is that although the planet has an atmosphere, Valmax 6 is an arctic glacier with many mountain peaks.

Therefore, the construction, provision and maintenance of large facilities is several times more expensive.

In addition, the reason for such a low price is that this sector is still considered not even borderline, but unknown, which means that the risks are huge.

Gordon deftly maneuvering his spaceship landed on a specially marked area. Putting on his space suit, which allows him to withstand sub-zero temperatures, he left the ship.

The site was surrounded by huge mountains covered with snow, the peaks of which were hidden in a thick snowstorm. A small road stretched from the landing site, next to which bright red lamps were inserted, which barely perceptibly peeked out from under the layers of snow.

Moving on, Gordon finally saw a giant hangar door built into part of the mountain, as well as a small door next to it. In addition, there is also a small building in which Gordon saw several people with weapons.

As he got closer, the guards spotted Gordon. They waved to him and called to him "Who are you and for what purpose did you come to Valmax 6?"

"I'm Gordon Stanfield [Eclipse] pilot, ID 131366" He said and handed the pilot's ID to the security guard.

While the guard was checking the data on his terminal, Gordon continued, "I have a good idea and funds, so I would like to buy some land here to start my business."

The guard after checking all the information nodded "OK. Your information is in order. When you get inside, go straight to the elevator, then turn right and go to the end. There you will find the administrative office"

"Thank you," Gordon answered, picking up his ID.

Entering inside, Gordon first got into a bulky hangar, which contains many transport and construction vehicles. Here, too, he saw several people in yellow work clothes doing something with these machines.

Following the instructions of the guards, after a couple of minutes, Gordon finally arrived at the right place. And after going through the identification procedure again, he finally got to a slightly overweight man in a beautiful dark suit.

After shaking hands with Gordon, the man introduced himself, "Hi Gordon, my name is Paul Hines. You say you want to buy land, right?"

Gordon nodded "Indeed. I heard that this planet is under active development and that the land here is quite cheap, so I was very interested in this offer."

Paul smacked his lips, "The land was really cheap, but lately, a lot of companies have become interested in this place, so the prices have risen"

"But they should be within reason, right?" Gordon asked thoughtfully.

Paul calculated something in his head "If you buy a ready-made premises, then we sell it for 10,000 credits per sq.m. If you buy an empty lot, it will cost you 3,000 credits."

Gordon frowned, "Just a couple of weeks ago, the price was 1000 credits and 200 respectively, why did the prices go up so much?"

Paul shrugged. "Two big consortiums are interested in this planet. One is [Hyperion] and the other is [AMQ], which manufactures weapons for spaceships. These companies were followed by a small fish that also saw the potential of this system"

Gordon shook his head. "It's too expensive for me, and I still need to buy equipment. Then can I rent a room from you?"

Paul nodded "Of course, we are renting a ready-made space for 300 credits per sq.m."

By paying 600,000 credits for renting a 2,000 sq.m. After that, Gordon ordered the supply and configuration of equipment, spending another 1,500,000 credits on this. And another 200,000 loans for various materials.

Feeling how empty his electronic account, Gordon sadly set about the official registration of the company, as well as the search for employees.

And after a couple of days, several people answered his application. For effective work, Gordon needs 1 chief engineer, 3 engineers, 2 loaders.

There were no problems with loaders, since they can be found anywhere, Gordon will temporarily be the chief engineer, but finding engineers on this planet is quite difficult.

All the skilled workers here work for the Republic, and they don't want to lose their jobs for some newbie. Therefore, Gordon had to spend another 100,000 credits to organize flights of engineers from other planets and rent them living quarters.

Thus, about 400 thousand loans remained on Gordon's account, after paying all duties and saving money for the wages of workers.

After all the expenses, Engineers, under the strict supervision of Gordon, began to produce the first "Arthur" PDA, the shape of the PDA should be more streamlined. Nicholas, the buttons in your PDA are sinking, fix it. Steven, your screen is cracked, check if the clip is set correctly"

After several setbacks, the new hires finally began to produce quality PDA models. After carefully testing them, Gordon proceeded to train them in the production of various modules.

In general, modules are easier to create than PDAs, but the whole secret lies in the software that Gordon personally designed. Therefore, workers just need to create a shell and load the program. After that, a convenient module for the PDA is obtained.

After the start of production, Gordon went to study the only settlement on this icy planet, since he had no time to waste before.

Previously, he had already thought about how to start selling his goods. Transporting the CCP over long distances is expensive and he doesn't have that much money yet, so he naturally targeted the population of this planet.

Fortunately, due to the constant development of the planet, there are quite a large number of people in a cramped space. Therefore, Gordon quickly found a suitable market for his products.

Walking around a lot of shops, he chose a few suitable ones, and then, with the help of his divine charisma and several thousand credits, he arranged with the owners to exhibit his products.

Then there was the most important thing - marketing. No one will buy a product if there is no demand for it, so this demand must be created.

By negotiating with several small companies and spending 200,000 credits, Gordon was able to make sure that every resident living in this mountain would see at least 1 advertisement about his PDA.

And now, having dealt with all the important issues, Gordon returned to his company and continued to manage his workers, with the expectation of the first profit.

.....

A well-paid job, but the cold and cruel planet of Valmax 6. That's what Alex's boss said when he offered him a transfer to this place.

Alex does not have a wife, but he has a beloved daughter who entered the most difficult period of growing up, at the age of 13.

At his old job, he spent most of his life, and his daughter was left at home alone, but here he will not spend so much time working and he will be paid more than before. Therefore, without hesitation, he agreed to the proposal and took his beloved daughter with him.

Now he is paid 32,000 loans instead of 20,000, in addition to this, he has more time to spend with his daughter.

Today is his daughter's birthday and he is immersed in his thoughts, so he did not notice how his partner approached him from behind "Alex ... ALEX!"

Pulled out of his thoughts, Alex dazedly asked "What?"

His partner said, "You are not yourself all day today. Did something happen to you?"

Coming to his senses and gathering his thoughts, Alex replied, "Ah, no. I'm alright. It's just that my daughter has a birthday today and I don't even know what to give her."

"You know, it's very hard to find something nice and cute on this planet"

The partner laughed "A hardhat or a set of wrenches is also pretty cute hahaha"

Alex rolled his eyes. "That's what I'm talking about. I can easily buy everything here to build a spaceship, but a gift….eh, maybe take her to some restaurant…but it's too expensive…."

The partner patted Alex on the shoulder "Have you heard about the PDA [Nigma]? It is said to be quite an interesting thing."

Alex nodded. "Do you think my daughter will like this?"

The partner shrugged, "I don't know. But that's about the only thing that comes to my mind."

Alex thought "I think you're right, it's worth a try"

After the end of the shift, instead of returning home, Alex decided to walk around the shopping district.

Following the intended goal, Alex admired the holographic night sky overhead, which looks like the real one.

Having reached one of the stores selling PDAs, Alex approached the seller "Hello, I would like to ask you about the PDA [Nigma]"

The gray-haired old man smiled broadly, "Oh, this is a hit this week, they are selling like hot cakes, you obviously didn't make a mistake with the choice."

Alex said "Tell me more about it"

The old man held out his hand, showing a white PDA on his hand "[Nigma] PDA has a huge range of capabilities, from video recording to access to the galactic network and money transfers"

"The PDA fully justifies its name, it is literally a whole terminal in your hands"

Alex thought, "Do you think this thing is suitable as a gift for daughter?"

The old man smiled tenderly, "You won't find a better gift anywhere in the galaxy."

Alex of course did not believe the old man's words, but still he really liked the PDA "How much does it cost?"

The old man put a sealed branded box with the [Nigma] logo "Standard equipment costs only 23.999 credits, but in addition to the PDA, various modules, with their own characteristics, each module costs 15.000 credits, now I will tell you why they are so expensive."

"For example, the Research module allows…."